St. Patrick's Month

The Irish world of Folkloric (me, Jim and Ira) is heating up. St. Patrick's season looks to break all records. Our public gigs are at http://blschedule.blogspot.com/. In addition to the Kingston St. Patricks Parade, Chick's Restaurant, The Holiday Inn and the Hurley Mountain Inn, we seem to have a lot of nursing homes and private parties too! Come see us when you can, eat corned beef and cabbage and drink green beer!

A Real Folksinger

From friend Steve Suffet - You can see his blog at
http://www.soundclick.com/members/default.cfm?member=suffet&content=myBlogs

Thursday, February 15, 2007. Note: I wrote this piece in 2001 to console a friend whose application to perform at the Old Songs Festival in upstate New York had been rejected. When that same festival later rejected my own application, I read it again and found that it was still just as true. It has since been reprinted several times. The accompanying photo is of Pete Seeger. He was performing at the People's Music Network Winter Gathering at the Renaissance Charter School in Jackson Heights, Queens, New York, in January 2005.

A real folksinger...

A real folksinger doesn't worry about bookings. A real folkinger creates his/her own venue. On street corners In campgrounds. In parks. In schools. At parties. At family gatherings. Wherever and whenever the opportunity arises. A real folksinger plays in hospitals, and hospices, and old age homes. A real folksinger plays in prisons, and libraries, and bus stations, and at street fairs. And a real folksinger doesn't whine and bellyache and complain because such and such club or festival wouldn't have him/her.

A real folksinger understands that folk music is not a genre. A real folksinger understands that any song can be a folksong. A real folksonger knows there is no such thing as singing a folksong wrong. If a real folksinger forgets the words, he/she makes up new ones on the spot. If a real folksinger can't quite remember the melody, he/she invents one that fits his/her own vocal style, perhaps flatting a 7th here, jumping an octave there, or changing a major key into a mountain modal.

A real folksinger never calls him/herself as a singer-songwriter. And yet a real folksinger is always writing songs to sing and singing the songs he/she writes. And a real folksinger doesn't write self-centered contemplate-one's-navel type songs. A real folksinger writes songs that tell interesting stories. Yes, real folksingers have written songs about bad relationships, but those songs include Pretty Polly, Banks of the Ohio, and Rose Connolly!

Real folksingers have written some of the greatest lines in the whole English language. Three examples:

And all she said as she neared his bed,
Was, "Young man, I think you're dying."

Rise up, rise up, little Matty Groves,
And dress as quick as you can,
For never shall it be said in old England,
That I slew a naked man.

Dig the beets from your ground,
Cut the grapes from your vine,
To set on your table,
Your light sparkling wine.

A real folksinger borrows from others, and in turn expects that others will borrow from him/her. A real folksinger understands that all "anon" and "trad" songs had real live authors, and perhaps the greatest honor that can ever befall a real folksinger is to become the author of an anonymous/traditional song.

If a real folksinger wants to make money, he/she gets a job.

A real folksinger doesn't sing to an audience. A real folksinger gets the audience to sing. And if the audience whips out kazoos, tambourines, Jew's harps, and harmonicas and starts to play along, so much the better.

Feel free to add your own comments.

--- Steve

Airports

From Mark Rausher
Musicians Face Tougher Airport Security
NEW YORK, Feb. 18, 2007(CBS) For four decades, wherever jazz trumpeter Valery Ponomarev flew, his rare 1961 Constellation trumpet flew with him...as carry-on luggage.

"This is the prized possession of Valery Pomonarev," says Pomonarev as he points to his trumpet.

So prized, reports CBS News correspondent Trish Regan, that when screeners at a Paris airport told him he needed to check his trumpet as cargo before boarding a plane home to New York City recently, he refused.

"For me or any musician to put an instrument under, it's the same like for a mother to put her baby into luggage compartment," says Ponomarev.

Unfortunately, for Valery, those feelings were not shared by the French police.

"They just smashed me against the wall like that and ripping away the horn from me," adds Ponomarev. "Imagine this, four big guys, one of them lines up my arm behind me like that and breaks it, just like that."

