John Hartford, composer and singer, dies at 63 By Bethany Prange June 5, 2001 St. Louis Post-Dispatch * After growing up in University City, he won his first Grammy award for composing "Gentle on My Mind," which became a hit for Glen Campbell. John Hartford, a man who was happiest when his hands were picking the banjo or steering a steamboat, has died. Mr. Hartford died Monday of non-Hodgkins lymphoma at Centennial Hospital in Nashville, Tenn. He was 63 and lived in Madison, Tenn., a suburb of Nashville. When his fingers were strumming music, he was the bluegrass composer-singer who composed the Grammy award-winning "Gentle on My Mind." But when he was aboard a steamboat, he was a river pilot who first fell in love with the mighty Mississippi while growing up in University City. Born John Cowan Harford in New York City, Mr. Hartford added the "t" later in life at the suggestion of record producers. Mr. Hartford moved to University City as a child with his family. His parents, who were avid square dancers, filled their home with the sounds of the Grand Ole Opry. From those influences, Mr. Hartford grew up to write and perform "newgrass" - music that mixed contemporary songs with bluegrass instrumentation. Mr. Hartford picked up his first instrument at age 13, when he found an old mandolin in his grandmother's attic and taught himself to play. Then came the piano and the guitar, and by age 15, he was teaching himself to play the fiddle. But even then, his love of music was rivaled by his love of rivers and the vessels that traveled them. Mr. Hartford dreamed of making a career on the river, maybe as a free-wheeling riverboat pilot. He attended John Burroughs School but spent most of his time near the water. He spent his teen years working as a towboat deckhand. Then at 19, he got a summer job playing fiddle at a dance hall in south St. Louis. He was going to art school at Washington University at the time but soon quit to pursue music. Mr. Hartford began playing honky-tonk and roadside clubs in Illinois and Missouri and worked as a disc jockey at small radio stations in St. Louis and Clinton, Ill. By 1964, he packed up his guitar and moved to Nashville. In 1966, he was working as a studio musician-songwriter for a music publishing company when he composed "Gentle on My Mind." The song was a hit for Glen Campbell, and since then, more than 880 artists have recorded the tune. The song also won Mr. Hartford two Grammys and gave him national recognition. Soon afterward, RCA Victor invited him to write and perform his own songs. After the first two albums, "John Hartford Looks at Life" and "Earthwords and Music," he had a record contract. As his music gained popularity, Mr. Hartford became a regular and a writer on "The Smothers Brothers Show" and later a performer on "The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour." "There wouldn't be any newgrass music without the contributions of John Hartford and the Aereo-Plain band," said his friend Sam Bush, who played mandolin and fiddle with the former New Grass Revival. "That was so influential - it was a no-boundaries sort of acoustic music." When Mr. Hartford performed, he did it to entertain himself as much as the audience. Sporting a derby, he would dance and play fiddle or banjo at the same time, adding a vaudevillian touch to his shows. In 1976, he won yet another Grammy for the album "Mark Twang." By the end of his life, he had made more than 40 albums and earned a spot on University City's Walk of Fame. River songs dominated several of his albums, but for him, singing and writing about the river weren't enough. In 1970, Mr. Hartford earned his river pilot's license aboard the Julia Belle Swain and continued to pilot the steamboat down the Mississippi for more than 16 years. He coordinated his touring schedule with the overnight steamboat excursions. In recent years, Mr. Hartford was one of the narrators in Ken Burns' epic Civil War documentary and performed on the soundtrack for the film, "O' Brother Where Art Thou?" Mr. Hartford even dabbled as an author with two books, "Word Movies" and "Steamboat in the Cornfield." "Once he set his mind out, he could do anything," Bush said. "He's truly an original - he's an eclectic, eccentric, amazing musician." A funeral for Mr. Hartford will be held Friday at Mr. Hartford's home in Tennessee. Among the survivors are his wife of 23 years, Marie Hartford of Madison, Tenn.; a son, Jamie Hartford of Dover, Tenn.; a daughter, Katie Hogue of Dallas; four stepchildren, Ricky Barrett of Jackson, Miss., Gerry Barrett of Madison, Tenn., Christy Barrett of Old Hickory, Tenn., and Sherry Bourke of Triune, Tenn.; two sisters, Gayler Harford of Boulder, Colo., and Carolyn Horton Harford of Africa; and eight grandchildren. Memorial contributions may be sent to the Sarah Cannon Cancer Center at Centennial Medical Center, 2221 Murphy Avenue, Nashville, Tenn. 37203. Published in Everyday Magazine on Tuesday, June 5, 2001. © 1996-2001 Tech-knowledge Publishing, LLC