OK - I usually don't post things like this, but "consistancy is the hopgoblin of small minds".
Bob
From Lynn Hoffman -
MY LIVING WILL
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Last night my friend and I were sitting in the den and I
>>>>>> said to her, 'I never want to live in a vegetative state,
>>>>>> dependent on some machine and fluids from a bottle to keep me
>>>>>> alive. That would be no quality of life at all, If that ever
>>>>>> happens, just pull the plug.'
>>>>>>
>>>>>> So she got up, unplugged the computer, and threw out my wine.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> She's such a bitch.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> <
This certainly will be a night to remember; if nothing else but for the mere twenty dollars it will cost you! On June 6th an elegant dinner comes with entertainment in Goshen. And it goes to an incredibly worthy cause.
The evening begins at 6:30 p.m. and the entertainment includes Rich Blauvelt & Grace Street Music – a songwriter blessed to bring many of his songs services at Goodwill Church in Montgomery, NY; Judy Songer –a Christian contemporary singer and recording artist; The Gravikord Duo – upbeat and joyful with a rhythm that refuses to be pinned down in any way; David Alpher & Jennie Litt – a cabaret duo with sophisticated, tuneful, humorous music that embraces styles from jazz to blues to faux Elizabethan and beyond; Miro Ludvik – a singer-songwriter performing acoustic, blues, and folk/traditional music ; The Wayne Fugate Trio – a combo performing bluegrass and that is somewhere beyond or behind all musical borders; Bob Lusk – the troubadour of Ulster County …a folk music guru known for his interpretations of classic traditional and folk tunes from around the world; and Glen Macken (emcee) whose past credits include: Judas in 'Jesus Christ Superstar', Frankie in 'Forever Plaid' and Billy Bigelow in 'Carousel'.
How did this all come to be? Well, four of our local women will be hosting this dinner to benefit the Susan G. Komen 3-Day, Breast Cancer Walk. Vita Dowdell, Alison Fitzpatrick, Cheryl Winship and Kathy Kurek and have done so with great cooperation from many supporters. Besides the business community The First Presbyterian Church of Goshen sponsors the team's "One Night to Remember" in their Church Hall.
And why did this come to pass? There is a trio of local ladies known as our "Crem de la Crem" team (named after Cremilyn Vaughan – team captain Vita Dowdell's mom) that includes Vita, Alison and Cheryl. They will be walking the Boston 3-Day (60 miles) in Boston this summer on August 15-17th.
Imagine! All of this organizing, all of this walk training, all of their work as teachers and teacher's aides – and you have a wonderful way to support them! Come join them and celebrate the lives of those who have been touched by breast cancer.
Dinner includes a delectable fare of Chicken Francaise, Green Beans Almondine, Roasted Potatoes, Salad, Assorted Breads and Dessert.
For reservations call: Vita Dowdell (294-7721), Alison Fitzpatrick. (778-1437), Cheryl Winship (615-1542), Kathy Kurek (291-7295)
And here is the clincher: every single penny goes to the Breast cancer Three Day.
If you would like to support this team and make a donation please access the following link: http://08.the3day.org/goto/vita
Or, you can mail a check payable to: Breast Cancer 3-Day, and mail to: Vita Dowdell, 12 McNally Street, Goshen, NY 10924
Over the past few years I keep hearing about folk musicians I have known who have passed on. I have frequently put their obits on my blog, but decided it would be good to have an archive page, so I created one at http://folkobits.blogspot.com/. If there is someone in the folk community you think should be here, email me at bobluskmusic@gmail.com. Thank you - Bob Lusk
The Saugerties Bard
On Sunday May 18th from 3- 5 pm, Rich Bala, folk balladeer will present a program of historic music including songs of the 19th Century songwriter (1798-1861), Henry Backus. Mr. Backus was known throughout the Northeast as the "The Saugerties Bard". He was the composer of romantic, regional and historic songs such as ""My Hearts in Old Esopus" and "Explosion of Steamer Steindeer ".
The concert will be at the historic Dutch Arms Chapel, 16 John St. in the village of Saugerties, NY. Admission is $8.00.
Following are several articles about Henry Backus by John Thorn that may be found at
http://www.ulsterpublishing.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=article&articleID=347538
http://www.ulsterpublishing.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=article&articleID=348029
This is a great event. Steve is a real authentic folk singer - finest kind - but I'm very sorry to hear of Eric Levine's passing. Eric was an old friend of mine - taught me the melody to Abe Sammon's Applejack which had been collected in High Falls by his grandfather Norman Studer, the famous educator and Camp Woodland director. Eric too was an authentic folk singer -
hadn't heard him in a long time, but he used to play a great 12 string guitar. - Bob
From "Stephen & Marilyn Suffet" <Suffet@worldnet.att.net>
Greetings!
