I haven't had time to post much lately. Things have been crazy and I haven't been playing nearly as much as I'd like to. Or working on picking up new tunes, either. So in a shameless attempt to get something up on the blog while not having to think about it too much, here's a video found on YouTube. The tune is "Half Past Four", an Ed Haley tune that I've been carrying around in my head for the last week or so.
Watching the video is also getting me juiced about going to the Clifftop festival this year. And believe me, in these weird days of February, I need the promise of August on a mountaintop in West Virginia.
Anyway, enjoy. It's great stuff.
Showing posts with label Festivals. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Festivals. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
A Day At The Garlic Fair
I had a real nice time this last Saturday playing with some friends at the Gateway Greening
garden headquarters. They had their Garlic Day and Harvest Fair and wanted some Old-Time music for the occasion. We got together a pickup group for the occasion: Bill Stewart and myself on fiddle, Bob Clark and Uncle Dan’l Higgins on banjo, and Alice S. on guitar. The tunes were pretty good, the weather was beautiful and the setting couldn’t have been better.
These are such great folks to play with! When Bill and I get a head of steam up, it’s off to the races, buddy! But Bob, Dan and Alice were pretty good natured about it, even if we did strain their strumming arms a little keeping up with the tempos.
They had us play in a covered pavilion in the middle of their couple of acre big community garden. We were surrounded by raised beds of flowers, broccoli, okra, lettuce, cabbage, Italian sage, and lots of other crops. Greens, blues, purples. Really something to see and smell.
And the mix of folks sitting around listening and enjoying was good, too. I have to admit I felt good to have people of all colors, ages and economic rungs; inner city (where the garden is located) and suburban folks too, all sitting together listening to these old tunes. Maybe we’ll get over this ridiculous polarization that our government seems to foster yet with enough good music and good food to help us get through it.
The gardeners also had a table set up so folks could bottle their own herbed/flavored vinegars, which was great fun. I stuffed some garlic cloves, chili peppers, basil and thyme into a jar and covered it with red wine vinegar. Now, I gather I wait for about a month while the alchemy takes place and start using the vinegar to cook with. My mouth is watering already!
Things finished off with a pot luck barbecue and a pie contest. Unfortunately, I was so intent on playing “Squirrel Hunters” for Alice that I missed out on getting a piece of the prize-winning sweet potato pie. The pulled pork and all of the fresh home-made salads were enough to content me, though.
The day was capped for me (as it often is) by an older woman coming over as we were packing up our instruments to go. She said she had moved to St. Louis years ago from rural Alabama, but that our music took her right back there to where she’d grown up. She hadn’t heard that music in years and so much enjoyed it.
Pretty good day, if I must say so myself.
garden headquarters. They had their Garlic Day and Harvest Fair and wanted some Old-Time music for the occasion. We got together a pickup group for the occasion: Bill Stewart and myself on fiddle, Bob Clark and Uncle Dan’l Higgins on banjo, and Alice S. on guitar. The tunes were pretty good, the weather was beautiful and the setting couldn’t have been better.
These are such great folks to play with! When Bill and I get a head of steam up, it’s off to the races, buddy! But Bob, Dan and Alice were pretty good natured about it, even if we did strain their strumming arms a little keeping up with the tempos.
They had us play in a covered pavilion in the middle of their couple of acre big community garden. We were surrounded by raised beds of flowers, broccoli, okra, lettuce, cabbage, Italian sage, and lots of other crops. Greens, blues, purples. Really something to see and smell.
And the mix of folks sitting around listening and enjoying was good, too. I have to admit I felt good to have people of all colors, ages and economic rungs; inner city (where the garden is located) and suburban folks too, all sitting together listening to these old tunes. Maybe we’ll get over this ridiculous polarization that our government seems to foster yet with enough good music and good food to help us get through it.
The gardeners also had a table set up so folks could bottle their own herbed/flavored vinegars, which was great fun. I stuffed some garlic cloves, chili peppers, basil and thyme into a jar and covered it with red wine vinegar. Now, I gather I wait for about a month while the alchemy takes place and start using the vinegar to cook with. My mouth is watering already!
