Musings on No 2 Unalike (# 10)

Night Three, No 2 Unalike, Friday, November 6th at Fergie's Pub John Stewart's “Draft Age” and my own “Mulloy”

In addition to leading me into the Sugar Ditch with his Sketches of Route 66 lp, John Stewart was also the initial inspiration for John Train's Mesopotamia Blues collection.

After he left the Kingston Trio, Johnny Stew made a record with his soon to be wife, Buffy Ford, called "Signals Through the Glass." It's a pretty wooly listen but it's got some great songs including Draft Age which concerns a young man named Clarence Mulloy heading off to Vietnam. I took this character and imagined him thirty some odd years down the road -- sending his own kid off to another pointless but deadly engagement. The rest of the songs sorta spilled out from there.

The melody of "Mulloy" is lifted from a Journey song but I'd rather not get into that!

- Jon Houlon