Music – Page 2 – The Knitting Doctor

My Life According to Chip Taylor

This one came from Vicki, AKA Knitorious. If you want to play, you have to pick a different artist, one artist, and choose one of their song titles that best fits each question, preferably not repeating song titles. This actually was pretty fun. I saw these two perform together in Seattle a few years ago. Chip wrote “Angel of the Morning” years ago, one of the highlights of the evening was when Merrilee Rush, who performed it and made it famous, came up unexpectedly on stage to sing it with him.

MY LIFE ACCORDING TO Chip Taylor/Carrie Rodriguez (they sometimes play together, sometimes not)

Are you a male or female:
“Magic Girl”

Describe yourself:
“Sweet Dream Girl”

How do you feel:
“Angel Of The Morning”

Angel Of The Morning*

Describe where you currently live:
“Midnight On The Water”

If you could go anywhere, where would you go:
“Oh Ireland”

Your favorite form of transportation:
“Same Damn Car”

Your best friend is:
“Hey Jonny” (john, of course!)

You and your best friends are:
“We Come Up Shining”

What’s the weather like:
“All The Rain”

Favorite time of day:
“Big Moon Shining”

If your life was a TV show, what would it be called:
“The Trouble With Humans”

What is life to you:
“Do Your Part”

Your relationship:
“I Can’t Help It If I’m Still In Love With You”

Your fear:
“Something About Losing It All”

What is the best advice you have to give:
“We Just Roll On”

Thought for the Day:
“What Would Townes Say About That” (Townes Van Zandt)

How you would like to die:
“Dance With Jesus”

Your soul’s present condition:
“Unglorious Hallelujah”

Your motto:
“Must Be The Whiskey”

I couldn’t find a video of this, but here’s a link to an NPR story about the two of them, click on the “listen” button, this is the first track they perform, and is about 2 minutes in on the audio.

Drop me a note if you decide to play along, I’d love to see what you all come up with.

*I spent an inordinate amount of time trying to get that fracking video to embed here. You’ll need to go on over to fracking u-tube to watch. Some days I hate html with a blind fury fueled even hotter by menopause.

The Church of Bluegrass, Part 2

Today is sadly the last day of Wintergrass. Of course, even I can get banjo-ed out after awhile, so it’s probably good that it ends eventually. Friday was a fun evening, and until I heard Sam Bush’s band, I would have said that Darrell Scott was my favorite artist of the evening. The lineup this year has been pretty spectacular, and the range of musical styles pretty broad, so it’s difficult to pick one “favorite”. Sam and his band would be my choice for Friday though. They played a two hour set at the end of the evening, and even though it was approaching 1 AM, they had the huge packed ballroom at the Hyatt on its feet.

Yesterday we had a few food experiences. It started with breakfast at the Hyatt, with menus printed especially for the occasion.

From there we went to a workshop in the afternoon. It was a combination of food show and Cajun band. The band, the Red Stick Ramblers, played in the background while their lead singer made a huge pot of gumbo. After it was done, we all got to eat. The band did a fabulous “real” set later in the evening as well, minus the gumbo show.

Because we’re sort of wimpy old farts, we took a short nap before the evening festivities. Here are a few shots of last night’s fun.

Michael Doucet has been one of my favorites for years. He’s an unbelievably talented Cajun fiddler; he usually heads up the band BeauSoleil, but was here last night on his own.

There was knitting, and wine drinking. There’s that sock.

More crazy fiddling. That’s Darol Anger, another gem.

Last but not least last night was Scythian. This is a Washington DC based band, they sort of play Celtic rock, but that’s an understatement. They also play insane gypsy Klezmer style rock, and I just wish someone could bottle their energy. Their show sported the only rap-hip-hop performance, and likely the only extended crazy drum solo. The accordion guy and the fiddle player are brothers, and yes, they are that cute. Click to see.

I’m a bit sleep deprived, so you’ll need to google all of those bands yourself. I need some serious coffee this morning to get up and going for today’s show. My favorite of yesterday is….impossible. I can’t choose, and I think that’s a good thing!

