I Saw the Light! A Dashiki new playlist of my one of my high school music mates: Tribute to Prine's Passing

My old school buddy contacted me not that long ago - he's got new uploads playing blues

When I first met Grant he was into wearing a Dashiki - I was too shocked to ask him the name of that style of shirt. I just knew it was supposed to be worn by black people. haha.

His dad was buddies with Bob Dylan before Bob was real famous - still playing near the University of Minnesota. In fact my mom heard Bob - walked into a local cafe - and said "what's the scratchy voice?" haha. She was not that impressed.

Many African American Men and Women believe that Dashiki is a convention that’s meant just for black or African individuals and it’s not to be worn with the Americans. It suggests their success over the political perspectives of Americans.

Therefore, if an American is located sporting a Dashiki they believe it an indication Of insult. Though with shifting times Dashiki has become famous worldwide and can be worn by men and women belonging to various cultures. It’s currently also being worn as a casual attire and is very trending.

John Prine cover by my old friend. I gave my friend an update - said I'm growing mushrooms up north.

I saw John Prine open for Emmy Lou Harris - Madison WI early 90s.
https://dashikishirtafrican.com/product/yellow-dashiki-shirt-for-men
Glad to hear Grant's voice still sounds good - if not better than high school. haha.
https://blackbitz.net/10-facts-to-know-about-the-popular-african-dashiki-prints-shirt/
We used to sing in choir together and our choir even toured churches in Florida - even performing in that Crystal Chapel or whatever that evangelical preacher has down there. Mainly it was small churches and goofing around.

Grant liked to goof around just as I did as well.

https://www.youtube.com/user/marroy14/featured

So the channel is all new uploads by Grant!

So the channel is only subscribed to Grant's music collaborator.

Anyway - Grant and I collaborated quite a bit in music back when we sang in choir together - so for a couple years - he even invited me to go to Folk Guitar Camp with him!! That's where I got in trouble - but it turned out to be no big deal - well my dad convinced me to go straight edge after that. haha. Pretty strict for a 15 year old!! I aligned myself with the straight edge hard core scene and I met James Hong soon after - he convinced me to go vegetarian!!

The dashiki is a loose, pullover tunic associated with African culture and the US counter-culture of the 1960s.

Easter Medley

Yeah so I guess Grant is leveraging the uptick interest in acoustic guitar music during the Pandemic....

Grant Johnson traditional folk style tune

Yeah Grant and I actually kind of wrote songs together - or at least each of us wrote tunes and we sort of had some inspiration for each other. Grant was always nice to me no matter what - a very kind person.

So Grant was the "real" hippy at our school since his dad has the direct connection and Grant dressed the part - the happy hippy folk singer. And I thought it was awesome. We were basically like Cathar Troubadours. A third singer - another real guitarist - not as good as Grant - but he and I played together as well - but he died from brain cancer at age 24 (whether it was from doing LSD too much I'll never know I guess)....

Yeah it was definitely Orange. I thought it was awesome that he wore this style of shirt in our lilly white school.

So looks like this was recording in Grant's room

So Grant took me to see a couple shows - he took me to see Koerner, Ray and Glover - LIVE. Grant used to wear the same boots that Koerner, ray and Glover all wore when they did the folk stomping - and sure enough they were stomping away just as Grant did as he played and as Koerner, Ray and glover did in the 60s. Their music was praised by the British early rockers (who were inspired mainly by US music). So people thought Koerner Ray and Glover were actually african-american black singers. This later seemed not very P.C. so Koerner, Ray and Glover switched their style to more straight folk.

I guess Grant has done the same. When I knew Grant he was into Hollerin!! And so was I - I even Hollered Koerner Ray and Glover to keep time as I worked the factory salmon processing line in Alaska - much to the chagrin of my coworkers. I guess the factory wasn't noisy enough. haha. It helped me survive those long shifts (sometimes over 20 hours straight (with 10 minute breaks and a half hour for lunch)...

I think it was more like this one - Grant was definitely paying tribute to Jimi Hendrix - he probably told me that.

Richard Thompson cover

So Grant was a bit of a party dude - smoking and drinking but never to excess. But maybe he quit smoking? He does seem cleaned up. Last I saw him I was literally sitting on the curb of the street - and he showed up with his dad - walking down to his dad's store. I was being hyper-melodramatic just to make a scene. They didn't know how to react! It was pretty funny but Grant was a bit too shocked. In other words while Grant grew up and got sensible - became a family business man - I refused to do so. I wanted to name our rock noise hippy band - Derelicts of Society - and I was dumpster diving and living the dream! haha.

