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).