Something Authentic | Part 5

Something Authentic is Season 1 of Kid8 Podcast. You can listen to Something Authentic on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Something Authentic Episode 5 is also available for purchase as an NFT on OpenSea. You can also support Kid8 Podcast by making a donation here.

Read Part 4 of Something Authentic.

The producers wave me forward. From the side the set looked like a Roman ruin but up close I can see how packed it is. Outside of the lights are faces with prying eyes, waiting to see you fall to the little barker’s claws. The mandolin case is creaking and blowing dust in my eyes and I want to rub them but it’ll only make me look stoned on TV and I don’t want mom to see that.

What is it?, the little barker asks. His breath smells like tuna but his teeth are clean for the camera.

It’s all that’s left of my great-great grandad, I say. I flip open the case and show him the Gibson mandolin. Made in 1901, I say. And before you poo-poo it, let me tell you it’s story.

The little barker laughs a tuna laugh and I tell it quick as I can.

This mandolin, you’ll hear it on The Basement Tapes. Bob Dylan’s Basement Tapes. This mandolin, my great-great grandad—a professional boxer and vaudevillian—played it on the radio. Then he pawned it in Paterson and Levon Helm bought it on his way through after a show at the Palace on Main. The man at the pawn shop told him its story—owned by a boxer and singer named Charlie Costello. Then he gave it to Bobby after they made the Basement Tapes. Well, I became a roadie for Mr. Zimmerman during Rolling Thunder and one night he asked me where I was from. And well, you can guess the rest. You can hear it on Goin’ To Acapulco. And brother that’s exactly where I’m goin’ after you tell me how much it’s worth, I say.  But, you already know that. You saw it on the TV.

Well, the little barker sonofabitch laughs and says, How can you prove it?

And I said, just listen to it. Ain’t no mandolin sounds like this one.

I play a few bars for him on the relic and you can smell that Woodstock basement mildew rising from inside it. It’s got a voice like Billie Holiday coming through an old tube radio. But he doesn’t hear it. He doesn’t hear anything. He just smiles for the goddamn camera.

I’m sorry, he says. Without a certificate of authenticity, it’s one among thousands.

Not you, though, I say.

Thank you for reading Something Authentic, Part 5. If you enjoyed the story, you can support Kid8 Podcast by purchasing the NFT of Something Authentic Episode 5 on OpenSea, or by making a donation at venmo.com/kid8creative.

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Be sure to check out Episode 6 of Something Authentic, the finale, debuting July 6. You can learn more about Something Authentic here. You can also follow me on Instagram: @jhannan86 and @the_k1d_8

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