Stone Arch 2010 Set List

We play at 1:15 on Saturday at the City Pages Stage for about 45 minute.

We will have done a number of these at the Coffee Grounds on Thurs, the 17th, but a few differences. Also, there are all songs and tunes we've performed for a while.

Lonesome Pine Special

Raging Sea

Rambling Boy

Going to the West

Across The Illinois Plains

When the Work’s All Done this Fall

Over the Waterfall

Highway Man

I've Got a Bulldog

Dear Companion

Bear Creek Blues

Last Thing on My Mind

Set List for Roots Showcase (Thursday, June 17,2010 at 7:00)

We are playing for 50-55 minutes and have 14 songs lined up - may drop or add some on order to finish in time -- Bill will be playing at 8:00 sharp! There is a fair overlap with the set at Stonearch, but we've mixed it up a bit. Plus we are 'premiering' two new songs (old songs, but new-to-us) that we won't be doing at Stone Arch: Over the Mountain and All the Good Times are Past and Gone.

We are planning to perform sitting down: the Coffee Grounds is an intimate space and a good listening room. Stonearch performance is Saturday, June 19th at 1:15pm for 45 minutes (we will stand)

Lonesome Pine Special

Raging Sea

Over the Mountain

When the Work’s All Done this Fall

Across The Illinois Plains

Dog Treed a Possum up a White Oak Tree (mando/fiddle tune from Illinois)

Highway Man

Baltimore Fire

Xander's Tune (Swedish fiddle tune)

Bear Creek Blues

Dear Companion

All the Good Times are Past and Gone

Rambling Boy

Last Thing on My Mind

Two Big Shows This Week

From the email sent to folks on our email list.

What: Bill Cagley’s Roots Showcase with the Dixons
When: Thursday, June 17, 7:00 to 8:00 pm
Where: The Coffee Grounds, Hamline and Hoyt, St Paul
More info: thecoffeegrounds.net

Bob and Lynn Dixon perform from 7 to 8; then Bill Cagley does the next hour to close out the evening.


What: Stone Arch Festival of the Arts
When: Saturday, June 19, 1:15 to 2pm
Where: City Pages Stage, under the Central Avenue Bridge by St Anthony Main (food court right by the stage)
More info: www.stonearchfestival.com

Stop by for lunch and hear our show!


What we do:

Bob & Lynn Dixon
Old-Time Songs and Tunes

Bob and Lynn Dixon have stood the test of time...and so have the songs they sing: old time songs and tunes for the 21st century; songs of lost love and hard times with fine duet singing, and guitar, mandolin and fiddle.

Lynn Dixon

Bob and Lynn Dixon
www.myspace.com/bobandlynn
www.facebook.com/pages/Bob-and-Lynn-Dixon/8360399102
dixon@visi.com

June Events for Bob and Lynn

All events are the Bob&Lynn Myspace Calendar as well as on the Bob & Lynn Page on Facebook as well. Hope to see you one place or the other!

Jun 6 2010 12:30P

Bob & Lynn at MBOTMA MN Homegrown Kickoff Richmond,MN

Jun 12 2010 9:00A

Bob & Lynn at Prior Lake Farmer’s Market Minneapolis,MN

Jun 13 2010 10:00A

Bob & Lynn Dixon sing at church (Lynnhurst UCC) Minneapolis,MN

Jun 17 2010 7:00P

Bob & Lynn Dixon @ Coffee Grounds Falcon Heights,MN

Jun 19 2010 1:15P

Bob & Lynn at Stone Arch Festival of the Arts Minneapolis,MN

Set List for MBOTMA Winter Weekend

Lynn and I are playing for 35-40 minutes at 6:30 in the Eureka room during the 'banquet'. Our set was originally on Friday night but someone needed to switch. As Lynn said, we'll have a 'captive' audience... hopefully we'll make a few more fans and even sell a couple of CDs. Full schedule is here.

We have 11 songs 'planned' but will likely have to skip one or two. A couple of them are fairly new.

Little Annie: Carter Family with some Norman Blake style guitar thrown in. One of our few happy songs. This is on our CD 'Blue-eyed Boatman'.

Broken Hearted Love: a Carter Family song we learned from Jody Stecher and Kate Brislin. Not a happy song.

Milwaukee Blues: This is a Charlie Poole song on our CD. Lynn fiddles and I sing. The phrase 'fix the roads' can apply to our broken infrastructure or simply to pothole season.

Highway Man: This is another Charley Poole Song with a 'ragged waltz' rhythm. It's a variant of "Slack your rope, Hangman" which Lynn and I remember from the 60's folk era. This is our first time performing this one outside of Farmer's markets.

I've Got a Bulldog: the 'Sweet Brothers' version is our source - Lynn plays fiddle on yet another song about lost love.

Louis Collins: from Mississippi John Hurt. A cover by Lucinda Williams brought this to my attention, but we are using his 1928 recording as the source. I finger-pick this one. We learned this about a year ago, but haven't performed it much.

Rambling Boy: from the original Carter Family - the lyrics, especially the last verse, are a little strange. If our next CD is titled "Plenty of Dry Goods", this is where it came from.

New River Train: I've sung a version that I got from a Blake and Rice CD for years in jams. However, I'm now singing it using Ernest Stoneman's version as the source. I'm on Mandolin and sing it as a duet.

Rolling River: Illinois fiddle tune I do on mandolin. From the book & CD set: Dear Old Illinois.

Going to the West: Lynn does this on the CD, but we've changed the key to D (from F). I am on mandolin.

Pretty Little Miss: this is a 'folk song' that the Stanley Brothers got from the New Lost City Ramblers to put on an album in the early 60's. I first heard Big Medicine do it but we use the Stanley Brother's version as our main source.

