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Conversations And Articles About Bluegrass Music

Congratulations to the recipients of the 2024 IBMA Bluegrass Music Awards and the 2024 inductees to the International Bluegrass Music Association Hall of Fame 

By Steven Brodsky

… The names of the recipients and inductees appear in this International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) press release:

Raleigh, North Carolina (September 26, 2024) — Del McCoury received the coveted “Entertainer of the Year” Award at the 35th Annual IBMA Bluegrass Music Awards. The Awards show, hosted by artists John Cowan and Missy Raines, was held September 26 at Raleigh, North Carolina’s Martin Marietta Center for the Performing Arts.
Previously announced inductees into the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame – Katy Daley, Jerry Douglas, and Alan Munde were also honored during the show with heartfelt acknowledgement.
The recipients of the 2024 IBMA Bluegrass Music Awards:
ENTERTAINER OF THE YEAR
Del McCoury Band
VOCAL GROUP OF THE YEAR
Authentic Unlimited
INSTRUMENTAL GROUP OF THE YEAR
The Travelin’ McCourys
SONG OF THE YEAR
“Fall in Tennessee”
Recorded by Authentic Unlimited
Written by John Meador & Bob Minner
Produced by Authentic Unlimited
Billy Blue Records
ALBUM OF THE YEAR
City of Gold
Recorded by Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway
Produced by Jerry Douglas & Molly Tuttle
Nonesuch Records
GOSPEL RECORDING OF THE YEAR
“God Already Has”
Recorded by Dale Ann Bradley
Written by Mark “Brink” Brinkman & David Stewart
Produced by Dale Ann Bradley
Pinecastle Records
INSTRUMENTAL RECORDING OF THE YEAR
“Knee Deep in Bluegrass”
Recorded by Ashby Frank
Written by Terry Baucom
Produced by Ashby Frank
Mountain Home Music Company
NEW ARTIST OF THE YEAR
East Nash Grass
COLLABORATIVE RECORDING OF THE YEAR
“Brown’s Ferry Blues”
Recorded by Tony Trischka with Billy Strings
Written by Alton & Rabon Delmore
Produced by Béla Fleck
Down the Road Records
MALE VOCALIST OF THE YEAR
Danny Paisley
FEMALE VOCALIST OF THE YEAR
Jaelee Roberts
BANJO PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Rob McCoury
BASS PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Vickie Vaughn
FIDDLE PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Deanie Richardson
RESOPHONIC GUITAR PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Gaven Largent
GUITAR PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Cody Kilby
MANDOLIN PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Jesse Brock
MUSIC VIDEO OF THE YEAR (TIE)
“Fall in Tennessee”
Authentic Unlimited
“Alberta Bound”
Special Consensus with Ray Legere, John Reischman, Patrick Sauber, Trisha Gagnon, Pharis & Jason Romero, and Claire Lynch
2024 Inductees to International Bluegrass Music Association Hall of Fame:
Alan Munde has been at the forefront of bluegrass music as a banjo player, bandleader, and educator for over five decades. Hailing from Norman, Oklahoma, he played in his first band, The Stone Mountain Boys, in 1965. A subsequent jam session with Byron Berline, Sam Bush, and Wayne Stewart led to the recording of the highly acclaimed instrumental album Poor Richard’s Almanac. Starting in 1970, Munde began a two-year hitch with the King of Bluegrass, Jimmy Martin. From there, it was off to California and the country-rock group, the Flying Burrito Brothers. Munde scored a 20-year run with the progressive West Coast group Country Gazette. One of the Gazette’s seminal early releases was A Traitor in Our Midst. Other career highlights include Munde’s teaching bluegrass at South Plains College in Texas, serving as a columnist for Banjo Newsletter, and sitting as member of the IBMA board of directors. He was a 2008 recipient of an IBMA Distinguished Achievement award.
Jerry Douglas has reigned as bluegrass music’s preeminent Dobro player ever since the middle 1970s when he started with the Country Gentlemen. His fascination with the instrument began at age six when he saw Dobro legend Josh Graves perform on a Flatt & Scruggs show. Throughout the 1970s and ‘80s, Douglas rotated through a series of bands including J. D. Crowe’s New South, Boone Creek, and The Whites. This same period found Douglas becoming an in-demand session player, for both bluegrass and country music albums. In time, he amassed credits on literally thousands of recording sessions. In 1998, he was asked to join Alison Krauss’s Union Station and in 2014 he launched the award-winning Flatt & Scruggs tribute band, the Earls of Leister. Douglas has earned numerous IBMA Awards, including ten for Dobro Player of the Year. He also won fourteen Grammy Awards, and was selected the CMA’s Musician of the Year in 2002, 2005, and 2007. He is also a former vice president of IBMA’s board of directors.
Katy Daley (Patricia Cole Meloon Brown) made her mark as a bluegrass broadcaster in the Washington, D.C., metro area, starting in the early 1970s. Her entry to bluegrass radio came in a circuitous way. She jokingly told WAMU-FM broadcaster Gary Henderson that listening to his program was part of her work assignment at the CIA! A short time later, she signed on at WAMU, preparing and announcing a weekly “Who’s Playing Where” segment. This was followed by a weeknight disc jockey spot from 10:00 to midnight. In November 1978, Daley collaborated on a 13- part series which traced the development of the music: Bluegrass Anthology. In 1980, Daley joined WMZQ, a 24-hour country station in Washington, where her broadcast work included hosting a bluegrass program for three years. Eventually, Daley returned to WAMU’s offshoot, bluegrasscountry.org, and served as a morning air personality. She received two IBMA awards for Bluegrass Broadcaster of the Year and one for Distinguished Achievement. As part of her giving back to the community, she established the Katy Daley Broadcast Media/Sound Engineering Scholarship which is presented each year by the IBMA Foundation.
Awards were voted on by the professional membership of the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA). The show was aired on SiriusXM’s Bluegrass Junction channel and was livestreamed on IBMA’s Facebook Live.
Awards sponsors include: Virginia Tourism Corporation, Yamaha Guitar Group, BMI, Boston Bluegrass Union, Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame & Museum, Compass Records, Deering Banjos, Mountain Fever Records, Sound Biscuit Productions, and Turnberry Records,.

Posted 9-28-24

Revisiting With Carl Goldstein, Director of the Delaware Valley Bluegrass Festival and Treasured Pillar of Bluegrass 

By Steven Brodsky 

Few have done nearly as much for the bluegrass genre and its fans as has Carl. He co-founded the Brandywine Friends of Old Time Music in 1971 and has served in a leadership role ever since. Carl has been the director of the Delaware Valley Bluegrass Festival throughout its history, including when it was known as the Delaware Bluegrass Festival. He is chair of the Brandywine Friends. The Brandywine Friends produces the Festival and a concert series. Carl is an inductee into the WVUD Radio Hall of Fame; he has hosted WVUD’s Fire on the Mountain show since it went on the air in 1977. Carl has also significantly contributed to the history, present-day vibrancy, and future of bluegrass music in other ways. 

 

We’re coming upon the 47th Annual Delaware Valley Bluegrass Festival, Labor Day weekend. This Festival is one of the nation’s best (and was recognized as the 2016 IBMA Event of the Year). Carl, when did you have confidence that this Festival was going to have longevity and would reach and maintain the highest level of stature? 

We had no idea how successful we would be for the first several years, even though we had the greatest possible lineup of bluegrass talent headed by Bill Monroe and Ralph Stanley. The uniqueness of the concept in the Northeast and weather problems made the first several years tough, but after about year 3 or 4 we started to increase attendance. Of course national attention took a few more years to attain but our progress was steady. 

The website of the Delaware Valley Bluegrass Festival contains a list of performers who have appeared at the Festival:      http://delawarevalleybluegrass.org/legacy-of-performers/. Many of the greatest names in the history of bluegrass and country music have been on the Festival’s main stage. Which of the artists might you rank among your personal favorites and what songs of theirs do you most enjoy? 

Of course Monroe and Stanley were pioneers of this music. We were incredibly fortunate to have them as our founders and to this day they rank among my favorites. Others would include the Osborne Brothers, Jim & Jesse, Lester Flatt, the Country Gentlemen, Doc Watson, and our local heroes Ted Lundy and Bob Paisley. In recent years, the Seldom Scene, Alison Krauss, Del McCoury, Sister Sadie, and Patty Loveless would be among my favorites, but let me add, this is a very difficult question to answer. There would be many more if space allowed. To pick specific songs would require even more time and space—so let’s just say a huge number of songs from each of their repertoires remain my favorites. 

Let’s talk about the upcoming Festival. Artists and festival attendees appreciate the capabilities of the Festival’s stage management. Who is involved and for how many years have they stage managed the Festival? What does the role of stage manager at the Festival entail?  

In the early days a very few of us did everything, including MC, stage management, ticket sales and more. More recently Archie Warnock and Howard Parker have adroitly handled stage management. They coordinate all backstage activity, monitor the artists’ performance times and generally get things to run smoothly and on time. Their roles are vital. 

Tell us about the stage announcers.     

We are very fortunate to have two very fine MCs for our festival. Katy Daley is a legend among bluegrass DJs and personalities. She hosted a longtime radio program on WAMU Bluegrass Country and has written widely on the music. She and her co-host Bill Foster, also of WAMU fame, have a deep knowledge of the artists and present and provide a context to the audience to enhance their enjoyment.  

Please touch upon the music and performance lineup of the 47th Annual Delaware Valley Bluegrass Festival.   

We have always tried to provide variety, with a view to emphasizing traditional bluegrass and showcasing its roots in old-time and related fields like western swing, traditional country, Cajun, etc. This year we feature two of the hottest acts in bluegrass, Hot Rize with Tim O’Brien, and Jerry Douglas’ Earls of Leicester, who recreate the classic sounds of Flatt and Scruggs. We also feature four of the six IBMA nominees for Emerging Artist of the Year: Mile Twelve, Po’ Ramblin’ Boys, Sister Sadie, and High Fidelity. For variety we have western swing artists the Quebe Sisters, Dom Flemons (formerly of the Carolina Chocolate Drops), Mick Kinney (old-time/ragtime from Georgia), and early 20th century Tin Pan Alley style performers Bill and the Belles. There are a host of other great acts and I encourage your readers to check out our web site where there are not only bios but music clips to enjoy as well. 

What do you most enjoy about Festival weekend, given that you attend to your responsibilities as festival director?  

