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Archive for January, 2009

A Very Rainy Dress Rehersal

Friday, January 30th, 2009

Yesterday—dress rehearsal day—we were hoping to get away with a few showers, but instead it pretty much poured from 2:00 on, all during the time we were checking in our volunteers, moving the stage onto the field, and running the show. It was a constant battle to keep the water off the stage, fought with squeegies, leaf blowers, and towels. But the band did their whole show in the rain, instruments and everything, three times through. I don’t see how in the world they can do that, having the instruments get wet, but they do.

It was a full dress rehearsal, so the band wore their show clothes, and we had the field cast (the kids that run screaming onto the field and gather around the stage being the audience). These fans, including some of the people on our stage crew, are so crazed that they had to put security people down there in with the kids (OK, really they’re not kids, but mostly adults) because they are afraid there will be a huge crush at the stage and someone will get hurt. Since it was raining, the field stayed tarped the whole time, to protect the grass. As there always is during these kinds of events, there was a lot of standing around for us and the volunteers while the TV people do whatever it is that TV people do.

They were very strict about cameras. They allowed NO pictures to be taken, and the few people they did catch taking pictures, they dealt with. I know they deleted the pictures; I don’t know if they threw the people out or not. So, I won’t be posting any dress rehearsal pictures. But I do expect to be able to get some on game day.

It is still raining today, which does not bode well for the pre- and post-game dress rehearsals scheduled for this afternoon.

Tags: Bruce Springsteen, casey, super bowl
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“It Wasn’t On My DVD!”

Thursday, January 29th, 2009

Okay. So I just got done with a lesson with Bob. (The golfer.) We’re working on “When The Roll Is Called Up Yonder” from the Amazing Grace DVD. The last lick of the song is the Roll in My Sweet Baby’s Arm lick, which itself ends with the tag lick. (Got all that?) Bob kept trying to put another lick on after the tag lick. I kept telling him, “That’s the end of the song, Bob.” He kept insisting there was something more.

Bob: “It was right there on my DVD!”

Murphy: “No it wasn’t.”

Bob: “I’m gonna go back home and check.”

Murphy: “Go ahead. You know I’m always right.”

Bob: “I know you are, but I’ve got a black market copy!”

At this I dissolve in laughter. A black market copy, indeed! There may be black market copies out there, but they still have the same notes on them!

Murphy to Bob: “Let’s make it interesting. Want to put some money on it?”

Bob: “I know you’re right, but sure.”

Murphy: “Five bucks.”

Bob: “Okay.”

All done in the spirit of fun, of course. I’ll let you know the outcome after our next lesson!

BTW, Bob was all attired in Steelerware: Steeler ballcap (2009 Conference Champions) and Steeler jersey. He’s a Pennsylvania boy! At the risk of ticking off all the fans for the other side (again): Go Steelers! (I’m a Terry Bradshaw fan from way back!)

And be sure to watch the half-time show, where, if you can take your eyes off of the Boss, Bruce Springsteen, you might catch a glimpse of Casey somewhere in the crowd! Her doting parents will have their eyes glued to the set!

Tags: murphy
Posted in By Murphy, General | 1 Comment »

Super Bowl 43 Blog #5

Wednesday, January 28th, 2009

Yesterday was definitely the most exciting day so far here in Super Bowl land. For the first time the band came and rehearsed inside the halftime tent with full sound, lights, and cameras. As you may know there is a lot of secrecy surrounding the halftime show. They don’t want anyone to know in advance what the stage will look like, or what songs are going to be played, so that it will all be a big surprise on game day. But I’m pretty sure, what with the rehearsal being so loud as to be audible to everyone within a quarter-mile radius, that the songs aren’t secret anymore.

They rehearsed for a good four hours. I watched for a couple of them. They kept turning the air conditioning off in the tent, since it was so loud, then turning it back on again in between run-throughs so we wouldn’t all bake. But it was pretty steamy in there.

We saw the security guards really crack down on one guy who had his phone out taking pictures. They honed right in the instant they saw him and took his phone away. I think they gave it back, but I’m sure they deleted the pictures.

I’d never seen Bruce Springsteen before, nor any of his band, so it was neat to get to see them. He rehearsed all-out, and it will be a very good show. Someone reminded me that one of the guitar players was on the Sopranos, which I had forgotten. I’ll have to pay more attention today and see if I recognize him.

