He Sang His Ass Off and Pounded Chords on that Big Taylor

Russell Thorburn writes on “Send Dylan to the Country”

Ormson rips snow-driven chords hard on his Taylor acoustic, in Gummersound’s Marquette garage where the wood stove is heating up like his vocals. A Dylan Thomas baritone jumps into the fray to describe a dog with a cigarette . . . humor for the pub.

A step out the side door, winter is all smelly socks. Mrs. Henderson is there, and she’s willing to wash Dylan’s dirty socks and his alcoholic body at her cottage in Cornwall. She lights the fire too, warming him from the deep cold of his past, the Welsh poet celebrated in this song. The track concludes with notes that ripple like an open flame as the heat rises in the stove pipe, Prometheus bound flame and sound.

Gregory Ormson writes on “Send Dylan to the Country”

Turn it up for these bawdy chords because they announce that ‘That Dylan,’ the European one, has sat his ass down to write and I stood up to sing these D and G chords, calling on a thunder arm and velvet hand. Mrs. Henderson appears with a pair of new shoes and socks for Dylan, and she takes the time to wipe his nose . . . so cute.

I sang the song in November in Peter Gummerson’s Marquette garage following lines Thorburn had sketched on the paper. It was not perfect, but as they say today, “all good.” Multiply the work of these fingers with a half dozen strings, a couple dutiful chords, some wood to warm the fire, an arm to hold the beat, and a voice to lay bare Thomas’ shoes, socks, and nose full of snot. Mrs. Henderson is there too, after all, every song begs for grace to light the fire or wash the socks. We’re all damn glad when someone washes the socks.

Thorburn writes

When it’s time to record in that garage, Mr. Gummerson asks, “Greg, are you ready?” He doesn’t answer, just empties the acoustic Taylor and pours its very soul into those big chords. “It’s three Ds and a G,” Ormson says, and while distracted, he drops Gummerson’s expensive mic on the cement floor. Gummerson calls party foul on Ormson and gives him the ‘stink eye,’ but he’s forgiven, because Gummerson, and everyone there, knows that Ormson made love to that Taylor and sang his ass off.

More Ormson/Thorburn music with this tribute to John Lennon, “Silver Beatle Come Back.”

“Send Dylan to the Country,” by Russ Thorburn. Tape Mix at Gummersound, Marquette, Michigan. Greg Ormson guitar, vocals, and song arrangement shifting Thorburn words to fit the rhyme and the power of the DADGAD D.