Set lists for Dulono's gig on Jan 4th, 2008

Lynn and I are starting the new year with our first full-time appearance at Dulono's Pizza, one of the longest-running Bluegrass/Old Time Venues in the US. We've played a number of 45 minutes sets at Dulono's for MBOTMA fund raisers, but this is the first time we've done the full evening (8pm to Midnight). We started with a list of over 50 songs and tunes that were 'performable', then whittled it down to 3 sets of 14 (42 total). From past experience, each set should last an hour or a bit more: with breaks, we should fill out the evening. If we need a 4th short set, we might repeat a few songs ;-).

After the duet contest just before Labor Day, I started learning new songs. Lynn and I have been working on these and we will be performing six new songs: East Virginia Blues, The Baltimore Fire, If I Lose - Let me Lose, Bear Creek Blue, The Story of the Mighty Mississippi, and You've Been That Friend to Me.

We'll also be doing more 'tunes' than usual (2 or 3 each set). These include:

Babbington's hornpipe: this is one of the first fiddle tune that I wrote - Danebodium has played it as schottische and it's performed by a few other folk bands. We're doing it with mandolin and guitar.

Swallowtail/HundredPipers: a jig medley that we play with folk bands - here with mando & fiddle. We're also planning to do a couple of other mando-fiddle tunes we've done before: Muddy Creek and Spotted Pony.

Other tunes include a couple of Swedish tunes with Lynn on fiddle and a couple of Guitar Flatpicking tunes (which we performed at the LCO Casino Lounge last summer).

This gig also gives a chance to perform some cover songs that we usually don't do at a MBOTMA set -- old-timey sounding songs by Gillian Welch and Norman Blake. Lynn is also bringing her 'A' tuned fiddle, so we're able to do Handsome Molly medleyed with Liza Jane and Poor Ellen Smith. Another rare treat (according to some): four songs with 12 string guitar.

Some notes on the brand new songs:

East Virginia Blues: I have at least a half dozen versions of this. We've pretty much settled on the Stanley Brothers version recorded in 1956 (released in a recent CD: An Evening Long Ago). This is a YAFSWTV (yet another folk song with transferable verses) and the Stanley brothers version is more distilled than most (i.e. fewer verses to learn). I'd been kicking this around for a while, trying to come up with a way to do it with mandolin; however, after hearing the Carter Family version, we're now going with two guitars with Carter Family style instrumental breaks. We're singing full duet on all the verses so it is a candidate for the duet contest. According to one source the roots of this song go back to 17th century England - the title was probably different: East Gloucestershire Blues?

Baltimore Fire: a Charlie Poole Song. Lyle Lofgren, who writes for MBOTMA's Inside Bluegrass & the Old Time Herald (& probably more), has a discussion of the song here: http://www.lizlyle.lofgrens.org/RmOlSngs/RTOS-BaltimoreFire.html .
This is a song in our 'falling/failing infrastructure series': I was transferring it from LP to MP3 shortly after the 35W bridge collapse - the following from the Wikepedia article added contemporary relevance:

One reason for the fire's duration was the lack of national standards in fire-fighting equipment. Although fire engines from nearby cities (such as Philadelphia and Washington, as well as units from New York City, Wilmington, and Atlantic City) responded, many were useless because their hose couplings failed to fit Baltimore hydrants. As a result, the fire burned over 30 hours, destroying 1,526 buildings spanning 70 city blocks.

If I Lose, Let me Lose: another song from Charlie Poole. After hearing Adam Kiesling of the Mill City Ramblers do 'Battleship of Maine', we realized that some of the verses are shared ('The boys was fighting the Spaniards while I was fighting gnats', etc). The fact that the two songs share the same 'root' source is confirmed in the notes to songs in a book I recently read: RAMBLING BLUES: THE LIFE & SONGS OF CHARLIE POOLE by Kinney Rorrer. We're singing this in the Key of D with two guitars (Bob=capo 2nd fret, Lynn=open).

You've Been That Friend To Me: this is a Carter family song that quite a few people do, although the only other recorded version I have is Pop Wagner's. Hearing the original Carter Family version got me thinking of doing it: we're following their version fairly closely, even to the point of keeping it in the same key, F ( Sara Carter's range is similar to mine on many of their songs). We use two guitars, I'm playing in C position on the 5th fret, Lynn is in D on the 3rd fret.

Bear Creek Blues: another Carter Family song for which I have several versions, but it was hearing the Carter Family do it that brought it into the 'Songs to Learn' category. I'm patterning our treatment after the original Carter version: of the other versions I have, Big Medicine take on it comes closest. We are keeping it in the key of E (same key used by Big Medicine), but I'm currently playing the lead part with the Capo on the 4th fret (C-position). Big Medicine plays it in open E; I'm guessing the Maybelle might be playing a low tuned guitar in G position, although she could be in open E.

The Mighty Mississippi: From a book on the Carter Family, I learned that this was a topical song written 'to order' on the 1927 Mississippi flood, sung (but not written) by Ernest Stoneman. The version I learned is from Mike Seeger with Autoharp. I play the 12 String (tuned in F) while Lynn is playing in D position with her guitar capoed to the 3rd fret. This is another song in our 'infrastructure series'.

Varities of Musical Experience (conclusions)

When I started this series of posts on the Varieties of Musical Experiences, I was hoping to provide a profound insight or two similar to what I imagine William James did in Varieties of Religious Experience (as you recall, I haven't actually read his work). However, the mere task of cataloging the different experiences I've had as a listener or performer has taken far more blog-space than I had initially thought; thus, the profound insights will just have to be inferred.

I was reminded that musical experiences vary when Lynn and I got our first chance to see the St. Olaf Christmas concert 'live'. (Our friend Steve is a St. Olaf grad and we were Steve and Sally's guest). At most old time and bluegrass performances, I'm very intrigued with 'performance practices' and how I might apply them; however, at St. Olaf, I was struck by the logistics of coordinating a full symphony orchestra and up to 500 voices and spend most of the time just enjoying th music. I was also thinking that every year, over 100 singers are 'released' into (mostly) Minnesota to populate church choirs and choral groups. This article in the paper the next day confirmed this: http://www.startribune.com/entertainment/music/11945421.html.

In addition to searching for 'profound' insights, I also began this series with the hope of finding some common threads within my personal musical experiences. Here's a few:

• I've been involved with music as a listener and performer for as long as I can remember, and it appears to be one of my basic 'needs'.
• Although I listen to music a lot, my best experiences have been with 'live' music, mostly acoustic. (Although, those Carleton Dances with the Night Crawlers are high on the list)
• I tend to gravitate toward 'folk' music although I appreciate and enjoy classical and some 'popular' forms
• For live music, give me a small venue like the Cedar or a coffee shop rather than XCel or the the Target centers.

As a performer, it's been only recently that I consider myself a 'real musician'; however, I've really been a musician-in-training for all my life. Although I have lots of fun playing for dances and enjoy all of my performance opportunities, currently my main focus is on performing with Lynn in a duet setting. We are meeting with Daniel later this week to discuss a 'real' recording of the bob-i-lynn band so I will eventually be able to add 'recording a CD' to my list of musical experiences. Stay tuned.

Varities of Musical Experience (live performance, more cont'd)

So in 2001, the 'dot-com' company I worked started shedding workers as the investor money ran out - by August I was laid off. Fortunately, the non dot-com branch that was spun off a couple of years before needed someone to manage the product that I had been working on since 1991, so I was only out of work for a few weeks. From the mid '90s until the layoff, I spent a lot of my off hours learning new technologies and working on software projects; this paid off in the sense that my skills were 'current', but I was not doing much music playing or listening.

However, my work-life upheavals led to a new focus on music: my "career' became more and more a "day job". Initially, I just spent off hours practicing more, especially mandolin. However, when MBOTMA announced the first annual Guitar Flat Picking and Duet Contest in late 2002, I started working on guitar more. (I had been flat-picking a few tunes for a number of years; however, playing the mandolin helped me get up to speed). Lynn and I also dusted off a couple of duets we knew and we entered both contests. Although we had done one or two performances a year for church and family, the contest was one of our first "performances" outside of friends and family. Working up a couple of duets for the contest led to more purposeful learning and we did one set of 'opening' for the Brown Shoe Boys (consisting of church friends of ours) in a coffee house. (The Brown Shoe Boys have since morphed into the folk-rock group "Rhinestone Diplomats")

I also started going to more live performances - Norman Blake & Peter Ostroushko at the Fitzgerald Theater, many concerts at the Cedar Cultural Center and gigs our friends did at coffee shops. Some highlights include Foghorn String Band, Uncle Earl, Frigg, Bruce Molsky, Tannehill Weavers and the Battlefield Band.

Lynn and I performed at the MBOTMA Winter Bluegrass Weekend as well as MBOTMA fund raisers at Dulono's pizza. We've had fun performing at Bill Cagley's Roots Showcase at the Coffee Grounds and even hosted it one Thursday evening. We've gotten to know more and more local musicians and have gone to see folk like the Mill City Grinders, the Ditch Lilies, Ivory Bridge, Switched at Birth, the Recliners, and Blue Wolf.

