This was the first song I wrote about my experiences at Graves Mountain Lodge, "Just about a mile past Syria, Virginia".  This song brings back such memories of the October mountain festival that you can almost taste the "Brunswick Stew" and see the leaves "changin' all around you".  Although the lyrics refer to the lodge owners I knew so well (Big Jim and Rachel), I originally wrote the song referring to Jim parents, "Mister Jack and Miss Kate" to whom many thousands have very fond memories.  Its to their memory  and the way of life they lived and inspired that  I dedicate these songs. Click here for a picture of me standin' next to the old lodge entrance.

This song pretty much describes my experience when I  became acquainted with  Jesse Comer Utz and his "marvelous steam farm machine" at my first Apple Harvest Festival at Graves Mountain Lodge. I was on the front porch eating breakfast when all of a sudden I heard this sound that filled up the entire valley. Along with a farm worker named "Neugene" who had been waiting for Jesse Comer, I ran to the window and was amazed at the site.   "Grabbing one more honey biscuit", Neugene and I left immediately to go see.  Click here for a picture of the steam farm machine.

Speaking of mountain legends. Mr. Jack was already a legend and gone before I would have had the opportunity to meet him.  I wrote this song based on many stories I had heard as well as a picture in the lodge of Mister Jack trout fishing ("one foot in the stream"). There was a story in the Washington Post about Mister Jack's passing and about him being at the same time a gentle man of the mountains as well  as an "executive" in a huge corporation wielding a major influence in the Virginia farming community. 

I took poetic license and wrote the song as if I was describing a moment in my younger life of actually knowing him and sneaking to follow him on one of his fishing trips. After hearing the song, many of those who knew and loved him said that the song had captured the essence of Mister Jack.  At the end of the song is a melodic piece of the old time hymn, "In the Sweet By and By" whose words include "we will meet on the beautiful shore". Whenever I perform this song I always think of the parting prayer: ''Til then Mister Jack." ..... I do so much look forward to meeting him one day. 

The Rose River flows right through the valley at Graves Mountain and you have to cross it to go up to the lodge. The bed of the river is full of a stone called unakite which is green with a little hint of rose coloration throughout. At sometime every song writer writes about a "rose". There are many "roses" of Rose River. I figure most of the ladies that live there or even the ones that visit are a "rose" in someone's heart. So this song is dedicated to all the ladies then and now especially to Jimmy Graves' rose, Rachel Graves.  

This song was originally an instrumental I wrote on one of my trips when I met a young girl named "Rachel Ann". She was the niece of lodge owner Rachel Graves. The "word version" of the song came after one of the most touching moments of my life. It happened at the Apple Harvest Festival the year after I had released the first tape. I was up at one of the sheds performing the songs and Rachel Ann came up to listen. Well she just looked at me like I was some kind of something special. She was very excited to see me. The first thing she asked was for me to play the song "Jesse Comer". I was immediately impressed that she even remembered the name of one of the songs but then when I played it, she sung along word for word. The next song was "Mister Jack" and she added movements along with the words. She not only knew the words to all my songs but had made up little dances and movements for most of them. I was literally "blown away". To my knowledge Rachel Ann was the first person to memorize the lyrics of a "nortune" besides Nortune. Her momma later told me she had listened to the tape just about every night when she went to bed. She will always hold a dear place in my heart.  

This song was inspired by the sheer beauty of many a walk on  the mountain trails in the area seeing "the hemlock brushing the heavens", "trout filled streams," and the "rainbows dancin' over the water falls".  For the other metaphors in the song, Georgia is my home state, Carolina beaches have always been a good place to visit, and I have seen "Blue Hawaii" and yes it is "nearly paradise".

Lee Anna is the daughter of Bob and Betty Sue Camper. Her dad who is a manager  or something of the sort used to call her a "pistol".  I say something of the sort because Bob does just about a lot of everything. He's a jack of all trades and at the same time an extraordinary master of most. Along with Roby, they're a great family and all participate in some way at the harvest festival.  One night after a rousing evening of Uno I looked over and saw Lee Anna "sleeping in her chair".  Although she was much younger, she was faster and seemed smarter than all of us. She proceeded to beat our brains out in Uno and just floated off to dreamland. I remember thinking at the time, her Dad is right, she is a pistol.  And don't you just love that name "Betty Sue". Besides being the inspiration for a  line in "Doubletop" ("Wide eyed mountains girls live there too," ) Lee Anna's mom is known for being very artistic and I remember her doing a lot of the signs and posters at the festival, decorating pumpkins and the like. 

Just a little instrumental dittie named for the highest mountain  in the Graves  portion of the Blue Ridge. Only the peak is visible from the lodge as you look out across the valley.  One day I was sitting up on the porch doing a little guitar picking and this song just kind of came out. About that same time I pulled in one of those deep breathtaking views and there peeked out the name of the song just shining in the clear morning sun. 

One of the nice day trips while you're visiting the lodge is to hike Old Rag. You can take either the leisure walk on the "fire trail" or otherwise the "ridge trail" which is a little shorter and steeper. The lodge will make you a box lunch of which I highly recommend asking them to throw in some of the Graves Mountain applesauce made right there at the Graves Mountain Cannery. In terms of the hikes, I've done 'em both and made sure both times to look out from the peak back to lodge to see where I came from.  There are some views on those walks that you'll never lose.  

The lodge sets on the side of Double Top Mountain. That pretty much was all I needed to be inspired to write this one. That and the dream of having myself a little cabin just around the "t'other side".  Click here for a look at the lodge settin' on Doubletop Mountain.

On the way to Graves Mountain Lodge you pass through the two little towns of Syria and Crigglersville where "life here's a little slow, but that's what I need don't ya know". This song is my favorite portrait of the mountains.   It pretty much sums up the best of my "good ol' mountain mem'rys". It reminds me of just settin' a spell in a big ole rocker on the porch relaxing after one of the sumptuous family style meals at the lodge.  All you got to do is settle back and enjoy the view out over the valley "watching the colors changin' on the mountains".  

As a special note: the line "don't ya know" came from Bob Camper's grandmother  Carrie Waugh who came from the general area but from over yonder parts. She was and will always be everybody's "Grannie".

As my old buddy J. Austin Jefferson says, it never hurts to put a familiar tune on your CD. This rendition is mostly fancy picking (that's one guitar doing arpeggiated tremolando) in the midst of a beautiful old melody. The Shenandoah valley is on the other side of the Blue Ridge Parkway from the lodge and is always a nice place to go on a day trip especially since its so famous. You can also take in the Luray Caverns on your way. 

This song was included in the original tape but was left off of the second one to make room for "Rachel Ann". I always wished I could have had more tape so I could put on both. Of course through the miracle of technology, I can now include both with room to spare.  As you listen to this tune back home with your memories, or while driving through the mountains I would like for you to ponder on how we can all preserve our wonderful past in the midst of the new technology. Like me, I hope you're able to find a place for both.   May God bless you and yours.  And, I hope to see ya' "thar"  someday.