It is June 12th as I write this and it is my mother’s one hundred and thirteenth birthday. Now my mother and father have now been gone for a quarter of a century which doesn’t seem as long to me as it used to. Both my parents were born in 1910 and my grandparents were born in the mid 1880’s. Sometimes it’s tricky to wrap my mind around that one. Anyway, the Old Ones are all gone and now I am one of the Old Ones. As Gretchen Peters would sing in her song Jubilee, ‘I was you once… now you’re me. It’s in this circle that we make a family…’
I miss my parents in a different way than I did when they passed long ago but that is as it should be.
Happy birthday mom. You are not forgotten!
Photo by Vanessa Kaukonen
So Saturday night I got to play a solo show at The Old Whaling Church in Edgartown on the Vineyard. A stunning place for an acoustic show. It had been a while since my last solo gig out in the world and this was a perfect place to get my feet wet again… Good times indeed!
Jorma Kaukonen 12, 2023
Jorma Solo
The Old Whaling Church
Edgartown, Massachusetts
Saturday, June 10, 2023
First Set:
- True Religion
- Blue Railroad Train
- BBQ King
- Been So Long
- Whining Boy Blues
- Heart Temporary
- Death Don’t Have No Mercy
- Sleep Song
- Trial By Fire
- How Long Blues
- Nobody Knows You When You’re Down & Out
- Let Us Get Together Right Down Here
Second Set:
- Letter To The North Star
- Ice Age
- Too Many Years
- Hesitation Blues
- Living In the Moment
- Sea Child
- Another Man Done Gone
- Trouble In Mind
- Come Back Baby
- Good Shepherd
- Keep Your Lamps Trimmed & Burning
- Encore: Embryonic Journey
Friday the 16th I’ll be at The Loft in Oak Bluffs and I’m really looking forward to this one as well. There are some serious music lovers out here on the Vineyard… serious indeed, which I love needless to say.
As soon as it warms up a little (it’s still early in the season) I’m going for a hike on the cliffs.
Most cool…
I had the pleasure of speaking with your mom once. I remember how nice she was. She mentioned teaching you how to drive a stick shift (a lost art today) in Rock Creek Park. She said you were “a long drink of water.” I know exactly what you mean about missing your folks in a different way now. My mom’s been gone eight years and my dad almost fifty. May all our parents rest in peace.
Happy Birthday Lady Beatrice.
Beautiful set list in what looks to be a very cool room, as does the upcoming show. It’s a pretty wonderful place the Vineyard, lots of good people & amazing nature! Enjoy! Any interest in handmade wooden boats, big and small, old and new, stick your head in to have a look around Gannon&Benjamin shipyard right in Vineyard Haven; master craftsmen and wonderful characters.
I am always grateful to hear you talk about your parents, those relationships, and your dedicated ongoing involvements with their memories, Thank You.
My 81 year old dad passed away May, 28, just over 2 weeks ago, after some months of at-home hospice, which I got to participate in throughout. There were years of my drunk-strung out life when that would not have been possible. He watched in awe just about every Quarantine concerts with me, thank you for those too. I got to hear and be present for his last 5-6 gentle exhaling breathes. On Father’s Day we’ll have a little family service with some of his ashes. Beautiful, horrible, gut-wrenching and on and on as many of you who have been through this already know.
(((Be at Peace Dad/Phil)))
Those were Blue Ridge Mountains.
Weren’t we lucky to have such good mothers, Jorma? Our Anne came out of the bog, as the rural Irish of her time say. Standard Oil lamps before they got electricity and music was heard from throats and accordians. She steamed into NY Harbour 69 years ago. I missed her dearly yesterday, on her 90th birthday. This 4th year since is first it seems a long time. The world won’t know their kind again.
The Whaling Church brings to mind Orsan’s Jonah sermon in John Houston’s adaptation of Melville’s Moby Dick. Worth a look if only to appreciate that scene, Maybe you’ll meet Patty Larkin while you’re in that part of the world. My mother and I enjoyed a couple of her shows at Irvington, NY’s village hall, which is a pretty good room, too. I wrote here once of Anne hearing ‘In the Moment’ (or A Life Well Lived) from my speakers and recalling that being on the player I gave Dad and her as they traversed the Smokey Mountains.