Category Archives: bluegrass

Grey Fox 2013

Posted by Chris Reckling on July 23, 2013 Comments Off

The Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival was on July 17 – 21 this year. This was my second trip there…last year I didn’t post a review until November, which meant I didn’t do a very thorough job of it. This year, the festival occurred during the middle of our Maine vacation, so I got to come back to the beach and relax another week. I headed out on Wednesday, stopping by at the house in Brookline to pick up the camping gear, etc. It was 101 in my driveway, according to the car temperature. And it didn’t get any warmer in Oak Hill, NY either. More on that later.

This was my bluegrass pickin’ summer camp for adults (although lots of kids attend, too). Fortunately, I had run into Mike O’Brien at work a week earlier and he offered to save me a spot at their campsite. I think there were about 30 people there from the 3 O’Brien families plus friends, so what’s one more?? It was certainly a big family atmosphere, reminding me of my youth with my cousins, but with music! I felt welcomed right in to the crowd and sweated through setting up my tent while everyone was waiting for the O’Cousins to do their Open Mike set in the dance tent (officially the Catskill Stage, but no one calls it that).

Here’s the campsite:

The jams happened under the white tent with some spillover to the blue one. 🙂 Thankfully we were along the east side of the farm near the woods, so we were somewhat protected from the sun and heat in the morning, until about 10 anyway. However, on Thursday morning we were jamming (and since I was just learning mandolin, I was using that) and I forgot that my guitar was in the tent until it was too late. It was burning hot in the case and this caused the glue to loosen on the bridge and start to pull up! Aaaargh. I loosened the strings and opened the case to let it cool down under the tent before playing it again later that night.

Every morning started with coffee and a jam session. Someone would just start playing and then others slowly but surely joined in. A most excellent way to start the day. Usually this went on until noon or so. I almost lost a hand playing mandolin, trying to keep up with Joe while he played Roll in My Sweet Baby’s Arms.

It was so hot (95 + humidity) that I didn’t really feel like eating anything either, much less walking to the concert stages. Certainly going to the big stage (which is mostly in the sun, although there are some shade awnings up) was not going to be in the cards. I think I lost 2 lbs. every time I went into the porta-potty, too.

Every night ended with another session under the tent. At about 10:20 pm the first night (Wed), we got told by the authorities we were too loud since we were officially in the quiet camping area. Boo! Maybe it was the rowdy “Jambalaya”?? A fellow named Brad had drifted over to our campsite to listen and offered up his site, which was just over the line into Pickers Paradise, so we all trudged over there for a bit more hootin’. On Thursday and Friday nights we kept it quieter in our own site, which was challenging. Anyway, the dance tent was louder than us on most nights until about 1 or 2 am, so sue me! On Saturday night, we just played normally and it was fine.

Left to right: Steve, Ellen, Dave, Judy, Mike, Rick, Flan

Left to right: Mike, Rick, Flan, Joe, Steve, Ellen, Judy

A nice O’Brien tradition was to end the night with “Good Night, Irene”. The “Leadbelly version” I was told, which ends with “I’ll get you in my dreams.” None of that wimpy Pete Seeger stuff!! haha. On Saturday night, the O’Briens sang a song for their older brother, Don, who had passed at age 29, that was very moving.

The Concerts

There was an excellent line-up of acts, a good mix of the old guard and the up and coming bands. Here’s what I saw:

Wednesday night. The O’Cousins – O’Brien cousins Flan, Brendan, and Liam did 2 songs at the open mike. People really got into “The Weight” and we played it a few times at the camp site too. I also heard it one night when I was walking around the camp sites.

Thursday. Really too hot to do much during the day except sweat. Went up the High Meadow stage for dinner around 6 and listened to Milkdrive, the Deadly Gentlemen, sat at the charging station and listened to Devil Makes Three, then back up to the stage for Keller Williams and the Travelin’ McCourys, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Williams is quirky to say the least.

