Bike Ride on the Cape

Last weekend we drove down to the Cape to ride on the Cape Cod Rail Trail. It's about halfway up starting in South Dennis, although we parked at the Headwaters further down the road. It was about 80 miles from our house, according to google, and it really didn't seem too long of a drive to me. We only made one wrong turn trying to find the entrance to Rt 3 in Boston - in typical fashion, no signage to lead you there.

We parked by a cranberry bog (more on that later) and off we went, traveling by a few ponds before heading into the woods. The trail itself was fairly empty, it being October on the cape, and I think we brought the average age down a bit. It was a nice, sunny day and about 64 out, so just perfect.

It's a bit strange because you are on the Cape, but you don't really know you are by the ocean at all. Most of the trail is in the woods, as you can see from the picture above. We made it all the way to Eastham, for a total ride of just over 23 miles. We made one detour to Skaket Beach, just to see the ocean, but it was really windy and kinda cold there, so I took a few pics and we kept going. We stopped for some food at a Taqueria on the trail that was really quite good - El Huapo's in Brewster. Yum!
It seemed like we were going uphill both ways, even though the trail was almost flat. The way back I think it was the wind in our face that did it. Once we made it back, I went and took some pictures of the cranberry harvest going on near where we parked.

More photos here.

All in all, a fine way to spend a day.

Chris

Red Molly Concert

On Sept 26 we went to the Homegrown Coffeehouse, in Needham, MA at the UU church to see Red Molly, an excellent group who we saw the past summer at Club Passim. Before the show, we went to eat at Sweet Basil, around the corner, a place that does not take reservations! Therefore, while we were waiting the 20-30 minutes, we went over to the church to see if we had to pay or what (Emily had ordered tickets online awhile ago).

While trying to figure out where the entrance was (on the side), I saw one of the group (Abbie) in the window and gave her a vigorous wave, to which she replied with her own wave. Then we went in and up the stairs to see the place and Abby and Laurie came out and chatted us up a bit. The guy in charge let us go in and put our coats on some seats in the front, which was fortuitous because when we came back to go in there was a big line, even at 7:30. The church is so small that there really wasn't a bad seat.

Of course, I can't remember the entire set list...but at the end, when we went up to the stage to chat them up some more (J had questions about the dobro - a Scheerhorn Wechter - and I wanted to get a closer look at the acoustic bass guitar - a $400 Dean), they said they had 16 songs over the 2 sets. Some of the songs that they did were, in no particular order:

Caleb Meyer (first song - Abbie in lead)

Summertime (by Carolann)

Wayfaring Stranger

A solo by Carolann

Long Ride Home (Patty Griffin)

The Mind of a Soldier (winner of the John Lennon songwriting contest)

It's Good-bye and So Long to You

A Tim O'Brien learned song I don't know the name of...

May I Suggest (a stunning a capella song that they did as an encore and in the center of the church with no mic's...a religious experience right there!)

Jud Caswell, of Brunswick, ME, opened the night with an excellent set. He sat down front without amplification to do "Blackberry Time", which made it all feel so cozy. He also came out in the middle of the Molly's set to sing the song that gave them their name, by Richard Thompson.

Red Molly comes up to the Boston area a few times a year, so make sure you go check them out when they do, before they get too famous and you won't be able to get close to them!

Chris

Zach. End of Summer Studios

Zach spent a month at the MassArt Summer Studios this year. It's a great program for high school students interested in studio art (or fashion or jewelry or graphic arts). Everyone has to take a "2d and 3d fundamentals" course and "Issues and Images" class, then you can specialize in various disciplines. Zach took ceramics and photography.

They visited a lot of museums in the area like the MFA, Gardner, ICA, and the Harvard Sackler, and discussed the work there and what it meant, etc. During drawing, they got to work with live models for the first time. At one point, each student brought in their work for a critique, which Zach enjoyed alot! He said he got great feedback and ideas. It seems like they got a lot done in a short amount of time and it convinced him to continue to pursue the arts. I'm not sure I would have predicted this when he was 2 yrs. old, but it makes sense now!

Each class had a final project due at the end, which was included in the student show last Saturday. Above is his photo essay, which had to do with smiles. Yes, we had to pose one night about 11 or 12 for this one. (In fact, working late at night, sometimes w/ assistance, might have been a theme, too!)

