October 11, 1974

Morgan Auditorium

"Don’t let the doe-eyed look on his face fool you,” said one concertgoer to another before the start of Hartford’s one-man show in the auditorium at Morgan Hall at the University of Alabama in the fall of 1974. His lo-fi albeit entertaining performance was sandwiched between Elton John, a few weeks earlier, and Traffic with supporting act Little Feat a few days later, both in Memorial Coliseum. Best known for his work as a featured sideman on TV’s “Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour,” Hartford was a talented multi-instrumentalist with an encyclopedic knowledge of American music. He owned the songs he sang for audiences, ranging from coal country dirges to dips into contemporary selections like “Gentle On My Mind,” a gem Hartford wrote that was made famous by his friend Campbell. For the Tuscaloosa show Hartford brought the kitchen sink accompanying himself on an impressive range of stringed instruments, plus squares of plywood and sanded boards for “buck dancing” while interacting with his trusty fiddle in fine, old-time style wearing his trademark bowler hat. His vivid stories about life on the Mississippi came, he said, from his formative years in St. Louis. Many years later, Hartford would record portions for the Grammy-winning soundtrack for the Cohen Brothers movie, “O Brother, Where Art Thou?”