Friday. Made it to 23 String Band at 1 pm in the dance tent. These guys were awesome! Check ’em out if they come to your area. One mike to huddle around is always good. I went for food, then came back for the end of I Draw Slow, a great Irish band playing more traditional Americana (I suppose). After that I headed over to the masters tent (a.k.a. Creekside) since it was too hot to be anywhere else. There I saw Nora Jane Struthers and up and coming band, then got a seat right in front for Milkdrive and then the Travelin’ McCourys. In the past, this tent was supposed to be for ‘workshops’ but this year it was more just another, more intimate stage. The McCoury’s were the only ones who tried to encourage questions – they got a lot of tune requests but finally someone asked a real question about Rob’s banjo, which he got from his father-in-law. He said he put 4000 hours into it. Ronnie and Rob also answered a question about their kids and their interest in music.

I went back to the campsite after this to chill out – not that it was possible in the heat. I actually took a shower in the gravity shower they set up. Let me tell you, that water was hot, too!! I played a little guitar, which is why I also missed Della Mae on the main stage. We had just seen them at Passim’s so I wasn’t too broken up about it.

I did make it back for Del McCoury and the Infamous Stringdusters, both fabulous in different ways. Del held down the fort with some classic numbers, such as Vincent Black Lightning and Rain and Snow to close it out. (I swear Ronnie sounds more like him every year, too!!) He was bantering with the crowd and having a good ole time. The Stringdusters just tore up it from beginning to end – fast and faster was the order of the day.

Saturday. After the usual morning jam session, I headed to lunch at caught the last part of the Lonely Heartstrings Band. They are one of the bands that Berklee seems to be churning out these days. The name comes from them covering Beatles tunes, which they did, but they also did some straight ahead bluegrass. Gabe Hirschfield on banjo is one to look out for. They did a Scruggs classic, which I can’t remember right now, which featured him. The vocals were strong, which is the only way you can get away with Beatles in bluegrass style.

It wasn’t as hot as the last 2 days, thankfully. I went back to camp for a while to rest up, then made my way back up the hill to see Tim O’Brien(m) with Bryan Sutton(g), Noam Pikelny(b), Casey Dressen(f), and Mike Bub(bs). Fairly straight foward set – I even noticed Thile checking them out in the VIP seating. Jerry Douglas hopped on stage for the last 2 numbers. After dinner, it was non-stop music.

Up first, Thile/Daves duo began the set with their usual Monroe tune, Evening Prayer Blues. From there they went into the standard repertoire they have done on their album (Rabbit in a Log, Sophronie, Loneliness and Desperation, Sleep with One Eye Open, etc) along with a couple of tunes from Tim Sparks and one they did for a documentary, called Richmond (which tagged on Soldier’s Joy). Fiddle tune request time was Scotland (A), Whiskey Before Breakfast (D), and Big Sciota (G). You can find the video here. Brilliant as always.

Next was the Jerry Douglas band, a.k.a. the Earls of Leceister, which does music of Flatt and Scruggs from the 50’s. Unexpected, but refreshing take on it. It seemed like a lot of people left the main stage to go see Rushad Eggleston at the dance tent. Video posted on youtube.

I had never seen the Carolina Chocolate Drops before, although I have a couple of their albums. Wow! What a show! Not only musically satisfying but also visually interesting. The crowd went crazy for them, too. Highly recommended. Here they are doing “Jackson“.

The Magnificent Late-Night Supersonic All-Stars was anchored by Tim O’Brien and included the base group of Thile, Bales, Douglas, Pikelny, Cushman, Driessen. Dom Flemmons from the Drops came back to hold down the fort on “Mama Don’t ‘low No Music Playing Round Here”. This gave every one a chance to stretch out, including him on harmonica. Thile did the Band version of Cripple Creek. Tim brought out Nora Jane Struthers to do Won’t You Sing with Me and another Hot Rize tune. I Draw Slow made an appearance for 2 songs. Courtney from Della Mae played a duet of I Am a Pilgrim with Bryan Sutton (Bryan mentioned that Tony Rice was not doing well…) Kimber Ludiker and Brittany Haas came out to lead Wheel Hoss. The highlight of the night might have been Rushad leading them on Mississippi Sawyer and I Peed on a Bird – pretty funny. Video here.

