Friday going into the weekend

The Greens reported a good show in Lewisburg on their website. Hope they get a good turnout tomorrow night in marietta; a rare opportunity to see aaron phillips back with the band. I will be in Nelsonville for the music festival- eager to see Todd Snider in an outdoor festival venue, and the other bands, too. I will be in washington dc next week; hope we can arrange for andy to play at an open mike up there for a new exposure. The Greens back at the Front Row Aug. 4th Friday. August will get some momentum for the fall tribute series shows. Thanks to Andy N for the prine portrait. Don't know what the travelin' music will be for the next week; it all depends on who is riding with who I guess. we got an eclectic bunch to contend with. I'll try to get a posting from on the road.

dates set for fall tribute shows

Friday, October 13th will be the 4th annual John Prine (Birthday) tribute at the wheel house as part of the 2006 Americana Tribute Series benefits for Children's Home Society of West Virginia- Parkersburg. 8 pm- $5 donation. I will be contacting the musicians who have participated previously to see if they are interested/available/ willing. New musicians are welcome. More details will follow.
Friday November 3rd will be the final event of the 2006 series- the Neil YOung tribute- also at the wheel house, also at 8 pm also $5 donation. More details to follow also. Since this is a new event, I will be recruiting musicians for this over the next few months. This will also be the event where the guitar will be raffled off. stay tuned for more information.

Saturday

Got rid of a lot of computer parts at the electronic recycling day; sold 8 records as part of a more generic parking lot sale- picked up about 6 good records donated today- the Greens are confirmed to be playing in Lewisburg Wednesday the 26th- 7 pm- it says "doors open at 5:30 pm"- makes it sound like a concert!!! Brier Inn. Go to the newly revived website to at least get this much info. They Made some new friends and contacts from their show in Athens the other night.
I could have gotten back to listing songs on my CD player for my road trips around the state these last two weeks- but I have gotten out of the habit- I had a trip to flatwoods, and three trips to charleston last week- two to charleston and one to fairmont this week. ONe to clarksburg monday. Mostly: todd snider, john prine, mermaid avenue, lucinda williams.....................

Another chance to buy a few vinyl records saturday

This is not a full fledged vinyl record sale, but Children's Home Society is having a parking lot sale this saturday July 22 10-3- at 1739 St. mary's ave. I will pull out what is most intriguing and vintage to include in this more eclectic sale- I will use this as a kick start to the next sorting/ organizing / picking a date for reviving the sales into the fall.

Greens hit Athens OH tonight

The Greens are invading Athens Ohio tonight for a midnight show at O'Hooley's- as part of a festival- beer making? I hope someone who attends will send me a report- Andy will sleep here, but i will probably not cross paths with him to get his face to face report. I have made a few copies of Andy's book- Broken Science- for him to circulate around, too- reviving that interest.
The Greens show in Lewisburg is close to being finalized I guess. And Marietta next Saturday. Boo- I will miss it- yeah- I will see Todd Snider. (nelsonville)

Woody Guthrie wrap up

Thanks to all those who participated in the benefit saturday night- the musicians most of all; the audience; the wheel house; the sound folks. It was a rollicking time- hard to digest it all. Keep sending me feedback and ideas for future shows.

Greens shows upcoming

The Greens are breaking into the Athens OH music scene this week at o"hooley's on thursday night. There is a show in the works at the Brier Inn in Lewisburg for next wednesday. Marietta on the 29th at the Brewing Co. I think the front row is August 4th. There is work on the newly revived web site: www.thegreensmusic.com - or still visit the myspace site (they direct you there for parts of the site that are undeveloped yet).

afternoon portion of the benefit is completed

We sweltered in the heat for the afternoon/ outdoor portion of the benefit day. The sound crew (JT - Corey, Sabrina) were well prepared and on top of things- definitely the musicians friends. The cool beverage and snacks set up was efficient and well organized. The crowd was disappointingly low- but the key people I envisioned coming were there to take advantage of the kids friendly venue. It was a rehearsal of sorts for the evening festivities. There were some fringe people who I wonder about- came but I didn't connect to. We have things to build on. (for future events)

