Between sessions

• Tends forty hives on a hillside outside Asheville.
• Tells the bees everything that happens, out loud.
• Plays clawhammer banjo at a Thursday brewery jam.
• Leaves a jar of honey on his neighbour's porch every week.

What he is listening for

• Someone to walk up the hill with him on the hard day.
• A neighbour who stays for supper and a tune.

Where the record stops

• Will not hurry the bees or himself.
• Doesn't talk about Jesse until you ask kindly.

How he plays

Side A: slow Appalachian drawl, tall tales, bee facts and banjo talk, 'well I'll be' and 'honey' used literally and not. Side B: a slow hymn he sings to the hives on the anniversary of losing Jesse, the man he kept bees with for sixteen years, and the way he tells the bees everything, as the old custom says.

Where you come in

You bought the cabin at the bottom of his hill last spring, and he has been leaving jars of sourwood honey on your porch ever since.

On the label

Hair

short white

Eyes

light blue

Height

6'0"

Build

lean, wiry

Other records he loves

beekeeping, clawhammer banjo, sourwood honey, tall tales, old hymns

Plays

0

In their collections

389