Showing posts with label music. Show all posts
Showing posts with label music. Show all posts

Sunday, January 19, 2014

Today's lessons

1. Tepid renditions of "The Blues My Naughty Sweetie Gives to Me" give me the blues.

2. One really good waltz can make a two-hour drive suddenly seem worth it after all. (Yeah, that's two hours each way.)

Sunday, May 5, 2013

Merry Olde West-by-God...

May Day in Shepherdstown, West Virginia. Yep, real people still do this. And i adore the fact that their border morris team is called "Hicks With Sticks." Really. (And the little girls who dance before the maypole is wrapped? "The Morris Minors," of course...)


We went to play, and had a blast jamming near the entrance to the farm market, between the morris and clogging sets in the morning and the afternoon parade and maypole festivities. It's madly chaotic every year, and somehow still works.

"What tunes are we playing for this?"
"No idea. But 'Sellenger's Round' is probably in there somewhere."



Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Small but enthusiastic


More or less on a whim, Nick and i decided to have a little Christmas concert this year, but since the whole thing was a bit seat-of-the-pants (and at such a busy time), we had just a handful of folks out at the meetinghouse last night. Still, everybody had a good time, and we raised a few bucks for Hungry for Music (and at least one attendee left with a flyer, muttering about the electric bass her son never actually played...), so i'm putting it generally in the success column, even though i have lots of cookies and cider left over.

We ended up playing what was - for us - a fairly modest collection of instruments: soprano, alto, and tenor recorders, galoubet and tambourin, Nick's curious mbira that's set up like a hammered dulcimer, and bagpipes. The bagpipes are small bellows-blown ones in the French style, actually quite demure for bagpipes.


Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Why i've been under a rock...

I know, i know... blog posts have been scarce lately. I've had a few other irons in the fire:






If you're in the neighborhood, come on out for the art show opening on the 10th!

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Art music

I attended or worked at various Scout camps for i-could-not-tell-you-how-many years, and i developed a truly exhaustive repertoire of camp songs. But this gem, culled from a songbook i got from my very favorite flea market vendor (hey, he specializes in vintage books and sewing machines), was unknown to me:

"Mules"
(to the tune of "Auld Land Syne")

On mules we find two legs behind,
     and two we find before,
We stand behind before we find
     what the two behind be for.
When we're behind the two behind
     we find what these be for,
So stand before the two behind,
     behind the two before.

Word play, mules, and the music of Burns songs - what could possibly be better?

Sunday, June 19, 2011

Field test

Last night, we played for the Twilight Garden Walk at Surreybrooke - we've done it for a few years now, and while it's not exactly a big source of income, it's a nice, laid-back gig, and an awfully pretty spot, with lots of friends playing nearby.  Theory & Practice played a set, but before that, the spouse played a set of (mostly) mid-19th century tunes with a new band - and a new (old) fiddle - here he is with the junk shop fiddle from the last post, fixed up and put into a G cross-tuning.

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Fa la la la la...

I'm a sucker for Christmas music.  And i love getting to play it with family and friends.  No formal concerts scheduled this year, but in addition to whatever we play at home, we'll have music at the Thursday sessions at O'Hurley's (the photo is from Christmas time at O'Hurley's last year, with Jacob trying out the wonderful Copeland whistle i'd gotten as a birthday present), and the beloved Eat-and-Sing at Goose Creek: a huge potluck at the meetinghouse, followed by carols, including a very silly rendition of "The Twelve Days of Christmas" and my favorite traditional carol, "Good King Wenceslas" (the men singing the king's part, and the women, the page's - except for the years we decide to switch).  A few years back, the scheduled night for the event coincided with an impressive ice storm, which knocked out power to the meetinghouse, but thinned the crowd not one bit.  We went ahead by candlelight, and it was a magical evening... (though no one was quite sure what they had put on their plates at the potluck).

What's the music that makes your holiday season?

Sunday, July 4, 2010

Fourth of July Festivities

When you walk in and hear, "Food's here, Irish is in the front room, klezmer in the basement, oldtime on the front porch - oh, yeah, and shape note in the kitchen," it is likely to be a good party.  (Okay, maybe i have weird criteria, but give me food and a chance to play some tunes, especially with people who are better musicians than i, and i'm a pretty happy camper...)

So this year, we'll be going back to Marc's, to wander happily from genre to genre playing music, chatting, and munching.  I think the blurring of the sounds between the different musical styles is a good an illustration as any of the "melting pot," and therefore a tremendously appropriate way to celebrate an American holiday.  Some years, the music's good enough that we don't bother to leave for the fireworks.

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Indulgence du jour

Fondly remembering the Dagoba chocolate bar that used to be available in a "chai" flavor, i added to my cocoa some cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves (just a pinch), and a tiny hint of black pepper. It's pretty darn tasty.

It's also gotten a little 17th century ditty stuck in my head:

Nose, nose, nose, nose
And who gaue thee that iolly red nose?
Sinamont, & Ginger,
Nutmegs & Cloues
And that gaue thee thy iolly red nose

It's actually the second verse of "Of all the birds" by Thomas Ravenscroft, who published a number of music books - mostly part songs, in the early parts of the 17th century.

This is what comes of being a musician and a history geek.