Musicians like Valery are getting caught in the cross hairs of increased security. They need to get to their concerts but they can't bear the idea of leaving their instruments, many of which are centuries old and often worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, at the mercy of baggage handlers.

"That's not how you take care of works of art and these are all works of art, useable works of art," says Krista Bennion Feeney.

Krista Feeney practices her art on a 230 year old, handmade Italian violin. Rather than risk checking instruments, she and her fellow musicians with St. Luke's Orchestra in New York cancelled a European tour this fall, amid a heightened security alert.

The Transportation Security Administration does say instruments are permitted as carry-ons, but the final decision on whether an instrument will wind up in the cargo hold or under a seat is up to the individual flight
crews.

As for Valery, a metal plate now holds the bones in his arm together and he's beginning to play again. But his travel nightmare was not over. When he finally boarded his flight to New York, French authorities insisted that his prized possession come home.as cargo.

One last sour note to end the worst gig of his life.

C MMVII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.

***Be a link in a larger chain--if you see something interesting, pass it
along and share the wealth!**

B Flat

Krulwich on Science

By Robert Krulwich

Have You Heard About B Flat?

Morning Edition, February 16, 2007 · For reasons that remain mostly mysterious, the note we call B flat does the oddest things. Here are a few of them.
B Flats and Alligators
During World War II, the New York Philharmonic was visiting the American Museum of Natural History. During rehearsal, somebody played a note that upset a resident live alligator named Oscar. Oscar, who'd been in the museum on 81st Street, suddenly began to bellow. Naturally, with so many scientists in residence, an experiment was quickly devised to see how to get Oscar to bellow again. Various musicians — string, percussive and brass — were brought to Oscar to play various notes. It turned out the culprit was B flat, one octave below middle C.
The experiment was described back in the 1940s.
I repeated the experiment on an ABC News broadcast in the 1990s, playing a B flat to a collection of gators in at a roadside attraction in Florida and recording their bellows.
Why B flat?
You'd have to ask an alligator.
B Flat and Glenway Fripp the Piano Tuner
Jay Alison (of "This I Believe" fame) and radio correspondent Viki Merrick live in Massachusetts and help run public radio stations on Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket. In their capacities as managers-poets-reporters in residence, they regularly devise short promotional "moments" featuring local personalities.
One of their promos described a trip that Glenway Fripp took up a staircase.
Mr. Fripp, a piano tuner by trade, was humming in B flat while climbing the stairs at his dad's office building, when he noticed that his hum had somehow escaped him and was hanging, resonating without him, on the staircase landing. He couldn't quite explain what was happening; only that his hum (and it was definitely his hum, no one else's) had gone off without him.
If you listen to the broadcast, you can hear this for yourself. Viki Merrick recorded it. Glenway has no idea why B flat had this particular property on that particular staircase. He suspects that the walls were porous and may even contain cavities that are very B-flat friendly. That's all he knows. But the truth is, he doesn't have an explanation.
B Flat and Black Holes
This one's a bit of a stretch, but here's what happened.
In September, 2003, astronomers at NASA's Chandra X-Ray Observatory found what can be described as sound waves emanating from a supermassive black hole. The black hole can be seen in the Perseus cluster of galaxies located 250 million light years from Earth.
Andrew Fabian of the Institute of Astronomy in Cambridge, England, analyzed the waves and announced, "We have detected their sound…." The sound he found (which is really the waves passing through gas near the black hole) translate to the note B flat.
But this is not a B flat you or I can hear. It is 57 octaves below middle C. A piano, by comparison, contains only seven octaves. So if a black hole hums, it hums at a frequency a million billion times lower than you can hear.
A Song in B Flat
While you may not be able to hear a black hole humming, this story is, to a considerable extent, sung.
The vocalist (who is also the lyricist, and a journalist) is Josh Kurz of Los Angeles. His partner this time out is Shane Winter, who composed the song "Have You Heard About B Flat?" — which wasn't easy, since he decided to hang with B flat for as long and as often as possible.
Josh Kurz's other work can be found at the Web site he shares with Adam Raitano of Brooklyn, N.Y.

