Tag Archives: splinters

The Splinters at Somerville Porchfest 2013

Posted by on May 25, 2013 Comments Off on The Splinters at Somerville Porchfest 2013

Somerville, MA – May 18, 2013 – J and I signed up for Somerville Porchfest, porch graciously provided by Jennifer Badot. We played from 2-4 pm. At first there were only a handful of people there, but pretty soon bikes, dogs, and roaming gangs of people stopped by. It was a windy day and we were in the shade on the porch, but folks mostly hung out across the street in the sun. Usually we play 2 sets, but when we got to the end of the first one, we didn’t want to stop in case the crowd decided to pick up and leave. So we kept going, calling a few audibles here and there from what we had on the list.

I video’d the whole thing from a stationary camera below us and here are a few of them I posted to YouTube.

Red Rocking Chair

In the Pines

Red Haired Boy

Make Me a Pallet on the Floor

We’re playing out about 2-4 times a month, so check out the web site for more info about when and where.

Chris

http://splintersmusic.com

 

 

The Splinters Music at Nourish

Posted by on November 27, 2011 Comments Off on The Splinters Music at Nourish

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

 

Splinters at IBM Centennial Celebration

Posted by on June 19, 2011 Comments Off on Splinters at IBM Centennial Celebration

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 on June 4, 2011 Comments Off on The Splinters Live

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