About: Damn Near Holy
Well, once we finally got a DVD player the first thing we
watched was The Last Waltz. I hooked up the new speakers,
cranked it up, and it was really great! I had never seen it
and had only heard bits of the album years ago. At one
point The Band talks about meeting up with this "legend" in
a shack or something way down south. The Band and the
Legend made great plans to hook up but then they got busy
and did other things. Much later, they found out that soon
after their big jam, the Legend had passed away.
There was also a rumor that Joe Cocker spent time hiding
out by driving trucks up in my neck of the woods and a film
called Candy Mountain dealt with a genius musician or
builder guy who gave it all up to live in the middle of
nowhere Northeast. I wondered what it would be like to see
him play at some open mic in some lousy bar.
At this time I was also watching a lot of CMT and thinking
about all these bar bands of hot-shot kids I had seen who
could copy innovators, but never got around to being
innovative themselves. So I set up a little scene where the
two extremes meet and the hotshot kid was blown away.
But the song likely really came via the after-hours-ish
Roots Room at the ECMA's in Saint John New Brunswick. I was
very sure of my great tunes and was actually going to play.
This was a big thing for me, for I really don't like
playing live and hadn't for about 9 years. I get very
nervous and mess up. (I sometimes become a flaming wreck,
actually, but it seems I'm much better at playing live
these days.)
Anyway, one of the event hosts asked if I wouldn't mind if
two new kids played first, and then I'd do a set if there
was still time. One of my smartest decisions ever, was to
let those kids play. One was a young woman named Vetch and
then a guy named Charley A'court. They had their turns and
both of them, truly, blew me away into tiny bits of dust.
Perhaps a year later, at a songwriters circle in halifax,
Ron Hynes played one of his amazing songs and my wife
whispered "he cuts pretty close to the bone, doesn't he!"
So, the "close to the bone" line in the last chorus is
about him.
I'd love to hear artists like Montgomery Gentry or Hank
Williams Jr. doing their version of this song.
Contact me with your ideas on who
should record this song.