| |
 Fame
& Fortune: Jesse Winchester
American music's most identifiable
draft-dodger
| Most musical
headliners are best known for a hit song, a signature fashion style or a high-profile
romantic life. Singer-songwriter Jesse Winchester, on the other hand, is best
known for something he refused to do: serve in the Vietnam War.
As a Louisiana kid growing up in Memphis, Tenn., Winchester
dreamed of one day playing guitar like legendary Stax session man
Steve Cropper, whom you may know from The Blues Brothers. But hailing
as he did from a long line of lawyers, young Jesse toed the line
and went east to prestigious Williams College instead, where he
studied German and fought to suppress his inner soul man.
As
fate would have it, a year of overseas study took him to Munich, Germany, where
he soon teamed up with a rock band and gigged all over the country. He missed
a lot of class but learned a lot of street German -- as well as a vocation he
would later need to survive.
Soon after graduating in 1966, Winchester received
his draft notice. Fully cognizant of the consequences, he bought
a one-way plane ticket from Memphis, Tenn., to Montreal where he
would soon become American music's most identifiable draft-dodger.
Following
the 1970 release of his self-titled debut album -- produced by Robbie Robertson,
of The Band, and engineered by Todd Rundgren -- Winchester's haunting, homesick
ballads became big hits and barroom staples as the war that drove him into exile
drew to a close. "Yankee Lady," "Biloxi," "The Brand
New Tennessee Waltz," "Defying Gravity" and others sold records
for everyone from Brewer & Shipley and Jimmy Buffett to Joan Baez, Emmylou
Harris, Elvis Costello and Patti Page. But success was limited
for Winchester, who was prevented from performing in the United States until President
Jimmy Carter signed amnesty legislation in 1977. He made up for lost time by touring
extensively throughout the 1980s until officially retiring from the stage in 1990. In
1999 Winchester returned to the stage with a new album, "Gentleman of Leisure,"
and a rekindled love of performing. Three years later, he remarried and, for the
first time in 36 years, returned to the United States to live. He and wife Cindy
now reside in Charlottesville, Va. Bankrate caught
up with Winchester between tours for a look back on his life as a reluctant front
man.Bankrate: Nice to see you
back on the concert tour. How does it feel? Jesse Winchester:
I'm enjoying it more than ever, except maybe back in the very, very beginning
when I was playing with bands and wasn't the frontman and had no responsibilities.
That was a lot of fun. But I went through some years where, you know, I just got
tired of it. When I started up again in 1999, for whatever reason I just loved
it. Thank God for that. I learned a lot from Guy Clark actually, about pampering
yourself. |