Woody Guthrie tribute benefit today

Awakening to threatening thunderstorm weather- very muggy, etc. We'll just be watching the weather right up to 1 pm or so. I have a few kazoo solos ready for this afternoon. Kim and Wendy worked up two additional songs last night despite Kim's being under the weather. We made two decent rhythm shakers.
Some last minute shuffling of the "line up" going on- those sorts of things.
I went to 4 different places yesterday looking for one simple copy of "Bound for Glory"- so we could read the part about the freight train ride, and then give the book away as part of the door prize tickets. I'll be looking for Mickie to try to pull a fast one on me again tonight with the door prize numbers.
Well, I'm typing up a few more recitation things, and organizing my "stuff" to take downtown.
3-5 pm at Bicentennial Park (across from the city building, the court house, etc.) and 8 pm at the Wheel House. Come support our good cause. Bring a camera.

Woody Guthrie tribute benefit tomorrow

Things are pretty well set up for tomorrow- I'm doing some last minute lyrics printing off for a few songs that folks haven't memorized yet- the musicians have "mostly" given me their set lists; the food/ drinks are getting organized for the outdoor portion - I'm not worrying about the weather as of yet - the sound guy should be set to go. I hope there is a good afternoon crowd, just to see how that goes (for future reference)- I'm pretty comfortable with the anticipated crowd for the wheel house- my usual worry is that people will be disgruntled if it gets too crowded...... we're ready to make the big move to move the future events upstairs for the fall events if this is the case.
I'm off to charleston for another day of training, but will tie up some loose ends this evening.

Roll ON Columbia

"At the time Steinbeck was speaking for the Okies in The Grapes of Wrath, Woody, the dusty-headed folk-poet, was singing for them over a one-horse radio station in Los Angeles. He always claimed that he learned to play the guitar while he was broadcasting. His okie fans would write him encouraging letters- "keep it up Woody; you almost made a D chord this morning!"
When I met him in New York in 1939, however, he had mastered the Carter family style, and could convulse an audience with his delayed-action, Will Rogers humor. Woody made a great success broadcasting and recording his songs; but he felt uncomfortable about eating well and sleeping soft, when his people were still "wanderin around over the West like a herd of loco-ed buffaloes, and one day he blew out of New York without saying good bye to the phoney big shot producers, and took to the highway again with his guitar.

later in the Northwest: .... The ballads poured out of woody's typewriter with the fresh flow of the Columbia River he had come to love. 26 ballads were composed and recorded in 26 days. Soon over the radio and through public address systems the people in the Bonneville area were listening to a voice they could believe in- a rural voice, harsh, ironical, humorous, truthful, with the heart beat of the southwestern guitar pulsing behind it..........
The minstrel still has a place amongst us. Whether he sings for the King or the US government is not the question, if his songs, like Woody's, are honest an composed in traditional modes. Woody never tried to be original, in the sense of the sophisticated songwriter. Like all folk poets, he uses familiar tunes, re works old songs, adding new lines and phrases out of the folk-say of the situation that demands the new song. He feels that his function is to sum up and crystallize popular sentiment, to act as the voice of the common man. Although his songs are conversational in tone, they have a truth, an authenticity, and a punch which no other poet of this age can match. " (alan lomax book)

woody sez

Woody Says: If you never been to jail, without a single friend to your name, and stood around there like a lost dog in a hard rain, why then you won't get the full meaning out of any jailhouse song. I know, I've been where I could hear all them things. If all the jails I been in was all put together, it would make a hard rock hotel as big as the Capitol building. And this is the best jailhouse song I ever heard sung (Hard Times). The Birmingham Jail don't say enough, The Prisoners Song don't say much either. Moonlight and Skies brags too much on the deputies. Of course, lots of officers are honest and straight, but there's a hell of a lot of them that are ten times worse crooks and thieves than fellers they beat up and throw in jail. And them's the kind of jailers this song tells about. Its been sung in every buggy, lousy jail from New Jersey to Portland Oregon from the days of the Revolution to the present."

