Dreams are funny things. You can start out following them, but it’s all too easy to settle into a comfortable, even happy, life without pursuing the more risky scenarios, no matter how much you desire them. What stones should remain unturned?

Newmarket’s Craig Werth found out for himself when he was offered a job as a touring musician, and took it. It sounds like a no brainer, the thing of romantic scenes from the lives of Kerouac and Woody Guthrie, until you consider that Werth is 50 years old and had to take a year off from his job of 23 years at the University of New Hampshire. Also, he had never before attempted to support himself solely by performing music.

Still, on the checklist of life, Werth is coloring in one big ol’ box. He’s in the club now, on the road as main accompanist to Canada’s Juno-winning songwriter David Francey, and he’s drinking up every precious experience like sweet nectar.
Werth first heard Francey’s music four or five years ago at the suggestion of another Seacoast musician, Harvey Reid. Reid reached out and invited him to a local appearance of Francey’s. He thought the bespectacled Werth would enjoy Francey’s style.

Francey’s folk music rolls out of him like marbles on a wood floor, with an easy and smooth delivery that supports lovely narratives over acoustic guitar and mandolin. His warm brogue only makes the songs—stylistically equal parts Tommy Makem, Slaid Cleaves and Stompin’ Tom Connors—more endearing.

“From the moment he opened his mouth I was absolutely captivated. I heard his music and heard his words and that was it,” remembers Werth of the show. While he didn’t have an opportunity to connect with Francey at that particular show, he did chat at length with Francey’s wife, who swapped CDs with the Newmarket resident. “I just about wore that thing out. It was one amazing song after another. It started this huge connection with him and his music.”

A connection with someone’s music is one thing, but finding yourself on the road with them after only dabbling in music through the years is another. Francey e-mailed Werth after that first show to let him know he had received the CD and that he was a fan. Werth was ecstatic. “I got this e-mail message from him that said how much he liked my music. I’m just a little guy taking pot shots all these years,” says Werth humbly. “Just to be recognized was a real thrill.”

Werth grew up up on the south side of Long Island with idyllic days spent playing ball, riding his bike down the blue stone streets and gathering in the hallway stairwell with his two sisters and three brothers to listen to their father sing. He started playing the guitar in high school, soaking up Beatles records, Gordon Lightfoot and John Denver—“when listening to John Denver was cool,” he notes. Something about the coffeehouse style kept him coming back, beating out the rock and roll stuff, until years later, there he was listening to his future employer.

As the two continued their correspondence, Francey eventually invited Werth and his family up to Newfoundland. “He said, ‘You should come up to Newfoundland and we’ll play the pubs,’” Werth says, imitating Francey’s eastern Canadaian brogue. So Werth and his teenage son headed north. (His wife Liz couldn’t make that particular trip.) “I did indeed meet up with him and play, and we’d talk to three or four in the morning. Step by step, the friendship built up all these years,” Werth explains.

The final kicker, it seems, was the second annual Writers in the Round songwriters retreat on Star Island off the N.H. coast last summer. Francey was the artist-in-residence and Werth was in attendance.

At the workshop, Francey casually offered one of his own songs to Werth to work out an arrangement. “He had some pieces, some snippets, and he recorded them on my little recorder,” Werth recounted excitedly. “Forty-five minutes later I had the song done. I came knocking on his door, and he thought I’d forgotten something. I played it for him, and he was ecstatic. That started off the whole writing arrangement.”

Francey wanted to know when Werth would be retiring from his UNH job. His accompanist would be bowing out soon, he said, and the seat would be empty. It seemed like more than a subtle hint to Werth, who sent a (half) tongue-in-cheek resume to Francey “applying” for a job he wasn’t sure even existed. Had he been reading into the conversation?

“I felt like a guy who sent a love letter and was waiting for a reply. A week later, I got it,” he says. “Dear Mr. Werth,” the e-mail read, “My first determination is that you are over qualified. However, if you’d like to waste your life in this fashion, come up for your first trip in May.”

Fate kept the train rolling for Werth and his family. Just as he was leaving his own job, complete with health benefits alongside the much needed paycheck, Werth’s wife Liz got her own dream job at UNH, with benefits. Werth repeatedly uses the word “we” when he talks of the decisions that have landed him on stages around the eastern United States, and soon, Canada. He and his wife are partners in the endeavor; Liz handles the Web site, bookings and music business from home while her husband hits the road.

“I wouldn’t be doing this without (Liz’s) blessing and support. We’re in this together and we’re not questioning it too much. I honestly feel like I’m supposed to be doing this, like a calling. It’s quite a step back in income for the time being. Liz Werth is not only my wife and best friend, but she’s my business partner in this huge new adventure.”

The two are content to follow the dream for now, despite the potential hardships. And benefits keep popping up.

“One thing that’s really cool from this that I never anticipated is, I’ve never played better,” says Werth. “I might say, ‘Oh crap, I’m not doing that so well anymore,’ like lifting the kayak over my head or something, but at 50 years old I’m playing better (music) than ever.”

The challenge of learning the parts by Francey’s previous accompanists is a challenge Werth loves tackling, although granted, he had some practice stretching out stylistically. “I will say that one of my biggest musical influences is my son Ben Werth. Ben is a fine songwriter in his own right, and you’ll recall that we collaborated on his RPM Challenge CD, ‘For What It’s Worth’ and did three co-writes for that marvelous event. The pieces we wrote together and the collaboration stretched me is some new exciting ways.”

It’s a rare treat to enjoy something so unique as touring as a musician with such a fresh and unclouded perspective, without the years of baggage and cynicism that one usually accumulates. Werth has neatly circumvented it. Ironically as did his compatriot Francey, who is 51. Francey started pursuing music himself only seven years ago, at the behest of others. He’s already won two Junos (the Canadian Grammy), and has fans around the world. The two men share a special connection, no doubt born of their shared appreciation for the gift of performing music they love.

“I can’t think of a human being that I’d rather do this with. We’re so compatible vocally, ethically, philosophically. A good measure of our time is spent dying laughing,” Werth says of his first trip, which just ended. It’s tough being away from home, though, he says. “I’m a real homebody. I miss my town and my family. I love to be home, but, already part of me is chomping to play the next show.”