The ceramics final project was quite interesting, since it was more conceptual than the work we had seen before. It has to do with opening up....to me, it looks very organic and has a lot of movement in it. A lot of people at the show seemed to be impressed by it. I think Zach wanted the glaze to be a bit different than it turned out. We're trying it out in our garden now. :)

For the 2D/3D classs, he did a wire sculpture - actually 4 of them, with 2 figures each. It's showing a sequence of a kick...i.e. someone kicking someone else and falling. Here it is at the show. (His teacher suggested a larger figure, so the last one is bigger, but he used it for effect to show the other one being dominated.)

I won't post all the comments from the instructors, but I will say that he did well there and is looking to attend next year! Hopefully he can get the application done early and we'll be done with it.

I'll post more later or on his secret website, which is sitting there doing nothing so far...

Chris

Butterfly

The butterfly bush actually attracts butterflies! This isn't the usual monarch that we see around here, but it's pretty cool looking (and big). We saw this outside the front window and I ran out to take a bunch of photos.

Chris

New to Me Music

Here are a few recent discoveries in the collection:

Carrie Rodriguez - saw her on Austin City Limits and had to check it out further. Sounds modern and traditional at the same time. Interesting songs.

The Be Good Tanya's - I think they came up in an amazon.com list after looking at the Wailin' Jennys. Who knows? but they're good! They seem to be on leave at the moment.

Red Molly - We saw them at Club Passim in Cambridge recently and they are very entertaining and great musicians. They are still on tour.

Sara Watkins - Solo album. She of Nickel Creek, I enjoyed this one, too.

Bill Frisell - Disfarmer - new CD from Frisell written to accompany a photo exhibit by Arkansas portrait photographer Michael Disfarmer. You can hear it on NPR if you want. Another mix of new and old sounding music. Some of the stuff sounds like Phillip Glass and other like Hank Williams.

Marc Ribot - After reading an article in my favorite mag - Fretboard Journal - decided I needed to explore his music. Hard to pin down, depending on the setting, but I like the Cuban inspired band Los Cubanos Postizos and his solo guitar work, like on the Masada Guitars album, which also has Frisell on it. He's also worked with Tom Waits, Albert Ayler, and the Raising Sand album with Robert Plant and Alison Kraus.

Oldies but Goodies Dept.

Picked up some blasts from the past - Little Feat, Old and in the Way, It's a Beautiful Day, Pentangle, Mingus, Wes, Grisman, and Piazzola! Too many to mention and go into detail on, but a good mix to add to the collection.

I will mention one name, however, and that is Cal Collins, who I saw in Cincinnati quite a bit when I was there and is the most awesome jazz guitarist you never heard of. I had all his records and the digital versions are hard to come by. Luckily discovered some online, because they are not all available on CD or mp3.

That's it for now, check out this music now.

Chris

Vacation Tidbits

A few random thoughts while on vacation...

We've had lobster twice so far. We usually buy it (cooked) from O'Reilly's Coop in Cape Porpoise. This year prices are about the same as last year - $11 for each 1.5 lb. lobster. Yummy. This is the only time I eat lobster. I guess I'm spoiled.

Before we came to Maine, I picked up an old Kent aluminum banjo from some coot in Roslindale. He said he hadn't played it in 30 years. I took it off his hands for $50 and got a bridge and strings from Buckdancer's in Portland (a great music store). The neck is straight and it plays good. Also picked up a book to learn the frailing (aka clawhammer) technique. It's easy to get started, but hard to perfect. Let's just say that I can make sounds now and I serenade the kids when it's time for them to get up, usually past noon. It's loud and effective at that. :)

Yesterday I took a walk out to the rocks in front of our cottage while everyone else went to see the new Harry Potter movie (not my thing). When the tide goes out, it's about a quarter mile out and you can walk to them. They are a lot bigger than you think just looking from afar and being mostly covered up during high tide. Here I am out on the ocean side of the rocks (self-timed photo, of course!).

This is kind of a weird one - lobster traps and ropes getting taken over by beach grass. I guess at this point, no one is bothering to clean it up.

