Playing at Flat Iron Cafe 8/21/2010
I’ll be playing at the
Flat Iron Cafe this Saturday Aug 21 from 7:30 to 10:30 PM. Check out their
event announcement.
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The Flat Iron Cafe is located at:
444 Centre Street
Middleboro, MA 02346
(508) 947-3358
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This is historically their slowest week with people on vacation, getting ready for school and so on. With that in mind please do your best to attend if you have any interest. I’ve played 2 gigs recently so the rust is minimal and I’m hoping to have a good gig.
Playing at Soule Homestead 7/31/2010
I’ll be playing at
Eddy Homestead this coming Saturday 8/14 from around 12-1. I’ll also be at the
Flat Iron Cafe on Saturday 8/21. I’d love to see you there to support this cool local asset. I’m referring to the Homestead not myself. Though I am pretty cool and I am a local ass .. et.
I played at the Soule Homestead in Middleboro last night as part of their Summer Concert Series. Due to the EEE threat, the gig was moved indoors. I was really looking forward to playing outside and was disappointed. The room was small but held a decent amount of people – it was completely packed and overflowing into the next room where the concessions were being sold. The sound was excellent in my opinion. The onstage mix was perfect, not too loud but plenty loud enough to hear myself. The audience was very attentive and quiet while the music going on. It was very different from the bar-type gigs where people are socializing, eating, and drinking. It was a nice atmosphere to perform in and a little scary – no mistake could go unnoticed. As always when I play there plenty of small gaffs but nothing really horrible.
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Kudos to the Soule Homestead staff. They took good care of me and made it all very easy. I just had to show up with my guitar, plug in, and play. The main act was the Nashville Clippers. I really enjoyed this band which consisted of two couples. They had a very engaging “real” sound. Good harmonies, understated instrumentation and excellent sound – the mix was perfect.
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For various reasons, I only got the final five songs recorded. Normally I record from a direct feed off the soundboard. This recording was done with the built-in condenser mikes on my Tascam DR07. Nothing fancy – it was just sitting on a chair next to me that was jumbled with my stuff – harmonicas, pics, drinks, etc. For all that I think the recording is pretty decent:
- Catfish John
- Christmas Time
- Goin’ Cross The Mountain
- Papa Gene’s Blues
- Foggy Dew
- Walkin’ Boss
- Ring Of Fire
- Pretty Fair Maid In The Garden
- Colleen Malone
- Little Bird Of Heaven
- What A Wonderful World
I’ll be opening for the Nashville Clippers at the Soule Homestead Summer Concert Series on July 31, 2010 at 6:00 PM until the main act comes on at 7:00 PM. This is a really idyllic setting with beautiful views of fields, trees, old New England stone walls and gorgeous sunsets.
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Admission is $7 and $5.00 for seniors and students with children under 12 free. The Soule Homestead is located at 46 Soule Street Middleborough MA 02346.
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The series runs every Saturday until 8/21. Please support the series as much as possible but especially on the night I’m playing to feed my already considerable ego. Here are some mp3′s from my last gig and here is the Facebook event page.
I had a great time at the Flat Iron last night – and extra thanks to everyone who took time out of their busy lives to attend. This was my third solo acoustic gig. I’m pretty happy with the way things are going and think that each show has been an improvement on the last one. That is most certainly not to imply that the performances are perfect. There is no lack of mistakes.
I had help from guests Marese Barry – aka Mary Barry Massage Therapy on Closer To Fine and Matt Bargoot. Matt is a former colleague that I haven’t seen for a couple of years. We played together a couple of times a number of years ago and whipped out an unrehearsed version of The Boxer that wasn’t too shabby. Matt also provided harmonies on Norwegian Wood. The gig marked my first public performance on the 5 string banjo – an instrument I’ve been playing for less than a month. That was on Goin’ ‘Cross The Mountain. Sadly it’s slightly out of tune but still not bad for a first effort.
Here are all the recordings I have from the 3/27/2010 gig at the Flat Iron Cafe. A number of songs didn’t get recorded due to operator error. The turnout was good but not as good as my first gig – which I was sort of expecting but still a little disappointed about.
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I’d say my performance was a little better, or at least sounded a little better. At the first gig I had a lot of trouble with feedback – which made the volume a little low. I also didn’t have any on-stage monitoring which adversely affected my singing a little bit. This time I set the main speakers well in front of me and plugged ear bud headphones into the line out from my recording deck. I used just one of the ear pieces – it gave me perfect monitoring of the mix.
