Monday, February 18, 2002 6:38:12 PM
Ian, Sylvia and the Great Speckled Bird

Yes, that person, a beret dapper and jaunty covering my head, driving down the hill past the Croatian Fraternal Union, the roads had a slight wet icy aspect that made me slide mightily passed the stop sign when I applied pressure to the brakes, good luck, no traffic, with a large lopsided smile on my face was me. I was smiling because I was hearing Ian Tyson. First his voice, “She drank Canadian whiskey, Pure blended whiskey, She drank it like wine" and later his lyric, "Never hit seventeen, When you play against the dealer...". Was it drinking and gambling that soared me into the timeless state between reverie and memory? No! And earlier still Sylvia Fricker's words, "When I got up this morning, You were on my mind." A very sweet memory caused by the purchase of a CD the morning before, played with gusto over the car speakers, called "Other Voices, Too (A Trip Back to Bountiful) by Nanci Griffith. Music almost more than anything is a temporal and spiritual transport.

It was 1968 perhaps 1969. The months before Andrea and I were married. Ian and Sylvia were coming to town and I had tickets. It was the most memorable concert that I have ever attended. The location was a building in East Liberty. It was a second story that had been converted into a performing hall, the ceilings were low, the acoustics were passable and I can't for the life of me remember the name of the place. It eventually became Jas. H. Matthews Company and for all I know still is. The Rape of East Liberty was passed, that vibrant neighborhood had become an inner city mall, and it was on its long downhill slide.

The front band was some local group that played loud and covered hits of the day. We got a seat, first row, a hand's reach away from the performers. Then Ian and Sylvia came on to the stage. They introduced the band. The group was called The Great Speckled Bird. A doff of the hat to Roy Acuff. I don't remember the Drummer or Bass Player but the guy on Banjo was Bill Keith annnddd the guitarist, he had a beat up smoke dirty cream yellow Fender Strat with the front chromed plates knocked off the pickups, was Amos Garrett! Amos is and was one of the best back-up guitarists of all times, it is his tasteful solo that you hear on Maria Muldaur’s Midnight at the Oasis (Bill Keith, Jeff and Maria Muldaur nee D'Amato were all alumni of Jim Kweskin's Jug Band)

It was thrilling, hearing and being there. The break came and Ian and Sylvia and the band, Andrea and I and several others from the audience, old enough to be served booze in PA, walked a block down the street to Walsh's, through the bar, down the steps into the smoky basement and sat, talked and listened to the music that was coming from the Bluegrass Band. It must have be Mac Martin and the Dixie Travelers, because they pretty much were always playing in SLiberty at Walsh's Bar in those years. Do I remember any of the conversation? Nope! But it was comfortable and felt right. The beer cold, the music hot. After two songs we all trundled back upstairs and strolled back to the concert.

Nothing was amiss that evening. Ian and Sylvia were magnificent, Amos Garrett was unbelievable and the Great Speckled Bird played a fine spell on into the evening.

Thirty-Some Years Later on a slippery road in Monroeville on my way for morning coffee and a bagel the rightness continues to put a smile on my face. Ian and Sylvia divorced. Ian Tyson is a country singer in Canada who puts out wonderful albums of Cowboy Songs. Sylvia Fricker, I believe, lives in Toronto writes music and records. Andrea and I divorced. Andrea passed away. One of my favorite songs has this lyric, "Some are dead and some are living, in my life I've loved them all." Thanks, John.