Hatrack the Horse

Howdy folks! I did manage to rouse myself after a marathon day yesterday— very fun day, but very hot & very active. I played at the Council Farmer’s Market from morning until early afternoon—& a very pleasant surprise there, because Eberle showed up with melodica, flute & kazoo in hand & we played the final set together. Eberle also took some pix at the beginning of the day, & I’ll post some of those tomorrow.

We also had a pleasant visit with Eberle’s sister Andrea & her sons Liam & Finley—we all went to visit the Stippichs so Liam & Finley could see Joe's workshop—they’re both fine musicians, & Liam plays mandolin (in addition to guitar & some Dobro & tenor banjo); Finley plays accordion & keyboard. Following this we headed to the Adams County Rodeo—& we may have pix of that tomorrow, too (a bit of a long story there involving a full memory card & a generously loaned camera).

For today, we have another piece of original music, with slideshow. “Hatrack the Horse” comes from our soundtrack to Rootabaga Country; those of you who’ve read Carl Sandburg’s delightfully unique Rootabaga Stories will no doubt recall the stolid farmer, Hatrack the Horse, & his pigeons; & by the way, Hatrack isn't a "horse" in the sense of Equus ferus caballus. For those of you who haven’t read the stories yet, you might check out Joseph Perry’s fine Rootabaga Stories site here to get a taste of what they're like.

While Rootabaga Stories were written before the Depression, I thought Dorothea Lange’s fine Depression-era photos captured something I wanted to convey, so I included a number of them in the slideshow. For those who are curious, the Panama Hat at the top of the post, (which also comes up about halfway thru the slideshow) was Harry S Truman’s.

Hope you enjoy this. I’ll be trying to catch up on blog visits over the next day or so.