Language of Music by MADELEINE PARSELL photography by EMILY KARCHER
O
ver the course of her life thus far, 82 years to be exact, Ann Mayo Muir has taken the hand of inspiration countless times and developed an impressive musical portfolio. In addition to her work with The Highwaymen and, more prominently, the Maine-based folk musician and songwriter Gordon Bok, Muir has studied under acclaimed traditional fiddlers Alasdair Fraser and Martin Hayes. Throughout her career, Muir’s talent has been guided by intuition and an unwavering ear for just the right sound. Arguably, both intuition and a good ear came in handy when Muir encountered Bok while she earned her stay at a ski lodge in Vermont by singing. An enthusiastic member of the audience led her to a neighboring A-frame to hear Bok sing for the lodge’s diners. She responded by sitting on the floor in front of the stage as patrons finished their meal. The two of them subsequently
discussed music for hours in a small kitchen off the stage, and the rest is history, as they say. Under Bok’s tutelage, Muir learned about folk music, which she had not particularly listened to previously. She had already discovered the chords she loved, most of which were not commonly used in folk music. While working together, Bok encouraged Muir to sing more like him—softly, with her eyes closed, and allowing the words to gently blend together—a method that did not stick. While Bok would sing softly to pull the audience in, Muir strived to sing with clarity for those in the very back of the room to hear. “I thought about the people in the back row . . . I wanted them to hear the words, because I liked the words,” she recalls. She also had a strong tendency to enunciate each word, having grown up with a nearly deaf father. Although Bok and Muir differed in many ways, their voices blended beautifully for almost 40 years, 27 of
Ann Mayo Muir enjoys a silly moment as she poses with her ukulele.
upstart-annapolis.com | 23