Another aspect of live performance has been for dances at the Tapestry Folk Dance Center as members of Danebodium. (This is where I keep my mandolin chops up and Lynn gets to play rhythm piano). I'm not really much of a dancer, put its fun to play music folk dance to.

For the last year or so, Lynn and I have scheduled regular bob-i-lynn rehearsals (on Monday nights, if you must know). This has really sharpened our sound and helped make us much better prepared as performers. We are also performing at bigger or at least more 'prestigious' events. This past year we performed at our first MBOTMA festival: the home grown kickoff. We also performed at the Stone Arch Festival and our best paying gig so far at the LCO Casino. This coming January marks our first 'solo' appearance at Dulono's, which makes us feel like a 'real' MBOTMA band.

Varities of Musical Experience live performance, cont'd)

On the last post for 'musical experience', I got to the 'classical period' of listening to and performing 'live'. Although I never got to the point of giving 'recitals', I played for some art openings and I remember playing for a opening by Bruce Nygren at the the Stevens Gallery in the mid '70s. I was playing some suites by Villa Lobos and managed to hit them really well. I got positive comments then (especially from Bruce's mother), and I know when I ran into him years later he still talked about it. I remember seeing John Williams and Julian Bream in concert but missed Segovia when he was probably last in town. I went to faculty and student recitals and one of the best students now teaches in Wisconsin and has produced duet guitar recordings (sadly, I don't recall his name). My brother-in-law Marly was also taking guitar lessons and we worked on a few duets and may have played them at church. Another student at the U at the time was college classmate John Ellinger, who is on the Carleton Music Faculty and who was my son Alex's guitar teacher at Carleton.

In the late 70's I realized I wasn't going to gain a living from classical guitar and started working full time. Turned thirty, bought a house, had kids : I was still playing guitar but wasn't performing. With young children you don't get out much - I'm not sure of the timing but I do remember going to see Elton John at the St. Paul Civic Center (precursor to the Xcel Center) and also a concert by Claudia Schmidt with Greg Brown opening (before he gained fame as a singer-song writer).

In 1984 I started my computer studies at the U of M and in 1985 our second son Tommy was born. In 1986 or so, the church Lynn and the kids had started going to (Lynnhurst Congregational) started up a variety show called the Lynnhurst Home Companion. Lynn and I joined some other folk musicians to become the Lynnhurst Hot Dish String Band. This was basically a once-a-year band, but we were the house band for the show and often did 3 or 4 numbers. Lynn and I also started to do a duet song at most of these shows. This got me looking out for songs to perform and listening to bluegrass albums. In the early 90's Lynn and I joined the MN Bluegrass & Oldtime Association and we started going to some of the MBOTMA festivals. We made most of the August festivals (dragging the kids until they we're old enough to stay home) and heard lot's of local and national bands.

For a couple years we attended a bluegrass jam class put on by Brian Wicklund and Kevin Barnes who were in the Stoney Lonesome Band (at the time, the best know MN bluegrass band). The attendees were organized as 'bands' and at the conclusion of the class, the bands performed on stage at Dulono's pizza.

In 1987 I moved from the restaurant industry into software development and during the 90s I spent a lot of time doing 'career' development as well as scouting, soccer etc with the boys. I continued to perform at the church shows and the Hot Dish String Band performed at a few art shows and other events. I continued to hear live groups at bluegrass festivals and concerts. I remember seeing Alison Krauss at the Guthrie (before O' Brother made her too big for a 1500 seat venue) with Stoney Lonesome opening.

I don't remember all the bands we saw at the MBOTMA festivals: I remember hearing Nickel Creek when they were still teenagers and their Dad was the bass player. Jim and Jesse, Laurie Lewis, Loose Ties, Tim O'Brien were some of the other bluegrass groups we heard. Since MBOTMA also includes 'old time', Lynn and I started to hear and appreciate old time music from groups like Big Hoedown, the Renegades and the Konnarock Critters.

For Lynn and me, the 'high point' for performing in the '90s was in 1997 where we did enough shows with the Hot Dish String Band that one member of the group made a Tee Shirt for the 'Hot Dish Tour of 1997 with all the dates and places we performed'.

By the end of the 90's our computer careers were caught up in the dot-com boom with some increases in salary that help us finance Alex's college education. However, the dot-com crash affected our day-jobs and also help launched a focus on music as a more serious enterprise: topics for the next post.

Geezer Guitar officially achieves geezerdom

Today marks the 60th anniversary of my birth on 11.14.1947 so as Lynn put it in an email, I have achieved official geezerdom. Not doing much today, regular work-day and then choir at night. Had cake yesterday for work (a coworker's birthday is the 12th so we split the difference). My son Tommy just called from San Francisco to wish me a 'happy', so got caught up with him. More cake tomorrow at Cappa Java and then we're having some folks over next Sunday for a more-or-less official celebration that was planned at a neighbor's 60th party a few weeks ago.

Lynn and I will do a music set or two and hopefully there's some jamming, but I imagine I'll be doing a bit of mixing as well. Last Saturday I cleared out the back room (my office and instrument storage place). Mostly, I cleared out junk Lynn had put there a few months back when she hosted book club. I also took down a folding table and arranged some chairs as a 'jamming' space so I now have an official pickin' parlor.

Varities of Musical Experience (more, cont'd)

I've been posting on my experiences as a singer, instrumentalist and listener (to recorded music). I haven't touch on attending and participating in 'live performances' which in many ways is the whole point of it all. Of course before the late 19th century, the only way to hear music was 'live', but most of us now have spent many more hours listening to recorded music than live.

Other than church or school productions, I don't recall going to many live events as a kid; although, I'm sure I heard my Dad play in a community orchestra once or twice. In high school, I started played in the band and sang in the boys glee club. I know I sang the lead for a choral arrangement of 'Goodbye Liza Jane', but I don't recall how close it is to the old timey version. By the time I was a junior I was performing with my friend Dan as a duo (The It'll Never Duo, a take-off on another folk group we know about: the Uppa-Trio). I remember learning and singing the Hills of Shiloh for our first 'performance' and that it was way-way too long. We added Rick Wolfe on bass and became the Hidden Valley Trio and then the Frontiersman. We did Kingston Trio/Peter,Paul&Mary type of material.

Around 1964 another friend who was into Bob Dylan took me to the 'Scholar' Coffee house in Dinkytown where Dylan got his start. I don't remember much about that at all now. Although we had dances in high school, I don't think that live bands ever played.

In 1965, I started college at Carleton in Northfield, MN (finished there 4 years later, too). This expanded my opportunities to hear live music tremendously. The college sponsored concerts - I remember seeing Doc Watson and other folk musicians as well as Koerner, Ray and Glover. (Their performances were legendary for the amount of alcohol consumed on stage). I also went to classical concerts, including Lynn's Junior and Senior piano recitals. Although I was taking piano lessons and playing guitar and singing and jamming; I didn't do much performing per se; however, I did have have a starring role in the Shakopee Community Theater's production of the Fantaskticks. This was put on the summer between my freshman and sophmore year and I played the Matt (the Boy) and my Dad played Hucklebee (the Boy's father). Among the songs I remember are Try to Remember and Soon It's Gonna Rain, but I'm sure they'll all come back. I had been in a couple of non-musical high school plays, but this was my last appearance on a theatrical stage.

In the summer of 1967 (summer of love, you know), I was working a factory job in Shakopee, but spent a most of my free time at the Scholar Coffee House. This was where Dylan got his start, but by 1967 it had moved from Dinkytown to the West Bank (it's now a parking lot next to Theater in the Round). I listened to performances by Dave Ray, Leo Kottke and Lazy Bill Lucas.

I would also bring my guitars (Sunday afternoons?) and I remember doing some sort of open stage. I was pretty self-conscious about my voice at the time and thought it sound 'adolescent' or some such. (I guess I wanted to sound like a world-weary blues singer at the time).

After college, Lynn and I taught high school for one year in Broadus, Montana. Lynn was the band director so our live music was limited to her concerts and probably other school events. I remember doing a folk song at a school event.

The next year we moved back to Minnesota and lived in Minneapolis in a house with former Carleton people. One of them was my junior year roomate. A lot of us were working at the Black Forest Inn (the house was a block away). Mike Frehling a Carleton classmate (and then a housemat) played guitar, and he and I learned enough common repertoire to play at a few nursing homes. There were also jams with folks who worked at or were customers at the Black Forest, but I didn't do much performing. As mentioned, in the mid 70's I started focusing on classical guitar: Lynn was playing in a Viol Consort (Viola da Gamba) at the time and she I worked out some pieces with Viola da Gamba and guitar. The event we got paid for was Aldo Moroni's Wedding in Long Lake.

Varities of Musical Experience (more)

In the previous two posts on this topic I've discussed my experiences as a singer and as a music consumer. For this post I'll focus on instruments I've learned to play (or attempted to play).