"Detailed instructions destroy initiative"

Robert Henlein - Sixth Column

Donations needed for musicians

From: mooseherd@peoplepc.com

Sent: Tuesday, February 06, 2007 11:29 PM
Subject: February Redwood Moose

My friends Redwood Moose (Mike Dmoch) and Reb (Rebekah Lowden) had a fire recently and can use a variety of donations including extra sound equipment you might have lying around. - Bob

Last Wednesday night at 4:45 PM Redwood Moose Manor burned down. We lost almost everything, MOST IMPORTANTLY our beloved Lilly Lowden, the queen of our feline neighborhood, celebrated in song by Reb's work Lilly the Tabby. Her brother Louie survived. I did manage to save our four most irreplaceable guitars, Reb's '72 Martin, the 2001 Alvarez, the '75 Guild twelve, and the Hilo Hawaiian steel. We lost Reb's brand new koa Little Martin, her 70's Gibson SG, a Johnson dobro, and Reb's banjo. Charlie Kniceley came down the same night and presented Reb with a banjo he bought at an auction, and my family chipped in for a second time to get Reb another Little Martin. We also lost the bulk of our sound and other musical equipment, all CD's, records, tapes, etc., a buffalo drum, harmonicas and holder. I also moved and thereby saved Reb's Hyundai, but my Subaru got somewhat melted. Still runs.

In addition, due to Reb's recent hospitalizations, I failed to complete the paperwork to raise the amount of insurance coverage, so we will get only $7,000 instead of the 70 grand the house is worth. The silver lining is our friends, neighbors, and even total strangers have been ABSOLUTELY WONDERFUL to us. The street festival music committee has put together a benefit for February 25th at the Rosendale Rec Center, details at http://rosendalestreetfestival.com:80/fire/ which includes a Paypal account, a bank account has been started for a fund to help us either pay back the loan from the addition we built last year, and/or perhaps help us start re-building. It may be that some kind of community barn raising type event may be necessary and may take place. For donations, checks can be made out to and mailed to the fund as described at the end of the email.

We already have had enough clothes donated to last the rest of our lives, although Reb lost all of her jewelry, and in addition could use some grace notes like decorative scarves, etc--performing clothes. We have purchased a few absolutely necessary items like two gig bags, but we could use 4 or so guitar stands, mike stands, mike, guitar, and speaker cords, speaker stands, a music stand. Charlie Kniceley had borrowed our little 4 channel and a speaker, so we can manage the next gig, but we lost our Behringer 10 channel powered mixer, and some speakers and speaker stands, most of our mikes, cords, etc.

So we are grateful for each other, our dear cat Louie, our families, neighbors, and friends, and recognize a challenge when we seen one, but know that we are surrounded by love and light. We are staying at my mother's, with a two room upstairs suite, that a group of neighbors and friends helped us work on all day Saturday to get ready for us so we're not just camping out. We can be reached at 845 658 8811, and hope to re establish Reb's phone soon. Reb's mailing address is POB 25, Rosendale, NY 12472. My family is POB 209. We do hope to see all of you soon to celebrate our love and friendship

Rebekah Lowden and Mike Dmoch Fire Account
PO Box 441 Rosendale, NY 12472-0441
Peace and Love, and deepest appreciation
the Moose and the Redwood

Fiddler's Tour

I've just added Fiddler's Tour to my links page -
http://boblusklinks.blogspot.com/
They are a wonderful group of people in the Albany area who do participatory jam sessions with a different location each month. A traveling drop in fiddle band! Very welcoming. They meet on Tuesdays at 7:30. Go to their site at
http://www.fiddlerstour.com/ft_home.html
This month they are at Carney's Restaurant 17 Main St (Rte 146A) Ballston Lake, NY(Across from Stewart's).

