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Kathleen Hudson Column for October 21/22, 2000 |
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Last year
Dean and Sue Mitchell asked me to come be Belle for the evening program of
this gathering. In fact, for about three years they have been extolling
the virtues of this place and this organization. I did not want another
calling. My plate has always been full so I stayed away. I have
returned a convert. Dean immediately guided me down into a rocky gorge and
up on the side of a cliff into a small shelter to see the White Shaman
pictographs. AS I stood looking at this wall of drawing, imagining the
person creating this story several thousand years ago, I wondered. What
did they mean? Dean provided the accepted interpretation, adding his own
insights along the way. I saw figures hanging upside down (dead?); I saw a
“monster” figure guarding the land of the dead. I saw a white figure
emerging from another and heading toward this land. Teaching
mythology this semester, I’m looking at the power of stories in our
lives. Throughout the weekend I heard many stories, and I participated in
a celebration of both their meaning and their preservation. Jim
Zintgraff, the photographer who rediscovered this site in the ‘50s, was
present. A founding member of the Rock Art Foundation, his passion for
these pictographs was constantly present. "These pictures can talk to
us today,” he explained. I visited
another site called Fate Bell in the Seminole State Park, and I spent part
of an evening up close to the huge white Enduring Spirit statue glowing
under a full moon. But this
column is about music, so let me tell you those pictographs could sing! I
heard songs of transformation and passageway. I heard, as I saw, a call to
enter a new passageway. As I transformed into Belle for the Friday evening
program, I noticed the circles—a fire, a stone circle around it, a
circle of people, the circle of the horizon and then that full white moon.
Hoops of life and meaning gathered out on this blooming desert floor in
the rocky Lower Pecos Valley. I told my story as Belle Starr. Jim and
several others joined in by telling their stories, the ones they carry
with them always. Later in the
evening Ray Leach pulled out a guitar and sang Pancho and Lefty followed
by a Guy Clark tune, “The Cape.” I knew without talking to him that he
was on the inside track with Texas music. “I started
listening to these guys in the ‘70s,” he explained over breakfast the
next day. I’ve been collecting Texas songs. We also heard “Bears” by
Stephen Fromholz, a song rarely performed around a campfire. Jack
McDonald also brought his guitar, and Saturday night, after Indian dancing
with Eric Marley and family, after stories by Emma, he joined in with a
Willis Alan Ramsey song, “Spider John,” Jack is from Pleasanton and
knows one of our favorites around here, Rodney Hayden (showcased each
Easter at the Chili Cookoff). Jack and Ray
are two men who represent Texas music at the grassroots level, two men
singing and playing around a campfire. As I saw under the full moon, in a
circle of people around this fire, I thought, “It doesn’t get much
better than this!” I had my
first camping experience in my blue spirited van (a ’79 Chevy), and it
was good. I loved the drive across this part of Texas. I loved the music. Saturday,
October 21, Chris O’Quinn has planned a day at the Kerrville State Park,
including a presentation by John Karger and Last Chance Forever Call her
at 792-4044, ext. 231 for information. The PIP workshop is going on at
Schreiner, working with the power of Native Amerian learning stories. At 7:30 in
the Cailloux Center, the John Adams Trio will perform for the Bluebonnet
Lions Club fund-raiser. Tickets are only $10. Don’t miss this rare
opportunity in Kerrville. John Wilson
Rowland is going to host a songwriters circle at the Java Pump on Water
Street. Friday night is open mic night there. The Cabaret is presenting a
full slate this Fall of Texas musicians, and Lone Oak still has a jam each
Sunday. Too much to write about in one column. Check out the THMF website
at texasheritagemusic.org Free Leonard
and down the road. Click
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