This afternoon, I’m writing this at a little coffee shop called The Courtyard, in Abbeville, Louisiana. Abbeville is a few miles south of Lafayette. The atmosphere of the café is so Southern that I can’t help but love it. They have free wireless, but as luck would have it, “the little box died” and the manager said they were waiting for another. I’m doing a reading from Stories of the Confederate South at 6:00 at the Golden Corral Steakhouse, but as I arrived at 3:00, I decided that exploring the quaint town of Abbeville would be a better option than sleeping in my truck. As I meandered my way to the town square, I came upon this coffee shop. Great coffee, and plenty of metal tables and chairs fill the inside of this very old building. There’s plants, a nymph statue with a fountain, and a huge, very old safe in the corner. Six tall bookshelves behind me are filled with paperbacks. Someone reads in this town. The café evidently has some sort of book club (allowing trade-ins) and the books are for sale. As I’m the only customer at 4:00 in the afternoon, it’s hard for me to judge how effective their efforts to promote literacy are. The café even has tables and chairs outside for us smokers (truly, a dying breed). Yet, the temperature is in the 90’s here today, so I opted to stay inside where it’s cool.

Tonight, I’m scheduled to do a reading and play some tunes on my guitar for the local camp of the Sons of Confederate Veterans. I’ve decided to do the reading first tonight, so I can be sure to have time to sell some books and promote my children’s book coming out in the spring. Next post, I’ll tell you how the reading went and what I learned from the experience.

My birthday, Sept. 23, is officially the first day of fall. I love the fall, with its winds and coolness. Here in Monroe, Louisiana, the weather vacillates between hot and what should be fall weather, but at least we’re past the 100 degree days. Fall is a meditative season for me. I always write a fall poem, but for the past few years it’s been written while waiting on a college class. Since I’m no longer teaching at a college, I’ve got to make other arrangments for that annual poem. Today was supposed to be cool, but it’s not. Perhaps tomorrow I’ll have the weather I need to write that poem.

Northeast20Louisiana20Celtic20Festival
Here is where you can see a photo of our Scots-Irish band, Angus Duhbghall. On the sidebar click on performers. We had over 2,000 attend the first year of the festival last fall, and we’re expecting more this year. Check out the other performers. Some of them I intend to write more about.

Today, the edge of fall is in the air. I helped my best friend with his deer stands and other chores yesterday. I love the South, and when I’m out in the woods, I truly see and feel the South’s beauty. Today, I have my own chores, a Scottish Society meeting, band practice, and hopefully I can squeeze in some writing business time. Not much time for a creative writing window though. And I hate that. Since our band is playing at at the Northeast Louisiana Celtic Fest, http://nelacelticfest.org/ we need lots of practice. We laid down the instrumentals for our demo CD and Tom is going to lay down the voice this week. Then I’ll really start pushing the band.

Tonight I’ll try to read another chapter in Running with Scissors, which I’ve found to be a hilarious read.

Someone posted a very nice review of Stories of the Confederate South on Amazon. This review made my day. Just when you think no one is reading or thinking about your work. I also have a review coming up in Road Trips Magazine, a cultural magazine here in North Louisiana. Tonight I have a reading in Lafayette. Next post, I ‘ll tell you all about it.

I love the music of Beth Patterson, a performer well known in Celtic music circles. Not long ago, I obtained one of her CD’s, Take Some Fire. You can check out the CD, hear some sample music, and learn about Beth here: http://www.littlebluemen.com/beth.asp
She is a talented bouzouki player, witty, brilliant lyricist, and beautiful. If you get a chance to see her live you should. She plays a few time a year here in Monroe, Louisiana at Enoch’s, our favorite Irish pub, and she will be performing at the Celtic Festival October 7-8 here as well. To give you just a sample of her talent, here are the lyrics to her song “Balance of This Dance” from the Take Some Fire CD.

They say two mountains in this lifetime
May share a range, but never meet
But Mohamed, he knows where to find me
He knows every crevice, cliff, and peak

Reality is relative
But this ache for you cuts to the core
And it’s realer than anything
I’d ever thought I’d felt before

Oh, heed the music tonight
And pray, disregard the former
Stolen glances, whirling dances
Can gradually lead your thoughts astray

From every wandering eye
To every forbidden corner
I will seek you through the crowds at night
And help you find your way.

