Enjoy this short about the late Wade Hemsworth, one of my fave songwriters and singers.
Boys save your money or you’ll all be like me, in the land of the Muskeg and the Shining Birch Tree, The Shining Birch Tree.
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A Canada Day movie matinee
I took The Partners for a good walk late this morning then Tuffy P and I trundled off to our local Cineplex to watch Baby Driver at the early show.
This flick sports a good cast, lumpy script, great soundtrack and action, action, action, complete with plenty of gunfire, explosions, gratuitous violence and driving crazy enough to make Jim Rockford envious. There’s even a love story tossed into the works. It may not be a great movie but it sure is a lot of fun, nicely put together around the groovin’ soundtrack. Add to this the enjoyment of having a burger, beer and sweet potato fries in the seats at the VIP theatre and I was a happy camper. Recommended for those who want to leave real life behind and just get in the car and drive. Lots of fun!
The Maple Leaf Two-Step #Canada150
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 here in Canada, we have plenty to celebrate. Canada is a great place to live and I feel both thankful and fortunate.
I’ve been leading up to Canada Day on this blog by celebrating some of our Canadian fiddle traditions. I’ll continue that today by sharing some tunes by the late great Ward Allen, starting with his first recording, The Maple Leaf Two-Step. It was recorded in 1953 as a 78. The flip side had another great tune, the C.N.E. Breakdown.
Ward Allen was born in Kirkton Ontario, near London, in 1924 and passed in Hull Quebec in 1965. He started fiddling at 12 years old. He became a champion fiddle player, toured with Wilf Carter in the 50s and was even inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville, in 1965. There are many of Mr. Allen’s tunes available to listen to on YouTube – check them out. Unfortunately I haven’t seen any film of him playing. If it exists I don’t think it is posted anywhere.
I’ll leave you with one more, Ward Allen’s most famous tune, which has become a fiddle standard everywhere – Maple Sugar.
Happy Canada Day everyone.
Paring down social media
I deleted my Pinterest account tonight. I realized I hadn’t posted anything to any of my boards nor visited anybody else’s boards for ages. I don’t know what I was doing there, really. It seemed interesting to me at one point, but now not so much.
I also deleted my Ello account. I had opened one up hoping it would become an alternative to Facebook, but I haven’t even looked at it in ages.
What to do with Facebook? The good thing about Facebook is that it is a handy way to keep in touch with people I don’t see often but want to keep in touch with. That’s a strong selling point. I also participate some in a few Facebook groups related to clawhammer banjo and I like being connected to that community.
For a long time now I’ve been cross-posting blog posts to Facebook and to Twitter as well, and while I might get a handful of visitors some of the time by doing that, I wouldn’t say it’s driving traffic. I don’t post much on Facebook (outside of occasional videos in banjo groups). I suppose if I decide to stop cross-posting from 27th Street, I’ll be more or less invisible there to most of the people I’m connected with.
There are, however, many things about Facebook which I don’t like at all, starting with the idea that Facebook wants to curate my interests and keeps reverting back to the “Top Stories” setting, even though I keep changing it back to “Most Recent”. I’m pretty much done with Facebook memes and Facebook politics, but there is so much of that stuff it’s difficult to avoid it. For now, the ability to keep in touch with people on Facebook is a good enough reason for continuing with it.
Twitter has become less and less interesting to me. It is very handy when there is breaking news I want to keep up with, but I’m seriously considering trashing my Twitter account. I’ll think about that one for a bit.
I’ve had fun sharing photos on Instagram, but my interest has been waning there too. I may stay away from Instagram for a bit and see if I miss it.
I have 17 stories (The Lazy Allen Stories) up on a blog site, and while a few hundred readers stopped by there during the period I’ve had it up, there hasn’t been any activity at all there for a couple months. I don’t know if I should continue to share them this way or not, but I’m leaning towards taking them down sometime soon.
We’re going to continue with the Long Branch Mosaics site to showcase our mosaics. I like to be able to have photos of the mosaics readily available to show people who might be interested in having a garden mosaic made.
Then there is this place. I enjoy blogging and I’ve been at it for quite a few years. The number of folks who visit has been falling off over the past 3 years though, and there is hardly any interaction around here these days, which is discouraging. I feel a change coming on, although that’s just a feeling at this point. Something to think about.