This is an early heads-up for an event that is two months away, the Eighth Annual Woody Guthrie Birthday Bash in New York City. We are dedicating it to the memory of our dear friend, comrade, and fellow MacDougal Street Rent Party member Eric Levine. As you already know, Eric passed away last week at the age of 51. He had performed in all seven of the previous Woody Guthrie Birthday Bashes, and he was planning to do this coming one as well. He had
even picked out the songs he was going to perform: Pastures of Plenty, Hobo's Lullaby, and a parody of I Dreamed I Saw Joe Hill Last Night which he called I Dreamed I Saw Woody Guthrie Last Night. Unfortunately, Eric took that last song with him, so we can only guess what it said.
We know Eric will be with us in spirit if not in flesh, and we welcome you to join us in honoring his memory along with celebrating what would have been Woody Guthrie's 96th birthday.
Here are the details:
Eighth Annual Woody Guthrie Birthday Bash
Round Robin Songfest
Sunday . July 13, 2008
7:00 to 9:30 PM
Featuring...
MacDougal Street Rent Party (Joel Landy . Anne Price . Steve Suffet . Gina Tlamsa)
Also featuring...
Hillel Arnold . Jessica Feinbloom . Emma Graves plus Carlos Vazquez on the bass
Bowery Poetry Club
308 Bowery . New York City
Between Houston & Bleecker Streets
$6 cover + one drink minimum.
The site is supposedly wheelchair accessible -- Eric would never have played there if it weren't -- but like most places it could be better. If you have any questions, please call 212-614-0505 for information.
Be there!
--- Steve
I considered Bob to be a good friend even though I rarely saw him. I'm shocked and saddened by his passing.
From Mark Moss at Sing Out! Magazine -
Bob Norman, who edited Sing Out! from 1970 to 1977, died on Sunday, May 4th, after a long battle with prostate cancer.
A songwriter and singer, Bob had 4 recordings to his credit and a 30+ year career touring and sharing his music. His gentle and relaxed demeanor belied the passion he maintained for his family and friends, as well as the broader world around us ... always a central focus of his life's work and mission.
Bob was already editing Sing Out! when I first met him and began my involvement with the magazine (back in the summer of 1970). I know that wasn't the most popular period for Sing Out! (or folk music), but the stew of traditional music with politics that was emblematic of his tenure at Sing Out! was a real inspiration for me, and his friendship and guidance through the years, including nearly ten years serving on the Sing Out! board for the first phase of my tenure here, was indisputably one of my true guiding forces in helping to retool
what we do here. It's safe to say that without Bob's steady hand, bridging the "old" Sing Out! and the "new" one, I simply would not have been able to learn on the job or have kept things going.
He was a great friend to me, to Sing Out! and to folk music. I'll miss him.
Below is the official obit from the family:
Robert Stephen Norman, 61, of Lawrenceville died on Sunday at his home of metastatic prostate cancer.
Born in New London, CT, he was a Lawrenceville resident since 1994 after living in New York City for 30 years. Bob graduated form Columbia University in 1969 with a degree in English Literature Bob had been a copy editor for Business Week Magazine for twenty years, but his passion and true vocation was music. He was a well-known singer/songwriter folksinger locally and across the country for over 30 years. From 1970 to 1977, he was editor-in-chief of Sing Out!, and was on its board until 1990. His CD titles include: Romantic
Nights on the Upper Westside; To the Core; Love, Lust, and Lilacs; and Time Takin' Man. His music fused varied influences of blues, country, contemporary folk, and classical guitar writing about topics ranging from the streets of New York to local life in Lawrenceville.
Son of the late Victor and Francis (Sharaf) Norman and brother of the late Jon Norman, he is survived by his wife Clara Haignere, his son Samuel Norman-Haignere, his nephew Daniel Norman, and his nieces: Forest Cattich and Martina Norman Botinelli.
Funeral services will be held on Wednesday at 11 AM at Poulson & Van Hise Funeral Directors, 650 Lawrence Road, Lawrenceville. Burial will be in the Lawrenceville Cemetery. The family extends an invitation to friends to come to their home at K18 Shirley Lane, Lawrenceville after the burial. A memorial service will be held on May 17th at a time and place to be determined.
In lieu of flowers, please tax-deductible donations can be made to Sing Out! Magazine (P.O. Box 5460 Bethlehem PA 18015) or to the Westminster Conservatory Young Artist's Program. Check should include a note that it is for the Young Artist's Program in Memory of Bob Norman to Westminster Conservatory, Attn Sandra Franc, 101 Walnut Lane, Princeton NJ 08540.