When I was in second grade, we moved to the town of Le Center in southern Minnesota - my Dad was taking a job as social worker (but I'd hardly be aware of that). We lived there until I was in fifth grade and although I know I am viewing through rose-colored glasses it was a great place to be a kid. I remember one of my friends playing the Ukulele ( I ran into him a few times after we grew up - he was at St. Olaf when I was at Carleton - he was a rock musician, but haven't seen him for many years). When I started third grade, I started on piano, taking lessons from a Nun at the catholic school in town (remember, we were methodists). They had piano's to practice on, so I'd go there to practice after school. We did get a piano eventually and my playing suffered as I didn't really practice as much. After Le Center, we moved to Mankato and then Shakopee in 1958. (My Dad continued in Social Work - he was the Scott County Welfare Director in Shakopee - these days it would be called 'Human Services'). I continued taking piano lessons through eighth grade. Although I was never a consistent student, I did learn to read music (both bass and treble clefs) and I continued to play in high school. I was the accompanist for the girls chorus (one of my favorite pictures in the high school yearbook is me surrounded by a couple of dozen girls) as well as the 1st service organist for church. I don't remember much about lessons in Mankato, but my teacher in Shakopee was Eunice Schaeffer, who was also the secretary or the Draft Board (more on that some data on Cudgels of the Curmudgeon). I took formal piano lessons again at Carleton from William Nelson. He was also Lynn's teacher - she majored in music and gave a junior and senior recital. I got a lot better, but never 'performed' except in piano class. I learned some Bach, Brahms, Chopin and Debussy but rarely play now. (Lynn is getting the piano tuned soon, so maybe I'll go through a couple pieces.)

In Mankato, I started violin lessons, but there was no string program in Shakopee, so in 6th or 7th grade I started on trombone. My dad was a violinist in college (and played in a community orhestra later) and my mom played trombone in high school. I stayed with it and played in band all through high school, but never 'owned' an instrument or played in college. The year after I was graduated from College, Lynn and I taught High School in Montana. Lynn was the Band director and we started a student/faculty jazz band or something and I ended up playing a school trombone. I remember thinking I was a better player (at age 22) than in high school - partially because I had had more musical training. I haven't really played since, although I can still make a tolerable sound.

My first 'folk' instrument was harmonica - I started learning it when I was about 12 - I remember playing 'moon river' and playing at Boy Scout Campfires. I got semi-serious and picked up a chromatic harmonica: for a couple of church services learned and played some Bach duets: I played chromatic harmonica with my Dad on violin. Although I still own a set of harmonicas and even a chromatic, I don't play much any more.

When I was 15, I started playing guitar and this was probably the first instrument that I had a passion for. My first guitar was a Stella and I used to play until my fingers bled. I was mostly self-taught although at some point in high school I took a few lessons. My friend Dan took up the Banjo (Pete Seeger style) around the same time. This was in the early sixties and I we played at a hootenanny at the high school a few months after we learned how to play. A bit later, our friend Rick learned bass and we were a trio (ala Kingston trio sort of). High point of our career was playing at a super market parking lot and getting paid $90.

On family camping trips, I also discovered that playing guitar worked as a 'chick' magnet. Never really dated in high school, but the bit of 'success' I had came from playing guitar. For high school graduation, my parents gave me a Gibson J45, which was my first good guitar. (I still regret using it as a trade in for my current Martin D-28 - it would be sweet to have both guitars).

Since I have played guitar for almost 45 years, there is way too much detail for this post; however, here are some bullet points:

• started mostly finger-picking (with picks), but used a flat pick
  
• mostly folk style, but started playing classical pieces on steel string (performed Jesu Joy of Man's Desirine on steel string for my sisters wedding.
• bought 1969 Martin D-28 in 1970 - still my primary guitar - last of the Brazilians
• took classical lessons in the 1970s and had visions of getting a BFA - still own a Yamaha and Kohno classical guitar (rarely, but occasionally played.
• bought 1973 12 string Martin D-12-20 from the homestead a few years ago - had spend the summer of 1967 hearing Leo Kottke and Dave Ray at the scholar coffee house and 30-some years later finally gave in to 12 string lust. Have developed an old-timey technique for it and use it on a half-dozen songs.
• started competing in the flat-picking contests at the state fair in 2003

In 1996 we started going to the Danebod Folk Camp and I started playing in the folk band for dances. Around this time I also started learning to play mandolin and found for the folk band it became my primary instrument. Our son Tommy was taking fiddle lessons from Brian Wicklund and I often tacked on a Mandolin lesson from him as well (Lynn had a fiddle lesson when she took Tommy). I upgraded to a Weber mandolin in 2000 and for a while spent more time playing the mandolin than the guitar. (At the present time, however, the guitar is still my main instrument). Lynn started playing keyboard with Ken Steffensen and others for contra dances and for one danced I tagged along (mainly to carry the keyboard , I think) and with a lot of woodshedding learned to play mandolin fast enough to carry my own weight (as well as Lynn's Keyboard). Danebodium now plays at least a 1/2 dozen times a year for Contras at the Tapestry Folk Dances plus a number of private dances (and we get paid 10's of dollars!).

About 5 or 6 years ago at Danebod folk camp, I was playing mandolin in a rehearsal with about 5 clarinets and called out 'is there a tenor banjo in the house'; sure enough, Jill had one in her tent and I played it for the week for certain dances (usually polkas). The next time that Lynn was in LA visiting her mother, she surprised me with a tenor banjo that she had bought from the Claremont Folk Music Store and Museum (started by Ben Harper's grandparents and now owned by him). I originally played it tuned in 'viola' tuning, which is a 5th lower than the mandolin. However, I ended up playing it mostly with the Danebod and TC Urban Folk School Folk bands and found it easier to use it in Irish Tenor Banjo Tuning (an octave lower than a mandolin). This means that the fingering is the same and I don't have to think so hard ;-)

The most recent instrument I've learned is the concertina. The Twin City Urban Folk School has 'beginning band' and I found a 30 button Anglo concertina on line for $200 and started 'learning' that. For a few months I spent more time playing concertina that anything else. Currently; however, it is in the same category as the tenor banjo: I play it in the folk band, mostly for waltzes. At the Bluff Country Gathering there were a couple people with concertinas, so I may take it to Lanesboro next year. One fellow from South Dakota was really good, playing along on fast Missouri reels with some of the top fiddlers there. He was playing the same type as I was, although of much higher quality. Of course, a 'serious' instrument is at least $1500, and top ones go for 3K-6K.

Right now, my main focus is working with guitar and mandolin as part of the bob-i-lynn band. We have a number of guitar-guitar pieces where I play lead, but more and more with Lynn on fiddle and I focus on accompaniment and bass runs. Every once and a while, we add a number where the 12-string seems to fit. For Danebodium, I try to keep my mandolin chops up and we do add new tunes all the time. I still spend a number of hours a week flat-picking and slowly add new tunes to that repertoire. It looks like the concertina and tenor banjo will continue to be 'occasional' instruments, but I do bring them to folk band dances and to our farmers market gigs with Rhubarbarian.

As long as I have a day job, I don't see any hours coming for learning another instrument, although, I do continue to have instrument lust:

- professional concertina - Morse from Button Box is probably what I'd get
- Irish button accordian (we go to as many John Williams/Dean Magraw concerts as we can).
- tenor guitar: there's a resophonic tenor that just sold at Elderly Music that looked sweet.
- a resophonic 6-string
- a round hole mandolin (would love a gibson f4, but at 6K, I'll probably settle for an Eastman replica).
- trombone ? - Musician's friend has one that looks playable for < 1K.


In less than a week, I turn 60 - if the stock market doesn't totally tank I should be able to retire in 4 or 5 years, so stay tuned.

The Varieties of Musical Experience (cont'd)

Although I have done a lot of playing and performing, I've also been a 'consumer' of music for as long as I can remember. When I was 4 or 5 I would spend hours on a rocking horse listening to records. My memories are vague but I know I would listen to some of the same songs over and over again. I'm don't recall any specific type of music that we had in the house growing up, but I know we watched the 'hit parade' and other musical shows on television.

I remember doing a lot of ice skating to popular songs of the 50's and eighth grade sock hops with simliar music (I think all the records were old). The pop stations at the time were KDWB and WDGY (AM of course); not sure that I had a favorite band or group, but I was up on top 40's stuff through grade school and junior high.

Although it was a 'pop song', The Battle of New Orleans made a big impression; I was in boy scouts when it came out (1959) and we had a parody or two we sang around the campfire (-- something about "the 'sqiutos kept a coming").

The movie West Side Story came out when I was first starting high school and we may have had a soundtrack album. When the folk boom hit (again when I was a freshman in high school or so), I bought and listened to Kingston Trio, Peter Paul and Mary, etc.

The Beatles hit when I was a junior in high school - I remember dancing to 'I want to hold your hand' and would up getting many of the albums (I still have these LPs). Didn't listen to much Dylan until college, but have a few of his LPs that I bought then.

In college I had a Stereo (just a turntable with Speakers) and a Motorola radio. I started out as math major and used to do math listening to music. Since computer programming is a lot like math, I still listen while I work.

I got a few Doc Watson and Tom Paxton records and learned some of their songs. Continued to listen to (and buy) Beatles and other LPs of that ilk. During at least one summer, I spent time listening to Leo Kottke and Dave Ray at the Scholar Coffee house and bought a few of their albums.

