April 16, 2020

One of the last times I was able to get within 6 feet of someone was at the Berkeley Old Time Music Convention’s Spring Situation back on March 8. It was a happy day of jam sessions, concerts, and workshops designed to focus attention on local and regional traditional music.

Some traditional musicians came down from the mountains to lead a packed jam session in the lobby of the Freight and Salvage Coffee House in Berkeley, CA. This duo from the Sierra Nevada mountains also did a set on the main concert stage with other bands.

Local musicians volunteered to showcase their music during a short concert set, lead a workshop, or be the MC on the main stage.

It was beginning to feel like springtime and lots of folks showed up.

The bands and musicians relaxed and warmed up back stage before their concert performance in front of the audiance.

It feels good to finally get your banjo in tune. Then you’re ready to go.

Here is one of the bands during their performance. Everyone seemed to relax and enjoy the show. Hot music and an appreciative audience.

After the concerts were finished and the workshops were done many musicians gathered at the Starry Plough, an Irish Pub and Restaurant, for the monthly Shred Sesh. A “Shred Session” is a jam hosted by one band who calls all the tunes which are then played up to speed. This particular session was exceptional. Many fine musicians were in attendance since they were already in town for the Berkeley Old Time Music Convention’s Spring Situation at the Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Everyone was ready to play together!

This session was hosted by Jim and Amber Mueller from San Luis Obispo. Jim is an excellent fiddler and Amber keeps everyone together on bass. Other local musicians helped complete the band that would lead the tunes.

It was a great selection of tunes! Everyone was happy, not knowing that this might be one of the last times musicians could gather in such close proximity. Social distancing was only about a week away.

The Starry Plough Irish Pub and Restaurant has been a Berkeley institution for 47 years. Due to the extension of the shelter in place guidelines many small businesses have been having tough times. If you know and love the Starry Plough and want to help you can do so here.

Stay healthy, happy, and positive.

No April Fools…

My printmaking adventure started in France, at a friend’s studio in a lovely little village situated in the former provence of the Perche. It was early morning on September 18, 2013 when I received the call that Kenny Hall had just passed away in Fresno. Since this was the day I had planned to work in the studio I chose to make an etching of my friend on the day of his transition.

With the help of my friends and their studio I made an image to remember him by. The process was so wonderful and amazing that I became hooked on intaglio printmaking. Since then I have continued to study and create prints. I recently completed two more prints of musicians that hold special significance in my life. With the extra time I have of late, I’ve organized them and put them into archival protective envelopes.

If you are not familiar with Kenny Hall or his music there is a wonderful documentary of his life called “I Hear What You See: The Old Time World of Kenny Hall” by Chris Simon. You can see an excerpt of her film here.

A couple of friends and I paid a visit to (made a pilgramage to) Burl Hammons in West Virginia in 1973. Alan Jabbour gave us directions to his house in Stillwell Hollow where he lived in Pocahontas County. It was the dead of winter that year when we were welcomed by Burl, Maggie, and Sherman Hammons. I can honestly say that my fiddling took a turn from that meeting.

The etching of Burl Hammons comes from a photo made by Carl Fleischhauer. Carl Fleischhauer and Alan Jabbour co-authored the rare, but still available, study titled “The Hammons Family: The Traditions of a West Virginia Family and their Friends.” Carl is an amazing photographer and folklorist working for the Library of Congress. The book is well worth the read and the music on the CD has inspired and informed my fiddling for over 45 years.

During that same trip in the winter of 1973 we followed up our visit to Burl Hammons with an unforgettable stop at the home of Tommy Jarrell. Tommy also welcomed us, fed and watered us, and taught us more about American traditional fiddling in a few days than we could ever learn from book or record in the next decade.

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The spring weather in our area is giving us glorious days. Our back yard is in bloom with flowers, blossoms, doves, quail, song-birds, and hummingbirds joining us each day for our fiddle and guitar tunes on the deck in late afternoon.

Rowboat. I made up and rearranged this tune about 20 years ago. It almost always seems appropriate, but now more than ever. We had some fun with it on our April 1st deck-time tunes.

Local streets seem deserted and the earth is quiet. The pace of life is slower. Most people are keeping their distance. Sheltering in place is mandatory.

Despite homo sapien’s current health delima, nature continues to show it’s spring growth. Colors are vibrant, the air is clean, sounds are more natural. New growth, and new learning, are the order of the day. Because of social distancing, I can’t embrace my neighbors, or even my grandkids, but I can embrace this glorious spring day!

I went for a walk yesterday. The sunshine was warm and the fresh air was invigorating. I enjoyed seeing the green grass and the blossoming trees. Homeowners can’t help but notice that the hard work of designing their landscape plan and completing the garden labor is paying off.

I walked along, enjoying the local gardens, until I came to a steep road that seemed to head up to a ridge top, far above me.

I decided to try the challenge, hoping that I might achieve my daily goal of clocking 10,000 steps. I had to stop a couple times to rest, but I made it to the top. The views of Mt. Diablo between the houses were wonderful. After a breather, I turned around, facing the other direction, to walk back down the road. I took a few steps and came across this beautiful signpost…

May you float gently down the stream, and may you step merrily along the path.

Stay well.

