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Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are.
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Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are. From: Art Thieme Date: 22 Oct 98 - 07:52 PM You wanted to know about those blues nights with Muddy and Wolf and Li'l Walter? Well, first of all, this is how I got the blues! Several years ago I was employed in a lead-bellybutton factory here in The Illinois River valley (Meatskin County, Illinois-It's really HID AWAY!). My job, they kept telling me every day, was to get the lead out. The area around the river is made up of canyons and hills--some'd call 'em bluffs or coulees--even mountains. Hell if Mount Prospect, IL is a mountain then these sure were mountains. Well, I roamed & rambled and followed my footseteps through the sparkling sands of the bizarre area looking for local folklore and songs. What I found amazed me! Here in the pit of America, where one would expect to find literally tons of songs, I found NONE AT ALL. I did find numerous jokes(Who was that groupie I saw you with?---That was no groupie, that was...--Take my groupie, please!) but nobody in that remote area had ever been able to carry a tune. Whenever anybody began to "sing" for me, the truly unbelievable sounds emitting from their throats caused every moose within earshot to stampede through town. The locals began to get angry with me and blamed me for the moose mess all over the streets. It was definitely time to get to the bottom of the mystery. I started by asking around town for clues. (Nobody had a clue in that town.)One thing led to another, until, one day, I learned that the area's water supply, a pussy-willow swamp down in Art's Hollow (I named it so I can call it WHATEVER I WANT--OK?) was the culprit. Seems that the fuzzy stuff in the pussy-willows disolved in the water,and quite literally, the entire area was the victim of the effects of the phenomenon known as "cat got your tongue"."As soon as people switched to rain water they could all sing like birds; some like crows and some like chickens, but it was definitely music! The very next week I collected a definitive version of the old ballad and early rock song, "Rock A By, Baby". I was also introduced to a very local native instrument made by stretching 3 rubberbands over a sow's butt called the "swinet". The late Tammy Swinet allegedly, took her name from this unique instrument much in the same way that Elton John took his last name from the colloquial term for toilet. (He's been looking flushed lately.) In late September of '98 I left Meatskin County (it's really hid away--get it?)behind, and it's a good thing, too. This week the Illinois River flooded and erased Meatkin County (it's really hid away!) and those weird hills from the map. The folks who were kind enough to sing for me (if that's what you want to call it) all were drowned. And you've probably noticesd that there are no more mooses in North-Central Illinois now. Corn now grows where babby pigs once slid happily down rocky hillsides. Sometimes the rocks even fell on the pigs, squashing 'em. And that's why bacon is flat!!! The only legacy we have from those well-meaning, albeit tone-deaf people, are a few terrible songs and tons of lousy jokes! And I've been posting those here for several days now... Will get back to Muddy & Wolf in a while; but now ya know about our area here---floods and all---and how the blues fit right in! Art |
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Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are. From: Barbara Date: 22 Oct 98 - 09:33 PM Geez Art, how do you do it? Someone ought to shoot you and put us out of our misery. Isn't it "Rock a Bi-, Baby, tho? Blessings, Barbara |
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Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are. From: northfolk Date: 22 Oct 98 - 11:01 PM northfolk was originally the name of a radio show that my closest barstool comrade and I put together for a small northern michigan radio station...that never got on the air...thought I may as well use it for something...so here I am. I am terrifically jealous of most of you, I have no identifiable musical ability, but for much of my nearly fifty years I have taken a few runs at learning to play. I sing, loudly and raucously...I know no other way, but have done so to no great personal detriment. I sing in the shower and the car, at a campfire or in the streets...and more often than not when one of you real performers is singing on stage I'll be singing along in the back row. I have been in the back row a couple of times when Art played in Michigan, a number of years ago. I didn't know who he was but found that in Merriam Webster his picture is next to both encourageable and incorrigible, since then I have come to look forward to his "pun"ishment. I have kept no secret of my political enthusiasm, and interest and appreciation of the Ballads and Broadsides, good bad or otherwise, the music has afforded me a great deal of comfort. I have particularly enjoyed getting to know most of you through this new media, and hope that someday our paths cross in flesh and ...well I guess just flesh. |
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Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are. From: Big Mick Date: 22 Oct 98 - 11:40 PM Art, I am not worthy to stand in your presence. Mick |
