A group I play with regularly made this recording to go on the Folk Song Society of Greater Boston CD (I think it comes out soon, but who knows!?) The arrangement is by Jim Scott. I’m playing bass on it (and finger snap, not at the same time) and the rest is acapella by J. Johnson, David Godkin, Pam Haran (lead), Gretchen O’Neil, and Eric Hanson.
Enjoy.
Chris
Well, I finally got around to recording the guitar that I built last fall. This is a Stefan Grossman tune called Bermuda Triangle Exit that I reacquainted myself with. I didn’t do it a million times to get it perfect, so it’s a bit “raw”, but you can at least hear what the guitar sounds like. 🙂
I recorded this to our old mac Sound Studio thru a Sony stereo mike. I added a touch of reverb afterwards, then converted to mp3.
Chris
Yesterday I went to the Joe Val Bluegrass Festival in Framingham, MA for the first time. Every year I say to myself that I want to go, but never did because I’d probably have to go alone and that’s not as much fun as going with someone. Anyway, I decided to go check it out and I sure got my fill of bluegrass! There was a fair amount of boom-chuckin’ and Flatt-runs and chicken-pickin’ going on, I guar-en-tee.
I also went to the Tony Watt guitar workshop, where he was jamming with Avril Smith, from the DC band Tinsmith (who I just checked out and really like!). They talked about playing fiddle tunes and everyone seems to want to know how to hold a pick the best way. I think the best advice I heard was to just jump in and sink or swim, when it comes to jam sessions and improvising. Luckily I don’t have a problem winging it, but I guess some folks are uncomfortable straying from the melody.
I just checked in on the Vermont Instruments website this morning and see that they are now offering additional courses this year. The first is a 2-week banjo making course with Will Fielding. The second is a one week guitar repair course, led by Adam Buchwald. I remember Adam talking about both of these ideas when I was there in Oct 2008. The guitar repair course is designed to be added on to the end of the guitar building class or to be used by itself.
Now, here’s an idea that seems both right and wrong at the same time. I saw this on the Chicago Music Store website, so may as well give them props. (The link didn’t bring me anywhere on their site, so I don’t have details. They do feature different guitars, including a strat model and pianos.
I hope the “back” is a nice brazilian rosewood. 🙂
Chris
I am always checking out new music. I like all kinds, but trend toward the Americana/Roots/Bluegrass stuff as well as all kinds of Jazz. “As long as it’s good” I always say, and I get to be the judge of that – like art, you know it when you hear it and I try not to dismiss other people’s tastes. I could spend hours on youtube or amazon/itunes listening to stuff just to hear it. I do draw the line at most current pop (Britney, Miley, and the like) and rap music – that’s not my “thang”. I will listen to it to be informed before I decide I don’t want to go any further.
Anyway, I present to you a list of some folks that I just “discovered” for myself and that I like. I have been on a Celtic jag lately, not related to the Boston b-ball team, but there are some others in here not in that realm.
Alison Brown – awesome banjo player (I know, an oxymoron) and singer.
Flynn Cohen – great Celtic guitar player from around MA. Similar playing as John Doyle, who we saw at the Lowell Folk Festival a couple of years ago with Liz Carroll.
Los Lonely Boys – well, not that new to me, but I had never really listened to a full album before. There was an interesting bio on PBS on them that got me interested again.
Son House – “father of the delta blues”
Mississippi John Hurt – really a re-discovery for me as I used to listen to this stuff all the time.
Keb Mo – sounds kind of like the young Taj Mahal to me.
Abigail Washburn – another woman who plays the banjo. She has some interesting Appalachian/Chinese songs goin’ on ‘cuz she used to live in there.
Tim O’Brien – another great Celtic, Bluegrass player. He also has a written taping policy – interesting; might as well put it out there instead of ignoring it.
Thievery Corporation – trance dance mood music – scare people away at work, although I think the Celtic might do that too.
Chris Thile (also Punch Brothers and late of Nickel Creek) really nice update to traditional bluegrass. He was just on Prairie Home Companion last night (Dec 13) with Edgar Meyer and yesterday I watched some videos of the 2 of them online that was awesome!
That’s it for now.
Chris
Here’s a scan of a painting that my mom gave me over the Thanksgiving visit when she and Roy drove from Cleveland to Maine! 
She’s been staying in Cleveland (Euclid, I believe, to be exact) with Roy and he set her up with a small studio and some paint. She’s gotten a lot more abstract lately. This one actually looks like a guy playing the bass, so I got it. It’s only about 5″ x 7″ in real life and it’s oil on paper.
She did about 12 of these little ones of various sizes and I guess I’ll be posting those to the website soon. I just scanned this one with our little $100 HP printer/scanner and it came out pretty good.
Chris
I put the strings back on my guitar after a week of hardening on the finish. I ended up with 3-4 coats on the back and sides with a couple of light rubs with a small amount of the tru-oil. The top has all kinds of scratches that you can’t see unless you look really closely, but thems the breaks. I think I could do a better job next time, that’s for sure.
And, it still sounds good and plays nicely, although I had been playing my Collings for a week with its shorter scale length (24.9″) and when I picked up mine, it felt so much longer! (That’s what she said, as my kids say….I would never say that!)
Now, to plot for the next one.
Chris
I finally got tru-oil on the back and sides (see above) after a semi-long process of pore filling with LMI wood filler, tru-oil sealer, more pore filling, more sealing, then sanding from 220 – 320 – 400 – 600 grit. Now I have a nice, smooth surface. I didn’t fill the pores on the neck – for one thing, it was a bit of a pain to do, but mainly I like the look as it is.
The photo at the right is what the back looked like before I started this finish process. I’m using the directions from LMI 
which seem pretty complete to me. Not sure I’ll get to the final polishing until after we get back from Thanksgiving in Maine.
Now, I’m waiting for the first coat of tru-oil to dry (about 2 hrs) so I can sand/buff and put on another one before bedtime.
over and out
Chris
Here’s the 
guitar before finishing. I’m setting up a mini-shop in the basement so I can do the work. I had to wait about a week for LMI to ship the wood filler and tru-oil sealer. I’m going to start on the back, sides, neck on Sunday. Today, I cleaned up the top a little and put on 2 coats so far of the tru-oil. Because of the timing of the course in VT, we put some oil on the top already, but it still needs to be built up. I probably should do the back before I get too far into the top process, so I’ll let this dry overnight and start with the sealer in the morning.
Most people see to think that the finishing process is a whole ‘nother art form and it probably is. I can see scratches and dents all over the top of the guitar. You can’t see them from a few feet away, but you certainly can under a light and at a good angle. Luckily, I think the back and sides are in pretty good shape, so maybe they will come out better.
I’ll keep the blog posted on my progress as we go over the next couple of days. I want to get it done soon so it has time to cure before Thanksgiving, when I’ll want to bring the guitar up to Maine for the holiday.
Chris