Introducing Myself

Subject: Introducing Myself
From: GrassStains
Date: 13 Jun 06 - 03:11 PM

Hello! A few days ago I posted a request for some help deciphering lyrics from an old recording of a City Built of Mansions. I appreciate the gracious help I got but then realized that a more polite way to proceed would have been to introduce myself first. So if you will forgive me for doing things backwards:

My name is Carol and I play in several bands in the Chicago area. One of them is called The Grass Stains. We are eclectic but we have a bluegrass banjo player among us so we wanted to express the idea that we were "tainted" with bluegrass....I also play whistle and flute in an Irish band called The Rough Edge.

The Blackest Dirt, a song I wrote recently to commemorate the centennial of a pogrom in Bialystok (then Russia, now Poland) and recorded with The Grass Stains was recently played on the Chicago version of The Midnight Special. You can hear the song here. And here's a clip from The Rough Edge before our fiddler joined us.

Thanks again for the help. Looking forward to participating in the forum.

Carol

Subject: RE: Introducing Myself
From: Peace
Date: 13 Jun 06 - 03:15 PM

Welcome to the Mudcat, Carol.

Subject: RE: Introducing Myself
From: wysiwyg
Date: 13 Jun 06 - 03:17 PM

Welcome to Mudcat, Carol.

I specialize in old vintage gospel of all varieties. I was out of town when you ran that thread you mentioned. I may be able to hear a nuance or two that was missed, but sound is not working on my computer right now.

My husband and I are both from the Chicago area and we may be in that neck of the woods briefly sometime in August. Maybe we'll get a chance to hear your band then.

~Susan
THE GOOD NEWS-GOODTIME BAND

Subject: RE: Introducing Myself
From: michaelr
Date: 13 Jun 06 - 03:17 PM

Welcome to the cat box, Carol! If you feel like posting the lyrics for The Blackest Dirt, I'd be interested in reading them.

I play "Celtic" music (I know, I know) in Northern California. My instruments are guitar and bouzouki.

Cheers,
Michael

Subject: RE: Introducing Myself
From: Barry Finn
Date: 13 Jun 06 - 03:22 PM

Glad to have you here. Their are a few other here from Chicago, you're in good company.
Barry

Subject: RE: Introducing Myself
From: Leadfingers
Date: 13 Jun 06 - 03:44 PM

Hi Carol - And Welcome to the Cat from the other side of the pond !

Subject: RE: Introducing Myself
From: GrassStains
Date: 13 Jun 06 - 03:50 PM

Thanks for the warm welcome! Sounds like I will be bumping into some of you around town.

Michael, I've uploaded lyrics and chords to The Blackest Dirt here. Thanks for your interest!

Carol

Subject: RE: Introducing Myself
From: fat B****rd
Date: 13 Jun 06 - 03:51 PM

Welcome Carol.

Subject: RE: Introducing Myself
From: skarpi
Date: 13 Jun 06 - 03:51 PM

Halló Carol , and welcome to our little Mudcat forum .
All the best from Iceland.

All the best Skarpi Iceland.

Subject: RE: Introducing Myself
From: jimmyt
Date: 13 Jun 06 - 03:56 PM

Welcome Carol. LEadfingers is our resident whistle player and I occasionaly play a bit so maybe we can get together sometime and just play whistles till we run off all the other folks!

Subject: RE: Introducing Myself
From: Rapparee
Date: 13 Jun 06 - 03:56 PM

Welcome, from Darkest Idaho. I was born and raised in Quincy, Illinois and have been to Chi many times. It can get acrimonious here, especially down in the BS postings, but don't let it get to you. 'Most everyone here is nice and (usually) polite.

Subject: RE: Introducing Myself
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 13 Jun 06 - 04:01 PM

Welcome to our community!

