I know, my lawn is going to grow a foot while I’m gone! I brought the heat north with me.
We're also having unusual weather here on the Mediterranean. Usually the whole grab-bag of winds experienced here subside by early summer, but we were visited by the tramuntana (southerly, off the Pyrenees) for several days last week, and the garbí (hot, dirty northerly wind coming off the Sahara) right up until yesterday. At least the thermometer isn't pegged! Henry, I remember when I was a kid that if there was ONE day of 100º all summer in Oregon, it was an event.
Here's a Norman Blake tune I've been working on. bbcee posted a long while back that he'd bought the album Natasha's Waltz by Norman and Nancy, and I had to follow suit. It's a great album, and this tune is one of the many on it that I love to hear Norman and Nancy do, it's called New Brick Road. https://youtu.be/bGepA57LpNU
Nice, Mark. That key change or mode change or whatever it was for the B section really caught my attention.
Mark, you make it look so easy!
Tune is in D but first measure of B part is F#m, 2nd measure Bm, 3rd measure F#m, 4th measure Bm, then it's on to G///D///Em///A/// Makes it interesting for sure
Mark that is great playing!
Wow, Hank! It has been on the hot side here, but nothing like that. Besides, it is normal here in Arkansas for this time of year. From what I have seen, you should be getting cooler in the next few days. Hang in there!
Mark, that's a great rendition of a terrific tune. Hank, I hope you are weathering the heat safely. It looks downright scary in the Northwest, lethal for those without shelter. NDO, I hope your property in Carlsbad is OK—nasty flooding down there!
Today's high was about 35 degrees (F) below yesterday's. Cloudy but really nice. The rest of the week is forecast to be merely hot, hopefully not hellishly hot.
Mark, that's excellent, thanks for sharing. Your variations & ornaments are great. I've been neglecting N & N, time to revisit the source! Glad the weather's calming down a bit for you, Henry.
Something I've been working on lately is trying to play an actual mandolin, as opposed to its oversized cousin. I found this tune, Cat in the Bag, in RACCA 2: Cornish Tunes for Cornish Sessions. I remembered the expression for the noir classic, The Sweet Smell of Success, so I had to give it a shot, although i don't have it in the bag yet.
That's a cool tune, and I'd say you're making good progress! Is that Cornish Tunes an online resource or a printed book? I wouldn't mind trying this one, if only for the name
If there aren't lyrics, there should be!
I found the Cornish book here: http://www.kesson.com/downloads/coll...hp?album=00158
Phb, I’m looking forward to listening to that after work. I learned a couple of easy old NGDB tunes in recent weeks… Long Hard Road (Sharecroppers Dream), Snowballs, and Blow Out the Stars, Turn Off the Moon. The last two are pretty obscure ones but I really like them. The last one though… I memorized the chords and lyrics in just a few hours and played the song easily for a few days, but then made the mistake of looking at the strumming pattern and now my brain is broken again. I’ve come a long way from my duh strums, but this one is kicking my butt because it is on the down beat for the first half measure then syncopates to the back beat for the second half. D.DUDU.D.DUDU I can do it by itself…I can play the chords…I can sing the lyrics. But I can’t do all three at once while doing that dang strum. Oh well, as the Meatloaf song says… Two Out Of Three Ain’t Bad
That's a catchy tune, phb. Sue, you might also check out "Old Gray Cat" at www.thesession.org.
That's a nice tune. Does the mandolin feel like a toy?
Thanks, Henry. I found "The Old Gray Cat" as well as numerous other cat related tunes at The Session
I'm working on two tunes mainly right now. Angeline the Baker and The Hare in the Corn. I'm playing Angeline with a group of guys who are also learning (banjo & guitar) about once a week. Having others to play along with (and be prepared for) really helps keep motivation high!
JW, how wonderful it is to have others to play with on a regular basis! I suspect you'll advance quickly.
Has anyone purchased and use the Bluegrass Fakebook? Considering buying it to start building a common repertoire when I go to jam sessions (as soon as we start having some!)
I don't have that book, but Brad Laird has a book with chords and words to the 100 most popular jam session songs and tunes, as compiled over the years by himself. It comes as a pdf or a phone version (impractical IMHO). I'm having a printer make me a flip book version.
I have Brad's Jam Session Survival, which is just chords, unless he has revamped it with lyrics. I would say it's not just bluegrass. I've found it really helpful at jams.
You're right, Sherry, I looked at it, it's just chords. Not sure why I thought some of them had lyrics.
Been quiet here lately! I’ve been vacationing in Montana and Washington and working my butt off in New Mexico. But I’ve managed to add a few songs to the playlist… Broken Window Serenade by Whiskey Meyers (with harmonica), Life Ain’t Always Beautiful by Gary Allen, and Livin’ On Love by Alan Jackson. All super easy songs but ones I’ve always liked. I haven’t recorded anything lately though, besides a few band gigs where the acoustics weren’t great due to crowd noise and talk. I really need to figure out how to record from USB to the laptop from the digital mixer and make some decent band recordings.
It's good to see you resurface, Don. Great new songs you've added to your repertoire. I've been posting some in the SAW group. Also working on Red Haired Boy, especially changing chords, which continues to be a weakness. Also trying to improve left hand technique.
I signed up for the Peghead Nation Music Theory class, so I am working my way through exercises on scales, arpeggios, etc. etc.
