Seven years ago, I drove to Cecil Community College in eastern Maryland to make a video recording of singer-songwriter Peter Case for a documentary project that didn’t even have a name yet.

On Saturday, August 29 — 90,000 miles and 200 hours of footage later — I met Peter at Fur Peace Ranch in southern Ohio to record a historic occasion. It was Peter’s return to performing after a six-month recovery from heart bypass surgery, and it seemed a fitting conclusion to the long journey of Troubadour Blues.

My friend Kerri McMullen, a photojournalist from Columbus, came along to preserve the day in pictures. I’ve included some here, to get this blog rolling.

Jorma Kaukonen, guitarist extraodinaire for the Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna, is one person who really followed through on that Sixties dream of going up the country and buying a piece of land. Many years and much hard work later, it’s developed into a residential music camp and performing arts center, snuggled into the hills of southern Ohio near the West Virginia border.

Drive till the four-lane highway ends, then follow the two-lane highway until this sign appears.

The two-lane turns into a one-lane, then into gravel, and winds around a bit past a couple of farms. Through the gate into a little rustic paradise with wildflowers everywhere. The concert hall sits up on the crest of a hill.

I wrote this at my brother’s house in Boston, on one of the earliest shooting excursions of this project, the Peter Case/Chris Smither holiday show in Arlington, Mass., in November 2002. Chris’s management wanted to see a proposal, and this came out.

TROUBADOURS
A Journey to the Heart of American Music
Copyright (c) 2002 by Thomas J. Weber