Ennyman's Territory: Photos from My Recent Visit to Blue Eagle Music, Athens Ohio

Wednesday, May 8, 2019

Photos from My Recent Visit to Blue Eagle Music, Athens Ohio

The first time I became aware of Blue Eagle Music was my second year at Ohio University in Athens. I was walking North on Court Street with a friend, wondering where I could get some ZigZags for rolling a few joints. I looked across the street and thought it looked like a place to connect.

"Don't go there," my friend said. "They're Christians."

In January 1974, when my life fell apart after a trio of painful setbacks, the first place I went was Blue Eagle Music. When I walked in the door I was met by Gretchen Hanesworth, a true jewel and the beginning of my own personal renovation.

Mark & Gretchen opened the store in 1971, though when I first noticed it Blue Eagle seemed as if it had been always been a permanent fixture in Athens. Another couple had come out to Athens from San Francisco to help, or else to escape the aftermath of the Summer of Love. (Too many people.)

The Hainesworths had about a hundred acres east of town out Highway 50, between Guysville and Coolville. I remember visiting a couple times. Gretchen had a miniature white own that they named Owlie. Years later another SF transplant would arrive and take up residence 12 miles South of Athens, Jorma Kaukonen of Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna fame.

Blue Eagle, a music store, was more than that. On Saturday evenings musicians would come from the surrounding hills to a coffee house they'd started called The Welcome Table. The rooms upstairs were rented to students, the downstairs space shared. Many special moments took place there and in the music store.

Here are photos of what I saw in April as I stopped for a minute at 40 North Court Street on a rainy afternoon.