Tracy Grammer and Jim Henry: Music, and love, born from grief
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It was another gig, like many they'd played before. But for this one, they took inspiration from the lead singer's recent knee surgery to introduce themselves by a new name: Tracy Grammer and the Male Nurses.
When Grammer and her longtime musical partner, Jim Henry, took the stage at the Wendell Full Moon Coffeehouse on a recent Saturday night, Grammer told the audience she was still recovering, and that she was grateful for the help Henry had been providing her. "He's been my nurse for the past month," she said. Then, turning her head to indicate Henry's friend, bass player Guy DeVito, Grammer added, "Guy's wife just broke two bones in her foot, so he'll have the experience of being a nurse, too."
A few songs into the set, Grammer, who'd sung all the lead vocals to that point, turned in her chair toward Henry. "I think we're going to ask one of our male nurses to take on something now." Henry, looking sidelong at her, responded "Bedpan duty, is that what it's going to be?"
As the crowd laughed, Grammer smiled and said sweetly: "No, just sing." Henry swapped his electric guitar for an acoustic and introduced a song he'd written several years ago about his daughter, Ruby, now 13 and becoming a little mysterious to him: "The house smells like nail polish and popcorn all the time," he quipped.
"Ah, nail polish," said Grammer.
When it comes to polish - the musical variety - Grammer and Henry, both of Shutesbury, have it in spades. She's a standout folk singer and fiddle player, and he's a stellar guitarist and vocalist who's played and recorded with numerous musicians over the last 10 years, in addition to making several records on his own. The two have performed as a duo since 2003, touring the country and overseas in addition to playing local gigs at places like Northampton's Iron Horse Music Hall and the city's First Night festival on New Year's Eve.
But it's been an unusual partnership of sorts, born not just from a love for music but from grief and a broken heart.
Listen to "Gypsy Rose" from Tracy Grammer's Flowers of Avalon with Jim Henry
Excerpts of other tracks from Tracy Grammer's Flowers of Avalon (right-click on PC or Ctrl-click on Mac to download):
"Mother, I Climbed" | "Phantom Doll"
Grammer once played with Dave Carter, a songwriter whose work had drawn widespread acclaim in the folk world before he died suddenly in 2002. The following year, Grammer, who had also been romantically involved with Carter, decided to hit the road to continue playing his songs. Henry learned the Dave Carter repertoire during an intense week and signed on to accompany her, and they played their debut concert at the Iron Horse without ever having rehearsed together.
That's been their bond over the years: two highly accomplished musicians playing their arrangements of Carter's songs, sprinkling their sets with some of Henry's originals, covers of other artists' songs and a few instrumentals. And along the way, the deep friendship they developed blossomed into love, in part because of Henry's commitment to the Dave Carter songbook.
As Grammer writes in an email, "It was important to me that whoever I worked with share my reverence for [Carter[']s songs], have an understanding of my mission, and respect the song. There had to be that connection. And in listening to Jim Henry's treatment of the songs, I knew: He got it. That was obvious from our first show together."
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Henry, 48, grew up mostly in the Midwest and came to the Valley in the late 1970s to attend Hampshire College. He's been a familiar figure on the local music scene for well over 20 years. He was the lead guitarist for The Sundogs, a popular band that toured throughout New England in the late 1980s and early 1990s. After the band broke up in 1991, Henry decided to take the singer/songwriter route, cutting three solo records and touring extensively over the next 10 years.
He earned praise for his songwriting and overall musical craftsmanship. But his career didn't take off in the way he'd hoped. "It's hard to make it pay unless you have a big hit," he said in a 2002 interview with Hampshire Life. The touring also became a strain, particularly at a time when his children, from a previous marriage - Jackson, now 15, and Ruby - were both very young.