The weather has been spectacular after the first couple of days of rain. I was kind of hoping that the averages would start to work in our favor after such a rainy June. We've been able to take a few long bike rides. Once over to Kennebunkport to have lunch at Arundel Wharf, per tradition. Another good one is to Hills Beach and lunch in Biddeford Pool (always good to have that lunch goal in front of you). I played golf once (so far) with an IBM colleague who also vacations up here. We had a visit from Bob, Alyssa, and baby Milo (1 yr) - cute, but a boatload of work keeping up with the baby now that he's walking. Then there was the hurricane force winds to contend with!

I read Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food, which happened to be on the bookshelf in the cottage. It certainly makes sense to me. He spends a good 2/3 of the book explaining how the food conversation has changed over time from "food as food" to food as a breakdown of nutrients that we consume in order to be healthy. It's a big indictment of the food industry and nutrition science, although they are not necessarily to blame - we have more food products than ever, and it's cheap, too. But all the processing of the component parts (wheat, soy, corn, meat, dairy) has a price too - to our health...high obesity rates, heart disease, and diabetes. It was an easy read, despite a lot of nerdy food and nutrition research. At the end he offers some simple "rules" for eating better. A couple of my favorites (summarized): 1) If a product claims to be healthy, run away! 2) If a product has more than 5 or so ingredients, be suspicious; especially if you can't pronounce them. 3) Buy from local sources. 4) Eat mostly plants. Stay away from refined anything, esp. high fructose corn syrup. I think that the closest diet fad I've seen that matches to the eating well philosophy is the South Beach Diet. Anyway, good book, good reminders.

Speaking of food, Lucas and Giulia made some awesome clam chowder the other night! They are quite the cooks. It even got the Zach seal of approval. I see more of this recipe in my future. Lucas awesome grilled up some bratwurst he was having a craving for. They made a fire that night and the police even came by to check for the fire permit, which I never heard of them doing before. Luckily this was right before Giulia came out with the wine. Reportedly, Seth (friend of Lucas) said to the police as they were approaching and he didn't know it was them, "Do you approach bearing booze?" in his best Shakespearian voice. Later, they ended up killing the wine plus another 6-pack or so of beer. Kids!

that's it for now - off to enjoy the day.

Chris

Beach Grass

I took a ride to the end of the beach last night at sunset and got a couple of good pics.
I really like the one above - good light and angular, sharp focus. Sunsets themselves are hard to capture...must search for techniques on google. :) Below is my attempt at capturing the sunset.


Greetings from Maine.


Chris

Vermont Instruments New Site

Vermont Instruments, run by George Morris and Adam Buchwald, where I took my sabbatical and began the luthier journey (is it ever over?) has put up a new web site. Our class picture (Fall 2008) is on the home page, taken on the last day before we went our separate ways. My guitar was still in pieces after I put in the inlay on the headstock, so I held one of the tenor guitars that was hanging around (literally) the shop and Adam had just strung up.

They've also put up a testimonials page, in which yours truly is pictured WITH my freshly-strung guitar, and a link to my chronicles on this blog. (See sidebar links.) A recognize a couple of my photos mixed in there, too. :) If you are interested in taking the class, head on over there. Adam is also teaching a repair class, which sounds good, too.

I'm happy that they have added an alumni section, where presumably a forum will appear where we can ask questions and trade tips. So far, no login info yet, but it's coming.

respectfully,

Chris

Flowers at the Arnold Arboretum

Went for a walk in the Arboretum yesterday before the Lilac Sunday/Mother's Day crowd descends on JP today. Spectacular flowering trees and lilacs!! I posted a few of the best photos on picasa - click the image above to go there and see the full versions. You can almost smell the lilacs from these. Lots of happy birds were tweeting, too.
Chris

Green Arms

What's up with our kids breaking their wrists??
Did they not drink enough milk? Not enough sunshine?
Is frisbee really a dangerous game? You tell me.

Zach decided to join Lucas in the "wrist hit parade", and he's looking quite proud of his cast.

Luckily we had good care down the street and didn't have to suffer through the hospital system. He'll have the cast on for 4 weeks.

Chris

Katz Rag

Here's a Stefan Grossman tune I learned a long time ago and relearned recently. It's from Yazoo Basin Boogie, the tab book I have from way back (KM-102) that cost me $1.25! 