Out of college, Lynn and I taught high school in Montana for a year and moved back to Minnesota in 1970. By 1973/74 I was taking Music Classes and classical guitar lessons at the U of MN. Although I still did some jamming, my 'consumption' of folk music declined - I have a number of classical guitar LPs from that period: we also joined the Musical Heritage Society & have a number of Baroque and Renaissance Albums. (Lynn was in grad school in music and was playing the viola d' gamba). One of our first paying gigs as a wedding in Long Lake: of course we weren't playing fiddle and mandolin music - it was Viola da Gamba and Classical Guitar.

I was still listening to 'pop' music - Linda Ronstadt, Eagles, James Taylor and even a couple of Joni Mitchell albums. I was then a bartender and eventually manager of the Black Forest Inn and I made many tapes to serve as background music. Even bought a Benny Goodman album, but never did become much of a jazz fan.

Alex was born in 1978 and although I continued to listen and accumulate albums, I don't recall ever connecting with any '80s groups (Maybe Bruce Springsteen if he's considered 80's - bought a few albums by him). In the mid '80s I started playing 'folk' guitar and singing with our Church once-a-year folk-gospel-bluegrass band. This got me looking out for music to perform and I started to listen to 'modern' bluegrass singers like Alison Krauss and Tim O'Brien. By this time I had a CD player so most of my purchases were now CDs. Although I don't 'keep up' with popular music, I do own 10,000 maniac, Sara McLaughlin and Bonnie Raitt albums bought int the 90's and 2000's.

Lynn and I became active in the Minnesota Bluegrass and Oldtime Music Association in the early1990's and started going to MBOTMA festivals. I started buying a greater percentage of CD's at festivals. Although my initial focus was bluegrass, I started getting into 'old time' music through people like Bruce Molsky as well as Foghorn, Uncle Earl and other groups.

In the early 2001's I started to play guitar more and started learning new songs. I also repaired my old AR turntable (circa 1970) and in addition to listening to LPs I owned, started using EBay to get more. I was learning songs by Norman Blake and ended up getting all of his LPs (I own a number of CDs as well). In addition, I started to get LPs of 78 collections as well as some 70's and 80's bluegrass and oldtime string bands. Since I like Celtic music, many of the LPs are from bands like the Bothy and Battlefield bands.

Last year I got an 80gb ipod and I have transferred all of my CD's and some of the LPs to MP3s. Currently, I have almost 9000 tracks(haven't done the itune store download thing though, I like a hardcopy backup ;-). Although I listen to a little internet radio, my soundtrack at work or on walks is usually from this on random play. (I have over 480 hours of music, so if I listen 4 hours a day it should be 120 days before I get a repeat ). I also make playlists of songs to learn or to consider learning.

Many of the songs I know I've learned from current or revivalist musicians; lately I've been on a kick to track down original sources and/or learn music originally recorded on 78s. So I have CD sets from the Carter Family, Delmore Brothers and others as well as some CDs with 78 MP3s. (Lynn is glad that I have not gotten an actual 78 player and filled the house with old 78s).

I've transferred all of these to ITunes and the Ipod - during random play, I will often note a song that I like and move it to a 'to be considered' playlist.

I expect I'll keep listening...

The Varieties of Musical Experience

In the Wikepedia article on William James' book : The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature, the following quote is presented:

"Scientific theories are organically conditioned just as much as religious emotions are; and if we only knew the facts intimately enough, we should doubtless see 'the liver' determining the dicta of the sturdy atheist as decisively as it does those of the Methodist under conviction anxious about his soul. When it alters in one way the blood that percolates it, we get the Methodist, when in another way, we get the atheist form of mind."

Perhaps in a similar way, we could come up a scientific explanation for the variety of musical experiences that determine how one becomes a hip-hop fan, a jazz devotee or an old-time musician. Of course, as an English Major, I read a few of Henry James works (William's brother), but must confess to only owning (but not reading) a couple of books written by Wiliam James. And I won't be writing a treatise: my discussion of musical experiences will mostly be my own, perhaps as a start toward a musical autobiography.

I just started reading a book about the Carter Family (mentioned in a previous post), and not surprisingly "Church Music" plays an important part in the shaping of their careers as old time musicians. A.P. Carter had the best bass voice in the choir and his wife Sara had an almost magical contralto. Maybelle, the 3rd member of the Carter Family, was Sara's cousin and married AP's brother Ezra. The Carter family got their start as a group singing for church events.

Until I was five, my Dad was a Methodist Minister - he preached at a few churches in South Dakota before moving to Minnesota where he became social worker. My earliest musical memories are from about age 4 and involved singing in church or at a church (at this point the memories themselves are suspect since I am really remembering the remembering).

I had a pure boy soprano voice and was singing solos in church by the time I was in first grade. I know that one hymn I sang was In the Garden, but really had no idea what it was about until I read an explanation a few year's ago printed in the New Century Hymnal used by the UCC church I go to. I'm not aware of any recordings of my singing before my voice changed, but I know I had a good and high soprano range - high g's and a's were no problem. My voice changed late, so if I'd been in the right place in England, I might have been singing with a boy's choir on Christmas Eve. I remember a youth choir in 8th grade where I was the only boy; then, as now I had the loudest voice in the choir. In high school (as a tenor) I sang with the boy's glee club. I had started guitar and with my friend Dan (banjo) and Rick (bass) we used to play as a folk trio (circa 1963-1965); I usually sang the lead part.

After my voice changed (10th grade), I always sang tenor since I had been a soprano before; however, my range is probably closer to baritone or maybe 2nd tenor. In college, I tried out for, but didn't make it into, the Singing Knights of Carleton, a male octet. At Carleton I didn't sing in the college choir (that would have meant getting up early on Sundays, not part of the life style). I did continue to sing folk songs but wasn't in any organized group - I think I may have performed once or twice, but most of it was in the dorm kind of jamming stuff. Of course, Lynn and I met at Carleton and spent a lot of time singing and playing our guitars (as well as piano/cello etc).

After college and into my thirties I didn't do any organized singing other than jamming with folks I had met at the Black Forest Inn. In the late 80's I move from restaurant work into a true 'day' job and starting going to Church with Lynn and the kids. After ushering a couple times I thought I might as well join the choir; and I continue as one of two tenors. A few years ago Lynn and I got into Sacred Harp singing through our niece Kim and our neighbors Tim and Minja. One thing I really like about Sacred Harp is that loud singing is encouraged and there is no one telling me to tone it down.

Lynnhurst church has had an annual variety show since 1987 called the Lynnhurst Home Companion; for this, Lynn and I have performed with a once-a-year group called the Lynnhurst Hot Dish String Band (I've written a bit more on this here). Through this group I've learned and sung a number of gospel (and parody-gospel) tunes. For the most part; however, gospel music doesn't figure in most of the bob-i-lynn repertoire; although we do have a couple that are performance ready.

However, even if you are not in a formal 'gospel' group, you can't perform old-time and traditional music without taking notice of the tremendous influence that the varieties of religious experiences have had on the varieties of American musical experiences.

MBOTMA Harvest Festival

Last Friday we played a set at the MBOTMA Harvest Jamboree's open mike at Kip's Pub. We were originally scheduled at 9:00 or a 1/2 hour set, but since the slot before us wasn't filled, we split that time with our friends John Whitehead and Bob&Deb Carlson, who had the opening 8:00 set. We had prepared 8 songs with 2 backups. For the 1/2 hour set we figured we'd probably have to cut out one or even two of the 8; however, with the extra time we ended up playing all 10 plus another. We did two songs new to our repertoire - More Pretty Girls than One and East Virginia Blues. The sound set up was a modified single mike(there were two instrument mikes as auxiliary). Although it sounded boomy to us, the event organizer said the sound out front was fine (The room itself has stone floors and hard walls, plus it's a pub so you have lot's of people talking etc). We are also used to playing with multiple mikes (2 vocal/2 instrumental), so there were times when I was singing into the neck of Lynn's guitar and vice-versa.

As we played, I felt we were connecting with people (many of them were attendees of the festival); although in at least one case, the rapt attention of one woman was for the TV screen behind me and not for Lynn & me. We also had some nice comments afterwards including one from Kathy Liners (from Ivory Bridge). The next day, Jed Malischke, MBOTMA's executive director relayed some comments he had heard as well ('They sang all my favorite songs' is one that he passed on). In addition to this type of positive feedback, we also got a line on some potential (paying) gigs. One that we have verbally committed to is for Dulono's Pizza for January 4th. We had discussed playing at Dulono's with Al Jesperson last May, but to finally get a date set is a big step for us( Al did call us to be a last minute replacement for a date last summer but we were already booked). We also saw part of the Mill City Grinders set at the Main Ballroom Stage and ended up talking to Adam Kiesling about doing a combined set at the Coffee Grounds sometime. Lynn and I think that the Grinders are an awfully fine band , so we are get something set up (Stay tuned!).

The festival went all weekend and we went for a few hours on Saturday but had to cut it short to get to another event. The workshops at this event are for 'bands': the ones we attended were 'using a sound system and mikes' and 'organizing your own show'. Among other things I learned that Doug from Armadillo sound says that the Audio Technica AT2020 works just fine for the 'single mike sound' (and only costs $99 vs 100's or 1000's) and that organizing a show is a whole lot of work that is best left to others.

"Cover Artist"

In an otherwise informative Wikipedia article on Charlie Poole, I was struck by the use of the term 'cover artist' in :

Poole was essentially a cover artist, having composed few, if any, of his recordings...

