from #85 – Musicians
“In the early ’80s, I lived near Chapel Hill, North Carolina, with two musicians, a banjo player, and a guitarist. I was the boring housemate who worked in a bookstore and didn’t play music. My housemates had parties. The musicians who came were good then, and they’re good now. One guy who wasn’t so good abandoned his fiddle after a party, along with bow and case, and was selling them for $100. I bought that fiddle. My talent was stubbornness. Several years later, beginning to write poems in grad school, one of my subjects was the old-time fiddle tunes I was struggling with. Fast forward and for almost thirty years now I’ve made a living combining Appalachian-style string-band music with original poetry and Alaska-set storytelling. Musically, I have decent rhythm, and play fiddle tunes pretty plainly, but well enough to appear on stage with highest-level musicians (when I’m the band leader, calling the shots). I’ve been told my fiddling is distinctive, and has energy and depth. One strength is I know my limitations. My poetry is pretty plain too, I think, though I’ve taken a liking to forms, which makes the work easier to contain, or at least finish.”