Archive for May, 2009

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The Manner To Which I’ve Become Accustomed

Wednesday, May 6th, 2009

Casey HenryThe gig I played last weekend with the Dixie Bee-Liners may just have spoiled me for all gigs for the rest of my life. The show was at the Suffolk (Va.) Center for the Cultural Arts, a very nice, new, beautiful venue in southeastern Virginia. I rode from Nashville with bass player Jeremy Darrow, departing on Friday in the middle of a monsoon-like rain storm. We spent the night at Brandi Hart and Buddy Woodward’s house in Abingdon, Va., where they treated us to a brilliant barbecue of grilled vegis, chicken, and smoked salmon. With the campfire afterwards, the only thing missing was s’mores. (I’ll see what I can do about that next time!)

Buddy Woodward, King of the Grill

Here’s is Buddy, king of the grill, and some beautiful peppers.

Jeremy Darrow

Here’s Jeremy getting our post-supper fire started.

The next day (after a night spent on a surprisingly comfortable pull-out couch) we drove the seven hours to Suffolk, loaded in, sound checked, and were treated to some of the nicest backstage rooms I’ve ever seen. There was a large common room, separate dressing rooms for boys and girls, comfortable couches, and plenty of room for many more people than just us six. The nice folks at the venue had provided a lovely spread of fruit, chips, salsa, pickles, and sandwich makings, and in addition to that they fed us a nice dinner at the restaurant on the bottom floor of the building. I’m not sure any of us were very hungry after the snacks, but we felt like royalty.

The show went just fine, despite a notable lack of practice time. Unbeknownst to me the band had switched to in-ear monitors, which I don’t have ear-pieces for, so I was the only one on stage with a monitor speaker pointed at me. I don’t think anyone noticed. I was thrilled to get to visit with my college roommate Kristin Mullen at intermission and after the show. She lives nearby and came to see us play.

After packing everything up and loading back into the van we went a couple miles down the road to the Hilton hotel. It was truly one of the nicest hotels I’ve ever been housed in—comfortable beds, a recycling bin in the room (!). In the morning, before we loaded up the van, I took a walk in the Cedar Hill Cemetery across the road from the hotel. I love walking in old cemeteries and this one was lovely—hilly with lots of mature shrubbery and cedar trees, as you may have guessed from the name.

We hit the road with a vengance and fourteen hours later I was back in Madison. Long day, but a satisfying end to a smooth trip.

One more picture. On our Saturday drive we stopped at the White’s Truck Stop exit on I-81 (one of my favorite exits). We pulled into Fuel City to “rest” and eat and their sign made me laugh:

Fuel City sign

After having it I can’t really argue with their claim. It was pretty darn good.

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A Full Day!

Tuesday, May 5th, 2009

Red HenryFolks, sometimes in this business of playing music, we do crazy things. But often, we do them because they’re fun. A good illustration of this occurred last Saturday, when Christopher and I were playing music at the Gamble Rogers music festival near St. Augustine, Florida.

You might think, if you’re playing your shows and picking at a festival, that would be enough to do. But on Saturday, we started out with back-to-back afternoon sets– I was sitting in with the Artful Dodgers, a 35-year reunion Florida band, and then we followed them with our own Red & Chris set. And it was hot! It must have been over 90 inside that tent. But the crowd liked us, so we expended some energy. We forged ahead and played a set of high-energy bluegrass and original material, and the crowd loved it! We sold a bunch of CDs afterwards, always a sign for musicians that the people like you.

Then, after an hour or so spent cooling down and getting a bite to eat in the festival’s hospitality room, we had our evening already planned out. Chris had booked an evening house concert in Jacksonville, about an hour minutes away. So we loaded up the band and our instruments into two vehicles, and drove up I-95 to Jax. And what a reception! First there was a lot of good food and visiting with nice people, and then we launched into our set to the best audience reception we’d had in a long time. First we ate up the food, and then the folks ate up the music and stories. We played a 90-minute show to a tumultuous reception, and then sold CDs. LOTS of CDs. CD sales mean a lot to the band, both because of the financial aspect of it (more gas money) and also because of what sales say about how the crowd sincerely likes us. So by about 11:00 p.m. we were tired but happy, having played two shows in two places already.

But the night was not over! Our old friend Mike, who lives in St. Augustine, was holding his retirement party the same night. So we loaded ourselves in our cars and drove back to St. Augustine. And when we got to the party, the people were still picking! We naturally joined in, and picked for a couple more hours until things wound up, about 2:00 a.m. We drove back out to the festival and sacked out, trying to get some rest before playing our Sunday sets. We finally got to sleep about 4:00. What a day! We’d had a great time. The festival– the house concert– the party– that had been what you’d call a full schedule, and I hope it happens again!

