Hazel Dickens, I love you.
I picked up my guitar last night, and it's like an old chest that was shut has been cracked wide open, steaming, damp, the most delicate light. My fingers been hurtin' all today from the little callouses that wanna come back, specially that tender left ring finger on the D7.
I been singin you all day, Hazel, man, and the old Carter Family, "Darlin' Pal of Mine", "I'm Thinking Tonight Of My Blue Eyes"... it's like that old time music that entered my veins at 24 is still in there, and has been swimming around in a pool of tears, not my tears, but the tears of everyone that ever was, I think, cuz oooo boy those songs'll getcha, right in the belly where it's tender and unsuspecting, you'll be softer than a whisper by the end, glass just fallin from your eyes like a river.
