The Life and Music of John Hartford

An all-out effort — including fundraising — is under way to put the finishing touches on a video documentary entitled “The Life and Music of John Hartford.”

It’s being undertaken by two media professionals who are also musicians and self-professed admirers of the late Hartford, best known to the generic music world as writer of the Glen Campbell classic, “Gentle on My Mind,” a song that barely scratched the surface of Hartford’s unique view of the world and life.

The project’s co-producers — Marcy Cochran and Sheila Nichols — have formed the AereoTwang Musical Preservation Project, which is an IRS-certified 501(c) (3) educational non-profit organization, dedicated to the preservation and promotion of folk and old-time music and their contemporary evolutions. They also maintain a Web site, Twangcentral.org, to spread the word about their organization and their first project, the Hartford video.

Over the past three years the Hartford documentary has moved forward on an out-of-pocket budget, largely as a labor of love, according to their Web site.

In the process, a large archive of Hartford-related music, interviews, photographs and video footage has been acquired. Essentially, the preliminary work has been completed.

“The time has now come to seek funding for the most expensive parts of the process: editing, post-production and distribution,” the two say on their Web site. “The project cannot proceed without public funding. This Web site has been created to both inform and appeal to those who loved and admired John Hartford so that this tribute and remembrance can be completed.

“Many, many people have already provided interviews and archival materials to this project. We are excited about the interviews and resources we’ve amassed and look forward to putting this film together.”

Contributions to the project are tax-deductable.

On Twangcentral.com’s home page, Cochran and Nichols pay tribute to Hartford’s work, describing it as “a unique mix of fiddle and banjo music, storytelling, contemporary songs with lyrics more like poetry than pop, oldtime string band music, bluegrass, a quick wit, and a personable stage presence that won audiences immediately.

“When John was up on stage people felt as if he was talking personally to them; and when he introduced his music it was clear he was sharing something very personal, something he loved deeply. One could not be anything but thoroughly entertained by John Hartford.

“John’s many lives included work as a string band musician, a songwriter, a deejay, a towboat operator, a solo performer and entertainer, a steamboat pilot, a comedy writer, a scholar and historian of oldtime music, and a documentarian of great fiddle and banjo players and their styles,” according to the project coordinators.

“We approach this task of producing a documentary about the life and musical achievements of John Hartford mindful of the wide variety of his talents, and with great appreciation and admiration for his music. We’d like to create a show that reflects his joy, his creative genius, irreverence and wit,” the two Hartford admirers say,

Cochran works as graphic designer, animator and editor from the Virginia side of the Washington, D.C., area with a 20-year freelance career in print and television. She worked for PBS, both at its D.C. affiliate, WETA, and at PBS national headquarters in Alexandria, Va. Later, she moved into commercial television, working for Fox, CBS, CNN and America’s Most Wanted.

Cochran said she’s had her fill of network TV and is eager to work on something “funner”. That’s where the idea for this film came from. She currently plays fiddle in a band called Dead Men’s Hollow.

Nichols is a photo-journalist, event photographer, musical archivist and old-time fiddler from Louisville, Ky., who fiddles in the Big Muddy String Band. She first met John Hartford at the International Bluegrass Music Association convention in Owensboro, Ky., during the 80’s where he was performing and teaching a fiddle workshop with his son Jamie. Nichols has been a student and a fan of Hartford’s ever since.

Nichols apprenticed under master fiddler Art Stamper after applying for and winning him a grant from the Folk Arts Department of Kentucky. She did the photography for Stampers “Darlin Corey” CD, and she photographed Art’s five string fiddle for the engraving on his monument.

“We are pleased to be finding so many of the people who knew John to be interested in, and enthusiastic about, participating in this project,” the producers say in a statement on their Web site. “We appreciate the input from those who knew him well or whose lives were touched by him.”