Those who know me know that I'm rooting for Barack Obama in my own socialist-lefty-leaning way in this upcoming election. Here're some other folks who feel the same way.
For those friends who aren't as familiar with the music, the tune they're playing is "John Brown's Dream". One of my all-time favorites.
Go Vote!
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
New Live Theater Adventure
Not a lot of time to post today, but I just got some publicity photos for a play I'm directing and wanted to get them out there. The play is Terrence McNally's A Perfect Ganesh and I'm pretty excited about it. The play is magical and funny. It tells the story of two American womens' journey through India led by the Hindu god Ganesha. On their way they discover themselves, each other, life, forgiveness, and how to be. The actors are working hard and things are shaping up. I hope you'll come see it.
The play opens on November 14 and runs for two weekends.
More information on dates, location, and ticket prices can be had here: West End Players web page.
Okay. I've already spent more time here today than I should. I'm gone.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Now That's A Good Tune
I happened across a notice on the Fiddle-L list a week or so ago saying that Voyager Records is re-issuing a recording and book of Missouri fiddlers and tunes called Now That's A Good Tune: Masters of Traditional Missouri Fiddling. It was originally released through the University of Missouri about 20 years ago and has been out of print for some years. Well, of course I ordered a copy ($30 post paid for a limited time).
The two CD and book set came in the mail yesterday and I'll tell you it's terrific stuff. I've not had time to read much of the book yet, but the CDs are full of plenty of good tunes. Fiddlers represented are Vesta Johnson, Gene Goforth, R.P. Christeson, Nile Wilson, Cyril Stinnet, Carol Hascall, Lyman Enloe, Pete McMahan, Bob Walsh, Howe Teague, Bill Eddy, and young upstart (well, 20 years ago anyway) Charlie Walden. The 52 tunes are top-notch every one.
If you're at all interested in Missouri fiddle styles and typical tunes played in the state, you'll have to have this on your shelves and the CDs in you player.
Now if someone would just re-issue I'm Old, But I'm Awfully Tough and R.P. Christeson's The Old-Time Fiddlers Repertory as CD and book sets. Well, we can wish.
The two CD and book set came in the mail yesterday and I'll tell you it's terrific stuff. I've not had time to read much of the book yet, but the CDs are full of plenty of good tunes. Fiddlers represented are Vesta Johnson, Gene Goforth, R.P. Christeson, Nile Wilson, Cyril Stinnet, Carol Hascall, Lyman Enloe, Pete McMahan, Bob Walsh, Howe Teague, Bill Eddy, and young upstart (well, 20 years ago anyway) Charlie Walden. The 52 tunes are top-notch every one.
If you're at all interested in Missouri fiddle styles and typical tunes played in the state, you'll have to have this on your shelves and the CDs in you player.
Now if someone would just re-issue I'm Old, But I'm Awfully Tough and R.P. Christeson's The Old-Time Fiddlers Repertory as CD and book sets. Well, we can wish.
Monday, October 20, 2008
Yeeowtch!
Beautiful fall weather, good music with friends, and delicious food all conspired to make for a pretty terrific time on Saturday last. I started out the day playing tunes for the Gateway Greening Harvest Fair, mentioned elswhere in these pages. About half a dozen of us showed up with banjos, fiddles, guitars, and mandolins in tow. A few people danced a little and all seemed to be having a great time. If it hadn't been for the bees getting their two-cents in, things would have been about perfect.
About the time that the pot-luck lunch started being served, the bees became very interested in what we humans were up to. Bill, our fiddler got a sting on his bow hand. Not enough of a problem to keep him from playing, but from all reports it stung pretty good for the rest of the day. Then I took a drink of home made cider. It tasted so good! Unfortunately, it had a little extra kick to it; a bee had been drinking out of the cup and took objection to my drinking him! Yeeowtch! A bee sting to the tongue! I don't recommend it.
My tongue hurt like heck for a few minutes, then swelled up to twice its normal size. I couldn't talk clearly, couldn't swallow. Then it got numb for a while. Then the pain came back even worse. Someone mentioned that Benedryl would reduce the swelling, so I traipsed over to the local drug store and picked some up. It did help, but made me so sleepy that I had to follow it with large doses of coffee and a really nasty tasting "energy drink" to stay awake.
