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Quick thanks

I have become desultory about opening the mail. I told my father, who sends me clippings regularly, that this has become my pattern, and he worried that I was becoming depressed. No, but the lure of the CDs within all those packages has diminished, and I look forward to returning to my previous state of fandom; to listening to music for the pleasure of listening to it, and not with the expectation that I will hear something to write about, or to assign somebody else to write about. Though I shall, perhaps, still have occasion to do both those things.

Nevertheless a couple readers have been very kind and sent music by way of thanks. This morning I opened a typewritten package from a man I don't know, name of Thomas R. Smith, which included a two-page note and a burned copy of the first Julie Miller album, the one I've never heard. He says he is not much of an internet consumer, and so he may not stumble upon my thanks, but I am most grateful nevertheless.

And I wanted to quote one part of his note here:

"I bought my first No Depression off the newsstand in November, 1997, which, being pre-Bush, now looks like some halcyon past golden age. I felt at that time that alternative country (or whatever) music was helping to heal some old class wounding in America and bringing North and South a little closer than they'd been for a while. The crowning public moment for that movement was O Brother, Where Art Thou?, I think. The election of 2000 and subsequent events, of course, turned back that momentum, leaving us, as a nation, arguably more divided than we've been since the Civil War era. But it's to No Depression's credit and yours that through the past eight years' nightmare of division and national animosity you managed to keep that middle meeting ground open in your pages, so that the dream of reconciliation could stay alive while "red" and "blue" went for each others' throats. With any luck (and an Obama presidency), we may see the end of that nightmare estrangement. Meanwhile, you can take satisfaction in knowing that No Depression succeeded in doing a hard job in hard times."

I suppose it goes without saying that I have chosen to place Mr. Smith's words above because I agree with them. More than that I am glad to have been understood, though I suspect in hindsight that we did not -- that I did not -- really understand what small role we might play (and a small role it was) as a national meeting ground until we made the apparently radical step of endorsing John Kerry for President in 2004. I had not known, not really known, the kinds of divides we straddled until the fallout from that decision. Which wasn't as severe as it might've been, but which was, still, bracing.

I have always wanted the writing about music to be about more than music. I have sometimes understood that those of you who read such things often wished the words only to be about the music. But none of it happens in a vacuum, not the creative process, and certainly not our lives.

Finally, I should like also to thank Joe Goldmark, who sent along a copy of his enormous project -- 16 CDs, in all -- compiling pre-1975 country music. As he said in his kind note, it's perfect for road trips. At $4 a gallon gas, I'm not sure how many more of those road trips I have in my future. Perhaps I shall have to rig the tractor for sound, but I think that's probably the wrong thing to do to a 50-year-old Ford. (I know, I know, I could get an iPod. I suppose I could. But I don't want to!)

Posted by grant on June 27, 2008 9:04 AM | Permalink

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