John Lincoln Wright RIP

The finest country and country swing musician in New England, John Lincoln Wright, died last week at 64.

He was a friendly acquaintance rather than a close friend; we attended Boston College together for a brief couple of months together in '67 (we both left); and later I worked in a Cambridge bar (the lamented Inn- Square of fond memory-- local sheep rancher Piet Ditmars also remembers it well!) where he and his legendary band the Sour Mash boys played often. But I used to see his shows all over New England.

He was a greater talent than many who "succeeded"; perhaps appreciating a talented heir to the tradition of Bob Wills and Merle Haggard who was based in Maine and Cambridge was just too far a step for the public to go.

What I think is his best record is only available on vinyl. Now I have to find somebody to convert it for me.

Meanwhile I'll raise a memorial glass of Jack Daniels (what we both drank in those days) to the writer and singer of everything from the haunting "Takin' Old Route One" to the sublimely idiotic "It's So Lonely Here in Braintree with You in Methuen It's Almost Like Being in Lowell.."