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Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are. From: Art Thieme Date: 23 Oct 98 - 12:21 AM Mick, Then we'll just sit & drink. Truth is, that was a tall tale (albeit reworked a bit tonight to fit this thread) I submitted to Emily Friedman, esteemed editor of COME FOR TO SING MAGAZINE in Chicago, as my column for a 1979 (I think) issue of that distinguished rag---designed (hopefully) to "get a rise out o' her", as she wasn't speaking to me back then 'cause of a spat we had over some silly thing or other. I think that went on for a year---maybe two--and the stuff I wrote got more and and more outrageous until Emily, a good friend now for sure (I think), put her personal disclaimers at the end of all my columns. It's also true that hauling it out o' mothballs and posting it is graphic proof that I've got way too much time on my hands lately. Art
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Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are. From: McMusic Date: 23 Oct 98 - 01:03 AM Ritchie--I'll confirm what's already been said: It's NEVER too late to start or learn! Go after it! |
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Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are. From: BSeed Date: 23 Oct 98 - 02:29 AM Joe, I did notice that and thought about commenting on it, then I realized that he was thinking of the West as a state of mind, rather than a strictly geographical construct: Wyoming, Montana, Alberta, etc., fit the idea of "the West" better than Sacramento and El Cerrito do. Out here, only truck drivers and country singers wear cowboy hats (my son wore one, with a miniature TV camera taped to it, when he did a story for Channel 2 on rodeo clowns; he got chased by a few bulls and dumped by one). Maybe the San Joaquin valley, but most of the cows there are being fed other cows and road kill in feed lots: cowboys there use cattle prods, not lariats). --seed |
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Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are. From: Peter T. Date: 23 Oct 98 - 12:55 PM Memories! You want memories! Well, I don't remember a time without music around me. When I was born, my momma, who was humming "In the Pines" at the time, laid me into a Martin D-34 which had been disemboweled by a near sighted armadillo on the lookout for a charango. My daddy rode the blinds, which annoyed the deafs. The first distinct memory I have is of Grandpa pumping Grandma to an old Carter Family record about a flood that carried Tennessee into Kentucky. I was toilet trained using a glass fired bottleneck slide, and can to this day remember all those bass runs, and the fierce pride it instilled in me. My first real instrument was a Sousaphone that had swallowed a small child in the neighbourhood, and which they were thinking of putting down. I rescued it, tamed it, and sent away for lessons that never came. This all happened when I was drinking Nehigh to a grasshopper. Son House was the family retainer, and Muddy Waters used to plough for my paw, and when they left town, it seemed as if the life just went out of that world. I remember once Son coming up to me and saying, "Son, " And I said, Yes, Son?" and he said, "No, You Son, me Son," and that was how I began to get the blues. I had shots, but the blues kept getting to me. They came up my leg, and slowly covered my body like woad. I just kept singing, "Make Me a Pallet on Your Floor" until someone did, and I took the colours off that pallet and painted myself pink all over, so no one would ever call me whitey again. In 1947, Little Walter and his younger brother Smaller Walter and his youngest brother Big Walter and Goldilocks and I wandered the South Side of Chicago. We would play "Take the A-Train" while Little Walter played his B-harmonica, Big Walter invented the C-Drive, and Goldilocks played with her D-Cup. We played checkers with Leonard Chess, and backgammon with Chubby Checker, and never looked around to see where life was taking us. Then when the Newport Festival came along, Joan and Judy and Mary and Jennifer and Trudy formed the Trio Five Quartet, and the rest is folk history. I can remember Pete Seeger pulling out the plug on Dylan's hairdryer, and revealing his roots; I can remember Crosby, Hope, Lamour, and Young; I can still see Joni waking up on a Chelsea morning in Scranton. The memories flood back, because the dykes have all been liberated. I remember Tim Hardin building "If I Were a Carpenter" out of Popular Mechanics; and Don McLean defining American Pie as "3.14, but for you 2.99". I can remember when Yoko and Yoda got together and broke up the Beatles and the Empire. But all that is behind now, still gaining on me. Ah memory, and the wild Mountain Thieme. Yours, Peter T. |
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Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are. From: BSeed Date: 23 Oct 98 - 02:37 PM Gawd, Peter. I'm gonna sue. I laughed so hard I got into a coughing fit so hard I hocked up my left kidney, which took out my uvula and soft palate (not pallet--it's kind of hard) on the way. I'm probably gonna need a transplant, and as everyone on Mudcat knows, I don't deal well with rejection, but maybe anti-rejection medications will help with that, and if they do, maybe I won't sue. --seed |
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Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are. From: Liam's Brother Date: 23 Oct 98 - 04:03 PM Well I'll be a dingo's dangler! |
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Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are. From: Bill D Date: 23 Oct 98 - 09:46 PM *staring at the screen in wide eyed amazement!!* ....I hope I never get Peter & Art in the same room together...I doubt I would survive!! (seed...my goodwife having had a transplant, we have a houseful of anti-rejection drugs...and I assure you, they will do you NO good in the face of yarns like that!) |
