[The scene: A Saturday evening in mid-June, 2011. A living room in suburban northwest Florida, USA. A man and a woman watch TV — something the man has chosen, because it is his birthday. A knock comes at the front door; The Pooch begins to bark madly, as usual, except she is also spinning: something she does only when someone she loves (or knows she will love) approaches the house.]
She: I’ll get it.
[She scoops up The Pooch and opens the front door. There on the porch stands a radiant silver beauty of a woman. The mystery woman smiles; it lights up the threshold and foyer like moonlight. When the mystery woman speaks, it is with a soft, sweet drawl.]
Mystery Woman: Hey there Missus. I’m Emmylou. Mr. Simpson at home tonight?
She: Why yes. Yes, he is. Would you like to come in?
[Finally the man — who has heard nothing of the dialogue to this point — pauses the movie, a little annoyed that the rhythm of this great action-suspense-thriller heist flick has been interrupted.]
He: Is that the pizz— Holy shit.
MW: Hey there, John.
He: But you’re — you’re—
MW: Uh-huh. Just here to play something for you, if that’s all right.
[She retrieves an acoustic guitar from the porch, comes in, sits down and makes herself comfortable, and begins to sing.]
He: [Picking self up from floor] My God…
She: Hmm. Can I get you anything, Emmylou? Water? Glass of wine? Coffee?
MW: That’d be sweet of you, ma’am. Just water for now. [Turning to the man.] Like to hear somethin’ else?
He: Er, uh, well… [nervous laugh] That was a bit somber, y’know? Maybe something more—
MW: [not-at-all-nervous laugh] More up-tempo? More birthdayish?
He: Oh, I don’t want—
MW: That’s all right, not a problem. Thank you, Miz Simpson.
[Mystery Woman takes offered glass of water, drinks deeply. He is hypnotized by the way Mystery Woman swallows. He swallows a little, himself.]
MW: Let me see… OK, hit it, boys.
[A band magically appears behind her.]
MW: There y’go. [She laughs softly.] Just like candles: one Cadillac for each decade. Hope y’all liked it.
He: I— I—
MW: Anything else you’d like to hear right now?
He: Well, I know there’s no way for you to— I mean, that little thing you did with Alison Krauss and Gillian Welch for O Brother, Where—
MW: You might be surprised what I can do.
[She snaps her fingers. The band disappears, and is replaced by a suddenly coalescing Alison Krauss and Gillian Welch.]
MW: Ready, girls?
[Below, click Play button to begin Didn’t Leave Nobody But the Baby. While audio is playing, volume control appears at left — a row of little vertical bars. This clip is 1:57 long.]
[Alison Krauss and Gillian Welch ripple, turn translucent, and return to the ether.]
He: I— I’m speechless.
MW: Thank you. I’m so glad. I’m such a fan of your blog, you just don’t know. Especially that entry you posted back at the end of March. [Mystery Woman smiles. He falls to floor again.]
[Mystery Woman stands, leans guitar against the sideboard. Mystery Woman opens her arms, and He steps into them.]
MW: Y’all have a nice night, now.
[Mystery Woman leaves. He turns to She, who is impaling Him with a glare.]
She: You want to explain what just happened, “Mr. Simpson”?
He: Well, back in March, I wrote a post, sorta magic realis— No, forget it. I’m not sure I understand it myself.
She: [nods, apparently accepting this] I will say, that’s one beautiful woman.
He: Isn’t she, though? Isn’t she just? Have you ever seen hair like that? And that smile. [Shakes head.] And didn’t she look great in jeans? And the boots—
She: Okay, okay, enough of that. Back to the movie.
__________________________________
Hat tip to Jules for the NPR clip. Thank you again!
s.o.m.e.one's brudder says
Now how do we get the Mystery Woman to do the same gig 4 months and a day later, above the Mason-Dixon line? Be still my beating heart…..
Here was an example of two minds with the same daydream, but only one with the skill set to articulate it. Thanks for the articulation. Did you download “The Road” yet? Mighty fine!
s.o.m.e.one's brudder says
btw: Second clip is AWESOME in 720 HD on a 27″ iMac. Thanks for making my day. Now how to explain the smile on my face when I get home from work…
Jules says
Love. It.