Starts next week!
MUZ619 Traditional Music of the Catskills and Hudson River Valley NEW! Cost $60.
Instructor: Bob Lusk
(4 sessions) This course will cover traditional regional and historic music of the Catskills and Hudson Valley. No musical experience is required, but experienced musicians and singers will have a chance to increase their repertore with "Home Grown" music from our area. We will study the major local collections of music including area colonial songs from the Allison family, songs of Henry Backus "The Saugerties Bard" from the 1850's and songs and dances from Camp Woodland in the 1950's. Examples will include songs of the quarrymen, lumberjack's, steamboat captains, and apple growers., We will also include 20th Century songs by folksong writers such as Grant Rogers, Les Rice, William Geckle, Ken Gonyea, Mark Fried, Rick Nestler and Pete Seeger.
To register, call (845) 431-8910
From Deborah Osherow
Dear Folks,
We have been having some great sessions of late at New World Home Cooking on
Monday nights. Call (845) 246-0900 for more info.
Here are our dates for May:
Monday May 5th, 12th, 19th, 26th @ 7:30PM
I hope you can join us!
Cheers and Happy May Day,
Deborah
Chapter 1: Joe learned the abbreviated song from Pete Seeger when Pete came to Oberlin College to do a concert in 1954 (or maybe '55). The verses Pete sang were written by Pete, who adapted them from a Russian poem that was printed as the epigraph in a book called "And Quiet Flows the Don."
Chapter 2: Joe then went to be a folk-music counselor at Camp Woodland in the NY Catskills the summer after learning the song. He sang "Flowers" to the kids, who loved it. To make the song last longer, he added verses to complete the circle.
Chapter 3: Pete Seeger came to Camp Woodland that summer, heard the kids singing his song -- with new verses by Joe -- and loved it. He re-copyrighted the song with Joe as co-author.
Chapter 4: The Kingston Trio was the first big pop group to record the longer version of "Flowers." PP&M came a little later, and hordes of other recordings.
The tune (particularly its rhythm)that Joe still sings (which he says is how Pete sang it in 19-ought-54) is a little different than the one popularized by the Kingston Trio and PP&M. If you go to one of Joe's concerts, get him to sing it for you. Kathy
So there you have it - by not too much of a stretch, this song has roots in the Catskill Mountains, went through a "folk process" of creation. QED, a "Catskill Mountain Folk Song" - Bob
SAN FRANCISCO — It may be the ultimate collection of paraphernalia of a band known for its fondness of paraphernalia, legal and otherwise.
The Grateful Dead, whose songs celebrated personal freedom, American idealism and mind-altering drugs, will donate a cache of their papers, posters and props on Thursday to the University of California, Santa Cruz, which plans to use the musical miscellany as part of a research center to be known as Dead Central.
What exactly is to be donated, of course, is something of a mystery even to band insiders.
"It's kind of a surprise box to us as well," said John Perry Barlow, one of the group's lyricists. "We'll get to find out what's in there as well."
University archivists say the collection was drawn from the band's various studios and business offices and dates back to the Dead's founding in 1965. Among the items are rare photographs, press clippings, stage props, vintage posters, backstage passes and set and guest lists for some of the band's innumerable concerts, which were famed for their lengthy jams and die-hard tape-swapping followers, the Deadheads.
The head of special collections and archives at the university, Christine Bunting, said much of the material to be unveiled Thursday at the Fillmore, the San Francisco rock club, was in fact sent to the band from Deadheads, including band-inspired artwork and personal letters.
"And lots of, you know, poems," Ms. Bunting added.
Unfortunately for fans, the collection includes no new music from the group, which formally disbanded after the death of the guitarist and singer Jerry Garcia in 1995, though some members have continued to play together occasionally. Ms. Bunting said much of the material, which covers about 2,000 square feet, had been in a warehouse at an undisclosed location in Northern California, but would be open to the public in a renovated room at the university's library.
While the band inspired no end of drug paraphernalia, Ms. Bunting said none was in the collection.
The university, located in a hippie-friendly city 75 miles south of San Francisco, already teaches a popular undergraduate course about the Grateful Dead's music, and is known as "a hotbed of current Deadhead culture," said Bob Weir, the group's rhythm guitarist.
Mr. Weir said the band had decided to donate the memorabilia in part to keep it from getting lost as years went by.
"It seemed to all of us that the stuff really belongs to the community that supported us for all those years," he said. "And Santa Cruz seemed the coziest possible home for it."
Saugerties Piping Weekend
You don't have to be a piper to enjoy this weekend. Wonderful place just to drop by and jam.
