By Jill Garner
The first weekend in April, I ventured to The Blue Door to hear Tracy Grammer and was blessed enough to be at one of the best shows I’ve ever seen there. For one, Tracy Grammer can flat-out sing. I heard her the summer before at the Woody Guthrie Festival in Okemah and was wowed, but to get to hear her in the intimate atmosphere of the Blue Door was….., well, it was heaven. What a beautiful voice, and she’s a great instrumentalist as well, playing the guitar, fiddle and mandolin. Jim Henry, who plays a plethora of instruments, sings wonderfully as well, and also records on the same label, Signature Sounds, accompanied her.
Dave Carter, Grammer’s partner in music and life, died two years ago way too young. He was an immensely talented musician and writer, and many predicted he and Grammer were poised to be rising stars. Grammer is a talented singer and great musician in her own right, and Carter always said he wanted Grammer to be the one to sing all his songs.
She’s committed herself to keeping Dave’s songs alive, and I’m glad she is because his musical mind was so brilliant and mystical. Losing Dave Carter reminds me of how I felt when I heard Jim Henson died. They’ll never be any more Muppets created by Henson’s genius, and there will never be any more songs written by Carter. Fortunately, Grammer feels that Carter’s music is too good not to be shared, and there’s no one better to do it. Carter was a master of poetry and rhyme, and combined the common with the fantastical, the love struck with the heartbroke, and the old with the new. So many of his songs sound like timeless, traditional songs, while others are very modern, and then some, like Don’t Tread on Me, are Carter being downright silly.
Carter was raised in Oklahoma and Texas, and many of his songs evoke the imagery of the open plains with mystical references and visions. He studied a huge range of things in his life including classical piano, mathematics, computer programming, philosophy, transpersonal psychology, various martial arts, all kinds of religions and spiritual paths, and so many of these experiences come out in his songs. A lot of his songs came to him in dreams as well. With lyrics like, “He worked the midnight diners, washed the weary dishes, Street poets and vision miners, starry-eyed ambitious, Blew like pilgrim leaves through the sad café, The bards and climbers tradin dreams and wishes” from The Power and the Glory evoke a colorful cast of characters, and capture the loneliness of drifters and dreamers. From 236-6132, “I am not looking for no champion of my freedom, I am anything but anybody’s foundling, Sometimes I feel like I am wandering, an old balloon on broken string, A buzzardling, A vulture beating creaky wings, while angry storms go gathering around me”, the pain and futility of an indifferent love is so eloquently captured.
Carter and Grammer have three CDs. When I Go, originally released in 1998 and recently rereleased on Signature Sounds; Tanglewood Tree; and Drum Hat and Buddha.
Please check out their music. You can find it all on the internet at http://daveandtracy.globalhosting.com/index.php, as well as other sites such as www.amazon.com, and sometimes you can find their stuff at Borders.
Carter’s words are brilliant, and Tracy’s singing and musical ability is something you shouldn’t miss. As Carter once said, “If I can bring the magic of the deep unconscious into the all-too-predictable realm of the daily grind, well that’s like bringing water into the desert. I need this to live fully; I suspect we all do.” Exactly.