After that, we went back to the camp site for our own late night all star jam until about 3 am. Of course, the fie alarm sirens blasted everyone awake around 5 am!! By 8, it was time to pack up and leave another Grey Fox behind and return to civilization. My first stop was Starbucks on the turnpike, and I listened as I drove, to the audio I had recorded from the various sets I attended. Good stuff and kept me awake. After dumping off the camping gear at home, I headed back to Maine for the rest of the week.

Until next year…

Chris

Check out my tumblr for more pics of Grey Fox 2013.

Grey Fox Festival 2012

Posted by Chris Reckling on November 10, 2012 Comments Off

Walsh Farm, NY. July 19-22, 2012. We attended the Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival this year. I’m just getting around to writing it up, but it would certainly take a long time to capture all its awesomeness. Summary version: 4 days of listening, picking, and sweating. Yes, it was hot and dry for the most part, which was good, but it also forced you into the shade quite a bit. Luckily the Creekside Stage (aka Masters) was under a tent.

We arrived Wed about 6. J and Jennifer had already staked out a campsite cuz they got their earlier. We were next to 20+ year GF veterans, who had an bunch of campers and giant tents. They drank, swore, and were generally loud, but seemed to settle down over the week perhaps as they became more hungover and subdued. In the Picker’s Paradise, there is always a low hum of banjo and fiddle it seems.

Here’s the list of folks I was able to see:

Creekside Stage

Michael Daves Workshop (with Chris Thile)
Della Mae
Jessie McReynolds
Last part of Tim O’Brien cuz I was at the main stage watching Tony Trischka
Frank Sollivan
Dixie Bee-liners
David Bromberg (he was late and the sound on his guitar was horrible, so left)

Main Stage

Thurs: Dixie Beeliners; Thile-Daves; Bromberg Band
Fri: Deadly Gentlemen; Noam Pilkeny; Tribute to Scruggs, Watson; Del McCoury; David Grisman Sextet; Punch Brothers
Sat: Tony Trischka; Hot Rize

I posted some pics on my tumblr page.

When not attending concerts or workshops, J and I jammed, mostly in our campsite area, once with some friends we knew there. The whole idea was to play as much as possible, so we did that.

The food at the midway was excellent. I didn’t feel that compelled to cook at the campsite – who wants to do dishes and whatnot?

That’s it for now. Sorry I can’t review every concert we went to…no time, gotta practice!

Chris

Peter Rowan and Tony Rice at the Wilbur Theatre

Posted by Chris Reckling on April 22, 2012 Comments Off

April 21, 2012. Boston, MA – Peter Rowan and Tony Rice, along with the Travelin’ McCoury’s came to Boston’s Wilbur Theatre for a night of “The Music of Bill Monroe”. They played 2 sets of just under an hour, including the encore number. All of the tunes were songs written or recorded by Bill Monroe. We were sitting right in front of the stage, so had a good view of everything, although the sound was mostly behind us. Still, you could definitely here the acoustic instruments from where we were sitting. There were only a handful of mikes on stage and the members of the band moved around to get into position to play or sing. It was quite the ballet sometimes. And did I mention that Tony Rice was right in front of me!! Playing the 1935 Martin D-28 (58597) he got from Clarence White!! What a treat!

Here’s the set list:

Set 1
Long Journey Home
Bluegrass Breakdown
In the Pines
I’m Blue, I’m Lonesome
Groundspeed
Tony Rice Intro by Peter(21:30)
The First Whippoorwill
Used to Be (Uncle Jerry singing)
Uncle Pen
The Old Old House(George Jones hit)
Live and Let Live
Cheyenne (‘here that now, that’s the Indian sound’ Also where The Land of the Navajo originated, a song by Rowan)

Set 2
Blue Moon of Kentucky (in 3, then 4)
I Hear a Sweet Voice Calling
Walls of Time
Kentucky Mandolin
Beautiful Life (quartet singing, Pete and Tony accompany)
Blue Night (Jerry lead vocal)
This Land – bass/banjo duet
Molly and Tenbrooks
Footprints in the Snow (audience request – “you’re in New England, play Footprints!”)
With Body and Soul
Salt Creek
Muleskinner Blues – Encore

The concert started simply with just Peter Rowan(guitar, vocals) and Ronnie McCoury (mandolin, vocals) singing Long Journey Home before the band strolled on stage to kick it into high gear. Peter Rowan has a great voice and is still going strong from the looks of things. The rest of the band members were: Rob McCoury (banjo), Jason Carter (fiddle), and Jerry McCoury (bass). Jerry was apparently subbing for the regular bass player who had to be back home waiting for a baby delivery. This was some high caliber bluegrass!

