March 31, 2010

  • Crystal Bowersox - One Woman, One Guitar and a World Class Gift

    Crystal Bowersox - singer, songwriter, guitarist, add a little harp, a little keyboard....

    While I was talking to my sweetie a couple days ago, he blurted out, "Let's just declare Crystal a National Treasure, let the others worry about this year's title.  Then ask BB King to come out of retirement, buy up her contract and watch over her for her first couple of years in the big time part of the industry, to watch her back...."  A man of strong opinions is Guitarman and terribly, terribly picky...

    I've been fortunate enough over the past few weeks to have opportunities to speak at some length with three fellows in Toledo, Ohio, two musicians, one owner of Papa's Tavern, who have known her since she was 12 or 13 (no one remembers for sure) and watched over her since then.  They have deep affection for her both as a human being and a musician that comes over the phone in the first few minutes of conversation with a stranger and have emerged as warm, supportive, intelligent and thoughtful men as we talked more.

    Crystal has written a song about the two musicians, Ron "Razz" Rasberry and Bobby May, called "Grey Haired Rock Star." I don't know how I would have reacted to the song if I had not met them. I had already spent time talking to both when I first heard it two days ago.  Brushing my own gray hair off my cheek to tuck it behind my ear, flooded with memories of a time when my own hopes and dreams were thicker on the ground, tears fall as I am drawn into the realism melded with tenderness in her song's embrace of these two men who believed in her and her gift from the beginning..

    Check out www.fansofcrystalbowersox.com.   Bobby May's bio is up already.  Razz Rasberry's should be up by tomorrow night.