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Blog --Here's the latest
- 2007-05-17
- January 14, 2008
Happy New Year, everyone! Sitting here in January, waiting for the light to return. The Solstice this year was palpable; it got so dark i thought it would never turn around. Dark of the moon came at mid-month and folks all over the temperate zone got busy lighting candles. I had shows right up to Christmas Eve and all the holiday preparations and social reconnecting were tempered as always by the inevitable loss, loss that always shows up at the darkest hours. In this case i lost a neighbor. Christmas cookies and condolence calls.
Now the season has turned, the calendar has opened a new year and i'm looking forward. In February I'm off to Memphis for the North american Folk Alliance annual conference. In March I'm headed south to California for a Living Traditions concert in Anaheim. In April the mighty Laurel Valley Revelers reunite for a contra dance in Seattle and I appear in the Portland Folkmusic Society concert series. Trips to plan to the midwest and New England beyond that. Onward!
July 2, '007
Back home from a trip to the midwest, and nothing died while i was gone. Did some serious family stuff in Northern Wisconsin, played a fun show at the 8th Street Coffeehouse in Escanaba, MI and enjoying bodacious hospitality at Casa del 'Ski in the U.P. Life is good. This week's music picks are Wilco's "Sky Blue Sky" and the Drive by Truckers' "A Blessing and a Curse." America is still big and wild and don't you forget it. Eagles and Sandhill Cranes.
Happy almost Independence Day! Death to Tyrants, as the Founders used to say. It's hot here, kicking off the summer of the Alberto Gonzales death watch. Hey, know why the Republicans don't seem to have a candidate for the presidential race for 2008? Because they don't need one. If you think these guys are going to leave office, think again. My guess (and i'm taking odds on this) is that they'll nominate Newt Gingrich as a back-up, but Plan A is to call a national emergency and cancel the whole election. Why not? Who's gonna stop 'em?
Summer's here, like an expected guest who arrived early --'Scuse the mess, come on in. Garden's in, stuff's up and i just hope i can find it when i get home after being gone during growing season. Congratulations if you're a graduate, a June bride or groom or got lucky in some other fashion. Keep the faith and if you're one of my students, PRACTICE!
Aloha Kakou,
Been a busy few weeks for me. Two weeks ago was my show at the Shedd, a mondospective called The World According to Chico Schwall and it was fun to take on the Big picture and try to include a little of everything.
Since then i did a set of 60's exotica with Jim Fritz who knows more about that era than anyone, played the University of Oregon Luau (a big affair done in the U's basketball arena, Mac Court) with Sweet Aloha, played at Eugene's Saturday market with my Friends Tara and David and Bud as Red Pajamas and played a contra dance with the next generation of the Laurel valley revelers. This was a great tale-of-two-cities band with Stuart Wlliams and Steve Newton of seattle and Linda danielson and myself of Eugene. Rockin twin fiddles and a unique repertoire.
This week The Akustik 3-0 (Jim Hershey, Tracy Beckman & m'self) play instrumental worldjazzgrass at Cornucopia and i visit the Willlamette Valley Folk Festival with three groups: Schwall Street Journal (Saturday at 2:30), Red Pajamas (Saturday at 4:10) and Sweet Aloha (Sunday at noon).
Hope to see you in the sunshine.
3/29/007
Hey y'all.
I've not been checking in here as i might. Second half of winter was busy with diverse projects. Been learning middle eastern music, re-creating my right hand technique on just about everything i play. The plectrum for the oud is kind of lke a ... a collar stay, if you've ever seen one. The old time plectrum was a quill, if that helps. That and watching Paul Mehling play guitar with his group the Hot Club of San Francisco with that incredible loose wrist of his. He's such a sure shot he can shoot from the hip and hit every note.
On the guitar i'm getting rid of the pick entirely to the greatest extent that i can. On the mandolin i'm using those little... mandolin picks. Getting rid of a lot of Noise on the string.
But for now enjoy the comiing spring. Smell the flowers, breathe the fresh air, watch the Current Administration squirm.
be well
12/21/06
Happy Holidays! Here we are at the turning of the year. Sun's out today and it's easy to feel the days about to lengthen again. It's been a dark run up to the solstice for me, lots of joy and creativity in my life, but loss as well and it's not always easy to accept. As the days get dark we're reminded about the fragility of life. Charles Dickens' take on Christmas is in part that it's a time to reconnect, with family, with friends, especially with those from whom we've become distant. Wishing you a joyous time of reconnection, abundance, health and the return of the light.
Been a good year, as I look back. Since spring there was the Willamette Valley Folk Festival, Northwest Folklife, the Oregon Country Fair, The FAR-West Portland Acoustic Music Summit, Bite of Oregon, Folk Alliance Regional gatherings in Michigan (FARM) and Sacramento, CA (FAR-West), the Yachats Celtic Music Festival and our current run of "A Celtic Holiday" in Eugene. On the way i got to do Irving Berlin music with kids at the Oregon Festival of American Music, did a start-from-nothin' project called The Celtic Band for a successful parks concert, revived the Laurel Valley Revelers for a contra dance and did a bunch of shows playing Hawaiian music with Sweet Aloha. Got a couple new songs done and more on the way. Life is good.