In addition to hearing as much great music as time allows my greatest satisfaction is watching our audience appreciate and enjoy our offerings, especially those new and unexpected acts we slip in, including folks who rarely and in most cases have never appeared at a bluegrass festival like last year’s Tuba Skinny—Dixieland from New Orleans, or Asleep at the Wheel, or Patty Loveless. 

What are some of your fondest all-time Festival memories? 

There are numerous outstanding memories but I think a couple of them would be the Bill Monroe and Doc Watson duet at our first year at the Salem County Fairgrounds, and the infamous year that Hurricane Edouard hit us head-on and yet, pros that they were, bands like Riders in the Sky played on (with comments like, “Hey those lawn chairs blowing past us look just like tumbleweeds!”). It was a financial challenge but a victory of heart and soul for performers and audience alike. 

 

The website address of the Delaware Valley Bluegrass Festival is: http://delawarevalleybluegrass.org/.

The Fire on the Mountain radio show is on WVUD: http://www.wvud.org/.                       

 Posted 8/1/2018, Updated 6-13-20

A Conversation With Carl Goldstein, Champion of Bluegrass Music

By Steven Brodsky

Among those who’ve done the most to preserve bluegrass music and further its appreciation is Carl Goldstein.  Consistent with the informal yet respectful norm of the bluegrass community, I’m not using the title “The Honorable” before his name; he was a judge in Delaware for 40 years before retiring in 2013.  With two others, Carl founded the Brandywine Friends of Old Time Music in 1971.  He’s provided leadership for the Delaware Valley Bluegrass Festival since its start in 1972. (The Festival was called the Delaware Bluegrass Festival until it moved to New Jersey in 1990.) Since 1977, Carl has hosted the Fire on the Mountain radio show on WVUD FM.  In 2011, he was inducted into the WVUD Hall of Fame.

Carl, what are your official roles at the Brandywine Friends of Old Time Music and the Delaware Valley Bluegrass Festival?

I’m Chair of the BFOTM and Director of the Festival.

How long have you served in these capacities?

Since the organization and Festival’s inception.

How did you get introduced to bluegrass music?

I became interested in folk music during the “folk music scare” of the ’60s although I had listened to country music and blues even before that time.  I found the more earthy and honest music of early Appalachian music to be even more to my liking.

When you first got involved in bluegrass music, where did you travel to hear the music and to learn more about it?

I travelled with companions to southwest Virginia, western North Carolina and Tennessee to fiddlers’ conventions and the earliest bluegrass festivals.

What drew you to the music and how did it engage you?

The soulful, powerful and yet down to earth nature of the music drew me in.  I started collecting the music and eventually learned to play guitar.

In your early years as a fan of bluegrass music, who were some of your favorite musicians? 

The Stanley Brothers/Ralph Stanley, Bill Monroe, Doc Watson, Mississippi John Hurt, and the Country Gentlemen were among some early favorites.

What were some of your favorite songs? 

Too many to single out I’m afraid.

What memories do you have of Sunset Park (the iconic country music venue that was located in Chester County, Pennsylvania)?

I lived only a half hour or so from Sunset Park.  I went there many Sundays during the summer months and was lucky enough to hear many of the greats of bluegrass and country music.  In addition, each week musicians would jam out in the field.

What caused the Delaware Valley to become a hotbed of bluegrass music? 

During the tough economic years of the ’30s many families from the mid south relocated to the area (NE Maryland, Southeastern PA and Delaware) in search of work bringing with them their culture and music.  Among these families were the Paisleys, the Lundys, and the Campbells (Ola Belle Reed) and many others.

How were Ralph Stanley and Bill Monroe responsible for the first annual Delaware Valley Bluegrass Festival?

Ralph Stanley, whom I had known from years of following his music, came to us on behalf of himself and Bill Monroe in 1971 asking whether our organization would host a festival – the first in the northeast. They were to supply the talent (although we did have some limited input) and we were to supply the venue and publicity.  We were delighted to agree. The Festival was set for Labor Day weekend 1972.  That first year it was in a KOA campground but moved to a newly constructed music park – Gloryland Park – the second year.

After the third year Bill and Ralph decided to start their own festivals that weekend in their respective home places.  From that point on we produced the Festival ourselves and after their festivals ended in a few years we had each of them back nearly every other year.

Did you believe that the first Festival was going to become an annual event? 

We had high hopes but that first year was a muddy mess.  They (Bill and Ralph) and we persevered.

Please tell us about a few of your most valued memories associated with the Festival.

It was Lester Flatt who stepped up that 4th year at a fee we could afford so we were able to present a fine lineup our first year on our own.

Doc Watson and Bill Monroe did a rare and historic set together in 1990, our first year in New Jersey.

We had some legendary folks perform for us over the years.  In addition to nearly all of the great bluegrass musicians, we have presented Merle Travis, Hank Thompson, and a number of special tribute sets and reunions that were very memorable like, for example, Ricky Skaggs and Ralph Stanley.

I should mention that the Brandywine Friends and hence the Bluegrass Festival is run by a Board of Directors of 16 members.  They are all interesting, smart and funny human beings.  I mention it here because part of the joy of the Festival is doing it with these exceptional folks.

Congratulations on the Delaware Valley Bluegrass Festival winning the award for 2016 IBMA Event of the Year.  What components make the Festival a favorite of musicians and attendees year after year?

I think that because we are nonprofit and all volunteer we have the luxury of presenting a top-notch lineup of talent – top to bottom each year.  While our main focus is bluegrass, we have always presented some variety with comparable genres like old-time music, traditional country music, Cajun and French Canadian.

We also include features like a Children’s Stage and a Kids’ Academy where youngsters can gain instruction in every bluegrass instrument during the course of the weekend.  We are also known as a great jam festival.  Our campground is filled with folks playing day and night.

Please speak about the lineup for the 46th Annual Delaware Valley Bluegrass Festival taking place on Labor Day weekend.

Once again we have a great lineup featuring some of the best acts in traditional music – Del McCoury, the Gibson Brothers, and a host of others.  We have the perennial favorites: The Grascals, Blue Highway, and IBMA 2016 Male Vocalist of the Year Danny Paisley.  All that in addition to relative newcomers like Becky Buller and Flatt Lonesome and powerful old-time music from the Foghorn Stringband and April Verch – not to mention Asleep at the Wheel who I will in a moment.

Are there performers that you are especially looking forward to seeing this year?  If so, why? 

It’s always a treat for us to surprise our audience with an act that may be unexpected but is fully within our view of traditional music.  This year it is Asleep at the Wheel – the legendary Texas Western Swing band.  That’s gonna be fun.

What do you most enjoy about hosting the Fire on the Mountain radio show?

I think it’s the audience.  Each week I get calls from interesting and informed people.  They have been very loyal over these 40 years and each year those folks lead all programs on the station for our fundraising efforts.  They’re just great.  Besides, if I weren’t playing that music on the air, I’d be home doing the same thing.

What does the future look like for bluegrass music and the Delaware Valley Bluegrass Festival? 

If you’d asked me that question 15 or so years ago I might not have been as optimistic as I am now.  There are a great number of younger folks playing bluegrass and old-time music these days.  That in turn bodes well for the festivals.

Information is available at: www.delawarevalleybluegrass.org.

Information about the Brandywine Friends of Old Time Music is at: www.brandywinefriends.org.

Posted 5/27/17

 

Attention fans of the music of Guy Clark, Townes Van Zandt, and Susanna Clark

On the eighth anniversary of Guy Clark’s passing away on May 17, 2016 at age 74

By Steven Brodsky

…These recordings are accessible here today in memory of Guy Clark:

 

 

 

 

Posted 5-17-24

Attention fans of the music of Guy Clark, Townes Van Zandt, and Susanna Clark: ‘Without Getting Killed Or Caught: A Documentary By Tamara Saviano & Paul Whitfield’ is available for on-demand streaming

By Steven Brodsky

… This 95-minute documentary is touching, revealing, and superbly produced.

About the film: https://www.withoutgettingkilledorcaught.com/#section-4.

Visit https://www.withoutgettingkilledorcaught.com/on-demand to purchase tickets to view the film at home.

Two Entertainment Culture and More interviews with Tamara Saviano are reposted below.

Posted 2-23-22

Revisiting With Tamara Saviano, Author of ‘Without Getting Killed or Caught: The Life and Music of Guy Clark’

By Steven Brodsky

The desire to connect with the essence, life history, and contributions of Guy Clark continues to intensify since his passing on May 17, 2016. Guy Clark was the hub of a world of artistic activity for some of America’s most revered and substantive songwriters and performers. For them and many of his other fans, he set an elevated standard of what uncompromising artistic expression is all about. Tamara Saviano’s book Without Getting Killed or Caught: The Life and Music of Guy Clark is essential reading—for those seeking to further their knowledge and understanding of Guy and his life’s work.

In common with others experiencing the intensification, I watched two documentaries on DVD that contain Guy Clark footage: Heartworn Highways (released in 1976) and Heartworn Highways Revisited (released in 2017). The video captures of the younger and older Guy prompt me to reflect that we are all desperados waiting for a train. Life isn’t standing still.

It’s been a while since our last interview with Tamara Saviano. (The prior interview is currently accessible on this page. Scroll down to read it.) In preparation for this revisit with Tamara read Without Getting Killed or Caught again, taking the time to really savor the chapters—an indulgence with a reward of experiencing this excellent biography in a deeper and more affecting way. Without Getting Killed or Caught: The Life and Music of Guy Clark answers many questions you may have about a major songwriting force—a man whose songs and spirit continue to touch the lives of fans and master songwriters alike, despite the train’s departure with an incredibly talented and creatively-giving passenger.

Tamara, it was enriching and thought-provoking to dwell among the pages of your book. Thank you for writing this biography and for reconnecting with our readers. What memories associated with the writing and research of this book tend to be the most potent and reoccurring to you?

The time I spent with Guy at his house. For the last 4 or 5 years of his life, I was over at his place several days a week. Guy was eager for me to finish the book and told me repeatedly that he wasn’t going to be around when the book was published so we needed to work while we could. I wanted to procrastinate but he didn’t let me get away with it. The memories of sitting with him at the kitchen table are powerful and I’m grateful to have them.

What are your most joyous memories associated with Guy?

Oh, so many. Sitting at the kitchen table, listening to him try to learn to play his mandola, talking with him about the books we were reading, driving around Texas with him. There are also things that still make me giggle. Guy loved those little bottles of 5-hour Energy drinks and sent me to the store to buy them for him constantly. Every time one of those bottles catches my eye at the grocery it makes me laugh.

