Had several exchanges with Diane Bouska, mandolin-player Roland White’s wife, over the last few days. Among the many tasty morsels the two of them have put on his website, http://www.rolandwhite.com/, is a brand new demo of Roland slowing down and explaining his instrumental version of Danny Boy.
I wish I were still trying to learn mandolin, [...]
Spoke to Roland White one nite last wknd. Roland is one of the four or five best Bluegrass mandolin players on the tour and a terrific singer. Following a family tragedy in 1973 he took a hiatus from bandleading to sing and play guitar with Bill Monroe. You can’t get better credentials for love or [...]
Today is one month and one day since folklorist Bess Hawes passed away. She was a stand up gal who contributed mightily to the folk and roots-music movement in the middle of the last Century, at a time when it really mattered—the ‘60’s and early ‘70’s. But it’s reading her obits and seeing her name [...]
This, from writer/historian Jason Odd, when I asked him what he does that takes him to a place and time (Southern California, 1960’s) I know well from 50 years ago (Jason, are you even half that old yourself?):
“I’ve done various freebies online, a Bakersfeild section for the Rockabilly Hall Of Fame, and a buddy of [...]
Attention Jason Odd. To reward your loyal Power Pickers fanship I’ve tried hard to recount a true John Fahey/Country Al story. It will be another chapter in the saga, “Country Al & His Ash Grove Buds.”
I was at a party chez Barry Hansen* in Santa Monica, prob. in 1966 or ’67. My girlfriend at the [...]
Jason Odd asks if I know of any live Ridgerunners tapes orbiting about out there that he could get ahold of (btw, Jason, let me know something about you so I can share you with the rest of us arcane esotericists).
The Ridgerunners, you may recall, was a Bluegrass band out of Berkeley, Ca, formed in [...]
My partner, Gregg Conners, and I are going to try to develop an act, whose form and content I have absolutely no idea of. Embedded here is our very first performance, at an open-mic op on Sept. 12, in Pleasantville, NY. I’m the one with the guitar. We hope to get better.
In other news…I’m posting [...]
Had a series of ultimately gratifying phone exchanges w/Ry Cooder last week. I say “ultimately,” because while I didn’t end up with the feature article I wanted to do on him for The Fretboard Journal, the conversations were meaty, and, for Ry Cooder, pretty candid.
For the record, I was the one who decided to 86 [...]
Hi, everybody,
Sorry it’s been so long since my last post; I’ll explain when it’s easier for me to type. But please stay tuned, because I’ve had several exchanges with Ry, and I want to tell you about them, which I will do very soon.
In the meantime, would you allow me to burden you with [...]
Long-haul (47 yrs) friend of mine, mandolin player Scott Hambly, sent me this link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCCu5V5HZPc
of him with Phil Marsh, frequent figure at the famous Berkeley music non-profit dive, Freight and Salvage, and some of its friends celebrating its move from Addison Street to Addison Street (Berkeley’s a small town).
Scott is prob. the least recognized, most [...]
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