Abby the Spoon Lady and the Shifty Drifters were not on my radar when I headed south to Knoxville to speak about Jewish Luck on Tuesday Nov. 17th at the Arnstein JCC.This trip overflowed with delightful surprises and Abby the Spoon Lady was one of those serendipitous discoveries. Watch: YouTube: Asheville Abby The Spoon Lady & Shifty Drifters.
Some readers know that I have a cookbook awaiting publication so you might think Abby is a culinary expert with spoons.But, no—she is a virtuoso spoon player who also plays the bells with her feet at the same time along with bass, banjo, and guitar players.All are talented, but Abby steals the show.
When my friend Randye and I entered the Knoxville Visitor Center we were twenty minutes away from the WDVX public radio show, the Blue Plate Special. Mountain music is not on my playlist but I looked at Randye and we said, "Why not? We can always leave if we don't like the music." Glancing around the Visitor Center, we both noticed a woman with sunken cheeks --as if she had no teeth.She wore bib overalls with a smart phone angled out of the top pocket. Her hair was pulled back in a pony tail with a rubber band.Tattoos adorned her arms. Except for the iphone, she could have walked out of a Walker Evans Depression era photo.
A little before noon the radio announcer, Red Hickey, clad in University of Tennessee orange, put the audience through our paces directing us in her best Tennessee twang about how to clap for the musicians.And there on the stage sat the woman in the bib overalls holding two spoons at the ready. Abby the Spoon Lady and the Shifty Drifters, direct from buskering in Asheville, were the first act. On Abby's right, the Shifty Drifters clustered around the microphone.The guitarist in his denim shirt and baseball cap looked like any street busker.The banjo player, debonair in a jaunty fedora, was the group spokesman. The 6' 6" bass player looked like he was rudely yanked from his sleep with bedhead, rumpled clothes, and sneakers with untied laces.
When the music began, my eyes couldn't leave Abby the Spoon Lady.Her arms moved like a Hawaiian dancer as she tapped her spoons to beat out the complex rhythms, and her arms danced along with the melody line. Simultaneously, her toes rang an array of bells.As I looked around, I saw an entire audience mesmerized by Abby the Spoon Lady.The room vibrated with everyone's unconscious toe tapping to the exhilarating music.I even took up Red's advice to "shake howdy with the band" when we left.
Much of the trip was not on my radar—the new friends I'd make, the friend from 50 years ago with whom I reconnected, the honor of teaching two sessions of the Global Day of Jewish Learning. The stunning natural beauty surrounding Knoxville and Oak Ridge was a surprise. The diversity, warmth, and vibrancy of the Jewish community surprised me.
Who knew Jewish Luck would introduce me to Abby the Spoon Lady and so much more? I have journeyed for so many years via books and now a book is leading me on adventure after adventure.
For more about Abby's life of survival and resilience read this article Citizen Times: Living Portrait series: The Spoon Lady.