The next song was “the first bluegrass instrumental ever recorded” with Earl Scruggs on banjo: Bluegrass Breakdown. This gave everyone a chance to blister the strings on a quick one. The band was tight! Of course, they were playing all these bluegrass standards, which they’ve probably played a million times, so even if they never rehearsed before, it’s okay! In fact, Peter noted that ‘we don’t have tuners on our instruments’ and that they also didn’t have a set list (at least one that was written down). He claimed that they never knew what Bill Monroe was going to play or what key it was going to be in – Monroe would just chop a chord and you better get goin’!

There were certainly a few tributes to Earl Scruggs, since he contributed mightily to the bluegrass sound, along with Bill Monroe. A tune written by Scruggs, Groundspeed, was led by Rob McCoury. Both Ronnie and Jason Carter had amazing solos on this with good support from the band.

“The most influential guitar player in the history of bluegrass…” came on the stage after that – Tony Rice! I had never seen him play before (that I recall, anyway). I was getting goosebumps just watching him, and the guitar is legendary. Even while he was tuning up, you could hear its power. As Peter said while Tony was tuning on stage, “It doesn’t cost a thing, but I’d pay to hear that.” It took about the first set for Tony to warm up. He does not look in the peak of health, even though he’s only 60 yrs old. A couple of times you could hear him talk on stage from where we were and he sounded like Miles Davis with the croaky voice. I was surprised watching him that he actually flubbed a few notes! Others around me were speculating about arthritis – at times it looked like he was telling his fingers to do something but they were not cooperating the same way as in the past. What people may not notice immediately was that the rhythm playing added another dimension on top of what Peter was playing. There were times when he added these jazzy chords to the progression that caused everyone to smile. Over the course of the night the solos got better and better. In particular, Walls of Time and Kentucky Mandolin, Cheyenne, and Salt Creek, were highlights. It looked like the rest of the band was enjoying listening to Tony, too, almost in reverence.

Other highlights included the singing and bass playing of “Uncle Jerry” McCoury. The bass was solid throughout and he has one of those good country voices with a little bit of twang. Jason Carter on fiddle was inspirational in his playing, either as a lead or accompanying. I really enjoyed the song, Beautiful Life, which had a simple guitar accompaniment but the feature was the quartet singing around the microphone. And did I mention the awesome banjo and bass duet on This Land?

I guess there wasn’t anything I didn’t like about this concert. The sound could have been better from where we were sitting, that’s my only complaint.

Here’s Salt Creek from that night – Enjoy. Salt Creek.mp3

I hope they make another visit up to New England soon!

Chris

2012 Joe Val Bluegrass Festival

Posted by Chris Reckling on March 11, 2012 Comments Off

Framingham, MA, February 18, 2012 – Another year, another Joe Val Festival took place at the Sheraton in Framingham, MA. I was able to go on Saturday, but The Splinters had a gig on Sunday, so I couldn’t go both days. I got there around noon and quickly found my way to the Josh Williams Band, playing on the main stage, aka, the ballroom. Josh gained a bit of youtube fame because of this video, where a bird landed on him during a gig – over 1.1M hits!! Most for any bluegrass musician, for sure. Too bad he didn’t get any money for that!! 🙂

Joe Val Workshop with Geoff Bartley

At 1 pm I headed for the workshops. These are my favorite part because the rooms are small and you get an informal lesson from these great performers. I went to the Geoff Bartley/Howie Tarnower guitar/mandolin blues workshop first. They basically were winging it, calling tunes they both knew and played before together. Geoff did a good job of providing some background on them before they played their version. Some of the tunes they played were:

My Bucket’s Got a Hole in It
Wine Boy Blues
Careless Love
Sittin on Top of the World
Laurie Lewis song re: Prohibition
Rolling Spencer? in Bb…

It was fun to hear them play. J and I had been to Geoff’s open mike at the Cantab, and he is very nice and welcoming there, too.