We had a volunteer rehearsal last night and it was the first one for which the stage carts were loaded down with all the band gear, so they were considerably heavier than previously, especially the one with the grand piano. I think we put eight extra people on that one to help push. Some of the volunteers somehow knew that the band would be rehearsing that day, so they came four or five hours early and sat outside the security perimeter, listening to whatever music wafted to them through the air. Hard core fans, these.

Today is basically just like yesterday, and then dress rehearsal is tomorrow. Stay tuned!

Tags: Bruce Springsteen, casey, super bowl
Posted in By Casey, General | No Comments »

Goodbye to Butch Baldassari

Tuesday, January 27th, 2009

This month, we said a sad “goodbye” to our friend Butch Baldassari, whose death leaves a large gap in the mandolin world. Butch, along with being a virtuoso player and human being, left the mandolin world much better off than it was before.

When we heard the news, our son Chris and I sat and talked about Butch and about his musical achievements. Along with helping to bring a new respectability to the mandolin through his own high-grade music, teaching, and recordings, Butch was always encouraging to promising new talent and did what he could to help people along.

My favorites among Butch’s recordings are his still-remarkable ‘Evergreen’ CD, the Nashville Mandolin Ensemble’s ‘Gifts’ and ‘All the Rage’, and the Butch Baldassari Trio’s ‘American Portraits’, though he released many other very fine (and sometimes amazing) projects such as ‘New Classics’, the NME’s ‘Plectrasonics’, and the more recent ‘Bach, Beatles, and Bluegrass’. Only a few weeks before his death, he’d brought out a new CD project, ‘Victorian Christmas’.

(Don’t jump on me if I’ve gotten some of the CD titles wrong, because I’m working from memory. Check out Butch’s recordings at http://www.soundartrecordings.com . )

And as part of his warm encouragement of young musicians, Butch suggested and produced Christopher’s ‘Monroe Approved‘ CD, which made the IBMA ‘Instrumental Recording of the Year’ “long list” in 2007 and has received highly-favorable reviews. Butch’s guidance was invaluable to its production.

Chris and I went over to Butch’s care facility in October and played some mandolin tunes for him in his room. He was very weak and practically unable to move, but was lovingly looked after by his wife Sinclair. In spite of his physical condition, Butch was as encouraging and enthusiastic as ever about mandolin playing. Thank you, Butch, and it’s good that you’re in a better place now. Maybe Monroe himself will drop by and listen to you play, as he did years ago. We’ll listen to your music and remember you.

Tags: butch baldassari, red
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Dalton Brill Tribute Show

Monday, January 26th, 2009

On Sunday, January 25th, 2009, a concert was held in Dalton Brill’s honor at the Virginia Brewing Company, in Winchester, VA. Chris Henry organized the show. The Winchester star did a nice story on the event.

One of Murphy’s former students, Luke Johnson, is mentioned in the article. He posted the text of the song he wrote for Dalton on his MySpace page. But, luckily, he’s also given us permission to post them here:

His Mark

He called me Luke the drifter
But he’s the one, keeps on driftin’ back to me
In my dreams, I see you there, Doin’ more than just cuttin’ hair
He’s tearin’ up an “Ol’ Joe Clark”, Dalton sure left his mark

CH: Those Wensday night sessions Had my foot tappin’ so fast
I was sore in the morning, God I love that good old’ Bluegrass
You lift my spirit so high,
This music inside me ain’t never gonna die

With the rolling of his fingers, that snap filled the air
Smiles on everyone’s faces, so hard for them to stay in their chair
Inside our souls are hootin and hollerin, Dancing a jig here and there.

That Shenandoah sound won’t be the same
With those Apple Blossoms bloomin, I can hear that banjo roll and ring
Walking down the midway, Just shocks my brain

She used to pay you to pick, Because her fiddle squeaked so bad
That Orange Blossom Special was all that we had
Running cross the finish line, gallopin’ 4/4 time

Don’t pinch me I ain’t dreamin’, He’s alive with us today
Standing in a shadow grin’ in, While we pick and play
He told me to tell you, Let the grass grow high,

Better dry your eyes, and nothing ever dies anyway

Tags: chris henry, Dalton Brill, luke johnson, winchester star
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That’s Going On My Resume!

Monday, January 26th, 2009

Last night: Casey Henry solo show in Raymond James Stadium (that’s a 68,000 seat venue).

