It started with a chance late-night encounter with a fellow Naugatuck Valley musician inside a gas station convenience store in upstate New York.
It turned into a song, still in progress, about finding home in the Valley while exploring the world.
Charlie Widmer, Connecticut’s official state troubadour, performed that song (click on the below video), and told the back story, during a visit Thursday on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven” program.
Let me take you to the Valley
To the place I call my home
Where the rivers cut the mountains
and the streams are known to grow.
All the trees and all around you
Almost blocking out the light
Fireflies dancing in the moonlight
Becoming stars before your eyes …
Widmer, 33, grew up in Oxford. He still lives there. But he’s been traveling, not just to regional gigs as usual, but abroad — repping the Valley, the state, even the U.S. In January he began his term as state troubadour. Last week he returned with his bluegrass band On The Trail from a 10-day trip representing the U.S. in a State Department-sponsored trip to Germany. The band played concerts, conducted workshops over that time in Hamburg and Berlin.
Widmer discussed that trip on “Dateline.” He also discussed a less glamorous trip the band made to a town called Big Indian in upstate New York. The gig went badly. The band left town hungry. It was late, so the only place to find food was that gas station store somewhere on the way home. They encountered a young woman on the same late-night mission; Widmer’s bandmate recognized her as the recording artist Sammy Rae.
The bandmate started chatting with her. She turned to Widmer. “I think I know you,” she said.
They figured out — they were one year apart in high school. She, too, grew up in the Valley, in Derby. They had common friends from acting in musicals.
Widmer told Sammy Rae, who moved from the Valley to Brooklyn at 19 to seek fortune and fame, about his serving as state troubadour. She was impressed that Widmer, seeking his own fame, remains rooted in Oxford.
“You’re doing it,” she remarked about his troubadour gig, “for the Valley.”
That inspired him to write the in-progress song he played Thursdsay on “Dateline.” Tentative title: “Little Place.”
I’m just a Connecticut kid dreaming so big
One day that I’ll make a hit and ride out on it
Far from this little place
But I can’t leave this little place …
While remaining based in the Valley, Widmer continues hitting the trail in pursuit of those dreams. His bluegrass band has a busy summer performing schedule; he has solo gigs lined up as well. He’s working on a new album. And he has a full plate of troubadour-adjacent duties, including advocating for musicians.
Click on the above video to watch the full conversation on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven” with State Troubador Charlie Widmer, including discussion about his bluegrass band’s recent official U.S.-sponsored trip to Germany. Click here to subscribe or here to listen to other episodes of “Dateline New Haven.”
