Open & Close
You open
As you close.
And in between
Both of those,
You fan the flame
With the colors
That you chose.
Grab them.
Nab them.
Plant the seed.
Engage them.
Enrage them?
Change the speed.
Bait that hook
Keep it sharp.
Edgy and dark
Keep it flowing.
Never forget
Where you’re going.
You open
As you close.
There's an older post on this blog titled 'Highway 61 Revisited", which will be the first page of my book, ARE YOU READY FOR THIS? MerleFest's Album Hour with The Waybacks & Friends.
What follows will be the last page.
After the show in the lobby at The Reeves
Album Hour fan Mike Reevis wearing a classic Hillside t-shirt,
The merchandise table.
Reeves theater co-owner Erik Dahlberg updating The Reeves marquee.
I'm writing a book:
Are You Ready For This? MerleFest's Album Hour with The Waybacks & Friends
Below is a rough draft of the beginning of Chapter 8
The Waybacks at The Reeves, Part 1
Anticipation for my first non-Album Hour show with The Waybacks had been building since the first week of May, 2023, when I discovered the band would perform in Elkin at The Reeves Theater that August. I immediately went to the Reeves’ website and ordered tickets.
The first time I visited Elkin was in 1977 as a member of a PlayMakers Repertory Company touring show. In 1983 in January, I was in Manhattan, but soon had to leave New York after a project that seemed promising was cancelled. I took that loss hard and floundered to find traction the next six months.
In November of 1983, I was hired by The Tribune in Elkin to become its one-man sports department. I lived in that quaint village until the spring of 1985 before getting a similar position with a bigger newspaper in Eden.
Elkin had been a turning point. The job was difficult, and I was still in mourning for the opportunity that had evaporated. I recall one afternoon I packed my car to leave. But as I was driving across the bridge out of Elkin to Jonesville, I realized if I kept running from myself, I’d never stop. So I went back to the newspaper office, and the decision to return to my desk helped me rediscover the dividends of hard work.
When I lived in Elkin, The Reeves movie theater had become one of those buildings in a small town with a distant past and very little hope for a future, other than demolition and a sad version of Joni Mitchell’s paved parking lot.
I wondered what had happened. Why would a band at the level of The Waybacks be interested in performing at The Reeves?
I ventured onto The Reeves’ website and found a 30-minute documentary titled, “Reeves: A Home for Music.”
I watched this wonderful, engaging film and soon had my answer. Debbie Carson, her husband, Chris Groner, and Erik Dahlberg had a vision, and their persistence, as well as the countless hours of work involved, turned a relic into a vibrant force. The space was refurbished, as the title of the film reveals, into a space for music to be heard.
It is impossible with written words to convey what has been achieved. You need to hear the sound in the reincarnated Reeves, a movie theater built in 1941 by Dr. Reeves, an optometrist with 20-20 foresight. It’s easy to imagine that, once a movie had been shown, the spirits of those in the cast might choose to gather in the building. Maybe John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara found a spot in the balcony and chatted about their many shared triumphs, or Humphrey Bogart and Peter Lorre recalled that movie shoot that wound up becoming one of the great films, “Casablanca.”
In my view, The Reeves’ cinematic past remains in spite of the theater’s new purpose of presenting live music. It’s fun to believe the Hollywood icons hung around for the chance to hear the spirits of songwriters and musicians whose work is performed on a stage now shaped like a guitar. Elkin is in the heart of what many feel is the home of folk and acoustic music; and throughout the region on all levels where live music occurs, Doc Watson songs are played. I’m certain Doc would have cherished this theater.
Late at night, long after the space has gone dark, maybe Doc Watson saunters over to where John and Maureen are hanging out and plays them a tune. Maybe Maureen sings harmony while John taps his right boot.
The Waybacks played Nanci Griffith’s “Listen to The Radio” on Aug. 5, 2023. Perhaps later that night after everyone had gone home, Doc joined Nanci for her first set at The Reeves.
Music has profound power to transform, transport, and provoke memories long tucked away. A space such as The Reeves provides a living link. You still have the radio, but now you also have The Reeves.
