This little story could be about coffee or it could be about music. But it’s really about a friend of mine. One day years ago I had just come home from a trip and Linda told me about something nice that had happened to her that week. We would frequent this amazing little coffee house and bakery that was down the road from our house. Typically you could find us there on Saturday and Sunday mornings. It was a bit of a rendezvous spot for climbers, cowboys, cyclists, café racers, and just plain regular folk as well. They roasted on site; made a dynamite brew; and had fantastic breads and baked goods.
I spent many a good hour there doing what I called intellectual loitering.
But back to the story…
Linda had been down there during the week and was treated to some live music. There was this sort of raggedy guy there playing a guitar and singing songs. Including a bunch of Dylan songs. From what she said once he started playing, the other patrons in that particular room of the coffee shop left to another area, I guess so that they could continue to natter away on some undoubtedly banal topic. She stayed and had her coffee, listened, and did some work. This guy noticed all of this and thanked her for staying and listening, once it was time for her to leave and reenter the world. She thought that I should give this guy a listen to. Dylan covers eh? They are a dime a dozen; I’m skeptical. But I do like live music.
So the following week I ‘worked from home’ on Friday and went down to the coffee shop to see what this cat was all about. Man… I was blown away. I was treated to really personal versions of Dylan songs and a bunch of original stuff too. Linda introduced us and we hit it off immediately.
Working from home on Fridays soon became a normal thing for me. Over the months and years we got to know each other pretty well. At one time this guy was a big wig executive with a big fancy company. Then he got sick. Diabetes. I never did fully understand the whole story of how it all went down; but eventually he had to leave work and ended up in SOAZ. He had played guitar in his youth and had picked it up again. The disease was ravaging his body. He needed a cane to walk and his vision was getting pretty bad, but he had a great attitude towards life, and played his heart out. Not just the Dylan covers, but a lot of his own material as well. He would play and sing as long as his body could hold out.
He would not just do the ‘easy’ tunes either. He was doing long things like Tangled up in Blue. On one of his last public gigs at the local folk festival he recorded a version of Highlands. I remember one day we were talking about his guitars and he mentioned that he had three of them and that they had names… Lily, Rosemary, and the Jack of Hearts. Pretty cool I thought. That’s one of my most favourite songs ever, and I asked why it wasn’t in his repertoire. Whew…that is a tough one. Fast and long.
Next week I was back in the coffee shop and he says as I settle down with a fine Bolivian Organic…”I have a present for you” In a week he had well over half the song under his belt. I was really touched…