Charlie Lawson workshop

Next I went to see Charlie Lawson, who plays rhythm guitar for Michael Cleveland. It also appears that they are good friends because Michael was there with him, but on mandolin instead of fiddle! The workshop was on rhythm guitar, of course, and Charlie said he’d never really done one of these before, but he was really good at explaining his thought process. Key to playing these fast tunes is certainly to stretch beforehand and to try to relax. If you’ve ever heard Michael Cleveland you know he plays fast! Charlie was influenced by Jimmy Martin and Jimmy Rodgers. I always notice that these performers always have a strong sense of the history of their instrument and can reach back for the most obscure records to listen to. They demo’d some things on Big Country, Sweet Dixie, and Waitin’ for a Train. Another interesting guitar-playing tidbit was that he uses a fairly flexible pick (maybe .8?), so he really only plays rhythm (and has a great voice, so he’s the lead singer in the band, too). Also, that’s Michael Cleveland’s 1944 Martin D-28 he’s playing and that sucker was loud.

Around 3 is when J, my fellow Splinter, showed up and we got our instruments to play in the hallway a bit. I was a bit shy about it, so we went in one of those business centers on the bottom floor, where people could see us playing and hear us if they walked past. Just like outdoor bluegrass festivals, there is a tradition at Joe Val to jam, only you have to play in the hallways and rooms of the hotel. More on that later…

Ashby Frank, Mandolin

4 pm we went to the mandolin workshop led by Ashby Frank, again from M. Cleveland band. I think he said he was in his late 20’s, but boy could he play. Both Charlie and Ashby talked about various ailments they were suffering from – life on the road ain’t all roses, people. Ashby was more of a feel player and he said, ‘don’t do it like I do it, cuz it’s probably wrong’. The lesson is to find out what works for you by playing and listening. He demo’d a few techniques on Steel Guitar Rag (in E), Dailey’s Reel (Bb), and Roanoke. I think J came away with some to-do’s to work on.

At 5 pm was the man himself, Michael Cleveland with a fiddle workshop. Again, Charlie Lawson accompanied him. He basically just took questions from the audience. First up was about his fiddle, which has 5 strings. It’s made by John Silakowski who’s out of Indiana, where Cleveland is from. The story goes that he somehow played this particular instrument and wanted it, but it was promised to someone else. That other person “didn’t like it” so it came back and end up in Michael’s hands. He’s another one with a strong knowledge of the fiddle tradition. Someone asked him about what to listen to and he reeled off a string of obscure old records you probably couldn’t find anywhere. Tunes they played: Lost Indian, Orange Blossom Special!, Hear that Lonesome Whistle Bow, and Black Mountain Rag.

Now we were inspired to play some more, so we went out in the hallway to jam. It was 6 pm, so a lot of people were going to get some food. A big group showed up near us to jam also, so we went over to join them. They let J call the first tune, which was Temperance Reel. They weren’t really a fiddle tune crowd, but one of the fiddlers got on board with it. After that, it was a lot of Hank Williams and other standard bluegrass tunes. People came and went. J had to leave about 7:30 but I stayed and played until about 9, when my arm was going to fall off. At one point 4 fiddlers joined in and called some fast ones. Phew! Here’s a link to some stealth video of the jam that someone took and posted. It was fun.

By that time it was 9 pm and food options were limited. I hadn’t eaten all day, so I roamed the hallways and checked out the various jam sessions that were going on. I got myself some doritos in the hotel lobby to hold me over. I checked out the Claire Lynch band a bit, but I didn’t like them, so I wandered the halls again. There were some good players out there, for sure. Here are some photos I took.

Dobro

: Hallway Jam

At 10:30 the Michael Cleveland and Flamekeepers was set to start. What a band! I think the Flame Keepers reference is about how much they light the place on fire! (or to say it properly, “faar”). The repertoire is straight ahead bluegrass and country, in the tradition. And they don’t mess around with silly slow tunes, except for maybe the waltzes. I didn’t write down the set list this time, but they pulled from their albums, so go check them out if you haven’t already. They played until about 12:15 or so. Of course, the fiddle tunes they are known for, Orange Blossom Special and Jerusalem Ridge, came out and were administered to. I did manage to turn on my iPhone sound recorder for Jerusalem Ridge and it came out enough to enjoy. This is typically just a duet with Ashby and Michael on mandolin and fiddle.

