Life in Hartsville, Numero Uno
A musical slideshow of images from life around Bill's place(s) | april19.2023
In the midnight hour with Bill Hart, way out in the West Virginia hills | August 2017
As we have been rolling out this newsletter and website’s content on the life and times of our friend, Bill Hart, I have been mixing up the material. A video here, a podcast there, a sprinkling of photos. All are intended to sketch the outlines of an intriguing human being and how he came to live lodged back up in the Appalachian hills, his days unfolding as a master instrument maker, a horse whisperer, and more.
Today’s post features a musical slideshow from scenes of daily living at Bill’s various habitations, shots I have snapped through many years of visiting him. The soundtrack includes lively excerpts from "June Apple/Sandy Boys/Muddy Road" by Heidi Muller and Bob Webb, from the album "Dulcimer Moon,” plus an evocative snippet of "Storm Creek" by Caleb Samples from "Untouched Ground.” Below is the video, plus some still photographs I pulled from it that are worth a second glance. ~ Douglas John Imbrogno
PS: If someone forwarded you this post or email, or you came to it on the web, free subscribe to “The Hart of it All” to receive updates on new posts as we continue to profile a complex life and intriguing person worth knowing more about.
One of Bill’s schematics for the electronic fixings of an instrument underway
Here’s an excerpt of a podcast profile to come about Bill’s pre-West Virginia life (Be sure you are subscribed to receive notice of the post):
BILL HART: “Well the instruments didn't come till way later. I had problems with our society and with my father. We had a strange relationship. He had a hardcore, proto-hippie living under his desk. My hippie friends would ask him: 'Mr. Hart, whart do you do?' He'd look at [them] and say: 'I'm a hired killer. .. I work for the man.'
'What, Mister Hart?!?'
QUESTION: He would really say ‘I'm a hired killer’?
BILL HART: Just to watch my hippies respond.
‘What?!? …’
‘I work for the man …’
That could be anything, you know? My Dad worked in the Pentagon, or in the naval communication station, in a plain suit. He went to work as a businessman. He wasn't wearing his uniform those days, pretty much. That would discomfit some of my friends when he would say 'I'm a hired killer.’ He just did that to rag me …’
CLICK TO VIEW VIDEO
Selected Snapshots
