Something recently possessed me to search Youtube for versions of the song “Draggin’ the Bow”, which Tangleweed played on Channel 11 a couple of years ago. Here’s our version (minus Ryan, who was unable attend) followed by a few others. I found this to be a worthy exercise in contrast. Enjoy:

1. Tangleweed, Draggin’ the Bow, WTTW 11 Chicago:

2. Local Fiddle Club, Draggin’ the Bow (I really love this one):

3. Colby, 9 years old, Draggin’ the Bow. This young gentlemen should approach us at a show someday with fiddle in hand:

4. South Mountain Band, Draggin’ the Bow. Excellent slow country/polka version. You have to click the link this time, I can’t embed it:

South Mountain Band playing Draggin’ the Bow

That’s just a few of what I actually watched. There are others out there. See this link for more:

Draggin’ the Bow on YouTube

Here’s a link to a very interesting article about cd-mastering and the overall trend towards GETTIN’ LOUD in the age of the ipod-shuffle, courtesy of Chicago Mastering Service.

Maybe I’ll do a little analysis of some Tangleweed wav-forms one of these days, to see how we compare with My Bloody Valentine, Radiohead, Nirvana and The Stooges in the FILL THE BOX wars.

Mike Hagler at Kingsize mastered our first two cd’s, and will most likely do the same on #3 (which we’re recording with him presently).

Special thanks to my friend Adam Yoffe at Prize Beagle Studios for turning me onto this article. Adam is recording my friends Milk At Midnight, with whom I play a bit of banjo in a gorgeously loud rock setting. Look for another banjo track on their upcoming cd.

We began work on our third CD yesterday at Kingsize studios. We showed up just-rested-enough after playing two shows with Erie Street Jazz at Hideout and Charleston the night before. Kip and I brought our usual arsenal of falafel sandwiches and spinach pies from Sultan’s Market to sustain our appetites, along with a few beers and the tail-end of a bottle of Buleit Bourbon (courtesy of Paul). Kingsize Engineer Mike Hagler graciously supplied the coffee when we hit a mid-session lull.

Mike’s new studio looks great since our last visit over a year ago. He’s built out the live-room a bit, added some couches and a fridge, and we felt right at home from the moment we arrived. Last year we recorded in a tight circle around the mixing board in the control room, but this time Mike set us up in the big live room, which was great. It’s quite a bit more spacious, both physically and sonically, than the control room. We arranged ourselves in a big circle around a high-mounted pair of mics, and Mike also put one or two mics directly on each of our instruments.

We had five songs ready to go, including three originals and a couple trads. Our intent was to record the instrumental tracks live and add the vocals as overdubs, as well as punching-in the occasional solo or two per each player’s preference. We stuck to this plan without any issues.

We started with a good old trad waltz, “Short Life of Trouble”, and knocked it out in short order. Billy cut both his solos live along with the band, and Kip and Ryan nailed their nicely arranged mando/banjo run to set up the last chorus.

Next up was my newest original, “The Logjam”. It took us a few tries to really nail the timing of the last verse where Paul and Billy get their bows out and I drop a few chord hits while singing the lyrics, but once we got that figured out, we nailed a keeper take in no time. We left nothing but vocals to overdub later on this one (though Paul may try adding a little accordion to the quiet end-section, we’ll see).

Moving right along, we dove into the Takeup Reel Medley, which we figured would pose the most challenges of the day, and indeed it did. It starts with a boppin’ reel composed by Kip, then segues into a highly arranged version of the trad “Cold Frosty Morning”, and concludes with a blowout version of the fiddle classic “Grey Eagle”. We’d hit an all-time audience-energy peak at the Charleston with this one the night before, getting the crowd all fired up clapping, stomping their feet and hollering, so we were feeling great about the performance potential of this medley, but we also kind of wished the nice folks from the Charleston had come over to the studio with us… as things seemed a little stark with just us and the microphones. We did several takes, all of them pretty serviceable, but none quite perfectly to our liking, so we moved on and agreed we’d listen back later to make our final decision. Chances are we’ll keep running this one in rehearsal and go back at it later, but we’ll see how it shakes out.

