COYLE — Folk singer Lynne Ferguson was out one day with her quarter horse, Joey, “galloping around, having a great time,” as she recalls.
Then chest pains overtook her.
“I started feeling really bad, real light-headed. I just kind of collapsed. I leaned forward and held onto Joey, and he carefully took me home.”
Her horse, a 17-year-old stallion she raised from colthood, helped save the singer’s life.
Ferguson, now 59, has suffered from heart trouble and other health problems, and had to cut back on her concerts.
She left the Nashville, Tenn., scene to live in a cabin off the grid and on Kitsap Peninsula’s Port Madison Indian Reservation, where she runs the Native Horsemanship Youth Program. Joey is one of her herd.
Now Ferguson is well — well enough to take her favorite songs out on the road again.
Concert Sunday
With delight that came clear through the phone, Ferguson spoke last week about her gig this Sunday at the intimate Laurel B. Johnson Community Center, a concert with flat-picking guitar champion Roger Ferguson. He happens to be her former husband.
Admission is by donation to the 3 p.m. show, another in the Concerts in the Woods series.
The two, who were a duo called Double Stop for a good 20 years, would travel all over, opening for artists such as Taj Mahal and developing a devoted following.
Now, Lynne Ferguson has a set of handpicked tunes to play: from her “Wintersongs” record from last year, alongside some newer music and a few covers.
“There are all these Christmas songs that I really love. I’ll probably do ‘O Little Town of Bethlehem’ . . . and some flat-picking stuff like ‘Santa Claus Is Coming to Town’ and ‘Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.’
“Oh, and I’m going to do a really good John and Johanna Hall song: ‘New Star Shining.’ It’s a beautiful one, a modern Christmas carol.
“And there’s a really cool cover of Kate Wolf, ‘Across the Great Divide,’” as well as a Gilbert and Linda Ronstadt song, “Lo Siento, Mi Vida” (“I’m Sorry, My Darling”).
“I love that song so much,” Ferguson said.
And if her tone of voice in this interview was any indication, she spreads that love around to plenty of other songs, not least those December chestnuts “White Christmas” and “What Child Is This?”
Youth program benefit
Proceeds from Sunday’s concert will benefit Ferguson’s Native Horsemanship Youth Program, which serves children and teens who cannot otherwise afford riding lessons.
Ferguson’s great-grandfather was Comanche, and his riding methods were passed down to her; she learned how to treat a horse as a trusted partner. And this is what she teaches the young people on her ranch.
“My life and passions are music and working with these horses to help children grow and thrive,” Ferguson writes on her website, www.NativeHorsemanship.org.
“We survive on the tiniest donations. If you can donate $5, that’s a big deal, or $10. That can support a lesson for a kid who is below the poverty level or has a disability,” she added.
Concerts in the Woods presenter Norm Johnson has a vivid memory of Ferguson’s long-ago performance with Double Stop.
“I saw them for the first time at a Friday night music series called ‘First Fridays’ put on in the Island Center Hall by the Bainbridge Island Parks District,” he said.
That folk series planted the seed for his own shows a couple of decades later.
Once Johnson found his venue in Coyle, Lynne Ferguson was one of the first performers he brought over.
She came in March 2010, and by the time she’d driven through the forest to find the place, she thought: “No one is ever going to come out here.”
But then, by show time, “it filled up.”
For information about and directions to the Laurel B. Johnson Community Center, 923 Hazel Point Road, see www.CoyleConcerts.com or contact Norm Johnson at 360-765-3449 or johnson5485@msn.com.
“I just can’t wait,” Ferguson said of Sunday’s gig. “It should be really fun.”
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Features Editor Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5062, or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
