Soon we were aboard the Hobby III. To my utter surprise, we learned the Hobby III was being visited by the ghost of its former owner, Harry Wilson.
This past July, my friend and I were walking around during Charleston’s newly returned Sternwheel Regatta. After making the rounds that hot day, we needed some refreshment and shade. Seated riverside, cold water in hand, she looked over and saw a sternwheeler that friends of hers owned. Soon we were aboard the Hobby III.
My old pal, and WVPB News Director Eric Douglas, was there and we all started chatting amiably about all sorts of things. Then I was introduced to the owner, JD Pauley, and his friend Brian Carr.
JD has a laid-back, engaging personality with a very funny dry wit. Sensing that my question would not be perceived as odd or crazy, I asked JD whether he had any personal experiences with ghosts. After all, boats and water seem to be a frequent paranormal setting.
To my utter surprise, he said that the Hobby III was being visited by the former owner, Harry Wilson.
Well, knock me over with a feather.
Harry Wilson Photo credit: UnknownHobby III owner JD Pauley with the wheel that Harry Wilson was holding when he passed. Photo credit: Jim Lange/WVPBClose-up of the boat log, in Louise Wilson’s handwriting, with a newspaper clipping of Harry’s passing. Photo credit: Jim Lange/WVPBJD shows the sconce light that mysteriously comes on. Photos of Harry Wilson are hung below that light. Photo credit: Jim Lange/WVPB
Hello June’s new album Artifacts drops Oct. 6. Songwriter and singer Sarah Rudy says the title refers to “people, places and stories” that “are part of me and are the artifacts of my life.”
West Virginia indie rock band Hello June has released their second album called Artifacts.
It’s a delightfully eclectic collection of straight-ahead rockers mixed with slower, balladesque songs as well. This engaging release is filled with thoughtful lyrics, heartfelt hooks, full out rocking and the right balance of instrumentation.
In short, it’s as good as any release I’ve heard in the genre.
Sarah Rudy, the group’s songwriter and vocalist, spoke freely and honestly about the album’s themes of love, loss and the ups and downs of living.
“The people, places and personal stories are a part of me,” Rudy said, “and they are the artifacts of my life.”
For more Eclectopia, listen Fridays and Saturdays at 9 p.m. on WVPB Radio.
West Virginia native Jess Baldwin’s new EP Anima explores themes of finding her own original inner voice after years of self-repression.
“Home is where one starts from.” ~TS Eliot
Anima, from the Latin meaning “spirit,” is an apt title for the journey Jess Baldwin has taken to find her personal musical expression.
It may seem odd in this age of social media sharing saturation that a musician would struggle with personal expression and yet this is exactly what happened to the Bluefield native.
Growing up in a family where religious observance was taught and strictly practiced (the family was in church four times a week), as a child she felt that her own feelings or thoughts were not as important as “the word of God, God’s will” and therefore were not expressed, but suppressed for fear that she was being “selfish.”
To compound this feeling, mental illness in the family made her feel a personal responsibility to “help the family be OK as much as possible.” She says that there was not an overt “you’re not allowed to have something to say,” but this was her interpretation within the family dynamic.
In her twenties, her inner voice began to emerge. First by joining bands, playing covers and then taking interest in arranging (a re-harmonization of Somewhere Over the Rainbow can be found here) and eventually songwriting.
Anima is her new EP where six original tracks highlight her jazzy, soulful with a touch of pop songwriting style. The moods vary from quiet and reflective to joyous bursts of anthem-like choruses, but it is her tender, warm and expressive voice that draws us in. (Mountain Stage’s Ryan Kennedy is the guitarist on this album.)
To be sure, Jess Baldwin has made a journey of self-discovery and has come out confident, in full color with all of her wildness intact.
I met Richard Hartman, West Virginia native and author of “A Night in the Woods — And Other Absurdities of Life,” through a mutual friend of ours. He was teaching history then at West Virginia State University, and we started talking about the follies of trying to get — and keep — the attention of college students.
He said he felt as if teaching were a performance art and in order to keep the kids awake, you had to entertain as much as teach them. I couldn’t agree more.
Hartman has such an engaging, self-effacing, dry wit that makes those around him burst into laughter. He’s been many things in his life — forest ranger, paramedic, administrative law judge, community grants manager, legislative analyst and professor. As a storyteller, he shares stories that get straight-to-the-point. As much as absurdity and humor play a large role in his stories, there’s a depth of kindness and humanity that comes through as well.
We discussed writing, being a lost forest ranger, his beloved first dog, adolescent dinosaur hunters, a mishap while a paramedic and the non-dating of online dating.
“A Night in the Woods — And Other Absurdities of Life” is now available at Taylor Books in Charleston. He will be there on Dec. 4 at 2 p.m. to read selections and sign his book.
Listen to this interview — along with a great mix of music — on Eclectopia this Friday and Saturday at 9 p.m. on WVPB radio.
“There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.” ~ Hamlet
The ghost story.
We’ve all heard them, but do we believe?
Skeptics, like myself, find ourselves on the side of incredulity when we hear the old chestnut about the lady in white (archetypal to countless stories) who goes or glows by candlelight and haunts in historical places. Years ago, the Elk Hotel in Sutton had such an ethereal guest.
Yet, like Fox Mulder of TheX-Files, I want to believe.
