Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are.

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.

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

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.

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

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

Today the sky is partly cloudy and there is a chill in the air-just right for Hallowe'en eve!!

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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?

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

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

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

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. :)

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.

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.

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.

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!)

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!

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

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.

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

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!

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

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

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.

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

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

Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are.
From: Barbara
Date: 22 Oct 98 - 07:31 PM

Here's my stone to tie on the end of this string.
Songs stick to me like I was the hooked half of a piece of velcro. Twice in the grocery store and I'm absentmindedly singing what they've got on their Muzak. (Two years of that same tape and I'm looking for the manager with my chainsaw.)
I can't remember a time without music. I went to sleep hearing the grownups in the next room singing; Mom singing the alto and playing the pump organ, Grandpa on his home made one string fiddle, Grandma's voice high and quavery, aunts, uncles, everyone singing. "Home on The Range" "Tenting Tonight" "Leaning on the Everlasting Arms" "Whispering Hope" with Dad doing the bass counterpoint.
We sang when we hiked (Happy Wanderer). When we drove (I've got Tuppence)(Out the Second Story Window) (Seventy Eight Bottles of... Would you kids like an ice cream? There's a DQ just ahead on the right.)
I'm fifty, I live on a 60 acre farm in NW Oregon, rolling hills, white oak and douglas fir woods, creek, pond, and meadows, and where the weather is just gorgeous today, crisp, sunny leaf- raking weather, Indian summer, temp in the 60s.(F)
Domestic stock includes me, my SO Mark, daughter Linnet, Arabian mare, border collie, three cats,(eww, a woodrat. Get that out of here) five goldfish, two gerbils and a rat. Wild stock includes great horned owls, deer, fox, canada geese, great blue herons, quail, ducks, coyotes, and lots of songbirds. We have orchards (mostly heirloom apples), gardens and raise grass seed commercially, like a lot of western Oregon farmers (achoo!).
Recently I've found some folks in Portland who let me sing pub songs with them in the Widmer Brewery and Pub, and I am ecstatic. My life is now complete.
As some already may know, I post from my studio, separate from the house, where I also sew (costumes mostly), play guitar and whistle, make clay gargoyles, and spend far too much time at Mudcat.
Blessings,
Barbara

Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are.
From: sbook
Date: 22 Oct 98 - 03:55 PM

Hi all I'm from Denmark, and to tell you the true. The weather has been so bad for so long that I can hardly remember what sunshine looks like. Rain rain rain. I'm a school teacher (not on English, don't worry) main subject is music. I play guitar (not great but.....) but quit at good singer. I'm 42 and my husband and I run a pub and a booking agency. During the years we've met several musicians from all places and made some very good friends. Mostly Scottish musicians. Love to se so many of you out there. Anyway, this is a great site. I've already got one of the texts that I've been looking for for years. Thank you.

Annette

Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are.
From: Rincon Roy
Date: 22 Oct 98 - 09:04 AM

Ritchie, not trying to impersonate you, just got confused pasting in name; didn't notice error till signed on this morning. If I had half a brain, I'd be dangerous...

Alasdair Fraser & Skydance are playing here in Tucson tonight & we have to "lead" some gathering & can't go hear 'em. Bummer!

Also, the whole world seems represented in this thread. Surely I'm not the only Arizona denizen to haunt these hallowed halls! Step up and say Howdy. If you're from Phoenix, my condolences...

One of my favorite songs has the chorus, "see how the land, yields up her treasures, to man's patient hands." (lyric somewhat hard on the emotions, but fun to hear litany of place names from Fresno on up since have had relatives (raisin ranchers) who spoke of all those places.)

Best spontaneous folk experience I ever had happened years ago when I was camped with my folks overlooking broad beach and calm ocean near "Rocky Point" in 'Ol Mexico. It was dusk. we were all sitting around a campfire. Two local musicos were making the rounds of the camps and finally dropped by our spot. One was blind,(any one out there remember these guys?) both sang & played very nice guitar. Well, we asked them if they'd be willing to play the quintessential Mexican love song, "Malaguena Salerosa." Maybe they were just tired of the typical tourist "Spanish Eyes" requests, or maybe they just really loved the song like most of us do, but they swelled up and burst out with the most emotional, heart-felt rendition I have ever heard. We just sat there stunned. What a moment!

Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are.
From: Barbara Shaw
Date: 22 Oct 98 - 08:55 AM

Ritchie, the bass player in the band Clean Living. (He can move, too!)

Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are.
From: Wolfgang Hell
Date: 22 Oct 98 - 08:15 AM

I'm Wolfgang Hell from Münster, Germany, researcher and teacher at Münster University, but since a couple of months and for several more I'm the main caretaker for our 1 year old daughter (don't jump to the wrong conclusion that having such a young daughter makes me younger than the average mudcatter).
I was hooked to folk music when coming to Ireland and returning there for vacation more often than to any other country. (Perhaps it only started since the first girl that ever kissed me came from sweet Strabane). I played for some time in a not known German-Irish folk group. Now I'm collecting lyrics, background information on songs and recordings. My personal collection of lyrics is still larger than Mudcat's but I hope that changes in a couple of years. It took me some years to find out that (in the order of encountering not of today's preference) Scottish, Australian, American, Canadian and English folk music can sometimes even be as good as the Irish, when it comes to songs. But as for a Ceilidh, I see no rival for the Irish yet.

Wolfgang

Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are.
From: Ritchie
Date: 22 Oct 98 - 07:37 AM

Ah don't mention it , you're welcome.

love and happiness

from the real Ritchie

But now that I'm on.... tell me Barbara, married to the Bass player ????? Did that mean ...(Mrs Estrada) or have I mis understood it ? Little Feat were the best band I ever saw and if you did marry Roy ,I know why...what a mover.

Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are.
From: The Shambles
Date: 22 Oct 98 - 04:05 AM

Sometimes the weather's not such a funny subject is it? My thoughts go out to anybody having serious problems with it.

Hey Art! How come someone from 'The Windy City' don't tell us nothing about the weather? (I'm beginning to sound more American by the day!)

Not too concerned about that really but, I and I'm sure a lot of us would be interested to hear more about your days/nights spent being able to see "Muddy on Monday, Wolf on Tuesday" etc. You did briefly mention it in an earlier thread, would you please tell us more?

Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are.
From: Sheye
Date: 21 Oct 98 - 11:59 PM

Hi Y'all!

Born, bred, and raised (wrong order??) in Northern Alberta and am now calling St. Albert home. 33 with two tag-a-longs (6 & 9) and a goal to travel the world.

Bob - yes, it's been way too long. How ya doin, mate? BTW, I've moved...living in the "L"s now, same phone tho'.

Somebody looking for the weather? I just got back from San Antonio about six hours ago. Spent most of last week in the flood. Much of the city was declared a national disaster. If you've got kin/friends calling that part of Texas home, ring 'em up and let them know you're thoughts are with them. It's WET!!

Sheye

Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are.
From: Art Thieme
Date: 21 Oct 98 - 11:39 PM

Was born and raised in Chicago, but then I moved to Illinois! (Peru, Illinois---100 miles S.W.)

Have always been a part of the Chicago folk scene--even when we lived in Oregon (Depoe Bay) back in 67-68. Opened a shop there---THE FOLK ART SHOP. Went broke there---but had a ball doing it. Traveled the first 3 years Carol and I were married. Camped out & sang wherever I could--just about every state in the U.S. As my dad died young, I always thought of it as "retiring first". Glad I dit it; climbed those mountains when I had the energy to do it. Can't do it any more.

Went back to Chicago. Played gigs--37 years at the NO EXIT COFFEEHOUSE. 10 singin' on the Misssissippi River.Got a degree; am a graduate of the University Of The Open Road. Now I stay in touch via this new-fangled computer thing and I meet new folks via Mudcat. As Robert Earl said one grand day on my old Flea Market (NPR) radio show, "The road goes on forever, and the party never ends!!"

Love to all,

Art
Lou K., It's great to see ya signin' in here !!! Good to have your e-mail. I'm at [e-mail]

Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are.
From: Shanna Baldwin-Moore
Date: 21 Oct 98 - 09:47 PM

Hi I live in Kona Hawaii So happy I found you; I appreciate getting the words to all those old good songs, so we can sit on the front porch and play and sing all night all day, ALOHA I am on Icq as the "winemaker"

Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are.
From: Pete M
Date: 21 Oct 98 - 09:12 PM

Hi Ray,
funny you comment about climbers not being musical, I (mis)spent a lot of my youth climbing and singing with my mates, and I always thought of them going together. Could depend on your idea of "musical" of course! Mind you, that was in the "good old days" when you had to shove bits of rotting sheep of holds and we "trained" in the pub. And tended to get re-arranged if you fell off! I read some time ago where "top" climber visiting the UK had refused to do a fairly easy (by their standards) route because it was too dangerous! How times change. I re-arranged my leg fairly thoroughly, winter climbing in the Lakes, and what with one thing and another haven't done much for years. My youngest (20) son is showing some interest now though, so perhaps he can be persuaded to drag me up a few routes.

Pete M

Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are.
From: The Shambles
Date: 21 Oct 98 - 08:03 PM

Ray That didn't read how I wanted it too. I am sorry about your knee.

Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are.
From: The Shambles
Date: 21 Oct 98 - 08:00 PM

Hey Ray you are so right about the images this thead turns up. I got one now of poor old you, stuck on a mountain with your busted knee, sitting in the snow, playing your banjo.