Around the time he turned 40, Henry decided to focus more on studio work and gigs with other musicians. He learned to play mandolin and dobro to extend his range and was soon logging time with acoustic artists like Mark Erelli, Katryna and Nerissa Nields, the Burns Sisters and Cliff Eberhardt. Another client was singer/songwriter Deb Talan, formerly of Amherst and now one-half of the California-based folk/pop duo The Weepies, whose music has been featured in TV shows and movies.
Carrie Ferguson, a Northampton singer/songwriter and piano player, had long been impressed by Henry's musicianship. A few years ago, when she was recording her recently released debut album, "Riding on the Back of the Wind," she was looking for a guitar player, and a number of people suggested she get in touch with Henry. The idea, though, made Ferguson a little nervous.
"He's such a good musician, I didn't know if he'd want to play on my record," she says, laughing. "I had limits to my budget." But she made the call and found Henry quite down-to-earth and willing to take part in her project. She and her engineer, Scot Coar, sent him a mix of what they'd recorded, and after listening to that, Henry arrived at Coar's Easthampton studio with his full arsenal of instruments and laid down a range of tracks for Ferguson's songs.
"Jim can do it all," she says. "If you want blues, he'll play blues ... if you want ambient guitar swells, he'll give you that." Ferguson was struck not just by Henry's versatility but "his sensitivity in playing - he has a great sense of what works on each song. He doesn't overplay anything." Henry also joined her onstage for her sold-out CD release show at the Iron Horse in late February.
These days, Henry's something of a musical jack-of-all-trades. Aside from his work with Grammer and other musicians, he has a recording studio in the Shutesbury home he shares with Grammer, and he's recorded and produced albums and song collections for established and aspiring musicians alike. He and a friend, Sean Meyer, also operate a business in which they write and record original songs to commemorate special occasions like birthdays and anniversaries.
In addition, he gives music lessons, and the wonders of the Web mean his students occasionally come from some far-flung places - like the Russian man who wanted to learn Henry's version of "Windy and Warm," a Doc Watson instrumental he'd recorded on one of his albums. "That was a little weird," he says. "I don't know how he heard of me." Using Skype, the software application that allows video phone calls over the Internet, he got in touch with the man. "It was a little tough to understand him, though he had a friend to help translate," he says.
Henry, who charges $50 an hour for his services - he'll lower that rate for longer projects or for clients with limited budgets - says his workload can sometimes be "feast or famine." Late February and early March was one of the more bountiful times. He and Grammer played two local shows, including the one in Wendell, and Henry played at Carrie Ferguson's Northampton concert. He and Grammer also traveled to Canandaigua, N.Y., last weekend to back up singer/songwriter Lisa Bigwood at a show where she was debuting songs from a new CD that Henry and Grammer played on. The following night, the duo played with Bigwood when she opened for longtime Valley favorite Brooks Williams at the Iron Horse.
In between were lessons and meetings at his home with members of regional bands, like Greenfield's Boxcar Lilies, to discuss recording projects. He was happy to have the work, though he says he sometimes has to be careful not to over-schedule himself. "I like keeping busy," he says.
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While Henry's approach to music might be pragmatic - he's got paying the bills in mind - for Tracy Grammer, music is an emotional calling, one that stems from Carter's sudden death and the whirlwind way she got caught up in the business in the first place. "I still sometimes feel like an accidental tourist in this," she says. "I'll find myself thinking, #How did I get here?' "
Born in Florida and raised in California, Grammer, 41, grew up in a musical family and studied classical violin and choral music as a girl. She also learned to harmonize when singing country songs with her guitar-playing father. She played violin in her high school orchestra and for school musicals, but set music aside while studying literature at the University of California at Berkeley.
In her 20s, she got caught up in it again, singing at open mikes, dusting off her violin and taking up the guitar. She co-founded a pop band in the early 1990s and learned some of the ins and outs of working in a recording studio. Then, after moving to Portland, Ore., and taking a job in corporate communications, she met Dave Carter in early 1996 at an open mike. Like a lot of people who knew Carter, she was bowled over by his songwriting.