Jerusalem Ridge

After that concert, I wondered the halls again and the jams were still going strong. I stopped by one near the lobby where Josh Williams was playing with the folks from Flatt Lonesome, a.k.a. kids with braces! It was good pickin’ and singin’ however.

Josh Williams at Joe Val Festival

Mandolin Case

I got home about 1:30 that night, tired and hungry, but had a great day of bluegrass at the festival.

Chris

The Splinters Play Oh Susanna

Posted by Chris Reckling on January 31, 2012 Comments Off

J and I played at the West Roxbury Open Mike, which J emcees each month. The video below captures our performance of Oh Susanna. We first played this tune up in Maine one weekend just goofing around and it stuck. After each taking a chorus for improvising, we play together in a counterpoint before taking it to the finish.

(I don’t know why WordPress doesn’t display youtube videos sometimes, so here’s the link to it.)

Oh Susanna

We also played 2 medleys:

Cold Frosty Morning > Old Grey Cat – this one we played 2 choruses of each tune and switched back and forth. The first one is in Am and the second in Em, gives it a cool effect.

Blackberry Blossom > Kitchen Girl. Blackberry we did medium tempo 3 times through, then pick it up a notch for Kitchen Girl. It’s high energy.

Chris

http://splintersmusic.com

The Splinters Music at Nourish

Posted by Chris Reckling on November 27, 2011 Comments Off

J Johnson and I did a mini-set at Nourish Open Mike run by Ellen Schmidt. That means instead of the usual one song per act we got to do three songs before the feature act. We started with the fast fiddle tune, June Apple, then slowed it down a bit with Ook Pik Waltz, and ended up with the crowd-pleasing (we hope) Cluck Old Hen. These three songs pretty much sums up what we’re about.

I used my little Canon Elf camera to record it and it came out pretty good, except for the annoying glare from the mirror. Maybe I’ll get the official video from the soundman instead. I’m going to try to replace the audio on these videos with the one from the sound board – we’ll see how that goes in iMovie. 🙂

Enjoy. Here’s June Apple, a traditional fiddle tune in A.

Ook Pik Waltz, by Frankie Rodgers.

Cluck Old Hen, traditional old time song.

Chris

Lowell Folk Festival 2011

Posted by Chris Reckling on September 26, 2011 Comments Off

The Lowell Folk Festival was held once again in Lowell, MA on July 30, 31. We ended up going on Sunday and met J and Jennifer there. There is always, always, always something interesting going on and new music to discover. Past groups I first heard at Lowell were the likes of Hot Club of Cowtown, Sierra Hull, Kekele, John Doyle and Liz Carroll, La Vent du Nord, James Hand, and a few I’ve forgotten (which is why I write these things down!)

This year there were a few groups I had already heard of that I wanted to see. It’s always hard to plan the schedule…I did hear a bunch of the groups on Saturday on WGBH radio, so some I was okay with missing.

First up was the fiddle traditions workshop with Michael Cleveland (bluegrass), the Quebe Sisters (Texas Swing), and guys from La Vent Du Nord (quebecois) and Dervish (celtic). This was really interesting because they went around and took turns playing songs in their own style. They also played together on a few common tunes that cut across the traditions.

Here’s the list I wrote down:

Yellow Rose Waltz
Sally Goodin
Fisher’s Hornpipe
Yearning
Flatbush Waltz
Sweet Georgia Brown
St. Anne’s Reel (and we were at St Anne’s Church!)

You could tell the Quebe Sisters were not too comfortable playing outside their carefully arranged songs for 3 fiddles in harmony. They really could not jump in a jam – or they were too intimidated to do so. They were good at what they did, however! It was fun to hear everyone together in this setting.

After that, we went to Boardinghouse Park for the Birmingham Sunlight, a gospel group, who were sensational. Very engaging group.

Next up on the same stage was Michael Cleveland and Flamekeeper. They played some hot bluegrass, including his signature tunes – Orange Blossom Special (“a guitar player killer”) and Jerusalem Ridge by Bill Monroe (J and I are tackling that one next…). He did that one as a duet with the mandolin player. I’d seen him do it like that at the Joe Val Festival earlier in the year – very exciting and fast.