What gave Guy the most satisfaction in life?

Writing songs, playing songs, and listening to other songwriters.

What were the most difficult decisions about what to include and exclude in the book?

As the years went by and I got deeper and deeper into Guy’s world, what interested me the most was his childhood, his influence as a songwriter, his recording career, and the relationship between Guy, Susanna and Townes.  I decided to stick with those topics. I hope my book won’t be the last on Guy and perhaps another author can tell other stories.

The song “The High Price of Inspiration,” co-written by Guy, lyricizes that getting high was a costly muse. Did Guy ever open up to you and to himself about the reasons behind his use of drugs and alcohol?

Oh yes, we talked about it all the time. I am not a drinker or drug user. I have a little wine with dinner when I go out with friends but I don’t drink at home and actually have a bit of a phobia about drugs. Guy could not wrap his head around that and sometimes tried to peer pressure me into partying with him.  I did it once and that was enough. One day we were talking about drugs as muse and I told Guy I thought that was a weak excuse and that I believed he could write great songs without being high. Guy said, “Maybe, but why would I even want to try?” He enjoyed getting high. After he finished chemotherapy he lost his taste for alcohol and it pissed him off until the very end.

Some songwriters from Guy’s world have cleaned up. They continue to write outstanding songs. Could Guy have imagined that he could have done the same?

He didn’t have the desire to clean up. He enjoyed getting high.

Your book contains this journal entry by Susanna: “Guy Clark has an uneasy relationship with the truth. He will never be able to tell me the truth. He’ll never be shiny to me.” Do you know what she meant by this?

The relationship between Guy and Susanna was up and down although there is no doubt they loved each other very much. Guy was a stoic West Texas hard-ass (although he was a real softie by the end of his life) and he rarely showed Susanna his vulnerable side. Susanna craved a closer and intimate connection and I don’t know that she ever got that from Guy. That’s where Townes came in. The documentary we are producing focuses on that relationship between the three of them.

Are there areas of inquiry that you wish you had explored more fully with Guy and others interviewed for the book?

No. I’m getting deeper into that relationship triangle in the film and frankly I’ll be glad when we’re finished. I’ve been living in Guy Clark world for two decades and I’m ready to move on.

Susanna Clark is quoted in the book as having said that Townes was “the yardstick” of songwriting quality for Guy. How did Townes and Guy impact each other’s songwriting?

I don’t know if Guy impacted Townes but Guy always said that Townes was his favorite songwriter and inspired him. Even a few months before his death Guy repeated that. He said that he did not want to write like Townes or be like Townes but he aspired to write songs that would touch people the way Townes’s songs touched him.

Guy, for a number of songwriters, was the ultimate collaborator. Why did he and Townes not co-write (to completion) any songs?

Guy said they tried to write a song together once and it was “a fucking disaster.” My opinion is that Guy was a serious, serious songwriter. He sat down and wrote songs and treated it as a serious pursuit to find the right combination of words and phrasing. Townes sort of caught songs from the universe as they flew by.

Of songwriters Guy never worked with, are there a few that you think would have been especially good co-writing matchups?

I would have loved Guy to write with Ron Sexsmith. I don’t think they ever met but that would have pleased me. Guy always joked that Kristofferson said he was going to come over to write and Guy said he was still waiting. Because I know both Guy and Kris well I would have loved to see them write together but I’m not sure it would have worked out. They are different from each other in many ways.

You grew increasingly close to Guy while writing Without Getting Killed or Caught. How did this affect you personally and as Guy’s biographer?

There came a point that I had to admit to myself and my publisher that I was personally involved to the point where it would affect the manuscript. That is why Part 3 of the book is memoir. I could write straight biography up to the point where Guy and I met but after that there was no way to write objectively. I was thrilled when my publisher agreed that we could shape the manuscript to be two parts biography and one part memoir.

Subsequent to Guy’s passing on May 17, 2016, which of Guy’s songs do you listen to the most?

Because I’m writing, producing and directing a documentary on Guy, I’m still immersed in his catalog. I think it will be more interesting to see what I’m listening to a few years from now after I’ve stepped out of Guy world for a bit. Having said that, “Dublin Blues,” “She Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere” and “My Favorite Picture of You” are pretty constant around here.

You co-produced the double-disc This One’s for Him: A Tribute to Guy Clark. It won Album at the Year at the 2012 Americana Music Awards and was also a Grammy nominee. What are some of your favorite recollections regarding your work on This One’s for Him, the artists involvement with it, and Guy’s response to the project and the subsequent acclaim for the double-CD that ensued after its release?

Wow, making that album was so much fun and it brings me joy to think back on it. The most fun part was that I was working with Verlon Thompson, Shawn Camp and Jen Gunderman throughout the entire record. Shawn and I were co-producers and he was the leader of the house band. Verlon played guitar in the house band and Jen played keyboard and accordion. Having three of my dearest friends on the journey is the sweetest thing.  Secondly, all of the artists were happy to be there to celebrate Guy and it was a ball to work with all of them. Last, it was fun to share the recordings with Guy as we finished them. To see the happy look on his face and hear him say “Wow, that is FAR-OUT” made me happy. Guy’s favorite track on the record is Terri Hendrix’s version of “The Dark.” He listened to that piece a lot when he was in the nursing home at the end of his life.

What feedback about the book has been most gratifying to you?

I’m happy that people seem to like it but I’m most grateful that I don’t have to write it again. It was the most difficult and gratifying work of my life.

Without Getting Killed or Caught is published by Texas A&M University Press: www.tamupress.com.

Posted August 15, 2018, Reposted 2-23-22

Tamara Saviano, Author of ‘Without Getting Killed or Caught: The Life and Music of Guy Clark’

By Steven Brodsky

Congratulations on your new book, Without Getting Killed or Caught: The Life and Music of Guy Clark. It was years in the making. What surprised you most about the journey of getting the book written?
The biggest surprise to me is that I actually finished it. I didn’t believe I would until the day I turned it in to the publisher. If I hadn’t told so many people I was writing this book, I would have quit. It was a massive undertaking and I felt overwhelmed during the writing process.

You first heard a Guy Clark album, Old No. 1, when you were fourteen. How did that listening experience affect you?
It started my love affair with Texas songwriters and of Texas in general. I grew up in Wisconsin, in an industrial town where my family and most of my friends’ parents worked at factories. Guy made Texas sound romantic to me. “She Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere” immediately became the theme song for my teenage angst. “She ain’t goin’ nowhere, she’s just leavin’.” Man. That’s what I wanted to do. Just leave.

Was exposure to Guy Clark’s records a factor in your choosing music journalism, production, and publicity as your profession?
Maybe. I loved music from an early age and I believe that music overall had a big hand in it. When I was a kid I wanted to write for Rolling Stone, Sports Illustrated and Playboy.

Guy Clark supported the biography. He did not want a hagiography. You did not write one. Tell us about his support.
No one was more surprised than me that Guy agreed to my terms. I asked him to cooperate fully and introduce me to all his family, friends and colleagues and ask them to cooperate without Guy having approval on the final manuscript. When we started, I didn’t believe he’d give me anything but our first interview he told me about his girlfriend Bunny’s suicide and how he then married Bunny’s sister Susanna. He was not afraid to talk about the hard stuff and we talked about it over and over and over again.

Did Guy indicate discomfort about any of your research?
No. He was surprised at some of the things I discovered but seemed happy when I brought him new treasures that I found at his family’s home in Rockport or from research libraries.

You wrote: “Guy Clark was never one to wear his heart on his sleeve. He was taught from a young age to be stoic; to observe the West Texas credo,‘stand up and be a man.’ He learned one should put up a strong façade no matter what he is feeling inside.” Was this reflected in his responses to your interview questions?
No, and that was the most surprising thing about working on the book. Guy and I had intimate conversations. At first it threw me because that was not the Guy I knew. We started working on the book after he was diagnosed with lymphoma and I believe he was feeling mortal. He told me it was time to set the record straight.

You included some very tender diary entries of Susanna Clark, Guy’s wife. Tell us about those.
Guy handed me a box of Susanna’s journals after she died. I asked him if he had read them and he said no. I asked if he was sure he wanted me to have them and use them. He said: “Yes. I’m not out to rewrite the truth, Tamara.”

Was Guy jealous of Susanna’s love for Townes Van Zandt?
He may have been jealous at times but for the most part I believe he just accepted it as part of Susanna’s and Townes’s personalities and he loved them both. They annoyed him sometimes and he didn’t understand their collective sensitivities but he loved both of them more than he loved anyone else.

Were you always comfortable being privy to highly personal information about Guy, Susanna, and Townes?
No, I was often uncomfortable. I tried to comprehend it but never got to that place. I think about my own marriage and how tight my husband and I are…no one else is getting into our marriage, you know? Yet, Guy confessed that Townes took some of the pressure off of him to have to be the husband Susanna wanted. Guy’s stoicism was difficult for Susanna. And, of course, they all drank and took many drugs. I’m sure that shit didn’t make things any easier.

How difficult was it for you to decide what is appropriate to include in the book?
Difficult. A reviewer already called me out for not explicitly saying whether or not Townes and Susanna were involved sexually. I decided that the story is compelling enough without sensationalizing it. People can read between the lines. In the end, I just remembered that it was my book and my story to tell in the way I wanted to tell it. And I knew I was doing it with Guy’s full consent and that’s what mattered most to me.

Susannna famously served as muse for some Guy Clark songs. For those not familiar with Guy’s music, speak about one or two of those songs and how they came about.
Susanna was a muse for Guy, Townes and many others including Rodney Crowell and Steve Earle. I came to the conclusion that half the writers in Nashville and Austin were in love with Susanna. Guy wrote about her often, the most recent being “My Favorite Picture of You,” the title track to his last album, which won a Grammy. Guy’s co-writer Gordy Sampson came to Guy’s house with the title and the minute Guy heard the title he turned around and pulled a Polaroid picture of Susanna from the wall and they wrote about that picture.
An early song Guy wrote about Susanna is “Coat From the Cold.” Guy stopped singing that song long ago because he said it was paternalistic and he couldn’t believe he actually wrote it. “The lady beside me is the one I have chosen to walk through my life like a coat from the cold.” Guy said: “What the fuck was I thinking? Like Susanna didn’t have any choice in the matter.”

