John Jackson (1925-2002)

My very first old cat, and in may ways, my favorite.

I picked up a guitar immediately after hearing John Jackson play a couple tunes in the middle of a Mike Seeger concert in 1967, when I was 15. I'd played something all my life, but what John did with a guitar really turned my head.

He was a man of such strength, kindness, and grace: a remarkable combination given that he was raised in the Jim Crow era in…