Seeger Family Tribute (American Folklife Center of the Library of Congress)

So if you're not going to see me and Folkloric play St. Patrick's Day Weekend, you might want to go to this -

How Can I Keep From Singing? A Seeger Family Tribute
March 15-16, 2007 Library of Congress, Washington, DC

Preliminary Program
Please note that panel presentations and the film screening will take place in the Mumford Room, 6th floor, Madison Building and that advance registration is required to attend

PLEASE NOTE: Due to very high demand, tickets to the Seeger Family concert have already sold out. We will have overflow rooms equipped with closed-circuit televisions to broadcast the event. We are also exploring other avenues to see that symposium registrants who were unable to obtain tickets for the concert will be able to hear the Seegers perform. Please understand that we cannot guarantee symposium registrants without tickets a seat in the auditorium or the overflow room. We very much hope that you will still plan to attend the symposium.

* Indicates that the participant is still to be confirmed

MARCH 15, 2007 -- THURSDAY

8:00-9:00 pm -- THE PETE AND TOSHI SEEGER FILM COLLECTION
Screening of film clips from the documentary film footage collection of world musical traditions recorded by Pete and Toshi Seeger and their children during their travels around the world in the 1960's. The screening will be followed by a discussion period.


PLEASE NOTE THAT THE TIME FOR THE SCREENING IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE

MARCH 16, 2007 -- FRIDAY

9:00-10:00 am -- WELCOME and INTRODUCTION: Library Officials and Peggy Bulger (Director, American Folklife Center)

KEYNOTE ADDRESS: Neil Rosenberg (Professor, Memorial University of Newfoundland)

10:00-11:30 am -- CHARLES SEEGER AND RUTH CRAWFORD SEEGER

Moderator: Peggy Seeger
Betty Auman (Music Division) will describe Charles and Ruth Seeger collection materials.
Judith Tick (Northeastern University) will discuss Ruth Crawford Seeger's accomplishments.
Taylor Aitken Greer (Pennsylvania State University) will discuss Charles Seeger.

11:30-1:00 pm-- ANOTHER GENERATION OF SEEGERS: PETE, MIKE & PEGGY SEEGER

Moderator: Michael Taft (American Folklife Center)
Todd Harvey (American Folklife Center) will discuss LC collections featuring material concerning Pete, Mike and Peggy Seeger.
Jeff Place (Smithsonian Folkways Records) will discuss Smithsonian Folkways' efforts to maintain their Seeger materials.
David Dunaway (University of New Mexico) will discuss the legacy of Pete Seeger.

1:00-2:30 LUNCH

2:30-4:00 pm -- PERFORMING THE SEEGERS

Moderator: Ray Allen (Brooklyn College, CUNY)
Anthony Seeger (UCLA) will discuss his use of American folksongs as an ethnomusicologist in the field.
Mike Seeger will discuss his overlapping roles as a fieldworker and performer
James Durst of the singing group "Work O' the Weavers" will discuss his group, and what it means to perform Pete Seeger.

4:00-5:30 pm --POLITICS, THEORY AND THE FOLK REVIVAL

Moderator: Joe Hickerson (Folklorist, Performer)
Bill Ivey (Vanderbilt University) will discuss the different ways "folk" and "country" music are theorized
Robert Cantwell (University of North Carolina) will discuss the origin and development of the folk revival
Millie Rahn (Independent Folklorist) will discuss the Seegers and the American folk scene

5:30-5:45 pm -- CLOSING REMARKS & SING ALONG WITH PETE SEEGER*

8:00-9:30 pm -- CONCERT (COOLIDGE AUDITORIUM, JEFFERSON BUILDING)
Pete, Mike and Peggy Seeger with family and special friends

The Seeger Family concert will begin at 8 pm on March 16 in the Coolidge Auditorium, located on the ground floor of the Thomas Jefferson Building, 101 First Street, S.E.

Eric Von Schmidt

From: Suffet@worldnet.att.net
To: peoplesmusic@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Fri, 2 Feb 2007 5:30 PM
Subject: [peoplesmusic] RIP: Eric Von Schmidt

Greetings:

More sad news: Eric Von Schmidt, the great blues and folk singer and guitarist from Cambridge, Massachusetts, died in his sleep last night, February 1, 2007. I have no further details at this time. It is nearly impossible to overstate the importance of the role Eric Von Schmidt played in the folk music revival of the 1950s and 1960s. Brother Eric sits among us in our souls. May he rest in peace.

