Radio Workshop

Plucky Prize Winner (Transcript)

by Ethan Lindsey

FADE UP ON TAYLOR TALKING -- FADE DOWN ON APPLAUSE

NARRATION:

Armerding and his three bandmates are just beginning their Friday night set and all the musicians arrived at the show after finishing their normal workdays. Flanked by a bass player, a banjoist and a guitar, Armerding stands in the middle of the stage with his mandolin. It is a low key event, and the band is sharing the stage with the set of the high school play. The spotlight shines on Armerding's balding head, but his posture and actions make his gangly, 6-foot frame look youthful and spry. Northern Lights quickly riffs into one of their most famous songs, Can't Buy Your Way.

FADE UP ACOUSTIC MUSIC FOR 20 SECONDS

ARMERDING:

I was surrounded completely by classical music growing up. My mother taught all of us piano -- when I got to high school, I was swept up in the folk music boom of the time -- Bob Dylan, Peter Paul and Mary, Joan Baez -- and started playing folk guitar and was interested in that. Then, the first year out of college, these friends told me about a festival they were going to in North Carolina. It sounded sort of like the acoustic version of Woodstock, which I had not been to, so I went down to that. You know how people talk about religious conversions -- this was like a musical religious experience. I heard this stuff and I was instantly just transfixed by the stuff, and I don't even know why, part of it is the harmonies, there are high, close harmonies that when they are done well, they give me goosebumps.

FADE UP MUSIC LEADING TO VOCALS

NARRATION:

Armerding says for months after his musical revelation he wouldn't listen to or play anything but bluegrass. He immersed himself in it, but in spite of his love for bluegrass, he knew he wasn't going to strike it rich doing it. Armerding pursued a career in newspapers to pay the bills. While climbing the editorial ladder, the 54-year-old Armerding says he wondered what his life would be like if he had pursued music as a full-time job.

ARMERDING: When I was in my 20s I thought about it a lot, but the kind of music that I play is not a big money kind of music. Most bluegrass bands, if you want to make a living, you literally live on the road -- and that would have been a case of not having a family, or not having a family life unless everyone went on the bus.

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NARRATION: Balancing his journalistic career with his music career seems not to have damaged either. Reflecting on the story for which they won the Pulitzer Prize, Armerding says that he is proud of the award, but that it also represents a human tragedy.

ARMERDING: You wouldn't be a Human being, I think, if you weren't affected by this event.

NARRATION: On December 14, 2002, a local boy was walking across the frozen Merrimack River on his way home from school. The ice cracked and he plunged into the frigid water. From across the river, three friends rushed to save him by diving in the river themselves. All four died.

ARMERDING: Its hard to describe the depth of grief that existed in the city, and particularly among these families. These were nice, innocent young kids. Anything that makes you more aware of life and death and the things that move people in a strong way -- it affects your whole being.

NARRATION: Armerding says the deaths affected his music, but that he has yet to actually pen a song about the loss.

ARMERDING: There are ideas percolating. I also sing part-time in a bluegrass gospel group, and gospel is for the most part pretty hopeful music -- but it also deals with tragedy and life and death. We kid about but its about mother and daddy are dead and they are up in the the lonesome graveyard, but there is always a hopeful element to that. You can sing songs like that with more depth, when you have witnesssed it happening to people that moves you in a way that nothing else could. It makes you a human being with a little more depth.

BRING IN MUSIC, LOW

NARRATION: Northern Lights is wll-known band to bluegrass fans. The band has released six albums, including one live performance where they performed with famous fiddle player Vassar Clements. They perform the vast majority of their shows near home -- in New England -- but they have headlined several major bluegrass festivals. Armerding founded the band in 1975.

ARMERDING:

I'm actually going to be leaving the Northern Lights band at the end of the year and I am going to play some with my son Jake and some with this Vermont gospel group -- I'll be busy, but I just can't juggle three of them. Its time to do something different. I've loved the Northern Lights time -- its been 28 years, but I absolutely love this gospel group. We have such pristine harmonies. I am not going to stop playing, but I have to cut back.

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NARRATION: At the end of the concert, Armerding dedicates a cover of the Rolling Stones' Wild Horses to his family -- his wife and two of his three sons are in the audience. Armerding leans his thin frame down towards the mic, so that it can pick up both his voice and his mandolin. He is a picture of what Mick Jagger would have looked like as a bluegrass musician. He says his family's presence at his gigs serves to remind him whats important in his life.

FADE UP MUSIC FOR 10 SECS

ARMERDING: It definitely is a juggling act with a family. I went to hundreds of soccer games, and performances, and awards nights -- and I'm glad I went to them all -- I'm not saying that as a 'I had to go to them.' I've talked with them about this and they all feel like I was there and we have an excellent relationship.

NARRATION: With his mandolin snug against his chest as he sways and taps to the song, Armerding looks supremely happy with his life. It is the end of the show, and he looks exhausted, but that can't shrink the wide smile stretching across his face.

FADE UP MUSIC -- END OF WILD HORSES