I'm from Milwaukee originally, but been living in New England (MA, ME, now NH for the past 25 years) since 1970. To reflect my "roots" (besides growing up in the Milwaukee 'burbs and on my grandparents' farm in Colby, I, uh, was born in Michigan's Upper Peninsula -- yes, I was born a Yooper), I sing some Great Lakes (especially Michigan & Superior) songs, but mostly English & Scots trad or in the tradition -- lots of occupational songs including sea music. (Oh, and as noted elsewhere, "Dead Date" songs.)

Don't forget to use the search functions of the Forum -- you have just hooked up with a vast and valuable resource here, not to mention quick but well researched answers to eclectic questions.

Subject: RE: Introducing Myself
From: Ernest
Date: 13 Jun 06 - 04:20 PM

Welcome from Germany as well! And you wrote a good song - congratulations to that.
Best
Ernest

Subject: RE: Introducing Myself
From: George Papavgeris
Date: 13 Jun 06 - 05:01 PM

Welcome...sit thee doon and gizzatune.

Subject: RE: Introducing Myself
From: Charley Noble
Date: 13 Jun 06 - 05:26 PM

Carol-

Welcome from the coast of Maine.

I did twelve years in the Lansing, Michigan area, a while back. The best part of my time there was chasing fiddle tunes with my banjo with the Pretty Shaky Stringband, an ad hoc group of contradance musicians, Elderly Instruments staff people, and other assorted misfits. After composing "Shafted in Shaftburg" which threatened to become a new state anthem I decided it might be healthier if I returned to Maine and did so in 1982.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Introducing Myself
From: CarolC
Date: 13 Jun 06 - 05:48 PM

Welcome to the Mudcat, Carol, from another Carol (in coastal North Carolina).

I attended a gathering for acoustic guitarists (with my husband, Mudcatter, Jack the Sailor, who is the guitar enthusiast in the family) in Chicago a few summers ago. We had a very nice time in your town, with some lovely people.

I play the accordion - predominently traditional Finnish dance music, as well as some other varieties of traditional and quasi-traditional dance music.

Subject: RE: Introducing Myself
From: Geoff the Duck
Date: 13 Jun 06 - 06:23 PM

Welcome!
Grass Stains.
I just missed you in the Mudchat so didn't say HELLO personally.
I'm Geoff - i'm a Duck and live in England with Mrs. Duck and the ducklings. Hope you have fun here....
Quack!
GtD.

Subject: RE: Introducing Myself
From: Big Mick
Date: 13 Jun 06 - 06:35 PM

Hi Carol, thanks for coming to our little village. I think you will find it to be a pretty cool place, sometimes maddening, sometimes shocking, at all times interesting.

Be sure to read the FAQ, and learn how to use the search feature. Remember that the conversations, discussions, and outright donnybrooks that occur "below the line" in the BS section can be some of the most interesting, but can also get a bit hot to say the least.

I am so glad you have joined us. I look forward to your posts.

All the best,

Mick

Subject: RE: Introducing Myself
From: Azizi
Date: 13 Jun 06 - 06:45 PM

Greetings, Carol!

I'm glad you decided to join Mudcat. Let me compliment you for thanking folks for doing a lyric search for you. While it is not needed or expected, it's nice for people to receive a "thank you" for their volunteer efforts-whether successful or not.

I'm from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. And I'm neither a musician nor a vocalist. If I had to categorize myself, I guess I'd call myself an arm chair folklorist. I like reading about & talking about the sources, textural structure, and meanings of folk music. My particular area of interest is children's rhymes. However, I'm also interested in African American slave dance songs, gospel music, cadance chants, and New Orleans Zydeco music, and Mardi Gras Indian chants.

I look forward to seeing you around the Mudcat community.

Share! Learn! Enjoy!

{Ms} Azizi

Subject: RE: Introducing Myself
From: Peace
Date: 13 Jun 06 - 07:04 PM

Good song, Carol. Thanks for the link.

Subject: RE: Introducing Myself
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 13 Jun 06 - 07:17 PM

I like anyone who likes Max Bialistock

Subject: RE: Introducing Myself
From: Willie-O
Date: 13 Jun 06 - 09:01 PM

Greetings. Canada is well represented on the Mudcat particularly Ontario where I reside.