I doubt that we will have time to fit all the above in, but we do have a few songs in reserve:

I’m Thinking Tonight of My Blue Eyes

Otto Wood

Raging Sea

Set List for Homegrown Kickoff

This weekend we're playing a 40 minute set at the MBOTMA Homegrown Kickoff.  This is the first MBOTMA event we are playing since our CD was finished so we start and end with songs from the CD; however, we are doing a lot of material we've learned since we did the actual recording in March 2008.  Here's the songs (and 1 tune) that we're working up:

East Virginia Blues: from the CD, it includes the line "Blue-Eyed Boatman" which is the title of the CD.  

Raging Sea: Our son Tommy is an actual blue-eyed boatman who works in San Francico sailing boats - so this jolly little song about death at sea is a little strange.  I have versions by Ernest Stoneman and the New Lost City Ramblers.

Last Gold Dollar: we've done this for a while and it's one where Lynn sings lead; we learned it from Jim and Kim Lansford --from theri liner notes: it is originally from was one of only a total of two sides recorded by Ephraim Woodie and the Henpecked Husbands who were from Furches, near Ashe County in North Carolina.  The "Husbands" one and only record was made for Columbia in 1929.

(Note: since learning this, I have acquired the source recording, but we're much closer to Kim and Jim's verison).

Bear Creek Blues:  ours sticks pretty close to the Carter Family Version.

More Pretty Girls Than One:  this another one on the CD, it's one I orignally learned from Doc Watson - I've since dropped the minor chord and added a 3rd verse - Lynn plays fiddle.

I've Got a Bulldog: the 'Sweet Brothers' version is our source - Lynn plays fiddle on yet another song about lost love.

Dog Treed a Possum up a White Oak Tree: a tune we found in Garry Harrison's book Dear Old Illinois; we got it when the New Mules performed at the MBOTMA winter weekend. Our contra dance band played it at a dance a couple of weeks later and Lynn and I have worked it out for mandolin and fiddle.

 

Across The Illinois Plains:  another song from the Dear Old Illinois book. This is on the New Mules CD. We do it as a duet and have restored one of the verses from the book.   It is related to other old-time songs about 'The Girl I Left Behind Me".

Rambling Boy: from the original Carter Family - the lyrics, especially the last verse, are a little strange.  If our next CD is titled "Plenty of Dry Goods", this is where it came from.

Little Annie:  a song on our CD - it was suggested I learn this by Bruce Johnson who is in the band Hello Stranger (playing immediately before us).  Carter Family with some Norman Blake style guitar thrown in.

My Old Cottage Home: closing song on our CD.  Learned originally from a Big Medicine CD, but I have versions from the Carter family and others.

We'll be lucky to fit all 11 of the above in our set, but we do have the following in reserve:

Pretty Little Miss 

I’m Thinking Tonight of My Blue Eyes 

If I Lose, Let Me Lose

Bluff Country Gathering in Lanesboro, MN

Lynn and I spent last weekend at the Bluff Country Gathering in Lanesboro, Mn.  This is an event organized by Bob Bovee and Gail Heil that has been going on for many years. This is our 3rd year attending.  I thought I better capture a few impressions while it's still fresh.

Instead of camping in our Van, we stayed in a B&B: Lynn claims it was for my hip ;-) -- I did appreciate not tramping across the park several times a day and having a bathroom handy.  We put up at the Scandanavian Inn and enjoyed 3 great breakfastes.  It was about 4 blocks from the 'Gathering' and we may very well stay there again. 

I went to 2 mandolin and 3 guitar workshops and otherwise attended some Carter Family singing sessions as well as some 'mini-concerts'.  The Friday night concert was excellent and the dance was fun (although my hip issue prevents me from square dancing).  Oh, and we bought about 8 CDs ;-)

At most of these types of events there is always a performer or something else that is unexpected.  One of the suprises for me was to hear Skip Gorman in an intimate setting - he had been at a MBOTMA festival a number of years ago and I just didn't 'connect' -- I was talking to Bob Bovee about this - wondering if it was because I was still transitioning from bluegrass to old-time (or as he put it, coming over from the dark-side);however,   I think Bob hit it on the head by saying that to see and hear Skip in a smaller and more intimate setting  might have a lot to do with it.  Skip is a very sensitve and skilled fiddler and mandolinist and is one of the best 'cowboy' singers around.   I especially liked the way he addressed some hackneyed songs, like Streets of Laredo, and invested them with new life (often by singing an original, older version than the one that was in my head).

The last workshop I took was on 'Carter' Style guitar presented by Darren Moore and Jeremy Stevens with the New North Carolina Ramblers.  I had seen them perform Carter Family songs the day before and Darren, who knows all but 16 Carter family songs by-heart was playing in the style of Maybelle Carter on a low-tuned guitar using thumb and index finger (with picks).  In the workshop I was able to get flatten out one my finger picks so that it kind of worked for the Maybelle scratch (you brush the top strings back and forth).  Once I got home I tuned my 'farmers-market' Epiphone 3 frets down (C#,F#,B,E,G#,C#) and have tried it out on a few songs.  I also order the same kind of finger-pick that Darren uses which should make the back and forth easier.  We'll see what develops.

In years past Lynn and I have been in some 'vocal jams' - last year with Alice Gerrard!  This didn't transpire this year but there were a couple of tune jams at the Sons of Norway Hall that we sat in on.  I play  mandolin for contradances but most of the tunes I know are not in the 'old-time' repertoire.  However, I was able to play along tolerably well and Lynn and I 'introduced' a tune that we got from the Dear Old Illinois book: Dog chased a Possum up the White Oak Tree.  Later Gail Heil told Lynn that she liked the tune and was gonna learn it.

There was much more, but this will have to do for now.