Woody remembers: .... When I got out of jail, I made a run for a bottle of liquor and a pretty woman. I met her in a saloon, I had a couple of shots under my belt and was rearin' to step. She was one-eyed, but that didn't matter none. I had two eyes and she looked mighty good to me through both of 'em. I felt like a man coming up out of the grave when I stepped out of that jail. I had seventy one dollars saved up and would have blowed seventy one hundred if I'd of had it, just for a crack at that one eyed girl. Her one eye was as pretty as a picture. So I slipped by guitar into position and i played her my old Okie love song. You might think it was mighty funny kind of serenade. You might think it was too hard boiled and sad to soften up a woman's heart. But that woman was pretty hard boiled and pretty sad herself. She had had her heart broke as many times as my old uncle's wheat field, and it was broke every spring in planting time. She didn't want no mushy, sissyfied, jukebox lullaby, she wanted a song as real as the oak bar she was leaning against. So I rattled out my old song about how hard it is to love someone who never did love you, and by the end of the first chorus she was smiling through that one eye of hers. And there was a lot of choruses to that song. " (from Alan Lomax's book, Folks Songs of North America)

Woody guthrie stories

"The American taste for darn fool ditties and for crazy, surrealist, and rather cynical humor, culminates in the talking blues genre. Such songs began to appear in hillbilly recordings in the 20's and 30's, and it was from them that Woody Guthrie took his inspiration. The present early text shows that the talking blues is, ultimately of Negro derivation. Most of the stanzas come from the Po' Mourner set, the barber shop quartet song in which the leader intones humorous verses against a background of rhythmic chords. Speaking in rhythm over a sung accompaniment is a common device among Negro preachers and blues singers (Lead Belly for instance) and some early records exist of Negroes "talking" a story over, or to, their guitars. The talking blues, however, with its delayed climax and its double or triple cracker on the end of the jokes, is a modern, white folk creation, put to the purposes of acid social comment by Woody Guthrie. (from Alan Lomax's The Folk Songs of North America)

Woody writes: I was born in Western Oklahoma and drug up in the Texas panhandle. That's where the wheat grows, where the oil flows, where the dust blows, and the farmer owes= where you hunt for wood, and dig for water- where you can look farther and see less- where there's more weather and less climate, more crops and less groceries than any other dadburned place in the universe.
Then the dust storms come. Dust was so thick you sometimes found yourself running your tractor and plows upside down. The buzzards had to wear goggles and fly backwards. You could easily lose your wife and wake up hugging your mother in law. Sometimes the dust would settle, but your debts wouldn't.
I decided it would be better in California, so I kissed my family goodbye and swung int a Sante Fe cattle car and whistled down the line. For the last few years I've been a rambling man. For Oklahoma to California and back, by freight train, and thumb- I've been stranded and disbanded, busted and disgusted with people of all sorts, shapes, sizes, and calibers, folks that wandered all over the country, looking for work, down and outers, and hungry half the time. I slept with their feet in my face and my feet in theirs, with Okies and Arkies that were rambling over the states of California and Arizona like a herd of lost buffalo with the hot hoof and empty mouth disease. Pretty soon I found out I had relatives under every railroad bridge between Oklahoma and California. Walking down the big road, no money, no job, no home, no nothing, nights I slept in jails, and the cells were piled high with young boys, strong men, and old men. They talked and they sung and they told the story of their lives- how it used to be, how it got to be, how the home went to pieces, how the young wife died or left, how dad tried to kill himself, how the banks sent out tractors and tractored down the houses. So somehow I picked up an old rusty guitar and started to picking and playing the songs I heard and making up new ones about what folks said. " (Also from Alan Lomax)

Greens shows

The Greens will be in Marietta (brewing company) July 29th (saturday night)- and back at the Front Row August 4th. Needing to confirm the July 20th in Athens (a Thursday night).

report on Greens show last night

The Greens put on a high energy show to much audience acclaim. Tony Castillo was sitting in on bass; the original bass player with the earlier version of the greens. He was great at picking up the songs and added some good energy and entertainment. The highlights might have been the two times, in two sets, when andy and tony traded guitar for bass; andy surprised me by playing a very mean bass, and I knew tony had the good skills on the 6 string electric. Those were two inspired instrumentals. It was over too soon (the overall show)- and leaves the crowd eager for the next time.
Connie Dale from Graffiti took a picture of the band; hopefully some publicity upcoming. She also asked about the woody guthrie tribute; so I hope to finally get some coverage of one of the benefits in graffiti next week.
I think there was only one new song in the set list last night- flip side? But as I said, Tony did an admirable job ad libbing some new material for him- he has always been an enthusiastic supporter of andy's songs......

