"It's only a fiddle if you don't wear shoes." -Ben Skulnik (college friend)
Years ago, my family and I went tubing down the Shenandoah River. Clutching our black rubber inter-tubes, we were ferried down to the drop point by a rickety old bus complete with its original driver. He ran through the rules: No horse-playing. Mind the rocks. But the driver lowered his voice for the last warning: "Don't go past the bridge, they play banjos down there." And then he cackled in a way that seemed to indicate he wasn't kidding. We avoided the bridge that day and whatever fate may have had in store.
Well, on January 28th I floated past the bridge as my friend, Andrea, and I mingled with Josh Turner fans at his 7:30 concert at the Ogden Theatre in Denver, Colorado.
We arrived thoroughly out of place, far too metropolitan for this crowd of wife-beaters and jeans; my down jacket ruffled its feathers in embarrassment. The crowd filled in around us, seeming to understand we were beside-the-point in this arena. When the music started we found ourselves at the very back of the auditorium with no clear idea of how this happened. Blocked by a wall of wavy hair and cowboy hats, we hopped and leaned over our toes trying to scrape a glimpse of the performer. Occasionally, we broke into dance for a few bars just to celebrate our ongoing battle. (I have a theory that a video of us sped-up would look like stimulant lab mice.)Eventually, the two models standing in front of us moved and we were swept into eyesight of a tall, blue-eyed, gangly man strumming a guitar and stomping his skinny legs. (If this wasn't living I don't know what is.) The songs were thick with country culture but lively, and it was good.
But it wasn't until our last song of the night that the banjos came out. While listening to "Long Black Train" that I realized we had left the trailer park, cruised through God Town and landed at the KKK rally:
"Cling to the Father and His holy name,
And don't go ridin' on that Long Black Train
There's an engineer on that Long Black Train,
Makin' you wonder if the ride is worth the pain,
He's just a waiting on your heart to say
Let me ride on that Long Black Train"
Everyone singing along thought it was about Jesus, but since I didn't know the words I gradually developed my own interpretation and realized that most attendees would look quite dapper in white sheets.
...you racist bastards.