This time I'm using the CR Original Guitar (i.e. the one I made last fall). I'm using my new Zoom H4n recorder and it sounds really alive! You can hear everything - especially if you use headphones (so, don't!) :)

Katz Rag

Enjoy

Chris

Primetime - Music

Here's another guitar piece I wrote recently, played on my Collings OM-2H (short scale - i.e. 24.9"). I actually picked this little guy up on e-bay, in perfect condition, although smelled of cigarettes - it took me a few months (and a bottle of Fabreze) to get rid of the smell. Note to self: next time, ask first. Still, I'm happy with this guitar. It's very easy to play and has an even sound across the range.

Anyway, this song is in a dropped D tuning and recorded on a Zoom H4 that I borrowed from a friend to try out. It's incredibly easy to use and records better than the previous Mac + Mic + USB interface, which produced a nice hissing sound. I think the Collings sounds pretty darn good, if I do say so myself. :)

Primetime

Enjoy - 

Chris

Zach's Ceramics

Zachary is quite interested in ceramics - in fact, so interested that we are checking out art schools! Here are some pics of some of his work. He's done a whole series with hands in different poses. Some of them even have faces on their palms (not my fault he has these visions).

Here are a few pictures from a recent show at the high school. Not surprisingly, I could not get him to pose with the work. I also wish I'd taken a photo of what he wrote, since we'll probably never see it again - but it was a thoughtful reflection about what he was trying to accomplish with the art.






Chris

Derek Trucks Band at House of Blues Boston

Last night I went to see Derek Trucks Band at the Boston House of Blues (which opened recently). What a concert! The night started well - I found a metered space on Boylston St. :) Plus, no ballgame meant an easier time getting there.

The venue itself is in the shadow of Fenway Park on Lansdowne St. We arrived around 7:20 for the 8:00 pm start. The hall is a big open room on the first floor with bars around the perimeter. That's where the plebes stand during the concerts. We did, too. The second floor has standing room along the sides (not much either). Third floor is for the elite ticket holders (the ones who planned ahead and bought them) and has actual seats, but only at the back because the floor area is a big, open three story barn.

I hadn't listened to Derek Trucks before but I knew of him, if that counts. His wife is Susan Tedeschi, who sang backup on a few songs with the band, which was cool. The only song I recognized was "My Favorite Things" - but I bet I was the only one who equated it with Coltrane and not The Sound of Music. I did know that Trucks played a few Coltrane songs on some of his albums, like "Afro Blue" and I heard  a Wes Montgomery tune "Bock to Bock" that he played on one CD, so he has that jazz knowledge, anyway. I sorta knew "Sweet Inspirations", one of the encores, but I don't know if that's because I listened to it on youtube yesterday or what. Anyway, he played blues, some funky stuff (Hammond B3 and Hohner Clavinet - woohoo!), some rock - but always tasty. Another thing that I liked is that even though he has chops for days, he knew when to quiet it down and build momentum in his solos up to an ear-bleeding crescendo. And, there was an element of simply jamming befitting a live concert.

Derek played a red Gibson SG which you see in all the videos on youtube. I don't think he had any effects on it, but I couldn't see the stage floor. The amps looked like either a Fender twin or deluxe...loud enough either way. He played a lot with the slide. On one song he used what I think was an old Silvertone in an open tuning, as seen in this official photo. The band played until about 11:30, with 2 encores. By that time, I was surely a tired puppy.

Jaibo Jaszz Band opened and played 8-9. They were entertaining, but still a warm up act. I could have used a little more variety in the tempo, but I cannot fault them on musicianship, etc. Nice horn section and the guitarist was good (red Gibson SG, too).

All in all, a good night. 

Chris

Yikes - Lucas is 20!!

Lucas turned 20 last weekend, a milestone for everyone, I guess. I dug out some old photos and scanned them in (no digital cameras back in those days!).
Here are 2 from babyhood.

And here's a more recent grown-up picture.

I must say, he's a great guy!

Chris

This Little Light - Highland Station

A group I play with regularly made this recording to go on the Folk Song Society of Greater Boston CD (I think it comes out soon, but who knows!?) The arrangement is by Jim Scott. I'm playing bass on it (and finger snap, not at the same time) and the rest is acapella by J. Johnson, David Godkin, Pam Haran (lead), Gretchen O'Neil, and Eric Hanson.

This Little Light of Mine

Enjoy.