The End

Actually, that would be “ends”. I finished Big Pink today, at least the knitting part of it. By my count, I have about 36 ends to weave in.

I’m about a third of the way done with them, so I should finish this over the weekend. Angie, you might even get this by next week!

Here are just a few Wintergrass shots. Although the scheduled professional performers here are fabulous, some of the best music is heard just wandering around the hallways. Anybody who has an instrument brings it along for the weekend, and there are dozens of impromptu jam sessions set up all over the hotel. Here’s one from the afternoon.

I’m off to take a nap before the evening schedule. I had a long week at work this past week, and need to catch up on sleep before the fun begins tonight!

The Church of Bluegrass, Day 1

Here we are again, my favorite time of year.

We got here a little late tonight for the first night’s festivities, since I had to work all day and then get my butt home and finish packing. We’re here in lovely downtown Bellevue for the whole weekend.

I have my knitting and spinning ready, the wrist band is on, and the course through the schedule maze plotted. Let the banjo music begin!

What’s Playing At Your House?

OK, I admit it. This is a “filler” post, one of those things you put up when you’ve got nothing in the knitting department. I’m knitting the same stuff, the only thing that I’ve made any big progress on is a gift, and it’s mostly Shocking Pink Garter Stitch, anyway, so photos really wouldn’t help.

John and I are trying to do a gradual dredging out of all the crap in this house. We’ve been making progress in weeding through the gazillion books around here. Anything that’s already been read is going, and anything that we both look at and shake our heads at goes as well. The music collection is the next frontier. We have a bazillion (is that more than a gazillion or less?) CDs also. We finally have our home music system set up so we play music from ITunes straight to the stereo system, so there really is no need to keep the actual CDs once they are burned to the computer.

As part of this, the whole CD collection is in paper bags sitting next to my computer, and every time I’m up here, I burn a few of them to the hard drive. It’s a pretty eclectic collection, even I must say. One of the things I discovered recently is that you can sort your music by how many times each song has been played. Here are my top 10 or so played songs.

1. Memories Are Made of This, by Dean Martin

2. Set ’em Up Joe, by Vern Gosdin (I know I’ve mentioned him before, the greatest country singer of all time)

3. Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy, by the Andrews Sisters

4. If Wishing Made It So, by the Subdudes

5. It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere, by Alan Jackson & Jimmy Buffett

6. Cuando me enamoro, by Andrea Bocelli

7. I’m Gonna Be Strong, by Buddy Miller

8. Blues Stay Away From Me, by Jorma Kaukonen

9. Blue Moon, by the Mavericks

10. Smoking Panatelas On the Blue Mediterranean Sea, by the Aqua Velvets

11. Running From Mercy, by Rickie Lee Jones

12. Bird On A Wire, by Leonard Cohen

There you have it. Speaking of the Mavericks, we’re headed to the big city today to hear Raul Malo perform at the Tractor Tavern tonight. Here’s a video of him singing Let It Be Me.

And another one of him singing Blue Moon, with the Mavericks.

I’m pretty sure that I’m going to enjoy it. I’ll report back next time. What’s on your playlist?

The Church Of Bluegrass, Days 1 & 2

Well here we are again. It’s that time of year again, the Wintergrass festival. This year is one of great changes. The festival has had 16 years in Tacoma, and this year, its 17th year, it packed up and moved up north to Bellevue, for a variety of reasons. This was very traumatic to those of us who have been loyal fans for years. It’s always been convenient for us since we lived twenty minutes from the previous venue. As I’d already purchased tickets when they announced the move, we decided to go for it. Of course this means a three-night hotel stay, and figuring out pet arrangements, and a house-sitter. I went into this figuring nothing could be as good as the old Wintergrass. Bluegrass, at the upscale Hyatt, in upscale Bellevue? Hmmph. I was prepared to be disappointed.

Boy, was I wrong. This is a fabulous venue. All of the concert venues are in the hotel complex itself, instead of being scattered all over downtown Tacoma. There are literally dozens of good restaurants and shops within a few blocks, if you choose to leave the hotel. The staff at the Hyatt have just taken this on as a mission, and could not be more welcoming. The public spaces for vendors and the multitudes of jammers are much more spacious.