Land-lover, wildwood creature
Lead me to this sacred place
As I’m drowning in a sea of fantasy
Rapture seizes control of your face

But you’re the balance of this dance now
I secretly smile and await your cue
Take your hand, exit stage left
Hidden in aesthetic perfection with you.

I REALLY like doing readings of my writing, and not only because I sell some books. I like the dynamics, the energy, the learning that takes place every time I do one. Also, when I read out loud, I always find some lines I could have written better or differently. Once or twice, I’ve found passages that just flat needed revision.

Anyway, I have readings these readings scheduled: Two groups of the SCV (Sons of Confederate Veterans) in Lafayette, Sept. 12 and Oct. 3 respectively. Both groups want me to bring my guitar and perform some Confederate tunes. Then another reading is scheduled for October 23, at the West Ouachita Library, 6:00 pm. Stories of the Confederate South seems to be gathering some followers. I’ve had a couple of reading groups interested in using the book for one of their group’s readings. We’ll see.

I subscribe to The Writer’s Chronicle and the first article I read this month was written by Sybil Baker and entitled, “Lost Generations: The American Expatriate Writer.” As I have always been a fan of most of the writers she mentions and whose work she analyzes, I found the article extremely interesting. Ms. Baker is somewhat an expatriate writer herself, having traveled extensively and teaching English now in Korea at Yonsei University. She has a great website too. You can take a look here: http://www.sybilbaker.com/home.html. After reading the article, scanning her bio and website, I decided I would definitely place her fiction on my reading list.

Some of the expatriate writers she analyzes are Joyce, Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Bowles–all of whom have influenced me greatly. She also discusses the new expatriates and their work. This is the kind of writing I like to discover–thoughtful, well documented, and original.

Right when I start to feel optimism about the good we can do with our students, some adult comes along and hurts the kids and our work in public education again. I teach gifted English at Bastrop High School in Morehouse Parish in Northeast Louisiana. Well, it seems our football team has to forfeit its State Championship because of ineligible players. Evidently there was an accusation against our school about some of our players (hurricane victims) . I want to say more, but I must have patience and wait for the results of our appeal. As of yet, we don’t know who our accusers are, or even for sure what the charges were specifically. LHSAA (There’s an interesting Acronym. A friend told me it stood for . . .No, I said I would wait before commenting.)

And I will wait. I’m too angry to write objectively on this. All I know for sure is, in the football year after Katrina, our community helped some boys who happened to be good football players, but according to LHSAA, we did it wrong. (I wonder how many hurricane victim kids LHSAA directly helped. No, don’t get me started.) So what do the pompous idiots do? After a savage witch hunt, they punish everyone they can–including the kids. It’s sad, but I’m sure the LHSAA officials feel self-righteous and proud of their achievements.

The students were hurricane victims remember. Yes, our school and community helped them–along with many others who did not play football. Once again I am dissillusioned with the bureacrats who run our state and especially those who have anything to do with public education.

I know the sports success of BHS has created enemies–after all, how can a rural, rather underfunded, black-majority high school defeat all the other teams they faced? (Bastrop was winning before the new players arrived. Also, many other schools received football playing students from the Katrina Diaspora.) It is easy to pass judgment on a school with football rules a year after the hurricane, when everyone has forgotten how bad the situation was, how that storm changed everything for us in Louisiana in those first few months afterwards. All kinds of exceptions to state laws and rules were made. When people need to be helped, only the most anal legalist will obsess about trivial interpretation of legalities. I guess we could have left the kids in the shelter.

One lesson: Never underestimate how mean, petty, and jealous people can be. Here’s another lesson for LHSAA and for the jealous people or school lodging complaints against BHS: People will never forget or forgive you for hurting kids. Even if kids did make a mistake, it’s you, the adult, that should know better. A real man doesn’t have to prove his power by beating up on kids. If adults committed a wrong, punish the adults. If it is misinterpretation of a “rule” or even a mistake, correct the individuals involved, but be civil and treat people with respect instead of acting like they’re your inferiors. If this is “sour grapes” or a vendetta, then someone needs to grow up and stop acting like a whining kid who can’t be on first string.