Could have been worse, though I suppose. It didn't stop me from playing a real nice gig in the afternoon with the Mound City Slickers and special guests. We played for a church group out at a horse farm in far western St. Louis County. The people were all as nice as could be and they seemed to enjoy dancing. Mac McKeever called the dances. He's an expert at getting people up on their feet and calling dances that are fun and make them want to dance some more. We're always glad to play for a dance with Mac calling.
Again, the weather couldn't have been nicer; sunny, cool, crisp, but not too cold to play comfortably. Here's hoping for a lot more days like this and a lot more time to play fiddle tunes.
About the time that the pot-luck lunch started being served, the bees became very interested in what we humans were up to. Bill, our fiddler got a sting on his bow hand. Not enough of a problem to keep him from playing, but from all reports it stung pretty good for the rest of the day. Then I took a drink of home made cider. It tasted so good! Unfortunately, it had a little extra kick to it; a bee had been drinking out of the cup and took objection to my drinking him! Yeeowtch! A bee sting to the tongue! I don't recommend it.
My tongue hurt like heck for a few minutes, then swelled up to twice its normal size. I couldn't talk clearly, couldn't swallow. Then it got numb for a while. Then the pain came back even worse. Someone mentioned that Benedryl would reduce the swelling, so I traipsed over to the local drug store and picked some up. It did help, but made me so sleepy that I had to follow it with large doses of coffee and a really nasty tasting "energy drink" to stay awake.
Could have been worse, though I suppose. It didn't stop me from playing a real nice gig in the afternoon with the Mound City Slickers and special guests. We played for a church group out at a horse farm in far western St. Louis County. The people were all as nice as could be and they seemed to enjoy dancing. Mac McKeever called the dances. He's an expert at getting people up on their feet and calling dances that are fun and make them want to dance some more. We're always glad to play for a dance with Mac calling.
Again, the weather couldn't have been nicer; sunny, cool, crisp, but not too cold to play comfortably. Here's hoping for a lot more days like this and a lot more time to play fiddle tunes.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Music and Pie
This Saturday, October 18, I'll be playing old-time tunes with some friends at the Gateway Greening Harvest Fair and Garlic Day. The event takes place from 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM at their Bell Garden at 3871 Bell Avenue, just a few blocks north of the Fox Theater neighborhood. As well as our jam session, there'll be activities for the kids and free garlic cloves for planting. They also have a pie contest that has to be tasted to be believed! You can also walk around the Bell Garden and see what's been growing there this year. Very impressive!
Gateway Greening is a terrific organization that works within the St. Louis Metro community to set up community gardens, introduce gardening and green living to city school students, and other gardening/self-sufficiency projects. They're good folks and are doing good work.
A bunch of us from the Folk School of St. Louis played at this event last year and had great fun. The music was good, the people were a lot of fun, and the pot luck and pie contest were amazing.
Come on down and join us this year for what promises to be a real big time.
Gateway Greening is a terrific organization that works within the St. Louis Metro community to set up community gardens, introduce gardening and green living to city school students, and other gardening/self-sufficiency projects. They're good folks and are doing good work.
A bunch of us from the Folk School of St. Louis played at this event last year and had great fun. The music was good, the people were a lot of fun, and the pot luck and pie contest were amazing.
Come on down and join us this year for what promises to be a real big time.
Thursday, October 09, 2008
Musical Earmarks - Updated 2008-10-10
We hear so much lately about earmarks attached to government spending bills and wasteful use of tax dollars. So, I thought I’d take a quick turn around that new-fangled interweb and see if I could find out where all of that money goes.
A Google search got me to the government Office of Management and Budget website and the section on Earmarks . I looked at a few pages for the U.S.’s FY2009 budget and found the following programs, among many others, that got earmark money. You may think differently, of course, but I thought these were pretty good buys for the price.
$99,000 for the Community Music School of Collegeville, Trappe, PA for music education
$248,000 for the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, Nashville, Tennessee to support community programs
$72,000 for the Music Maker Foundation, Inc. for acquisition, renovation, and buildout of a facility in Orange County, North Carolina. (These folks are a not-for-profit organization that helps support elderly blues and old-time musicians who have fallen on hard times.)
