Spook. . .

. . . Handy

(from http://spookhandy.com/wp/biography/)
". . . Spook Handy was No Musical Genius As a Kid ~ He played no instrument, owned no records, and didn’t even have a radio until he was in high school. In fact, he didn’t make the first cut when he tried out for Glee Club in 5th grade.

But he Had a Dream ~ His love for music dates back to his first time watching the Beatles perform on TV. That day a seed was planted – a vision, a possibility of still being a fun loving person when he grew up. And little was anyone to know that one day that seed would sprout.

And The Dream Grew ~ It happened on a stiflingly humid New Jersey morning the summer after graduating Rutgers University (Phi Beta Kappa) with a major in Math and Business. Spook had been offered several lucrative jobs in the actuarial field. He had been groomed for this career by his parents and teachers because he was good at math as a child. He had three job interviews lined up for the day. But…

Spook Always Carried with him a Lust for Living “Outside the Box” ~ His “what if” and “why not” questions raised many eyebrows. His unorthodox religious perspectives got him kicked out of Catholic school after 1st grade. And somewhere in the back of his mind he never gave up on the dream he had when he first saw the Beatles. So, on that fateful morning as he stood in the mirror hopelessly trying to tie his tie, a sudden and unforgiving truth overwhelmed him. The world of convention was not his fate. Sure, math came easy. But his lessons were to be learned through his heart, not his mind. That day he gave his suit and tie to the local thrift shop, bought a used Yahama guitar for $50 and set out to follow his heart’s dream. . ."

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Righteous. . .

 . . . and true. . .

(from http://www.npr.org/2012/10/27/163728141/at-93-pete-seeger-keeps-the-fire-burning-low)
". . . Tall and lean, in faded Levi's and corduroy shirt, Pete Seeger still pretty much looks like he did when the young Harvard dropout met the man who helped him find his life's work: Woody Guthrie.

"I was working in Washington, D.C., at the time with Alan Lomax, the folklorist," Seeger says. "And in Alan's house I met Woody, and he found that I could follow him in any song he played. I had a good ear and I stayed in tune, played the right chord, didn't play anything too fancy. So pretty soon, I was tagging along with him."

Seeger says Guthrie taught him not only lots of songs but also how to play in saloons, get paid first, how to ride the rails — carefully — and that no matter the consequences, to stick with your beliefs.

In a spoken-word track on his new Guthrie tribute album, Pete Remembers Woody, Seeger tells the story of Guthrie's famous slogan.

"He went through WWII with a piece of cardboard pasted to the top of his guitar: 'This machine kills fascists,' " Seeger says on the recording. "He really wanted his guitar to help win the war against Hitler. When Woody went into a hospital in 1952 ... I put something similar on my banjo: 'This machine surrounds hate and forces it to surrender.' ". . . "

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