2005 old stuff at Rhode Island Music, Old Timey, Bluegrass and ContraDance

Top Keys for Irish Music - Maybe this falls under "too much time on their hands"? A count of 14,000 Irish tunes revealed that 3100 were in no sharps (Cmajor or Aminor), while 5000 were 1 sharp (Gmajor, Eminor, Adorian), 3800 were in 2 sharps (Dmaj, Bmin, Edor), 700 in 3 sharps, 770 in 1 flat, 400 in 2 flats, and about 200 miscellaneous.

for those who know... "THE BIG GIG" -- DECEMBER 24th Fishel Bresler's Klezmer Hassidic Ensemble will perform again this year on December 24th - Sunday, 7:30 PM at Congregation Ohawe Shalom Coffee House, Pawtucket RI. Project Shoresh and the Providence Community Kollel co-sponsors. 671 East Ave in Pawtucket (corner of Glenwood, nr where Blackstone meets Hope St) Doors open 7:00PM $10 adults, $7 children (under B-Mitzvah age). Latkes, hot dogs, snacks & beverages will be on sale. questions? 401 273-9814

NOMAD will be held on November 3-5 at the Wilbur Cross High School in New Haven, CT, and features participatory dancing, singing, and playing, performances by many well-known people, and a wide variety of crafts, recordings, and food. It is an Autumn version of NEFFA.

Sunday Nov 5th 3pm Benefit BLUES SHOW!! Come on out to Support MUSIC MAKER Relief Foundation bringing relief to musicians of the south. The K.C. MOANERS Trio (Colette , Kyle & Jim ) MARTIN GROSSWENDT, TIM TAYLOR BLUES TRIO BLUES BENEFIT for The MUSIC MAKERS RELIEF FOUNDATION at the MEDIATOR 50 Rounds Ave Providence

The Providence Mandolin Orchestra is very lucky to have Carlo Aonzo as guest soloist at our concert this coming Saturday, June 10, 8:00 p.m. at St. Martin's Church at 50 Orchard Avenue in Providence (easy parking at the church). Carlo is one of the top Italian virtuosos on the mandolin, for that matter one of the top mandolinists in the world. He's widely recognized as a teacher, conductor and especially as a performer in concert halls throughout Europe and in the United States. On this Saturday's program, Carlo will include solo works for the mandolin, duets with guitarist Mark Davis in addition to two concertos by Antonio Vivaldi with the PMO.

June 10 Note from Chuck M. : "I'd like to encourage all of you to consider entering the Hartford fiddle contest... (June 10). It's a wonderful experience, even if you're just a novice. The basic rules are that you have 4 minutes to play a waltz, a (usually) jig, and a hoedown (reel), and 3 judges give you numerical scores in various categories... For more info go to New England Fiddle Contest - Hartford CT June 10 2006 Fiddlers register in person at the contest starting at 9am or online - see link above.

June 12: Charlie Nolan. The miniworkshops at the Kingston RI (URI) jam sessions (Sponsored by the RI Council on the Arts) at the Multicultural Center at URI. Although this session may be passing out of existence, everyone owes Harry a debt for having shepherded it along for several years. Thanks, Harry!

"Summer is here, and Magnolia Cajun Band has one dance left before taking a summer break from our monthly Cajun Dances in Seekonk.. So come on over to Seekonk this Saturday, June 3rd and join us for a sizzling night of two- steps and waltzes. Jun 3rd 8pm American Legion Post 311, 350 Fall River Ave SEEKONK, MA $12. DANCE LESSONS 7:30 Cash Bar Available" from Michelle!

May 28, 3 pm (Sun) Irish fiddle master Brian Conway at the Irish Village, Rte 28, West Yarmouth, MA on the Cape -- Irish fiddling in the style of Michael Coleman -- Andy McGann used to hang around at Coleman's house, and when McGann grew up, Brian Conway was the brightest star of the kids who hung around at McGann's! Tickets $10.00 at the door; a concert/dinner package is available for $25.00 (including tax and gratuity). Reservations (508.771.0100).