OK, technically there were only about 500 people in the place at the time (mostly the stage volunteers, various production crews, and the security folks), and I was filling time while the volunteers were sitting in the stands and the lighting and camera people and producers were looking at the stage through the cameras, but it sure sounds good, doesn’t it?

Tags: casey, pictures, super bowl
Posted in By Casey, pictures | 4 Comments »

Kristin Scott Benson with the Grascals

Sunday, January 25th, 2009

Last night we ventured away from our hotel compound to the Manatee County Fair, south of Tampa. I’m working on editing the interview I did with Kristin Scott Benson at IBMA after she won her Banjo Player of the Year award and I had gone to the Grascals website to look for something and I noticed they had a show listed in Palmetto, FL. I consulted Google Maps and found that it was only 45 minutes away from our hotel, so I rounded up some folks to go with me, and we headed down.

Cap Spence accompanied me, as well as Tony Hauser and Tony Menditto, who also work on staging for the halftime show. The fair was a good old county fair with games where you can win big stuffed animals, rides, livestock, and an entertainment stage, which is where we headed. This was the first time I’ve gotten to see Kristin play in her new gig with the Grascals. She’s been with them since November and has really settled into the job well.

Kristin had mentioned that one of the things she really had to work on when she got the job was playing fast, since the Grascals have some truly blazing tempos. Well, she’s worked out that aspect just fine, and really turned in some killer breaks, especially on the fiddle tune “Bonaparte’s Retreat,” played out of D position.

The band played for a good 90 minutes and on their last number, “Orange Blossom Special”, they donned baseball caps and told the crowd they were going to throw them out to the kids at the end of the song if they gathered down front. Well, not only the kids gathered in front of the stage, everyone else did too, standing and clapping right in front of the band, which gave a great energy to the song.

After the show was over a large crowd gathered around the record table to meet and greet, buy CDs, and get the band to sign posters. Kristin was talking to a young girl, probably about 13 years old, who said she was a Murphy Method student. Kristin said that Murphy’s daughter was here and looked around for me. As it happened I was standing right there and talked to Emily, who has been playing about 4 years and has several of the DVDs. Her younger siblings also play and she shows them things. I told her that’s exactly what Murphy did—teach her younger sisters how to play.

I also ran into Alice Chadwell, an old friend who used to live in Nashville but moved down to Tampa several years ago. I’d forgotten she lived here, but it was a great surprise to see her and get to meet her mom.

On the drive back to the hotel we listened to the Grascals newest album, “Keep On Walkin’”, which is great. The Tonys Hauser and Menditto enjoyed their venture into the bluegrass world, and I really recharged my battery by getting to see my friends and enjoy a night of top-notch bluegrass.

Tags: casey, grascals, kristin scott benson, super bowl
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Super Bowl XLIII Blog #2

Friday, January 23rd, 2009

Wednesday night was our second volunteer rehearsal on the practice field beside the stadium. Our volunteers are the stage crew, tasked with assembling the stage on the field in the three or four minutes after the first half of the game ends, and then disassembling it and getting it off the field before the second half starts. The stage is built in many different sections on wheels, called carts. In the rehearsals leading up to the game we work on getting the time for putting the stage together down from the 20 or 30 minutes it takes the first time, to our 3 or 4 minute goal time.

The weather was cold and windy and for our comfort, Cap asked our crew guys to put up a tent to shelter us from the wind. They put up a pop-up canopy and enclosed three sides with thick black plastic. They even put a little space heater in there for us. Below are a couple of pictures of the volunteer coordination team in our little hut:

Ashley Kecskes, Bryan Ransom, Holly Silber, Casey Henry

This year’s volunteers are extremely enthusiastic. In the cold night air they all wanted to put the stage together four times instead of the scheduled three. After I check in people there is not a whole lot for me to do during the practice, so I get to eat supper (one of the boxed meals we get for the vols at every practice—sandwich, chips, pickle, cookie) and watch the spectacle. At the end of practice they bring the carts back and “put them to bed” in the tent inside the halftime show compound. After practice we on the crew can generally be found in the hotel bar discussing what does or does not need to be changed about the stages, banjos, guitars, seaweed, Captain Morgan’s vs. Sailor Jerry, feminism, adult movie shoots, and squirrel catapults.

And yet, the next day we’re all (kind of) bright eyed and (relatively) bushy tailed and (somewhat) ready and rearin’ to go to work to make it the best halftime show ever!!

