I never expected that playing music with a friend in college would lead me to one of the most extraordinary places I've ever known.
In my junior year of college, I started playing with my friend and musical partner, Leverett Wharton. A few months later, Lev invited me to move in with him at his family's old Victorian house in Jamestown, Rhode Island.
The house, known as the “Captain’s House”, sat just behind the family shipyard. It was shingled inside and out, with fireplaces in every room and walls lined with old books. One winter evening, Lev invited me out to stay overnight. There was a fire in the living room, and as we sat playing our guitars, I could watch the snow falling softly over Narragansett Bay.
I asked, “This is where you want me to live? How much?”
“Nothing. No rent.”
That pretty much settled it.
We still went to classes at the University of Rhode Island, but we also worked in the shipyard, doing things I had never imagined I'd be doing—wet-sanding and painting old wooden boats and even standing waist-deep in freezing water repairing the launch tracks.
One of the perks was access to the family's sailboats. Lev, an experienced sailor, taught me to sail.
We'd sometimes sail out to Clingstone built in 1904-1905 by Lev’s great-grandfather, J.S. Lovering Wharton, the remarkable old house sat on a cluster of rocks in Narragansett Bay completely surrounded by water. There was no electricity or running water. The house was lit by candles, and rainwater was collected from the roof.
In the evening, sitting on the deck listening to the sounds of the buoy bells and seagulls, Lev would tell me stories about growing up around the Newport Folk Festival. His family had hosted at least one gathering at Clingstone after the festival, with musicians including Joan Baez, John Hammond, Eric von Schmidt and Jim Kweskin and his jug band including Jeff and Maria Muldaur.
Lev had also seen Mississippi John Hurt perform at Newport—the one and only time Hurt appeared there—and immediately fell in love with his music. And he was there the year Bob Dylan went electric, an experience that apparently ended his father's willingness to take him to the festival.
By the time I was living with Lev, all of that music had become part of his musical DNA. We listened to those artists and their disciples—Ry Cooder, Roy Book Binder, Bonnie Raitt, and many others—and worked out our own versions of the music together.
We were also performing around Newport, Jamestown, and the University, including at the legendary Newport club Salt and Harpo's Jazz Club. During those years, we were invited to record a song for an album of student talent produced by the University.
We chose Paul Siebel's “Any Day Woman.”
I recently revisited that song for Lost & Found Folk, more than 50 years after we first recorded it.
Looking back, those years with Lev were enormously formative. He didn't just introduce me to music. He opened up an entire musical world.
We're still good friends, even though our paths have taken us far from that life in Jamestown. I'm forever grateful for those years—and for everything we discovered together.
But my connection to Clingstone didn't end when I left Jamestown.
About ten years later, around 1983, I had just gotten a new Lowden guitar and was discovering DADGAD tuning. The first piece I wrote in that tuning was called “Clingstone.”
I didn't record it until 1991, when I included it on Waving at Strangers, a recording I made with Cindy Barber here in Arizona. For the recording, I added the sounds of the ocean and seagulls, bringing back a little of the atmosphere of that remarkable house surrounded by water.
In a way, the piece became a musical memory of a place that had meant so much to me years earlier—a place where friendship, discovery, and music had become inseparable.
I'm happy to share the recording as a free download on Bandcamp. You can also listen to “Clingstone” on Spotify or your favorite streaming platform. Check below for these options.
Continue the Journey
If this story spoke to you, I'd love for you to hear the music that grew from it.
🎵 Listen to Rick & Lev's version of "Any Day Woman"
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