Archive for September, 2008

Thomas Point Beach 2008

Thursday, September 4th, 2008

Casey Henry

There are few better things in life than to find yourself at a bluegrass festival, camping with a group of friends, with perfect weather and no responsibilities other than to jam all day and go watch the stage show if you feel like it. I found myself in just such a situation over the weekend up at Thomas Point Beach in Maine. In retrospect, it seemed to pass in the blink of an eye, but if I stop and think about it, the experience was chock full of activities.

Since I can slap up pictures for y’all to look at, I’ll talk about the stage shows. Thursday night’s headliner was Rhonda Vincent, but the jamming was so good at our camp I didn’t even get to the stage. So, no picture of her. Friday night was Marty Stuart and his Fabulous Superlatives. I love Marty Stuart (his album The Pilgrim is one of my all-time favorites Marty Stuart - The Pilgrim). He played an acoustic show with Kenny Vaughn on guitar, Harry Stinson on drum (on a strap over his shoulder so he, too, could move around), and Paul Martin on upright bass.

Marty Stuart

Saturday’s big show was Ricky Skaggs, who always does a good, slick show. I was amused, though, that his CDs were being sold off a plain old picnic table.

Ricky Skaggs CDs

My favorite act of the day, though, was the Tennessee Mafia Jug Band. You may have read a couple weeks back about the new CMT show Outsider’s Inn. We’ll these are the guys that are on it.

Tennessee Mafia Jug Band

L-R: Pete Elegant, Mike Armistead, (hidden Dave Gandon), Leroy Troy, Lester Armistead.

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Mandolin Bridges–One More Time!

Wednesday, September 3rd, 2008

Red HenryOne of the most enjoyable things about making and trying mandolin bridges has been (sometimes) verifying old assumptions about bridges, but (more often) finding out new things. Last time we talked about bridge weights, and how conventional bridges can bee heavy enough to mute the mandolin. Today, let’s talk about another dimension: bridge length.

The Gibson company, long ago, made one-piece ebony bridges for their mandolins. These bridges were about 4″ long and a little less than 1/4″ thick. But then after Gibson introduced adjustable bridges, they began making them 4 1/2″ long. If the change was made gradually over several factory-sample bridges, probably no one there noticed a difference in the sound. And bridgemakers ever since have copied that Gibson bridge-length of 4 1/2″.

But soon after I began making maple bridges, I wondered about how bridge length could affect the sound. My earliest bridges were about 4″ long, but I decided to make an extra-short bridge, only 3 1/2″ tip-to-tip. Here’s a photo (this was a very early winged bridge):

Bridge #10
The sound of this bridge was very disappointing, and I was at a loss to explain why. My previous bridges had almost all sounded fine. But after thinking about it for a while, I wondered if I’d made the bridge too short for good sound. So I made my next bridge #11, much longer, about 4 1/2″ tip-to-tip:

Bridge #11

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Three Women Nominated For IBMA Instrumental Awards

Tuesday, September 2nd, 2008

Murphy HenryFrom time to time here I’ll be including some posts with feminist leanings. There will almost always be a bluegrass connection, but I realize some of you may not be interested and might rather scoot on over to visit with our buddies at the Banjo Hangout, so I’ll try to remember to give you a heads up. So, heads up!

Today I want to shine a spotlight on the 2008 International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) Awards Final Ballot which I received a few weeks ago and promptly marked and mailed back. It’s rare to see female performers nominated as Instrumental Performers but this year THREE women are nominated and I want everybody to know that this is Big News. (Okay, not as big as Sarah Palin being nominated for Vice President, but still and yet big for the world of bluegrass!)

So, who are these brave and bold women who are carving out new turf?

Kristin Scott Benson—nominated for Banjo Player of the Year, her first nomination.

Sierra Hull—nominated for Mandolin Player of the Year, her first nomination. And she is the first woman to be nominated in this category!

Missy Raines—nominated for Bass Player of the Year. Her 16th nomination!

Congratulations to all of you! You’re doing all us womyn proud!

Now, in case you’d like to put this into perspective, I did a little digging.

Since the IBMA Awards were instituted in 1990, only two women have won Instrumental Awards. Alison Brown was the first, winning Banjo Player of the Year in 1991. Missy Raines became the second in 1998, and has since won six more times. (Go Missy!)

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Happy Labor Day!

Monday, September 1st, 2008

Casey HenryHappy Labor Day everyone! I hope you are all enjoying your day off. When I was little it always marked the last day of freedom before buckling down for a new school year. Now, blissfully unaffected by the school calendar, it signals the winding down of the festival season, winding up for the IBMA convention at the end of the month, and, this year, will mark the end of an era. The Thomas Point Beach bluegrass festival, which has been on Labor Day weekend for the last 30 years (except for that one year that they took off…) has given its last hurrah. The last song has been sung, the last string has been plucked. Even as you read this, worn out campers are packing up their gear and hitting the road, heading home for the last time, already filled with nostalgia.

This was only my fourth trip to Thomas Point Beach, but I love it like I’ve been going there all my life. My parents’ band, Red and Murphy and Co., played there in the early 1980s, and every year that I go I always meet people who remember seeing them play. I played there myself three years ago with Tennessee Heartstrings. That was the year of Katrina and gas prices were four times as high driving back from the festival as they were driving to it (but still not as high as they have been this year).

The other years I’ve just gone and camped to have fun and play music with my friends. One year I flew, one year I drove (22 hours each way). This year I flew and my friend Kelly picked me up and we took her pop-up camper, which was the lap of luxury compared to my little tent. I’ll relate all our adventures at a later date, since I’m making my own way home from the festival even now. Enjoy your last holiday of summer. Visit with some friends, pick some tunes, don’t drink and drive, and all that good stuff.