BS: A little bit of Americana

Subject: A little bit of Americana
From: ceitagh
Date: 10 Apr 00 - 06:35 PM

Hi Peoples!
This canuck was in the car friday, on her way to New Hampshire via Vermont, when I spotted a sign that practically shouted at me (and my parents) to stop. It read, in large red letters:

500 guitars!! GUNS GROCERIES GASOLINE GUITARS 1000 guns!!

It stuck in my mind, considering the conversations around here sometimes. I was wondering about the ratio of guns to guitars, and how nice it would be if they were switched around. :-) Anyway, it was a very well equipped guitar shop....my dad was browsing for quite a while and we might have gone home with one more guitar (or maybe a banjo) if it weren't for the exchange rate.
pax,
Ceitagh

Subject: RE: BS: A little bit of Americana
From: Midchuck
Date: 10 Apr 00 - 06:42 PM

WHERE THE HECK WAS IT?!?!?!?!

All these years in Vermont and I've never seen it?

Three of my favorite things in all this world in one place? (I have no particular feeling about gasoline one way or the other, except when I'm running low and need some - but there's never enough of the other three....)

Peter.

Subject: RE: BS: A little bit of Americana
From: GUEST,Martin Ryan
Date: 10 Apr 00 - 07:28 PM

Don't get too paranoid! Here in peaceful(??) Ireland, I occasionally sing in a pub which doubles/triples as a "wool merchant" and "gunsmith". Lots of Irish pubs are also "funeral undertakers" - but I've yet to find one of those that doubles as gusnsmith!

Regards

Subject: RE: BS: A little bit of Americana
From: Amos
Date: 11 Apr 00 - 11:39 AM

Maybe yer onto something there, Martin....wool, guns and funerals. Combo deals with sharp discounts. Our guns, your enemies, our graves -- you kill 'em, we'll fill 'em. 20% off winding sheets if you use our guns and graves... sort of a vertical integration of a supply chain. Customers for life and death!

Subject: RE: BS: A little bit of Americana
From: Alice
Date: 11 Apr 00 - 12:00 PM

the tally from our American home:
2 pianos, 2 electronic keyboards, 2 guitars, 2 violins, 4 tin whistles, 2 bamboo wistles, one ocarina, one mandolin, one concertina, one harmonium, one drone box, one harp, one bodhran, one flat drum, one autoharp,

NO guns - so, I guess someone else has a house full of guns and no musical instruments?

I stand up for my right to own a bodhran.

alice

Subject: RE: BS: A little bit of Americana
From: TerriM
Date: 11 Apr 00 - 01:06 PM

Good for you,Alice, I will admit to having one too, as well as 4 guitars, a mandolin, a banjo, too many assorted penny whistles and recorders to count, no guns but quite a good kitchen knife. I wondered if the significance of 1000 guns and 500 guitars was that you have to be a good shot in Vermont to get two guitarists in one hit?

Subject: RE: BS: A little bit of Americana
From: GUEST,Martin Ryan
Date: 11 Apr 00 - 06:36 PM

Alice

Who was it said there'd be no peace in Ireland until the Wolfe Tones were decommissioned?

Regards

Subject: RE: BS: A little bit of Americana
From: ddw
Date: 12 Apr 00 - 12:10 AM

Not sure I get your point, Ceitagh. I walked into a Canadian Tire store the other day and saw NO guitars and about a bazillion HOCKEY STICKS. Far as I can ascertain, a Canuck with a hockey stick is at least as dangerous as an American with a gun....

*BG*

david

Subject: RE: BS: A little bit of Americana
From: rangeroger
Date: 12 Apr 00 - 01:05 AM

Quick count at my house: 3 acoustic guitars,1 electric,1 electric bass guitar(it finally came), 1 mandolin,1 mountain dulcimer,1 banjo,2 fiddles,and a kazoo.
4 handguns (that includes the.36 cap and ball) 2 .22 rifles,and a 1936 Winchester Model 12 shotgun.So the the musical instruments out number the guns.
Alice, I will support your right to own a bhodran as long as it is thight.
rr

Subject: RE: BS: A little bit of Americana
From: GUEST,Mrrzy-at-work
Date: 12 Apr 00 - 11:34 AM

I've asked this before - how do you pronounce BODHRAN, and is it that roundish drummish thing played by twirling a kind of 2-headed baton/drumstick in an extremely coordinated-looking way?