The festival runs Thursday night, Friday night, and all day Saturday and Sunday. We had tickets to the Seattle Symphony on Thursday night, so we missed the first evening. Last night was terrific. My favorite group from yesterday was the Infamous Stringdusters, but a close second was the Steep Canyon Rangers. My only complaint so far is that there are too many fine artists here, and it is impossible to see them all. Oh, and one of us forgot to put the camera cord in the bag, so there will be no Wintergrass photos posted to the blog for now.

I also brought numerous knitting projects with me on the trip. You can’t have too many knitting projects when you’re away from home for a few days. So far all I’ve worked on is a spindle project. I’ve gotten most of the way through a half a pound of natural-colored Blue Faced Leicester over the past few months, and I brought the spindle and fiber to the Ballroom with me last night. If I thought knitting was an oddity here, you should see the looks I get while spinning in between music sets. I’m certain that I’m the only one with a spindle here, but I’m hoping to start a trend. I’ll have John get photos so I can post them later, when we get that camera cord. We’re off to find breakfast, then to stalk some banjo men.

The Church of Bluegrass, 2009

Well, it’s all over. I still have banjos ringing in my ears, but Wintergrass is done for another year. 2010 tickets are already on sale, and though I haven’t gotten mine just yet, I will soon. Gotta get those early-bird prices, you know!

Highlights of Saturday and Sunday? The festival Saturday ran all afternoon and evening, at five different venues in and around the hotel, including the Rialto, an early 20th century movie house that has been restored as a performance hall. That venue, as well as one of the oldest Baptist churches downtown, are likely everybody’s favorites, both audience and performers.

My favorites on Saturday included another Mike Marshall group, Choro Famoso. He had a Brazilian mandolin player, Danilo Brito, playing with him. They played a whole set of mostly choro music which was just fabulous. Another one of those surprise groups was Cody Bryant and the Riders of the Purple Sage, playing good old fashioned cowboy music. They were a lot of fun to listen to.

Sunday’s festival was just at the main pavilion, and started out with a bluegrass gospel show, then finished up with Laurie Lewis, the Isaacs, and Blue Highway. I would have trouble picking just one of those as a favorite, though I’d never heard the Isaacs live, and they are just terrific performers.

Best of the weekend? This year it’s nearly an impossible choice, which is a good thing. In the not-quite-bluegrass category, it would have to be Mike Marshall and Choro Famoso, though there were a lot of very close seconds. In the more mainstream bluegrass category, Blue Highway is my favorite, though again, it’s a tough choice!

In the category of festival knitting, here are my winners:

I finished one sock and grafted the toe on Saturday (during Choro Famoso!), and then got the whole cuff of the second sock done yesterday. Since John likes his socks a little longer, I knitted the cuff of the first one as long as I dared. Yesterday I started getting a little concerned about yardage, so out came the trusty scale. I weighed the first sock, then the second half-done sock and the remaining yarn, then subtracted the weight of the needles.

Enough to finish the second sock, with several grams to spare! Whew!

Wintergrass, Day 2

Just a quick post, since I’m headed out the door. Last night was yet another spectacular WG evening. Lots of good music, bad festival food, and mindless knitting.

Picks of the evening for music? Three Ring Circle, with Rob Ickes on dobro. They were so good that I listened to two sets. And Scythian. They’re at best a distant cousin to bluegrass, but if you ever get a chance to hear them live, just go. Somebody should figure out how to bottle their energy.

Later!

Wintergrass, Day 1

As usual, the first evening of Wintergrass brought some great entertainment. The festival starts Thursday night, then continues Friday evening, most of the day and evening on Saturday, and all day on Sunday. Thursday is sort of the “warmup” session, but there are always a couple of “sleeper” groups that turn out to be great. Last night the Tallboys, a string band from Seattle, were my favorite. It’s an old time string band, and as they point out, are neither all boys, nor all tall. They have fiddle, banjo, bass, and a clogger girl. What more could you want in a group?

The other hit of the evening was Mike Marshall and one of the many group iterations that he plays in. This particular group was the Big Trio, playing acoustic string music that is difficult to pigeonhole into one genre. Mike is also playing with a Brazilian acoustic group tomorrow, and that should be terrific as well.