Fun Country Song - cover

Oh he's got several John Prine covers - so this must be a tribute to Prine's passing.
https://bellatory.com/fashion-industry/Dashiki-AfricanFashion1960s

yeah when Grant and I played music then we mainly played lots of punk hardcore noise songs but we also definitely played country songs - like Tuesday's Gone. I would just "play along" while Grant knew all the songs - he was the "leader" of the band in terms of the music. We practiced at my house though and as I began writing more songs then I think the band members didn't want to play my songs as much. I threw some fits and they moved on - but when I heard their "new" band with me replaced by another friend of ours - I honestly found the music very bland. It sounded just like a one dimensional wall. Our band was not good at all but we were very quirky and experimental. We even had a Celtic song or Jig that I kind of wrote - and people thought it was a joke - but no one really knew for sure. That was the strangeness of it all. For example we covered the  Doors Light My Fire - and for the solo - I just refused to stop once when we played this Prissy Private school dance. haha. I just wanted to trash the whole experience - musically that is.

12 string Slide Guitar - Lefty Frizzell cover

So Grant was definitely a true stylist but he respected my classical piano training - he said - Bach can ROCK! haha.

Grant used to have his own made up words that he liked to use and people would have to figure out what he meant - but usually the meaning was ambiguous so that it was a kind of strange joke - was it a dirty word or not? We couldn't really tell. And so then we would start using the words also and pretty soon we are all speaking "Grant." And so everyone wanted to be part of Grant's fun. He would kind of wander around to spread his social fun around to everyone but Grant also liked to be on the move to find out where the social fun action was...

And so due to Grant's musical expertise honed from his dad's 60s connections but mainly due to Grant's true obsession with music - he was constantly in the record stores looking for albums - and no one could really compete with Grant's music obsession - then Grant soon was working at one of the local infamous cool record stores (that also ran a cool local record label launching some of the famous Minneapolis Sound grunge bands). It's said that Seattle kind of sold out the Grunge sound while Minneapolis kind of launched the Grunge sound - with local bands like Cows, Run Westy Run, Replacements (the most famous of course), Husker Du (second most famous), Soul Asylum were a kind of "second generation" - and we were part of that 2nd generation wave - although more like "musician's musicians"

Billy the Bum

So one time I had "returned" to the  Twin Cities and my folks had moved out of the city - so I didn't want to drove "home" out of the city. Instead I just slept on the floor outside Grant's apartment in our old neighborhood -curled up on the carpet. I left before he left his apartment. I am truly not sure if he ever knew I was there or what happened. haha. I just knew it was a kind of "safe space" for the night since he knew he could trust me and I knew I could trust him - but I never even bothered him by ringing the bell. I just went there late and crashed on the floor in the hallway and left early - just to get enough sleep in a warm spot to tide me over for the next day. Thanks Grant! He had this nice view apartment in a hip location back when Uptown was still cool - on Hennepin - and not just Yuptown as I call it now....
https://www.dashikipride.com/

Yeah I used to wander around the old neighborhood being very nostalgic about how Uptown - in the 80s was still a kind of mixed middle class scene - and yet now it had be turned into a Mall Culture scene - where were the punks and grungers? People were either too busy being slaves to the Yuppies or too busy being sold out Yuppies! haha. It was all gone now but no point in being Nostalgic about just another Urban Renewal scene.

So Grant was part of the 1980s Hippy Revival - or he LEAD that revival for me at least. He enabled me to learn about rock and roll, etc. All I had known was the Beatles literally (and had listened to a few other records by chance).... Grant knew all the details of the whole rock music scene - and folk music....

 The Great Compromise

So when I played music with Grant - I don't remember him playing John Prine. But of course I'm sure only just a few of Grant's repertoire.

What Grant and I had in common is that we were both OBSESSED with MUSIC - but he was obsessed with popular music. He would lead the band, singing and playing guitar. Most of the time I literally NEVER heard the actual songs that Grant covered - in their original form! It was all new to me and I would just play along and enjoy the music for what it was! I didn't have time to try "track down" the original songs. I would not even have known how to find them - this was way before the interwebs. haha.

So Grant became a "solid" fixture of the Twin Cities music scene - he could always been counted on - and he still CAN. He sounds "solid" - more than he did when I played music with him. Although when we played music then Grant may have been more experimental. I would play the Steinway Grand sometimes while Grant played guitar (or maybe that was just with my other acoustic guitar friend). Grant of course played electric mainly when we played together - as part of our noise rock band.

The Torch Singer

For me - Grant and I even performed together for the school convocation church service - 800 or so students - and we sang, "I Saw the Light!" - Grant taught me the song of course - Hank Williams.

And when we sang that song - we meant it and sure enough it came true for me!! I saw spirits even. haha.

But you can hear that Grant plays from the same HEART love that we felt back then - over 30 years ago - from our Christian music singing.

I was never a good singer - my choir partner next to me said I sang flat. I never tried to sing in tune. haha. Grant never complained about my singing though - he was in the tenor or baritone section - not the same section as me. At any rate - I figured Bob Dylan must sing a bit flat also - and maybe that's why Grant didn't care. Or maybe I didn't sing that bad off anyway.

So here Grant joins in with other musicians

Grant's playing slide guitar - in the bottom left corner.

Grant used to play slide with a bottle as he played normal guitar....

Grant even used to wear one of those African shirts from the 1960s - what are they called? That Jimmy Hendrix would wear...

A Dashiki!

I never knew the NAME of that style of shirt! thanks Grant for teaching me still to this day!