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“Wear Something Frilly!”

Monday, May 4th, 2009

Murphy HenryOne of my “lapsed” banjo students returned this week for a lesson. I’d taught him for several months last year while I was still holding forth at Brill’s Barber Shop. Various family crises and commitments had gotten in the way of his continuing, so I loaded him up with DVDs as he walked out the door, and he promised to keep playing. He was already doing quite well. Solid right hand, good tone, good timing.

How to describe Roy? (Not his real name.) Tall, lean, fit, good looking, gray-haired, and gregarious, he projects an air of confidence and ease when he walks into a room. As we were catching up, he was telling me about the house he had renovated–from stem to stern–doing all the work himself, which included adding plumbing and completely rewiring it. I was amazed at the enormous range of talent it takes to do something like this and a bit envious to boot. I do so wish I had some construction skills! It just seems so handy, being able to fix and build things yourself without having to rely on someone else to do it.

After the convivialities wound down, Roy got out his banjo so we could get reacquainted musically. He’d told me that he felt like he was at a “crossroads” and didn’t know where to go. Before I could advise him, I needed to see where he was with his banjo playing. Truth told, most folks who quit coming to see me also quit picking up their banjos. So, I asked to see “Banjo in the Hollow” and “Cripple Creek,” the usual drill.

So Roy starts out. Did I mention that he’s somewhat of a perfectionist? I think he’s playing well, but he’s not satisfied because he’s missing a few notes, his hand is shaking a little bit making him the tiniest bit sloppy, and once he forgot to repeat the “B” part of “Cripple Creek.” So he says to me, “I don’t know why I can’t play. I do fine at home, when I’m in my shop by myself.” Pause. “You are so intimidating!” Pause. “Why don’t you wear something frilly?”

And I just cracked up! End of story.

PS: Roy had, in fact, kept up with all his tunes, successfully navigating through “Old Joe Clark,” “Foggy Mountain Breakdown,”  “Roll In My Sweet Baby’s Arms,” and “When the Roll Is Called Up Yonder” among others. He was eager to press on to “Improvising” and I agreed. I also told him what he really needed was to come to our Wednesday night jam, and he said he would. So, perhaps next week I’ll be reporting back on that!

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Casey in Suffolk, VA Saturday

Friday, May 1st, 2009

Casey will be filling in playing banjo with the Dixie Bee-Liners this Saturday, May 2nd, playing at the Arts Center in Suffolk, VA. If you’re near there, stop by and give us a listen!! Show starts at 7:30 p.m. and we’ll do two sets.

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Fiddlestar Jam Workshop

Friday, May 1st, 2009

Casey HenryI’ve just returned from leading a jam at Megan Lynch’s adult fiddle camp. Jon Weisberger (on bass) and David Thomas (on guitar) co-lead with myself on banjo. I meant to take my camera so I could post a picture, but did I remember? Of course not.

We started out easy, with “Cripple Creek” and all the fiddles playing together, trading breaks back and forth with me and David. I even sang a verse or two. Next was a singing song, “Two-Dollar Bill,” and again I had all the fiddles play at the same time and it sounded pretty good because almost all the players—I’d say there were at least eight fiddles—were going for the melody. This group was solidly intermediate. Not a one had timing problems or got lost during a break, and almost everyone could improvise by picking out the melody notes to a song.

Toward the end of the session we started talking a bit about being in a regular jam, that is, a non-learning-situation jam. One point we hammered home is that it’s not cool to practice your break to a song during the song, for example, while the singer is singing, or during someone else’s break. Once you get into a jam it is too late to practice! You’re either going to play it well, or not, and nobody but you is going to notice or care, but your performance of your break is not going to be improved by running over it a couple of times while something else is going on. It distracts from what you should be paying attention to, which is the group and how the overall song is going.

One of the women was concerned about how to let the group, or the person leading a particular song, know that she wanted to try a break, especially if she had passed up a break on a previous song. It’s all about body language. If you keep your head up and make eye contact with the person singing (or the person who kicked off the instrumental) they’ll know you want to try a break. One point that Jon made was that if you’re worried about being passed over, it’s better to start in on a break, and then back off if you notice that someone else is also taking a lead, than to be a wallflower, always waiting to be coaxed into taking a break. That way, at least everyone will know you want a chance.

One other thing to keep in mind, though, is that if the jam is very large—say more than six or seven people—chances are that not every person will get to take a break on every song. It would take forever otherwise. And just because you don’t get a break on one song, does not mean you won’t get a break on any of them, as long as you do the eye-contact thing. It doesn’t mean they don’t think you’re a good player, and it doesn’t mean they don’t like you. Remember, the jam is about the JAM! It’s not about you. Whatever you can do to make the JAM better and and make the song sound better is the right thing to be doing.

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