Kip’s “California” was next, and this one moved along pretty quickly once I got my act together and stopped spoiling takes with early clams… We got just about all the instruments live and just left a hole for Kip’s mando solo. We’ve been using this one to start a trio of tunes on stage, connecting with Short Life of Trouble and Train 45 (from our first CD). We’ll probably insert “Logjam” into the “Train 45″ slot in order to preserve this running order on the CD, as it’s got a similar feel and is in the same key as “Train 45″.

“Listen to the Mockingbird” was last up. This one has been a standard part of our live repertoire for a long time, so we were able to knock out several decent takes very quickly, but Billy wasn’t entirely happy with how he was delivering the amp’d-up finale, so we decided to take a break and do some listening in the control room before going back and taking one last pass at it, at which point Billy nailed it in one try. Holes were left for Ryan and Kip’s two solo breaks, and of course we’ll overdub the vocal part where I shout out bird names for Billy to impersonate on fiddle, but otherwise this one’s complete as-is.

At this point Mike broke down most of the instrument mics and we jumped into vocal/solo overdubs. Ryan nailed the lead vocal on Shortlife very quickly, then Kip and Billy added their harmonies just as swiftly. I then did my lead vocal on Logjam in mostly one take, minus a few false-starts on the quiet part where the tempo stretches out a little. Kip assisted by getting me off the count and just listening to Paul’s bass-bowing for my cues on where to come in (thanks Kip). Then Kip and Billy nailed their harmonies quickly and sweetly in just a few minutes. Next we pulled up California so Billy could drop in one little fiddle run that was omitted from the live-take, at which point Bily and I took off (Billy was ready to crash, having taught his Suzuki classes all morning after a short night of sleep, and I was heading to Empty Bottle to see Scout Niblett), leaving Kip and Ryan to finish the vocals/solos on California, as well as punching in the pair of solos they each take on Mockingbird. I await an update from them on how this went, but I assume it was consistent with everything else and moved along quickly and cleanly.

So, a pretty great return to the studio for us after a year since we last recorded anything beyond “South Australia” with John Abbey for the Old Town School Songbook cd. We’ve got at least four keepers in the bag, and we know what we need to do to nail #5 (the Takeup Reel Medley).

Now we’ll ponder the next batch of tunes, start nailing down the arrangements, and hopefully set some more time to record in the next month or two. As was our pattern last time, we don’t have the tracklist fully worked out for the new cd yet, and we’re just letting material from our live show compete for supremacy where recording is concerned.

We’ll keep you posted on next steps, and possibly even flash a few rough mixes out to our email list once they take shape. Big thanks to Mike Hagler for another great day at Kingsize - always a pleasure.

This year’s Marathon gig started like any other for us. We got to our assigned location at Mile 18.1 at 7:30 a.m., received our diesel generator, setup our p.a., did a little soundcheck, pounded some breakfast from a nearby Mexican joint, and got ready to start playing when the elite wheelchair athletes and runners came into sight around 9 a.m.

But one thing really differed from our past Marathon performances: We were sweaty just from setting up! In 2006, race-day temperatures were in the 30’s when we arrived, and we were struggling to keep our hands warm enough to play. This time it was in the 70’s when we arrived, and had broken into the 80’s by the time any racers reached us. This was going to be a day of intense, abnormal autumn heat, no doubt about it.

So off we go, tearing through extended versions of song after song as throngs of mostly happy runners made their way round the bend at Ashland and Taylor St. Kip was out of town for this one, so Ryan, Billy and I all did a little more singing than usual, and we had fun throwing some new tunes into the set (Billy sang “The Crawdad Song”, Ryan did “Ain’t it a Shame”, and I did “Friend of the Devil”). A good sized crowd assembled along the street and the energy level was solid for a nice sustained period, with a few really great peaks. Most notably, I thought most of the runners looked remarkably good considering the conditions. I only saw a few looking really stressed or weak as they passed, which seemed pretty amazing, esp. after we later learned that many of them couldn’t even get water at some of the support stations…

We were on the southeast corner of Ashland/Taylor with the racers passing about 3 feet in front of us as they made the turn, which I hope will make for some interesting video. I ran my camera during peak-times facing directly into the race from our stage area on the sidewalk. I’ll post some to Youtube if it’s any good. As in past years, it was definitely a thrill to make eye contact with tens of thousands of runners at close proximity like that. We got lots of waves, thank you’s, mini-jigs, and blown kisses as usual, and we did our best to keep the music upbeat and flowing for the runners and their many supporters.

Then about 11:20 or so, fatigue started hitting the band. Ryan and I were in just about full sun by this point, sweating from head to toe, and were starting to cramp up in the hands. I was downing whole bottles of water between songs and could feel it racing directly back out through my skin. I could only imagine how the runners were dealing with personal hydration issues and cramping at this point. Billy and Paul were still enjoying a bit of shade, but they too appeared to be heating up, so we took a ten minute break to catch our breath and get our hands relaxed, then started back up for what we assumed would be 90 more minutes of music. We knew the runners had it way harder than we did, so if they were still running, we fully intended to keep playing until the sweeper van came through for the last of the stragglers.

But only about 20 minutes went by before a police officer told us the race was canceled and asked us to stop playing. We were not entirely sure what to make of this, but we did as we were told, and started making announcements to the runners that they should stop running and make their way back to Grant Park, and/or hop in a transport bus. To my eye, the runners were mostly unable to process this news, and who could blame them? Many of them just kept running. Others asked questions we were unable to answer. And one even told us that he was listening to the news on his headphones, and they said anyone who made it past mile 13 by then could actually finish the race.

At this point our certainty about the news from the police and the one race employee on hand eroded considerably, so I asked the race guy to get us some definitive scoops. Not only were we unsure whether to keep playing or not, but the racers were dependent on us for information and we didn’t have anything solid to deliver. So off he ran with radio in hand, and we never saw him again…

About 15 mins. go by and we get no new info from the local authorities, so Paul starts calling our booking contacts, and quickly gets detailed confirmation that the race is canceled, all runner support is being terminated immediately, and we should wrap it up. Word was they were out of water, the local ambulance fleet was taxed, racers were dropping all over the course, and things had hit a dangerous condition, so they were pulling the plug, even though they still had 10,000+ racers on the course.

As the news started spreading among the racers and the crowd, the trail of runners slowed quickly to a trickle and the crowd began breaking up. By the time we had our p.a. torn down and packed into our cars, local merchants were out sweeping up cups and restoring Taylor St. to normal. The great positive energy of the race was quickly erased, and a somewhat alarming number of ambulances and helicopters were traversing the area, sirens blaring everywhere. This was beyond anti-climactic - things seemed pretty dire, and in our semi-exhausted state, we were not entirely sure what to make of it all. This was clearly a big deal and not what anyone had hoped for…

As we prepared to leave, Alisa saw an ambulance from Stickney, and I saw one from Summit, confirming that the local ambulance supply was indeed running low. We just hoped not too many racers were in crisis situations. The wife of one my good friends had run the race, and while we were getting word of the cancelation, I got a text from my friend saying his wife was at Cook County Medical Center, having passed out not long after Mile 18. Thankfully she just needed fluids and a good cool-down. Sadly, we later learned that the one racer who lost his life also collapsed just down the course from where we’d been playing… Our heartfelt condolences go out to his friends and family.

So that was it - the organizers called the race off, lots of people didn’t get to finish, and I’m sure a lot of lessons were learned by the city and the organizers. They deliberately schedule the race in October with hopes of having cool, manageable weather, but that didn’t come through for them this year, and after it became apparent that they’d bitten off more than they could chew by even starting the race in the first place, they felt they had no choice but to back out. Can’t say I blame them - the safety of a lot of runners was in question by then. But then I didn’t train for months and travel from afar to run the race, so I’m sure there are others who just couldn’t see it that way, and had to have left the day hugely disappointed. Our sympathies go out to all the runners who were deprived of their finish, whether through collapse or cancellation. I’m sure in 5 or 10 years this whole thing will make a great personal story for you to recount, but today it’s got to sting.

