Pat Blythe – The Stories Behind the Songs Part 4….

It’s a miserable, cold, sodden, rainy, pathetically dreary, rather dismal night. Moisture and freezing temperatures will create your very own skating rink on the sidewalk, front lawn and even the roadway. I look out the window and see everything enveloped in ice. Jane Harbury had very kindly invited me down to her Discoveries series at Tranzac tonight but between prior commitments and the weather, my ass is safely ensconced on the couch writing this. I have one artificial hip…..I don’t need two and I’d prefer to keep any modicum of dignity intact.

Frank Gutch Jr: They Will Never Pass This Way Again— Musicians We Lost in 2013, Part One; Plus Notes…..

The first time I think I even thought about death was when Hank Williams died back in 1952.  New Year’s Eve it was, but I only remember the headlines.  I was five years old and Hank was a regular part of my day.  Dad, the curator of the famous Gutch record collection, had only a few records at that time and Never Again (Will I Knock On Your Door) was one of them.  I loved that song so much that I begged and begged Dad to play it every time he headed toward the record player and, usually, he obliged.  I remember Dad humming along in a grunting kind of way, almost as if the music was going to bust out of him at any moment, but it seldom did.  Dad was a lot like myself in that when the music was playing, singing along seemed a lack of respect.