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Devotion to Emmylou brings unexpected rewards
published 10/07/99
By Lynn Hotaling |
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Emmylou Harris
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My favorite singer was in Atlanta Sunday night, so of course I was too.
Since the moment I heard "If I Could Only Win Your Love" on the radio back in 1975, Emmylou Harris has been my musical idol. And that's not changed at all over the years. What's lucky for me is that she remains so innovative and vital at the advanced (for country/rock/pop music stars) age of 52. Her singing partner for the night, Linda Ronstadt, a whole year older, is not bad herself. The two released an album ("Western Wall: The Tucson Sessions") back in August and embarked on a six-week tour in its support.
And, just like in 1976 when they had a hit with Hank Williams' "I Can't Help It (If I'm Still in Love With You)," they sounded great together at Symphony Hall Sunday. At 50-plus, Emmylou and Linda sure can sing - but that's not really what I want to write about today.
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I'm probably much too prejudiced in Emmylou's favor to write an objective review. To my mind she stole the show from the less energetic Ronstadt. If I reviewed the show it would be hard to hold back the superlatives. The song selection was outstanding - they sang every song from the new album - plus 18 more. They were backed by a crackerjack band that included former Paul McCartney keyboardist Wix ("He's so cool he only needs one name," Harris said); Eagles founder Bernie Leadon; ace session player Greg Leisz; and Buddy Miller, who played with Harris for several years in her most recent band, Spyboy.
What struck me on the way home late Sunday were the good things that have resulted from my single-minded devotion to one musician. My friend Dona years ago dubbed me a "Harrishead," because, like fans of the Grateful Dead, I do whatever it takes to attend an Emmylou show. I've seen her with all three of her bands - the Hot Band that featured musicians that played with Elvis Presley, the bluegrass Nash Ramblers, the percussion-heavy Spyboy - and even with the Columbus (Ga.) Symphony Orchestra.
Highlights include a friend I made at one of the Merle Watson Festivals in Wilkesboro; getting re-acquainted with a cousin when I went to Columbus; having the opportunity to interview Emmylou - twice - and learning that she's every bit as nice and genuine in person as she seems.
But my favorite concert-related experience happened in another October, back in 1992. We went to a club in Buckhead, Ga., to hear Emmylou. As concert time came and went, the crowd began to get restless.
Then the announcer apologized for the delay and said Emmylou was out at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium to sing "The Star-Spangled Banner" for the seventh game of the National League Championship Series. All of a sudden, there she was on the huge television screen, standing on the infield in a red dress, accompanied only by Sam Bush on guitar, singing our national anthem. Beautifully.
Her show, when it started, was excellent, and it was nearly 11 p.m. after the last encore. It was pretty late when we headed north on Peachtree Street.
We saw a Waffle House and decided to stop for coffee and pie. We walked in to find everyone - staff and customers - out in front of the counter, glued to the TV set. "I'll help you in a minute," the manager said without taking his eyes off the screen.
So we watched, too, as the Braves batted in the bottom of the ninth inning. We shook our heads in bewilderment along with everyone else when the name of the pinch hitter was announced. And we cheered wildly with the rest at Francisco Cabrera's two-out single, then held our breath as Sid Bream lumbered toward home to score the run that sent Atlanta to the World Series for the second year in a row.
Then we had our coffee and pie and made our way home.
Three years later, when I watched the Braves finally win the World Series I was with my Hamilton, Ga., cousin Hank - the same cousin I'd gotten to know again as a result of the 1989 concert in Columbus.
And Sunday night, Emmylou confessed to her adoring fans why she loves to play in Atlanta - because it's the one place she can admit to being a Braves fan.
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Local family's kindness remembered for 25 years
published 10/21/99
By Lynn Hotaling |
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The Harris children in 1974. For obvious reasons, says photographer John Cloud, he calls this picture “ AFamily Tree” Complete identification was made possible through the help of a number of readers who called in information after the picture was published in Things & Stuff several weeks ago. From left are Cinda, Harold, Sharon, Timothy (deceased) and Michael Harris, children of Ann Harris of Dillsboro and the late Charlie Harris. The family lived on Locust Creek when this photo was taken in 1974 and later moved to Buff Creek. |
Once in awhile something happens to make us remember just why it is we love newspaper work.
Sometimes a story shows up out of nowhere and captures your heart.
For me, that one came along several weeks ago in the form of an old photo of some local children we published in Things & Stuff to see if readers could help us identify them.
The photographer, John Cloud of Sarasota, Fla., mailed us the picture to see if we could help him track down a local family he'd remembered fondly for 25 years. It was such a neat picture, we wanted to learn the story of the children in the tree, too.
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The only clues we had for our readers were Cloud's rather hazy memory of driving east on some road between Sylva and Cullowhee, meeting a member of a family he thought was named Harris, and staying to eat dinner and photograph them.
