Amidst the worldwide sadness of the passing of the legendary Dolly Parton this week, I got to reminiscing. Many people have great stories about their awesome connection to Dolly Parton. These are not those stories.

the banjo lessons

I took banjo lessons, briefly, when I was about 21, every Tuesday night in the basement of the Chapman and Hewett Music store.

I always admired Steve Martin’s skills and I wanted to be a good banjo player. Didn’t particularly want to practice, though.

My teacher Dave let me know that just wanting to be a good banjo player wasn’t really enough, so I switched to complaining about my crummy banjo.

Dave, of course, in a scene straight out of the movies, said “Here, let me see that banjo”, and ripped through the chorus of Foggy Mountain Breakdown and said “Nothing wrong with this banjo."

I lasted only a few weeks.

Wondered what happened to Dave who taught banjo lessons in the basement of a music store in London, Ontario.

Turns out he moved to Nashville and became Dolly Parton’s banjo player.

Thank you Dave Talbot, for your patience with a knucklehead like me, and thank you Dolly Parton for picking an excellent musician.

the varsity briefcase drill team

I’ve written before about the University of Waterloo’s legendary Varsity Briefcase Drill Team and my late friend and co-conspirator Linda Carson who helped put this silly idea together.

It all depended on Dolly’s song 9 to 5, of course. I whipped up an arrangement, the Warriors Band played it, and the VBDT strolled onto the floor at halftime of a Waterloo Warriors game circa 1985. We’re all grateful to the basketball team’s videographer who filmed this stunt … and it went so well that I actually joined the VBDT for its second performance, which you can see here. That’s still the only time I ever mastered the choreography for anything.

Thank you, Dolly; that was the perfect song.

(I’d encourage everybody to find better stories about Dolly Parton.)