Old Time Fiddle Guru and All-around Guy Tom Sauber will be in town for the banjo camp and will be doing a 3-hour tutorial 7 - 10pm on Monday evening, May 22nd. For more information, contact Martin Grosswendt at lesmoore2u (at) cox.net. Highly recommended for all old time fiddle enthusiasts!

One of the most amazing bands in Old-Time/Roots/Fusion music is Uncle Earl. They will make a rare Northeast Appearance MAY 13 in Lexington at the Joyful Noise Coffeehouse. Four women make up the band, including fiddler Rayna Gellert who is rapidly becoming one of the notable stars in Old Time fiddling.

Don't lose track - The Rhode Island Folk Festival April 8 in Foster! Info at Peeptoad Coffeehouse Atwater-Donnelly, Heidi and John Cerrigoione, Goerge Haggerty, the Patons, Paul Dube, Kevin Doyle, Phil Edmonds, Bernadette Weimer

Jam Alert! The next South County Old Time Music Jam Session is this Monday, April 10, 7:30-9:30 in Room 203 at the URI Multicultural Center. This session will be led by special guest artist Chris Heinzmann, who is the Parallel String Band's excellent fiddle player (from Harry B)

RI Bluegrrass Music Assoc concert?? I got an email from a friend in Boston asking about a concert supposedly to be held by the RI Bluegrass Music Assn on Sunday April 2, 2006 from 2 - 6 PM "1st Annual Bluegrass and Bluegrass Gospel Mini-Fest" at the Pondview Equestrian Center's Indoor Arena 362 Wakefield Rd, Pascoag RI featuring: Freewheelin' (MA) Nick Anderson & The Gospel Friends (CT) and Rocky Hollow Bluegrass. No more information available. Try their website (above

from James Ruchala at Brown: April 3, 2006, at RISD Auditorium, 6 to 9 p.m. Les Blank (1990 Maya Deren Award from the American Film Institute) will show and talk about three short films: The Blues Accordin' to Lightin' Hopkins (1969) Sprout Wings and Fly (about fiddler Tommy Jarrell - 1983) The Maestro: King of the Cowboy Artists ( about an eccentric contemporary artist - 1994)

-- Wednesday, April 5 -- The Blackstone River Theatre will offer a series of beginner and advanced-beginner fiddle classes starting on April 5 and running for six weeks. Both classes will be taught by Cathy Clasper-Torch and are intended for adults and children ages 12 and older. Beginner class runs from 6:30 - 7:30 pm. The class for advanced beginners runs from 7:45 - 8:45 pm. Blackstone River Theatre, 549 Broad St., Cumberland, RI. For class reservation or more information call Blackstone River Theatre at 401-725-9272 or visit http://www.riverfolk.org. Prepayment by April 3 is necessary for all classes. The fee is $80.00 for both class levels.

First CTBMA Salem barn concert of the season - Friday, April 7th, Emory Lester and Mark Johnson ("Clawgrass" style) e-mail ctbma@yahoo.com to make your reservation. We are asking for a $20 donation at the door. And there will be workshops the following day in New London. Contact Ctbma for info.

South County Community Contra Dance will be on Saturday April 1 at our favorite American Legion Hall, 1958 Kingston Road, Kingston RI, 7:30-10:30. The caller will be Elwood Donnelly; music by Sandol Astrausky and friends.

December 24th - A little off our usual beaten musical path, but sounds interesting - Fishel Bresler's Klezmer Hasidic Ensemble will perform "The Night Before Hanukah" on Saturday, 8 pm at the Congregation Ohave Shalom Coffee House. Project Shoresh and the Providence Community Kollel co-sponsors. 671 East Ave in Pawtucket, RI (corner of Glenwood, nr where Blackstone meets Hope St) just off I-95. Doors open 7:30. $8 adults, $3 children.

for friends to the North an interesting fiddle immersion event "Fiddle Hell" is scheduled for Dec 9 -11 in Groton, Massachusetts. It's mainly for fiddlers, from advanced beginner to advanced (rather than other instruments or listeners)... google for more info