A photo of a strikingly beautiful Susanna taken around 1957 appears in the book, courtesy of Guy. If the lyrics of “My Favorite Picture of You” are fully true to life, this photo wasn’t Guy’s favorite of Susanna. What photos (whether of Susanna or others) in the book are most significant to you?
I love the photo of Susanna in the yellow turtleneck and the debutante black and white photo the best. I think it’s because I’ve sort of romanticized the young Susanna. I try to imagine what she would have done had she not gotten involved with Guy and Townes. In some ways, I think they ruined her. Not that it wasn’t her choice, it was, but, she may have reached greater heights personally and professionally without them. Even with them, she was a successful songwriter and painter but I do believe Susanna’s love for these two men held her back. She jumped into a relationship with Guy when she was grieving her sister’s suicide. Maybe with a little time and distance before doing that, she would have made different choices. Of course, we’ll never know and that’s just me romanticizing what might have been.

Guy had the highest regard for quality of artistic expression. What instilled this in him?
His young life in Rockport, Texas was the start of it. Guy and his family read poetry around the kitchen table after dinner. He participated in poetry invitationals, read monologues, wrote essays and fell in love with the written word as a young man. As he matured he read beat poets and literature and dictionaries and thesauruses. Seriously, Guy would pick up the Dictionary of American Slang and just start reading from page one. When he went to Houston and met Townes Van Zandt and Mickey Newbury, that inspired him to start writing songs and his quest to write, read and hear quality literature and songs stayed with him until the day he died. Guy is famous for saying to young songwriters “Do you want to be an artist or do you want to be a star?” He didn’t think there was anything wrong with wanting to be a star but it’s a different approach. Artists are not willing to compromise in the way stars have to compromise with their material and their images.

Guy was very helpful to other songwriters. Cite an example of this that appears in your book.
Lyle Lovett is probably the most famous example. Someone slipped Guy a demo tape of Lyle’s and Guy copied that tape and handed it out to everyone he knew in Nashville. And he had never met Lyle. He thought it was that good and that someone needed to pay attention and give Lyle a publishing and record deal. And that’s exactly what happened. Guy gave Tony Brown at MCA the tape and Tony signed Lyle.

What song written or co-written by Guy, was Guy most proud of?
Guy’s favorite song he ever wrote was “She Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere.” He said it just came out easily and he loves the message of it.

Of his songs covered by others, which were his favorites?
Slim Pickens’s spoken word version of “Desperados Waiting for a Train” was Guy’s favorite cover of one of his songs. He also loved Terri Hendrix’s cover of “The Dark.” Those are two that stuck with him.

Which song most meaningfully reflects the person you came to know as a result of writing Without Getting Killed or Caught: The Life and Music of Guy Clark?
“Stuff That Works.” It fits Guy perfectly.

Posted October 12, 2016, Reposted 2-23-22

A Conversation with Captain Melbourne ‘Butch’ Arbin III of the Ocean City Beach Patrol (Ocean City, MD)

A Conversation with Captain Melbourne ‘Butch’ Arbin III of the Ocean City Beach Patrol (Ocean City, MD)

By Steven Brodsky

It’s an awesome pairing: 10 miles of award-winning beach and the renowned, heritage-rich Ocean City Beach Patrol. Since its start in1930, the OCBP has kept millions of visitors safe. At the helm is Captain Arbin. This is his 46th year with the OCBP. He became captain in 1997.  

There’s an abundance of appreciation for Captain Arbin and the men and women of the OCBP. Subsequent to a radio interview I did with Captain Arbin in 2011, I received an outpouring of comments from listeners praising the work and presence of Captain Arbin and the Patrol. Life is precious. Captain Arbin and the more than 225 lifeguards under his command protect it and enforce ordinances on a nationally top-ranked beach, enabling an outstanding shore experience for Ocean City’s visitors.  

What prompted your decision to sign on as a lifeguard?

I was on vacation with my family in 1972 and met one of the guards. Crew Chief Mark McCleskey was stationed at 43rd Street and aftertalking to him during that week, I thought what a great job this would be and he encouraged me to try out. My father also worked with a man in Baltimore whose son, Greg Pittman, was on the Patrol. I went back to Parkville and my mother signed me up for a senior lifesaving class at Woodcroft pool. The next summer when I was 15 (no age requirement back then) I tried out, but being a runner (I ran track at U of M in college) I was not as fast as the competitive swimmers and they only needed a few guards so I was not hired. I went back to Baltimore and got a job at the Cromwell Bridge Road Holiday Inn as a pool lifeguard. However, when I returned to OC that same summer on the family vacation, I checked in with Captain Craig and since they now had an opening he asked one of his lieutenants to give me the test. It was during the beginnings of a Nor’easter and based on my never quit attitude, I was hired. I was on a stand the next day and had my first rescue at the inlet. My family returned to Baltimore and I remained in OC on my own at 15. My mom tells me she cried the entire way home. It was many years later that Mark McCleskey would reappear back in my life when his son Parker joined the Junior Beach Patrol.  

Another interesting turn of events was that my high school track coach and mentor, Don Wann, who had also graduated from Parkville High School, attended University of Maryland on a track scholarship and returned as a physical education teacher to Parkville (I followed the same path), would retire, move to Ocean City and work for me on the patrol.  

 

Do many recruits join the OCBP for similar reasons? 

Yes, most (90 percent) are recruited by current or past members of the Patrol. Many tell me that they have been coming to OC their entire lives and always looked up to the guards and wanted to be Ocean City lifeguards. We call them surf rescue technicians or SRTs.   

 

What qualification testing is done for potential recruits? 

Because of the unique demands of the job, the Beach Patrol does not require or recognize certification of past experience with other agencies. All individuals seeking employment with the Ocean City Beach Patrol must successfully complete all aspects of a 10-phase pre-employment physical skills evaluation and pass an English language verbal comprehension/proficiency test. They must successfully complete: a 500m swim (off-site) or a 400m ocean swim in 10 minutes or less, a series of simulated rescues with and without the aid of a rescue buoy, a deep-water physical skill evaluation of holds and releases, a victim transport training session and victim removal test, a buoy preparation training session and mock buoy-runs, a rescue medley of 150m run and a 100m swim through the surf and 150m return run (on-site). Each applicant must complete a candidate questionnaire and actively participate in an informational interview with beach patrol staff. The final step is an interview with the beach patrol captain after receiving a recommendation from the interview committee to be given an appointment to the Surf Rescue Academy. 

 

How long into your involvement with the OCBP did you come to realize that you and the beach patrol could develop a decades-long relationship? 

As I was in high school, I needed to decide what I wanted to do in life. After considering police work, joining the Marines or college, the Marine recruiter who had gotten close to me said, “If you go to college and don’t like it we will still take you, so give college a try.” (Captain Arbin attended college and afterwards entered the teaching profession. – S.B.) I knew being an educator would allow me to have summers off….I now warn recruits that if they don’t want to be teachers they probably should not get involved with the Patrol.  

 

How have the training and work responsibilities of the OCBP’s surf rescue technicians evolved over the years of your involvement?  

The basic job has not changed much at all: watch for people in trouble, run as fast as you can to that area, swim out with a buoy (flotation device), make contact and keep them calm, return them back to safety, run back to the stand and be prepared to do it all again. However, the training and organization have changed tremendously. When I started I tested on day one and was on a stand the next. Now we have 8 days at the Surf Rescue Academy where all training and certifications take place, followed by 3 weeks of on the stand supervised probation. We also have advanced certification as well as a leadership development program. There is also a very objective supervision and evaluation program to assure that all of our employees are progressing as expected. 

 

What does the training at OCBP’s Surf Rescue Academy entail and what goes into the probation period that follows graduation? 

As we do not require any certifications or prior experience to work as a surf rescue technician, we include everything needed to be successful in the 65 hours at our Surf Rescue Academy, over 8 days. During these 8 days there is a combination of physical training/skills, classroom instruction and on the job training with an experienced supervisor. Following the 8 days, the PSRT (probation SRT) is assigned to a crew for “supervised probation on a stand. Each week, for the 3 weeks of “supervised probation,” the crew chief will provide written feedback to each PSRT in the crew. This will include an evaluation of how they are doing on various aspects of the job, a recommendation on areas for improvement and a goal that has been written by the PSRT. This information is then passed to the next supervisor to assure that the PSRT is making adequate progress towards the goal of being removed from probation and becoming an SRT 1. (This includes a pay increase.) 

 

Those seeking to return to the patrol have to recertify every year. Tell us about this. 

There are two aspects to veteran recertification. First is requalification. All returning SRTs must requalify on both the timed 400 meter run followed immediately by the 500 meter run. They must meet the same requirements as a candidate trying out for the first time and I personally time every requalification and will not allow even a 1 second failure to continue guarding.  

Second aspect is recertification/retraining. All certifications are updated which include first aid, CPR, AED, critical skills in search and recovery, sand collapse, management of spinal injuries as well as other topics determined to be emphasized that season.  

This is done in a single day and is scheduled in groups of 18-20 while still maintaining full coverage of the beach. 

 

Teamwork and personal responsibility are essential for OCBP’s surf rescue technicians. Please speak to this. 

Candidates are told during testing that they are being judged on teamwork and encouragement of each other. We work in crews which are like smaller family units (20 crews) with 7-8 members. They are expected to do what is right even if they think no one is watching (integrity) and to always uphold our high standards. Each is the backup for the SRT next to him or her.  

 

The SRTs interact with all sorts of people. How does the patrol help them to develop the necessary communication skills? 

We start working on this during the testing and we train and practice this during SRA and we include this on the PSRT evaluations. We actually have them practice presenting to each other during SRA. Once placed in a crew, the crew chief will have them assist during safety seminars and give them feedback. If they are going to work with any of our youth programs they are required to attend a specialized training and certification. 

 

What physical training is required of SRTs during the patrol season?  

All SRTs are required to complete their crew’s designed workout for the day, alternating running and swimming workouts. We also have competitions throughout the season (local, regional and national). We also have competitions specific to women and youth. By using competition to motivate our staff, they work out on their own (without pay), yet it benefits the Patrol.   

 

This helps the SRTs to remain alert and focused while on the stand, yes? 

Working out does keep you alert. We also give many tricks and tips to help stay alert on the very slow days (cold and rainy). We have a policy that anytime a Beach Patrol mobile unit passes behind the stand that SRT must stand to acknowledge that he or she saw the vehicle. If the SRT fails to stand then we can do a closer check. The most critical skill that an SRT has is the scan (looking north and south and then all around). 

 

What else is incorporated into the work day to ensure that SRTs are at their best? 

