Tall Stacks lets Hartford tap into two loves
Musician, boat pilot makes ideal spokesman

BY LARRY NAGER
The Cincinnati Enquirer

John Hartford, here entertaining at Tall Stacks '95, usually spends a couple of weeks of the summer out on the river.

Rivers and music sure seem to go together,’’ says John Hartford, and he should know.

He’s almost as well known for being a riverboat pilot as he is for playing the banjo and fiddle and writing such enduring classics as ‘‘Gentle on My Mind.’’

Which makes him a perfect spokesman for Tall Stacks, a role he has shared with ‘‘Mark Twain’’ since the event began in 1988.

An early champion of the river and the elegant locomotion of stern-wheelers moving at a genteel, single-digit miles per hour, Mr. Hartford, 61, is happy to see mainstream America catching riverboat fever.

‘‘There’s more boats out there runnin’, carrying passengers, more (riverboat) books out. There’s a lot more interest in it,’’ he says from his home outside of Nashville.

He usually spends a couple of weeks of the summer out on the river, keeping his piloting skills from getting rusty. This year, he couldn’t, as he was sidelined with health problems.

Mr. Hartford’s back in playing shape and performing on weekends. He’ll be in Cincinnati for the entire five-day run of Tall Stacks. (Scheduled appearances: 3 and 5 p.m. Wednesday, noon Thursday, 5 p.m. Friday, 1:45 and 3 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday)

‘Good Old Boys’ CD

He tries to bring his two loves together whenever possible. He does it on his new CD, Good Old Boys, writing and performing the poignant ‘‘Waltz of the Mississippi.’’ The odd ‘‘Watching the River Go By’’ tells of an unmarried middle-aged couple who spend their evenings on his porch, platonically watching the Ohio roll by. But in a distinctly Hartfordian twist, they do it stark naked.

The disc’s most personal song ranks as a masterpiece of Mr. Hartford’s 30-plus year career. ‘‘The Cross-Eyed Child’’ tells the story of bluegrass patriarch Bill Monroe. Its 10-plus minutes are part biography, part memoir. In an epic 10 1/2 minutes that never drag, Mr. Hartford poetically recalls their friendship in the last years of Mr. Monroe’s life and the stories Mr. Monroe told him about his childhood.

But his new album and tour are just part of a busy fall for Mr. Hartford.

‘‘We’ve got all kind of stuff going,’’ he says. He’ll be bringing his all-star Hartford Stringband with him to Tall Stacks ’99. The group features banjoist Bob Carlin, mandolinist Mike Compton, guitarist Chris Sharpe and bassist Larry Perkins.

But he also just released another new CD, Retrograss, that finds him teamed with mandolinist David Grisman and multi-instrumentalist Mike Seeger. He can be found on Bela Fleck’s The Bluegrass Sessions CD, singing Flatt & Scruggs’ ‘‘Polka on the Banjo.’’

Other projects

He has several instructional videos being released, a two-volume banjo video and a fiddle video, all from the premier instructional video company, Homespun Tapes. Find him on the Web at www.johnhartford.com.

On the home screen, he was involved in an upcoming A&E documentary on the death of Floyd Collins in Mammoth Cave’s Crystal Cave, a tragedy that grabbed national attention (and inspired several ballads) in 1925. And he also contributed fiddle music to Oh Brother, Where Art Thou, the new movie by Ethan and Joel Coen, which stars noted former Kentuckian George Clooney.

The last was something of a reunion, recalls Mr. Hartford, who used to occasionally perform on Nick Clooney’s TV show.

‘‘We were talking, and George says he’s got a picture at home with me and him and his dad, and he’s about 5 years old.’’

Mr. Hartford has other fond memories of Cincinnati, playing with such local musicians as Katie Laur and Buddy Griffin and hearing some of the great recordings made here at King Records and other local studios by Merle Travis, Flatt & Scruggs, Grandpa Jones and the Delmore Brothers.

Some of his more recent fond memories are of Tall Stacks. He’s looking forward to making some new ones at Tall Stacks ’99.

‘‘It’s a lot of fun,’’ he says. ‘‘It means a lot to me that they have me.’’

Tall Stacks '99 Entertainment Schedule