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Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are. From: Dani Date: 23 Oct 98 - 10:10 PM Well, I was content to sit back and enjoy the conversation going on around me, until I read Wolfgang's comments. A German-Irish folk group?! You mean there's hope for me yet? I have such a background, and have always loved music. I find it wherever I can, sing my heart out and play percussion on anything available - except a drum, since I have not ever learned 'how'. Am drawn to African and Latin rhythms and music styles - always have been. Don't ask me why - maybe it's the old Black Irish legend. This, obviously, led me down a winding path to owning a lovely old banjo, which I aspire to play. Life always gets in the way of the sitting down, though. Any suggestions for carving out time when you're not surrounded by musicians? Anyway, I am by birth a Southern Californian, but travelled back and forth between the oceans for a bunch of years until settling with my love and two little girls in a small town near Chapel Hill, North Carolina. We essentially chose this area blindly, but it is home now, and we wouldn't trade it. Have discovered that the area is a hotbed of all KINDS of wonderful music, and am beginning to meet people and explore. Weather? Today brilliantly sunny with Carolina blue skies and a crispy breeze. Leaves beginning to fall, but colors not very impressive due to extended drought this summer. Is that redundant? Anyway, the season still is lovely and all creatures seem to be getting ready for winter. I find myself with overpowering urges to make stews and fry apples and rake leaves! My feelings about the Mudcat have been ably expressed by others here. All I can say is thank you, all. What a treat it is to get to know you.
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Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are. From: The Shambles Date: 24 Oct 98 - 08:04 AM Roger: It's good to hear the good news from Maryland this week on the peace front. Keeping my fingers crossed. Let's hear more from the 'lurkers' out there. Don't like the sound of that term though, it sounds a bit sinister. How about Mudcat Virgins? Come on in the water's fine. |
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Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are. From: The Shambles Date: 24 Oct 98 - 08:37 AM Hello Dani Sorry to hog the thread, I did try to send this trough the personal messages but you are not there? You are very lucky to be living where you are and I'm sure you will soon be surrounded by musicians. Until you are you could carve out time by downloading some of the MIDI files that you will find HERE You can learn the tunes and play along with your banjo. You didn't say whether it was a five string or a tenor, would be easier with a tenor but not impossible with a five string. |
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Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are. From: Jan Date: 24 Oct 98 - 03:04 PM hi everyone, i'm from Sitka Alaska.... on an island in the middle of nowhere (southeast alaska). The weather.... well, it rains, and rains.... :) Good thing i like the rain!! i just found this site about a month ago.... love it!! Don't know a whole lot about folk music, just that i love to listen to it..... i'm 40, married, two kids, youngest a senior in High School. my dream, soon i hope, is to learn to play the harp. when (and i mean when, not if) i get one, you'll all hear about it. And prolly be glad you can't "hear me practice" nice to meet all of you. :) |
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Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are. From: Art Thieme Date: 24 Oct 98 - 04:27 PM Gonna start a TALL TALES thread & we can go at it! (but I've never told a lie in my life..Art |
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Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are. From: Big Mick Date: 24 Oct 98 - 04:41 PM Great idea, Let's call it "It's your story, tell it anyway you want" or "You Tell it and I'll swear to it". All the best, Mick |
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Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are. From: Dave T Date: 25 Oct 98 - 01:45 AM Hi All, Just got back from a week in Toronto, which is my home town. I now live just south of Ottawa with my wife, daughter and our dog. I'm an Engineer, although most of my work now is running our business (we have about 45 people). My daughter plays some fiddle. I play different styles on guitar from folk, to bluegrass to blues. I listen to most types of music except "formula" stuff. My earliest musical memories are of Bach, Beethoven and other classical composers. It's quite a different musical scene here than in Toronto. Ottawa has always maintained a strong traditional music community: folk, bluegrass and celtic. Since moving here ten years ago, I've met some great musicians who have introduced me to a lot of styles I wouldn't otherwise have learned. I play mainly with friends and sometimes at open stages. Well, I don't want to ramble too much. I couldn't get my email or internet browser working on my laptop when I was away, so I've suffered some Mudcat withdrawal. Good to be back Dave T |
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Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are. From: The Shambles Date: 27 Oct 98 - 01:43 PM Is there no one else out there? |
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Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are. From: Yvonne Mahar Date: 27 Oct 98 - 02:14 PM Hello folks, I am Yvonne Mahar from Limerick City Ireland, I have lived in Albany NY since 1991. I am an artist and a folk singer, I love to sing ballads and I like to pop in a few A Cappella songs such as Colcannon or Hard Times. I am always on the look out for a great song. I have performed in places ranging from a garage session to grand music halls and funerals. I do not play an instrument though I fiddle around with a button accordion when I think nobody is listening. My musicial backup is usually a guitar, tin whistle bodhrán and mandolin. Right now the weather here in Albany is having an identity crisis, it knows not what to be, kind of like it would be at this time at home in Limerick. I just talked to the folks and they say they had a stormy weekend there. I have been a lurker on this board on and off since the start of it but my work does not leave me enough time to play on the internet these days.I have learned a lot from you folks I am happy to meet you all Nár lagaí Dia do lamh More power to you |