The Wikipedia link actually goes to an article on cover bands.

I was pretty sure that this usage of 'cover' was fairly recent and this definition confirmed that:

cover version

–noun

a recording of a song by a singer, instrumentalist, or group other than the original performer or composer.

Also called cover.

---

[Origin: 1965–70]

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.


Traditional musicians recording in the 20's and 30's were rarely 'singer-songwriters', even if some, like A. P. Carter, gained copyrights to heretofore traditional songs.

Another article in Wikipedia offers more perspective:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cover_version

Here's an excerpt:

Prior to the mid-20th century the notion of an original version of a popular tune would, of course, have seemed slightly odd - the production of musical entertainment being seen essentially as a live event, even if one that was reproduced at home via a copy of the sheet music, learned by heart, or captured on a shallac recording disc. Popular musicians (and especially modern listeners) have now begun to use the word "cover" to refer to any remake of a previously recorded tune.

So I would argue that using the term 'cover artist' for an old time musician such as Charlie Poole is a misnomer. I would further argue that it's not appropriate for old time musicians today. You could argue for 'Revivalist' maybe, but if you're doing traditional tunes you're not a 'cover' artist.

How it used to be before Television

The order from Elderly Music came yesterday and I started reading the Charlie Poole Biography:

RAMBLING BLUES: THE LIFE & SONGS OF CHARLIE POOLE by Kinney Rorrer

Ultimate biography of one of old-time country music's most influential songsters. Includes many photos, interviews with folks who knew him and complete words and sources for the songs he recorded, plus an extensive discography

The book was first published in 1982 and the author was able to talk to some of the people who knew Charlie Poole (he died in 1931 at the age of 39). The first part of the book sketches in his early life and direct accounts are few; however, there are descriptions of the development of the textile industry in North Carolina (Charlie's family were mill workers) as well as descriptions of the area's musical environment.

In the 'company' town in which Charlie nominally lived for the last thirteen years of his life (he was a Rambler, after all), the Mill helped fund and support several musicians to give lessons and hold musical festivals and so forth. The town had at most 2,000 folk, so I was impressed that there were hundreds of people in the music classes; and that they held festivals lasting a week or more. A book on the neurosicence of music that I recently read stated that currently only 7% of the population had played a musical instrument in the past year. Even though a lot of these folk spent 60 hours a week working at the mills, this amount of participation means that there were worthwhile things to do before TV gobbled up an average of 4 hours 35 minutes of TV every day. Of course as I've mentioned in previous blogs, many contemporary old time musicians have stated on stage that they don't own a TV (OK - I've heard two musicians say it).

The other insight gained from this part of the book is how varied a musical culture actually existed for musicians such as Charlie Poole. One of the music teachers was a German classically trained fiddler who judged the 'old-time' fiddle and banjo contest. In addition to 'string bands', there were also dixieland and brass bands.

So far, a fascinating book.

Charlie Poole

When picking music to learn I sometimes seem to get on a tear (or in a rut) to learn a bunch of songs from one musician's repertoire. A number of years ago it was Tim O'Brien; a few years ago it was Norman Blake, etc, etc.

Lately, it's been Charlie Poole. Last spring, Lynn and I added his version of Milwaukee Blues to our set list, and I'm currently working on If I Lose, Let me Lose and Baltimore Fire. I noticed a Charlie Poole myspace site a week ago and a documentary movie is in the works (the myspace site is sponsored by the movie).


In addition, I just ordered the following from Elderly Music (here's the picture & description):

RAMBLING BLUES: THE LIFE & SONGS OF CHARLIE POOLE by Kinney Rorrer

Ultimate biography of one of old-time country music's most influential songsters. Includes many photos, interviews with folks who knew him and complete words and sources for the songs he recorded, plus an extensive discography

My first exposure to a Charlie Poole song was through Doc Watson. I learned Doc's version of Don't Let Your Deal Go Down in college and from the album notes, I knew it was a Charlie Poole Song. However, I don't think I heard Charlie himself sing much until I got some LPs from Ebay: Vols 1-4 of Charlie Poole and the North Carolina Ramblers. There is a CD boxed set out, but since I have converted the LPs to MP3's I'll probably pass. Hopefully the 'extensive discography' included with the book will alert me to any other songs I am missing.

Of course, in the same Elderly order, I bought a book about the Carter Family:

WILL YOU MISS ME WHEN I'M GONE: THE CARTER FAMILY AND THEIR LEGACY IN AMERICAN MUSIC by Mark Zwonitzer with Charles Hirshberg

We were glued to this book! This story is a saga of "...love and fulfillment, sadness and loss." It reads like a well-written novel of another time and place. The first major biography of the Carter Family, the musical pioneers who almost single-handedly established the sounds and traditions that grew into modern folk, country, and bluegrass music. Recommended! Softcover. 417 pp.

Lynn and I already do a number of Carter Family songs, so this will probably just inspire me to learn more...

Selecting Songs

As mentioned in previous postings, I spend a lot of time listening to songs with an eye (or would that be an ear?) to see(or hear) if a song is suitable as a bob-i-lynn song (or sometimes just a 'bob' song). Recently I started to learn a new batch of songs so I started thinking about how I go about choosing a song to add to our repertoire.

In a new column in MBOTMA's Inside Bluegrass which discusses song-writing, the columnist discussed the importance of a song's melody and how it is the first thing you notice, comparing it to seeing a 'pretty girl' across the room or some such (Inside Bluegrass is not on-line and I don't have that issue handy). Although from the outside, a lot of the tunes for old time/folk music may all sound alike, I am often first drawn to a song because of the melody. For example, both Lynn and I were first drawn to Charlie Poole's Milwaukee Blues because of the tune (which Lynn likes to do on the fiddle). And often there is an instrumental riff that get's me interested - in his version of Otto Wood, Norman Blake's guitar breaks were one of my main motivations. (Although, my breaks have diverged a bit from his).

Sometimes a song grabs me because of some link to my life or to 'contemporary' happenings. Sometimes the link is obscure: I have a brother in-law 'Otto', so Otto Wood is for him. I learned Gillian Welch's song 'One More Dollar' during the dot-com boom and when my son was graduating from college with a degree in computer science. Her song is about leaving 'the hills' to go to California for a 'job in the fruit trees"; I imagined all the young software developers flocking to Silicon Valley. (As it turns out, Alex stayed in Mpls, but works for Adobe, based in San Jose).

Often a turn of phrase is what interests me; although often it is after I've started to learn the song that I'm struck with a certain set of words. Since these are folk songs, some of the phrases occur in multiple songs. Here's a few songs that I'm learning with a turn of phrase that please or amuse:

If I Lose Let me Lose: "The boys was fightin' the Spaniards while I was fightin' gnats "(also in Battleship of Maine which I don't do)

You've Been That Friend to Me: "Misfortune nursed me a child and loved me fondly, too"

One song I have yet to learn has one of my favorites:

Railroad Blues (Sam McGee):"I went to see the gypsy at the fortune telling place/She read my mind...& then she slapped my face".

Since Lynn and I started to play out more, I've started to also consider songs that will expand the 'sound' of what we do. Blue Railroad Train from the Delmore Brothers is an example. When we learned it, it contrasted well to the mostly Carter Family duets we were doing. I learned Bruce Molsky's version of Charming Betsy because it is up-tempo and it works with Mandolin and Guitar. And I'm always looking for something in 3/4 time as an alternative (many of these don't work out).

Finally, any song that I start to work on has to hold up under multiple repetitions. I always have a print out of the words (rarely the chords) and keep singing a song until it is memorized. I almost always play with accompaniment (I tell Lynn I need the Gestalt approach), since I usually sing differently if I'm not playing along with guitar or mandolin. I rarely spend extra time on 'memorization' so if I get tired of a song before it's memorized it doesn't get added to the repertoire. Of course we rest songs, especially if we've had to really focus on them (for example, any song we prepare for the duet contest). And there a few songs that seem to be permanently retired, but usually if I've learned a song it stays in the repertoire.

Of course why I'm drawn to mostly old-time music in the first place is a topic for other posts ;-)

Last farmer's market gig of the season.

We played at the Prior Lake Farmer's Market this morning as the 'Rhubarbarians' - Lynn and I are 'guest artists' usually playing with Tom Thull and Bob Estes, who are 'real' Rhubarians (Dave & Joe are the other originals, but they don't travel out of Mpls ). This week Tom couldn't make it, so it was really the Bob-i-Lynn band featuring Bob Estes of the Rhubarbarians.

I usually pay close attention to the weather but I missed checking it earlier in the week;however, this morning at the Coffee Shop reading yesterday's paper it looked like the morning would be windy but sunny. Although it looked cloudy starting out, I saw enough glimmers of blue to hold out hope - Lynn's sighting of lightning as we drove onto hiway 13 proved to be the truer portent.

At earlier sessions, we had brought our full plug-in sound system; but using some battery powered amps at Bloomington's farmers markets the previous two weeks convinced us to go with the portable setup for Prior Lake. I brought our pignose & Bob E brought a borrowed microcube and a Crate Amp. (The Crate is the best solution as it as a real mike input plus an instrument pickup, plus RCA plugs which can theoretically be leverage - I'll probably pick one up for next season and for use as a monitor).

