The corner of Aspen Avenue and San Francisco Street in downtown Flagstaff was Aaron Norris' corner. It's where he played guitar and sang songs for countless passersby. He was a fixture in the local music scene, playing with many different bands and musicians. Aaron Norris died last week of a heroin overdose, just a few days shy of his 49th birthday. In this week's Poetry Friday segment, musician Shawn Dennehy pays tribute to his friend by singing one of Aaron's original songs, 'Gone'.
Shawn Dennehy:
Aaron loved music. And, you know, I met him under that pretense. With music, whenever we played together, he would say, ‘We’re the best band in the entire world!’ But I knew he meant it from the bottom of his heart, like, we are the best band in the whole world…we’re awesome! So that was him. He was just a really passionate person. Anyone that knows him knows that. To me he was, like, a freight train: if you knew him, you had to either jump on and ride for a little while, or just watch him pass by.
I’m going to sing a song called ‘Gone’ that he wrote. I believe he played it with Tex Watson, his old band. We were talking about what to play for the celebration of his life on Sunday at the Orpheum, and you know, which one of his songs would be a good tune, which songs would his family like to hear.
Alright. Here’s a song called ‘Gone’, by Aaron Norris.
Poetry Friday is produced by KNAU's Gillian Ferris. If you have an idea for a segment, drop her an email at gillian.ferris@nau.edu.
