Everyday Creation
This show has to do with different kinds of creation: human, divine, and a third kind that connects the two. Our human creativity is easy to talk about because clearly we're prolific creators. We make music, we write, we cook; we establish businesses, we design gardens, we invent things. The list goes on and on. Another kind of creation is divine. We feel its presence when, for example, we contemplate birth, death, our life purpose, or have a quiet realization that there's something bigger than us. The third kind is perhaps a little more difficult to grasp and yet, with a little practice, it's easy to put into action. This is the personal power each of us has to direct our thoughts, words and actions every day toward what we want in our life and world, rather than what we don't want.
This sounds heavier than it is. For me, this show is an acknowledgment that while we're all here to learn and grow and do our best, there's still plenty of opportunity to relax, laugh, love, and enjoy this playground we call life. So my hope is that you'll get some enjoyment and illumination out of these episodes. Here you'll find interviews with delightfully creative individuals; short stories about some who have passed away; and essays about personal power.
I'm Kate Jones, host and creator of Everyday Creation. Thank you for following my show.
Everyday Creation
The Band's Garth Hudson: "The Most Advanced Musician in Rock and Roll"
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Garth Hudson agreed to join the Hawks, a precursor to The Band, on two conditions: that he'd be paid a little extra to be the group's music teacher, and that he'd have a Lowery organ to play.
This tribute to Hudson includes a reference to The Band's song "Chest Fever." Hudson wasn't a singer or a songwriter, but he contributed mightily to the song's success with an intro based on J.S. Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor. You can hear "Chest Fever (remastered 2000) here.
To listen to the Bach piece, head to YouTube where you'll have choices. Here's a link to one cool version and to another.
The public domain photo of The Band in this episode's thumbnail was taken by Elliott Landy in 1969 for Capitol Records. Pictured from left: Richard Manuel, Hudson, Levon Helm, Robbie Robertson, Rick Danko. The photo was used for a trade ad in Billboard for the single "Time To Kill" / "The Shape I'm In." If you want to download your own copy, you can find it on Wikimedia.
In the chapters, there's a photo of Hudson in May 1971 during a performance with The Band in Hamburg. It was taken by Heinrich Klaffs and is available for reuse under the license CC BY-SA 2.0 on Wikimedia.
The artwork framing the top and bottom of the photo was created by Bob Jones.
Song of the Day creator Sheldon Zoldan researched, wrote and narrated this short story, one of 35 tributes to music stars who passed away in 2025. Song of the Day used to be a daily feature delivered to an email list of subscribers. Sheldon ended it in early 2026 which, I suppose, means that Song of the Day deserves a tribute of its own. The good thing is that the tributes to music makers live on.
This is Kate Jones. Thank you for listening to Everyday Creation®, available on YouTube and in major podcast directories including Apple, Spotify, iHeart and Audible.
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Sheldon Zoldan:
Garth Hudson and his band members in the docu concert "The Last Waltz" tells how he joined The Band in 1961, then called the Hawks. He first turned down joining but then agreed after negotiating an extra $10 a week from each band member under the guise of being the band's music teacher so his parents, who weren't rock and roll fans, were more accepting.
Hudson died in his sleep January 21 at a nursing home in Woodstock, New York. He was 87 and the last surviving member of The Band.
Song of the Day is paying tribute to the singers, songwriters and musicians who died in 2025. He played the organ, piano, saxophone, accordion and other instruments. He played a Lowrey organ given to him by the group when he joined, unlike most rock organists who played a Hammond.
Hudson, unlike Robbie Robertson, didn't write songs, or Levon Helm, Rick Danko and Richard Manuel who shared vocals, but he was a vital part of their success. The New York Times obituary said Robertson, in a book about The Band, called Hudson "far and away the most advanced musician in rock and roll."
Canadian writer Harry Hugh in an NPR story reacting to Hudson's death said, "The best line I ever heard with respect to Garth is 'Music is his first language.' He's always been in his own world, and I'm grateful he found a way to communicate with our world."
"Chest Fever" was on The Band's initial album in 1968. Robertson wrote the music, Helm and Manuel wrote the lyrics, but it was Hudson's intro that made the song. The introduction is based on Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor.