Calvin Vollrath on fiddle
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 playing fiddle since he was a boy. He’s written over 600 fiddle tunes and has twice been North American Fiddle Champion. Mr. Vollrath lives in Alberta and plays in the Métis style.
The Buck Fever Rag – time for some Canadian fiddle music
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 Hill was the fiddler for Mac Beattie and his Ottawa Valley Melodiers. I sure wish I could have seen that band live. Listen to My Renfrew County Home..
One more….I’ve shared this one before and I’ll share it again because I love this one. It’s Mac Beattie singing The Old Tyme Fiddler’s Dream featuring Reg Hill paying tribute to some of Canada’s great fiddlers.
Banjo Practice – Lady on the Green into Devilish Mary
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 I have all kinds of new tunes and new approaches to work on and I want to get as much of it crammed into my wee brain as I can before I forget it, so I end up playing a lot of banjo.
The other evening I was sitting out on the bench in front of our house, frailing away. I was working on Ladies on the Green but somehow or another I got mixed up and found myself playing Devilish Mary. They sounded like they belonged together so I started playing them that way, since there are no rules.
I’m playing my Dogwood banjo tuned up to A.
Chicken and Rice, oh so nice
It seems that most cultures have some kind of super-delicious chicken and rice dish. I enjoy making one-pot dinners and I like braises in general, so from time to time I make some version of chicken and rice.
The photo actually shows a day 2 left-over lunch. I made this one with chicken thighs and drumsticks with the bones in, but for leftovers, I removed the chicken from the bone for quick and easy re-heating in a fry pan (just add a splash of water, turn on the heat and stir it around until it’s perfect).
I often don’t follow recipes and cook with what I have on-hand. The other day I did purchase some shiitake mushrooms and green olives, actually planning ahead a wee bit. I also used sweet and hot peppers, carrots, cumin, sweet paprika and dried oregano. I guess with the olives it kind of approximates an Arroz con Pollo type dinner.
I make most braises in a Dutch oven, but sometimes I use a tagine instead. I know there are lots of folks who prefer to use a slow cooker for convenience but not me. In fact we had one at some point but I think we re-homed it at a garage sale a few years ago. In a Dutch oven, I can brown my chicken (or whatever), remove it, sautee up some onions until they start to caramelize, deglaze the pan, then add everything together with some cooking liquid. I then pop it in a 300F oven for cooking.
One of the things I like about making chicken and rice dishes compared to most braises is the shorter cooking time. After I add the rice (ordinary long grained rice is fine for this), some tomato paste and the cooking liquid, it’s ready in about 40 minutes.
For chicken and rice, I usually use a handy box of grocery store chicken stock as cooking liquid. Water is ok but not the best. Wine is fine. Beer is really good too. I’ve even used a shot of whiskey or liqueur. I’m all for trying some different things to see what works.
Tomato update
As I’ve mentioned here before, our back yard simply doesn’t get enough sun for successful tomatoes. The front, however, looks more promising. This year, I have 5 plants growing in containers there, thanks to our friend Jennifer (The Fabulous Garden), who kindly gave me the young plants, which she started indoors.
It looks like the plants approve of the spot I have them in because they’ve been growing at an alarming rate and there are loads of blossoms. I had created some pyramid shaped wood structures to support the plants, especially once they are full of fruit and soon they will be enveloped.
Today, using the school of shaky carpentry no measurement system and some branches from some old shrubs out back, I extended the structure another couple feet up. These are indeterminate tomatoes and they will just keep on growing and fruiting. If the new and improved structure disappears in a sea of tomatoes, it will be quite a sight. I’m not sure what to do if that happens.
King of the 9-String
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 a different bridge, stuff the back of your instrument, or even put tape over the strings behind the bridge in an effort to modify the sound.
Big Joe Williams is one guitar player who wasn’t afraid to change things on his guitar. In fact he doubled up 3 strings and became known as the “king of the 9-string”. He was also known to add stuff to his amp to make a more percussive and rattling sound.
Williams was born in 1903 and passed in 1982, age 79. He was very well recorded with a career which spanned 4 decades. Many of his early sides were recorded with John Lee “Sonny Boy” Williamson on harmonica (that’s the first of the two Sonny Boy Williamsons…it was the second one who called himself the original). At one time I listened to most of those recordings and as I recall they were all excellent.
There was a time I listened to a lot of blues and Big Joe Willliams was among my faves. I love his rough and ready guitar attack.
27th Street 