With the pandemic going on, of course the live shows for ACL have been suspended like everything else, so they have been compiling retrospectives, like the one they did of Asleep At The Wheel. Last night they showed Jerry Jeff Walker and Billy Joe Shaver, but I wanted to focus on one minute of the Jerry Jeff Walker section.

He of course had to do his Mr. Bojangles, probably the most famous song he ever wrote. Certainly the most covered. The clip they showed of it was from years back, when he was much younger (and still had dark hair!), maybe 1986 if I remember the show clearly. During the second verse, the camera turned to the audience and focused on a young woman, maybe early 20s, who was absolutely transfixed and spellbound as she watched this song being performed. She was completely rapt with attention. The gravitas of the situation, because it was in a context where usually the crowd is getting wild and crazy in the aisles, was an emotional moment to the point I had tears in my eyes. For a performer to capture even ONE person at the level that this woman was... wow.

I had seen that before, but not often, and in fact lived that moment once. That was when I saw Carousel, during the scene where Louise graduates and the spirit of her dead father attends to guide her and help him get into heaven. (For those unfamiliar, her father, Billy Bigelow, had been kept out of heaven because he died by suicide, and that was an offense that denied him entry.) During that scene I was in that zone. I was really quiet all the way home and my 10 year older cousin, who was a piano player and the "hero big cousin" in my life that is responsible for me being in music, asked me what I thought about it. And I guess I was maybe 10 or 11 at the time, I said "How do they write music that tell stories like those songs do?" He just smiled because he knew I got the message. And I have been trying, unsuccessfully, to do that ever since.

THAT was what I saw in that face last night.

EDIT: I neglected to include that the song at that point in the play was "You'll Never Walk Alone."

Last edited by eddie1261; 02/08/21 12:12 PM.
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1. How much did you make in 2023?
2. Send it to us.