John Hartford
John Cowan Hartford (December 30, 1937 – June 4, 2001) was an American folk, country, and bluegrass composer and musician known for his mastery of the fiddle and banjo, as well as for his witty lyrics, unique vocal style, and extensive knowledge of Mississippi River lore. His most successful song is "Gentle on My Mind", which won three Grammy Awards and was listed in "BMI's Top 100 Songs of the Century".[2][3] Hartford performed with a variety of ensembles throughout his career, and is perhaps best known for his solo performances where he would interchange the guitar, banjo, and fiddle from song to song.[4] He also invented his own shuffle tap dance move, and clogged on an amplified piece of plywood while he played and sang.
For the president of the Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company, see John Augustine Hartford.
John Hartford
John Cowan Harford
December 30, 1937
New York City, New York
June 4, 2001 (aged 63)
Nashville, Tennessee
1953–2001
- RCA
- Warner Bros.
- Flying Fish
- Rounder
- Small Dog a'Barkin'
He was posthumously inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame in 2010.
Early life[edit]
Harford (he changed his name to Hartford later in life on the advice of Chet Atkins)[5] was born on December 30, 1937, in New York City to parents Carl and Mary Harford. He spent his childhood in St. Louis, Missouri, where he was exposed to the influence that shaped much of his career and music: the Mississippi River. From the time he got his first job on the river, at age 16, Hartford was on, around, or singing about the river.
His early musical influences came from the broadcasts of the Grand Ole Opry and included Earl Scruggs, nominal inventor of the three-finger bluegrass style of banjo playing. Hartford said often that the first time he heard Earl Scruggs pick the banjo, it changed his life. By age 13, Hartford was an accomplished old-time fiddler and banjo player, and he soon learned to play guitar and mandolin as well. Hartford performed with his first bluegrass band while attending John Burroughs School, a local private high school.
After high school, he enrolled at Washington University in St. Louis, completed four years of a commercial arts program and dropped out to focus on music; however, he did receive a degree in 1960. He immersed himself in the local music scene, working as a DJ, playing in bands, and occasionally recording singles for local labels.
Steamboating[edit]
The culture of the Mississippi River and its steamboats captivated Hartford from an early age. He said that it would have been his life's work "but music got in the way", so he intertwined them whenever possible. In the '70s, Hartford earned his steamboat pilot's license, which he used to keep close to the river he loved; for many years, he worked as a pilot on the steamboat Julia Belle Swain during the summers. He also worked as a towboat pilot on the Mississippi, Illinois, and Tennessee Rivers.
During his later years, he came back to the river every summer. "Working as a pilot is a labor of love", he said. "After a while, it becomes a metaphor for a whole lot of things, and I find for some mysterious reason that if I stay in touch with it, things seem to work out all right". His home in Madison, Tennessee, was situated on a bend of the Cumberland River and built to simulate the view from a steamboat deck. He used to talk to the boat captains by radio as their barges crawled along the river. That bend of the Cumberland River, known as "Hartford's Bend" or "John Hartford Point,"[10] is denoted on official navigational charts with the "John Hartford Light".[11]
An accomplished fiddler and banjo player, Hartford was simultaneously an innovative voice on the country scene and a reminder of a vanished era. Along with his own compositions, such as "Long Hot Summer Days" and "Kentucky Pool", Hartford was a repository of old river songs, calls, and stories. His song "Let Him Go on Mama" from Mark Twang was inspired by retired Streckfus Steamers musician (and later chief engineer of the Delta Queen) Mike O’Leary.[12] Hartford was also the author of Steamboat in a Cornfield, a children's book that recounts the true story of the Ohio River steamboat The Virginia and its beaching in a cornfield.
Final years and legacy[edit]
Between 1995 and 2001, Brandon Ray Kirk and he co-authored a biography of blind fiddler Ed Haley. Hartford's album The Speed of the Old Longbow is a collection of Haley's tunes. Writer and arts administrator Art Menius profiled Hartford in the Academia journal article, "John Hartford as I Knew Him," saying "John connected not just words to music, but the old days of Nashville to its present, tradition to
innovation, new grass to bluegrass to old-time, television to radio, river to shore, aging musicians to hippies. Goethe may have been the last person to know everything worth knowing, but John Hartford tried."[13] Hartford also provided voice acting for the Ken Burns' documentary series Baseball[14] and The Civil War.[15]
From the 1980s onwards, Hartford had non-Hodgkin lymphoma. He died of the disease at Centennial Medical Center in Nashville, on June 4, 2001, at age 63.[16] Hartford was given a star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame[17] in honor of his work. He also was given a posthumous president's award by the Americana Music Association in September 2005.[18] The annual John Hartford Memorial Festival[19] is held at the Bill Monroe Music Park & Campground[20] near Beanblossom, Indiana.
Hartford acknowledged that the royalties he earned from “Gentle” allowed him to live the life he wanted as a musician, author, folklorist and steamboat pilot. The FT commented that 'his song about freedom ensured his own freedom.'[7]
Works[edit]
Hartford recorded more than 30 albums, ranging across a broad spectrum of styles, from the traditional country of his early RCA recordings, to the new and experimental sound of his early newgrass recordings, to the traditional folk style to which he often returned later in his life. Hartford's albums also vary widely in formality, from the stately and orderly Annual Waltz to the rougher and less cut recordings that typified many of his later albums.
Aereo-Plain and Morning Bugle are often considered to be Hartford's most influential works, coming as they did at the beginning of a period in which artists such as Hartford and the New Grass Revival, led by Sam Bush, would create a new form of country music, blending their country backgrounds with influences from a number of other sources. His later years had a number of live albums, as well as recordings that explored the repertoire of old-time folk music. He sketched the cover art for some of his midcareer albums, drawing with both hands simultaneously.
Hartford is also a published author, including 1971's collection of poetry Word Movies[23] and 1986's Steamboat in a Cornfield,[24] a poetic retelling of a steamboat running aground along the Ohio River.[25]
In popular culture[edit]
His song "This Eve of Parting", from the 1968 album The Love Album, was featured in the 2017 movie Lady Bird, portions being heard at two different points in the film.
Cartoonist Jim Scancarelli was a fan, and mentioned Hartford several times in his strip Gasoline Alley. In 1991, a flood washes up a steamboat carrying Hartford; in 1998, he played at Rufus and Melba's wedding reception; and in 2002, when Skeezix and Slim are lost in a cemetery, Hartford's gravestone is seen.
The third track on the album A Tear in the Eye Is a Wound in the Heart by the band Black Prairie, of Portland, Oregon, is entitled "For the Love of John Hartford," an instrumental.
