The snow-family my neighbours up the street have been nurturing is still going strong…
March, but…
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March, but….
Strangers on a Train
We watched this Hitchcock classic tonight. I had seen it before, a couple times in fact, but it was so many years ago, my memory had Robert Vaughan rather than Robert Walker playing the scheming Bruno Anthony opposite Farley Granger as tennis ace Guy Haines.
This film is visually fantastic, from the first scene, focusing on the legs and feet of crowds in a train station to the final hyper-dramatic (if implausible) carousel crash scene. This story shouldn’t really hold together, but Hitchcock was a master storyteller (and yes, one of my favourite directors)and even though I knew the story, I put aside my disbelief and went along for the ride.
Progress on the new oil can banjo
I’m down to the fine work on the neck I’m building for the new oil can banjo. Once the shaping is just right and the sanding is done, the next step is to make and glue in the nut (I’m using a piece of ebony) and then drill and ream the holes for the tuning pegs. I’m going to do a couple practice holes on piece of scrap wood first because this is the first time I’ve tried fitting pegs.
I haven’t decided if I’m going to make a bridge for this one or use a commercially made bridge. Eventually, I’ll make all my bridges, and I have some good stock to make a few from, but I also have 3 suitable bridges I bought on ebay a while back, so I may use those first. The fingerboard is fretless on this banjo, like most gourd banjos and early banjos.
The last item to make will be the tailpiece. I’m going to use a kitchen fork, as I did for the first one. It works well, looks fine and it’s a conversation piece too.
The new oil can banjo neck
Both the fingerboard and the heel are bloodwood.
Angelina Baker vs Angeline the Baker
Angelina Baker is a Stephen Foster song written for the Christy Minstrals and published in 1850. Here’s a taste…
Angeline the Baker is a fiddle tune that has similarities to the Foster tune, but has evolved quite differently. Here are some versions of Angeline the Baker, starting with a very nice stringband version by Trent Wagler and the Steel Wheels
Here’s Zepp on Clawhammer. He plays so beautifully well!
And a fiddle version on a boxcar by ottlakerambler
And finally, a dobo and mandolin version featuring Rob Ickes
I’ll Twine mid the Ringlets
I’ll Twine mid the Ringlets is an American song written in 1860, lyrics by Maud Irving and music by Joseph Philbrick Webster. Hardly anyone has heard of it. However, in 1928 the Carter family recorded the tune under a new title, Wildwood Flower. I’ve heard it many times but remain somewhat mystified by the lyrics….
- Oh, I’ll twine with my mingles and waving black hair,
With the roses so red and the lilies so fair,
And the myrtle so bright with the emerald dew,
The pale and the leader and eyes look like blue. - With lyrics like that, it’s no wonder the song later caught on as a guitar instrumental. Here are the Carter Family performing Wildwood Flower on the Opry. This is a fantastic bit of footage. Folk music enthusiasts in the crowd should be just about drooling with anticipation.
- Here is June Carter Cash recording it much later, in 2002, another amazing bit of video.
- I’ve known this tune since I was in my teens, but I know it not as Wildwood Flower. Woody Guthrie, who never shied away from appropriating a melody for his own purposes, adapted it for The Sinking of the Reuben James. Here’s Woody…
- Finally here’s a fun instrumental version featuring Larry Collins, Joe Maphis and Merle Travis…
Lake 27th Street
Yikes
The lake out back
You never change your socks
Tonight I’d like to offer up a Daily Dose of Big Rock Candy Mountain…
Here’s The Katfish Four
If you have never heard Baby Gramps this version will be an eye-opener for you…this gets cut off at the end but by then you’ll have the plan
I grew up on this next version – Burl Ives. My parents gave me a Burl Ives record when I was a little guy and I wore that vinyl out..
My brother the trout has suggested I learn this one on the canjo…so I’m working on it, and will have my version up as soon as I learn this puppy.
Magic Slim dead at 75
I heard today that Chicago bluesman Magic Slim died. RIP
Tuffy P visits Baltimore and Washington
Tuffy P visits Baltimore and Washington
Tuffy P and her friend from Halifax Suzanne, spent a week visiting Baltimore and Washington. I just looked at 281 photos from their trip!
Tuffy P, Suzanne and Homer Butler
In their travels they met a fellow named Homer Butler, who helped them find the right bus to get to the Baltimore Museum of Art. As it turns out, Mr. Butler used to live in Canada – he played safety and cornerback for the Saskatchewan Roughriders! In fact, in 1978, he led the team in interceptions.
painting by Jack Savitsky, coal miner folk artist
They saw lots of great art, like this painting by coal miner folk artist Jack Savitsky! They saw Julia Childs’ TV kitchen in the Smithsonian, and they even went contra dancing (at the Lovely Lane Methodist Church, on St. Paul’s St. in downtown Baltimore…where they’ve been contra dancing for 30 years with a live band)
Contra dancing in Baltimore
They had a great time – but I’m glad to have Tuffy home!
Flying Solo + messing around on the canjo
I’ve been flying solo this last week, as Tuffy P and her friend Suzanne have been in Baltimore and Washington having an adventure. Me and the dogs and cats have done OK on our own, but I miss Tuffy P and I’m glad she’ll be back this afternoon.
Today I ran some errands in the morning, then spent a couple hours grooming Ellie Mae and Memphis. I prefer grooming them in nicer weather so I can do it outside. You can’t imagine how much underfur I strip off Ellie and Memphis when I brush them down. I filled two plastic grocery store bags jammed with Newf hair. Memphis isn’t a fan of getting groomed. She behaves for it but when she sees the grooming tools come out, she fades into the background in the hopes that Ellie has to go first. Of course after grooming I have to sweep and then sweep again as bit of Newf fur floats around everywhere.
Still lots of time before I pick Tuffy up at the airport, so I sat down and played the oil can banjo for a while.
27th Street 