Nose To The Grindstone!

Well, I'm back for my first day at the office after spending three weeks recovering from shoulder surgery. And wouldn't you just know it, there were more than 700 emails to wade through. Other than my shoulder feeling better and my being rested after my time away, nothing much has changed at Dog Food Central.

I'm looking forward even more than usual to sitting down with the fiddle and relaxing with some tunes tonight!

Score One For Medical Science

Well, it's been a little over a week since the surgery to correct my frozen shoulder and I couldn't be happier about the whole thing. I went into the hospital last Friday, came home with three holes in my shoulder and considerably less damaged tissue on Saturday and was playing the fiddle relatively pain free by Tuesday. Since then, I've been keeping up with an amazingly (for me anyway) disciplined regimen of seven times daily exercises to keep the joint loose and to increase the range of motion even further and three-a-week visits to a physical therapy clinic to get even more stretching and strengthening under a watchful eye and a strong pair of hands.

Friday evening I spent a couple of hours at The Folk School pot luck and jam. Took my fiddle along and played tunes with folks for a couple of hours. By the end of it, I was feeling better about my bowing, after nearly a year away from it. Still needs work, but by the end of Friday's session I felt a lot more in control, more relaxed, and I was able to get some rhythm into my bowing, too. So, all in all, not a bad start.

Now, I just need to spend the next couple of weeks making sure that I keep to the program and I should be good as new!

Old Mother Logo

While playing at the Folk School jam session yesterday, we dredged up a tune that I used to play with Janet Oriatti a lot before children and family began demanding so much of her time. Iam looking forward to a time 18 years from now when Helen and Vince will be all grown up and Janet and I can sit down and play "Old Mother Logo" again.

At any rate, someone called for this tune and while we stumbled through it, I remembered how much I liked playing it. Of course, now I have to learn it all over again since I used to play it on guitar with Janet while she fiddled and these days I'm either fiddling or playing mandolin depending n how my shoulder feels -- better and better all the time, thanks for asking. So I went in search of a recording of the tune to relearn it from and found this gem:


Old Mother Logo


It's the now defunct Yellow Dog String Band from here in St. Louis playing "Old Mother Logo" at the Folk School's 2nd or 3rd annual benefit concert at the Sheldon Auditorium. The band from left to right on your screen is Dave Landreth, Rob White, Bryan Smyth, and Andy Gribble. Yellow Dog was one of the best old time string bands to come out of St. Louis and they are missed.

Anyway, here's the tune for me to relearn it. Hope you enjoy it, too.