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Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are. From: McMusic Date: 27 Oct 98 - 10:50 PM Bob Landry, how close are you to Ponoka? I have a sister who lives there. |
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Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are. From: Bob Landry Date: 28 Oct 98 - 05:58 PM McMusic ... I'm about an hour north of Ponoka on Highway 2 - depending on traffic and weather conditions. I drive past there regularly on trips to Calgary. I hope your sister has found enough good friends and activities in Ponoka to compensate for having left the rolling green hills of Virginia for the frozen white north. Bob |
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Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are. From: McMusic Date: 29 Oct 98 - 12:05 AM Yeah, Bob, she and her husband have some pretty good friends. I've been up a couple of times to visit them and found the folks in your part of the world in general, and in and around Ponoka in particular, awfully nice. But she didn't leave the green rolling hills of Virginia; she left the somewhat-less-cold-than-where-you-are Connecticut (we're originally New Yorkers, and all of the kids in the family went in different directions over time). She went to Alberta to take a job as a dental hygenist (sp.?) and married a local guy. He makes a great brother-in-law . Wait 'til I tell her about this. McM. |
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Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are. From: JAMES STANLEY Date: 29 Oct 98 - 01:23 AM Wow, what a bunch of cool people. I tried to get through all the responses, but could not. I am 50. I learned to play guitar at the age of 11. I lost interest. At the age of fifteen I met the Duke. A full fledged activist folksinger and engineer. Taught me to finger pick and play traditional music on ny Harmony six string. I learned to play Josh White, Leadbelly, Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie, Joan Baez and various country=blues artists. I was given an archive of folk music which at one time numbered several hundred songs. (Words and chords). I was taught that if you play folk music you must sing folk music. The singing became more important than the playing. When I got drafted, I came home and found that our piano got sold, and all my music was lost. I ran into the Duke in 1978 and he gave me all his music sheets. I now have some very interesting songs from 1961-1967. I am really flipped by the fact that Rockford, IL had a folk festival, I thought that this had gone by the wayside. I want to go to any folk festivals in the midwest. I am from Kenosha, WI. I would also like to play and sing with anyone in my area. I can play the guitar and sing baritone quite well. I always looked at folk music as the joy of singing and having an outlook where people join by their similarities rather than defining themselves by their differences. "A generation lost in space" is revived. I am elated. Pax |
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Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are. From: Big Mick Date: 30 Oct 98 - 09:48 AM Welcome to our town, James. All the best, Mick |
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Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are. From: S. P. Buck Mulligan Date: 30 Oct 98 - 12:52 PM Assuming casual lurkers and occasional posters are welcome, I think (if I read aright) I make the third Granite Stater (New Hampshire), being in southeastern area - Rockingham County. 52 year-old leftover currently poaching in a day job in the software industry. Obviously S. P. Buck Mulligan is not my real name, but was once in a badn called "Buck Mulligan Band" (there was no one in it named Buck Mulligan, I swiped the name from Joyce of course), but being the Guy-In-Front I was usually addressed as "Buck" by members of the audience. The polite ones anyway, and nevermind what the rest called me. I am a subscriber to the notion that whatever music is played and sung by folk is folk music. Been hanging around here occasionally for a couple of years, but have posted very infrequently. Thanks for the lurking rights. |
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Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are. From: Maj Marvelous Date: 30 Oct 98 - 05:17 PM Hi, I am from Mapleton, Iowa, near Sioux City and close to the Missouri River. I always listened to music on the radio when Mom was sewing on the machine in the south room as we called it. I was about 5 or 6 years old. Finally learned a little about guitar when I was about 38 and had some spare time while waiting for final clearances to work in the Pentagon (Career Army) Did some songwriting and singing since the 70's Returned to Iowa and still sing and write a little with the Siouxland Country Music Association. |
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Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are. From: Susan from California Date: 30 Oct 98 - 07:15 PM Hi all, I was born 39 years ago in San Diego CA, grew up in Glen Ridge NJ, and have lived in the Southern California desert for the past 10 years-about 80 miles north east of San Diego. If you ever watch golf on tv, and they are playing in Palm Springs, we're on the other side of those beautiful mountains in the background...