I was in Chicago last summer for several days and found I enjoyed it a lot more than I expected to...even though it was only on the way out of town that I found the row of Irish pubs in easy staggering distance from my brother-in-law's family's house...next time perhaps I'll start there.

Thanks for joining. This is a real community and I am sure you will enjoy getting to know Mudcatters from all over both on the site and in real life get-togethers.

Willie-O

Subject: RE: Introducing Myself
From: Severn
Date: 13 Jun 06 - 09:36 PM

Hello from Laurel, Maryland. Glad to have you with us. My Chicago experience is limited to changing planes at O'Hare, but there was recently a great thread a few months ago that started out on Merlin Banjos and turned into a discussion about the Chicago folk scene back in the '60's-'70's which proved to be a great slice of oral history with a lot of participants like Art Thieme reminiscing. See if you can find it in the archives and dig it back up. It'll give you as good an example of what happens when a thread gets good as any.

Subject: RE: Introducing Myself
From: GrassStains
Date: 13 Jun 06 - 10:40 PM

Thanks, fellow folkies (and ducks and bat goddesses), for the warm welcome and for the chance to get to know each of you a little from your welcoming posts.

Thanks for the tip, Severn--I noticed some posts by Art Thieme as I was poking around earlier today and I'll go spend some more time on the classic threads. It was indeed a vibrant scene in Chicago in the 60s and 70s with some true shining stars. There seems to be a folk resurgence of sorts going on now, I'm happy to say. Chicago is also a gem of a city for Irish music and has a long tradition of that as well, back to the great Chief O'Neill at least.

Thanks again for the lovely welcome. I'm really looking forward to getting to know the community here.

Carol

Subject: RE: Introducing Myself
From: GrassStains
Date: 13 Jun 06 - 10:41 PM

Sorry...wish there were an option to edit posts. I just also want to thank all those who listened to my music for doing so, and for the kind words. Looking forward to hearing yours!

Carol

Subject: RE: Introducing Myself
From: alanabit
Date: 14 Jun 06 - 12:50 AM

Yes. Welcome Carol. Lots of people read the posts for a while first, to see what is going on, then join later. There is no problem with that. The unpopular ones are those who make rude and spiteful comments and do not even give themselves a name.
I look forward to reading your posts here. We are glad to have you on board.

Subject: RE: Introducing Myself
From: jacqui.c
Date: 14 Jun 06 - 07:18 AM

Welcome Carol. The Mudcat is an amazing site but can become rather addictive if you don't watch out.

However, you can make friends all over the world and, as Kendall (my husband) and I have done, get to meet many of them.

Hope you have as much fun here as I do.

Subject: RE: Introducing Myself
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 14 Jun 06 - 07:38 AM

Welcome from Down Under.

Subject: RE: Introducing Myself
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 14 Jun 06 - 09:16 AM

welcome from a bit further Down Under (Foolestroupe is from tropical Oz) to one of Art's neighbours from one of Art's fans

I run a folk club & I sing along with any chorus going. I obsessively collect CDs & Mudcat is my homepage.

sandra

Subject: RE: Introducing Myself
From: Paco Rabanne
Date: 14 Jun 06 - 09:23 AM

Cheers from sunny Hull.

Subject: RE: Introducing Myself
From: bfdk
Date: 14 Jun 06 - 09:36 AM

Nice meeting you in the chat last night.

Best wishes from Aarhus, Denmark,

Bente

Subject: RE: Introducing Myself
From: Hawker
Date: 14 Jun 06 - 05:58 PM

A Warm Welcome to you Carol from Sunny Cornwall. I'll look forward to bumping into you on future postings!
Cheers, Lucy

Subject: RE: Introducing Myself
From: Crane Driver
Date: 14 Jun 06 - 06:15 PM

And welcome from Wales too.

