When Jack Hardy and his band played the Studebaker Family Reunion in 2001, he and the band stayed at our house. I came back from work that Saturday afternoon to a kitchen full of fiddles and song; they were warming up for the evening’s gig. Five years later, he came back with a band that … Continue reading Jack Hardy (household icon)
Two of my short pieces (a story and an essay) that will be published within the year include lyrics from Jack Hardy’s songs. (Read some posts about Jack here.) In my response to his family’s granting permission for me to use his words, I wrote: His music has been (and continues to be) the tea in which my soul … Continue reading Incantations
Thinking about Jack Hardy today, this May Day. (Here’s my homage to Jack.) I can’t find a clip of him playing the song, but here are the lyrics, for your edification, on this fine first day of May… May Day by Jack Hardy it’s not like pan to play his flute for those who dance … Continue reading “the briar grows before the rose, and neither grows alone.”
In the car this morning, listening to my daughter’s “mixed tape” (a CD, actually) that includes Jack Hardy’s song, “Blackberry Pie,” I got sad again about Jack’s passing. Since he died, I haven’t not been sad about it, but there are moments when there’s an upwelling I can’t ignore or fake my way out of. … Continue reading “I’ll dance tonight, wear holes in my shoes…”
When a songwriter at Jack Hardy’s weekly songwriters group would explain what he or she was about to sing, Jack Hardy would say, “Shut up and sing the song.” Abrupt, and to some, rude, but a valid procedural point for a workshop, even more notable in its good advice to the writer. Let the work … Continue reading Shut up and sing the song
Rebecca Kuder 