My heart hurts as we head towards Port Arthur. So much can depend on one moment; the café we walk into, the car that stops. And as we drive, I tell you about my moment.
As a ten year old I was quite oblivious to the meaning of Galveston – a cry out from an American soldier in Vietnam who is recalling happy memories back home while on the battlefront.
We saw miles and miles of flat plains of farmland from horizon to horizon. A big blue sky above the endless cotton fields, cattle ranches and oil wells pumping up that black gold –Texas tea. We discovered where the saying ‘As big as Texas’ came from that day.
Wichita Lineman means a lot to me. I used to play it for my beloved when we first met: I was trying to impress her with my guitar skills because she didn't seem too impressed by my conversation, my sexual prowess, or my recipe for spicy peanut satay sauce. A tough one to break.
Vin Maskell Family room, Melbourne, June 2012You don’t have to own every song you like. You don’t have to possess all the music you love.
Colin Ritchie DBA’S New Orleans, April 2015“Jimbo Mathus is playing tonight at DBA’s, anyone interested?”Jimbo Mathus?To be honest I had never heard of him but as the suggestion was coming from Brian, our tour leader, undoubtedly, it was an option worth pursuing.
Rijn Collins Joutsa, Finland. October 2015 The feminist in me battles with the linguist, and I waver between correcting his English and biting his arm. I do neither, as the song on stage floats into my awareness.
Lucia Nardo Family gathering, Melbourne, 1996I felt a plum-size lump, unyielding to my touch. Dan yelped with pain. That moment is etched in my memory. I knew our lives were about to change. I wanted to push the lump back down, along with all the terror it was about to unleash.
Vin Maskell Moggs Creek, Australia; 1983 to 2013The third and final part of our series about family, a beach house and its record collection.
J Negri's recent Almanac Music story looks at Dolly Parton's Coat Of Many Colours while also looking at grief, vulnerability, singing, persona, tassles and spangles.