This Sunday we will play a bluegrass marathon of our own along the course of the annual CHICAGO MARATHON.

We’ll be at Mile 18.1, at the intersection of Taylor St. and Ashland, playing non-stop from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

We look forward to seeing all the runners and their many supporters again. The Marathon is a great event and we’re proud to be a part of it for the third year in a row.

Here’s a little movie we made from last year:

Last winter, I griped to Chris Walz at the Old Town School of Folk Music that I needed a better guitar pick.

For at least 15 years prior, I’d used Fender Classic Celluloid picks to pretty good effect. I was loyal to the Heavy tortoise-shell model. But as I started playing long hard sets with Tangleweed, I found I was wearing the tips off them far too quickly for my liking.

I then found that Jim Dunlap made an Extra-Heavy version almost identical to the Fender picks, so I used them for a couple years. They had a little more authority and wore out a little slower than the Fenders did, but I was still burning the tips off within the context of a single night at The Charleston, so I eventually soured on these too.

Enter the WEGEN PICK - a handmade pick by Michel Wegen in the Netherlands. Wegen makes several varieties for different instruments and styles of play, many of them very interesting and different from traditional picks.

I have been using the TF Triangular model for about six months now, and I love it. The fact that I can play with any of its three corners is a great convenience. The 1.4 mm thickness gives me much better single-note resonance than I was able to achieve before. Despite the increased thickness and strength of this pick, I’m actually breaking fewer strings than ever. The beveled edges allow it to skip across the strings beautifully, esp. when combining picking and strumming. The pick is rock-hard and barely wears at all. I have been using the same one for six months of gigs and rehearsals with almost no appreciable damage. The holes in the center took a little getting used to, but now I’m dropping my pick less than ever. And when I do drop it, its white color makes it much easier to find on a barely-lit stage than my previous tortoise-shells. I can’t say a single bad thing about this pick.

They’re not cheap - about $7.50 US apiece, but it’s been totally worth it for me on every level. My only problem is that I bought a two-pack, and I’ve since lost one, so I’m playing gigs with no backup. Going back to the Dunlap’s mid-set is a scary prospect… so as soon as the Different Strummer gets another load of these babies in, I’m stocking up, having finally found a truly excellent pick I can rely upon.

Big thanks to Chris Walz for the recommendation, and to Mr. Wegen for his excellent solution to my problem. Check him out if you’re in need of a new pick option - he even takes requests for customizations of his standard versions.

After doing a lunchtime Tangleweed set at WESTFEST (12:30 on Chicago Ave and Wood St), I will be performing a couple of numbers at this Saturday’s SUMMER OF LOVE Tribute Concert at the Old Town School of Folk Music.

The show starts at 8 pm and will include two sets of classic material from the year of my birth. I believe I’ll be doing one solo acoustic tune and one electric number with the house band. No word yet on exactly when I’ll be playing. At this point I’m honing in on some vintage Buffalo Springfield and Pink Floyd from ‘67, but the final selections are not definite yet.

These tribute shows at Old Town are always a hoot, and quite popular with the audiences as well. Please come on out if you’re hungry for a little psychedelic 60’s action on Saturday night.

Here are links to two recent reviews of the Old Town School’s SONGBOOK cd’s Vol. 2 and 3:

L.A. Daily News:

LostAtSea.net:

The L.A. Daily News review was also picked up by these papers, total circulation appx. 600,000.

Whittier Daily News (Whittier CA)
San Gabriel Valley Trib (Covina CA)
Pasadena Star-News (Pasadena CA)
Press-Telegram (Long Beach CA)
Inland Valley Daily Bulletin (Ontario Can)
Sun (San Bernadino CA)

Full text of each review follows:
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