Omaha Rainbow : Issue 13
I'm beginning to wonder if there is some sort of jinx attached to information I give you in this column. In this issue I was hoping to give you release date, track listings and all the other details we've been waiting for regarding John's new album. Well, all I am able to tell you is that John had recorded three songs when his producer, Henry Lewy, was taken very ill and work on the album had to be suspended. By now I know John had hoped to resume, either with Henry Lewy or a new producer, if necessary, but I'm afraid I haven't been able to find out the precise details. The Omaha Rainbow hotline to Malibu seems to have been malfunctioning just lately.
In short, this column is going to be very brief this time around. Maybe we'll be luckier with OR14 in September.
One reason for continuing to buy Melody Maker each week is that their
Los Angeles correspondent, Harvey Kubernik, is
quite a John Stewart fan. It follows that John does get an occasional
mention in his column. Most recently was the information that John
was to perform at the fifth annual Cal State Long Beach Banjo and Guitar
Festival at the end of May. (I hope this column's jinx doesn't settle
on that event.) The early part of the Festival is devoted to instrurnental
contests for amateur musicians; the concert at the end was to include performances
fromVassar Clements, New Grass Revival, Juice Newton and Larry McNeely,
in addition to John's own contribution. I'm working on getting an
eye witness account for OR14.
Got a really nice letter from Mary Dugmore, Dan's wife. The long interview with Dan in OR12 was well received, and I'm very pleased to use this column to thank Mary for her help in supplying me with so many of the photographs that accompanied the interview. She tells me Dan has been working on the new James Tay1or album recently, but as the next Linda Ronstadt tour is not scheduled till August, he has been enjoying an unaccustomed spell of home life.
A long way from home right now is JonWoodhead who I met up with in the Anchor press office just after he arrived to prepare for Ace's British tour. Well, as I guess you already know, that tour was aborted apart from one concert at London's Roundhouse. Jon has had plenty of time to reflect that he would be better off back in California. We both want to get together for an interview, but it hasn't happened yet. If I let him go back to the States without our doing so, I'll be kicking myself for months to come. Here's hoping we'll get it sorted out.
Incidentally, if you refer back to the centrespread photo in ORl2,
I can tell you Jon was out of camera range to John's right. Mary has sent
me some negatives from that reel of film that do include Jon, so I'll hope
to include some of those soon. That's it. Let's hope I can
do better next time around.