Subject: RE: BS: A little bit of Americana
From: katlaughing
Date: 12 Apr 00 - 11:40 AM

Mrrzy, depends on where one is from and, yes, it is what you think it is.**BG**

There was a great thread this past year on it, explaining a lot, just click here.

kat

Subject: RE: BS: A little bit of Americana
From: Lady McMoo
Date: 12 Apr 00 - 11:48 AM

I too am a licensed bodhran owner Alice. Here in Belgium there IS a theoretical ban on high-powered tuneable bodhrans but, as with all things Belgian, it tends to be ignored.

mcmoo

Subject: RE: BS: A little bit of Americana
From: GUEST,Mbo_at_ECU
Date: 12 Apr 00 - 11:51 AM

Well Mrrzy, it's basically pronounced "boh-rahn," but I say "bau-rahn" 'cause that's how folks wi' the Hieland accent say it.

--Mbo

Subject: RE: BS: A little bit of Americana
From: Peter T.
Date: 12 Apr 00 - 11:52 AM

It isn't bodhrans that kill people, it's people who kill people.

Subject: RE: BS: A little bit of Americana
From: SDShad
Date: 12 Apr 00 - 12:50 PM

Our house:

2 guitars, 1 mandolin, 1 violin, 1 5-string fiddle, 1 bodhran, 1 double bass, 1 piano, 2 Sioux flutes, 1 practice chanter, multiple kazoos, 1 jaw harp, 2 rifles, 2 functional shotguns (one "semiautomatic," which really isn't as scary as it sounds), 1 muzzle-loader that might be functional if either of us knew how to load and operate it, 1 non-fuctional shotgun (a double-barrel Greener, my grandfather's childhood hunting gun from the Minnesota backwoods).

Oh, yeah. And one of those impossible-to-figure-out-without-a-manual novelty instruments from the early 20th century called a "Pianoette."

And, I almost forgot, 1 tenor ukelele.

All the guns, the violin, and the 5-string fiddle are all inherited; the instruments see much more use than the guns. So while our guns outnumber our guitars, our musical instruments as a whole win.

For whatever it's worth.

Chris

Subject: RE: BS: A little bit of Americana
From: Jim Krause
Date: 12 Apr 00 - 03:12 PM

Well, while we're at inventories, in our household we have 9draw a big breath) 2 accoustic guitars, 1 open back banjo, 1 gourd gut-strung banjo, 1 mandolin, 2 fiddles, about a half dozen harmonicas in assorted keys, 2 tin whistles, 1 electric bass guitar, 1 replica 18th century English guittar (yep, the extra "t" is on purpose) 3 recorders, 1 jew's harp, 4 pair of bones, 2 muzzle loading rifles, and 2 muzzle loading shotguns. I guess that's about it. Draw your own conclusions.

Subject: RE: BS: A little bit of Americana
From: GUEST,Mrrzy-at-work
Date: 12 Apr 00 - 03:31 PM

Mbo - is that Bough-ran? Bow (as in of a ship) ran? Of course, I want the pronunciation with the brogue. I would settle for the burr.

Subject: RE: BS: A little bit of Americana
From: MMario
Date: 12 Apr 00 - 03:48 PM

wi' a bit more of an "ah" to it, laddie, "baugh-rawn"

Subject: RE: BS: A little bit of Americana
From: Willie-O
Date: 12 Apr 00 - 04:11 PM

Ceit you're talking about Dick's Music Oasis or whatever it's called on Highway 11 in upstate NY east (I think) of Malone...Passed it a zillion times but never have gone in...my pacifist wife puts her foot down.

The place was in the news after or during the Oka standoff when it was ID'd as the source for a lot of weapons the Mohawk Warriors had. For what its worth.

Our house...tons of instruments, no guns. Actually at least half my household would draw the line such that accordions were in the same category as guns...not allowed in.

W-O

Subject: RE: BS: A little bit of Americana
From: Songster Bob
Date: 12 Apr 00 - 04:31 PM

Friend of mine used to shop at places he described as "Antiques, Junk and Hors d'ouvres" shops, which the sign sure sounds like one of (Anyone want to diagram THAT sentence?).

In my house, the only guns are Star Wars blasters and those pump-action water guns that leak more over the shooter than the shootee. Instruments, though, we have in abundance:

Steel-string guitars, acoustic (flat-top) -- 3 Steel-string guitars, acoustic (archtop) -- 2 Steel-string guitars, electric -- 3 Electric bass guitar -- 1 (on loan) Lap steel guitar, electric -- 1 Dobro style guitar, acoustic -- 1 Resonator style guitar, acoustic/electric -- 1 Classical guitar -- 1 (on loan) Banjo-guitar -- 1 Mandolins -- 2 Banjo-mandolin -- 1 Five-string banjos -- 5 Tenor banjo -- 1 Ukulele -- 1 Fiddle -- 1 Banjo uke -- 1 Appalachian dulcimer -- 1 Hammer dulcetta (small one) -- 1 Autoharp (last seen working) -- 1 Keyboard, acoustic (i.e., piano) -- 1 Keyboard, electric -- 1 Jew's harps -- many Harmonicas -- too many Kazoos -- one is too many

And two to four nonworking guitars and such.