More Reeves information can be found in the appendix of this book.
When I parked the first night that I went to see a live performance at The Reeves, I wanted the space to be excellent. But would that be the case? My short walk to the theater prompted a recollection of the film, The Shawshank Redemption, and the advice Andy Dufresne gave Red.
Remember, Red. Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.
When I heard the first notes of acoustic guitar in The Reeves, I knew Andy told the truth. No good thing ever dies.
The Reeves was alive and well, and after the Aug. 4 shows with Brooks Forsyth and Cristina Vane, my anticipation for The Waybacks increased. I knew the space was tremendous. But I had another issue on my mind.
I’d printed and bound the preface and first seven chapters of this book. Debbie Carson was kind enough to place four copies in The Reeves Green Room for The Waybacks, I hoped, to peruse.
When I arrived at the theater for The Waybacks’ show, Debbie told me that she’d given the band the manuscripts, and that James Nash had already started reading. My head was in a thousand places when I went to row C, seat 9 and checked my phone for messages.
There was an email from James Nash, who wanted to meet me after the show. Maybe Doc was grinning in the balcony because I had a smile I could feel.
My mind went in a zillion directions in time, and space, a tennis ball bouncing and bouncing and bouncing. Would it ever stop?
When Chris Groner announced that the show would soon begin, everything slowed down. Within seconds, I was in that room at that time.
And I stayed in the moment.
Moment to moment to moment.
1. Crowd mingling before Friday night's show.
2. Theater owner Debbie Carson working the ticket booth.
3. Theater owner Erik Dahlager and the sound board.
4. A glimpse from the stage. I asked if they had done any theatre. They had not. So I did the first two lines of Shakeseare's Sonnet 23
As an imperfect actor on the stage, who with his fear is put beside his part.
5. Another view of the sound board.
I love the space. Looking forward to The Waybacks tonight (Aug. 5, 2023).
So Doc said to Frederick, "You want to honor my son?"
Fred says “If you’ll do a benefit with your songs.”
And Doc says, “Where do you want this singing done?”
Fred says, “Out near Highway 421.”
Well Mack the singer said to Louie The Strings
“We got a thousand speakers that don’t zing.
Can you tell me how to make them ring?”
Louie The Strings says, “let me think for a minute son.”
And he said, “Yes I think it can be easily done.
Just take them all down to Highway 421.”
Now the fifth daughter on the twelfth night
Told the first father that things weren't right.
“My Hillside seats,” she said, “ have too much height., “
He said, “Come here and let me to fix your plight.
Let me tell the second mother this has been done.”
But the second mother was with the seventh son
And they were both out on Highway 421.
College professor was stressed to the core
Lacked the funding to finish his chores.
So he became a promoter and nearly fell off the floor.
He said I’ve never engaged in this kind of thing before
But yes, “ I think it can be very easily done.
We'll just put some bleachers out in the sun
And have it near Highway 421.”
Ever wondered what is "normal" for Wilkes Community College, as compared to the week most of us see the campus as it is set up for MerleFest?
Driving on U.S. 89 to The Blue Ridge Museum near Galax, VA, just before crossing the border from North Carolina, a traveler passes thru Low Gap.
When I saw the subject of this post, I turned around.
Seems the enterprise leaned a bit heavier on fire than rescue.
Hype can be deceiving.
But in the case of this extraordinary film written and directed bY Martin McDonagh, who created IN BRUGES and THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI, the "buzz" — from my point of view — is well deserved.
I'm a huge fan of Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson and Kerry Condon, and thus perhaps I was predisposed to enjoy their work, which was nothing short of fantastic.
The film was beautifully shot. The plot is quite simple, and in the hands of lesser creative folks, it would have been a mildly disturbing snooze fest.
But that's not the case.
Precision and nuance guided all involved.
It's one of those stories that you keep thinking about it long after you've finished viewing.
Colin Farrell, particularly, disappeared into his character and gave us a remarkable, haunting portrait. One of the very best of excellent performances I've ever seen.
