Re: R.J.Garn Hero Folksinger

[gregor...@yahoo.com]

On Wednesday, May 21, 1997 at 1:00:00 AM UTC-6, randy garn wrote:
> Does anyone out there know about the music created by R.J.Garn? R. J.
> spent twenty-five years wandering the Colorado Plataeu writing, recording
> and performing music that came to him from the past, present, future, and
> the goddamn rocks themselves. He was an Amigo of Ed Abbey, Ken Sleight,
> Bob Greenspan, John Nichols, Wallace Stegner, and the Southern Utah
> Wilderness Alliance, among many others.
> R.J.has dropped off the face of mother earth for almost three years but
> was finally located in northern N.M. hiding out from cops, strip mining
> henchmen, and other such nasty folks. He damn near spent twenty years in
> the Utah State Prison after desperately trying to preserve a beautiful
> Wilderness Study area from crackerassed mountain bikers.This area is now
> officially preserved as Grand Staircase Nat'l Monument.
> R. J. released four albums that I know of between 1979 and 1994. R.J. and
> his buddies would pack into remote redrock canyons and record his albums
> using a solar-powered Fostex four track recorder. The first and best album
> is DESERT MAGIC. It is awesome. The second is DESERT RAT, which is a
> double album and I consider it R.J.'s white album...the third is a great
> one also, LIVE FROM MOONFLOWER MESA....and the fourth album that very few
> folks have heard is SHADOWDANCER. R.J. was in court as this album was
> released and he got pissed off and only sold or gave away a few.
> To this day it would be hard to find a white water boatman or canyon
> country guide that didn't know the words to BOOTS FULL OF WATER by R.J. or
> one of his other songs like THE NIGHT THE JAVELINAS HOWLED.
> Anyway, this is no money making deal for me, no commercial thing. I have
> all of his albums and would be willing to make copies for those that are
> interested. I want his music to keep on going into future Desert Rats and
> other such folks. I'd also like to get in touch with other fans.
> ADIOS.....
>
> --
> ADIOS

I know him. He and I used to hang. We recorded a few songs together that never made it in to his releases but I have lots of good stories to tell about him and Wallace and the Abbey kids, some of the best times of my life! I'd love to share and also get fresh copies of all of those albums.

[gregor...@yahoo.com]

I worked a summer at Pack Creek Ranch in '91? So I knew Greenspan too, and Ken and Jane Sleight, of course. I got off work right about sunset, and Bob would be out on the front porch of the main house tinkering with blues riffs so I'd just sit down, watch the sun set over the Moab Rim with Bob playing softly. He never busted out 'Big Tits, Braces, and Zits' and I didn't ask him to.

[gregor...@yahoo.com]

On Monday, February 22, 2016 at 6:15:47 PM UTC-7, gregor...@yahoo.com wrote:

> I know him. He and I used to hang. We recorded a few songs together that never made it in to his releases but I have lots of good stories to tell about him and the Abbey kids, some of the best times of my life! I'd love to share and also get fresh copies of all of those albums. It's not Wallace Stegner tho, unless he was friends with him too (i wouldn't be surprised) but Ward Roylance: He was their neighbor in Torrey.

[Michael Krival]

[Michael Krival]

I hung out with the Randy (the Desert Rat) several times back in the day. I met him first time one day just wandering around the Colorado Plateau. Few days later he pulled me out of a sticky situation with a flatbed truck he had when I made a foolish move and we traveled around for a spell. After that, we met up once or twice a year until he passed, I think it was in the VA Hospital in Gallop. I have his tapes, maybe not the last one and listen to them from time to time. He was an original, a visionary and in touch with aspects of life and the universe few others are. Not many folks live true to who they are and how they see things like the Desert Rat
did.

On Monday, February 22, 2016 at 5:46:36 PM UTC-8, gregor...@gmail.com wrote: