We’re playing a wedding in a few weeks where the bride requested this as their first dance. It’s a nice little tune. We transposed it down a fourth for our version, with Billy Oh singing lead and Ryan Fisher and me doing the backing vocals. Here’s the OCMS original.

My observation, that one can sing ‘Don’t Stop Believing’ on top of this chord progression, is largely unappreciated by the other members of the band. Particularly when I demonstrate said possibility.

Things My Granfather taught as a teen-ager, by Ryan Fisher

• When you quit drinking, you lose all of your friends.
• There is nothing like a cigarette when you have a good buzz.
• Always check the fluids in your vehicles.
• Dont drink your grandpa’s beer, get your own beer.
• Spit out your gum, no gum god dam it.
• Don’t leave crumbs in the toilet
• Don’t use too much toilet paper
• Clean up all of your hairs from the bathroom, god damn it.
• Burger King will kill you.

Tonight at the Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago there is a great chance to do some pick’in and get to know other like minded folks as well as sample some of their culinary expertise. Check out Tradfest on their site for more details.
www.oldtownschool.org

I’ll be bringing this recipe for “Salsa Verde” and some killer chips as well. Come out and try some or try it out at home.
Tomatillos
24 Tomatillos, Husk removed
6 serrano chilies (you can leave the seeds in for a hotter sauce)
1/2 medium onion
4 garlic cloves
Salt to taste
FRESH cilantro

Combine ingredients in a large saucepan and barely cover with water. Simmer for 15 min or until ingredients are softened. Drain and reserve a cup of the cooking water. Allow cooked vegetables to cool and puree in a blender adding reserved cooking water to thin if desired. Salt to taste. Chill in refrigerator and add 2 tablespoons of cilantro just before serving.

In a recent blog Scott mentioned that David Bromberg and I both busy ourselves (when not on stage) with the fine art of violin making. Here are some picture from a recent day in my Bucktown violin studio.

http://wargaskiviolins.com/gallery.aspx

Here’s a great clip of the Reverend Gary Davis playing on Pete Seeger’s Rainbow Quest in 1966. The good reverend is playing a 12-string Gibson in this clip, and he gets a very different sound than he gets from his famous SJ-200. One can see his hands quite clearly in portions of this clip. Notice how much of the guitar’s range he uses, and how well he uses different chord voicings. Very cool.

I had the pleasure of seeing David Bromberg perform at Old Town School this past weekend. I’ve wanted to see him for many years, but he was on a 15+ year hiatus from performing (during which time he became a violin maker and dealer, not unlike our bassman Paul Wargaski, who was also at this show with his wife Lauren).

Bromberg is back in full vigor now, traveling and performing with his wife and The Angel Band. David sat in with Angel Band for an opening set (which featured excellent vocal work from the three female singers, including Bromberg’s wife Nancy Josephson), and then took the lead for the next set. The same three musicians from Angel Band stayed on stage w/ him throughout, providing excellent accompaniment and solo’s on bass, guitar, mandolin and fiddle, with Bromberg handling lead vocals and band leader duties.

He is a riveting presence on stage, seamlessly combining story-telling and songs, and covering alot of ground in the doing. He is able and willing to venture fully into blues, bluegrass, jazz and many sub-genres in the span of a single set.

My only disappointments were that he didn’t play any fiddle, despite having one onstage (though in his defense, he moved from guitar to dobro to mandolin and back throughout the show, AND he had a great fiddle player in his band), and he didn’t do “Danger Man” (a classic jokey Bromberg tune originally released and recorded in the 70’s with the Grateful Dead as his backing band. It would have been a great fit for the Angel Band vocalists). I’ve pondered getting this one into Tangleweed’s late-night repertoire someday, we’ll have to see about that.

Despite my minor complaints, the playing and singing were impeccable, combining good humor and raucousness with pure emotion and down-home charm. I especially enjoyed his recollections of time-spent with Reverend Gary Davis and the subsequent Davis chestnut he performed solo on guitar. The closing number DRIVING WHEEL was played and sung with great conviction and sent everyone home on an inspired note.

Learn more at http://www.davidbromberg.net/home.html and/or http://www.angelband.net/welcome.html

I recently purchased a nice DVD about the history of bluegrass called High Lonesome. You can see more about it here: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107111/

The film is centered around excellent interview and performance footage of Bill Monroe. He’s a very humble and reverent gentleman, as you’d expect, and comes across very nicely to my eye. There are some particularly emotional shots of him looking through the shell of his former home in Kentucky, where it all started for him several decades ago.

Lester Flatt, Earl Scruggs, Mac Wiseman (he narrates), Jimmy Martin, Ralph Stanley and many other bluegrass luminaries are also well represented. There is at least one mind-bogglingly good snippet of Scruggs playing his patented machine-gun fire banjo (and looking damn cool doing it). Another interesting moment is Monroe and his band playing late 60’s San Francisco with the oil-gel lightshow oozing around them.

In addition to tracing the roots of bluegrass music itself, the film also provides a very nice recent history of the United States as rural and urban cultures overlapped, industries and economies rose and fell, and musical tastes and technologies shifted along with it all.

It should be noted that Elvis Presley does not achieve hero-status in this film.

Highly recommended viewing.

It’s very hard to find old footage of jug bands, so this 1930 clip of Whistler’s Jug band with its hot three-way jug action is well worth checking out. You can find most of it in the Yazoo anthology of old film clips, Times Ain’t Like They Used to Be. The tune is essentially ‘Tear It Down, Bed Slats and All‘, a straightforward single-strain folk rag. You can download the Cornlikkers version of ‘Tear It Down’ here.