Things finished off with a pot luck barbecue and a pie contest. Unfortunately, I was so intent on playing “Squirrel Hunters” for Alice that I missed out on getting a piece of the prize-winning sweet potato pie. The pulled pork and all of the fresh home-made salads were enough to content me, though.
The day was capped for me (as it often is) by an older woman coming over as we were packing up our instruments to go. She said she had moved to St. Louis years ago from rural Alabama, but that our music took her right back there to where she’d grown up. She hadn’t heard that music in years and so much enjoyed it.
Pretty good day, if I must say so myself.
Monday, August 20, 2007
Gateway Dulcimer Festival 2007 Post Mortem
Boy, I have a good life! What a great (if exhausting!) weekend at the Gateway Dulcimer Festival in Belleville, Illinois.
Thursday night was when all of the early registrants showed up along with the folks presenting workshops and performing at the Friday and Saturday night concerts. There was a pretty good jam session going on and I got to say “Hey!” to many friends that I only see at these festivals; Jack and Mary Giger, Mike Anderson, Aubrey Atwater and Elwood Donnelly, Rick Thumb and lots of other folks. Traveling to the festival must have worn everyone out, though, as the jamming was done by about 10:30.
One of the high points of the evening was getting to meet Shari Wolf, the guitarist for Sweetwater. She’s a real hoot and her guitar playing really helped keep the rhythm going in the big jam! I hope I run into her again soon.
Friday, Dan and I got to the festival around 11:00 in the morning. More “Hi, howyadoin’ ” followed and we shortly sat down to play tunes. We jammed with an ever changing group of people all afternoon, only stopping for dinner and the evening concert.
The concert was top notch. It was great hearing performances by Jack and Mary, autoharpist Alex Usher, the lovely and charming Princess Harris (I think she’s my favorite hammered dulcimer player), beautiful songs by Katie Waldren and Candace Kreitlow, and Atwater/Donnelly to close the show. Probably the highlight of the concert was an eight or nine minute unaccompanied clog dance and story performance piece that Aubrey Atwater did seamlessly slipping between different clogging styles from different parts of the U.S. and Canada and who taught her each. She finished it up by clogging singing a French Canadian song while frailing the banjo all at the same time. The whole thing was sort of like the folk music equivalent of a drum solo. Sort of like the Grateful Dead’s Rhythm Devils in one pair of feet!
After the concert it was back to fiddling for me at another big jam session. Played a ton of tunes until around 12:30 or 1:00 a.m. Friend Neil showed up with his button boxes and added a whole different feeling to the tunes. A fiddle, an accordion, a mandolin, a couple of banjos, a harmonica, a couple of guitars, three or four hammered dulcimers, and maybe twenty mountain dulcimers. What a racket! Beautiful!
Saturday I had the great pleasure of playing guitar to back my good friend, terrific fiddler, and the director of the Folk School of St. Louis, Colleen Heine for the evening concert. Our set was great fun and seemed to go over pretty well. We played about a half hour of old-time fiddle tunes and songs. I hope we get to do more of it.
Others on the bill that evening were Barb Ernst, the aforementioned Sweetwater (who did a great set of funny songs with beautiful vocal from all three of the members), Mike Anderson, and Rick Thum.
After the concert it was back to jamming with the big bunch of dulcimers again. This time it broke up (pr at least I pooped out) around 1:00. By then my fingers had had about enough punishment and I was starting to forget which tunes I was playing. Sure signs that I’d been having far more than my share of fun over the last couple of days.
So, today (Monday), I’m still running on fumes, my hands are less sore, but there’s a smile on my face. Can’t wait ‘til next year!
Thursday night was when all of the early registrants showed up along with the folks presenting workshops and performing at the Friday and Saturday night concerts. There was a pretty good jam session going on and I got to say “Hey!” to many friends that I only see at these festivals; Jack and Mary Giger, Mike Anderson, Aubrey Atwater and Elwood Donnelly, Rick Thumb and lots of other folks. Traveling to the festival must have worn everyone out, though, as the jamming was done by about 10:30.
