Photo by: Berk Ozturk

It all started last year at the North Carolina Folk Heritage Awards. John Dee Holeman and his girlfriend Joan needed a ride to the annual ceremony, and due to some last minute complications, I was asked to be the couple’s chauffeur for the night. I didn’t know it at the time, but that night would mark the first of many trips the three of us would make around the triangle.

Car rides with Joan and John Dee are a one of a kind means of travel. John Dee comes equipped with a full tank of jokes, and Joan always has updates from a recent estate sale, fishing trip, or batch of preserves to share. I like to ask John Dee about his past, sometimes as far back as his child hood. One story that comes to mind is how John used to mess with his mother when he was very very young. He told me he used to tie a piece of dental floss to a strand of his mother’s hair while she would take a nap. John Dee would take the other end of the floss and wait in the back yard for his mother to wake up so that he could yank her hair out without her knowing it was him. Needless to say, he never got away with it. His mother would say “John Dee I don’t know who pulled my hair out, but I know it was you!”

With the weather warming up, I’m looking forward to spending more time traveling with John Dee and Joan. The song “Shotgun Blues” is just one of my personal favorites from John Dee’s catalog, and I always really enjoy it when I get to hear him perform the tune live!