This sped up our set up time and as we were glad to discover: our tear down time as well.

Through the morning the clouds stayed and it was gusty enough that I would occasionally have to grab one of my guitars. A few of the other 'tents' were billowing and one partially overturned, but the sandbags that Bob has kept our shelter stable. Without Tom, we missed many of our 'pop' hits, but Lynn and I got to try out East Virginia Blues for the first time and Lynn did Going to the West. Bob sang the John Prine song Paradise Valley and we tried a few 'new' fiddle tunes including St Anne's Reel, Liberty and a version of Devil's dream where I did a 'uke' like accompaniment on the tenor banjo (capoed at the 7th fret). My sister showed up (all of my siblings live South of the River, Carol teaches at Prior Lake High School). She's known as Otto at school and we sang Otto Wood in her honor. She said that a few weeks ago one of her students was talking about a group that did the song 'Otto' wood and she was glad to tell him it was her brother. (Carol's husband is also known as Otto and I actually learned the song for him - he had other priorities this AM).

At 10:30 or so it started to sprinkle. The sprinkling became a drizzle and we rearranged a few things to get everything under shelter. The 12 string and tenor banjo went into their cases. The only saving grace was that the breeze died down, but the droplets on my '69 Martin (last of the Brazilians) caused concern. During our last set, it started to really come down at 11:30 or so and we wrapped it up. As if on signal, when the music stopped, the other folk started packing up as well. (After we got home, we checked everything and I'm happy to report that no instruments were harmed during the performance of this gig).

I'm not sure how Bob E got wind of the Prior Lake Market, but it's our second year doing it. One of the good things about this and the Bloomington Market is that they actually budget $100 for the band. We still put out the hat, but usually the total tip take is less than 50 bucks (today was 21, but splitting 3 ways meant that Lynn and I make almost $80 combined). Of course, the money isn't the reason we do it, but it is a recognition and without it we wouldn't be driving the 50 mile round trip to and from Prior Lake. (We are still bummed from a dance gig last spring for which we were stiffed because enough people didn't show up ).

Although Bob talks about rehearsing, it really becomes just a kind of jam session. Of course since we do a half-dozen of these a season, we do come up with 'arrangements' for some of the songs. At both Bloomington and Prior Lake we've gotten lots of good compliments from customers as well as vendors. We'll be invited back and we'll do as many as our schedule permits. Until next year...

New Alternate Blog

For non musical musings check out Cudgels of the Curmudgeon - the other blog I just started.

New Songs etc

After our gig at the LCO Casino in August, I created a post about expanding our repertoire. Of the songs mentioned, the only ones we are currently working on is 'East Virginia Blues', although now that I've reread it I might look at some of the others. In the mean time, the new songs on which we are really working are the following:

East Virginia Blues: I have at least a half dozen versions of this. We've pretty much settled on the Stanley Brothers version recorded in 1956 (released in a recent CD: An EveningLong Ago). This is a YAFSWTV (yet another folk song with transferable verses) and the Stanley brothers version is more distilled than most (i.e. fewer verses to learn). I'd been kicking this around for a while, trying to come up with a way to do it with mandolin; however, after hearing the Carter Family version, we're now going with two guitars with Carter Family style instrumental breaks. We're singing full duet on all the verses so it is a candidate for the duet contest. So far we're playing it fairly up tempo, not as fast as the Stanley Brothers, but certainly faster than some of the other versions I've heard.

If I Lose, Let me Lose: from eBay I've purchased Vols 1-4 of a Charlie Poole LP set. I had transferred a few of these to MP3's but had missed Vol 2. Turning an LP into MP3 is a fairly time consuming task, but it turned out to be a good opportunity to listen to some of the songs and If I Lose, Let me Lose seemed like a good one to learn. After hearing Adam Kiesling of the Mill City Ramblers do 'Battleship of Maine', we realized that some of the verses are shared ('The boys was fightin' the Spaniards while I was fight gnat', etc) ;the verse melodies are almost identical but the chorus melodies are different: so I guess it is YAFSWTV. We've gone through this a couple of times and are having fun with it so I'm pretty sure we'll have it ready soon. It seems to be working out well with 2 guitars, although Charlie Poole songs often work with fiddle-guitar (which is how we do Milwaulkee Blues). I figure if we get enough of his work added to our repertoire, we can go to the Charlie Poole Festival in North Carolina and enter the Best Charlie Poole Song Contest.

You've Been That Friend To Me: this is a Carter family song that quite a few people do, although the only other recorded version I have is Pop Wagner's. Hearing the original Carter Family version got me thinking of doing it and we're following their version fairly closely, even to the point of keeping it in the same key, F ( Sara Carter's range is similar to mine on many of their songs). The current plan is for 2 guitars and full duet treatment, and, since I except a number of people in the old-time community will sing along on the chorus, we repeat the chorus the last time through, perhaps partially acappella (although that can become a cliche).

Bear Creek Blues: another Carter Family song for which I have several versions, but it was hearing the Carter Family do it that brought it into the 'Songs to Learn' category. I'm patterning our treatment after the original Carter version: of the other versions I have, Big Medicine take on it comes closest. We are keeping it in the key of E (same key used by Big Medicine), but I'm currently playing the lead part with the Capo on the 4th fret (C-position). Big Medicine plays it in open E; I'm guessing the Maybelle might be playing a low tuned guitar in G position, although she could be in open E. With Lynn on open E our version should sound pretty good. This is one that will take a while to get up to speed, so don't expect to hear it at any gig soon.

I'm also trying to come up with with a version of The Wabash Cannonball - probably based on the Delmore brothers lyrics, but with a verse from the Carter Family and some changes to the chorus. I've also just started to look at the Delmore song Weary Lonesome Blues since it is 'different' in the same way the Blue Railroad Train has broadened our sound. In our last rehearsal Lynn also went over What Does the Deep Sea Say. We are patterning it after a version that Tim O'Brien does with an Irish (female) vocalist on one of his 'crossings' album, although our version will be less 'produced' (to say the least).

I've also been going over the Charlie Poole song: The Baltimore Fire. Lynn hasn't climbed on board yet, but I kind of like the melody (and it does need fiddle). Lyle Lofgren, who writes for MBOTMA's Inside Bluegrass & the Old Time Herald (& probably more), has a discussion of the song here: http://www.lizlyle.lofgrens.org/RmOlSngs/RTOS-BaltimoreFire.html .

This is another song from the Charlie Poole Vol 2 LP and I was transferring it to MP3 shortly after the 35W bridge collapse - the following from the Wikepedia article added contemporary relevance:

One reason for the fire's duration was the lack of national standards in fire-fighting equipment. Although fire engines from nearby cities (such as Philadelphia and Washington, as well as units from New York City, Wilmington, and Atlantic City) responded, many were useless because their hose couplings failed to fit Baltimore hydrants. As a result, the fire burned over 30 hours, destroying 1,526 buildings spanning 70 city blocks.

Geezer Guitar Blog quoted in MBOTMA 'Inside Bluegrass' newsletter

Katryn Conlin, one of the organizers of the Minnesota Bluegrass & Old Time Music Association's Duet and Flatpicking contest at the State fair this year ran an extensive quote from my Sept 4th Blog. She also quoted Lynn. The newsletter doesn't have an online version, but you can get information about it here: http://www.minnesotabluegrass.org/newsletter/index.html

Of course I haven't posted anything of substance since then, but maybe this will spur me on to creating some new posts.

Bob with Rhubarbarian's on city council member web site

Just got an email from Linda Madsen (a fellow musician from our church) : a picture of me (as well as Dave and Tom from the Rhubarbarians is on Elizabeth Gibbons Website. She's the council member for ward 8 and this is from an event that we played in that ward a year ago last summer.
It's pretty tiny, but you can sort of recognize us ;-)


http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/council/ward8/

MBOTMA Duet and Flatpicking Contest

It's Labor Day and I'm tired. This weekend we competed in the Minnesota Bluegrass and Old Time Music Association (MBOTMA) Duet and Guitar Flat-picking Contests. In the duet contest on Friday, Lynn and I were happy to make the finals for the 2nd year in a row: every duo who entered were high level performers. A bunch of our friends were in the audience which always helps. This year we again placed third and feel good about our showing.

On Saturday there were only 10 entrants for the guitar contest, but as I looked around as the guitar players gathered, I knew that there was no chance of making the final 5 unless 3 or 4 of them crashed and burned. For the first time in a long time there were actually 3 of us in the 'senior' division (56 and over), and my 3 year reign as Geezer Champ is over. I thought I played as well as I good, but I had a number of mess-ups in the 2nd number. Bob Dodds who turned 56 this year came in as top geezer, I was 2nd. (However, I can certainly keep my blog's name as GeezerGuitar since I was once again the oldest picker in the contest. )

This was the 5th annual MBOTMA duet/flatpick contests at the state fair and I am pretty sure that Lynn and I are the only ones to play in all 10 events. And we'll probably continue since as Lynn put it "we're still getting things out of these".

