I received a letter recently from my friend Jon Adams. I know Jon from Fresno California, Brightwood Oregon, and from our time spent together on the Portable Folk Festival in the summer of 1971. Jon is a great photographer, a creative and fun loving artist, and a fabulous musician.
One of Jon’s major artistic endeavors is the art of letter writing. His letters are written in a unique script often accompamied by little sketches and drawings with humorous captions and stream of consciousness adlibs. His last two letters dated Jan. 27th and Feb. 24 were written in that same classic style, to wit:
Harry & Cindy! & Tribe!
The “Big Drug” is Music!
Legal, shareable, no permit required. Universal…
“A Little Dab’ll do Ya”!
Jon continues:
How can I keep from singing? *
Music is a Drug!
Snow fell here [Portland, OR] this a.m….at noon no sign!
Ukraine isn’t so lucky…
*”Our thoughts to them are winging”…
In each nation, a different name for the Creator! “Some Day”
Funny…”A” is 440 everywhere…Water is H2O…Salt is NaCL…
We’ve survived: Hulahoops, Slinky’s, Pogosticks, Etch-a-Sketchs, Legos, the 60’s, & Fresno…
Now this! A plague. Trump. WW3…& Doubt.
Alas, Play Music!!
Which is exactly what we did, the very next day, on February 25, for our happy local elementary school kids, super teachers, and amazing parents.
If Music is, indeed, the “Big Drug,” then hopefully it might become the “Big Vaccine.” In which case sign me up for a BOOSTER SHOT right now! Or at least a “Booster Tune.”
Getting a letter from Jon has always been a happy, positive, enlightening experience that I look forward to. The letters don’t come often enough! Below is a scan of a letter received many years back but it contains many of the essential Jon Adams trademarks. It is dated Jan. 31st but seems to reference the yearly time of the Spring Equinox which we just passed through. Changing our clocks is now a subject for debate…or never changing them again…also hotly debated.
This letter references the Portable Folk Festival Reunion Concert held at the Freight and Salvage Coffee House in Berkeley, California in the year 2000. It also refers to aspects of the Portable Folk Festival’s musical journey that would require a chapter or two to properly explain, such as the term “HOOPER” and the blowing of the “HORN.”
“The Dance of the Pocket Instruments” is just one of Jon’s whimsical drawings. Indeed, in these times of challenge, instead of the “bad news” wouldn’t we all rather hear the call: “Let there be Dancing!“? I think so! Jon’s description of this dance is reproduced below.
DANCE OF THE POCKET INSTRUMENTS:
Do-si-do your corner and swing your own…
All-i-man left and around the hall…
Do ever’thing the caller call!
{All to the tune of Soldier’s Joy & Buffalo Gals)
As long as the band keeps playing, we gotta
dance by the light of the moon.
Buffalo Gals won’t you come out tonight?
At the Hooper train station. Portable Folk Festival, 1971. Photo by Jon Adams
And finally I’ll end with a short clip of a Scottish fiddle tune played by Harry and Cindy with Irene Herrmann.
Think Positive-Test Negative. Wear your mask when you need to…and try to practice…
complete, perfect, and unsurpassed optimism…everyday.