They are expected to get off the stand several times and do ordinance checks from the stands to their north and south. They also are seen by both the crew chief and area supervisor several times each day. They have other tasks that they must do each day: semaphore, working out, filling out the chalkboard on the back of the stand, moving the stand and building a sand pile. 

 

In August 2015, the patrol had a very busy two days rescuing people from rip currents. Tell us about this. 

Perfect storm…tides, surf, wind, weather, crowds. We had a tropical depression in the Atlantic Basin which caused larger than normal waves. We had some wind (helps waves to build in size), a midday outgoing tide, and we had large crowds all wanting to be in the ocean. 

With all this water coming across the sandbar being trapped in the “trough” it must make its way back out, which is the mechanism for a rip current.   

In OC, MD 95 percent of our rescues are rip current related.  

Once we start seeing this trend, we will pull everyone out of the ocean, have the SRTs call the beach patrons on their beach over to the stand, and give a “safety talk.” This does two things. It educates the people and also stops all the action and allows us to reset.   

 

What is a typical number of rescues for the patrol in a beach season?  

We say 2,000–4,000. However, if we have little tropical activity we are at the low end; if it is a busy tropical season we are near the higher number. Because of our increased efforts at public education, we are seeing a more informed public which has reduced the number of rescues while on duty, but even more important is there are many fewer deaths while we are off-duty.  

 

Parent distraction is a safety issue. Please speak to this as a reminder for parents to keep their eyes on their kids while near any body of water. 

People are relaxed on vacation and things are more flexible. What we see quite often is that each adult thought another one was watching and the child has wandered away before the adults realized it. Although we have lost individuals from 1 year old to 90 years old, most are 4–10. What parents don’t realize is that to children all umbrellas look alike and once they are past the “berm” (high spot before the beach slopes to the ocean), they can’t see where they just came from. Also, add in that the current will move people along the beach and that they may exit the water far from where they entered. Once children realize they are lost they start the walk of fear, usually walking with the wind to their backs. We have located children as young as 4 years old many miles from the family. Children should be introduced to the SRT on their beach so they know that the lifeguard is a safe person and they should go to them if they can’t find their family.  

Each SRT is trained in dealing with lost or found individuals. A lost individual is the person a family member reports as missing and a found individual is when we have the person who is missing. A very important part is keeping parents calm and with one of the SRTs, otherwise we locate the child and now have missing parents. The SRT will get very basic information from the parent (name of child, age, color of bathing suit) and send this up and down the beach using semaphore (the flag language used to communicate between stands). Most children are located within 5–10 minutes once we have been alerted. In addition to semaphore, the information is radioed to the 911 center. 

We locate between 1,000–2,000 missing individuals each season, with a 100 percent success rate. Dads lose more children than moms. 

 

What causes most spinal injuries in beach areas? 

The three major causes are diving into shallow water, body surfing, and body boarding. We always say feet first, as a reminder to check the water depth with your feet not your head. Another very dangerous time is during “shore break” activity. Shore break is when the waves continue to build in size and strength and only break once they arrive onto the beach rather than breaking over a sandbar into a deep trough. The person who is riding that wave is thrown headfirst onto the beach. We call this going over the falls…wet sand is no more forgiving than concrete. If hit wrong it can cause a serious neck or back injury or even death. When riding a body board, you need to remain on the rear half and if you are getting ready to go over the falls you can go off the back of the board and prevent being slammed. 

 

How do the SRTs deal with possible spinal injuries? 

Because of the unique nature of a spinal injury in the surf zone the method used in a pool or lake (backboard before removal) will not work and has the potential to make the injury worse. 

By working with emergency doctors, we have modified a technique developed in Hawaii. Our method has been continually refined over many years and uses the SRTs to act as a human backboard to remove the injured person from the surf while maintaining stabilization on the head, neck and back until we can lay the person down away from the moving water. Once in this position, we maintain stabilization until a paramedic does an assessment and determines what is the appropriate treatment.  

We know from feedback from past patients as well as medical professionals that our technique not only works but has successfully allowed people whose injuries were life threatening to not only live but to walk again.  

We not only train and practice for our personnel but we have shared this technique with many other lifesaving organizations. Several years ago, we trained workers at the National Aquarium in emergency response that would be needed should employees be injured while working with large mammals. The training was conducted in one of the National Aquarium’s large tanks.  

 

Most people aren’t aware that the OCBP is involved with marine mammal rescues. Please tell us about this. 

Because of our presence on the beach it is highly likely that a stranding of a marine mammal may occur during our on-duty hours. For this reason, each of our staff have a first responder overview of what to do as well as what not to do if a stranding occurs in his or her area of the beach. 

One of the requirements to be certified for a supervisory position, is that each person must complete the full marine mammal rescue training. This assures that during a response we have a more highly trained individual on the scene who can assist the National Aquarium with determining the best course of action for the particular stranding. This advanced training is taught by staff from the National Aquarium and includes a manual and an end of course exam.   

 

What events during your service with the OCBP have been the most gratifying? 

…meeting my wife Penny in Ocean City, my son Michael working for the patrol, and watching the SRTs during a serious situation all knowing their parts and doing exactly as expected. 

Although it is not an official part of our mission, we change lives and I get to see individuals grow and do great things. 

I was invited to see one of our past crew chiefs, Matt Maciarello, be robed as the youngest Circuit Court judge in Maryland.  

One of our guys came to us as a high school dropout and was very close to being terminated. But with the discipline of the Patrol, returned to college and received a PhD in physiology. He is now a professor at Miami University. 

 

What events have been the saddest?  

The preventable loss of life. Each year for 3 years in a row, a parent died while attempting to rescue a child that the parent had allowed to go swimming while guards were not on-duty. In one case, the father and one of his daughters drowned while another was saved with CPR over an hour and a half after lifeguards had gone home for the day.  

In another case, the mom gave in and allowed her 2 sons to swim just 20 minutes before we came on-duty. When they started to yell for help she did what any mother would have—she went in the ocean to help. She drowned.  

In the 3rd case, a family was on the inlet beach when the two oldest sons were pulled away from the beach in a rip current. The father went to help but drowned in the attempt. The 2 boys were picked up by a passing boat and survived. All of this occurred while the wife and mom sat on the beach with an infant in her arms and a 2-year-old crying for her attention as she watched what was happening. Once she realized what had happened she just collapsed into my arms sobbing.  

 

What do SRTs find most challenging about their work? 

Uncooperative adults who try to hide things from the SRTs. The SRTs have a lot to do, including not only watching the 1,000s of people on their beach but also enforcing ordinances and laws. Yet, grown adults will play games of trying not to abide by the laws and this causes the SRTs to spend too much time trying to get these adults to do what they are supposed to do. 

Another issue is staying alert on days when no one is on the beach. It is a very long day if there is nothing to do or look at.  

 

What do SRTs most enjoy about their time on and off-duty in Ocean City, MD? 

The fellowship of the other members of the crew and Patrol. For many of our people these become lifelong relationships.  

They also enjoy working out and playing sports.  

 

You work year-round. (Captain Arbin has another job outside of patrol season.) Do you ever vacation and can you enjoy a beach in a “civilian” mode when off-duty?  

A very sore subject with my wife of 38 years. We never went on a honeymoon and have only taken one family vacation to the Bahamas. However, we do go on a work and witness mission trip each year. 

I can enjoy the beach…but I always have a heightened level of awareness when on the beach, unless I am napping in the warm sun!!! 

 

If you had it to do all over again, would you hesitate for a moment to submit an SRT application to the OCBP? 

Not for half a second….It has been an incredible 46 years and it has shaped, to a large extent, the man I have become. 

The Ocean City Beach Patrol’s website address is:   https://oceancitymd.gov/oc/departments/emergency-services/beach-patrol/ .                                                    

Posted June 1, 2018

 

A Conversation With Author Mark SaFranko

A Conversation With Author Mark SaFranko

By Steven Brodsky

Mark SaFranko’s readers already know this: Mark is no literary wuss. There’s no evidence of authorial flinching in his novels.  The self-consciousness that swaddles lesser writers is nowhere to be seen. Mark’s writing has been compared to that of Charles Bukowski, Raymond Carver, as well as to some of the most highly regarded current “confessional” and mystery literature. 

Mark, your novel The Suicide has been getting deserved recognition.  Did you anticipate that the novel would be so well-received? 

Steven, I have no idea how anything will ever be received. One of my French translators once remarked that “Nothing in publishing ever makes sense,” and I think that’s certainly true. Whenever any of my work appears, I’m clueless about how it will go over.

The Suicide is recognized in Heather Duerre Humann’s book Gender Bending Detective Fiction: A Critical Analysis of Selected Works (McFarland, 2017).  There, a chapter is devoted to your book: “Detecting Gender in Mark SaFranko’s The Suicide.”  Heather Duerre Humann writes that Ellen Smith, a fictional transgender former police officer character “comes across as complex and sympathetic, and her presence therefore both challenges and represents a departure from the two-dimensional depictions of transgender individuals which were commonplace in decades past.”  Are there analogs in your life that you drew upon in creating Ellen?

Not really. I remember reading in passing a newspaper article about a policeman who showed up at headquarters for work one day in a dress. He was summarily dismissed. That planted the idea for the character in my mind. I think that it’s part of the novelist’s job to be able to immerse himself in the experience of a character — any character. Once I had at least a vague idea of what the novel would be about, I submerged myself in what I thought that character’s inner life might be and took it from there. I do believe, by the way, that Ellen Smith was actually the very first transgender police detective to make an appearance in a novel.

Did you intend for The Suicide to be as strongly character-driven as it is?

For better or worse, all of my work is very largely character-driven. In my estimation, literature of any value must be deeply rooted in character. It’s what I love about the best French films: you watch the characters develop and unfold without concern for pace as if they were in a novel. I say “for worse” because I’m not certain that character-driven work is the royal road to commercial success.

The book is mainly set in Hoboken, NJ, a year after 9/11.  When did you write it?  The place and time add to the tension experienced by the protagonist, Detective Brian Vincenti, do you agree?

Absolutely, though the events of 9/11 aren’t absolutely necessary to the story. I happened to be living in Hoboken around that time, so I had a feel for the atmosphere of the city. My windows looked directly out on the World Trade Center – I could throw a rock across the Hudson and hit it. And in fact my wife worked on the 55th floor of Tower One until just a year before 9/11. My son when he was very small played in the shadow of that building for years. I started writing the novel shortly after moving out of Hoboken in 2000 and the events of 9/11 wormed their way into later drafts.