I can imagine the LHSAA leaders talking about how important this current witch hunt is. They would probably say, “It’s all about the kids.”

Yeah, sure.

In January of 2000, Jed Marum began his year by leaving a lucrative career so he could devote himself to his music. His first year as a fulltime musician earned exactly one tenth of what he had earned the year before. To his credit, he hasn’t looked back, and has built a solid career and reputation as one of America’s premier Scots-Irish musicians and is often a headliner at festivals. His schedule is a busy one, with over 150 shows a year—and the number of shows seems to be steadily growing.

In addition to his intense love for and commitment to Scots-Irish music, Marum has another passion—The Civil War. In our interview, I asked Marum how his interest in the War Between the States began. He said, “Once, I was being interviewed by Sunny Meriwether and she introduced me to her audience as an Irish singer who specializes in writing Civil War songs. I started to object saying that the Civil War was just a passing interest, when I realized that it had been passing for 10 years! That’s when I realized I really wasn’t just dabbling at the Civil War stuff, anymore. It had moved to a higher level.”

The fruit of Marum’s passion for this period of American history is his newest CD, Cross Over the River, a twelve-song collection of Irish and Confederate songs released August 4 of this year. This CD presents some of Marum’s finest guitar picking and original lyrics.

There’s something in this CD that stirs the spirit, and just as I was about to suggest the collection would be great music for movies of this period, I found out that Marum has agreed to license two new songs to Lone Chimney Productions for use in their upcoming film, Bloody Dawn. The film is being made for the PBS and History Channel markets and is planned for a 2006 release. The movie focuses on the border wars between Kansas and Missouri surrounding the days of the US Civil War.

The music is acoustic, with Marum on guitar, banjo, and banjola. Musicians performing with him are Jaime Marum on mandolin, Kathleen Jackson on upright bass, Mimi Rogers on fiddle and Ken Fleming on button accordion. Travis Ener and Kathleen Jackson are also featured in background vocals.

The collection’s songs are rich lyrically and musically, and several especially deserve comment. “Monaghan’s Lament,” is a song of an Irish born New Orleans resident, Col. William Monaghan of the 6th Louisiana. The song expresses a soldier’s emotions as he regards a fallen admired leader of one of the South’s most famous fighting units, “The Fighting Tigers.” “One Bloody Friday” is a haunting song, so effectively constructed that it makes the listener feel as if he were riding with Quantrell. “Cross Over the River,” is based on the last words of Stonewall Jackson. With this song, Marum takes us into the soul of a dying hero of the South. In other songs, Marum takes traditional melodies and masterfully creates moving interpretations. For example, I believe Marum’s rendition of the well-known “Shenandoah” to be unique and the best version I’ve heard.

I predict this CD will have strong appeal with Civil War aficionados, reenactors, performers, and anyone who loves good ballads. Just reading the CD’s insert and the background of the songs is an education and it reveals the extent of Marum’s research. Cross Over the River has a large targeted audience and has all the potential for becoming a cult classic. For the musician, Marum has also generously published a songbook containing lyrics and chords for both Cross Over the River and his earlier Civil War CD, Fighting Tigers of Ireland.

Cross Over the River is a collection of original and period music with lyrics that capture the heart of the many Irish who fought for the South. The CD is a reminder that there are many stories buried in history we have not yet heard, and there are emotions connected to that war that we haven’t yet considered. As a writer, Marum is not only skilled—he is honest. He knows that one’s culture and heritage can be lost, and he is determined to give life to long-silent voices. When those of the past fade from our memory and art, then they are truly dead to us. As long as there are writers like Marum who aren’t afraid to tell the stories, the dead will live on and our heritage will not be lost. The Scots-Irish majority who comprised the Confederate Army deserve the tribute of this CD.

You can purchase Cross Over the River here: http://cdbaby.com/cd/jedmarum6. Read Marum’s bio, hear samples of his music, and keep up with news about him by checking out his website http://www.jedmarum.com/ or from his blog http://www.myspace.com/jedmarumband.