Down On The Corner

By Paul Moffett

My former business and songwriting partner, Jean Metcalfe, 82, died on June 20, 2018, as I previously noted on Facebook. She was co-founder and vice-president of the Louisville Area Songwriters Cooperative, as well as co-founder and editor of the Louisville Music News, a monthly tabloid that we published together from April 1989 to May 1996, when she stepped down as editor, privately expressing her unhappiness with how men in the music business ignored and angered her.

It was an intense, busy seven years, which was preceded and overlapped by nine years with the LASC. It was not without disagreements: Jean and I had some very lengthy, heated discussions that bordered on therapy: she tended to perfectionism; I preferred getting things done by deadline. Neither of us prevailed every time. It was a tabloid; errors occurred more often than either of us cared to see. Our technological skills were learned on the job: she learned how to use MS Word; I hacked my way through Pagemaker 2.0, plus I managed the database for subscriptions. We went from paste-up on galley sheets of typed articles to paste-up of computerized layout to shipping PDF files to the printer. Front page color didn’t always turn out like we wanted it to. There were some “spectacular” glitches, mostly my fault but occasionally the printer’s.

Regardless of all that, I respected and admired her skills and intelligence and especially her people skills, which made much of it all work more smoothly. After she left the paper, however, we seldom, if ever, saw one another, only talking on the phone occasionally. When I called her to arrange to meet to settle the finances, I suspected something was wrong from her voice on the phone. When I saw her last, at her husband’s funeral in November 2015, the Alzheimer’s was advanced; she didn’t exactly recognize me but remembered that we had published a newspaper together. It was heartbreaking to see that bright light so dimmed.

Between the LASC, the Sweet Adelines and the Louisville Music News, Jean gave a great deal to the music scene in Louisville, promoting new performers, ensuring that other, often older, performer didn’t get overlooked. Her greatest regret was that we didn’t get to all the older performers she thought deserved attention. Thanks to libraries at U of L, IUS, Louisville Free Public Library and, oddly, the Country Music Hall of Fame, all of which have complete collections of LMN, her writing and spirit will still be available and accessible into the future. It is also online at LouisvilleMusicNews.net.

Goodbye, Jean, requiescat in pace. I’ll miss you.

Codas

Blair, Francis Michael. Sr. “Mike” 67, passed away Thursday June 21, 2018. Over the years, Mike played in several bands in the Louisville area.