In my life, I've played this songs more times than probably any other song. It was one of the first songs I learned on the guitar, and I've known the words since before I could possibly have known what they meant.
I stopped playing this song for a few months earlier in the year. In my trio, we had enough other stuff with the same feel and tempo. But I missed it. We weren't playing any John Hartford material, and I feel towards John Hartford pretty much the way Mose Allison was for years towards Duke Ellington -- he was worth roughly one cut per record. And, if you look through my catalog since I started recording/producing, John's music has figured into every period. If you're wondering what my fav JH covers from my own work -- Lisa Christian singing both"6:00 Train And A Girl With Green Eyes" and (the undeservedly obscure) "Go Home Girl", and Ray Campi singing "Lorena", which, while not technically a JH song, he did teach it to me over the phone.
So I'm playing "Gentle On My Mind again, and finding new stuff in it.
Of course, John always found new stuff in "Gentle". The above clip was from within the last ten years of his life. The rolling tempo at which he recorded it in the sixties has given way to a light bluegrass breakdown. Not long before this version, if my (overly complete) collection of Hartford bootlegs, he was playing it twice this fast (at full breakdown tempo). Then, within the last few years of his life, he recorded a true bluegrass band version of it, with the chord progression distilled down to two chords.
In 1977, at one of his great artistic peaks, he did this version (in the notoriously unpopular key of E flat). Definitely a transitory approach.
Not long after, he cut this version with an electric band on his All In The Name of Love album, in a slightly lower key, with Benny Martin and Buddy Emmons each taking jaw-dropping solos. John's banjo solo is one of the most singing of his career.
To most of us, the way we hear it is still tied to the sixties version.
However you hear it, it's such a wonderful song, and it's a joy to play. I hope I do it justice.