Here are some of the reasons I play and will continue to come back:

• It's an event put on for the general public - many similar contests are held at Bluegrass or oldtime festivals. At the state fair you're getting the music out to a broader audience. By participating, Lynn and I feel like we're helping out MBOTMA as well as doing a bit of promotion for the bob-i-lynn band.
• It's a performance opportunity. There was a full crowd both days - rather than a dozen or two people at a coffee shop, you're playing for hundreds of people in a concert setting. This year, Lynn and I also had a chance to play a couple of our songs (both days) as 'filler' entertainment while the judges were taking a break or scores were calculated.
• It's a chance to connect with the MBOTMA community. Before we started 'competing', we knew a few people who were in the MBOTMA bands, but now we are really starting to feel like members of the 'performing' community. And they are all really nice people. This year we met Chuck Millar and Sandi Scott (long time bluegrass performers) for the first time and reconnected with Jerry and Shirley from Blue Wolf as well as Lincoln and Bill & Kathy Liners from Ivory Bridge as well as many others.
  
• If provides focus. Even though we get a bit 'tired' of the duets that we prepare for the contest, it forces us to have complete arrangements for the songs and to really listen to what we're doing. A couple of nice comments this year: Lincoln from Ivory Bridge said our stage presence as really improved; Sherry Minnick (a judge), said it sounded like we've been recording and listening to ourselves compared to last year. (Actually, we've just been playing out more and have started to have official bob-i-lynn rehearsals once a week).
• Improves my guitar technique. I will never go to Winfield and compete in the National Guitar Flat-pickers guitar contest. (At least one of the top five finishers this year is going). However, just the extra practice and focus of preparing for the contest has really helped my overall musician-ship and tightened my arrangements for the bob-i-lynn band. (And I can now jam with Bill Cagley at his Roots Music Showcases ( Bill is one of the judges).

I'm glad it's over and I'm really ready to work on some different material (I went over new song and tune possibilities today); but I'm guessing we'll be back next year.

Expanding our repertoire

For the LCO Casino gig we did 4 sets: two at the lounge on Friday and two at the festival on Saturday. The Friday sets were about 12 songs each (45-50 minutes). For Saturday we had a longer set at noon (14 songs - almost an hour ) and short half hour set (8 songs) at 4:00. On either day we did not duplicate songs or tunes; however, their was a fair amount of overlap between the two days. For Friday, we replaced about 5 songs with two twelve string numbers, one 'new' song and a couple of 'covers' that we don't usually perform. One of the things I realized was that for us to fill more than 2 hours we'll need to expand our repertoire (We should be playing at Dulano's at some point - that goes from 8pm to midnight). Although I took Sunday as 'a day of rest', I did start looking at some material to do this. Here are some songs that I'm thinking we can revive or learn:

Gonna Lay Down my old Guitar: this is a Delmore brothers song that we've performed in the past, but it's been at least a couple of years. I can probably snazz up the guitar breaks with a little more true flat-picking - it does make a good closer. Our version is based on the one on the first Blake and Rice album.

Green Grow the Laurel: this is one that we performed at the 2007 MBOTMA Winter Weekend, but that hasn't ever quite jelled. Lynn and I did go through it while preparing for the Casino festival and it seems like we can find a way to work it up. Our version comes from Bruce Molsky - he does it with all fiddles all the time, we do it with two guitars.

Wabash Cannonball: this is one I used to do as a jam song in the 70's. It's a little hackneyed, but the version by the Delmore brothers has some verses that could give it new life (although Minnehaha is a creek, not a lake)-

There are other cities, partner, as you can plainly see

St. Paul and Minneapolis and the famous Albert Lea

The lakes of Minnehaha where the laughing waters fall

We reach them by no other than the Wabash Cannonball

New River Train: another jam song, we've done it recently at the Prior Lake's Farmer's market with the Rhubarbarians - it would add an 'up tempo' number - gonna try mandolin, although it might work with Lynn on fiddle as well. This is another song that overlaps the Singleton Street repertoire (there's 1/2 dozen songs they do that we either do or have done in the past).

Story of the Mighty Mississippi: this is one from Mike Seeger (not sure where he got it). I do it on twelve-string and I'm pretty close to learning the words. The twelve string is not worth bringing for shorter gigs (less than 15 songs), but we'd probably take to Dulano's or any venue where we need to cover at least two hours worth of music.

I Have an Aged Mother: I usually shy away from Mother songs, especially dying mother songs, but when I heard the Carter family do this recently I added it to the 'consider' list. I looked at it last night and realized that some of the appeal is a seed that Paula Bradley planted when I took an old-time guitar workshop from her a couple years ago. The other version I have is from the Rhythm Rats with her singing the lead. This is a 'new song' to us.

East Virginia Blues: I have been looking at this song for a while. I have a number of versions, but haven't come up with a treatment that suits me. For awhile, I was thinking mandolin and guitar, then fiddle and guitar. Recently I heard the Carter family do it and I'm thinking guitar-guitar with full duet treatment throughout. I went through it last night and the lead plays out naturally in C position - I started in F, but I think E might be the key that works.

Last Gold Dollar: this is one we've performed. We learned this from Kim and Jim Lansford and Lynn is singing lead. It a 'full-duet' song where we both play guitars. Main issue is that it is 'wordy', so getting all the verses back will take a bit of time.

There are also tunes that we can work out using mando-fiddle or guitar-fiddle. I usually don't like to do more than one or two of these per set, but if we're playing for 3 hours or more, this is a relatively easy was to add material.

I have a number of other songs on the 'to consider' list, so we'll have to see how it goes - some things I think will work don't translate into a bob-i-lynn treatment and I know we're also gonna get sick of some of our current songs. Lynn has also looked at some songs, so maybe we can add another one where she sings lead. Right now we'll be focusing on the MBOTMA Guitar and Duet contests; other than a couple of farmer's markets, we don't have any gigs set for the fall.

Back from LCO Casino 'Festival' in Hayward, WI

Although we displayed a lot of Deer-in-the-headlights behavior, our first Casino gig went well. As a 'festival', it was a little disappointing. Carl Solander, who was the MBOTMA member who engaged us said that the publicity was badly neglected: there was no mention in any of the MN or other local 'bluegrass' publications. Other than the Casino site, we had found nothing on the Web. One of the other performers, Mike, 'The Banjo Man', said that because the casino was funding the bands, there wasn't much incentive for promotion. In any event, on Saturday I counted less than 100 paying customers so at $15 a head they were barely covering a couple of the local bands (like us), let alone the national groups.

After playing the lounge shows Friday night, our voices were a little rough from the smoke on Saturday. Because of a rain threat which never materialized, the festival (actually more of a concert), was held indoors in the Casino convention center. Fortunately the concert site was non-smoking, and our voices recovered as the day went on. The chairs were around tables so even with a sparse crowd it didn't seem empty. Although the band we replaced was originally scheduled for 2:00, they switched things around so that we opened at 12:00 noon. This worked out for the best., since that allowed 'Handpicked', a bluegrass band to set things up for the Gibson Brothers, the national group playing on Saturday. We moved some songs from a later set and ended up doing all 14 songs & tunes planned. The crowd increased as we played and the sound system was set up pretty well. (The monitors were never perfect, but when I listened to the other bands play it sounded like they got the house mix sounding pretty well). We were followed by Singleton Street, a Minnesota group, and found out that our tastes in music overlapped quite a bit. They focus on gospel (but not exclusively) and did a number of songs in current or past set lists. In our second set we did Otto Wood, which they had apparently planned to play. They did John Hardy which we had performed at the lounge the previous night, as well as Elbow Room, and I'll Fly Away which we'd played in Milbank, SD a couple weeks before. We had seen and met some of the band members before, but spent some more time talking and getting to know them and swapped CD's (we got the better end of that deal).

The Gibson brothers are from upstate New York and have won a number of bluegrass awards. During their set at 3:00 we found out why. They do great vocals and are backed by a tight band. We had the 'honors' of following them at 4:00 - I think we'd did OK but this was my true Deer-in-the-Headlights 1/2 hour set. Most of the crowd had left for a break and what was left was at the Gibson Brothers CD table while we played. However, I did see a couple of folk who seemed into it (one of them reminded me of people I know in the old time music community).

The most disconcerting thing for the 4:00 set was that we didn't do a sound check and the mikes were hot-hot-hot. They used Shure 58s and 57s, which is what I'm used to; however, I ended up standing at least 18 inches further back then I usually do. We also had our first 'heckler': he was actually about the only person we saw all weekend obviously under the influence. He was bugging the sound guy and Lynn at one point thought he was 'official' - he was also the guy who said 'do some country' (I said - we're doing 'old,old country)... The sound guy apologized after I set, but it wasn't a big deal.

We stayed a bit more and had some of the 'entertainers' lunch and left about 6:30 for home since Lynn was subbing for the organist at Church on Sunday. All and all a 'useful' experience, but a bit more nerve-wracking then we anticipated. However, we did get the 'check' before we left - the biggest pay yet for the Bob-i-Lynn Band.