One of the high points of the evening was getting to meet Shari Wolf, the guitarist for Sweetwater. She’s a real hoot and her guitar playing really helped keep the rhythm going in the big jam! I hope I run into her again soon.
Friday, Dan and I got to the festival around 11:00 in the morning. More “Hi, howyadoin’ ” followed and we shortly sat down to play tunes. We jammed with an ever changing group of people all afternoon, only stopping for dinner and the evening concert.
The concert was top notch. It was great hearing performances by Jack and Mary, autoharpist Alex Usher, the lovely and charming Princess Harris (I think she’s my favorite hammered dulcimer player), beautiful songs by Katie Waldren and Candace Kreitlow, and Atwater/Donnelly to close the show. Probably the highlight of the concert was an eight or nine minute unaccompanied clog dance and story performance piece that Aubrey Atwater did seamlessly slipping between different clogging styles from different parts of the U.S. and Canada and who taught her each. She finished it up by clogging singing a French Canadian song while frailing the banjo all at the same time. The whole thing was sort of like the folk music equivalent of a drum solo. Sort of like the Grateful Dead’s Rhythm Devils in one pair of feet!
After the concert it was back to fiddling for me at another big jam session. Played a ton of tunes until around 12:30 or 1:00 a.m. Friend Neil showed up with his button boxes and added a whole different feeling to the tunes. A fiddle, an accordion, a mandolin, a couple of banjos, a harmonica, a couple of guitars, three or four hammered dulcimers, and maybe twenty mountain dulcimers. What a racket! Beautiful!
Saturday I had the great pleasure of playing guitar to back my good friend, terrific fiddler, and the director of the Folk School of St. Louis, Colleen Heine for the evening concert. Our set was great fun and seemed to go over pretty well. We played about a half hour of old-time fiddle tunes and songs. I hope we get to do more of it.
Others on the bill that evening were Barb Ernst, the aforementioned Sweetwater (who did a great set of funny songs with beautiful vocal from all three of the members), Mike Anderson, and Rick Thum.
After the concert it was back to jamming with the big bunch of dulcimers again. This time it broke up (pr at least I pooped out) around 1:00. By then my fingers had had about enough punishment and I was starting to forget which tunes I was playing. Sure signs that I’d been having far more than my share of fun over the last couple of days.
So, today (Monday), I’m still running on fumes, my hands are less sore, but there’s a smile on my face. Can’t wait ‘til next year!
Friday, August 17, 2007
Dulcimer Playing Weekend!
This weekend, I'm spending a lot of time over in Belleville, IL at the Gateway Dulcimer Society's festival. It'll be a weekend of catching up with freinds from all over the country who I only see at this festival, meeting new friends, and playing a [i]lot[/i] of tunes.
I'll let you in on all the details when it's over and I've caught my breath.
I'll let you in on all the details when it's over and I've caught my breath.
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Pictures from Mt. Airy
So, my friend Renee mentioned to me her disapointment at my not posting anything yesterday. Busy day at work... too much to do... blah, blah, blah... It's forced me to return to the Mount Airy well and post some photos of people playing tunes. Hope you all enjoy them. If I get time in the next couple of days, I'll post some of the pictures I took a few weeks ago at The Bluff Country Gathering. 'Cause, of course, you can't ever have too many photographs of people playing fiddles and banjos.
Above is a picture of Woody McKenzie playing fiddle and Jack (didn't get his last name) with a banjo on his lap. Woody is one of the nicest fellows I've yet met and a heck of a fine fiddler. Jack is a lot of fun as well and loves to sing those old-time songs.
Later in the afternoon, Woody took the time to teach "Spotted Pony" to a young girl who is just starting out on fiddling. His patience, skill at explaining, and enjoyment at seeing her picking it up were a great thing to watch.