March 2006 article on BMI Efforts vs. Old Time Jam in Roanoke!
and this is the result -- friends of the Roanoke jam researched tunes for aMill Mountain Jam Non-Copyrighted Tunelist
March 2006 Article of Major BMI Bust on Karaoke Bar in Connecticut (Unfortunately this article is copyrighted by the Associated Press and is no longer available. You can probably find it by googling using the name of the bar (Bear and Grill) and the original date of the article which was on or about March 23, 2006. The final disposition of the case should be coming soon, so we will be able to find out whether this was all a tempest in a teapot, or whether BMI is really out for blood. 4/20/06)

Saturday, November 26, 8 PM, $15.00 Blackstone River Theate Homecoming Concert and (7pm) Silent Auction Blackstone River Theatre will present their 6th annual Homecoming Concert featuring Robbie O'Connell, The Atwater-Donnelly Trio, The Bohemian Quartet, John Fuzek, Martin Grosswendt, Rory Raven, Ken Lyon and the Skeleton Crew, and Pendragon.

for friends to the West: Hartford - The 6th Annual Monster Irish Jam session will once again be held at CITY STEAM Brew Pub and Restaurant 942 Main St., Downtown Hartford on Wednesday Nov. 23 @ 7.30pm to !!!!!! Event will be held downstairs in the Comedy Club room. All are welcome and there is no cover charge. A capacity crowd of musicians singers and dancers is expected once again. Come Early as seating is limited. Doors open downstairs at 6.45pm more info 860 645 8404

Nov 12 Fall BG Fest - Concert, Potluck, Kid's Jam at Boston Bluegrass Union West Newton, MA

Friday, November 4. All star cast again for the Brown ContraDance: Eden MacAdam-Somer and Andy Grover will be fiddling, with Larry Unger on guitar, and Mance Grady on percussion. Linda Leslie will be your caller. Dances are in the Leung Gallery of Faunce House on Waterman St. from 8-11 pm.

Sunday, October 30, from 1-3pm in Lexington. $20 Fiddle Workshop with Cape Breton fiddler Andrea Beaton

Oct 19th House Concert, Cambridge -- An evening of old-time and cowboy music featuring Skip Gorman and his Waddy Pals, Ruthie Dornfeld and Tom Sauber $15. For information call 617-354-5116

Old Timey Up Close-- Harvard, MA: Sunday October 16 from 5-7p.m. Old Timey Fiddling Workshop with Beverly Smith or Mandolin with Carl Jones $25 for either workshop-- please email wongja at charter dot net. or call Ciael at 781-647-0719.

The Old Time Music Camp North! This event is bringing a host of wonderful musicians to New England, leading to the following:

1) House Concert -- Alice Gerrard, Brad Leftwich and Tom Sauber Sunday Oct 9th 1 p.m. $15 Sharon, MA for information 781-784-4408 2)

Saturday Oct 8th - Tom Sauber, Brad Leftwich and Alice Gerrard at Mediator Hall, 50 Rounds Avenue, Providence, 8:00pm $15. Also, these three artists will offer one-on-one personal isntruction earlier in the day - If you are interested, contact them directly for details at the following e-mail addresses: Alice Gerrard (vocals, etc.): alice@ tombradalice.com; Tom Sauber (banjo, etc.) tom@ tombradalice.com; Brad Leftwich (fiddle, etc.): brad@ tombradalice.com

Saunderstown Old Time Jam - Casey Farm Saturday Mornings 10-ish to 12N (info and directions for Casey Farm near URI) John Dember has organized a jam at the little farmer's market at the Casey Farm in Saunderstown, RI. (Rt 1, Boston Neck Road). This jam seems to be fading as cold weather approaches... still might happen for two or three more times... Last day for the market might be Oct 15.

Nova Scotian fiddler to perform Free Concert at URI -- Fiddler Jennifer Roland will perform at the University of Rhode Island, 8pm, Friday, Sept. 30. The concert will be held at Edwards Auditorium. It is free and open to the public. Jennifer is the latest and hottest version of the Cape Breton stepdancing/awesome fiddling phenomenon. ps Good luck finding this on the URI website, by the way - it is buried in small print at the end of the pdf version of the Diversity week calendar...

