Apr 12 2008
John Hartford: Gentle On My Mind - Updated
When I had my folk music radio show I would get a Christmas card every year from John Hartford. I know it was a promotional tool for his record label, Small Dog A’ Barkin’, and that he had a mailing list of thousands of names but I always felt like John was a personal friend, nonetheless. Certainly, the promotional aspect was unnecessary as I was happy to play John Hartford records on my show any time.
The first time I saw John Hartford was on the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour and he sang this song, his most well known. I was able to see him perform at the Philadelphia Folk Festival many years later. His performance was always very smooth and professional, even though many of his songs were quirky and personal. He had a half sheet of plywood which was miced so that the audience could hear his feet as he clog danced along with his fiddle and banjo and sang his songs, as he does here.
Gentle On My Mind became a pop music hit. Glen Campbell recorded it, along with many others. Hartford was a banjo picker in a bluegrass band in Missouri when he wrote it.
This video shows John with Roy Husky, Jr., a bluegrass bassist of some note, performing in what appears to be a music store. It is not McCabes, in Santa Monica California, which has a famous concert series. I am not able to read the backwards writing in the store windows of the set, or store, whatever it is.
Notice how Hartford takes a slow walk down the major scale from the root note of each of the song’s three chords, with his banjo. It gives his tune a Jobim like quality, simple yet sophisticated. The melody hangs on a single note for extended periods of time, just like “One Note Samba.” The banjo part is deceivingly simple, but holds your attention.
Update: Mary Lou informs me that this is from Nashville Network’s “American Music Shop” hosted by David Holt. (See comment) She gave me a link to another video from the same show. John and Roy are joined by David Holt, Vassar Clements, Tony Rice and several, yet to be identified, great pickers. Notice that Tony is playing Clarence White’s Martin guitar.
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From an email:
Lots more winners on Clarks Picks - I keep recommending it to people. Thanks so much for keeping them coming. I was fascinated by the Hartford video and dug this one out filmed on the same set.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=i4WmeGEKjQE
It looks like it was from a series called American Music Shop on the Nashville Network with David Holt as host. the house band isn’t too shabby.
At the Mainstay last week Tony Trischka paid tribute to many of the banjo greats and played Aeroplane in his tribute to Hartford. It was marvelous but nothing like the real thing in this clip.
Mary Lou
PR, The Mainstay, Rock Hall
The *late* Roy Huskey Jr., sadly.
Also the *late* John Hartford and Vassar Clements, both sadly missed. Some of the other musicians are Jerry Douglas on dobro and I think Mark O’Connor on mandolin. He’s listed as fiddle in the house band but I had to hunt up some early pics of him to see a resemblance to the mando player but I think it is. Other house musicians were listed as Matt Rollings on piano, Glenn Worf on bass and Larry Stinson drums and that was David Holt doing the intro and playing along