$99,000 for the Settlement Music School, Philadelphia, PA, to support arts education
$148,000 for the First Congregational Church for conservation of Henderson American Music Archive.
$347,000 for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum for music education programs
$306,000 for the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), NY for juvenile-based services for prevention, control, or reduction of juvenile delinquency
$99,000 for the Mountain Arts Center, Prestonsburg, KY, for expansion of its Music and Arts Development Program
$992,000 for the Yonkers Public Schools, Yonkers, NY, for after school and Saturday academic and enrichment activities, literacy services, music and arts education, and parent involvement activities
$472,000 for an Oral History Program Experience Music Project, Seattle, WA
$887,000 for the Blue Ridge National Heritage Area to celebrate the region's natural landscape, abundance of nationally significant places, cultural contributions of the Cherokee Nation, and mountain culture that shaped the area's distinctive music and crafts.
And don’t forget that some of our tax dollars go to support and maintain the old-time and country music collections (like the the Henry Reed Collection) at the Library of Congress and the Smithsonian Institution (curators of Smithsonian Folkways records). Update 2008-10-10: Per a comment posted by David Horgan of Smithsonian Folkways, they're not actually supported by tax revenues as I had thought. They are instead "based in the national museum, but rely on revenues, grants, private donations, and good will to survive and to carry out [their] mission." Thanks for the correction, David! Keep up the great work.
I don’t care what Sarah Palin and her oil-drilling, ocean-fishing, Alaska-seceding husband say; if my taxes go to pay for the above items as well as maintaining roads & bridges, libraries, Medicare, police & fire protection, public schools for all children, NASA, and scientific research that leads to healthier and longer lives, then I believe that paying them is plenty patriotic.
It was Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes who said, "I like paying taxes. With them, I buy civilization."
A Google search got me to the government Office of Management and Budget website and the section on Earmarks . I looked at a few pages for the U.S.’s FY2009 budget and found the following programs, among many others, that got earmark money. You may think differently, of course, but I thought these were pretty good buys for the price.
$99,000 for the Community Music School of Collegeville, Trappe, PA for music education
$248,000 for the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, Nashville, Tennessee to support community programs
$72,000 for the Music Maker Foundation, Inc. for acquisition, renovation, and buildout of a facility in Orange County, North Carolina. (These folks are a not-for-profit organization that helps support elderly blues and old-time musicians who have fallen on hard times.)
$99,000 for the Settlement Music School, Philadelphia, PA, to support arts education
$148,000 for the First Congregational Church for conservation of Henderson American Music Archive.
$347,000 for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum for music education programs
$306,000 for the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), NY for juvenile-based services for prevention, control, or reduction of juvenile delinquency
$99,000 for the Mountain Arts Center, Prestonsburg, KY, for expansion of its Music and Arts Development Program
$992,000 for the Yonkers Public Schools, Yonkers, NY, for after school and Saturday academic and enrichment activities, literacy services, music and arts education, and parent involvement activities
$472,000 for an Oral History Program Experience Music Project, Seattle, WA
$887,000 for the Blue Ridge National Heritage Area to celebrate the region's natural landscape, abundance of nationally significant places, cultural contributions of the Cherokee Nation, and mountain culture that shaped the area's distinctive music and crafts.
And don’t forget that some of our tax dollars go to support and maintain the old-time and country music collections (like the the Henry Reed Collection) at the Library of Congress and the Smithsonian Institution (curators of Smithsonian Folkways records). Update 2008-10-10: Per a comment posted by David Horgan of Smithsonian Folkways, they're not actually supported by tax revenues as I had thought. They are instead "based in the national museum, but rely on revenues, grants, private donations, and good will to survive and to carry out [their] mission." Thanks for the correction, David! Keep up the great work.
I don’t care what Sarah Palin and her oil-drilling, ocean-fishing, Alaska-seceding husband say; if my taxes go to pay for the above items as well as maintaining roads & bridges, libraries, Medicare, police & fire protection, public schools for all children, NASA, and scientific research that leads to healthier and longer lives, then I believe that paying them is plenty patriotic.
It was Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes who said, "I like paying taxes. With them, I buy civilization."
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