Guthrie song: Biggest Thing Man has ever done

Biggest thing man has ever done aka the great historical bum- I doubt if anyone is going to be able to memorize that one- 17 verses long. I did hear a guy sing it at stuart's opera house; but I've not challenged anyone early enough to really pull it off this year I'm sure. Missed opportunities.... sigh ..... the story of my overinflated ambitions......

music news from Minneapolis

Beth is in Minneapolis for the summer. She reports seeing:
We are Scientists
Fiery Furnaces
Norfolk and Western
DeVotchka

"the first two were very indie-rock, the second two were a bit more eclectic, play everything form what sounded like polka to stuff that sounded like Tom Waits. The singer for DeVotchka used two microphones so there was this neat reverb effect, and the band consisted of a violin player, the singer/guitar player, a drummer and a woman who played the sousaphone and a stand up bass."

Friday mish mash

Went to see the Beatles tribute at the Smoot theater last night; trying to support others such efforts. It was a full crowd; very diverse demographics of the audience- an appreciative crew. The show was nice- Roger Shepherd had put together a video that played at the set changes- had some of the folks performing reflect on the impact of the Beatles- lots of familiar local music faces performed- gave some pretty energetic efforts- I liked Todd Burge's and Marci Stanley's duet on across the universe about the best.
Stopped in at the Wheel House to check in with a little more than a week to go before the woody fest- dropped off some t-shirts to sell leading up to the event. Had another article in the Free Time today with a Woody picture. Dropped in at the Front Row, too, in anticipation of tonight's greens show there. Looking for Bill Poole; but he wasn't there.
Aiming for a musicians get together tuesday night (in preparation for the woody guthrie tribute saturday- just to see what songs folks are thinking of playing- making a few connections for back up instrumentalists, etc.
I got encouragement to start the show off with Hard Travelin' - so I'll be working on that one, if nobody else bites.

Greens Front Row Friday night July 7

Andy indicates that it is evolving towards a greens show friday at the front row- you will have to come out and see the configuration for yourself. There is word that Tony Castillo may be there (from early Greens days- yes, you see him on the cover of Strange Language, if you have one of the original versions) and you will undoubtedly recall his and Aaron's antics with big Incredible Hulk green fists, and little trinkets and gee-gaws at some of the early shows, such as the Crow Bar in Marietta on July 4th a few years ago. Bill Poole put up a good flyer for the show, and captured the greens from above (in the control room) down on the stage for a picture. I assume, if Tony comes, he is ready to play on Thunderwear et al. I know he is privy to the book Broken Science, and he noted on the my space site that some popular national band has a song called 10,000 days or something.
On a side note, I hope someone is ready to play "Hard Travelin'" as the opening song at the Woody Fest...... I may have to do it myself.........................