Thursday, June 07, 2007
Back from Mt. Airy
Well, Amy and I got back Sunday this week from the Mt. Airy Fiddlers Convention out in the mountains of North Carolina, but this is the first opportunity I've had to put my thoughts together about it. It was a much needed and appreciated trip. We had nice weather, met some good folks, heard lots of fine old-time music and shared a lot of tunes.
The drive out was pleasant. We rented a car, packed it full of tent, sleeping bags, cooler, Amy's knitting, and my instruments and headed east. The countryside was beautiful and we gawked at old farm houses, barns, cows, horses, goats, and pigs the whole way out. And, of course, the mountains are always good to see. Driving through the tunnels in the mountains in West Virginia tickled Amy no end.
Once we got to Mt. Airy and set up camp, we introduced ourselves to those camped around us. They made us feel awfully welcomed and we started playing tunes right away. Thanks so much to Dave, Woody, Banjo Marsha, Art, Kathy, Sherry, Linda, Dennis, Frank, Dulcimer Marsha, Sandy, Jeff, Anna from Vermont, Bryant and all the rest for treating us like they'd known us forever even though this was our first time (though, not the last, I'm sure) there. Old time music is all about community and good times, so it's not surprising that we formed our own small community so quickly.
Thanks also for turning me on to new tunes that I hadn't heard before or hadn't thought of in a long time. "Georgia Row", "Joys of Quebec", "Run Down Boot", and "La Grande Chaine" are all on my list to learn now, thanks to the bunch of you!
While I played tunes like there was no tomorrow, Amy spent time reading, knitting, talking with new friends and relaxing. I think we both needed it!
Friday night brought the band contests and Amy and I walked over from our camp to listen. There were over 100 bands competing and we heard something like 30 of them, including The Roan Mountain Hilltoppers, which was a great treat for me.
Of course, before the contests and during breaks in the action, Amy and I wandered around the vendors area for fresh lemonade, home made ice cream and to check out the instruments for sale. Also had to look at (and buy a couple of) the CDs for sale at John Hatton's Clef'd Ear booth.
So, we're back. And glad to be sleeping in our own bed, home with the kid and the cat. But we're missing Mt. Airy, too. Good thing it's only a couple of weeks until Battleground!
The drive out was pleasant. We rented a car, packed it full of tent, sleeping bags, cooler, Amy's knitting, and my instruments and headed east. The countryside was beautiful and we gawked at old farm houses, barns, cows, horses, goats, and pigs the whole way out. And, of course, the mountains are always good to see. Driving through the tunnels in the mountains in West Virginia tickled Amy no end.
Once we got to Mt. Airy and set up camp, we introduced ourselves to those camped around us. They made us feel awfully welcomed and we started playing tunes right away. Thanks so much to Dave, Woody, Banjo Marsha, Art, Kathy, Sherry, Linda, Dennis, Frank, Dulcimer Marsha, Sandy, Jeff, Anna from Vermont, Bryant and all the rest for treating us like they'd known us forever even though this was our first time (though, not the last, I'm sure) there. Old time music is all about community and good times, so it's not surprising that we formed our own small community so quickly.
Thanks also for turning me on to new tunes that I hadn't heard before or hadn't thought of in a long time. "Georgia Row", "Joys of Quebec", "Run Down Boot", and "La Grande Chaine" are all on my list to learn now, thanks to the bunch of you!
While I played tunes like there was no tomorrow, Amy spent time reading, knitting, talking with new friends and relaxing. I think we both needed it!
Friday night brought the band contests and Amy and I walked over from our camp to listen. There were over 100 bands competing and we heard something like 30 of them, including The Roan Mountain Hilltoppers, which was a great treat for me.
Of course, before the contests and during breaks in the action, Amy and I wandered around the vendors area for fresh lemonade, home made ice cream and to check out the instruments for sale. Also had to look at (and buy a couple of) the CDs for sale at John Hatton's Clef'd Ear booth.
So, we're back. And glad to be sleeping in our own bed, home with the kid and the cat. But we're missing Mt. Airy, too. Good thing it's only a couple of weeks until Battleground!
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