How long did Detective Vincenti live within you prior to writing the book?

That’s a very good question, Steven, and one I haven’t given much thought to. I can’t say I thought about him – consciously — as a character until I laid out the plan for the book. And yet he unfolded quite naturally during the writing, so he must have been lurking just below the level of consciousness.

Does he still inhabit your inner world?

I’ve been planning a sequel for years and haven’t gotten around to it yet. This is a matter of allotting time to it, as I’m always in the process of writing several novels and stories at the same time. So I guess the answer is yes, Vincenti – and Ellen Smith  — are both still there.

Detective Vincenti exhibited extreme tenacity in working the case of a woman who died after exiting from an eleventh-floor window. Does tenacity enter into your writing life?  If so, how?

At this point I’ve travelled far beyond tenacity. I just wake up every day of the week, Sunday through Saturday, and go to it. I’ve been doing it for so many years now that it’s reflexive and don’t even give the process any thought. But I suppose the rigorous schedule speaks to a tenacity that was established a long time ago. And yes, tenacity still figures into the process in that I stick with a novel or story, draft after draft, until I come to some point of near-satisfaction with it. I’m never altogether satisfied, but yes, it takes a great deal of tenacity to persevere with something if you’re unsure of whether or not it’s working. Often you never know.

What gives you the ability to not flinch in your writing?

Another good question. There’s an old adage that if whatever you’re writing about makes you uncomfortable, you’re onto something good. I try to stick with whatever that might be.

How disciplined is your writing life?

Very, as I explained earlier. But there’s a looseness built into the discipline that comes from having to deal with real life. You have to walk the dog. You have to take the kid to soccer practice. You have to go to the dentist. But you always come back to what you’re doing. You can’t be too rigid or you won’t have a life at all.

How difficult is it for you to get into a state of creative flow?

Not at all. I can’t seem to get to all the ideas swirling around in my mind. But an ease with overall concepts and ideas doesn’t mean that you don’t stumble around over specifics, like the development of a character who suddenly appears out of nowhere. That’s when it’s more stop and go. Sometimes it’s a little tricky getting from point A to B, or B to C. You might have to stop here and there, but eventually you find the flow again.

What keeps your creative edge sharp?

Work, really. There is no substitute for work. When you sit with your story or novel or song or whatever, going back to it again and again to discover more of its possibilities, your edge stays sharp and more and more ideas occur to you.

How do you keep distractions at bay when working?

I don’t. I allow some of them in. Sometimes I write with the TV on in the background. Sometimes I listen to certain types of music. The dog bugs me to play with him. The telephone rings and I answer it.  I’ve conditioned myself over the years to not seal myself off completely.

Are you ever adversely affected by immersion into the lives and circumstances of your characters?  If so, how do you deal with this?

I try to keep my life and my characters’ lives separate if at all possible, but I suppose there is some seepage, that’s inevitable. But if that’s the case, I’m not conscious of it. My more autobiographical work – the Zajack novels for instance – are more likely to affect me. Then again, all of a writer’s work is autobiographical.

 Do you take vacations from writing?

Uh, no.

When did you know you were a writer?

Originally I wanted to be a writer of music – something I still do. But it began to seriously dawn on me halfway through college.  I was applying to law school when I realized that I had to change directions. The notion had been roiling beneath the surface for some time until it completely took over. By the age of 21, my course was set.

How important was the possibility of publication to you when you started out? 

Well, I wondered whether I could actually complete something decent first.  I don’t know that I thought much about being published in the early days. “Being a writer” was something that seemed very distant, like a star way out there in the firmaments. I’d written a lot before I actually submitted my creative work for publication. For a long time I knew I wasn’t ready, but I kept writing. When I thought I was ready, I wasn’t. The odd thing was that when I wrote for newspapers, I was published on a daily basis, but my creative work I regarded as something else altogether.

Our friend, the late Dan Fante, was encouraged early in his writing career by supportive words of Hubert Selby Jr.  Was there anyone who significantly did the same for you? 

It’s still hard to believe that Dan is gone. I miss hearing his voice. To answer your question, there was my wife. She believed in me and was supportive from the beginning. One writer who was supportive was the late mystery writer Mark McGarrity, aka Bartholomew Gill. But on the whole I had to rely on myself. And it wasn’t easy much of the time, especially in the early days when I had no belief whatsoever in myself.

Did you have a writing mentor?

Only on paper in the form of the writers I idolized. Dickens. Dostoyevsky. Celine. Henry Miller. Isaac Singer. Playwrights like Eugene O’Neill. Sophocles. Euripides. Simenon, maybe above all. Later, guys like Carver and Bukowski and Richard Yates. Paul Bowles. Women like Patricia Highsmith. And too many others to recount.

Can you tell us about your current writing project?

I’m always in the process of writing stories and novels, poems and songs and other things. I go from one draft to the next until I think they’re in some form of completion – and often I’m wrong. I’m working on two new Max Zajack novels that are quite close to being ready. A novel about a child prodigy violinist who happens to be a lesbian. A psychological mystery about a wheelchair-bound philanderer and his long-suffering wife. Etc. One of these days I’ll get to that sequel to The Suicide.

What’s most frustrating about your writing life?

It’s always the business end of it. Finding publishers and markets for my work. I like to say that the writing part is easy. You shouldn’t be doing it if you’re not champing at the bit every morning to get to it. But the reality of the shrinking marketplace? That’s an altogether different beast. That’s the really hard part.

What’s most satisfying?

Not having a boss. Being master of my fate for the hours every day that I’m at the keyboard. Being the Creator for at least a little while.

Mark SaFranko’s website address is: www.marksafranko.com.

Posted 4/10/17

A Conversation With Scott Weidensaul

A Conversation With Scott Weidensaul

By Steven Brodsky

Congratulations to Scott Weidensaul on the release of his latest book, Peterson Reference Guide To Owls of North America and the Caribbean. He’s authored over two dozen books on natural history, have been a Pulitzer Prize finalist, and is renowned as a field researcher. His writing has appeared in many major publications, including Audubon and National Wildlife. He is a popular lecturer and one of the world’s most highly regarded authorities on birds.

Your first visit to Hawk Mountain in Pennsylvania was a formative event in your life as a naturalist and author. Tell us about this.

I was 12, and had been campaigning pretty hard for several years for my folks to take me to Hawk Mountain, which was about an hour south of our home on the edge of the anthracite fields in northern Schuylkill County. By luck, the day they finally relented was a perfect migration day in mid-October — blustery wind, ragged clouds, hawks peppering the sky. One sharp-shinned hawk, about the size of a blue jay, dove down in screaming rage at a papier mache owl decoy the hawk watchers had placed on a high pole, and it swept just a few feet over my head. I’d never seen raptors with such intimacy, and that day I became hooked on three things: birds of prey; the Appalachian Mountains, which formed this annual flyway; and migration. Those three elements have shaped much of my life and work in the 45 years since.

 

When did you decide that ornithology was going to be the primary focus of your life’s work? Why birds?
I was actually much more focused on herpetology, especially snakes, when I was a kid, and right through the start of college I planned to study them. But birding was always a big part of my life, and an ornithology course I took in college really got me hooked on the science of birds. With the love of raptors I already had, that steered me into field research, starting in the 1980s when I began helping Hawk Mountain’s research team with hawk-trapping and banding to study their migrations. Within a few years I was a federally licensed bander, working first with hawks and falcons, and later with songbirds, owls and hummingbirds. Why birds? Because they perform some of the most incomprehensibly difficult journeys, across immensities of space and time, that any organism undertakes.

Does your involvement with nature entail a spiritual component?
In the traditional sense, no. In the sense of awe and humility in the face of something greater, absolutely.

Are you most at home in the field?
Without question. I am definitely not a city boy.

Your work has taken you to some of the most incredible natural settings. Tell us about some of your favorites.
Hard to narrow it down. I’ve been returning almost every year for three decades to Alaska, and have traveled all over that state, from the outer Aleutians to the North Slope and interior, but spend a lot of time there in Denali National Park. For the past several years I’ve been working with several friends and colleagues on a project to use miniaturized tracking devices to follow the migration of many of the park’s birds, which travel to Central and South America, the southeast U.S., Asia and New Zealand. It’s hard work — we’re in the field by 3 a.m. most days — but to look up and see that 20,000-foot mountain looming on the horizon with the colors of dawn makes it worthwhile. (Especially if the mosquitoes aren’t bad and you don’t piss off a grizzly bear or a momma moose.)

Other favorite spots — the coast of Maine, where I teach for Audubon every year at their Hog Island adult camp; the Peruvian Amazon, where I spent a lot of time in the early ’90s and again more recently; the pristine rain forests of Guyana; the sea islands on the coast of Georgia; the Gulf Coast in springtime, when millions of Neotropical migrant songbirds are flooding back with spring migration.

Field work has its frustrations and disappointments. Describe times they’ve been present. What kind of harsh field conditions have you encountered?
Weather’s often the most frustrating, because there’s nothing at all you can do about it. You sometimes have a relatively narrow window of time you can be in the field in a particular location, and it’s hard to be stuck in poor weather that keeps you from doing what you need to do.

Maybe the most challenging conditions weren’t in some remote location, though, but tracking northern saw-whet owls all night some years back. We were working in teams of three, using radio receivers and directional antennas to track the birds’ movements by triangulating their positions. These owls come off the roost, catch a mouse, eat — and then just sit there for three or four hours in quiet, happy digestion. Meanwhile, we humans are trying to keep warm in a December snow squall and icy winds, hopping from foot to foot trying to stay warm, taking a new directional bearing every 10 minutes only to find that, as had been the case for hours, the owl has moved not an inch. Finally, about 3 a.m. or so the owl would start hunting again, and we could finally start moving, too, working a little warmth and life back into our feet and hands.

Have you been exposed to dangerous circumstances involving animals?
Occasionally, but usually the most dangerous part of field work is getting there — the drive on the highway, or to the airport, is vastly more dangerous than anything that’s likely to happen with an animal. That said, I’ve had some close calls with grizzlies, and once with a black bear, and I’ve had some near-brushes with venomous snakes. But the single most dangerous wild animal I’m likely to encounter is a tropical mosquito or sand fly carrying a disease like malaria, dengue or leishmaniasis.

If you had to choose one geographic area to confine your future field work, which one would you pick and why?
If I had to make that choice, it would be the Appalachians, since they’ve been the anchor of my life since childhood. If I had to pick beyond that, probably Alaska, for many of the reasons I mentioned earlier.

