April 29, 2015
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Memphis update

Memphis visited the vet today to get her staples out and to get a post-surgery check-up.

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The vet says she is healing up well from her surgery, although watching her limp around the house it’s hard for us to tell. For the next couple weeks, she continues to be restricted to low activity. That means she goes outside for biology breaks but stays home when Georgie goes out for longer walks. After that, Memphis will start doing 10 minute walks and increase slowly from there as she builds up her strength.

April 29, 2015
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Hop High Ladies

Some fiddle tunes go by different names in different places. One I play on clawhammer is Western Country, which is sometimes called Susananna Gal or Fly Around my Pretty Little Miss. Here’s another tune that goes by different names. In this first video, these guys call it Hop Light Ladies. I like the fiddle with the gourd banjo on this one, sparse and clean. Lovely.

I first heard this as Hop High Ladies, and it is also known as Miss MacCloud’s Reel or Mrs. MacCloud’s Reel. More recently I’ve heard it has another name as well – Did you ever see the devil Uncle Joe…. Here are Blaine Sprouse (fiddle) and Evo Bluestein (autoharp). I’m not usually a huge fan of the autoharp but this is really superb.

April 29, 2015
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Physiotherapy

I had my first physio session yesterday, and I’ll be going twice each week for the next few weeks. I think as important as these sessions are the exercises I have to do at home. I left the first session thinking this is easy-peasy. I did more exercises later at home. No problem. It was not until later, around dinner time, that my body acknowledged the work I had done, and reminded me to not over-do things right away. A little nap was in order.

My right foot still has some swelling, and my range of movement is still limited – but at least, out of the cast now, I can move it around some. The exercises work on that range of movement. They also work on strengthening various other muscles in my feet and legs. Makes good sense.

I don’t have to have the air cast on if I’m hanging around the house. I do wear it anytime I go up or down stairs, or if I have to go out for anything or anytime I feel I need to protect it. I just have to keep vertical weight off it. It is super-fantastic to be able to sleep through the night without a cast on!

I go back on Friday for more.

April 27, 2015
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Songs about going to the doctor…

Since I was back at the hospital today I wondered if there were any tunes about going to the doctor, or tunes about doctors. The first one that came to my mind is Ramblin’ Jack’s performance of Arthritis Blues. I’m fortunate not to have arthritis, or at least not yet, but my father had it for years in his knees and Jack is right, it is all kinds of trouble….

Now, some performers are known as doctors… Here’s Gris-Gris Gumbo Ya Ya by Dr. John…

And who can forget Like a Surgeon by Weird Al?

Since I like all kinds of folk music, here’s Doctorin’ the Tardis by the Timelords

Doctor….ain’t there somethin’ I can take? Put the lime in the coconut. I never thought I’d be sharing a Harry Nilsson tune…

Of course there are dozens and dozens more….what are your fave tunes mentioning doctors or medicine?

April 27, 2015
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Ankle Update

We sallied forth early this morning for an appointment at the fracture clinic at Toronto Western, with Dr. Syed, who ably put me back together after my March 9 tumble from our front stairs.

There is some excellent news and some somewhat frustrating news as well. The first bit of good news is that my injury is healing very well, and my surgeon says my X-rays look great. The second bit of good news is that they cut my cast off (yay, that felt so great!!!) and gave me an air cast to be used for safety only. In other words, I can keep it off as long as I can safely do so, but I can put it on around the dogs or if I’m out and about, or any time I need it for safety. The frustrating news is that, even with the air cast, I’m not to put any vertical weight-bearing on my right leg at all for 6 more weeks (Arrrrggghhhh!), meaning I’m still going to be hopping about on crutches. I’m to start physio-therapy twice per week (+ homework) and today I’m making arrangements for that.

As well, I’m also looking for a cart for the main floor of our house that will help me do things like make lunch (try moving things from the fridge to the counter to the table while using crutches) and feed the dogs. My doctor has told me I can begin working again (in a home-office situation) on May 11. I’m hoping by next visit to my surgeon first week of June I can shed my crutches and more or less return to a normal life schedule.