Three kids-17,14 & 10...all in various stages of puberty-we live in what is not so fondly known as "Hormone Hell" My huband plays a 12 string guitar and writes music. I help with lyrics and harmonies sometimes, and sing in church and at the occasional political rally. I am a full time student, due to graduate with my BA in December (it only took me 21 1/2 years) plan to go to grad school and teach High School History/Poly Sci |
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Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are. From: Art Thieme Date: 30 Oct 98 - 09:45 PM James Stanley, You've got to get to THE FOX VALLEY FOLK FESTIVAL in Geneva, Illinois, west of Chicago on route 38 & 31, On an island in the middle of the Fox River. It is held over the Labor Day weekend. You won't be sorry you went---I GAW-RON--TEE !! All the folks that used to hang out in Old Town in the 60's (the Wells St. scene) moved to the Fox Valley, got together, had kids, got hi-tech employment and quit (some of 'em anyhow)hanging out late in bars. Voila, THIS WONDERFUL FESTIVAL ! Art Thieme |
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Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are. From: McMusic Date: 31 Oct 98 - 03:31 AM To Andrea-- Please, there is no need to apologize for your English! You did quite well indeed. Your English is far and away better than my Italian. |
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Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are. From: Date: 01 Nov 98 - 01:14 AM I've been to Reno, Chicago, Fargo, Minnesota, Buffalo, Toronto, Winslow, Sarasota, Wichita, Tulsa, Ottowa, Oklahoma, Tampa, Panama, Mattawa, LaPaloma, Bangor, Baltimore, Salvador, Amarillo, Tocopilla, Barranquilla, and Padilla, I'm a killer I've been to Boston, Charleston, Dayton, Louisiana, Washington, Houston, Kingston, Texarkana, Monterey, Ferriday, Santa Fe, Tallapoosa, Glen Rock, Black Rock, Little Rock, Okaloosa, Tennessee, Hennesey, Chicopee, Spirit Lake, Grand Lake, Devils Lake, Crater Lake, for Pete's sake Louisville, Nashville, Knoxville, Ombabika, Shefferville, Jacksonville, Waterville, Costa Rica, Pittsfield, Springfield, Bakersfield, Shreveport, Hackensack, Cadillac, Fon-Du-Lac, Davenport, Idaho, Jellocoe, Argentina, Diamondtina, Pasadena, Catalina, see what I mean Pittsburgh, Parkersburgh, Gravelburg, Colorado, Ellensburgh, Rexburgh, Vicksburg, Eldorado, Larrimore, Atmore, Haverstraw, Chattanika, Chaska, Nebraska, Alaska, Opelika, Baraboo, Waterloo, Kalamazoo, Kansas City, Sioux City, Cedar City, Dodge City, what a pity
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Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are. From: McMusic Date: 01 Nov 98 - 04:59 AM Lord, Jon, And I thought my feet got tired! Or (no insult intended) should this be on the tall tale thread. |
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Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are. From: DWDitty Date: 01 Nov 98 - 06:19 AM To "blank's" post ov Nov 1, this reminds me of a song I heard Dave Van Ronk do once called the Garden State Stomp in which every word in the song was the name of a town in New Jersey. The response when he was finished: "which exit?" |
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Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are. From: Sean Ruprecht-Belt Date: 01 Nov 98 - 11:26 AM Well, I'm a novice at this internet business, but after reading a fair number of the above postings, I guess its time for me to jump in and introduce myself. I'm 43, living in St. Louis, Missouri. The weather this morning is that gorgeous, cool autumn that we get around here where the grey skies show off the bright oranges, reds and yellows of the tree leaves to their best advantage. I'm loving it. I've been playing guitar for about thirty years now, and someday I'm sure, I'll be satisfied with my skill. I recently picked up a banjo and am attempting to learn to play clawhammer style on it. I was a pretty regular performer on the local coffee-house circuit in St. louis in the early seventies. But due to a side trip into acting, I haven't performed music on stage in several years (aside from some very rare benefit shows and an open mike night a couple of months ago). I think I may be ready for it again, though, and am 'wood shedding' a short set to test the waters. My beginnings in folk music can be blamed on a really great local library where I was exposed to Pete Seeger, Leadbelly and Woody Guthrie's Folkways recordings. Also, I had a grandfather who played guitar and fiddle and had been part of an old-time/country music band in Southern Illinois in the 30's. Between hearing grandpa Buck around his house and those Folkways lp's, I realized that one didn't have to play electric guitars and Beatles tunes to express oneself in music. It's been a great ride ever since. Somewhat off topic, but if you've read this far I hope you won't mind. I'm looking for an opportunity to jam with folks in a fairly nurturing, non-competitive setting. I'd love to hear from anyone who has information about this kind of thing going on in the St. area. |