Andrew & (yet another) Carole - (this time with an 'e')

(I sing & play concertina, mainly British trad or songs that sound like trad, including some I write myself, Carole also sings and plays flute and various whistles [not all at once])

Subject: RE: Introducing Myself
From: SINSULL
Date: 14 Jun 06 - 06:32 PM

"Bialystock and Bloom. Bialystock and Bloom..."
Welcome.

Subject: RE: Introducing Myself
From: GUEST,Art Thieme
Date: 14 Jun 06 - 07:40 PM

Carol,
It's a good place, this Mudcat. I do wish I was still hanging around in Chicago and could get out to hear you. But I hang out here in Peru (Illinois) and stay in touch as well as I can. All the best to you. Thanks for the song!

Art

Subject: RE: Introducing Myself
From: GrassStains
Date: 15 Jun 06 - 12:30 AM

...and more thanks for the friendly greetings, both from around the world and my neck of the woods--and from my past! Thinking about how Chicago music was in the days when you did hang out here, Art, brought back a flood of memories of Lincoln Avenue, Steve Goodman, Bonnie Koloc, many more, as well as my days at the Old Town School of Folk Music (I started lessons there when it was still on North Avenue--Ray Tate was one of my first teachers).

Great to be in contact with all of you, with your interesting music to share, and Art, best wishes right back to you, and thanks for all your wonderful music and great humor.


Carol

Subject: RE: Introducing Myself
From: GUEST,Art Thieme
Date: 15 Jun 06 - 12:48 AM

Carol,

Those who hang here lots know that I carried a camera around the scene for 40 years. Everyone you mention and many more are there in my on-line collection of photos. To see 'em go to:

http://rudegnu.com/art_thieme.html

Enter the word mudcat as both the 'password' and the 'user name.

I was asst. manager of the venerable Old Town Folklore Center there on North Ave. 1965, '66 and 1967.

Enjoy,

Art

Subject: RE: Introducing Myself
From: GrassStains
Date: 15 Jun 06 - 09:24 AM

Those pictures are a real treasure! (I'm looking forward to procrastinating on my work for many days to come!) Thanks for that link, Art, and for the repository you have created of so many people's formative and fun years in a remarkable environment.

I was at the Old Town school in the years you were there--I just lived for my lessons and also for the folk dancing I did with Nate and Sue Lofton. I was young, it was a stormy time in my life, and I honestly feel that "all the good people" at the OTS, as Fred Holstein would later sing about his musical and social companions, played a big role in seeing me through.

I'll be lost in those pictures for quite some time!

Thanks for everything.

Carol

Subject: RE: Introducing Myself
From: Big Mick
Date: 15 Jun 06 - 10:17 AM

Mudcat at its very best, eh?

Love to you, Art, my friend. And another fond welcome to you, Carol.

Mick

Subject: RE: Introducing Myself
From: GUEST,Art Thieme
Date: 15 Jun 06 - 01:35 PM

Carol,

Thanks, I think. It's the first time I've been called a 'suppository' !

;-)

Art

Subject: RE: Introducing Myself
From: GUEST,Art Thieme
Date: 15 Jun 06 - 01:37 PM

I must've read that wrong. ;-)

Subject: RE: Introducing Myself
From: Kaleea
Date: 15 Jun 06 - 02:16 PM

A big Mudcat Howdy! to you, Carol. I play those & a few other instruments, most of which the average person on the street says, "huh? Itza . . .whut?" Have fun 'Cattin around, enjoy the tunes & songs, & ignore all the yoyos who go on about non fun stuff.

Subject: RE: Introducing Myself
From: GrassStains
Date: 16 Jun 06 - 11:12 AM

ART WROTE:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Thanks, I think. It's the first time I've been called a 'suppository' ! ;-)"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Yup, that's the Art Thieme I remember so well!

Thanks again to everyone for the very warm welcome!

*whispers to whistle players: we'll meet at the old oak at midnight to plan our takeover*

Carol