spontaneity and magick beside the Wisconsin River

23rd April 2019
Stevens Point, Wisconsin, USA

There was nothing going on at the Elbow Room when I headed down there a bit earlier than usual for the Tuesday songswap, so I decided to go for a twilight walk by river. Three women walked past, and then one called out my name — it was Jeff Sachs' partner Maria, with two friends, and she remembered me by the shape of my saz. They were on their way to get a guitar from a parked car and to return to their friend Jessie's house by the river for a campfire session, and I was invited to join them. This involved just having to walk slowly half a mile upstream until I saw flickering flames in a backyard.

Great vibes with M, J, Bethany and Laura. Maria played some of her original songs, plus one about a truck by Nathan and Denny (friends of Sloppy Joe who I've played music with), a Townes Van Zandt song popularised by Guy Clark and "Jilted" by the Puppini Sisters. I was able to follow these fairly well. No recording was made, but vague plan was hatched to do more of this.

I headed back over to the Elbow room to play a few more with Anna Jo, John the trumpet and Don on fiddle. I just missed "St. James Infirmary", walking in as it concluded. The only other thing I can remember was a song by the Pistol Annies. Anna is having to leave her old house on Franklin Street, heading to Sturgeon Bay for the Summer. I played solo saz for a bit while nothing else was going on, and had an unexpected conversation with someone from Saudi Arabia who's settled in town, about various music scenes out there. Despite it being pretty much always the same, there's usually something surprising that goes down when I'm at the Elbow.