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Archive for March, 2009

So I’ll Just Keep Touching Up My Grey Hairs….

Thursday, March 5th, 2009

(Line from a Jimmy Martin song.)

So, Steve and I are having our bi-monthly hour-long banjo lesson. We are in the Murphy Method studio where Casey and Red and I have just finished shooting the new DVD, More Easy Tunes For Banjo. We have cleaned up most of the DVD paraphernalia (chairs, lights, drop cloth, tuners, instruments), but we have left the black backdrop down, since it takes two of us to roll it up.

Steve makes some remark about the DVD shoot. I say, “Yeah, we used to use that black cloth there for a background. I think that’s what’s on our Beginning Banjo DVDs. Then we noticed that my hair seemed to disappear against all that black, and we didn’t know how to light it so that wouldn’t happen, so we switched to the blue background you now see in most of the DVDs.” (Including the Slow Jams and the newest one.)

Steve immediately says, “I guess you could go back to the black background now because the grey would show up pretty well.”

Me:

(Visualize open mouth and nothing coming out!)

Steve: “I shouldn’t have said that. I thought about not saying it….”

Me: “No, it was a perfect set up. You had to say it.”

And there were no hard feelings. I didn’t even make him play “Banjo in the Hollow” one hundred times for punishment! In fact we had a very good lesson. Steve is working now on the Improvising DVD and he is coming up with some really good breaks that don’t necessarily follow exactly what I taught on the DVD. I like that!

So I just chalk it up to one of the joys of being a banjo player and teacher for 35 years….Or as one of my former students said to me (and I reported in Banjo Newsletter), “You’ve been playing banjo longer than I’ve been alive.” Selah.

Tags: grey hair, murphy
Posted in By Murphy, General, Improvising | 3 Comments »

Turn Your Radio On…

Wednesday, March 4th, 2009

…and listen to the music in the air. So goes the classic John Hartford song. This weekend, Saturday night to be specific, if you turn your radio on to 650 AM (or log onto wsmonline.com) at midnight Eastern Time, you can hear myself (Casey) playing banjo on the Ernest Tubb Midnight Jamboree with Michael Martin Murphey. The show is an hour long, and I don’t know how much of that time we’ll spend playing, because there is a lot of advertising that goes on–maybe five or six songs throughout the hour. But it will be nice to know there are some friendly ears out there listening! [And I do realize the show is technically on Sunday morning as it is after midnight...but not here in Nashville!!]

Tags: casey, michael martin murphey, radio
Posted in By Casey, shows | No Comments »

A Classic Florida Moment

Tuesday, March 3rd, 2009

Folks who are interested in southeastern folk music may remember Will McLean, the ethnic genius who preceded almost everyone else in the region as a singer-songwriter. I recently came across this photo from 1978, taken at Stephen Foster State Park, in Florida, during a special program for Will:

Everybody was having a good time, and there’s a lot of nostalgia in this picture. Many inspiring folk characters are shown, some of whom are now gone forever: our hero Gamble Rogers is standing near the left of the photo; Will McLean himself is near the center; toward the right, in an elaborate old-fashioned dress is “Cousin Thelma” Boltin, the organizer and driving force for many years behind the Florida Folk Festival; and next to her is Don Grooms, the well-known Gainesville-area performer. These folks are all missed.

But speaking of people who are still around, take a look at the right edge of the photo. You’ll notice a young couple with their baby. Murphy is holding Casey, who was just 6 months old, and I’m holding my favorite drink, which was a big mason jar full of fresh iced tea. (As you can see from everyone’s appearance, it was a warm day.)

Memories abound from this event. Earlier in the afternoon, Murphy and I had had the pleasure of playing a set of music with the great Chubby Anthony playing fiddle. That was certainly a time to remember! And a little later Jim Fee and Bill Pruitt arrived, and Chubby played a set with his own band. That was some powerful music!

Red

(P.S. — A special note to Banjo Newsletter and Banjo Hangout fans, some of whom have discussed a certain mystery for years: the Flint Hill Flash is in this picture. No, I’m not going to tell you which one he—or she—is!)

Tags: flint hill flash, red, will mclean
Posted in By Red, pictures | 1 Comment »

New Banjo DVD: We Got ‘Er Done!

Monday, March 2nd, 2009

(And yes, I am a big fan of Larry the Cable Guy!)

This past weekend Casey made the long haul from Nashville to Winchester to record our new banjo DVD, tentatively titled More Easy Tunes.

Working as fast as I’ve ever seen anyone and doing a superb job of teaching, Casey taught six songs in one long session on Friday. I sat by, mostly in awe, but was also in charge of making sure Casey’s bangs looked okay! Saturday I joined her on camera to play guitar and sing as we added the slow and fast versions of each song. Many times we ended up laughing ourselves silly over some small mishap. We both actually had tears of laughter running down our faces at times. Some of those moments should show up in the Bloopers.

During the shooting, we remembered to capture a few still moments to share with you on this blog. Here they are:

Casey tuning up and getting ready to teach. She was not satisfied with her own tuner, so she asked for one of mine. Then she uttered these profound words: “I’ll just keep trying different tuners till one agrees with me!”

Red, our chief engineer, taking a brief moment of respite from his excellent camera work. Notice the Arrandem Music sign behind him. Get it? Arr-and-em. R and M. Red and Murphy.

$Casey\'s banjo picture$