Fred Starr of Greenland was an early version of the multi-hyphenate: educator-legislator-farmer-newspaper columnist-author, etc.
He was also the grandfather of musician David Starr.
Now, David, along with some of his musical friends, has created a project inspired by his late granddad's final novel, 1972's Of What Was, Nothing Is Left.
The result is Beauty and Ruin, a concept record of lilting Americana produced by David Starr and his buddy John Oates (yes, the Oates of Hall & Oates). Starr is also reissuing the novel, for which he has written a new foreword and afterword. The album and book will be released Feb. 21, with preorders starting Friday. Visit davidstarrmusic.com to reserve copies.
Starr first read Of What Was, Nothing Is Left a few years ago and was immediately struck by the book's musical possibilities.
Subtitled, A Suspense-Packed Tale of Arkansas, the slim novel is a tragedy set in south Arkansas after the Civil War.
"Ultimately, it's about people's selfishness, their inability to see beyond their own needs," says Starr, who owned Starr's Guitars, a music store in Little Rock before moving to Cedaredge, Colo., almost 20 years ago. "Irene Kelly, who is a bluegrass writer in Nashville, her first take on it was that it reminded her of Wuthering Heights."
He passed it along to Oates, whom he has known for over a decade and who produced Starr's 2017 record The Head and Heart. Oates agreed that the book could yield some interesting music, and they handed out copies to friends like songwriter and Arkansas native Wood Newton, Jim Lauderdale, Dana Cooper and others.
"We all read the book and came back with ideas and pieces of songs," says Starr, who wrote or co-wrote all but one of the album's 11 tracks (the exception is "Bury the Young," which was penned by Doug and Telisha Williams of the band Wild Ponies).
A couple of singles have already been released, the tender title cut and "Rise Up Again."
The latter track "is the one that speaks to me the most," Starr says. "That didn't come directly from the book ... it came to me after I had a dream that involved my father and my grandfather. It was very vivid and frightening at the time. I later took it as a comforting dream ... John and I believed it belonged in the project."
Oates, who co-wrote six of the tracks, teamed with Starr and Lauderdale for the gospel-flavored "Road to Jubilee," which will be the album's next single.
Starr was 16 when his grandfather died, the year after Of What Was, Nothing Is Left was published. Working on the album and book has helped him reconnect and also see how their lives have become similar.
"He and I spent a lot of time together at their place south of Fayetteville," he says. "They had horses and cattle and chickens and all that. We developed a great relationship. He was the first person I knew in my world who passed away. He was a creative soul, and went around to craft stores and bookstores and gave talks and read from his books and connected one-on-one with his readers, just like we do as songwriters today."
Weekend on 01/16/2020