John Hartford

   WOW! My favorite blue grass artist. The famous author of Steamboat In a Cornfield never puts out a bad album.
    In 1966, Hartford released his debut album, John Hartford Looks at Life, which was produced by Chet Atkins. The following year, he released Earthwords & Music, which featured his first hit single, Gentle On My Mind. In 1967, when Glen Campbell's cover of the song became a Top 40 country and pop hit in the U.S.; following Campbell's example, a number of other artists -- including Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Aretha Franklin -- recorded the song, providing Hartford with enough money to turn his back to pop stardom and record his own music.

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John Hartford's Awesome Website - the man...the myth...the legend

"The river has become my central metaphor,"says the songwriter and author of Steamboat in a Cornfield. As a boy in St. Louis, John's passions were stirred by a certain fifth grade teacher.He looks back fondly in his tribute to "Miss Ferris":

Me oh my, how the time does fly!

The time and the river keep a-rollin' on by.

Now I'm not a student and she's not a teacher.

But we both still love the Mississippi River, uh-huh.

Everybody who has kept up with Hartford over the years now identifies him with the figure of the oldtime steamboat pilot, just as folks knew Jimmie Rodgers as "The Singin' Brakeman."

There was a time, though, when his musical pursuits estranged him from his devotion to the river. "When I realized I could play music, and that I was really driven to play music, I definitely decided that the river wouldn't mix with it," he confesses," so I literally tried to get away from the river. It was desperation. If I drove across a bridge I'd try not to look to the right or left." - J. Seymour Guenther

John has been a regular, not only on The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour, but the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, David Letterman, Hee Haw, The Grand Ole Opry, and as a guest of Ralph Emery on Nashville Now. He has also written a special for The Nashville Network, "Banjos, Fiddles, and Riverboats." The special stars himself, Capt. Edgar Allen Poe, and the almighty General Jackson riverboat. In May of 1991 the Gasoline Alley comic strip featured John in a story-line that paralleled that of the children's book written by Hartford, "Steamboat In A Cornfield." In addition to multiple television and radio appearances, John was one of the voices on Ken Burns' "Civil War" series on PBS. - Acoustic Cafe