January 1, 2008
Fiddler’s CD Honors Traditional Music
This article by Philip VanVleck was originally published in the The Herald-Sun (Durham, North Carolina) on November 2, 2007.
Chapel Hill fiddler A.C. Bushnell’s new CD, “Dancing on the Water,” is a charming collection of songs that pays homage to traditional music. Four of the songs are Bushnell originals, and the remaining 10 tracks are either cover tunes or traditional songs.
Expect to hear a good bit of new and traditional music during Bushnell’s ArtsCenter show Saturday. He will celebrate the release of the new CD and accompanying DVD in a concert Saturday at the ArtsCenter in Carrboro.
The concert will be an ambitious collective effort. Joining Bushnell on stage will be his band mates from The Stillhouse Bottom Band; The Happyjoy Band, featuring Will McFarlane and Robert Sledge; Cluckin’ A; The Cluckeneers; mystic poet Grace; and musicians Richard Shulman, Andrea Nell and Jon Seskevich. Author and musician Bland Simpson will host this gala.
It’s only appropriate that Simpson is involved in Bushnell’s release party. In 1972 Bushnell left his home in New York City, hitched a ride with Simpson and relocated to North Carolina. He arrived in the Tar Heel state, fiddle in hand, at an opportune moment.
Bushnell prospered in North Carolina’s vibrant music scene, finding many like-minded musicians, digging into the Appalachian traditional music that echoes from Galax to Bristol to Chapel Hill.
Bushnell has become a no9te figure in the traditional music scene, most recently with The Stillhouse Bottom Band. He’s especially memorabl3 in concert, where he plays with high-voltage intensity.
Yet given the decades spent in the pursuit of old-time music, Bushnell had never made a solo album.
A report from a doctor spurred Bushnell to get into the studio. In June of 2005 he was driving in upstate New York with a friend. He checked his voice messages and had a message from his doctor, who asked him to call right away.
“So I called, and he mentioned that in my last blood testy I had a chemical marker for liver cancer,” Bushnell said. “I said, ‘Really?’”
Bushnell’s doctor replied, “Really.” While hoping the chemical marker was the result of a bad lab test, his doctor advised Bushnell to schedule an MRI as soon as possible, which he did.
“I really can’t describe what it feels like to hear this news,” Bushnell said. “I mean, with liver cancer, I’m figuring I’ve got three months to live? You know, nobody ever thinks they’re going to get cancer.”
Bushnell returned to North Carolina for his MRI, thinking about little else aside from getting cancer. The MRI procedure led to another phone call from his doctor informing him that he did indeed, have liver cancer.
“He said I had a tumor, and then said, ‘But we can cut it out.’ So I had about 35 percent of my liver removed on July 26, 2005. I just happen to remember the date.”
There’s nothing like a cancer diagnosis to propel a musician into a recording studio, he said.
“I thought, well, if I really only have a few months to live, what do I want to do with my time? I’ll make a list, and one of the things on that list was get in the studio and record.”
He described the sessions for “Dancing on the Water” as “joyous and happy.”
“The whole project turned out to be way more beautiful than I ever thought it would be, and that led me to think that everybody has a list, at least potentially, of what they’d like to do, where they’d really like to go, what would really fulfill them.”
“I think a lot of people, like me, aren’t doing their lists, thinking, ‘Oh well, I’ll do that some day.’ What some day! There’s only now. I think if you’re doing things on your list, God smiles on you and the universe is happy with you. In the end, what’s more important than that?”