hootenanny

The word 'hootenanny" seems to have become part of the national vocabulary (pete seeger writing in 1956 and updated in 1963) (In 1974 a member of the People's Songs, helping to compile Webster's New World Dictionary of the American Language put the word in as a "gathering of folksingers." He was premature, but history caught up with him.)
For the record, and to settle some arguments, Granpa would like here and now to give the plain, true, real, unvarnished and uninteresting facts of the case. No, it has nothing to do with a girl nicknamed "hootin' Annie," famed among the lumber camps" according to Woody Guthrie's facetious report. Nor, I doubt, has the term anything to do with a French custom of shooing a bride and groom out into the fields the night before the wedding. (Two French students at Cornell were once shocked to hear that a hootenanny was to be held on campus) It is true that "hootenanny" can mean "whatyoumaycallit" A mechanic might call to his assistant, "fetch me that hootenanny in the corner, quick!" It is also a euphemism. "I have to visit the hootenanny (back yard privy) But the folk song lover's meaning is not derived from these. It is derived from another meaning of the word: a rip roaring party, a wingding, a blowout.
In the summer of 1941 Woody Guthrie and myself, calling ourselves the Almanac Singers, toured into Seattle Washington, and met some of the good people of the Washington Commonwealth Federation, the New Deal political club headed by Hugh DeLacy. They arranged for us to sing for trade unions in the Puget Sound area, and then proudly invited us to their next "hootenanny." It was the first time we had heard the term. It seems they had a vote to decide what they would call their monthly fund raising parties. "Hootenanny" won out by a nose over "wingding." The Seattle hootenannies were real community affairs. One family would bring a huge pot of some dish like crab gumbo. Others would bring cakes, salads. A drama group performed topical skits, a good 16 mm film might be shown, and there would be dancing, swing and folk, for those of sound limb. And, of course, there would be singing.
Woody and I returned to New York, where we rejoined the other Almanac Singers, and lived in a big house, pooling all our income. We ran Sunday Afternoon rent parties, and without a second thought started calling them hootenannies, after the example of our west coast friends.........
the best hoot, in my opinion, would have an audience of several hundred, jammed tight into a small hall, and seated semicircularwise so that they face each other democratically. The singers and musicians would vary from amateur to professional, from young to old, and the music from square to hip, cool to hot, long hair to short. Some songs might be quiet, like a pin drop. Others would shake the floor and rafters till the nails loosen. Something old something new, something borrowed, something blue, as at a wedding. The best hoots have had all this. Further, the hoots may rightly challenge all other music performances in the nation to present such variety as they have. (pete seeger, from the incompleat folk singer.

woody quotes

"This song is COPYRIGHTED in U.S. under seal of copyright #154085, for a period of 28 years, and anybody caught singin it without our permission, will be mighty good friends of our'n, cause we don't give a dern. Publish it, write it, sing it, swing to it. Yodel it. We wrote it; that's all we wanted to do."

"The worst thing that can happen to you is to cut yourself loose from people. And the best thing is to sort of vaccinate yourself right into the big streams and blood of the people.... to feel that you know the best and the worst of folks that you see everywhere, and never to feel weak, or lost, or even lonesome anywhere.... there is just one thing that can cut you to drifting from the people, and that's any brand or style of greed.... There is just one way to save yourself and that's to get together and work and fight vor everybody."

John Steinbeck on Woody: "Because all his life, what Woody stood for and sang about and talked about was the people he lived amongst, their work, and their laughter and their struggle. Woody was a guy who couldn't stand to see kids with swollen hungry bellies. He wanted his people to have jobs and better pay. He was a passionate union man. He wanted people to have good houses and land to grow things and above all, freedom to sing and speak and grow and drink and gamble and have whatever kind of fun and happiness this place can provide."

woody guthrie tribute lead-up

Don Howerton is working on some songs with a musical partner this weekend, he will be reporting to me what songs they come up with after the weekend. He is doing some of the children's songs. I'm hoping someone will do "mail myself to you"- take you for a ride in my car - howja do - jig along home - we kinda fizzled on working up a rendition of hobo's lullaby, but maybe someone still will.
I'm gonna be printing off extra verses of this land is your land (tliyl as pete seeger refers to it) with the more radical bent, and alluding to the gap between the rich and poor, etc.
Todd Burge will be bringing Billy Matheny on board for the show, and is in touch with some others. I'll stop in (hopefully) at the Beatles tribute this coming Thursday at the Smoot, to see how that goes.
My sound guy sounds all ready to do both parts of the show.
If anyone has the energy to put some flyers up around town, please arrange to pick some up from me- I always have some in my car, but I'm kinda lazy about stopping at stores, etc.
I'll be starting to put some woody quotes on this blog over the next few days.

"200th Post" - Greens /Andy Tuck update on shows

Andy is going to be playing at the Front Row July 7th in a solo show.
I am still assuming/ hoping he will be available to participate in the Woody Guthrie tribute benefit July 15th.
The Greens have a booking in Athens, July 20th (Thursday) at "O'Hooley's."
Marietta Brewing Co. July 29th.