We had our first snow of the season Thanksgiving week. I’d been rushing around to ready our farm for the nearly 50 friends and family members joining us for the holiday. The snowfall didn’t amount to more than a dusting on the ground, but it was enough to slow me down to take in its beauty against the bare trees of late fall.
Besides the snow, two other welcome sights drifted into town recently: Marty Stuart and Guy Clark.
Marty - the consummate musician, writer and tireless curator of country music memorabilia - was visiting Charlottesville as part of an acoustic ramble with Travis Tritt, the two swapping songs and stories onstage. Guy is the songwriter’s songwriter.
Marty is also the author of “Country Music: The Masters,” an extraordinary new book of memorabilia and photographs that he began taking when he was just a kid.
In its 384 pages, you will find the highways and railroad tracks, the buses, the instruments, the costumes, the sidemen, the faces, the cigarettes and late nights, the ghosts, the legends, the loneliness and camaraderie of the road
Marty has seen it all - and left nothing out. His book is a remarkable document of country-music history and a testament to his passion for the music and its roots. Marty is the husband of Grand Ole Opry great Connie Smith, and there is a picture of her that Marty took when they met, at the Choctaw Indian Fair in Philadelphia, Miss., in 1970. Time stands still in that photograph but also manages to bring us full circle.
Guy Clark is also a collector - of a different kind. He sings about his life and the lives of fishermen, boat builders, rascals, lovers and deceivers with such depth, feeling and skill that most songwriters who share the stage with him just want to run for cover. While he has a commercial resume for his many hits, including “Desperados Waiting for a Train” and “L.A. Freeway,” no Guy Clark concert is complete without hollered requests from the audience for songs like “Homegrown Tomatoes” “Crazy for Leaving” and, in particular, “The Randall Knife.”
Other songwriters I know talk about this song in reverent tones; they remember where they were the first time they heard it. For me, I was in a far corner in the old Birchmere in Alexandria, a darkened space off stage left. Gary Oelze, the boss whose name is synonymous with the club, had always kindly let me sneak in and listen to the greats in the days when I was having trouble making my rent.
On this night, toward the end of the show, after many shouts for the song, Guy leaned in close to the mike and began, his deep, sandpapered drawl audible above the circular finger-picking: “My father had a Randall knife/ My mother gave it to him/ When he went off to WWII/ To save us all from ruin …”
The song is the story of a father and son, with the Randall knife as the talisman of all that drove them apart and then back together. Like so many others I know, I felt changed by the song. Afterward, we looked at our craft a little differently, working to find an economy to our lyrics while never leaving out the smaller details.
You can learn a lot about playing an instrument by watching someone’s hands; you can learn a lot about songwriting by listening to the lyrics. Spending time with Marty Stuart and Guy Clark, you can learn a lot about life.
For more information on Mary Chapin Carpenter, check out these links:
https://www.marychapincarpenter.com/
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