As to knitting, I worked on True Blue last night. I’ve finished the back piece, and cast on the front so I was ready for the evening. I managed to just finish the bottom ribbing and the increases last night, so now I’m ready to just knit mindlessly back and forth on the body without having to pay much attention. The ribbing is a twisted rib (P1, K1tbl on the front, K1, P1tbl on the back), so I had a bit of trouble with it in the dark, but from here on it should be easy. Here are photos.

The back, done.

Those little clips holding the extra yarn on the shoulders? They are from a set of bag clips that we got at Ikea. The smaller ones are just a little too small to work well on food bags, but are perfect for this application!

Ribbing done:

What? You don’t have a pirate pencil case??

I suppose you want to see inside, too.

Well, of course it came with the pirate pencil sharpener and the pirate eraser.

Arrrgggh, matey. I’m ready for the weekend.

Yarn Porn

I got a couple of requests from my Oodles of Yarn post, for more yarn porn.

For Chris:

Oooh, shiny! It’s nearly impossible to photograph that accurately. It’s much more, well, black, with hints of color as you turn it in your hand. It is just lovely. This is the color Grawk. I could not possibly resist a hank of yarn with the name Grawk. It’s Socks That Rock Raven series Silk Thread, enough to make something lacy (perhaps this?).

And for Debi:

That’s Shoefly sock yarn, from Angora Valley Fibers. Yes, it really is that bright. The color is labeled “One of a Kind”, and I don’t see this yarn on their web page. They do have some fairly wild colors, though, Debi, including a lime mix in their Lacewing fingering sock yarn.

Last night was the first night of Wintergrass. Thursday is often sort of a ho-hum night. It’s not terribly crowded, and usually the bands are less well-known, and sometimes, um, a little dull. This time was different. The place was packed, every group was great, and the last half of the evening was devoted to Black & Bluegrass, with some outstanding music from a few African-American old time string bands. Old time string bands are my favorite, so I was sad it was over. My favorites tonight were Laura Love & Harpers Ferry, and the Ebony Hillbillies. The rest of the weekend has a great line-up too, so I’m looking forward to what’s next!

Before The Next Teardrop Falls

Just a quick post. Yesterday one of the great ones passed. Baldemar Huerta, better known as Freddy Fender, died. I was lucky enough to hear him perform live one time, last year. He was a legend, and will be greatly missed.

If all you know of his music is Wasted Days and Wasted Nights, pick up his La Musica de Baldemar Huerta. It’s one of the classics.

Adios, muchacho.

Ten Songs, Ten Bloggers

Two posts in one day. What’s this world coming to?

Damn, this one was a hard one. I got tagged by Wendy for this, and it’s been sitting in my email “to-do” folder while I was thinking. I’m still thinking.

My music taste generally would be described as psychotic by most of my friends and neighbors. I prefer the term “eclectic”. So these songs are by no means representative of my entire playlist. I’m just going to randomly pick ten songs out of my ITunes list that I’ve listened to recently and hope it gives you an idea.

1. Blue Railroad Train, by Jorma Kaukonen. The album is Blue Country Heart. You know the guy, I know you do. Jefferson Airplane, Hot Tuna. His solo albums are great acoustic blues.

2. Shenandoah, by Dave Alvin, from his Public Domain album. I love everything that man sings, but this is one my favorite albums of his.

3. OK, I can pick two by the same artist. From Dave’s album Interstate City, the track Jubilee Train/Do Re Mi/Promised Land.

4. Let’s shift gears. Memories Are Made of This, by Dean Martin. Very corny, I know. That’s me. This music comes on, I want to go make myself a martini.

5. Jessica, by the Allman Brothers. This one makes me want to get in the car and drive. Or Blue Sky. Or Statesboro Blues. Anything from their live albums will do (don’t get me started on which one’s the best. Who cares?).

6. Beethoven’s Violin Concerto, by you-know-who.

7. Beethoven’s 7th symphony. My favorite version is from Leonard Bernstein’s Final Concert album. This one just makes me happy.

8. Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy, by the Andrews Sisters. Really. It’s impossible not to tap your toes while this one is on.

9. Smoking Panetelas on the Blue Mediterranean Sea, by the Aqua Velvets. Gotta have some surf guitar, and this is very seductive surf music. And I love the title.

10. Last but not least, what’s a playlist without the Greatest Honky Tonk Singer Of All Time? We’re talking Vern here, Vern Gosdin. Set ‘Em Up Joe gets played around here a lot, especially when the bourbon comes out.

11. OK, it’s my blog, I can do 11 if I want. I realized there is no bluegrass in that list. That lapse is not tolerated around here. Hmmmm, how to pick just one? OK, from Jerry Garcia, the best bluegrass picker and singer there is/was. That Grateful Dead thing was just a side gig. I’m giving you a three-fer. Shady Grove, from the album of the same name he did with David Grisman. Arabia, from an album entitled David Grisman & Jerry Garcia. It’s an incredible over-16-minute jam. And really, last but not least, Teddy Bear Picnic, from the album Not For Kids Only. I had to include that one for Sweetpea.

12. Really, just one more, just because I love the movie it came from, and it just came up on the random ITunes playlist. Belleville Rendez-Vouz, from the movie Triplets of Belleville. If you like animated movies, go rent it. It’s in French, but it doesn’t matter, because there is little dialogue.

The list goes on and on.

OK, to tag ten bloggers. These are again just randomly selected from some of you, just because I want to hear what you listen to.

1. PJ

2. Kris

3. Theresa

4. Deb

5. Lynda

6. Jane

7. Laurie

8. Dorothy

9. Vera

10. Lee Ann

Consider yourself tagged. No go read my other post from today. I wouldn’t want you to miss it just because I got carried away and did two.

More Bluegrass

Here are a few more pictures from our bluegrass excursion last weekend. The Columbia river area is just spectacular, and Stevenson is a fun little town. Saturday before the banjo fun started, we stopped at a local watering hole for a little lunch and some fine Columbia Valley wine. Of course, I took my knitting. I was the only knitter at the bar that day.

After lunch, I continued on with the sock. A woman at the next table was fascinated by the sight of all those needles. I might have converted a new knitter.

Lest you think that I have lost my touch, the coffee was after lunch, so I could stay awake until after midnight. I did have wine with lunch.

After lunch, we joined the festival at Skamania Lodge. The afternoon concert was on the lawn behind the lodge.

Here was the view from the stage:

One lucky couple had planned an outdoor wedding here on Saturday, not realizing that there was a bluegrass festival going on. Apparently they didn’t want banjo music during the ceremony, so the festival organizers were nice enough to stop the music for half an hour so they could get hitched. There they are in the distance.

My sweetie was nice enough to go get us some wine.

The festival moved to the county fairgrounds for the evening show.

Not a bad view there, either. Country Current, the Navy bluegrass band, played in the early evening.

After the show I played groupie and got my picture taken with the banjo man, Keith Arneson. Yes, banjo players can have groupies.

I had my picture taken with another festival favorite at one of the food stands.

One of my favorite things about this festival was the cookie people. They came around every evening with trays of warm homemade cookies, giving them away to the crowd.

There were a few knitters at the festival, but I didn’t get very good pictures of them. I also had two different women come up to me Saturday night to ask “Is that Rogue that you’re wearing?”. I love knitters.

Next post, the trip home, with (gasp) a project update.

Saturday Sky

Or,

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

First, the Ugly. As the ticker shows, the Volkswagon went in reverse this week. I got all rebellious on the point-tracking system this week. “Points?? I don’t need to count no stinking points!” And it showed on the scale. I think part of the gain was a major hormonal fluid-shift-salt-binge attack. All I can say is that it’s just not fair to have hot flashes and PMS at the same time. The Good news is that I went to that meeting even knowing I’d probably gained, sat through the meeting, and came away knowing what I need to do to fix it. We’ll see what happens next week.