As soon as the picture was published, two newspaper employees identified Harold and Sharon Harris and placed the family on Buff Creek, making me wonder why I hadn't bothered to research the subject here at the Herald before printing the photo. After the calls started coming, though, I was glad I hadn't. We enjoyed talking to all the people who telephoned to help us piece the story together.
Just as we were thinking Cloud must have been really turned around if he thought Buff Creek was between Sylva and Cullowhee instead of in downtown Addie, we started getting calls. Eloise Shular and Judy Raines were the first to place the tree full of children on Locust Creek, where the Harrises lived before moving to Buff Creek around 1975. Judy, who was once the family's neighbor, supplied all the kids' names but wasn't sure which was Michael and which was Timothy.
Michael's wife, Margie, stopped by our office and positively identified everyone and supplied information on the siblings' current whereabouts. One of the Harrises' cousins, Barbara Owen Stephens, called in from her Canada community home on Tannessee Mountain and added a few tidbits to our growing collection of information.
I spoke with Cloud Tuesday to tell him what we'd found out about the Harris clan. A senior at Vanderbilt University when he photographed the Harris kids back in 1974, Cloud went into business in Arkansas. He recently sold that business and is ready to retire.
For his Vanderbilt project, Cloud said, he traveled rural areas across the southeast states, photographing whatever he found to be of interest. He spent his year on the road in a camper van outfitted with a darkroom. Of all the pictures he took, another one of Cinda Harris remains a favorite and still hangs on his office wall, he said.
We may be seeing more pictures of the Harris family soon because Cloud said he hopes to retrace his steps and write a book about the changes 25 years have brought in the lives of those he photographed.
"The richness will be in the stories of everyday life that surround the families," he said. "I want to find out what happened, where they've gone and what they've done since then."
In much the same way that Cloud has kept the Harris kids in his mind through the years, Michael, now 36, remembers Cloud's arrival at the family home.
"He'd gone over the bank or had some sort of trouble, and Daddy helped him out and then brought him home," Michael said. "I was real excited when I heard his voice because I thought it was my older brother Dennis who'd just left home to join the service. Dennis was one of my favorites."
Michael said he wasn't particularly surprised when his daddy brought Cloud home because "Daddy never met a stranger."
Michael's cousin Barbara agreed. "You would have just had to have known my Uncle Charlie," she said. "If somebody came to his house, they got fed. That's just the way it was." That old-time hospitality is still alive today in Canada, she said.
Barbara also isn't surprised that Cloud remembers the Harris kids so well after all these years. "He got hold of a unique family," she said. "No two kids were alike." And now for that family history. Charlie Harris passed away several years ago, but his widow, Ann, lives in Dillsboro near Michael and Margie. Brother Harold is in Spartanburg, S.C., and sister Sharon Harris Hilker is in Ithaca, N.Y. Cinda Harris Grissett resides in Shallotte and another sister, Gail Harris Shular, who wasn't present for Cloud's photo, lives in Gainesville, Ga. Tragically, a tractor accident claimed Timothy's life at age 15.
For his part, Cloud hopes to pay the Harrises another visit soon. "What I'd love to do is come there and meet with the family," he said. "I'd like to hear about their lives over the past 25 years."
Besides, he has more pictures to show them.
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Homework help in the computer age
published 12/2/99
By Lynn Hotaling |
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Computers are omnipresent these days, and I guess I might as well accept and embrace them. My kids certainly have.
About the only refuge I ever get from cyberspace nowadays is dinnertime at the Cafe. Prices there are random, depending on what it takes to prepare the day's blue plate special, and tax and extras are mentally calculated by the diners themselves. It's all on the honor system, and, even without a computer assist, it seems to work.
I don't get any breaks like that at home. My son fights with his sister about Internet access the same way I used to argue with my brother about who got to pick what TV show to watch. Scott is learning something called "HTML" used in web page design, and Ellen and her friends exchange up-to-the-minute bulletins via Instant Messenger, an America Online feature that lets you instantly communicate with anyone - anywhere.
Which brings us back to the topic suggested in the headline - the rather ingenious network Ellen assembled the other night to improve her in-depth understanding about some sections of Voltaire's "Candide." Ellen had chosen the alleged classic as part of the optional reading assignment for her sophomore English class at Smoky Mountain High.
Returning home later than usual Monday night because of a school board meeting I had to cover, I was greeted with "Mom, did you ever read Ă¯Candide'?"
My answer, "No," produced a look of dismay. Then Ellen remembered that her older sister, a freshman at N.C. State, had been assigned the book three years ago.
"Maybe Liz is on Instant Messenger," she said hopefully as I tried to piece together what she meant. Seeing my puzzled look, Ellen explained, as if to a 2-year-old, how she could hopefully get on the Internet and ask her sister.
Once connected, she discovered Elizabeth was in fact online, carrying on conversations with five or six of her friends at their respective colleges and universities while writing a paper for her English class.
Elizabeth, who mostly remembers everything, answered Ellen's first question easily enough, explaining that Cunegonde's garden at the story's end symbolized the Garden of Eden.