The Newport Folk Festival has come and gone. Why didn't we pay more attention? As fans of "roots" and "folk" music we should have been over there sucking it up, yes? No, I can't get excited about Odetta and Arlo Guthrie (who are nice people and were pretty meaningful to me about 15 years before my now-grown kids were born) and some ultra commercial rock and jazz luminaries. The opening concert was held at Newport's Tennis Hall of Fame where we can be comfortable being "dressy" according to the website. Tickets were $50, children were "welcome" but there were no kids prices.. (Galax, described below, is $10 for Saturday, or $38 for five days. Kids under 12 are free). At most of the Bluegrass festivals these days there are fullblown "Kid Academy" activities -- the recent CT festival had a stage full of young teens (and pre-teens!) playing up a storm after three days learning from their heroes. OK, so life goes on. Traditional music is living and lively, and there are plenty of places where you can have the old exciting Newport Folk Festival experience, but Newport isn't one of them.

For contrast, Here's an account of one aspect of last weekend's Galax Festival (New River Current GALAX August 12, 2005)

Aaron Williams wants to be a professional musician some day. That might be a good career choice because he clearly has no future in public relations or marketing. The 13-year-old mandolin player from Blacksburg had to be prodded a bit Wednesday before admitting that he won the youth competition at this week's 70th annual Old Fiddlers Convention in Galax. He also competed against the adults in the mandolin competition. "I think I did all right," he said of Tuesday's rendition of bluegrass standard "Big Mon." The closest Williams came to boasting was when he said he hopes to finish in the top five in the adult mandolin competition. The results will be announced Saturday, when the convention closes. It's not the first time Williams has competed against adults. He's won his share of competitions in the all of three years he's been playing. One of those triumphs is sometimes on display when he plays. He won a hand-crafted Wayne Henderson mandolin in June at the Wayne Henderson Music Festival and Guitar Competition at Grayson Highlands State Park. But, of course, he didn't mention that. It was pointed out by Jon Lohman, state folklorist for the Virginia Department for the Humanities.

Lohman keeps tabs on the top young musicians in Virginia and mentions Williams on a short list of rising stars along with Montana Young, Houston Caldwell, Will Jones, Laura Lee Jones, Amber Collins and Heather Berry. Williams' understated nature is by no means unique among the young players at this week's convention. Event organizers say the youth competition has more than doubled to 110 participants since it was introduced two years ago. And the stands are packed when the kids play. "That's the best show we'll have this week, in my opinion," said Clarence Boyer, the man in charge of making announcements on the intercom system.

But most of the boasting Wednesday was coming from adults. Young, a 12-year-old fiddler from Bassett, put her head down in embarrassment as her grandfather ticked off all of the events she's won against adults. Because she won the youth competition last year, she was not allowed to compete in it again this year. Her grandfather's praise was preceded by Lohman gushing about her ability. Young's talent has led to her playing at New York City's Lincoln Center and she'll travel overseas to play later this year.

Berry, a 17-year-old from Waynesboro touted for her ability to play the autoharp, was more interested in talking about her band mates than herself. She referred to the band she played in as the Virginia Carolina band before band member Judy Boitnott added, "It's Heather Berry and the Virginia Carolina band."

Caldwell, a 13-year-old musician from Galax who won the bluegrass banjo youth competition, raved about Williams as he pointed out the baby-faced kid walking around the festival with a white mandolin case strapped around his back. "He can pick," Caldwell said. "He's amazing." But as Williams got closer, Caldwell's comments became louder and less complimentary. "He stinks at the mandolin," he said with a smirk on his face. "He can't play nothing." While Caldwell's ribbing was for his friend's benefit, Williams' comments about his ability, or lack of comments, suggested he didn't need to worry about keeping his ego in check. Perhaps the white mandolin case was evidence of some bravado? "It's supposed to keep your instrument cool," he said. Ho hum. Any grand inspiration that led him to play the mandolin so well? His dad plays the guitar, taught him a few chords and he learned on his own from there, listening to Al Bibey and Dan Tyminski for inspiration. Does he take any pleasure in surprising adults who don't expect a kid to play so well? "There's a little bit of that going on, but it's not as much as you think," he said.