As you can see, we were right up close, which is usually not possible at Boardinghouse Park. Maybe it was because we usually go on Saturday but this time was on Sunday = less people there = more space for us! Yay!

This band is really tight and I immediately went home to pick up their new album, called “Fired Up!” but pronounced “Fahrd up” of course. The guitar player does most of the singing and is a fine singer, indeed. They also seemed very humble and genuine, even thanking their festival handler and playing a song dedicated to her. Sounds like they treat the artists right at this one.

After this set, we wandered over to the dance tent to check out the zydeco, but no one was really into dancing anyway, so we moved on to Eddie Pennington (and his son). I’d seen him before at Lowell and since I’ve been known to do a little finger-pickin’ this appealed to me. (Plus, it turns out his guitar is a rare Henderson!) He seemed to be tired to me and kinda mailing it in. Just my impression…that was at the small Market Stage, then we moved on to the Kennedy Plaza for some Quebecois!

Le Vent du Nord was next. I saw them last year and really enjoyed it. It’s a fun group, and they were even on the opening of Prairie Home Companion last weekend!! JFK Plaza is an awful place, similar to Boston City Hall Plaza, only smaller. All concrete and sun! Anyway, lots of people were dancing and they were joined at the end by the Irish band Dervish for some numbers, which was fun. And yes, it was hot, too, at the end of a long weekend of music.

Until next year at Lowell….

Yours truly,

Chris

Splinters at IBM Centennial Celebration

Posted by Chris Reckling on June 19, 2011 Comments Off

As previously tweeted and facebooked, J and I played at the IBM Centennial Celebration at the Museum of Science. Both of us being IBMers made it convenient, for sure. The event was an “IBM’s Got Talent” show with about 10 acts, ranging from rock and bluegrass to show tunes and dance numbers. I especially enjoyed the Indian dances – one traditional and one Bollywood style. (Somehow I ended up without a program, so I don’t have all the details!)

Each performer had 4 minutes to get it done. This required quite a bit of editing on everyone’s part. That was a common comment backstage, for sure. For our part, we decided to string together 2 fiddle tunes: Salt Creek followed by Whiskey Before Breakfast. We did the math and as long as the tempo was right, we’d be about 4:15. 🙂 I guess it makes you focus and get to the point to have a time constraint.

We were fourth on the program, which was good – right after the solo singer doing “Memories” from Cats. After us was one of the Indian dances. The venue was the Cahners Theatre, which holds about 300 people. It was standing room only in there, maybe because there was no alcohol served at the party! Anyway, in addition, they also simulcast the show to screens throughout the museum.

Bottom line: we had fun and we nailed the transition to our satisfaction. One of J’s colleagues took a video on his iphone and posted it to Vimeo.

The Splinters at the Boston IBM Centennial Celebration from Paul Beaulieu on Vimeo.

Chris

The Splinters Live

Posted by Chris Reckling on June 4, 2011 Comments Off

J Johnson and I have been hanging out in my basement for a while shedding fiddle tunes. We debuted at the West Roxbury Open Mike night and have played at Roslindale too. One of these days, we’ll get more than 2 songs to play at a real gig. 🙂 We typically include some form of improvisation after playing the melody a few times; and it’s fun to trade 4’s back and forth.

We’re making our way through the bluegrass top 20 tunes like:

St. Anne’s Reel
Salt Creek
Red Haired Boy
Billy in the Lowground
Whiskey Before Breakfast
Cherokee Shuffle
E.M.D.
Blackberry Blossom
Arkansas Traveler
Soldier’s Joy
Temperance Reel
Prisoner’s Waltz (from Tone Poems 1)
I Am Pilgrim
Shady Grove

We still want to add some more vocals and probably some more swing. We’ve played All of Me and Sweet Georgia Brown, for example, along with Minor Swing, which seem to be popular with the bluegrass/newgrass set. I picked up the Fiddler’s Fakebook recently, so I’m ready to mine it for some of the more obscure tunes to go along with the fan favorites.