As she says on her Web site, "Here were stories that could stand alone as poetry, sung with compassion, intelligence, and a hint of Texas twang. Dave's entire presentation felt like home to me. I knew instantly that I was in the presence of greatness; I knew I had received my calling in life."
Carter, who had grown up mostly in Oklahoma and Texas, was 43 at the time he and Grammer met - she was 27 - and had worked as a computer programmer before turning to music full time. He had studied music formally when he was younger, and his songs were a rich mix of Southern storytelling, Native American imagery and spirituality. He and Grammer soon began playing together, and they became personally involved as well. They began touring in 1997 and recorded their first album, "When I Go," in 1998 with some basic equipment set up in Grammer's kitchen.
The folk world was taking notice. At one point the duo toured as part of folk legend Joan Baez's band, and Baez likened Carter's songwriting talent to that of Bob Dylan. Carter and Grammer's music also caught the ear of Jim Olsen, president of the Whately acoustic music label Signature Sounds, who signed them. They recorded two records with the label, and the second, 2001's "Drum Hat Buddha," appeared to put them on the cusp of stardom.
"I was absolutely sure that all they needed to reach a much bigger audience was to have some more well-known artist record one of Dave's songs, and I was convinced that was just about to happen," says Olsen. He adds that Grammer's stepped-up role on the second two records - she sang lead on many of the songs and handled a big chunk of the musical arrangements - greatly enhanced Carter's songs.
But tragedy struck one morning in July 2002, when the couple were in a Hadley motel, preparing to play later that day at the annual Green River Festival. Carter came back from a jog and collapsed. He died of a heart attack at 49 years old.
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For several months after Carter's death, Grammer says, "I was kind of the conductor of the grief train." She cancelled many of her gigs, although she and other musicians paid tribute to Carter in a show just a week after his death. Eventually, though, in part because of the response she got from fans, Grammer started touring again.
"I was flooded with emails from all over the world, very personal, profound emails full of stories and reflections, all marked by a sadness that seemed nearly as deep as my own," she says. "And while this was cause for tearful celebration, it was bittersweet because Dave wasn't there to see it."
In the summer of 2003, Grammer did a West Coast tour with a new guitar player who kept upstaging her, she says: "I could see very clearly this was not going to work." With a six-week tour in the Northeast scheduled to begin in September, she had to find another accompanist - and fast. She called Jim Olsen and musicians she knew in the East, who all urged her to contact Jim Henry. The two talked by phone, and Henry agreed to take the job. After an intensive home study of the Carter/Grammer CDs, from guitar parts to lyrics to harmony vocals, he met Grammer for the first time on the steps of the Iron Horse a few hours before their Sept. 10 show.
"He gave me a big hug," Grammer says, smiling. "It got things off to a good start." She jokes that after the show, she felt radiant, excited that it had gone well, and she turned to Henry and said, "Wasn't that great?" But Henry, she adds, gave her a deadpan look and said, "No."
"I'd been living and breathing those songs for a week," he says with a chuckle. "I just felt a little fried at that point."
But the collaboration took off, and their friendship deepened as they toured together. They recorded an EP, "The Verdant Mile," the following year, and Henry also played on all the tracks of Grammer's acclaimed 2005 album for Signature Sounds, "Flowers of Avalon," which featured nine previously unrecorded Dave Carter songs. Grammer in turn played on an EP Henry was recording, "One-Horse Town."
Around the same time, Grammer moved to the Valley from Oregon, and her relationship with Henry, who was no longer married, turned personal.
"I think that came about because we were already such good friends," she says. Henry's wry sense of humor and his commitment to her and Carter's music, she says, went a long way toward helping her recover from the dark times of 2002. "He met the musical and emotional challenges head-on, hard as it was, and kept us laughing off the stage. This was a good and healing fit, right from the start."
