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Six String Nation -- again
I have never done this before. In years of weekly blogging, I have never flogged a library event one week and written about it the next. The experience I had last night with Jowi Taylor and Voyageur, the Six String Nation author and guitar, however, was so remarkable that I must share it.
Many of you know that I am American, a Whistler transplant for 3 years. Most of what I know about Canadian history has come from watching a few episodes of Canada: a People’s History and Random Passage. I have been to St. Johns (NOT St. John), to Winnipeg and Toronto, and to Montreal for Expo ’67 when I was a kid. I have not taken any of the classes children take in school, but I have listened to Dead Dog Café.
Nothing has made me more proud to be on my way to Canadian citizenship than last night. Jowi had a very professional slide show about the genesis of the guitar and how he got the more famous bits of it. He talked about his life touring with the guitar and the celebrities and regular people who have played it. He answered questions. He brought out the guitar and showed us the bits we’d seen on the screen. Then he let people gather round and touch it; hold it.
We moved out to the fireplace where Gord Rutherford played Voyageur and sang ballads and Canadian classic songs for us. The music was sweet and filled my eyes with tears. After the concert was over and many, many photos were taken (I think there were at least as many cameras as people in attendance), people started to leave and I finally had my chance to hold the guitar.
I am not a musician and I don’t play, but I really wanted to touch that object made of so many other objects. It’s a classic case of synergy: the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. According to Jowi, it’s so unique that he can’t find anyone to appraise it: how can you put a dollar value on something like that? I don’t know the significance of many of the bits, but I do know this: I got to touch a piece of the sacred Golden Spruce!
For those of you who missed the program, we have the (now autographed) book in the library. Jowi hopes to bring Voyageur back to Whistler during the Olympics next year, and hopefully by then I’ll know more facts to go with the magic.
Lauren Stara, Library Director