That's all that memory brings to mind. There may be others, and two of the acoustic guitars and one mandolin have pickups added to 'em, but are primarily acoustic anyway.

And one Gurian J-R model guitar to sell for a fellow Mudcatter (Ferrara). Email me at [e-mail] if interested.

Bob Clayton

Subject: RE: BS: A little bit of Americana
From: GUEST,Kaleb
Date: 12 Apr 00 - 05:10 PM

5 Banjos, 3 Bodhrans, 2 Bagpipes. More dangerous than a house full of guns. My friends all say its a sign of some kind of deep seated subconscience hostility toward mankind.

-Kaleb

Subject: RE: BS: A little bit of Americana
From: Caitrin
Date: 12 Apr 00 - 05:15 PM

Hm...Well, at my house, the ratio's definitely in favor of the instruments. Four guitars, a trombone, a clarinet, and a piano. There's also a shotgun, which is always kept unloaded. (My father the EMT is a safety nut, which is a good thing to be when dealing with deadly weapons.)

Subject: RE: BS: A little bit of Americana
From: ddw
Date: 13 Apr 00 - 12:20 AM

Geez, if we're counting toys, I feel hurt that so many of you have more than I do. I've only got three guitars (all acoustic, 2 with pickups), one piano, two Autoharps, 10 0r 12 harmonicas and a couple of kazoos. Got rid of the trumpet and 5-string banjo coz I never played them anymore. Of course there would be more instruments if we had more people in the house, but there's just two of us and my wife doesn't play anything.

Oh, guns? We live in Canada and you wouldn't believe the hoops you have to jump thru to get a firearms acquisition certificate here. I inherited an 1860s shotgun and it was going to cost me nearly $5,000 to bring in into the country. Not worth it; just stored it with relatives in the States.

david

Subject: RE: BS: A little bit of Americana
From: Metchosin
Date: 13 Apr 00 - 02:43 AM

1 piano
1 violin
1 drum kit
various acoustic guitars (some in disassembled states)
various electric guitars (some also, in disassembled states)
1 ducimer (disassembled but promised for birthday, 10 years ago and still waiting)

1 Crossman air rifle (which I used twice this morning to ping the cheeky ass of a deer who insists on eating MY RHUBARB (I know, the leaves are poisonous, but somebody forgot to tell the deer.)

Now I am getting my revenge. Ha! Ha!

For all those Bambi lovers out there, I used steel shot not lead and just pumped it enough to smart, not break the skin.

Thank you Canada Tire!

Subject: RE: BS: A little bit of Americana
From: GUEST,Roger the skiffler
Date: 13 Apr 00 - 04:58 AM

Songster Bob, my everloving would probably agree with you that one kazoo is too many! Also I have the same trouble with pump action water gun (my only weapon!). I keep it to shoo neighbours' cats off my veggies and away from my bird feeders but usually end up wetter than the target. Perhaps the kazoo would work better at scaring off the cats!
RtS

Subject: RE: BS: A little bit of Americana
From: Metchosin
Date: 13 Apr 00 - 04:39 PM

Doesn't work on the deer unfortunately, they just look at you as if to say "What's your problem?" Even if you are jumping up and down and gesticulating wildly.

Subject: RE: BS: A little bit of Americana
From:
Date: 05 Sep 00 - 06:09 PM

I call your house a y2k compliant household. We have a huge inventory of instruments also. 3 acoustics 1electric 2 mandos 2 fiddles 2 mt dulcimers a 4 string and a 5 string banjo. I also have a music hospital closet and someday i hope to fix and play them all. long live acoustic music

Subject: RE: BS: A little bit of Americana
From: Kim C
Date: 05 Sep 00 - 06:21 PM

Yes, but did they have live bait too?

Subject: RE: BS: A little bit of Americana
From: RWilhelm
Date: 05 Sep 00 - 07:47 PM

There's a place in Salem, MA that advertises "Guns, Ammo, and Cycle Parts" which I always thought would make a good album title.