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Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are. From: KickyC Date: 01 Nov 98 - 09:41 PM James Stanley, There is also a festival over Labor Day Week in Avoca, Iowa, depending on how far you want to travel. Avoca is on the western side of Iowa on Interstate 80. It is a week long national festival. I read somewhere that it is the largest gathering of singers of public domain music anywhere in the US. I live on Iowa's "east coast" and since I teach, I am always busy over Labor Day, but the first year I retire, I am going for the whole week! Maj Marvelous from Mapleton, Have you been to the festival at Avoca? KickyC |
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Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are. From: harpgirl Date: 01 Nov 98 - 10:52 PM I suppose I shouldn't complain about the weather in Florida considering the alternative but DoneyGals played outdoors today and the temperature was reputed to be 90 degrees. Don't you all think that is a little too HOT for November? Oh well, it will probably prepare me for the afterlife...harp |
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Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are. From: Maj Marvelous Date: 02 Nov 98 - 08:05 PM Kickyc: Yes, of course, I have been to Avoca, Iowa for the music festival. I think that I haven't missed for the past five years in a row. It is scheduled on our calendar without fail. This next year, The Rancheros, of which I am a member, will be the featured band at the Tuesday night Country Dance. $30.00 gets you a gate pass for one person for the event and camping with electric only is $8.00 per night. Jamming starts about a week before the actual weekend event and generally goes way into the morning hours. Lots of Bluegrass, yodeling, country music, shows, crafts, and contests. If you haven't been, go at least once. You'll get hooked. Come early for camping. |
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Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are. From: Barbara Date: 02 Nov 98 - 09:13 PM You all just wouldn't recognize a song if it bit you.
I 'VE BEEN EVERYWHERE
I was totin' my pack along the dusty Winnemucca road
I've been everywhere man, I've been everywhere manV I've been to Reno, Chicago, Fargo, Minnesota, Buffalo, Toronto, Winslow, Sarasota, Wichita, Tulsa, Ottowa, Oklahoma, Tampa, Panama, Mattawa, LaPaloma, Bangor, Baltimore, Salvador, Amarillo, Tocopilla, Barranquilla, and Padilla, I'm a killer... check out DT for the rest.... |
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Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are. From: Snookums Date: 02 Nov 98 - 10:18 PM KickyC, Maj Marvelous I am from the heart of the heartland- I live in Boone- about 1 hour north of Des Moines and 20 min west of Ames. Be prepared for snow tomorrow- I'm going to Sioux City and I have never been to Sioux City in November without it snowing!!! I play mostly Mandolin, rhythm guitar, piano. Also do a little ocarina and tin whistle. Trying to learn 5 string banjo and fiddle, but these aren't going so well. Would really love to get into hammered dulcimer. Snookums |
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Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are. From: Pete M Date: 03 Nov 98 - 03:40 PM Ok Snookums, that may mean a lot to KickyC and Maj Marvelous, but how about telling the rest of us where you live? ie Start of with somewhere recognizeable to us non USA types, I am assuming the Sioux City is a bit of a give away so far as the country is concerned? Pete M PS is Des Moines related to Des O'Connor :-) |
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Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are. From: Eric in West Yorkshire.UK Date: 03 Nov 98 - 06:14 PM Hi all you folks/folkie's from around the world. I guess I fit the description of near 50 with grown up and not so grown up kids.Nicknamed "Viking". Lived in SE London 'til '72, moved to York. Trained as a teacher in Ripon.Have done lots of other jobs.Moved to Huddersfield in '82(Teach in a special school in Cleckheaton-I'm a bit fick,so excuse the poor spellings!Got a good sense of humour-need it in teaching now-a-days!!!!) Try to play the guitar!! Can't read them funny dots on paper but can pick things up reasonably well.Got a 12,a 6-both acoustics.Also a couple of electro acoustics and electric "strat clone" etc. Play a bit of Bodhran, mouth harp and banjo. Very occasionally get to sing- Looking for some one to work with possibly or just jam with - voice and fingers going! Male or female. Used to "do a bit" in London late 60's.Dylan, Donovan,Al Stewart,Simon and Garfunkel, MacColl,Rembourne, Paxton etc. Also into more modern stuff like Robb Johnson, Ian Bruce, Viki Clayton.Wide range of influences especially Irish.I Like Metal (Can't play it) and motorbikes. Still got the long hair and get to folk and other gig's. Blackstone Edge and Al stewart last month.(Rock bitch-next week-Please don't ask!)Cleckheaton has a great folk festival each year. I've got "hooked" onto Mudcat since I discovered it a few weeks back.Well I guess that sums me up sort of or else you'be asleep. Cheers-Viking. |