April 25, 2015
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Getting out

Amongst the chaos here at Casa 27th Street, including my injury, Memphis’ surgery and the painting of a few rooms in our house (including bookshelves), we have a house-guest – our friend Toni is in town from Glasgow. It’s always a treat to see Toni! Last night she took Tuffy P and I out for dinner to The Cellar Door, a fairly new eatery just down the Lakeshore in New Toronto.

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The Cellar Door is a fairly spacious, friendly place featuring wood-oven pizza and home-made pastas. Dinner was delicious. The appetizers were fantastic – particularly the grilled octopus, and the pan-seared scallops. Pizza was thin crust wood-oven pizza, generous portions, and very nicely flavoured (I had one featuring wood-smoked bacon – yum!). My only criticism of this restaurant was that it took a really long time between appetizers and pizza – not a huge deal I suppose, but when you have a broken ankle, it’s hard to sit still for a long time without putting your foot up and wait-time becomes more of an issue. Still, the food was excellent and the atmosphere friendly, and The Cellar Door is a nice addition to our community.

I haven’t been out very much since my injury – and today I pushed things a little and I was out twice (East Texas Red is in town from the land of Big Joe Mufferaw, and we popped out for a burger and fries at lunch). This was a reminder to me that I still have some healing to do, because by the time Toni, Tuffy P and I returned from dinner last night, I was ready to lay back, put my foot up and relax – and I turned in soon after.

This morning I’m relaxing at home, while East Texas Red is joining some of the regular trout bums who haunt one of our local trout rivers for the annual opening day breakfast. I still can’t drive with a cast on my right leg, so I’m laying low this morning. I enjoy this occasional get-together, and a finer rag-tag bunch of fly fishing cranks you won’t find anywhere. I won’t be getting much fly fishing in this season, though, as I want my ankle to fully heal – maybe I’ll get out a couple times in August/September, so I’ll have a couple tall tales to share when the cranks get together for Christmas dinner.

April 23, 2015
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More Canadian fiddle

I like to celebrate Canadian fiddle music from time to time here at 27th Street. Most people automatically associate “Old Time” music with Appalachia, but up here in Canada, we have a very well developed fiddle tradition. Calvin Vollrath is as good a fiddle player as you’re going to find anywhere. He lives in Alberta and plays in the Métis style.

Here is Mr. Vollrath playing a tune he wrote for another of our great fiddle players, Natalie MacMaster – and as a bonus, Ms MacMaster joined him on stage to play it with him. Here is Natalie MacMaster’s…

Here’s Mr. Vollrath playing with Al Cherney, another western Canadian fiddle player, who was well known for appearances on the Tommy Hunter television show.

Calvin Vollrath has been an excellent and prolific tune writer. This next video features yet another great western Canadian fiddler, Patty Kustorok/Lamoureux playing the the tune Mr. Vollrath wrote for her. He is supporting this performance on guitar.

I want to make a note about YouTube here. For the old time music enthusiast, banjo freak, etc, it is just the greatest resource. Everything is at our fingertips, a few keystrokes away. It was not too many years ago this musical museum was not available. As regular readers know, I’ve been learning clawhammer banjo and I can’t imagine trying to learn it without videos at my fingertips showing me all the regional styles and all the great and not-so-great performances.

April 22, 2015
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Steel Driving Man

John Henry has to be one of the most recorded songs ever. The story is basically an American tall tale.  Like so many of these folk tales, I can’t remember not knowing it. I think I knew it before I understood the story. John Henry was a steel-driving man on the railroad. So many folk tales and songs come out of the building of the rail lines across the continent. He worked with a partner called a shaker, who held a steel bit while John Henry whacked it with a 9 pound hammer. I wouldn’t want to be the shaker, I can tell you that.

Most of you know the story. Along comes the modern world – and with it the steam drill, or steam-powered hammer – designed to blast through rock much faster than any mere human could. But John Henry was exceptional and he challenged the steam drill to a race through the mountain. As the story goes, John Henry won, but keeled over and died in victory. There are countless variations and version of the story and countless musical variations as well.

Here are a few interesting musical treatments John Henry. Let’s start in a blues setting with a powerful version by Mississippi Fred McDowell.

