Wishing all my friends here in Canada a super-fantastic Canada Day! There’s been a lot of hoopla around this one, it being #Canada150 and all. Some of that seems somewhat artificial, but that’s OK. Even though we have our share of issues to grapple with… Read More
As we get closer to Canada Day I’d like to share a YouTube video featuring another of my fave Canadian fiddlers – Calvin Vollrath. Here’s Maurice Billette’s Reel. Clinton Pelletier is on guitar and Mr. Vollrath’s wife Rhea Labrie is step-dancing. Calvin Vollrath has been… Read More
We’re just a few days away from Canada Day 150 so let’s celebrate by featuring one of our great fiddlers, the late Reg Hill. I could listen to that one all day. Here’s another of his compositions, The Madawaska River Breakdown… For 25 years, Reg… Read More
This is me trying to play two ‘A’ tunes strung together: Lady (or is it Ladies) on the Green and Devilish Mary. I learned them both recently at Midwest Banjo Camp from Cathy Barton Para. One of the things that happens after banjo camp is… Read More
How many guitar pickers seriously mess with their instrument? Normally I’d be safe in saying banjo players do a lot more of that kind of thing than guitar pickers. On a banjo you can adjust or change the head, adjust or change the tailpiece, try… Read More
Just because it’s so much fun: Dan Gellert… Whitetop Mountain Band…
When I started playing clawhammer banjo, I fell hard for it and very quickly it dominated the music I played to the point where my old accordions lay quiet. I really never gave it a second thought – until recently. I’ve been missing the button… Read More
Here’s some homegrown music from Kristine Schmitt with the Lonesome Ace Stringband… Happy Friday.
I’ve begun my first tentative steps learning to play fiddle. I’m reminding myself that my first days on button accordion were a struggle, figuring out to to manage air and cope with learning two sets of fingering, one for pushing and the other for pulling.… Read More
Sixty plus years ago, when my brother Joe (who I often refer to on this blog as my brother the trout, Salvelinus fontinalis) was a young boy and years before I was born, our grandpa – that’s our dad’s dad – gave my brother a… Read More
27th Street 