How many birds have you banded personally and how many in association with others?
I couldn’t begin to guess — many, many thousands, from hummingbirds to eagles, of hundreds of species and on multiple continents.

What kind of data does banding yield?
To paraphrase another ornithologist, almost everything concrete that we know about the lives of wild birds comes from marking them as individuals in some way, and the simplest and safest way is with a lightweight numbered leg band. This goes back to 1804 or ’05, when John James Audubon tied silver wire to the legs of eastern phoebes at his father’s estate at Mill Grove in Montgomery County, to see if the birds nesting in an old mine were the same ones each spring. (They were.)

Banding tells us where birds travel, how fast they migrate, how long they live, whether they come back to the same place to breed or to winter, whether they have the same mates from year to year. We would know precious little about the details of the lives of wild birds without banding and associated techniques like radio-tagging and color-marking.

You’ve studied bird migration extensively. What are some of the longest nonstop migratory flights that some species take?
The longest nonstop migration that we know of is made by a pigeon-sized shorebird called the bar-tailed godwit, which flies nonstop from Alaska to New Zealand and Australia every September, a journey of 7,200 miles across the widest part of the Pacific. Satellite tracking shows that the birds are in the air, beating their wings continuously, for seven to nine days. In March and April, they head northwest some 5,000 miles to the Yellow Sea in China and Korea, then make a final 2,500- to 3,000-mile flight back to Alaska. All together, they travel 18,000 miles a year, averaging 22 days of flight. And because they can live up to 30 years, they may travel most of the distance from here to the moon and back before they die.
Even tiny songbirds make incredible flights, although most are still too small to track in real time like the godwit. Blackpoll warblers and a number of other tiny songbirds make nonstop flights in autumn from the northeast coast of Canada and the U.S. across the western Atlantic to northeastern South America, a trip of some 90 or 100 hours — again, beating their wings continuously for about five days.

How is this possible? 
Birds are built for flight, and they are exceptionally aerodynamic and efficient, but it comes down to fat. Before a bar-tailed godwit takes off, it more than doubles its weight in a two-week bout of binge feeding, so that when it lifts off it is more than 50 percent fat deposits. A little warbler flying across the western Atlantic goes from 10 or 12 grams to 17 or 18 grams. By one calculation, if they were burning gasoline instead of fat, they would get 720,000 miles to the gallon.<br> There is much more, of course — their ability to orient and navigate using the night sky, the Earth’s magnetic field, ultra-low sound frequencies, polarized light and even smell; their ability to go days or weeks without sleep, often by employing nanosecond micro-naps or “hemispheric sleep,” where one half of their brain shuts down for a fraction of a second at a time.

Of now extinct bird species, which one would you most like to have had an opportunity to observe?
In terms of spectacle, it would be hard to pass up a flock of several billion passenger pigeons roaring overhead for days like a feathered river, or a flock of green-and-orange Carolina parakeets whirling in a loud, squawking mass through an East Coast forest. But the one I’d love to see the most was the great auk, a flightless, goose-sized relative of the puffin and razorbill that lived in the North Atlantic, including some of my favorite places on the Maine coast. It was the original “penguin,” since the Welsh term “pen gwyn” (“white head”) was first applied to this bird, presumably in its winter plumage, in the 1600s, and only later transferred to the unrelated birds in the Southern Hemisphere.
Who knows, I may get my wishes. There’s a project at Stanford University to resurrect the passenger pigeon, using genetic manipulation of the DNA of its closest relative, the band-tailed pigeon, and supported by the Long Now Foundation; they are also working to do the same with the heath hen, the form of prairie-chicken once found on the Northeast coast. And now a British team has announced they will similarly try to “de-extinct” (in the jargon of the day) the great auk, using DNA from old bones and eggs, and tinkering with the genome of its closest relative, the razorbill. Only time will tell.

Had you not focused on ornithology, what other career path might you have taken?
Hard to say. Probably something involving history or archaeology, which are two longstanding interests of mine.

When and why did you start to develop an interest in owls? 
The interest has always been there. I got involved in owl research in 1997, starting to band northern saw-whet owls in Pennsylvania — this is our 20th season of fall migration banding these small raptors, which only weigh as much as a plump robin and migrate through the East by the thousands each autumn. More recently, I helped start a huge, collaborative study of snowy owls known as Project SNOWstorm www.projectsnowstorm.org that uses cutting-edge tracking technology to learn more about their winter ecology.

“Wise” is the appellation that many accord to owls. How do these raptors rate on bird-brained intelligence?
Compared with birds like ravens, crows or parrots, not especially high. The “wise old owl” thing probably has more to do with the fact that they look vaguely human — round head, large forward-facing eyes — than their intelligence level. But they are exceptionally good at being owls.

How are owls equipped for their nocturnal activities? 
The most obvious adaptation are their extremely large eyes, which are even bigger than they appear to us. If we had eyes proportionately as large as an owl’s, we’d have eyeballs the size of grapefruits. The large eyes, with an abundance of light-sensitive rod cells, give them good night vision — though not as well-developed as some nocturnal mammals, which have a reflective layer at the back of the eye called the tapetum lucidum (that’s why many mammals’ eyes shine in headlights). They also have excellent hearing, which in some owls may be more important for hunting than their vision.

Many people are surprised to learn that owls’ ear tufts don’t assist the birds with hearing. Why do they possess them?
The tufts are primarily for camouflage, and may also convey mood and emotion. The ears themselves are simply holes in the skull, usually at the lower edge of the round facial disk of feathers that gives owls their characteristic appearance. The facial disk, including muscular flaps below the feathers, act like parabolic reflectors to direct sound waves into the hidden ear openings. A few owls, like northern saw-whet owls, boreal owls and great gray owls, have highly asymmetrical ear openings, one high on the head and facing up, and one low on the head and facing down. This creates slight time-lags between when sound waves reach each opening, allowing them to very precisely pinpoint the source of faint noises, like those of small mammals.

What else surprises the general public the most with regard to owls?
That most of them sound nothing like our stereotyped assumptions. A few owls hoot, but there are owls that scream, whinny, toot, bark, meow, hiss, roar, click, snap and growl.

Which owls are Pennsylvanians most likely to see?
See? Probably none, unless you go looking for them at night. You’re better off listening, which brings me to your next question.

Readers of the book can download a companion album of 86 representative vocalizations for the 39 owl species you’ve described and range mapped. What vocalizations are Pennsylvanians most likely to hear in the outdoors?

The two most common are the great horned owl, which gives a string of five to nine deep, resonant hoots; and the eastern screech-owl, which gives either a high, descending whinny or a monotone trill. Juveniles of either species, in late summer and early fall, make a grating, harsh begging call demanding that their parents feed them. In some places, the most common owl is the barred owl, whose whooping call is usually rendered as “Who cooks for you, who cooks for you aaaaallll?”

The one “owl” call that isn’t is the somber, four-noted call of the mourning dove: “Whoo-OOO ho, hoo-hoo.” If you hear what you think is an owl in the daytime, it’s probably the dove.

Is it difficult for photographers and other observers to get close to owls without eliciting fright and flight reactions? 
Depends on the owl. Many species can be approached carefully if they’re found in the daytime, largely because the owl would rather trust to its camouflage and remain hidden than risk a daytime flight when crows, hawks and other potential hazards might spot it. But some of the boreal and Arctic species, like great grays, snowy owls and northern hawk owls, seem to have little natural fear of humans, and will allow a close approach (though it’s always a good idea to give the owl plenty of space).

Why is the population of barn owls declining in many areas of their range?
Probably several factors. They need barns, old structures of some sort or hollow trees, and such places are harder and harder to come by. Because they feed on rodents, they are especially susceptible to rodenticide poisoning. Although barn owls nest in barns and the like, they hunt in meadows and open grasslands, fewer and fewer of which remain in many areas — and the landscape is more fragmented now with woodlots and backyards, creating good habitat for great horned owls, which prey on them. And finally, barn owls hunt by coursing back and forth low above the ground — meaning that they’re at great risk of vehicle collisions along roadways.

Which species do you take the most satisfaction in finding in Pennsylvania?
After 20 years, and more than 10,000 banded, I’m still not tired of saw-whet owls — and we’re still learning a lot about this small, beautiful owl.

Of all the species described in your book, which one do you find to be the most beautiful?
Tough question. Owls in general, because of their complex, cryptic coloration, are beautiful. Some, like the pygmy-owls and saw-whets, are simply cute to a human eye. Some of the tropical species, like black-and-white owl and crested owl, are strikingly attractive. But snowy owls have both the size and regal presence to go along with their stunning plumage — plus they’re fast, powerful and agile.

Are you working on another book?

I am — a book on global bird migration and conservation, which will have me occupied the next three years. I’ll be all over the map — India, China, Korea, sub-Saharan Africa, South America, the Arctic and the high seas. And also in the lab with scientists, writing about the latest advances in our understanding of migration science.

Posted Oct. 27, 2016

Conversations With Paul Heil, Founder and Former Host of ‘The Gospel Greats’ Radio Show

Rev. Billy Graham’s Passing: A Revisit With Paul Heil, Host of ‘The Gospel Greats’ Radio Show

By Steven Brodsky

Wednesday, February 21, 2018—If Rev. Billy Graham knew that he’d pass away today, he could have sincerely, confidently, and humbly been able to state that his soul would today arrive in heaven. Such was the quality of his faith, the heart of which was “personal relationship” with Jesus.

Billy Graham reached many millions of people with his stadium crusades and television broadcasts. These preaching events included Christian music, a beloved and influential part of his ministry for generations of his admirers.

On the occasion of the passing of Billy Graham, I asked Paul Heil to revisit with this column’s readers. Paul’s syndicated radio show, The Gospel Greats, is in its 38th continuous year and features Southern Gospel music.

Paul, how did Billy Graham impact your life on a personal and professional level?

Throughout my life, I’ve known about and respected Billy Graham—both for his personal integrity and his unwavering dedication to the spread of the Gospel. Although I never had the opportunity to meet him personally, both of those qualities provided inspiration to me as to how I do what I do. In a time when so many advocate a watered-down Gospel message, Rev. Graham refused to compromise, staying true to God’s word as revealed in Scripture.