--- Steve

Piping Weekend

The Saugerties Piping Weekend is scheduled this year for April 20-23, 2007 and will once again be held at St. Joseph's Villa/Falling Waters in Friendly Saugerties. 

We always have a huge variety of bagpipes show up at this event: Northumbrian Smallpipes, Scottish Smallpipes, Uilleann Pipes, Border Pipes, Cornish Pipes, Spanish Gaitas, Breton Binous, etc.  In addition to pipes any other acoustic musical instruments are welcome.  In the past we've had harp, fiddle, mandolin, guitar, tin whistle, ukulele, bodhran, didgeridoo and more!  Also feel free to bring your audio/video recorders and cameras.

Costs

The cost for the entire weekend is $210 for Friday through Monday room and board.  That includes dinner on Friday, three meals on Saturday and Sunday and a continental breakfast and brunch on Monday.  If you can't stay until Monday, then the cost from Friday through Sunday afternoon is $140.  Please send a $25.00 non-refundable deposit before April 15, 2007 to:Ernie Shultis, 4055 Rt. 32, Saugerties, NY 12477.

For local people who wish to stay elsewhere and would like to have their meals with us the costs are:

Breakfast $3, Lunch $4 and Dinner $8 per person.  If you are coming for a meal, I need the full amount for each meal before April 15, 2007.  Please send a non-refundable check to: Ernie Shultis, 4055 Rt. 32, Saugerties, NY 12477.

For questions about the weekend I can be reached at (518) 678-3375 or cmcpiper@gmail.com

For the rest who would just like to come to listen, or possibly join in and play along on your own musical instruments the cost is, as always, FREE.

Directions to Falling Waters.

If coming from the south: Take NY State Thruway (I-87) to exit 20 (Saugerties), turning right after toll booth onto NY Route 212 East/32.    If coming from the north: Take NY State Thruway (I-87) to exit 20 (Saugerties), turning left after toll booth onto NY Route 32.     Follow  Route 32 through the village of Saugerties for 1.08 miles.  Turn Right onto Rt. 9W South/32 at Partition Street, the "Inquiring Mind" bookstore will be in front of you at the corner of Main Street and Partition Street.  Continue following signs for 9W South. (You will make several turns: just keep following signs.) Cross the steel bridge and continue up the hill one more mile to Spaulding Lane on your left. "Cups and Cones" Restaurant is at Spaulding Lane. Take Spaulding Lane to the end where you will see the entrance to Falling Waters.  43 Spaulding Lane, Saugerties, NY 12477

---

Search for grocery stores. Find gratitude. Turn a simple search into something more.

The Healing Power of Music

From: Maryellen Healy

To: mhealy@frontiernet.net

Sent: Thursday, February 01, 2007 11:09 PM

Subject: The Healing Power of Music

2/1/07

The Healing Power of Music

 

Do you have an unused instrument sitting in your attic, basement or closet?  You could send it down to kids in the areas hardest hit by Katrina, Rita and the tornados.  We're taking the minivan down to the Gulf Coast.

 

We leave early on Sunday February 11^th  Bring donations to us at the February Beacon sloop club meeting tomorrow night, to our home in Pine Bush or call or email to work out another way to get it to us.

 

We know Bill Hudson www.bill-hudson.com through the sloop Clearwater community.  Bill has been working on us to join him and Al Coffey on the Feel Good tour www.feelgoodtour.blogspot.com from the start.  Bill came through the valley last week and asked again.  Short notice but perfect timing.

 

There is also a need for kid's jackets and sweaters.  They asked for easy to play instruments for the special needs classes, like tambourines, drums, sticks and shakers.

 

Mel's webpage is www.homepage.mac.com/maryellenhealy . 

We'll send notes from the road to www.melandvinnie.blogspot.com

And www.myspace.com/melandvin

 

Hudson Valley Happenings

I get most of my information about local folk music events from several volunteer e-mail lists. The two I rely on most are sent by John Rogers jrogers@hvc.rr.com and Deborah Osherow deborah@fiddlehawk.com. Theoretically they are intended for Irish music, but do a good job of covering the rest of the folk field. If you write them, I’m sure they will add you to their list.