March 13, 2020

I’m going to post stories and descriptions of my thoughts and adventures this year. Spring seems like a good time for new growth and the birth of new ideas. Please check back to see how this project develops.

This first post reviews a portion of our travels last summer chasing the total solar eclipse that happened in Chile on July 2, 2019.

In June 2019 we were just south of Lima, Peru visiting the Hacienda Mamacona. It is a beautiful hacienda that includes a horse stable for the elegant Peruvian Paso Horse. The hacienda features displays of the traditional customs still practiced by the old families linked to country life. We saw shows featuring folkloric music and dance, the Peruvian Paso Horse, and a buffet of Criollo food characterized by a mixture of spicy flavors and a touch of exotic hot peppers.

The love of music and dance was woven throughout the entire celebration. The traditional music was enchanting and the costumes were colorful. The dances were exciting and aerobic. Even the horses and their riders moved to the music with dance steps and rhythmic movements.

The Rizo Patron family owns the hacienda where they breed the Paso in their stables. The horses are incredibly beautiful. Medium sized with an elegant yet powerful build the paso has a lustrous coat that comes in many colors including chestnut, black, bay, brown, buckskin, palomino, gray, roan, and dun. We saw a wonderful demonstration of the grace and fitness of these horses with their riders. Horse movements are classified in two groups; “natural” gaits and “ambling” gaits. The natural gaits are walk, trot, cantor, gallop, pace. The ambling gaits have at least one foot bearing full weight at any time and are referred to colloquially as “singlefoot.” The American fiddle tune “Single-Footing Horse” by Arthur Smith is named after this gait. Not all horses can perform an ambling gait and special training may be required. The Peruvian Paso, however, has this ability in its DNA as a hereditary trait.

The Peruvian Passo is a national symbol for Peru. The breed is protected by the peruvian government by decree and has been declared a Cultural Heritage Treasure of the Nation. It is a breed of light saddle horse known for it’s naturally smooth four-beat gait called the paso llano. The elegance of this gait is more like dancing. The grace and beauty of these movements are genetically inherited by the Paso, and young foals can execute the graceful movements within hours of their birth. Special training is required for other breeds to perform an ambling gait such as the paso llano (“even step”), or the sobreandando, which is faster and closer to a cantor.

A trainer brought out a young foal for us to see. A beautiful young example of the Peruvian Paso.

The characteristic smooth gait was used to cover long distances in a short amount of time without tiring either the horse or the rider. The movements are natural to the Passo and do not require extensive training since they are genetic. The rider experiences none of the vertical bouncing that is felt in the trot and the ride is very stable. There are always two, and sometimes three, feet on the ground at all times. This means the rider feels no strain or jolt.

Having the ability to move with gentle grace and ease allows the horse and rider to actually dance in close proximity with a beauiful partner. It is no exaggeration to say that the audience watching such a performance is spellbound.

The energy is high, uplifting, and whimsical.

Happy one-step! Happy two-step! Happy fox-trot! Dance!

Musician, dancer, horse, rider, and audience become one in almost mystical union.

Amazing! Wonderful! Happy!

Horses appear in Paleolithic cave art as early as 30,000 B.C. But, humanity’s dance with the horse probably dates to 4000 B.C. when evidence indicates the horse was domesticated. Our relationship to the horse is deep and mysterious. There is love, respect, and helpful interchange between man, woman, and horse. At the hacienda, I think the horse enjoyed the music as much as I did! The musicians definitely enjoyed themselves.

The band played during the whole celebration.

Horses arrived in South America during the Spanish conquest starting with Pizarro in 1531. The Peruvian Paso traces its bloodstock back to Spain, Panama, and other areas of Central America. Smooth gaited horses are called Palfreys and they existed in the middle ages. Some of the early breeds were the Jannet, known for its ambling gaits, the Barb, known for its strength and stamina, and the Andalusian, known for its style.

You can hear Arthur Smith play the fiddle tune “Single-Footing Horse” here.

Horse, rider, and welcoming musicians.

The horse is a universal symbol of freedom and power. The white horse symbolizes the balance of wisdom and power. The horse has helped us build our civilization. Now the 2020 Porsche 911 has 540 horse power. It’s just kind of amazing.

The Avatar of the Age rides His white horse out of the sea. All Hail the goer!

Mt. Wow represents a psychological perspective, or an intuitive perception of wonder, delight, and adventure. Mt. Wow is an inner summit of purest light granting panoramic awareness and vouchsafed giftwaves of such harmony and beauty that all one can say is…“Wow.”

Music can be a portal to the inner landscape of Mt. Wow. It can be a vehicle or meditation to help transcend ordinary/everyday reality and enter a realm of beauty, truth, and unity. Music can be a force of transformation for the performer as well as the audience. You can’t have a great performance without a great audience.

Music, more than any other art form, reveals the processes of life: it reflects how we live, and it informs our lives. In music the melody corresponds to the individual life. Harmony represents working together with others: family, friends and community. Rhythm and tempo mirror the seasons, cycles, and patterns of life. The simple form and subtle beauty of American traditional music captured my fascination many years ago. The close intimacy and spontaneous joy of playing with others brings happiness. Some tunes have an archetypal quality that, when infused with fresh, positive energy meld separate spheres of experience and invoke a powerful and uplifting presence.

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