Chris

Bermuda Triangle Exit - New Guitar

Well, I finally got around to recording the guitar that I built last fall. This is a Stefan Grossman tune called Bermuda Triangle Exit that I reacquainted myself with. I didn't do it a million times to get it perfect, so it's a bit "raw", but you can at least hear what the guitar sounds like. :)

Bermuda Triangle Exit MP3

I recorded this to our old mac Sound Studio thru a Sony stereo mike. I added a touch of reverb afterwards, then converted to mp3.

Chris

Joe Val Bluegrass Festival

Yesterday I went to the Joe Val Bluegrass Festival in Framingham, MA for the first time. Every year I say to myself that I want to go, but never did because I'd probably have to go alone and that's not as much fun as going with someone. Anyway, I decided to go check it out and I sure got my fill of bluegrass! There was a fair amount of boom-chuckin' and Flatt-runs and chicken-pickin' going on, I guar-en-tee. 

One of the things I liked best was the workshops. The photo to the right is one I went to with Josh Williams, IBMA (whenever they said that at the festival, I was, like, " What's IBM got to do with bluegrass?") guitar player of the year. Getting to hear him play up close was worth it. He played Cherokee Shuffle first, by himself, which was screaming! (That means good.) Then he talked about some of his playing techniques and bad habits that we shouldn't do. There were some questions from the audience - a good one got him to talk about how when he's soloing he gets into a zone and really doesn't know what he's doing or how. I do think that is true when you are really playing "in the moment" and Josh can do it because he's already got chops up the wazoo. Someone noticed that he didn't use his pinky finger and this is true - he's learned to do everything with just the 3 fingers on his left hand and it doesn't seem to hurt. Tony Watt joined Josh at the end to do Nine Pound Hammer, with Josh singing and them trading choruses. 

I went to the band's 2:10 show on the main stage which was quite good and entertaining. They are a new band and trying to establish themselves. I think doing these festival circuits is how they build an audience. I certainly wouldn't have known about Josh Williams unless I had gone there and heard him play up close.

I also went to the Tony Watt guitar workshop, where he was jamming with Avril Smith, from the DC band Tinsmith (who I just checked out and really like!). They talked about playing fiddle tunes and everyone seems to want to know how to hold a pick the best way. I think the best advice I heard was to just jump in and sink or swim, when it comes to jam sessions and improvising. Luckily I don't have a problem winging it, but I guess some folks are uncomfortable straying from the melody.

An interesting phenomenon about the festival, which is thankfully indoors, since it was about 30 degrees out, was that people were just jamming in the hallways all over the place. This is to take the place of the normal campground, outdoors in nice weather jam sessions that take place. You can definitely understand why having a big dreadnought guitar is a must in these situations, because the banjoes, mandolins, and fiddles dominate the sound. Even nice guitars like Martin or Collings get overwhelmed when it's time to solo. Even the bass comes through loud and clear in these sessions. If you want to join in, you just show up and bring your voice or instrument. Most of the songs I had heard before, like Dark Hollow, or Red Haired Boy.

In the vendor showcase room, I talked with Steve Beckwith of Beckwith Strings, who is building guitars out of his place in Bolton, MA. His guitars look really nice with cool wooden inlays. He said he used to work at Intel, but now does this for a living...well, he's trying to make a living at it. I'm sure it is hard. His guitars were around $1000 - 1200, which seems like a good price to me for a hand-made instrument. We talked a little bit of shop about guitar building and neck joints, in particular. Maybe I'll follow up with him and see if I can check out his shop as I put mine together.

Finally, I went to the Dailey and Vincent band show. Their harmonies were amazing! 4 parts and you could tell that they knew they were on, because they just let 'em ring at the end of some of the songs and they did an acapella song. A bit too much god and jesus in these songs for me, but they were very good anyway.

That's my report for this year. Next year, it might be better to go on Saturday because some of the workshops available seemed better (and there were more of them).

Chris

New Courses at Vermont Instruments!

I just checked in on the Vermont Instruments website this morning and see that they are now offering additional courses this year. The first is a 2-week banjo making course with Will Fielding. The second is a one week guitar repair course, led by Adam Buchwald. I remember Adam talking about both of these ideas when I was there in Oct 2008. The guitar repair course is designed to be added on to the end of the guitar building class or to be used by itself.

Both are very tempting for me! VT in May? mmmm.....

Course descriptions.

Chris