Tags: casey, super bowl
Posted in By Casey, General | No Comments »

Happy Birthday to my Mama!

Thursday, January 22nd, 2009

Today as I write this, January 21, is my mama’s birthday. She is 84 years old and just as cute as she can be with her snow white hair and her still beautiful complexion. She’s not as tall as she used to be (who is?), but she can still play a mean game of Scrabble and Chinese checkers, neither of which demands a great deal of height!

Mama was my introduction to music, as many mothers are, rocking and singing me to sleep when I was a baby. Of course, I don’t actually remember that, but I saw her do the same thing with my four younger sisters, and I figured she’d had to learn it somewhere, which was by practicing on me!

What did she sing? Songs that were popular in her youth: “Chattanooga Choo Choo,” “K-A-L-A-M-A-Z-O-O,” “Missouri Waltz,” “Three Little Fishes” (with that wonderful line “boop, boop, didem, dahdem, whatem, choo!), “Shine On Harvest Moon,” and our all time favorite, one that started out, “There’s a little cabin where the honeysuckle twines….” (Casey recorded that as a banjo instrumental on her CD Real Women Drive Trucks.)

She also sang kids songs like “Way Down Yonder in the Paw Paw Patch,” “Billy Boy,” “Bye O Baby Bunting,” “She’ll Be Coming Around the Mountain,” “I’ve Been Working On The Railroad,” and “Rock-a-By Baby” (which I never liked, what with the bow breaking and the cradle falling). And since we were raised Baptist, “Jesus Loves Me” was also hot on the charts, and was the first song I learned to sing.

Singing has always been a big part of my life and I attribute that to Mama. She didn’t play an instrument but she sure seemed to know a lot of songs. When she was sick just before Christmas, my sisters and I all gathered at the house to be with her, and we entertained her (and ourselves) by singing for her. We were trying to pull out all the old songs and in addition to the ones I’ve already mentioned we sang tunes like “My Gal’s a Corker, She’s a New Yorker,” “K-K-K Katy,” “Down By the Old Mill Stream,” “Jesus Loves The Little Children,” “Reuben, Reuben, I’ve Been Thinking,” and “My Tall Silk Hat.” And all the Christmas carols we could think of.

So, I guess there’s no real point to this, other than to say thank you, Mama, for inadvertently pointing me in a musical direction. And HAPPY BIRTHDAY, OLD PIE!

Tags: birthday, mama, murphy, singing
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Super Bowl XLIII Blog #1

Wednesday, January 21st, 2009

I’m here in partly-sunny, fairly-chilly Tampa, FL, working as the assistant volunteer coordinator for the halftime stage crew for Super Bowl XLIII. This is my second Super Bowl, my first being last year in Arizona where the New York Giants won an amazing victory over the up-to-then undefeated New England Patriots. (I actually had to look that up because I couldn’t remember the two teams. I’m so not sporty.) Tom Petty did that halftime show. This year it is Bruce Springsteen, and very much excitement surrounds the fact of his performance.

My job as volunteer coordinator consists mainly of assisting the two other vol. coordinators (checking people in to the practices, punching holes in and alphabetizing waiver forms and putting them in binders). You’d think this job would be terribly exciting, but for the most part there is a lot of waiting around. It’s the same way in all of show business. I was interested to get to observe one of the Tom Petty band’s practices last year, when they were running through their show on the stage in the practice tent so that the camera people could plan out their moves. To my surprise it was just as boring as watching ANY band (that you’re not in) practice.

To be sure there are some very exciting moments. Like when we run onto the field right after the first half of the game ends, assemble the stage, and get to be on the field during the halftime show. That’s pretty darn cool. But the part that has happened so far—one practice with the halftime volunteers—not so thrilling. We have a great group of volunteers this year, though. There are a bunch of hardcore Springsteen fans, including a Canadian and couple guys who came all the way from Finland! That’s dedication.

We hope that their dedication continues throughout tonight’s (outdoor) practice when the temperture is forecast to be in the low-thirties. Brrrrrr!

Not much banjo pickin’ here so far. Cap Spence (our boss) brought two banjos and I brought my fiddle. One of the other guys has a guitar, and somewhere among the hundreds of other people working on this huge show is another guy who plays banjo. Of course, last year I flew all the way out to Arizona with my banjo and we didn’t get to pick once! That’s how it goes sometimes. We can only hope to do better this year.