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The couple have kept their relationship low-key, partly out of deference to Henry's ex-wife, who also lives in Shutesbury and shares custody of their children. Their son and daughter have inherited some of dad's musical genes: Jackson, a sophomore at Amherst Regional High School, plays the fiddle, and Ruby, a seventh-grader at the Pioneer Valley Performing Arts Charter Public School in South Hadley, plays piano and guitar and "is always singing," Henry says.
Onstage, Henry and Grammer will sometimes gently needle each other. At the Wendell Full Moon Coffeehouse, Grammer introduced a cover song, "Blue Wing" by Tom Russell, and after talking about Russell's songwriting for a moment, she wondered aloud what Henry thought of her comments. "Hey, I only speak when I'm spoken to," he said.
They're not performing together as frequently these days, in part because of Henry's other musical commitments and his reluctance to tour. Grammer is traveling more on her own, though on a reduced schedule. "We're kind of feeling our way with this," she says. "I still get excited about [performing Dave Carter songs], although in some ways the shows are less about music than a big hug [with the audience] ... [Henry] is kind of done with that."
For his part, Henry says he has great respect for Carter's songs. But he sometimes likes to cut loose on guitar, as he did during a show in January at the Black Moon Lounge in Belchertown. He was playing with his old buddy Brooks Williams, who's formerly of Shutesbury but is now spending much of his time in Great Britain. The two guitarists, who have played together several times over the years, performed a sizzling mix of blues, gypsy jazz, country and folk that had the capacity crowd cheering.
Williams says he's always enjoyed playing with Henry because of their shared love for the guitar. "I felt we connected on that from the first note we played." From a technical standpoint, he adds, Henry brings "a single-note electric guitarist's vibe to the acoustic guitar, which I really like. He's like Keith Richards and Eric Clapton, but he also has a Doc Watson and Tony Rice thing as well. I've always admired his flatpicking - his tone is second to none."
Henry will get a chance to show off some of those riffs for a national audience this summer: He's been invited to play with Mary Chapin Carpenter's band as she readies for a tour supporting her upcoming album, "The Age of Miracles."
It's a connection he made initially through Grammer, who explains that Carpenter was a fan of her work with Dave Carter (as Grammer is of Carpenter's). Carpenter sent her a condolence email after Carter died, and she and Grammer sang one of Carter's songs together the following summer at a music festival; Carpenter later wrote a song dedicated to Carter. Grammer in turn asked her to sing backup on her "Flower of Avalon" album.
John Jennings, Carpenter's former guitarist and producer, agreed to co-produce the album, and all of the principals met in Jennings' studio in Virginia in 2004.
Impressed with Henry's guitar playing, Carpenter invited him to tour with her two years ago when one of her guitarists - a friend of Henry's - wasn't available. Henry spent several weeks learning her songs in preparation for full band rehearsals, but the tour was abruptly cancelled when Carpenter suffered a pulmonary embolism. "It was a tough time for everyone," says Henry, who was crushed at the lost opportunity.
But now that opportunity has knocked again. Touring with Carpenter, whose songwriting he's long admired, will be at a more comfortable level than he's used to - chartered bus, nice hotel rooms, and good money - though it will still involve a lot of travel. "It's an honor to be asked to do this," he says.
In the meantime, Henry has also kept busy mentoring young musicians, from playing guitar at student assemblies at the Shutesbury elementary school to hosting shows in town for young bands. And he and Grammer continue to hone their stage repartee. At the Wendell show, after Grammer asked the audience to acknowledge Guy DeVito's bass playing, Henry piped up in a mock-wounded voice, "How about me? Am I doing OK?"
"Oh, you're doing fine," Grammer assured him, as the audience applauded.
"And how about Tracy Grammer there?" Henry asked, eliciting more cheers. And then he and Grammer smiled and nodded at each other and turned back to their instruments.
Steve Pfarrer can be reached at spfarrer@gazettenet.com.
