It’s strange how you can have almost your entire CD collection on your ersatz iPod, everything no more than a click of a mouse away, and yet some things will go un-listened-to for long periods of time.
So I put Michael Hedges on rotation for the first time in a *long* while.
Some of it is, indeed, too new-agey for my tastes. But some of it resonates in ways it never would have for me before–there are pieces that remind me of Satie, which isn’t something I used to have as a reference point. And some of it is more bludgeoning than you would think you could achieve with an acoustic guitar. ??The Rootwitch?? seems to involve beating the guitar within an inch of its life.
Of course, in the 8 years since he died, there have been a couple of posthumous releases. Nothing, I think, to write home about, though they’re pleasant enough.
He came to Birmingham in ’90 or ’91, though I didn’t see the show. I forget the exact sequence of events, but Mike Nix and I tried to get tickets, but as it was only a few hours to the show, they were no longer available in Tuscaloosa. Mike then tried to convince me to just go to Birmingham to see if we could get some at the venue. I initially decided against it, I suspect for reasons of sloth more than anything else. Some time after he had gone, I changed my mind, and drove to Birmingham, but then had an attack of…timidity or something. Turned around and drove back.
Stupid, stupid, stupid.
Mike was able to get tickets. He said it was the greatest show he ever saw–though I think he revised that when he saw Richard Thompson a few months later.