I loved the way that he personally and consistently deflected any attempts at taking credit for his success, redirecting the credit where it truly belongs—to God. And God certainly used Billy Graham as a willing vessel for His honor and glory. Aside from that, I believe his success was in the way he could simplify the Gospel, without diminishing it, so that anyone and everyone could understand it. His message was of God’s great love and how He prepared a way for anyone who would believe to escape eternal punishment and, though repentance, have sins forgiven (see John 3:16,17).

When did you first encounter Billy Graham’s preaching? And what are some of your earliest memories connected with him?

Back in “the day,” I remember watching Billy Graham crusades on our family’s back-and-white TV. Of course, my dad was a pastor, so he was more than intrigued by what this well-known and highly-effective evangelist had to say. And, I supposed, he was always looking for sermon pointers. I recall when Dad took the family to a Billy Graham crusade. I believe it was at the big auditorium in Ocean Grove, NJ. What an event! And to see hundreds of people respond to the message! Even for a young fellow who had already accepted Christ, it was overwhelming to see.

I still would probably have been in grade school when the Billy Graham organization came out with a full-length motion picture that was showing in theaters. This was something exceedingly rare for a Christian organization to do back then. My dad took our family to see it—in Philadelphia, I believe—and it was the first time I had ever been in a movie theater. Later, when I got a job in radio, I worked Sunday nights when Billy Graham’s Hour of Decision was broadcast over the station where I worked (via NBC), and, whenever my other duties there allowed, I’d find myself listening to every word.

Which song performances from Billy Graham’s broadcast events are among your favorites?

Who can forget the awesome singing of George Beverly Shea? Billy Graham once said of him, “Out of all the gospel singers in the world today, the one that I would rather hear than any other would be George Beverly Shea.” (One can only imagine their recent reunion in heaven!) “Bev” Shea, as Billy called him, actually co-wrote “I’d Rather Have Jesus,” which remains a standout. And then there was the music of the crusade choirs, including their stirring rendition of “Just As I Am,” which regularly accompanied thousands as they came to the altar to accept Christ at Billy Graham’s invitation. Beyond that, Rev. Graham regularly incorporated special presentations by singers representing several different genres of Christian music. He understood that good songs—Gospel-centric songs—helped open the hearts of listeners to the preached word that followed.

In the history of The Gospel Greats, a number of your interview guests are strongly associated with Rev. Graham’s crusades. Please speak about a few of those people.

Perhaps the most widely-known Gospel music personality today, Bill Gaither, along with his group, made several appearances with Dr. Graham. And Bill hosted a special videotaping at Graham’s center in North Carolina some years ago, featuring music that was associated with him in some way, or at least with his message. I noticed that Bill and Gloria posted this message after Dr. Graham’s passing: “The world has lost today a friend of the lost, a bearer of hope and a voice crying in the wilderness, ‘Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand.’ The silencing of this strong voice is a call to all believers to step up with integrity and compassion to fill the void left by this great pastor to the world.” Well said, although I don’t think that void will ever be filled in quite the same way.

Another artist, Jason Crabb, was able to sing at Rev. Graham’s Farewell Crusade in New York City some years ago. Jason called it, “… one of the greatest moments I’ve ever had the opportunity to be a part of.” And he now says about Rev. Graham, “There is perhaps no person who conveyed the love, grace and saving power of Jesus Christ so eloquently as Mr. Graham.”

Why is Southern Gospel music particularly effective at communicating the message that Rev. Graham preached and why does it resonate so well with the audiences he reached?

Rev. Graham was known, as I mentioned earlier, for making the Gospel plain and simple so it would be easily comprehended. Southern Gospel music, perhaps to a greater degree than some other genres of Christian music, does the same thing. The Gospel is presented clearly in the majority of these songs. And it’s done in such a way that the lyrics—the message—is paramount. Although “encouragement” is a key message in Southern Gospel music, directed at Christians, there is no more important message conveyed than the Gospel message of Jesus Christ, crucified and risen again for the salvation of all who believe. And I regularly receive testimonies from listeners and Southern Gospel music lovers for whom this music has been life-changing, convicting them of sin and bringing them to repentance through the work of the Holy Spirit. Just as it certainly was for Rev. Graham, it’s exciting to be a part (however small) of this ongoing work.

Information about The Gospel Greats is available at: www.thegospelgreats.com.

Note to readers: Billy Graham would have become 101 years old on November 7, 2019.

Paul Heil passed away on December 27, 2020 at age 73.

Posted 2-22-18 Updated 3-25-21

A Conversation with Paul Heil, Host of ‘The Gospel Greats’ Syndicated Radio Show

By Steven Brodsky

One of the finest radio voices ever belongs to Paul Heil. His voice has graced the airwaves since 1980. That was the year that The Gospel Greats began as a syndicated radio show. Based in Lancaster County, PA, Paul’s show has aired continuously and is now carried worldwide on many radio stations, Sirius/XM, the internet, and international shortwave. Paul and the show are beloved by fans of Southern Gospel music and the performing and recording artists of the genre. Paul and The Gospel Greats have been recognized by being awarded an abundance of major industry and fan awards. In 2014, the Southern Gospel Music Association inducted Paul Heil into its Hall of Fame. It’s an honor to bring this conversation with him to you.

Please describe the show for those who aren’t regular listeners.

The Gospel Greats program is a weekly two-hour program of and about Southern Gospel music. Its “signature sound” is that it includes brief artist interviews throughout the program, allowing listeners to get to know the artists and drawing them into the meaning of the songs.

The Gospel Greats has retained many of its original features. In 1980, how confident were you that the format would stand up to the test of time?

I’ve always believed that “good radio is good radio.” And good radio is something that people find interesting to listen to. So I try to make the program interesting, as well as unique, while maintaining a spiritual dimension that is often missing in such programs. When I started the program, I applied those principles, hoping it would hold up over the years — not knowing, of course, how many years that would be. And the Lord has surely blessed in that regard.

Are all the interviews on The Gospel Greats in-person?

With very few exceptions, all of the interviews on The Gospel Greats program are recorded in-person. More often than not, this is in a back room at a concert somewhere, but with quality equipment. Probably three decades ago I had someone at a radio station marveling to me that it sounded as if we had all the guests right there with me in the studio. Occasionally, when it’s impossible to get together with a particular artist that we want to interview, they will set up in a recording studio. We’ll interview them by phone, but they’ll record the answers and send them to us, so it still sounds in-person. Also, an exception is that we will use telephone interview clips on the program’s news segment (the Headline Update).

Why do you do you them that way?

In-person interviews are easier to understand on the air, for one thing. That has always been the case, but cell phones sometimes are terribly difficult to understand on the air. I want to do everything I can to make what the artists are saying as clear and understandable as possible. This usually involves considerable editing, too. I had one artist tell me just the other day that I did such a great job of cleaning up his interview that he’s convinced all I would have to have from him would be a collection of vowels and consonants and I could make him say anything I want.

It says much about you and the show that the major artists of Southern Gospel music come to your studio to record their interviews. How difficult is it for most of them to do the interviews in-person in light of busy touring schedules?

While most of our interviews are “in the field” at concerts, the National Quartet Convention or other such venues, we’ve always had at least some interviews recorded here at the studio. (Hopefully, the studio interviews are nearly indistinguishable on the air from the remote interviews.) But in-studio interviews have increased considerably in recent years. A few years ago, we wanted to interview Greater Vison about a new CD, but they didn’t have any concerts scheduled anywhere nearby for several months. They were heading from Tennessee to some dates in New England, but they would pass through our area about 2 a.m. So they agreed to stop by the studio at 2 a.m. and we did the interview in the middle of the night.

Tell us about your early exposure to Southern Gospel music.

As far back as I can remember, my dad had Southern Gospel records. The Blackwood Brothers and the Statesmen were especially prominent. Also, the Couriers promoted concerts regularly in nearby Harrisburg, so our church group attended a few of them. But what actually got me involved professionally was the convergence of my love of radio production, radio syndication and the fact that my brother had a local singing group. He got the Singing News (this was in the 1970s) and, since it included a top-tunes chart, that inspired the idea for the program. Unlike other countdown shows, The Gospel Greats has just one countdown per month. The reasons are twofold: First, the chart changes only once a month. Second, it allows much more week-to-week variety than a weekly countdown would.

Were there concert performances that were especially influential to you? If so, when did they take place and how did they affect you?

I don’t recall any one specific concert that was especially influential. But I do recall several concerts by the Cathedrals, including one at our home church. Getting to know them personally, especially Glen and George, became something very special for me.

Please tell us about a few of your most memorable guest interviews on the show.

Well, I just mentioned George Younce. Shortly after the Cathedrals retired, I asked George if he would co-host our 20th anniversary program (February of 2000). He did. We traveled to his home in Stow, Ohio, where we set up our equipment in his home’s sun room and we recorded there. Another interview I recall was with the late J. D. Sumner. He always had a gruff demeanor, or at least it seemed that way to folks. But he had a big heart. When I asked how he would like to be remembered, he choked a bit and said, “I would like people to remember the real J.D.”

Your listeners are familiar with: “The Greatest Songs about the Greatest Message, the Gospel.” Speak about what those words mean.

When the name was originally chosen, it was primarily for the alliteration in the wording. Easy to remember. But I soon found out that many in the music industry at large use similar terms to refer to the artists, such as the “country greats.” That was not my intention. So, in relatively recent times, I came up with that slogan as a subtitle to try to make clear that we’re referring to the “greatest songs about the greatest message,” which, of course, is the Gospel message. That puts the focus where it should be.

What kind of listener feedback do you value the most? 

I value any listener feedback. I am blessed and encouraged by people who write to me or tell me at a concert that they listen to the program every week. Some say they plan their weekend around the time the program is heard in their area. Wow. But to know the program is touching people with the Gospel and to know the program is encouraging people in their Christian walk is the kind of feedback that encourages me the most. It is truly an honor to be invited into their homes or cars each week.

What are some of the favorite Southern Gospel recordings that you enjoy most during the Christmas season?

Wow — there are many. During the 2016 Christmas season, because of the way the calendar worked out, we had four weeks of all-Christmas music (that’s more than usual). And we were blessed with a larger than usual number of outstanding new Christmas recordings. I thoroughly enjoyed everything I had a chance to play. I do enjoy the new Christmas songs, as long as they point to Christ as the reason for the season. But I especially enjoy vibrant new renditions of traditional Christmas carols that have stood the test of time.

Information about The Gospel Greats is available at: www.thegospelgreats.com.

Paul Heil passed away on December 27, 2020 at age 73.

Posted 12-22-16 Updated 3-25-21