July 24 Trivia Question

This Contest is Closed
The winner is Steve Margulis

July 24, 2020 TRIVIA QUESTION

John Hartford Trivia!!

Two-part question: Where was songwriter/banjoist/fiddler/dancer (and some call the Father of Newgrass), John Cowan Harford born (record executive Chet Atkins made him change his last name to Hartford); and what is a “genuine old-fashioned authentic steam-powered aereoplane” as he sang about on his ground-breaking 1971 newgrass LP, Aereo-Plain?

  1. St Louis MO/a drug-induced hallucination during an airplane journey
  2. Hartford CT/an early “steampunk” flying machine illustration
  3. Nashville TN/a Civil War military hot air observation balloon
  4. Los Angeles CA/a “Wrecking Crew” studio musicians’ term for a Hammond B3 electric organ
  5. New York City/a stern-wheel or side-wheel river steamboat

ANSWER is “E”

Additional Bowden Comments

Wonderful to see so many entries this week! Tell your friends!

John’s hometown was indeed St. Louis.

Hartford CT is a well known river city and it aligns with his nom de plume — also John was a GIFTED cartoonist and calligrapher (I have copies of a couple of cartoons he drew of Earl Scruggs and Benny Martin).

He was happiest living in NashVegas, in a lovely riverside home on a bluff above the Cumberland River (technically in Madison TN, where Earl Scruggs lived too).

John started his career in Los Angeles and was part of that whole music scene, which included the famous studio band “The Wrecking Crew” that backed up SO MANY artists’ LA recordings — he worked directly with and for Glen Campbell who moved up from being a Wrecking Crew guitar player to having his own TV show and making John’s song Gentle On My Mind a GIGANTIC hit that kept John in the money for the rest of his life (letting him afford to play old time music and pay fine sidemen to assist him with his dream).

Like they say in the chip dip salsa tv commercial — NEW YORK CITY?????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! However, John’s other great love WAS old paddle-wheel steamboats. As a teenager he worked them (tow-boats) as a deck hand all over the Mississippi drainage. He studied hard and became a licensed steam boat pilot (again, living on the income from Gentle On My Mind).

Thanks to all the players, even those Beyond the Pale. Stay healthy and safe!

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