A few years ago, I was fortunate to meet Bob Carlin at Midwest Banjo Camp, a yearly gathering of old time music freaks like me, then located near Lansing Michigan. By then, a copy of Carlin’s CD, Banging and Sawing, had a semi-permanent place in my car (I still love to listen to it while driving). I participated in Bob’s workshops and jams – I recall one night I was involved in a jam session that included Bob Carlin and Joe Newberry on guitars and John Herrmann on fiddle. I remember that jam very well. I had taken one of John Herrmann’s workshops all about how to participate in jams when you don’t know the tune, and it had a profound effect on me. At that time, I could get around playing clawhammer banjo decently well, but I was always paralyzed by my mind trying to figure everything out, leaving me well behind the beat when I tried to jam. After John Herrmann’s workshop I was determined to play in the moment, and trust my skills and go for it. I’m sure that playing with such excellent musicians helped my cause a lot, but I had one of my best ever jams. At times during that jam I felt kind of ecstatic, outside of myself, watching myself play. It was a remarkable experience because I found myself playing things I had never even thought of attempting before. When the jam wrapped up, Joe Newberry gave me a few words of encouragement, something to the effect of, ‘you did good tonight’. I was over the moon, of course. Not only had I managed to play with 3 titans of the old time tradition without getting death stares or polite requests to try the beginners’ jam, but one of my musical heroes actually noticed my playing and offered some good words.

The next morning, Bob Carlin joined me for breakfast at the camp cafeteria. Turns out, Bob is a great storyteller. I remember Bob talking about teaching with Dwight Diller – Bob said Diller called himself Dee-wight and wanted things done the Dee-Wight way (as opposed to dee-wrong way). I’m sure Bob doesn’t remember me at all, though I did meet him again here in Toronto where he played with Chris Coole and his group at the Dakota Tavern in my old Ossington neighbourhood.

I saw online a while back that Bob Carlin had authored My Memories of John Hartford. I think it was available for “pre-sale”. I knew Bob’s work with John Hartford and I had read and appreciated his historical work about the banjo, so I ordered the book up right away then promptly forgot about it. What a pleasant surprise when it arrived the other day by post. I gobbled it up right away.

Carlin spends the first part of the book talking about the first 2/3 of John Hartford’s career, then launches into his experiences working with Hartford playing live during Hartford’s last several years on the planet, but also as road manager, recording supervisor and the guy in charge of selling merch. I particularly enjoyed reading about an idea he called “windows”, which John had developed for arranging for the stringband based on what instruments participate in different “windows” or sections of each piece. Fascinating.

My Memories of John Hartford paints a portrait of a complex and intensely creative individual, who, faced with a grim medical diagnosis, threw himself into his music with some abandon, while at the same time seeing a dip in his mainstream popularity. One of the things that struck me is that Bob Carlin thought of Hartford as a “famous” person who lived a kind of charmed life in which he didn’t have to ever worry about doing things like cutting the lawn or other chores around the house. Hartford had the luxury of focusing solely on his music, in part because of the luxury of fame and because Hartford also used his temper to get his way. Carlin compared that to what he considered his own “middle-class” lifestyle.

Working with John Hartford was clearly a life-changing experience for Bob Carlin. From the book:

“When I began working alongside John Hartford, I thought I knew something abut music and performing. It turns out that I only knew a fraction of what I was about to learn in his musical workshop. I came out the other end a much better entertainer and musician than before my experience with John.

John’s shows were unpredictable. He would read the audience to determine what he felt he needed to perform in that moment. John had such a large repertoire that you didn’t know what he’d play for any particular performance. Each night, there would always be a song or two that the band didn’t know. Playing with John was always one big experimental continuum. Everyone involved, if they left themselves open, always learned something new. And that was the whole point”.

My Memories of John Hartford was published this year by The University Press of Mississippi. It offers plenty of personal insight into John Hartford the person and the musician and it’s a wonderful tale of Bob Carlin’s adventure working with Hartford and the others in the Hartford Stringband. Recommended. Support Bob and go buy his book.

Here is Bob Carlin and friends performing Turn Your Radio On by John Hartford along with a dose of Old Time Hey Jude…

Here’s Hartford and the boys from 1998…

Mr. Hartford solo singing and dancing – Gum Tree Canoe