Ijsbreker

Tim Hinck's thoughts on music and life- There is a lady living across the street from me. She is dying of cancer. I have never seen anyone so full of life and energy. She loves to work outside in the flowers and grass of her yard. I can see her savoring every sunny day... the way she stands up from planting a flower bulb with such satisfaction on her face and claps the dirt from her gloves with resolution. I want to be like that lady.

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Location: Schalkwijk, Utrecht, Netherlands

Friday, October 20, 2006

The Man Comes Around



(jeremiah smith: world traveler, and the greatest pal ever.... window in Cambodia)

..I've recently made some new friends here in the Netherlands: Dan Stinebring (brilliant science professor); his wife Lynn Powell (you really need to read her first book of poetry); their talented and insightful daughter Anna-Claire, and rock-addicted son Jesse (who is my new climbing buddy, fellow explorer, and partner in crime). So the kids share my passion for 'non-mainstream' music, and the other day Johnny Cash came up in a random conversation with Jesse. As a music-consuming public, we are often so absorbed with the extra-musical facets of the Johnny Cash icon. And I must admit that I first really fell in love with his last album (the same album that had Emo-kids lining up along with the Indie crowd to jump on the bandwagon and rediscover 'The Man'). But the other day I was reading the CD reviews in the NewYorkTimes and found a reference to the boot-legged 1969 recording that Johnny Cash made with Bob Dylan in Nashville.

After putting my computer through an all-night, on-line battle with other computers across the world, fighting my way up the download queues... I finally nabbed the album. What I discovered (or was reminded of) was probably the most important facet of Johnny Cash. Sure he had drug problems, and women problems, and a soul torn between darkness and religion. But sometimes we're forgetting that the man just wanted to make music, and he had a blast doing it, too. The Nashville recording is rough at best. It sounds mostly like an early rehearsal caught on tape. But what you do get to hear is Johnny Cash - the tall, dark, icon of a man - laughing and making mistakes and singing his heart out for the sheer pleasure of it.

1 Comments:

Blogger Linz Organist said...

That's awesome! That's what being a musician is all about, and I think especially for those of us in the classically trained world it can be easy to lose sight of. I'm thankful to have a teacher right now who is always saying "Stop working, PLAY, if you aren't having fun neither will the listener".

P.S. Yay, photoshop! I'm still enough of a purist to appreciate fine photography, but it's fun to play around some times.

11/14/2006 11:38 PM  

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