Last night, I popped in a lullaby mix I’d made my girls forever ago, and the audio track you have here was on it. Used with much different intent in “O Brother,” but I still like to hear it.
Nance says
I’m a little sad to see Emmy Lou resort to such artifice; I loved her unadorned look in the seventies. Now, imagine this: Emmy Lou, pre-lift, sans .6 lbs of eye make-up, with a more naturally mobile face, opens her mouth and the voice we all know and love ripples forth in “Didn’t Leave Nobody But The Baby.” There’s beauty for you.
My fantasy? Tim Blake Nelson, who never aspired to glamor but who always blows me away, shows up for my birthday and sings, “In The Jailhouse Now.”
The verification phrase: spent singshan
Nance says
Wow, that last comment was grumpy. Pro’ly need my meds adjusted. And, just ’cause I felt so bad about it, I tried to make it up to you with my own favorite Emmy Lou memory and my fantasized, silver-haired mystery visitor, too.
Jayne says
JES- so glad Nance gave you props on her last blog post. Love the magic going on here, and a very creative story. I do a music column myself, on Fridays, so really appreciate your creativity – there’s a lot of time and love that goes into that. Can see it here. Best!
John says
brudder: “The Road” is great! (And I was especially happy it had nothing to do with the Cormac McCarthy book or the movie made from it.)
“Be still my beating heart” was exactly my reply when Jules pointed me to the NPR video. Coincidence?
Thanks for introducing me to her, lo these many years ago. I think it was in the context of a description something like, “one of the most beautiful women in the world.” You didn’t usually exaggerate on such matters, I knew, but the Web and digital music hadn’t been invented yet so I had to resort to more conventional means to confirm it: thumbing through the covers of LPs at a store. Aieee.
That her voice and music could stand on their own just made the look fit.
John says
Nance: I’m so glad you came back for that second, softer comment; the first grieved me. But you should’ve been less shy about linking to your response at your own Mature Landscaping site. :)
The Missus has often told me how much time and work a woman has to put in to hang onto the beauties of youth. Most guys aren’t (or don’t remain) conscious of that, though, unless they spend a lot of time in the car in the driveway, with the motor running, checking their watch, and drumming their fingers on the steering wheel.
So when you mentioned a lift, and all the makeup, and so on, it went Clang! in my head because I thought, well, Emmylou looks as good as ever, just older…!.
Part of me knows that a certain amount of behind-the-scenes artifice goes on to make that possible. But I put that artifice in the same category as, say, doing sound checks in the studio before starting to record: pushing all the myriad sliders up and/or down until it just sounds right… and repeating the process, over and over, through all the takes and tracks of all the songs finally assembled on the album.
Tim Blake Nelson is a wonder, isn’t he? When O Brother… came out, I remember reading in one of those making-of stories that he was the only member of the cast who’d read The Odyssey.
John says
Jules: Thanks again for the original inspiration!
“Didn’t Leave Nobody But the Baby,” used with much different intent in the movie: now, that’s understatement. The goggle-eyed look on the guys’ faces at that moment cracked me up from the start, even as my own pulse climbed. :)
[o/t: oooh, reCaptcha has offered up a proper name for the first time in a long time, complete with capitalized initial letters — Sebastian Abdsh. The second “a” in “Sebastian” even has a little diacritical grave accent over it.]
John says
Jayne: Thank you for coming by!
Your own Friday Night Frolic series stands as a model of how to write creative posts about music. If I tried to do that week after week, I’d be pretty much tapped out after the first month. :)
s.o.m.e.one's brudder says
okay, now you’ve created a further problem for me. As if I had enough time to read YOUR blog, now you link me to Jayne’s Friday Night Frolic and find that the playlist there even outstrips my bizarro-world iTunes (Captain Beefheart to Vladamir Horowitz) selections. AND she appreciates all that is great about Local Hero! NOW I’m going to have to follow that too….sheesh!
John says
brudder: There’s more than one reason why it’s called the “Web.” :)
Seriously, though, I do love about the Web that if one wants, one can hop-skip-jump to great stuff for days.
And you do know about Google Reader, right? (Not to be confused with Gmail Motion.)