From: Ernie Shultis
To: boblusk@hvc.rr.com
Sent: Thursday, January 17, 2008 10:27 PM
Subject: Saugerties Piping Weekend
The dates this year are April 25-28, 2008. The prices will be the same as last year and are as follows: Friday dinner thru Monday brunch: $210.00 (room and board) Friday dinner thru Sunday brunch: $140.00 (room and board) Individual meals (if you don't want: Breakfast $3, Lunch $4 and dinner $10. If you just want to come and enjoy the music and you aren't interested in staying the night or having a meal with us and maybe jam along the cost is always: FREE. The site will once again be at St. Joseph's Villa/Falling Waters, 43 Spaulding Lane, Saugerties, NY 12477. If you're interested in attending the weekend please forward a $25.00 non-refundable deposit check (US funds) made out to myself: Ernie Shultis. My mailing address is 4055 Rt. 32, Saugerties, NY 12477. I can be reached via e-mail: cmcpiper@gmail.com or phone (518) 678-3375. We welcome Northumbrian smallpipes, Scottish smallpipes, Uilleann pipes, Cornish pipes, and what ever other pipes you may have lurking around. In the past participants have brought harp, fiddle, mandolin, tin whistle, concertina, guitar, bodhran, dulcimer, didgeridoo, ukulele, etc. So stay warm this winter with thoughts of Saugerties!
Thank you,
Ernie Shultis
I'll be teaching a course in Historic Music of the Catskills and Hudson Valley at the Dutchess County Community College Music School - 4 Wednesday evenings in May starting 5/7/08. If you are interested leave a message at 338-8587 or e-mail me at boblusk@hvc.rr.com and I will send you particulars.
It was about the most fun I've ever had singing "Abe Sammon's Applejack with Ira & Laurie McIntosh and Jim Donnelly at the Heritage Music Concert in Saugerties on Sunday. Here's Ira taking a lead break!
From Diane Sommer-
Dear Friends,
Many of our fellow American citizens, although believing deeply in the cause of peace, and wanting an end to the occupation in Iraq, sincerely question the effectiveness of non violent direct actions, protests, marches, etc. Perhaps we all do at times. There are obviously some people who are offended by (the often) stridency of the message while others are inspired by it.
We, (speaking of the Peace Movement in general) keep looking for more effective ways to change the direction the country and world seems to be heading or at least to ease the immense suffering. Millions have come out to march in protest, tens of thousands have been arrested for civil disobedience, many have been arrested multiple times, and it hasn't stopped the war yet. (Speaking only for myself, I don't know the best or maybe even a good way to oppose war and oppression, but I do know what is worst and for me that would be to do nothing, to be silent.) That's just me and I realize what's right for me is not necessarily right for anyone else. That said, to explore this further, a short documentary is being put together with citizens sympathetic to the Peace Movement, but who are not necessarily directly involved.
We hear often, the phrase, "Where is the outrage?" However, many have excellent, well thought out, even spiritual reasons to remain, so to speak, somewhat on the sidelines. These voices need to be heard. The apparent silence of a large portion (majority) of the American public needs to be understood if it is ever to be addressed effectively . This film will explore (not challenge or blame) those reasons and also, what if anything, from your standpoint, it would take to get a larger segment of the public to take direct action, to become actively involved.
My very good friend Tarak Kauff is organizing this and I am going to help him in any way I am able by filming, writing and creating artwork. If you're interested in weighing in on this, being interviewed or doing part of the filming, editing, etc. please get in touch with either me:
Diane Sommer 845-227-9464 dsommer@frontiernet.net or
Tarak Kauff at 845-679-3299 tkauff@hvc.rr.com
Your thoughts are of great interest and importance. You can be anonymous if you like, even interviewed off camera if you like. Please feel free to pass this on.
Peace, Diane
ALAN LOMAX -- PETER KENNEDY --- CECIL SHARP -- BERT LLOYD ----- WENT ABOUT IT THE
HOW TO CREATE A FOLK SONG
Another excellent contribution from Alex Mogieleff and Stephan Grossman's Woodshed Forum
It should NOT be:
You are not a bona fide folk singer if:
$$$$$$$$$$$$
These were posted on an Australian tourism website and the answers are the actual responses by the website officials, who obviously have a sense of humour.
Q: Does it ever get windy in
A: We import all plants fully grown and then just sit around watching them die.
__________________________________________________
Q: Will I be able to see kangaroos in the street? (
A: Depends how much you've been drinking.
__________________________________________________
Q : I want to walk from
A: Sure, it's only three thousand miles, take lots of water.
__________________________________________________
Q: Are there any ATMs (cash machines) in
A: What did your last slave die of?
_____ _____________________________________________
Q: Can you give me some information about hippo racing in
(
A: A-fri-ca is the big triangle shaped continent south of