Our inventory:
2 6-stiring acoustic guitars, 1 12-string, 1 steel dobro, 1 electric guitar, 2 mandolins, 1 mandola, 1 octave mandolin, 2 banjo mandolins, 2 ukes, 1 banjo-uke, 2 autoharps, 1 fiddle, 1 5-string banjo, 1 6-string banjo, 1 mountain dulcimer, 1 bass fiddle, 1 dobro bass, 1 washtub bass, 2 electric basses, 2 jugs, 1 baritone horn, 3 washboards, 1 snare drum, 1 button accordion, 1 concertina, 2 penny whistles, 1 bagpipe chanter, 1 player piano, many harmonicas and kazoos and a musical saw no one has had the nerve to try yet.

Subject: RE: BS: A little bit of Americana
From: rabbitrunning
Date: 05 Sep 00 - 11:20 PM

Tiny apartment. No guns but the kind that shoot little plastic hoops. 1 guitar, 1 keyboard, 3 harmonicas, 4 recorders, 1 lap harp I've lost the tuning key for, and a ceramic whistle shaped like a chicken that twitters if you fill it with water before you blow into it's tail...

Subject: RE: BS: A little bit of Americana
From: Peter Kasin
Date: 06 Sep 00 - 02:05 AM

If guitars are outlawed only guitar players will have guitars.

Subject: RE: BS: A little bit of Americana
From: CarolC
Date: 06 Sep 00 - 02:32 AM

Four recorders (different sizes), four penny whistles (also different sizes), and a 72 bass piano accordion.

One big honking can of pepper spray.

Carol

P.S. mcmoo, the man who inspired me to learn to play the accordion is from Belgium.

Subject: RE: BS: A little bit of Americana
From: Irish sergeant
Date: 06 Sep 00 - 09:07 AM

I dig the thread. An Tigh MacMillan has 1 1863 Springfield Rifled musket, 2 sword and A Yamaha Classical guitar, a mountain dulcimer, a fife, a tin whistle and an Indian wood whistle and 2 well used and abused harmonicas. I should add the musket is used strictly for reenacting and our yard as small as it is is sort of a refuge and feeding station for any critter that wants to stop by for a nosh. If Matt Malloy of the Chieftains is any guide Bodhran is pronounced Bowran (Both short Bow like a ships bow and ran like the verb.) Kindest reguards they can have the guitar when they pry if from my lifeless fingers. Neil

Subject: RE: BS: A little bit of Americana
From: Timehiker
Date: 06 Sep 00 - 10:05 AM

Our inventory;
2guitars, 3 fiddles, 1 electric keyboard, 1 recorder, 1 pennywhistle, 1 worn out harmonica, 1 Native American drum, 1 rope drum, several jugs, several spoons, and a 10 string gizmo from the Phillipines that my wife calls a bandaria.

2 muzzleloading rifles, 1 muzzleloading smoothbore, 2 modern shotguns, 2 bows (with arrows), 2 tomahawks, 1 sword, 3 Phillipino bolos, 3 pairs of fists, and some pointy toed boots.

Take care,
Timehiker

Subject: RE: BS: A little bit of Americana
From: Naemanson
Date: 06 Sep 00 - 10:40 AM

I am fascinated by the profusion of black powder weapons among the 'catters.

My musical inventory: 1 Six String Guitar 1 Six String Banjo 1 bowed psaltery 1 Harmonica 3 or 4 Pennywhistles 1 Kazoo 4 or 5 sets of bones Various rattles, tambourines, and a small set of cymbals 1 horn made of 1/2 a longhorn steers set of horns

And the weaponry: 1 Thompson Center .44 Hawken caplock 1 .44 flintlock (built for me by my father) 1 .44 New Model Army cap & ball revolver 1 .32 Winchester Lever Action 1 7.7 mm Japanese Arisaka 1 .22 Winchester Semiautomatic 1 1858 German Cavalry heavy saber

And the ammunition None! Except for the black powder weapons.

Why, you ask. I believe firmly in my right as a citizen of the United States to keep and bear arms. However I am convinced that my right only extends to those weapons that were in existence when that amendment was written. Besides which, all of the suppository guns were gifts from my father.

Subject: RE: BS: A little bit of Americana
From: Jimmy C
Date: 06 Sep 00 - 10:49 AM

Myinventory includes - 3 temor banjos - 2 acustic mandolins - 1 eletric mandolin - 1 banjo mandolin - 2 keyboards - 3 acoustic guitars - 1 electric bass guitar - 1 dozen whistles - 1 set musical wooden spoons carved from a single piece of wood - 1 autoharp - 1 balalika - 1 appalachian dulcimer - 2 bodhrans - 1500 song sheets - 6 fishing rods - NO GUNS - otherwise someone would have shot at least one of the bodhrans by now. By the was the little double headed wooden thingies used to play the bodhran are called BEATLES, some people call them BEATERS. A beatle was sort of a wooden spoon used to mash potatoes, grain etc by hand.