Here’s Furry Lewis, the great Memphis bluesman, from 1971. Furry, Like Mississippi Fred, plays slide in this performance, but his approach is far different.

John Henry is well known as a banjo tune as well in Old Time circles, and is usually played as an instrumental. Here is Glenn Godsey playing a version inspired by some of the players who developed a distinctive style in the Round Peak area of North Carolina.

Here’s another performed by Chuck Levy and Rafe Stefanini. I had an opportunity to meet Chuck Levy in June of 2014 when I attended the Midwest Banjo Camp. Chuck was leading a “slow jam”, for players like me who had not had much experience playing with others. This jam really helped build my confidence and I was able to move on to a faster “intermediate” jam, and more or less hold my own in a more challenging environment. Chuck was super-patient with a group of people of different skill levels all trying to figure out how to play with others. He is an excellent banjo player and a fine fiddle player as well as a really nice fellow.

Here’s one more banjo performance of the tune, this one by Dwight Diller. Diller is from West Virginia. He apparently lived with the Hammons family and is known as an inheritor of their musical tradition. This looks like a cell-phone video and it isn’t the best, but it gives a good idea of Diller’s approach to the music, which puts the rhythm first and emphasizes developing a groove. I find his playing to be very hypnotic.

April 22, 2015
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Chaos on Twenty Seventh Street

As you know I’ve been limping around the house, and Memphis has recently had surgery so she’s limping around the house. Was that enough chaos for one spring? We decided to have a few rooms of the house painted, to freshen everything up for spring. This included our bookshelves. We have a lot of bookshelves – and that means we have books all over the house.

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One thing we had not considered is the natural law that says Newfoundland dogs have a magnetic attraction to wet paint, especially Newfoundland dogs named George.

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We hired Mike the Painter to do the painting. Mike does a great job at fair prices. He can also handle just about any other wacky job that comes along.

“Hey Mike, we need a temporary ramp where the deck stairs are.”
“A ramp?”
“Yes, for Memphis, while she’s recovering so she doesn’t have to do stairs. It has to be long enough to lessen the angle, sturdy enough to support dogs and humans, covered with outdoor carpet so she doesn’t slip, and of course inexpensive enough that we can afford to do it.”
“OK, no problem.”
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Now it’s easy for Memphis to get out to the back yard without the difficulty of stairs. She can handle the ramp no problem at all.

Speaking of ramps, pretty soon my little ramps crop in the forested area of the back yard will be appearing. For those who have never had them, ramps are also known as wild leeks. They look like smallish tulips and smell strongly of onion – and they have a strong delicious flavour. I used to gather ramps in a forest not far from the city that has been seriously encroached by a housing development. When they started the development in motion I brought home a shopping bag full of ramps along with the soil they grew in and planted them out back. I’ve just been ignoring them since, letting them slowly spread. Let me say they spread very slowly. This is why, if you have a ramps spot in a forest you should only take a little each season, enough for a couple meals. It doesn’t take long for a ramps patch to get depleted when they are dug out faster than they can spread.

I know some other forests where I can find some ramps, and most years I bring some home while I’m out after morels. This year with my broken ankle there will be no spring foraging for me, so I plan to harvest the first meal of ramps from the back garden. My brother has suggested I fertilize my little ramps patch to encourage them to spread. I hadn’t thought of that because of course nobody fertilizes the forests where I usually find them. However, it ought to work so I think I’ll try it this spring.

Meanwhile, Memphis is recovering well. When we can’t watch her, she has to wear an Elizabethan collar so she doesn’t pick at the staples in her incision, and that is clumsy for a large dog, but she is tolerating it. She hates (HATES) taking her medication. For a while I was successful burying pills in toast but now she’s hip to that and she’s very suspicious. We’re managing but pill time is a trial around here. She has another several days of antibiotics and a few more pain pills as well. On the positive front, she’s limping around with confidence and she seems to be comfortable. I’m hoping that later in the summer both Memphis and I will be able to wander about in a forest looking for summer mushrooms (I look, she wanders). George of course loves that too!