I’ve been mostly playing harmonica the last couple of weeks. We had a gig Saturday at which we had to play without our usual singer/guitar player so changed up the set list a bit. I only played mandolin on one song (at about :40 minutes in the video), mostly did harmonica and vocals. Apologies for the unedited video with some pauses between songs, and the first few minutes having the view blocked since I was on the far left of the stage. But the sound quality seemed pretty good for an outdoor setup, I finally got my PA pretty dialed in. Glad I can save the setting on my new mixer! It does include Broken Window Serenade at about 1:14 in the video, but I did vocals and harmonica without the mando since we had plenty of strings.
That’s great @NDO
Don, I'll have to listen later as I'm about to practice for the first time in 3 days. I'm working on "Humphreys Waltz" and "Kentucky Waltz" for a recital next Saturday. Hope to get a video to post.
Nice!
Good show, NDO!
Why can't I see the video? This one and Mark's Norman Blake tune are just large, blank white spaces.
Sad day yesterday. On page 1 on this thread there is a picture of our outside thermometer in late June - pegged out. There is a birdhouse nearby. A pair of chickadees had been very active there, obviously feeding a family. All activity stopped after the heat wave. Cleaned out the house yesterday and found two dead almost-fledglings in the nest. We had suspected as much, but ... Louise, I don't know why the videos don't work for you. I checked the page codes as received in my browser and they are identical to the code for phb256's except for the youtube ID number and frame size. If you can see phb256's video, you should be able to see the other two. If you can't see phb256's video, it might be an overly aggressive ad blocker (?) .
Poor chicks—their little house turned into the Kroger rotisserie. I remember dozens of humans died in the heatwave, and the toll on wildlife must have been horrendous. Phb's video is fine, and everything on the first page, except Mark's again, is good. Don't know what the problem might be.
Don, I finally had the opportunity to listen to the entire video you posted. I love the music you guys play and always enjoy the harmonica - and, of course - the mandolin! My recital was yesterday. The first tune below I missed several notes, but there are no do overs in live performance! In the second one I didn't quite reach those 4th finger C#s, but at least that's behind me and I can work on something new!
That was very nicely done (both of them), Sherry. Keep them coming.
Louise, did you figure out how to see the videos? I just switched to a new iPhone 13 and suddenly I can’t see the videos either. I can see phb's but not Sherry’s, mine or Mark’s. If you figured out a change in settings or a way to fix it I’d love to hear it.
Good job, Sherry!
You sound good, Sherry. How great to have an opportunity to perform like this. What a wonderful learning opportunity!
Thanks, all. Sue, playing live like this is great experience in playing for other people.
NDO, that's exactly what I'm getting on a Mac laptop. I looked at work today (Mac desktop) and everything was showing up. Both the desktop and my laptop have the same updates installed and are running the same version of the operating system. No idea what is going on—I just know it's above my pay grade. I did find Sherry's recital videos by searching on on YouTube, and Sherry, good job! Recitals can be nerve-wracking, but you seemed calm and cool as can be.
Play in the student recital with my Grateful Dead ensemble class last week. Had a good time in the class, got to play a solo. First time playing in front of an audience, but only a little nerve-racking because it was a super supportive audience and it was as part of an ensemble. Hope you enjoy it. I'm proud of myself for remembering how to embed videos correctly, but this does not allow me to time-stamp it. Of course you are welcome to watch an entire 2 hour video, but my group begins at ~1hr, 33min, and 12sec.
Now that looks like a lot of fun. I watched bits and pieces of the whole thing and saw a lot more mandolins than I expected. And I saw old Southern Man take a break in their group. Good job SM. The Front Porch looks like a great program and could be something I would be interested in were it available near me. One thing really grabbed me as I watched. You know how Youtube puts all those suggested videos over beside the one that is playing. I saw one titled "Pete Vigour" to introduce him as a teacher at the Front Porch. I haven't seen him since he was a teenager - his older brother, his older brother's wife and I were all good buddies in college. If you run into him give him my greets - he may even remember who I am.
The Front Porch is great, I've been a big promoter. Not just for me, but a big asset to our entire community. I don't do all that much posting in the general forums, but I will sometimes chime in and try to connect other folks with a local Roots Music School in their area. Pete Vigour is a good guy. He and his wife have both taught and although I don't know him well, I have gone to the Old Time Jam when he was leading it. I think he has stepped away from teaching there, sometime around the time Covid started, though I don't know if this was a coincidence or a cause.
Has anyone figured out how to see the videos on an iPhone? I still see nothing on embedded videos. I’ve been busy moving back home to Washington state but have been having fun with a few new songs… American Pie is what I'm working on now, and recently added Wonderful Tonight and Good Morning Beautiful.
NDO, I'm not an apple guy, but I'll put the entire address here, so you can click through, not sure if you can already do that or not, but I'll provide it no extra charge :-). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LCz...=TheFrontPorch I'm working on some songs for Christmas, then in January I start on an American Music Ensemble, the class description indicates we'll be working on some Dylan, John Prine, Gillian Welch and EmmyLou Harris, plus more. They ask for suggestions, so I'm hoping we can add some Townes Van Zandt, Woody Guthrie, and maybe others.
Thanks for the link! That worked, I just can’t see them when they’re embedded instead of linked. That looked like fun! Great job taking a solo. You’ll find that playing in a group and playing in public can both be highly addictive In fact I’m flying down to NM this weekend and will do a little jamming with the band. Can’t wait!
Good job, Southern Man. I enjoyed watching your group play. Thanks for the post.