Subject: RE: BS: A little bit of Americana
From: Grab
Date: 06 Sep 00 - 11:33 AM

Naemanson, did you really just call them "suppository guns"? Where do you get ammunition for that?! I've called people "tight arseholes" before now, but needing a gun to ... Eaurgh!

Grab.

Subject: RE: BS: A little bit of Americana
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 06 Sep 00 - 02:46 PM

I see our inventory is pitifully small:

One quality (Ramsey Special) open-back banjo
One hunkajunk Japanese banjo, converted from resonator to open-back;
One so-so classical guitar;
One so-so electronic keyboard.

I was going to put down "one piano", but my Beautiful Wife would hang me for so describing it. It's a newly rebuilt Steinway 1922 six-foot grand, her pride, joy, and my rival for her affections.

No firearms. Used to have a very nice heavy-barrel .22 target rifle, which I'd had since high school, but got rid of it some years ago. Hadn't fired it in almost fifty years.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: BS: A little bit of Americana
From: Naemanson
Date: 06 Sep 00 - 03:02 PM

Grab
There are two kinds of guns: Those which are loaded through the muzzle and those where you cram the bullet up the other end.

A suppository gun is one which takes the bullets in the wrong end.

Subject: RE: BS: A little bit of Americana
From: GUEST,Fretless
Date: 06 Sep 00 - 03:36 PM

OK, here it goes...

4 5-string banjos; 1 tenor banjo; 1 mandolin; 1 Mt. dulcimer; 1 courting dulcimer; 1 piano; 2 fiddles (one is 1/2 size); 1 cello; 1 acoustic guitar; 2 Jew's harps; 1 bodhran; 2 tin whistles; 1 triangle; 1 harmonica (C); 2 sets of bones; lots of playing spoons.

One box of relatively high-powered fireworks left over from the 4th of July and waiting for New Years, but no firearms.

But here's the capper...when we moved to Dixie the insurance agent made a special point of warning us that our new household policy have a $2,500 coverage limit on guns. Anything beyond that and we'd have to get a special rider. We opted for the musical instrument rider instead.

Subject: RE: BS: A little bit of Americana
From: rabbitrunning
Date: 06 Sep 00 - 05:09 PM

My grandmother called the wooden potato masher things "Stompababies" :"stompa" from the Norwegian word for the tool and "babies" from the pioneer child's tendency to turn them into dolls with a scrap of flannel for a dress and pencil to draw on a face.

They are good for making a loud noise when you hit pans with them tho...

Subject: RE: BS: A little bit of Americana
From: MarkS
Date: 06 Sep 00 - 10:23 PM

From here, 4 guitars and a set of target pisols. Participated in the state championships last week, but due to lack of practice, dont ask.
One of my guitars is a Martin "backpacker". If I hide it under my jacket and use it to bop somebody, does that count as an offensive weapon? Or have I just invented the first "assault guitar?" MarkS

Subject: RE: BS: A little bit of Americana
From: GUEST
Date: 07 Sep 00 - 01:06 PM

Then I saw a sign which said 'Drink Canada Dry' - so we started. -- Brendan Behan

Subject: RE: BS: A little bit of Americana
From: guinnesschik
Date: 07 Sep 00 - 02:01 PM

We have: four fiddles, three guitars, 2 ukeleles, one bau-rawn and a bag of different tippers, beaters, brushes and stuff to hit it with, one triangle, one tambourine, a countless assortment of homemade percussion, two recorders and ONE kazoo.

We also have 1 handgun, 1 hunting rifle, 3 paintball guns, and a myriad of Star Wars and Star Trek gun-type thingies.

Have you ever tried to threaten someone with a fiddle?

Kazoos work much better.

Subject: RE: BS: A little bit of Americana
From: guinnesschik
Date: 07 Sep 00 - 02:02 PM

Guns Groceries Gasoling Guitars....and Guinness! Now it's perfect.

Subject: RE: BS: A little bit of Americana
From: guinnesschik
Date: 07 Sep 00 - 02:04 PM

er...Gasoline.

Subject: RE: BS: A little bit of Americana
From: Irish sergeant
Date: 08 Sep 00 - 12:47 PM

Assualt guitar? Only after I've had way more than my limit and insist on playing. Then I become felonious munk. Have a great day all, Kindest reguards, Neil