Ken Pearlman and Will H. at WVWV 2003. Ken will be back this year to continue banjo and guitar sessions.

The fiddling workshop in Providence on May 16 with Tom Sauber was great. Thanks to Martin Grosswendt for setting that up. Tom is a careful teacher and, it's obvious, has a tremendous knowledge of the details of making Southern Mountain music. I bought a couple of his CDs and they are excellent. I put away the Bruce Molsky albums that have been on my car CD player for the last forty hours of driving and am stuck now on Tom's "Die in the Pig Pen Fighting" CD chock full of great tunes in great versions played with energy and skill. Highly Recommended for any fan of old time mountain music.

I am so sad to post the news that my dear friend Tom Gibney passed away over the weekend following a years-long battle with cancer. Tom was well known to the traditional music family as a fine singer, fiddler, shapenote leader and constant voice of reason and good taste, and had many friends in the Rhode Island and Massachusetts music communities. His wife Patti and their sons were with him at the hospice in New Jersey. A Memorial Service will be held at the Princeton University Chapel at 2:30 on April 16, 2005 followed by a Reception at the Fine Mathematics Building.

Tom at UMAss Dartmouth for Howard Glasser's retirement and Tom, Don Duncan, Matt McConeghy and Ralph Bodington jam at Indian Neck

Help with Guitar Chords at Chordfind. And, a fiddler in the UK recently sent this link Fiddle Forum which has a lot of interesting commentary and links to tunes, etc etc both in the UK and here in the States.... and, here's an amusing website that was pointed out to me by a musician from CapeCod. Includes audios from early mountain music 78's... and, another Offer You Can't Refuse!

Jolie blonde, regardez donc quoi t'as fait,
My pretty fair one, see what you've done...
Tu m'as quitte pour t'en aller,
You left me and ran away
Pour T'en aller avec un autre, oui, que moi,
You ran off with someone else,
Quel espoir et quel avenir, mais, moi, je vais avoir?
What hope, what future, will I have?

Jolie blonde, tu m'as laisse, moi tout seul,
Pour t'en aller chez ta famille.
Si t'aurais pas ecoute tos les conseils de les autres
tu serait ici-t-avec moi aujourd 'hui

Jolie blonde, tu croyais il y avait just toi,
Il y a pas just toi dans le pays pour moi aimer.
Je peux trouver just une autre jolie blonde,
Bon Dieu sait, moi, j'ai un tas.

(The "Cajun National Anthem" Listen here for earliest known recording - Amedee Breaux, 1929!)(needs RealAudio)

A note from Brad Maloney lists an Irish music concert Feb 15 Tuesday next week in Cranston, RI. "Fabulous button accordion player, Dermot Lernihan of County Clare, with Dennis Lidy on fiddle at Church of the Mediator which has a lovely concert space for live acoustic music. Info: 401-351-7317 or email me: brad_maloney2000@yahoo.com"

SOLD OUT! 20th Annual Joe Val Bluegrass Festival February 18-20, 2005 Sheraton Hotel Framingham, Framingham, MA -- an amazing lineup! If you are a BG nut, you should be there. Definitely. Hope you got your weekend ticket. A note today says they are mostly SOLD OUT but they still have space in the Friday Master class and some Sunday activities. If you havent signed up, you will miss the main show this year. Get on the mailing list for next year so this doesnt happen again.

Charles Frazier's Cold Mountain has some beautiful writing about fiddle music... Stobrod, the ne'er do well father of Ada's servant and teacher, Ruby, is called to the bedside of a dying girl who asks him to make up a tune... later, as time passes he begins to think more seriously about his playing...

January 10 Friday Buffalo Gals Narrows Center for the Arts in Fall River 16 Anawan St. Fall River, MA 02721 (508) 324-1926 doors open at 8:00, show starts at 8:30 Admission: $10 We'll be opening for Roger Wallace, who "will make you a fan before the end of the first song if you're not already. He does what can only be described as pure country. Sort of like Buck or Waylon; the real thing."