the Nebraska cd is a tribute to the late poet steve abbott and his daughter alysia abbott, author of the memoir Fairyland... here is the story behind the song: alysiaabbott/ "in the spring of 1977 i moved or rather escaped to san francisco from new york and its disco era, the bronx/yonkers variety, somewhat burned out and without direction. in what turned out to be the first of many such sabbaticals, i put the saxophone down and picked up a guitar to learn to sing and write songs. living on albion street, right away i fell in with an idealistic group of poets who gathered every thursday night for readings at a storefront around the corner on 16th called cloud house, run by a dedicated iconoclast named kush. if i had a song i brought it there and took my turn among the poets. one of those was steve abbott, a far better writer than i, still in his early phase. one night in 1978 he brought in a love poem set in his childhood nebraska called ‘walking this abandoned field.’ i was taken with it and set it to song. a year later i’d moved on and out of the mission, to a flat in the outer richmond on the last hill before the city’s iconic descent to ocean beach and the pacific, where in my bedroom i set up a four-track and began work on what would become ‘saxaphone demonstrations.’ in the spring of this year 2013 i happened upon alysia abbott’s extraordinary memoir of her father, ‘fairyland,’ and it all came back. i remembered steve’s song and thought it might be a nice way to memorialize him and cloud house and at the same time pay tribute to the achievement of the book."
Posted on: Fri, 20 Sep 2013 22:25:33 +0000
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