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Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are. From: Snookums Date: 04 Nov 98 - 07:33 PM Sorry- I'm from Iowa. We get a Democratic Govenor- Don't know what to do with one of those- I haven't ever seen one. (I'm non partisan, so please no flaming) Laura |
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Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are. From: Paul Date: 05 Nov 98 - 01:55 PM Ho there....Another one from the Canadians...This time from the West Coast. I hail from Maple Ridge, BC just outside of Vancouver, where we only have two seasons, Summer and the rainy season (the rest of the year) . We always dread this time of year because we fear that when the rain starts, it won't know when to stop! I found Mudcat a couple of years ago and have been truly blessed by it's existence. I work as a Music Therapist in the hospital in Chilliwack BC and several Intermediate Care Homes. Most of my work therefore is with seniors who grew up on a tradition of singing. The only problem is that they know hundreds of songs we young folk have never heard before. Of course, it then becomes my job to find these songs, learn them and sing them. Thanks to Wolfgang in Germany, Frank in Newfoundland, and Gene in (where are you Gene?, I forgot!, somewhere down south!) You've been able to furnish me with some of these much desired songs and music. I myself play piano, guitar, dulcimer, mandolin, Concertina (Wheatstone), Bodhran, Whistle, bones, and am currently learning the accordian (mostly by myself!) I would love to learn fiddle and dream about playing the Irish pipes. For all you Brit's out there, I am still searching for some little ditty from England called (I think) The wind that blew the pump up. ANyway, got to go to work now, happy singing and keep on picking. Paul |
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Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are. From: northfolk Date: 05 Nov 98 - 05:45 PM Snookums, I suspect you won't be able to tell the difference. I wish you could, but that's the Dem's fault not yours. |
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Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are. From: allan S. Date: 05 Nov 98 - 08:23 PM WOW just sat here and went through all 140 or so replies. Hi there Barbara Shaw Yes thehouse hoots at your place are GREAT as Tony the Tiger said. Just remenber the higher the body count the better the song I was active in the folk song and Outing clubs at U-Conn. back in the 50's and have been at it ever since. Have just finished transfering 40 plus reel to reel tapes of the old Yale Hoots to 90 min. cassettes have about 40 of them. New Lost city Ramblers Etc. Currently Some of us are trying to find people who sang at the YALE hoots from 1950-1974 possible reunion. Mostly I like the old timey Murder ballads also the "sad" songs of the 1900's nothing like "The Fatal Weding" Have lived in the New Haven area for past 70 years Also into Afrikaans Boer Music Must go now Tot Seins Allan.S |
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Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are. From: TonyK Date: 06 Nov 98 - 12:38 AM I'm from the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre area of N.E. Pa. I've been reading your posts for 6 or 8 months and very glad to know a little about you. I love to sing and play guitar with the Folklore Society of N.E.Pa at their monthly sing-arounds. I also sing in the church choir and sometimes get to go to the Fri. nite bluegrass jam when our coffe house isn't putting on a show. Before I got married 3 years ago an old-timer asked me why I didn't get to the jam very often and I told him it was because I was dating a very special woman. He said "Why don't you marry her. Then you can come up here all the time." It didn't work. I've been working in an addictions treatment center for the past 10 yrs and I go to school at the U. of Scranton. I'm only able to visit here when I can get away with it. Oh, and the weather... It's hovering around the freezing mark on its way down to just plain cold. Not much sun lately. Should be snow before the middle of Nov. I'm grateful for the help I've recieved from many of you when I was looking for a lyric. I think this is quite a colorful group and I'm glad you're here. TonyK |
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Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are. From: plankity Date: 06 Nov 98 - 11:51 AM My gosh.... I live in CT and play with the Fiddleheads, among others and I know Barbara Shaw (though we don't actually play together). From browsing through these posts, I realize that I've played at least one gig with her husband Frank, of Clean Living fame. The Lion's Den in Stockbridge, Mass. about 20 years ago with Ricky Tiven and Jon Graboff. Barbara? ask Frank, I was the mandolinist. |