Nice to hear from you all.

Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are.
From: RayBanks
Date: 21 Oct 98 - 07:04 PM

What a wonderful thread this is - some superb clear images of nice people in their natural habitats, and what they get up to for enjoyment. I'm a welshman living in Doncaster in Yorkshire in the north of England. I've always been a folkie, and play banjo, guitar, a little mandoline and blues harp, but I got a bit out of touch over the last twenty-five years because I've been doing a lot of mountaineering, skiing, rock climbing and occasional kayaking with my wife all over the UK, the alps, and bits in the Andes and the Rockies. Very few climbers are the least bit musical. However in Easter '97 I skied over a small cliff in Austria and knackered my left knee, which has slowed me up somewhat. To ease the boredom I got my banjo out and dusted it, and am learning lots of American old time clawhammer tunes. I've found (via the net) a superb old time session every sunday night in a pub in York, with a lot of very good musicians. I've also joined the Friends of American Old-Time Music And Dance, a superb old-time club. Its really reminded me of the fun I used to have back in the sixties, in the folk clubs and sessions we used to have all the time. I am now looking for a really nice open back banjo, so if anyone out there wants to sell one, I could be interested. Cheers Ray

Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are.
From: Bob Schwarer
Date: 21 Oct 98 - 04:23 PM

I guess I had better put in my input before the thread gets too large to load. I was born in Chicago, but grew up in So. Wisconsin (Janesville, where they shut down the GM plant because the night shift decided to stay home and watch the Packers). After doing my thing during the Korean action I used the GI Bill to get my Chem Engineering degree at Univ of Wisconsin in Madison. A semesters tuition was $70 then, but got bumped to $90, I think my Junior year. Kicked around from Illinois to Florida to Louisiana and back to Florida where I am now (Lakeland). Probably will stay here. I see a lot of you live in the High Country. I spent 14 years about 2 feet above sea level in the Louisiana swamps. Great food. The only one with much musical talent in this family is my wife's African Grey parrot. Does a great job with the Colonel Bogey march (Bridge on the River Kwai). Weather here finally dropped out of the 90's a week or so ago Supposed to have a cold front thru tonight to drop temperatures into the 50's; not unusual for the time of year. Kids are all gone from the nest now. Florida, Texas, and we left one in Louisia My wife & I try to do our island a year thing. The gal who was tending bar on Litle Cayman had some John Hurt tapes we played 'til all hours, so you can find your kind of music most anywhere you go.

Bob S.

Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are.
From: Alice
Date: 21 Oct 98 - 02:17 PM

Yes, Rex, you probably have all of us beat in elevation. Bozeman is at about 5,000 feet. Since the Rocky Mountain range decreases in elevation as it goes north, the peaks in Colorado are actually higher than Glacier National Park on the Montana/Canada border. It leads to some confusion when people say up or down, depending on whether they mean down South, or downhill. Some people here say they are going 'up to the Park' meaning up the mountain canyon (upstream of the river) to Yellowstone, and others say 'down to the Park' meaning down south of town.

It snowed alot here last week, but I was in Denver, where it was sunny. My son reported that the ground was covered, yet it all melted before he had to shovel the sidewalk. The branches of the rose bushes were all broken when I returned, from the weight of the snow.

alice flynn in montana

Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are.
From: Rex Rideout
Date: 21 Oct 98 - 01:23 PM

I guess you asked for it. We live at 9600 ft. Higher than most folks think sensible. Summers are glorious but the thunderstorms get a bit intense. Winters can be tough but the crosscountry skiing is great. I left out the weather report too. It was cold and foggy when I sent the first note. Today it is much warmer and sunny. Haven't had much snow yet. Last year at this time we got four feet at once. My canoe was behind the house and I didn't see it again until I saw one end peeking out in May. I had a closer look and discovered that it was crushed flat to the ground but that's another story.

Rex

Subject: RE: Mudcat (THE WORLD)Let us know where you are.
From: Jon W.
Date: 21 Oct 98 - 11:50 AM

Back again for clarification -

To Joe and Seed, I lived in Sunnyvale, California from age 12 to 23, so I know where CA is. Don't mean to leave you out of the west, but often we here in the isolated hinterland feel, well, isolated from the populous coasts both east and west.

To Jerry - I lived in Vanadium, NM for a year or so before California. It's near Silver City. As far as altitude goes, I'm currently about 4500 feet. But before we moved to Vanadium, we lived in Rico, Colorado, altitude above 8600 feet. My guess is that might even beat Rex.

To Andrea - I spent about 10 months in Torino (1975 & '76). Say "Ciao" to the Mole Antonelliana and the Basilica di Superga for me.