Seeing a ghost is actually on my bucket list. Also on that list was seeing a UFO – now past-tense because in the late 90’s, in Charleston, I saw something one winter evening hovering silently in the sky – for which I have no logical explanation. That’s a tale for another time.
Earlier this year, I was visiting friends who have a summer home along the Elk River in Clay County. One clear night, under an immense spread of stars and planets, I heard myself asking:
“Have you ever seen a ghost?”
That question let me to ask for ghost tales from our West Virginia audience. Here are three of those tales for your enjoyment:
Dennis Hedrick, a friend of forty-five years, recounts the strange, inexplicable things had consistently happened while remodeling an office.
Courtney Buterbaugh shared this story, not of specter, but of a time slip.
Charleston playwright, Dan Kehde, submitted this tale of dark unrest.
WV Ghosts and Paranormal 10282020.mp3
Listen to three ghostly tales collected by Eclectopia host Jim Lange from his fellow West Virginians.
As for me, I believe, but await my own experience.
You can hear Eclectopia Fridays at 10 and Saturdays at 11 on WVPB.
Like many Appalachian musicians, Joe Couture had dreams of hitting it big in Nashville. Electopia host Jim Lange recently interviewed one his college friends about the highs and lows of his struggle to grab the brass ring on Music Row.
All musicians are dreamers in this sense: all of us have toyed with the idea of hitting it big or making it in the music industry. Especially when we first get the music bug, in our adolescence or teenage years, the fantasy is be the star of the imaginary show that we have seen through TV or magazines. For my generation (the cranky old people now), television and magazines brought the popular music stars to our homes.
Of all the musicians I have ever met during my college years, Joe Couture was the one guy I thought would surely end up as a studio session player. He’s brilliant on guitar, all the saxes and clarinets and a good singer as well. Visualizing him in a studio playing jingles or backing some Nashville star was easy.
Joe was a music major at West Liberty State College (now West Liberty University) at the same time as me – late ’70s to early 80’s. All the guitar majors were studying with the late Dr. Nels Leonard, Jr., and we got to be fast friends.
"I always wanted to play live music and knew that it would be a struggle, but I couldn't live with myself if I hadn't tried." – Joe Couture
From the get-go, what made Joe different from the other students was not only his multi-instrumental skills, but his broad knowledge base. In music theory, aural skills and stylistic knowledge, he was advanced in every way. Light years ahead of me, for sure.
Credit Photo courtesy of Robert Tipane.
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Joe Couture in the WLSC marching band.
Joe “graduated” in the fall of 1982 and moved to Nashville in the spring of the next year.
Sounds like a great plan, right? Wrong!
VH1’s Behind the Music always had that fateful narration: “Then it all went horribly wrong.” That’s not quite Joe’s story, but from my perspective, it’s pretty close.
Joe’s big plan was rife with issues from the start. He had “a hundred dollars and a van full of equipment.” He split gas with a friend, who already had a job lined up with Opry Land, and so arrived in the golden land of musical opportunity with fifty bucks to his name.
Eventually, Joe went down to Music Row, watched a few great bands, and then onto a pawn shop where he was looking at a guitar which he “obviously wasn’t going to buy.” A man came up, made small talk, and then asked, “Hey, do you want to help me move a refrigerator?” Joe, being a helpful amiable sort, said yes; as he “didn’t have anything else to do.”
Listen to Eclectopia Fridays at 10 PM and Saturdays at 11 PM on WVPB Radio.
Fast forward to meeting this man’s friends, forming a band and doing Bible study with them. The group would watch videos that were produced by the church. At some point, Joe realized that he had joined The Way International – a cult. The band had the dubious idea to play secular music in bars and then witness to the people. “Not only that this idea almost never works,” but the blatant hypocrisy was that the band members were not just witnessing to people, but going home with them.
After the cult band broke up, Joe did a recording session and which resulted in an audition to back Kitty Twitty – Conway Twitty’s daughter. He didn’t get that gig, but got an offer to go overseas with a touring band for the Department of Defense. Great!
Not really.
When they landed in Europe, the band realized that half of their equipment had been stolen. Therefore, any equipment would have to be borrowed from the base. Joe remembers a gig where he played Pat Benatar’s “Hit Me With Your Best Shot” on clarinet.
Returning to the States, he was asked to join a fronting band – a band that opens before the main act. Ricky Skaggs and Barbara Mandrell were among the lineup. Minnie Pearl was one of the artists that he backed. At this time, Joe thought that he “was on his way.”
But after tour ended, 26-year-old Joe Couture found himelf working at a Hot Stop – a convenience store. This is when Joe met, as he puts it, “The Crazy Lady.” In short, she was a con artist-thief with many shady secrets and spurious stories. It’s truly surreal and you’ll have to listen to the interview.
Credit Photo by Marvis Couture.
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Joe Couture
Despite all the things that went awry, Joe is not bitter nor does he have regrets about his time in Nashville. He wanted to go into a highly competitive, professional music environment because he needed to “take a shot.”
All the music heard in this interview was composed and performed by Jim Lange.
my_sunny_day.mp3
Bob Holland, front man/singer of the band mentioned above, with Joe Couture's guitar solo.
Grady Martin heard this solo and being the gracious man he was, commented, “I never thought about playing that fast.” Is it overplaying? In country music in the early ’80s – yes. But Joe said he was thinking about Steely Dan when he played this. I think it’s wonderful.
