Another Man Done Gone

On his album, I'm Everything I Ever Loved, Martin Mull mentions The Great Folk Scare of the 60s. I confess to being a casualty of that era. I was about 4 years-old when I heard the first Kingston Trio album. Over the years, exposure to Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Ramblin' Jack Elliot and ultimately Bob Dylan followed.

At 13 armed with an old nylon six-string and Bob Dylan with Three Magic Chords, I began my life-long dalliance with the guitar. I'd sit in the library listening to recordings of Leadbelly, The Carter Family and others exploring America's folk music.

But, the times they were a'changin'. The British Invasion ushered in a new age. Dylan went electric; Roger McGuinn and Gene Clark formed the Byrds; a jug band from San Francisco became the Grateful Dead. Despite this, the festering folk virus replicated inside my psyche. It remains to this day. The impetus of this nostalgic, musical rambling is the recent passing of John Renbourn.

In 1968, I discovered English folk music through the band, Pentangle. The interplay of Renbourn and Bert Jansch's guitars infatuated me. That same year, I entered Bishop Eustace Preparatory School being reluctantly dragged into a classical education. One of the first assignments was the Middle English poem, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Against all my stubbornness, I enjoyed it.  Reading this chivalric romance while listening to Pentangle brought the story to life.

When I found out the band's name came from the symbol on Gawain's shield a serendipitous epiphany occurred. Maybe I could use this schooling to my advantage, or at least to the consternation
of those around me. Thus two life-long passions ignited: playing the guitar and exasperating others. Never trust a prankster!

My restless, musical wanderings took me into psychedelia, rockabilly, the blues, jazz, but the love of folk music never waned. I'd listen to Sun Ra's Atlantis, followed by Renbourn's Sir John Alot of Merrie Englandes Musyk Thyng and ye Grene Knyghte. Seemingly contradictory, my multifarious mind had no problem accommodating both styles.

John Renbourn could play the medeaval lilt of The Lady and The Unicorn and follow it with an acoustic guitar rendering of the Charlie Mingus jazz standard, Good Bye Pork Pie Hat. His eclectic approach to music spoke to me.

With the passing of another great musician, the celestial orchestra expands. His music will echo through the ether; Requiescat in Pace John. As ever BB

"Another man done gone down on the county farm. Another man done gone." - Traditional folk song