We have been influenced by Doc Watson, Norman Blake, Tony Rice, David Grisman, Chris Thile, Bill Frisell, and Frank Zappa, among others.

We put up a web site under The Splinters name. Check it out to listen to some of the basement tapes.

Chris

Thile-Daves at Brighton Music Hall, Boston

Posted by Chris Reckling on May 29, 2011 2 comments

On May 24, J and I went to see Chris Thile and Michael Daves at the Brighton Music Hall in Boston – actually in the neighborhood called Brighton on Brighton Ave and Harvard Ave. I’d never been to this place before; I think in previous incarnations it was a metal-band venue, or at least rock and roll, known as Harper’s Ferry. I don’t think folk/bluegrass artists are necessarily on the bill all the time even now. However, we got there about 8:10 for a 9 p.m. show and got a great spot right up front and center as you can see from the photo I took to the right. It’s a “standing room”; meaning, no seats to speak of and the sold out show of 340 eventually filled the hall. I think there are as many bars as there are seats: 3.

The stage looks relatively small for a band that has more than 3-4 people. Of course, that didn’t matter on this night, as the setup was a single microphone in the center. The sound was great, especially being so close, you could hear both the amplification over our heads and the acoustic sounds coming out in front.

As expected, they played a lot of tunes from their recent debut album, Sleep with One Eye Open. You can also hear a few songs on the official web site, but you’ll want to just buy the album. I was busy writing down the tunes in Evernote for later, but at the end I took a picture of the set lists that some folks snagged from the stage. First set is to the left. The opening number, Evening Prayer Blues, was a short, quiet instrumental that set the stage for what was to follow. It was appropriate that Bill Monroe made this one famous, as you could hear that influence in both the playing and singing.

Chris Thile is an engaging performer and very comfortable up there, while Michael Daves seems more reserved. Both play with passion and fire! Their voices are well-matched, to the point where sometimes I could not tell who was singing which part, and I was standing right in front of them. The playing was superb – this is why you go see live music – you get the spontaneity and humanity that only comes from a live performance. You could definitely see, as well as hear, how they communicated on stage and in the moment.

Check out this video of the first set fiddle tune request that someone was kind enough to post on youtube. It was pretty funny to watch them get requests from the audience, then choose a sequence and key for each one…and then play their asses off (I can say that on the web, right?). “Freebird has words, and is therefore: DISqualified!” The reference to 7 strings and all the tuning was about Thile breaking a string in the middle of the set, which he repeated in the second set too.

Okay – that was amazing! 🙂 You could hear both the tradition and taking it to the next step. They must have played these tunes a million times to get to the point of turning them inside-out. They did the same thing with the second set fiddle tune request time, but took Arkansas Traveler even further “outside”. Check it out below about 2 minutes in. That deserves an OMG.

Speaking of live performances, they flubbed the transition from Camptown to Rebecca, which was going from key of Bb to B (of all things). Oops. In the video, you can see Daves trying to make the eye contact to signal it was coming. They made up with it afterwards by trying just that part – so we got to see the live rehearsal process, too. See below – pretty cool. I still can’t believe they played that tune in B – who does that on purpose??

“Wasn’t that cooool????”

You should really listen to some of the tunes with singing – it’s as big a part of the experience as the instrumentals. “Loneliness and Desperation” is a good example of how it can cook. It reminds me of early rock and roll feel, foot-tappin’ music….or maybe even foot-stompin’!

Finally, for completeness of the historical record, I present to you the second set list. Enjoy and go see some live music, people. Where else will you see the performers whip out a bottle of rye and start swigging it during the encores? And if you get a chance to see these two perform this summer, go for it!

All in all, both J and I were inspired by this performance and took some of it to the practice shed last week, as we forge our own identity on guitar/mando. I hope some of it rubs off on us.

Note to Thile/Daves: next time play at Passim – at least we can sit down.

Chris

P.S. Thile’s other band, Punch Brothers, is playing at the Lowell Summer Music series in August. There’s other great music there too.

P.P.S. We ate at the Sunset Grille, but don’t go there for the food. They do have 112 beers on tap however. Unless they are out of some, then there are 110.

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Thile-Daves at Brighton Music Hall, Boston

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