Ellen's next query, however, which was about someone named Martin, prompted her big sister to seek additional help. Much like we saw over and over on "Who Wants To Be a Millionaire?," Elizabeth phoned a friend. She asked her buddy Bradley, a freshman at Florida State. There was no need to actually dial - she and Bradley were already exchanging the news of the day on Instant Messenger.
Bradley remembered enough from sophomore year to answer the Martin question, but had to call in reinforcements when Ellen wondered if Pangloss ever came back to life.
"Just a minute," Bradley typed, "Emma (roommate at FSU) is looking it up."
And, in a matter of minutes, Ellen had more information than she requested.
From Cullowhee to Raleigh to Tallahassee and back, way quicker than I had absorbed the wonder of it all, the three collegians had reached out to help my perplexed high schooler.
Maybe the cyberskies are friendly after all.
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Test your knowledge of Tar Heel trivia
published 12/16/99
By Lynn Hotaling |
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Need a Christmas gift for the trivia buff in your circle of family and friends?
Check out a new book from The University of North Carolina Press - "The Ultimate North Carolina Quiz Book."
We've been quizzing each other down at the Cafe, and, while we mostly come up with wrong answers (except for Rose), we've had a lot of fun.
Written by journalist Lew Powell, reporter and editor at the Charlotte Observer, the book is full of fascinating facts that we've never seen in history books.
Quite a few questions are about the state's most famous sheriff - Andy Taylor - who was portrayed by native son Andy Griffith. One Mayberry-related query we didn't know asked 1) On what television show was the Sheriff Taylor character introduced? Another (that Lisa did know) was 2) Although he was best known for his television series, Griffith won applause from movie critics for his role in what 1957 drama: "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn," "Come Back, Little Sheba," "The Three Faces of Eve," or "A Face in the Crowd?"
Powell's book is organized in a user-friendly format. Each chapter is followed by an answer section that makes it fun to test yourself and others - and easy to look up the answer when you're completely baffled.
The author groups his questions in such categories as Arts and Letters, Commerce and Science, Culture, Music and Entertainment and Sports and Recreation.
We'll reconfigure those slightly for the mini-quiz, using only questions that have been thoroughly tested by Herald staffers. We'll use Powell's questions, but we'll classify them differently: Amazing Stuff Rose Knew; Sports Questions That Even Stumped Carey; Local Interest (questions about Jackson and nearby counties; and Other (for the 1.25 questions I happened to know).
To see if you know as much about the Old North State as Rose does, try these on for size:
3) The government said the purpose of Fontana Dam, opened in Western North Carolina in 1945, was to provide electricity to make aluminum. In reality, however, who was its main beneficiary?
4) The so-called "horn-tootin bill" passed by the 1943 Legislature gave the state what national first?
Moving on to sports, here are two that even Carey didn't know:
5) What North Carolina town is named for a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame?
6) The first player ever cut from the Carolina Panthers roster went on to achieve top billing in another arena. Who is he?
And, to be fair, here's the one Carey amazed us all by answering correctly:
7) Why did the N.C. General Assembly declare Easter Monday a state holiday in 1935? And why did it change the holiday to good Friday in 1987? Moving on to Local Interest:
8) What three North Carolina counties are named for presidents?
9) What is Swain County's "road to nowhere?"
Moving on to my category, Other, I knew one-fourth of one question because it has my favorite singer, Emmylou Harris, and all of the other because I'm from Georgia:
10) Match the entertainer with the college he or she attended: John Tesh, Carroll O'Connor, Emmylou Harris, Jack Palance/North Carolina State University, UNC-Greensboro, Wake Forest University, UNC-Chapel Hill.
11) Which of these is not a community in North Carolina: Lizard Lick, Loafers Glory, Possum-trot, Pumpkin Center, Social Circle?
Now that you've gotten the hang of it, we've prepared a few that are Jackson County-specific:
1) True or false: The highest point along the Blue Ridge Parkway is in Jackson County.
2) How many perfect records (regular and post season) have been achieved by Sylva-Webster or Smoky Mountain in football?
3) What do former Cherokee Chief Joyce Dugan, Kay Yow, Carolyn Hunt, Elizabeth Dole and Maya Angelou have in common?
4) How many Jackson County players have ever been a part of an Atlantic Coast Conference championship basketball team?
5) Match the Jackson County elected official with the community where he was raised: Conrad Burrell, Jay Denton, Stacy Buchanan, Frank Watson/Savannah, Speedwell, Foster Siding, East LaPorte.
6) What Major League Baseball manager was born in Jackson County?
We'll probably include these in-county questions and answers in our soon-to-be-published book; however, for those of you seeking a more immediate gift, Powell's Ultimate North Carolina Quiz Book might be a better choice. It's available through local bookstores or from The University of North Carolina Press. For credit card orders, call toll free: 1-800-848-6224.
To take the online quiz to win a free copy, visit the contest website
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