The Good? We’re at a bluegrass festival this weekend. The same folks that do Wintergrass do a summer festival in Stevenson, WA, called Adventure Bluegrass. Stevenson is located on the southern border of Washington, on the Columbia Gorge. If you want to know what heaven looks like, drive along the Gorge from I-5 east. The river is spectacular, the mountains are lovely, and it is a perfect setting for a weekend of fine bluegrass, including my favorite bluegrass band, the US Navy Band, Country Current. We arrived yesterday, and the first evening of bluegrass was as fine as it gets. Early in the evening it was sunny and warm, then it got cool as the sun went down. Cool enough, in fact, for me to wear Rogue. Yes, an Aran weight wool cabled sweater with a hood. In late July. That’s the beauty of the weather here; it can be shorts-and-sandals hot during the day, and wool-sweater cold at night.

Our cabin is right on the Gorge, and here is my Saturday Sky:

One really Good thing about bluegrass festivals is all the free knitting time. I finished the first STR Rainforest Jasper sock last night, and started the second.

I only saw one other knitter last night, though she wasn’t actually knitting. She had a t-shirt on that said “Knitters Have Balls”. Let me tell you, I was tempted to hit her upside the head with my knitting bag when I ran into her by herself in the bathroom, just so I could steal that shirt. She better not show up anywhere unaccompanied today.

The Bad? A big old Douglas fir had to be taken out of our back yard this past week. I’ll post some pictures later when I’ve had a chance to sort through the ten thousand photos we took to document its demise, but I’ll leave you with a couple of Good pictures. Doug and Zeb are our new “foresters”, and they were in my backyard all day, which is not necessarily a Bad thing.

Yes, they really are that cute.

I hear the call of the banjos, so I’m off!

The Church of Bluegrass, Day 4

Or, 364 Days Until Wintergrass 2007

I’ve learned after four years of going to Wintergrass that it just isn’t over until the final band has performed “Will the Circle Be Unbroken”, complete with audience participation, and until George (the emcee) says it’s over.

John always gives a big sigh of relief when they play that song. It means he can finally go home and not listen to banjo music for another year. For the record, I don’t make him go to the whole thing. We get two weekend passes, I sit through every note, he drops in and out when he feels like it, using the “I have to go home and feed the dog now” excuse.

Highlights of the last day? Sunday morning is always the bluegrass gospel show, and only the diehard bluegrass fans, or the ones who got some sleep the night before, show up. Everybody else starts drifting in to the pavilion around noon. Laurie Lewis and Tom Rozum gave a fine performance, including an impromptu number called “The Vice President Has A Shotgun, and He Can Shoot Whoever He Wants”, that brought down the house. Mountain Heart had the whole pavilion crowd tapping its feet, and Del McCoury did a long set that was pretty good. He’s a little too much “high lonesome” sounding even for my taste, but puts on a good show.

I have 6642 bluegrass songs lined up on Rhapsody to tide me over for the next year. And I already have tickets for the next festival in July, the Adventure Bluegrass Festival in Stevenson, WA. My favorite bluegrass boys will be there; the US Navy Bluegrass Band, Country Current. And yes, John knows we’re going. It’s an outdoor festival, so he can take a book, or his Ipod, or wander around the Columbia Gorge area.

There was knitting going on yesterday. I got the heel turned and picked up the gusset stitches, and am on my way down the sock foot.

I wasn’t sure I was going to like that picot edge instead of ribbing, but now that I’ve gotten part of the sock done, it looks pretty cute. I have no high hopes of matching the stripes for the second sock, but I like how they’ve turned out on the first one.

Congratulations to all the Olympic Knitters out there! Whether you finished or not is not the point. There’s been some fine knitting going on, worthy of gold medals all around!

Added Later, Almost as an Afterthought:

I almost forgot, I needed to pick the favorite artist of the festival. I loved Uncle Earl the best. They play oldtime music as well as great bluegrass. Their banjo player, Abigail Washburn, also does many of their vocals, and has her own solo album. She also speaks fluent Mandarin. This may be the first time ever that there have been bluegrass songs sung in Mandarin at Wintergrass. If you like old time music, go buy their group album, She Waits For Night, as well as Washburn’s album. Their fiddler, Rayna Gellert, has a solo album out as well, and that one is a keeper also.