On the road at LCO Casino

Lynn and I pulled into Hayward a little after 5:15 on Friday and checked into the Casino Lodge. Fortunately, as we were hauling luggage and instruments to our room, we ran into 'Joe' from the Hand Picked Bluegrass band who showed us the ropes. (The festival organizer had left for the day). We ate at the 'Buffet' and then got ready for the Casino Lounge show. We played about an hour starting at 8. We didn't know what to expect but there wasn't much of a crowd. Early on there were a couple guys here for the blue grass festival, but that was about it. Handpicked took over from about 9 to 10:30 - there were a few more folk and it looked liked some came to listen. We played another set until about 11:30 - Carl and the 'Banjo Man' and a few others we're in the audience. We also met someone who had a radio show in Hayward - gave him a CD. Handpicked closed out the night until one - the crowd had thinned considerably (Carl, Lynn, me and a fiddle player).

Sue from Hand pick has a great voice - they had a banjo/guitar player from Bloomington Ill who was very good. All and all a good sound. They're from Central WI, but belong to MBOTMA so we should be seeing thame around.

We're playing at noon and four today. That's all for now from the Lodge Computer!

Getting Ready for the LCO Casino Gig in Hayward, WI

Lynn and I don't quite know what to expect when we play at the Bluegrass Festival at the LCO Casino in Hayward, WI this weekend, but we didn't hesitate to accept the gig when we got a call a week or so ago that a band had canceled. I'm familiar with and know some members of two of the bands performing: Singleton Street and the Blue Drifters, but otherwise we will know very few people in the audience. Lynn likes to say that 'playing out' more& more means that we're leaving the comfort zone of playing in front of friends and family: this gig will definitely achieve that! The festival itself is outdoors, so it should be similar to playing at the Homegrown Kickoff. Since we do mainly old-time duets, we'll probably announce ourselves as playing 'roots-of-bluegrass'. We're doing two 45 minute sets which is about double what we've been usually doing; however, all of the songs and tunes we're doing for the festival sets we've performed before and in our run-through Monday & Tuesday, they all went reasonably well. (There are a few we'll touch up tonight and Saturday in the Casino hotel room).

The most interesting and challenging thing is that we are also playing two sets at the Casino Lounge on Friday night, alternating with the Hand Picked Bluegrass Band. I have no idea what to expect: we are duplicating some of the festival songs - but are mixing in 5 or 6 new ones (and skipping the same number from the festival sets). The festival set numbers are all 'traditional' where I play guitar or mandolin - for the lounge sets, I'm doing a couple of 12 string numbers as well as some Norman Blake and Gillian Welch songs. One of our worries is how smoky it will be (hopefully, the air circulation is good). Living in Minneapolis, we are used to bars without smoke.

We're starting to work on getting some Bob-i-Lynn gigs for the fall and I was thinking it would be good to start checking out the 'Regional Festival' Circuit for next summer - I guess this gig just gets that ball rolling a little earlier than I figured. I'll probably post another installment some time next week relating what actually happened in Hayward.

Milbank Concert

This weekend we had fun visiting long lost cousins and playing a gig (which was an actual 'concert') last Sunday night in Milbank, SD. A huge part of the weekend was absorbing stories and reconnecting with cousins (most of whom I haven't seen for many years). The cousins range in age from 55 to 75 and they have many kids and grandkids. It was interesting to see how many of the extended family were musicians and/or computer people. I found that my cousin Tom and I still had much in common - Tom's the same age as I am and the cousin with whom I spent the most time with as a kid. He's an engineer who's worked with computers but is really a 'rocket scientist' (working for Raytheon as a system architect designing missiles etc) - he also plays guitar and sings a true high tenor. At the Sunday concert he joined Lynn, Marly and me in my computer geek gospel tune 'God 2.0'.

At the concert we did 4 numbers with the Dixon Family Singers -- Marly, Jody and Erin did a number -- Erin, Joceclyn & Jenny sang a hymn with Lynn on piano -- and Lynn & I did about a dozen from our old time repertoire. (Marly is my brother-in-law, the others are nieces).

We saw some flyers that were produced using the Bob&Lynn myspace picture - we were billed as the award winning "Dixon Family" Bluegrass Band from Shakopee, Minnesota. I tried to set a few things straight on our introduction. After the concert we found out that this was set up by my cousins' church's Worship committee. Lynn was worried that it wasn't religious enough, but I thought we did just fine - we had a number of straight gospel numbers and closed with 'Give me Jesus' and Amazing Grace.

During the performance, I thought it was a little hard to read the audience (not that I'm necessarily a good audience reader), but we got plenty of kind words from our very musical cousins plus I got good comments from non-relatives after the concert. There were maybe 150 or more people (they had to bring extra chairs) and we sold the most demo CDs we ever have (13) - of course half of those sold were probably to relatives.

One women told me she really enjoyed hearing 'When the Work's All done this Fall' - her father was from Tennessee and used to sing this when she was a child. I also had a man come up to me to make sure he had the title right for the guitar tune I did (Bonaparte crossing the Rhine).

This was a good performing experience for Lynn and me and we had lots of fun doing the family group numbers. As a final note, it was gratifying that a mostly traditional 'old-time' concert can resonate with a 'general' audience.

Getting Ready for the 'gig' in Milbank, SD this weekend

There are many ways of getting gigs, but having your cousin Phylis hear you and your family rehearsing music for your mother's funeral is a new one for me. My mother died a year ago last March from Alzheimer's and there was plenty of music at her funeral. Lynn and I aren't the only musicians in the family, so we did music with my siblings, inlaws and nieces and nephews - a few songs featured the 'Dixon family band & chorus'. Phylis started talking to some of her sisters who still lived in SD and we've ended up with a gig in Milbank this weekend. (6:00pm Sunday at the Methodist church - open to all if you're in Milbank).

My Dad's two older sister's married two farmers who farmed near Milbank, SD. One family had 8 kids and the other 10. They now range in age from 50 to 75 and have kids and grandkids of their own. When I was a kid I spent many summers at the farm and spent a lot of time with my cousin Tom who is the same age. So part of this weekend is a family reunion: I saw some folk at my Mom's funeral but many I haven't seen for 15-20 years or longer. My cousin Shirley is arranging a tour of Milbank 'hi-lights' on Sunday Afternoon, this includes my grandparents 'retirement' home in Twin Brooks, SD (a blip on the map). I mainly remember that my grandmother kept chickens... and I used to build 'traps' for them.


Shirley will direct a 'cousins' choir which last performed when her father (My uncle Henry) turned 80. (That was a while ago (15 years?) - he was the last survivor of that generation and died a few years later: but was still vigorous for his 80th). The choir will perform at church and the Dixon family singers may do a number as well as a preview for Sunday night's performance.

The 'gig' itself is at 6:00 on Sunday the 22nd at the fellowship hall in the Methodist Church in Milbank. My impression is that this is a regular or semi-regular occurrence as there is a somewhat set idea of how it goes: thus, we'll play for about an hour, then we'll break for an intermission (where they 'pass the hat') than we play a short 20 minute set to finish up.

We're gonna do about four Dixon Family Band/Chorus numbers. There are also a couple of numbers that Lynn and I will do with Marly (our brother-in-law) and Kim ( our niece). As well, Kim will do one of her pieces and Marly, Kim and Erin( Kim's sister) plan to do a number. We'll be closing with the Dixon Family band leading the whole audience in Amazing Grace. (My cousins have a number of strong voices as well, so we should have a nice big sound to finish).

Lynn and I will fill out the set (which comes out to around a dozen songs). Some of the songs we plan to do that we haven't done recently are:


My Old Cottage Home: I learned this originally from Big Medicine but I've also been listening to a couple of source versions so it has evolved. I know the original is probably some mountain cabin, but going to see my grandparents old house (which is a cottage-style) brought this one to mind.

Going to the West: one of Lynn songs - she's using Kate Brislin's version as a starting point. One of the few duets where I'm playing mandolin. (We hope to add more). South Dakota is west of Minnesota, but Milbank is pretty close to the MN border.


When the Work's All Done this Fall: a cowboy song that I've played forever - I think I originally finger-picked it in A, but lately I've been flat-picking - recently moved it from C to D. It hasn't been part of the bob-i-lynn repertoire but I think we're getting it into shape.


We are doing one song we've learned recently:


What are They Doing in Heaven Today: like any large family, there have been many losses. In fact cousin Phylis couldn't stay for my Mom's funeral because she was on the way to the funeral of one of her sisters' son - (it was a sad time). I heard Riley Baugus do this a while back and thought it would be a good one to do in Milbank. At Lanesboro I got Washington Phillips doing the original (from the 30's). I'm finger-picking in F (Guitar in Drop D, capo on the 3rd fret). Lynn is adding fiddle and harmony. We performed at our church and it went well. As a gospel song I like it 'cause you get to sing about heaven without dying first.

We've also got a Swedish fiddle tune and flatpick Guitar number planned as well as the gospel song I wrote for Computer Geeks:

God 2.0: this has played well at Unitarian and Congregational churches, we'll see how a probably more conservative audience takes to it (on the other hand, some of my cousins went into very technical fields, working for NASA or something similar) so I'm guessing they'll like it just fine. We'll be performing this with Marly and Kim.

We'll be bringing our sound system and my 16 year old nephew will be running it. Marly and Cindy hopes that it helps keep him interested in a trip that otherwise is just seeing a bunch of relatives. (I recall family trips as a teen-ager, not always my first choice in ways to spend my free time).