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I played every song except one without a pick and was generally pleased with the results. One thing about my hybrid clawhammer technique is that it causes me to vary speed quite a bit – just something I have to work on. When you really get the percussive groove going right the tempo tends to run away a bit.
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I think my favorite songs of the night were I’ve Been All Around This World, Buckets Of Rain, Tomorrow Is A Long Time, The Foggy Dew, Every day I Write The Book, Walkin’ Boss, Shady Grove, Pretty Fair Maid In The Garden, and Dress of Satin. Most of the stuff came out OK but as usual there are a few duds here and there. Yet somehow life will go on.
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We also had an encore that featured Marese(Mary) Barry. She’s been under the weather lately and we haven’t sung together since the last gig on Nov. 21 – but the fans would not be denied. Marese did an exceptional rendition of Closer To Fine – much better than her first fear conquering attempt at the last gig. Unfortunately, I messed up and didn’t record it.
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Well .. enough of my yapping – here are the recordings which are served up with a new in-line mp3 player plugin.
Here’s one of the new songs I’ll be doing this weekend at the Flat Iron Cafe = Saturday March 27, 2010 7:30 – 10:30 PM
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The song Buckets of Rain is from one my favorite Dylan albums – Blood On The Tracks. This version is a one-take quicky recording so don’t expect anything resembling perfection. It’s a cross between Dylan’s version with some of the percussive clawhammer-ish style I’ve been playing around with. Here is the direct link to the mp3.
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I really *must* change the mustache graphic to a neatly-trimmed goatee graphic but no time now. Enjoy and please come to the Flat Iron this Saturday.
Arty photo that makes me look trendy and cool
Laughing Grass' first gig 7/31/2004
In the last couple of months, the weekly Thursday night jams with my bluegrass band – Laughing Grass – were getting cancelled for a variety of reasons. After nearly a month of missed practices, we finally got together last Thursday and played for the final time – at least for a long while. The banjo player is busy with other musical projects and wanted a hiatus. I was finding those weekly trips to Weymouth to be more and more of a pain and won’t miss them – and I think the time for a hiatus is right. I’ve been in a number of bands, and they always end for one reason or another. This band was fun. It was my first bluegrass band and really set me off exploring a musical genre that I’ve always liked but didn’t really know much about. It led me to my current interest in roots and old time music. Before joining, I hadn’t been in a band since probably 1990. School, work, kids, and life in general had put music way on the back burner and I rarely played for almost 15 years.
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This puts me in an interesting spot musically. I’ve taken to playing solo acoustic gigs recently. There is a lot to be said for being a one man show: you don’t have to travel for practice and deal with the scheduling conflicts of other musicians. The down side is that playing with other people is a heck of a lot of fun. I’m playing regularly with a bass player – though I’m not sure where it’s going. We are joined occasionally by a mandolin player and a few times with an old time clawhammer banjo picker but usually it’s just the two of us.
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With the exception of the clawhammer banjo picker – John, I’ve been playing with musicians I’ve known since high school. It might be interesting to find some local musicians and get exposed to a new group of people. Through John, I’ve been exposed to a pretty active folk music scene that looks pretty interesting.
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For now, I’m going to enjoy the holidays with the family, and give some thought to the next musical project.
Here’s a video of “Little Bird Of Heaven” a song by the Reeltime Travelers from my recent gig at the Flat Iron Cafe. I have no idea what the heck this song is about but it has that old time/roots sound that really appeals to me these days. My version is slower, more subdued and I think works well given that I don’t have a clawhammer banjo or any other accompaniment. Unfortunately there’s a lot of crow noise but I still like it.
Here is a recording from the Flat Iron Cafe – it’s an old Monkee’s song. There is a bit of crowd noise but not a bad version. It was taken by my friend Katie – who toughed it out all the way to the end.
Flat Iron gig in the Gazette
My column in this week’s Middleboro Gazette talks about the FinCom initiative to do an IT assessment, and the BOS/TM initiative to turn that good idea into a useless one.
Also in the Leisure section is a nice announcement of the gig I’ll be doing at the Flat Iron Cafe this Saturday, Nov. 21 starting at 8 PM.
I’ve had pretty good response from the bordering-on-spam emails I’ve sent out about the gig – so it should be a fun time. On the bright side, if you find the music bad, the Flat Iron serves beer and wine to help you deaden the pain. The only agenda I have for this gig is fun – and I expect the same will be true for those attending.
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