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Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are. From: Carolyn Date: 06 Nov 98 - 01:16 PM Hi folks, I'm from Ohio, which our P.R. people like to refer to as "the heart of it all". O.K., you have to look at the shape of the state, and squint really hard and use alot of imagination, and then maybe, just maybe, you will see that it is almost, kind of, maybe shaped like a heart. I live outside of the small town of Genoa, between Toledo and Cleveland. Weather is the major topic of conversation here over the last several months, as in "yup, I heard it's gonna be a bad winter". Today is cold and overcast, and a great day to read all about my fellow Mudcatters. Music has always been a part of my life, my earliest memories are of my Mom singing to me. When I got a little older and couldn't find someone to sing with me I'd dig out my Dads Mitch Miller records and 'Sing Along With Mitch'. Girl Scouts was a God send for me, because I was always in very musical troops. After college I worked for almost 10 years in a childrens home - had a captive audience!!!!! And, although many of the kids I worked with had many problems, they also ended up with a great knowledge of folk songs, and some great camping experiences! Took the plunge about 11 years ago, got married, and now my we have 8 kids - the majority adopted and 2 from his first marriage. We usually have 2 or 3 foster kids, so once again I have a captive musical audience! My kids really like it when I sing to them at bedtime, but I'm afraid they just fall asleep out of self-defense! My musical talents are limited to a love of music, can't play any instruments and my voice isn't great, but I do love singing, and music in general. I check out the Mudcat at least once a day, but usually haven't got a lot to contribute, or the time to type in a message, but I love reading what everyone has to say, checking out the links, and learning everyday. Bless you all! Carolyn |
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Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are. From: Barbara Shaw Date: 06 Nov 98 - 04:27 PM Plankity, Who are you? Frank remembers your face and the fact that you guys did "Silence or Tears" and also played at the Station House, and several other details, but I know your name can't be "Oh, Shoot!" (As in, "Yeah, I can picture his face, but his name? Oh, Shoot!"). He also can't remember what the band called itself, but it was his first paying bluegrass gig. How do you know me? You must go to the Fischer jams. Which means you and Frank don't recognize each other 20 years later with grey hair and glasses! |
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Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are. From: Guy Wolff Date: 06 Nov 98 - 10:00 PM Hello All,Hello Mr. Plankity,I didn't know you even had a computer..There seem to be alot of us from Connecticut.If anyone finds themselves on the border between Litchfield and Washington on RT.202 and notice a pottery shop off on the side of the hill stop in. I'm a potter who played in rock bands in the early and mid 60's and then went to Jugtown Pottery in NC in 1969 {we were landing on the moon} and found CLarence Tom Ashley and freinds via records left buy Raulf Rindsler. Then on to the south of Wales to work in more potteries {I bought my first Banjo at Portabello Rd. after a motorcycle crash} Boy can they sing in Wales! I got to play in a rock band for alittle in Copehagen and then came back to my first spring at my shop and first visit to Union Grove Fiddlers con.{1971} It's been Old timy, Blues, Square dances ....Martin Carthy ...June tabor..Ry Cooder... Young Tradition.. Watersons.. Robert Johnson ... I got the addiction for studio fun working with my old freind Lui Collins in 1978 when we made the record "Made In New England" I love working in recording studios. Last year I did a "vanity Pressing" or Indipendent Prodject,of all the stuff I've a;lways played.This year I'm going to do one entirly blues.My 7 year old daughter is battleing a brain tumor and I found playing old Robert Johnson in the parents lounge at Yale Hospitol the best saport in the whole world! I love Newcastle {I worked a pottery in Penrith Combria} I also loved my time in the valleys outside Cardiff in Wales. Bridgend had a great sing-song every wednesday in the upstairs of a pub. Is mr. Henry Crabb still making concertinas? Islington has gotten posh somone told me! Sorry for the rambles but everyone seems so nice here ..Oh I'm 48 have two older boys who don't come to see me much {Devorce ah well} and then my 7 year old daughter and 2 year old son !Life has been very good to me .Regards to all |
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