'Like the Wind Hung up on Barbed Wire' -- Bill Morrissey (1951-2011)
Professional objectivity aside, writers tend to identify with their subjects in an almost possessive sort of way.
I think, based on conversations I have had, that it's true for others in this business. It certainly is for me and was especially so when I was writing more about music and musicians. An interview and profile of someone whose work I admired often led to an association much like that with a favorite sports team, but even more personal.
It can become akin to collecting autographs, I guess – "I got so-and-so, last week. Who did you get?" – or wall-mounted trophies from successful hunting trips. At its worst, it devolves to name-dropping: "I am significant because I interviewed someone famous."
I've tried to keep it somewhere between that and the obsessive-fan level: professional, respectful, but with a much deeper connection than, say, with someone whose songs I just happen to hear on folk-radio from time to time.
Those I've met, talked with and, if only on a superficial interviewer-interviewee level, got to know, have become – not in an ownership but an identification sense – mine.
And one of mine died last week.
New England-based singer-songwriter Bill Morrissey, one of the most literate of the generation of songwriters who emerged on the folk scene in the 1980s, died in a motel room in Georgia of what was determined to be heart disease. He was 59.
Bill had just played a house concert and was taking a break from driving north to visit his mother in the Philadelphia area and then returning home to New Hampshire, according to a number of published reports and a statement on his .
His was never an easy route.
As Bob Franke, a legend in folk-music circles, shared on Facebook: "Learned today of the death of Bill Morrissey, a fine songwriter and one of the funniest performers I have ever enjoyed listening to. Bill traveled a difficult road and wrested a great deal of grace from it."
It was difficult, indeed. As Bill, himself, wrote and posted on his website:
"Most everybody knows that I've had some rough sledding for the last few years including my well known battle with the booze. A couple of years ago I was diagnosed as bipolar and I am on medication for depression but sometimes the depression is stronger than the medication. When the depression hits that badly I can't eat and I can barely get out of bed.
"Everything is moving in the right direction now and throughout all of this I have continued to write and write and write. I now have enough songs for 2 new albums and I am very much looking forward to getting back in the studio.
Barbed Wire Identification - News
I once used a line from one of Bill's own songs – a reworking of the traditional "Handsome Molly" – to describe it: "like the wind hung up on barbed wire." But the voice was perfect for the song. "When I first started playing, I had two notes – I had
What happened to him at Lieber reveals a dark and dangerous world behind the brick walls and barbed wire at one of South Carolina's toughest prisons. James Belli's inmate identification card from the SC Department of Corrections.
At the entrances to the square, those entering are met with basic barricades of steel bars and barbed wire. Egyptians have to show national ID cards to self-appointed security teams to ensure they're not police (there aren't police anywhere in sight).
The fence posts were juniper, and the old fences had barbed wire on both sides. The ranchers have a constant battle with the wild iris, since it is considered a noxious weed on the meadows. It was in bloom when we were there, and it looked pretty.
"When it was illegal, it was a lot more simple tattoos, a lot of biker-style tattoos, a lot of tribal, barbed wire. Now that it's become legal, it's blossomed," Craig said. "You see Oklahoma and Tulsa catching up. It's more of an art form.
History of the West told through barbed wire
Over the next 55 years, Chamblee would collect 250 different pieces of rare barbed wire. He said he purposely limited his collection to 250 pieces, and includes only the rarest and the most unique samples. One 18-inch piece of wire strung with wooden diamond-shaped blocks between each barb and on display in Chamblee’s living room is the only known piece of that particular barbed wire in existence. According to Chamblee, it’s worth about $1,000.
Chamblee said that some of his pieces are from the 1870s and were made by hand, predating manufacturing machinery. Two of the pieces in his collection are the only known pieces of barbed wire that were patented and manufactured in Utah and Idaho before they became states. The newest pieces is his collection hearken back to the 1930s.
“It was the Victorian era and people had style,” said Chamblee of the ornate and labor-intensive designs in his collection.
Chamblee, who frequently writes articles for the Antique Barbed Wire Society’s Barbed Wire Collector Magazine, especially loves the history behind his unique collection.
“Some people (collect) because they need something to do,” Chamblee said. “I do it for the historical value. Each one of these has a story to tell.
Barbed Wire Identification - Bookshelf
Barbed wire identification handbook
Barbed wire identification handbook
Barbed wire identification encyclopedia
Life behind barbed wire, the World War II internment memoirs of a Hawaiʻi Issei
One of the men slit his left wrist with a razor early one morning, ... Internees from Other Islands and Identification Numbers While I was staying at the ...Antique barb wire, identification and classification, a price guide and collectors handbook
Casual News Directory
ABWS
Supplement to Edition Five of Barbed Wire Identification Encyclopedia ... Accepted identification book of the planter wire collecting hobby. •261 illustrations and ...
ABWS
Barbed wire had it's beginning in the late 1860s and early 1870s. ... starting collection is the currently accepted barbed wire identification handbook and a value guide price ...
Barbed Wire - Modern
It is not difficult or expensive to start a basic barbed wire collection. ... One of the best books is the Barbed Wire Identification Encyclopedia,by Harold Hagemeier. ...
Devil's Rope Barbed Wire Museum Homepage
Devil's Rope Museum designed for students, teachers, historians and collectors who need informaiton about barbed wire history and collecting.
Books - Barbed Wire- Today in Science History
Barbed wire identification handbook. by H Rock. H. Rock (1971) Unknown ... of iron or steel barbed wire and twisted hoop or single flat wire loosely ...