SCOTT LAWSON POMEROY "Return To Big Rock Candy Mountain"

Chapter One (The Author & The Invitation)
VIDEOS & NEWS
Chapter 1 (Author & Invitation)
Chapter 2 (Mass to Montana)
Chapter 3 (Havre to Eastend)
Chapter 4 (A Ghost Town)
Chapter 5 (The Show)
Chapter 6 (Eastend To Havre)
Chapter 7 (Montana To Mass)
The Live Project
MUSIC
LINKS
STORE
Contact
DSCF0173.JPG


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Hello, Wallace Stegner...

I have to admit, I am not much of a reader.

Unless you show me a writer that really connects with me.

Then I will voraciously devour any and all works that he or she ever produced.

Such was the case in 1993, when I encountered an author named Wallace Stegner.

I had just gotten back from a vacation in the Rocky Mountains (Wyoming, Utah, Colorado and Idaho) and found an obituary for an old novelist, whom had won a Pulitzer decades ago and was on his way to a lecture, when he died in an automobile accident in New Mexico. He wrote a book called "The Big Rock Candy Mountain".

I was intrigued by the title, and I could almost picture that mountain he described.

So I read the book. A heart-breaking story about a boy living in Saskatchewan with his fragile mother and his strong willed, down trodden father (whom had built the house they actually lived in real life) during the depression.

It was the early 20th Century, and all of the sweet deals were already taken in the westward expansion. "Whitemud" Sakatchewan was a made-up town (the real town is called "Eastend", and is close to the Montana/Alberta border in Southwestern Saskatchewan).

It's a bitter cold place in the winter, and the summers are scorching hot. But it was cheap land and there was a need for people who could work in such hard conditions.

Like I said, it wasn't a very happy story, and it didn't end well. The boy grew up in a hurry, but certainly was prepared to face life as an adult, after all he was forced to go through as a child.

He had a poet's sense of place and landscape, and you can feel as if you are standing in his shoes, visualizing what he was writing about.

I grew up in the well-sheltered Connecticut suburbs, and could barely relate to such a harsh tale. But the author was so painfully vivid in his accounts of the land I had just been to (and been mesmerized by) that he pulled me into his life and his struggles.

The adult writer's accounts of a young boy's vision of those mountains struck a chord with me.

So I read the book, and most of his other books as well.

Fast Forward 15 years: I had written a song about one of his books ("All The Little Live Things") and my band Mambo Sons recorded and released it on our second CD. Through some creative promotion by our guitar player, the author's foundation found out and contacted me, wanting a copy of the lyrics. I sent them right away.

Today: They asked me if I was interested in applying for a writer's residency, for 2 weeks to a month, in Saskatchewan. Eastend, Saskatchewan.

In the former boyhood home of Wallace Stegner...



DSCF0221.JPG

"I Could Actually Do This!"
 
There is a tiny issue involving a town very far away, in Canada.

Turns out, I have been accepted as an artist resident at the Wallace Stegner House in Eastend, Saskatchewan.

Since 1990, only 80 people have gained residence at this early 20th century two story home overlooking the Cypress Hills, and the Canadian Badlands.

Wallace Stegner was a Pulitzer Prize winning fictional author, whose stories bore a striking resemblance to his real-life experiences earlier in life.

I co-wrote a song around 2000 with my guitarist and friend that had some content that related to a few of Wallace Stegners novels (Crossing To Safety, and All The Little Live Things) I mashed them together a little, and used the line "can I cross to safety now?" as the chorus.

The song "Little Live Thing" (it's title in reference to the strong willed women he so much admired throughout his life) got the attention of the Eastend Arts Council (where the author's boyhood home is located, and is maintained by the arts council, and a little help from the government.)

I was asked by the person at the cultural center if I could provide the lyrics to the song, and if I would be interested in applying for artists residency someday.

To be honest, I had looked at where the authors book "Big Rock Candy Mountain" was based. When I saw how far away it was from everything, I grew disheartened.

I knew I would have to have a mighty special reason to ever go there, but I never really sought it out, until it was suggested by them.

It just so happens, you can take a TRAIN (I strongly dislike flying) from Springfield, Massachusetts to a little town in Montana that is about only 2,3 hours driving distance from the Author's home.

It is my desire to write about the traveling experience, as well as write a number of songs and short stories.

There are going to be some interesting moments ahead for me in 2009.


"The Lemonade Springs, Where The Bluebird Sings"
 
The story of "The Big Rock Candy Mountain" by Wallace Stegner, as thumbnail would follow as such:

Elsa takes the train from Minnesota. She meets a wildman named Bo Mason. They hook up. Two kids (and one half-hearted attempt to leave him) later, she allows herself to transport the whole family to the last unsettled edge of the Western Frontier, in Southwestern Saskatchewan.

It was there that "Bo Mason" built this house. It is the same house that I am traveling to in March of next year, where I will live for a week, record songs that pertain to the book on various acoustic instruments (including a banjo I plan on bringing along with my laptop recording studio) and document the entire trip.

This was the one place that young Wallace Stegner felt was a home to him, and he later wrote one of his most famous books (and all-time-famous documents of frontier living and the early American West) "The Big Rock Candy Mountain" in 1938. This house is one of the central parts of that book. He even returned to it (in his book "Wolf Willow") but he could not bear himself to ask the people who owned his former home if he could go inside for a look at his childhood past.

I'm going to do it for him

It is my personal project and mission to create a large body of work, present the following songs in a reasonably close order of occurrence, and provide people a glimpse of the characters in what is a landmark classic story about the last wild frontier, a family of four that lived through it, and how the weakest one came out stronger than anyone could have imagined.
 

"Why Would I Want To Go There?"

My family does not understand. They assume I would want to go someplace warm in March. And while I have spent parts of March in places like Florida or Virginia in the past - this is something vastly different that I seek.

Rather than sit on a beach in silent contemplation. I have decided to seek out bigger philosophic game for 2009.

My wife (bless her heart!) Understands and appreciates the journey I am embarking on for two weeks. Although I am taking a train to Montana (via Chicago) All I am going to have to do is take notes, transcribe, compose, record and read.

March 1st 2009.

When I get to Montana, I have a car rental secured, a laptop recording studio... and a banjo

(the banjo is another story).

The weather in Saskatchewan is another question people ask about.

Isn't it really snowy up there in March?

It's not, however. This part of the country is one of the driest in Canada, and is considered semi-arid (they have Cacti and sand dunes). Blizzards tend to occur from December through February, and although there certainly can be a blizzard in march or even April, the majority of the years have shown that there is hardly any precipitation, and the Chinook winds usually warm things up when it has been cold.

And the second assumption.

It must be cold up there!

Well... it ain't Florida, but then again, it's not Maine, either. Records have shown it gets cold at night, and wind chill factor can be scary, but the temps have often averaged around 40 degrees... much like around Massachusetts. But you never know which weather you will get... Arctic cold, or Chinook warm.

Next question.

What's up there, anyways?

Not too much in the immediate area. Nothing, really.

Everything is at least a half days' drive away.

So there I will be in three months - sitting at a study that used to be the bedroom of the young author-to-be. Staring out the window at the mountain range he used to look at... and wonder. Eventually, I will start recording all of the songs I have written based on Stegner's novel "The Big Rock Candy Mountain". Much of what took place in the book actually happened in Wallace's life, and quite a bit took place in the house his father built.

Meanwhile, my own father has issued me the following cautionary advice...

"You better get something really good out of this, son."
 
I hope to, dad. I certainly hope to.
 
 

DSCF0161.JPG