I know Driftwood John from the  Mississippi River.  I’ve had the pleasure of rowing down the muddy waters of America's heart twice.  On the voyage, I've met larger-than-life characters, Sandy the Pancake Lady, Big Muddy Mike, and down in Clarksdale, Mississippi a man named Driftwood Johnny.  Painter, poet, paddler, and musician (among other things) he’s lived and worked along the Sunflower River in Clarksdale first at the blues museum and now running Quawpaw Canoea–a paddling company that's made its business getting folks on the muddy water so the river is learned to be loved, and not feared. It is no mean feat.  

John is one of the characters I would hope every paddler would meet on this journey, he’s provided a dry space, a portage a warm meal, but most importantly a feeling of community and family for many who have undertaken this American Pilgrimage.  

When I started tinyboatsession John was one of the folks I knew I could reach out to beyond my home waters of the Puget Sound who would get this idea and follow through with it.  I asked him for a song in a tinyboat, and though in the middle of the pandemic, he made me a tinyboatsession from the banks of the Mississippi River and sent it to me for season 3.  

When I first came to the south he was the person I called to see if he knew anyone.  He introduced me to Wolfie, who told me about a backyard musical fundraiser for a musical canoe, and on that evening I met Arlee Leonard, April Goltz, and Phoeobe Valassis and through the three of them met every single musician I knew in Louisiana, and from them musicians across every state I crossed to make my way home to Seattle. 

I filmed John on a warm spring evening.  Folks along the bank caught fish.  The cypresses were big and John’s songs made me thoughtful and very glad for all the journeys I had decided to make that led me to this moment. @johnniedriftwood