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Archive for June, 2009

What Mama Said

Tuesday, June 30th, 2009

Murphy Henry (Note: Nothing about banjo today. And it is only by the sheerest luck that the word “bluegrass” appears at all!)

Thanks to Red for blogging for me yesterday. I got back from my Georgia weekend with the folks around 9 p.m., and it was either blog or watch True Blood on HBO. So…..

Wynk Hicks, aka Mama, aka Grandmother

I think I’ve mentioned before that both of my parents have Alzheimer’s disease. We’ve been lucky to be able to keep them at home, and late last year we moved to round-the-clock help. One of the five daughters (or Casey) spends every weekend with them, so the help gets a break and we get to visit with our parents. On Sunday, as I was helping Mama get dressed (while singing “Put your little foot, put your little foot, put your little foot right in…”, and thereby proving, once again, that there is a bluegrass song for every occasion) I told her, “This is my day to wait on you hand and foot.” She immediately replied, “I wish I could think of something strenuous for you to do.” At 84, she’s still got an occasional snappy comeback.

After she got dressed, she was feeling so perky that we decided to play a game of Scrabble. She was playing well until the end, when she put down the word (and I use the term loosely) “goasth.” “What’s that?” I asked. “I don’t know,” she said. “I just put it down ‘cause I had those letters.” At with that I figured it was quitting time!

Earlier, she’d tickled me with her definition of “cardiac arrest.” (We’d been talking about the death of Michael Jackson.) Trying to get my doctor dad involved in the conversation, I asked him what cardiac arrest was. He declined to answer so Mama piped up, “It’s when a policeman comes in and arrests your heart!” I thought that was so funny I wrote it down.

I’m always writing down things she says now and when I was asking her if any of us had been fussy babies, she replied, “No, you were all quiet.” She then added, with deadpan humor, “It was all my fault. I affected you beautifully.” And she must have. We love her dearly.

Tags: alzheimer's disease, mama
Posted in By Murphy, General | 3 Comments »

Upcoming Murphy Method DVDs

Monday, June 29th, 2009

We’ve had several inquiries lately about which of our old videotapes we’ll be converting soon to DVD. Actually, the possibilities are more and more limited, since almost all of our old videos are either converted or on the way! We’re already brought out seven DVDs in 2009!

Here are the DVD projects we’re working on for the rest of the year:

1. Great Banjo Tunes (was “Advanced Banjo”): These DVDs should be here in about a week.

2. Bluegrass Rhythm Guitar Vol.2 (was “Basic Bluegrass Runs on Guitar Vol. 2): Also due in about a week.

3. More Advanced Earl: This DVD is actually all ready to go, but the music publishers are dallying about sending us the licenses we’ve asked for. We hope to have the required licenses, and the DVDs pressed, within the next two months.

4. Rawhide and Other Banjo Favorites: This project’s in the same situation as More Advanced Earl. As soon as we have the music licenses, we’ll send the DVD off to be pressed!

When these projects are in our hands, that will make eleven DVDs we’ve brought out this year!

If you have any questions about our DVD conversion schedule, feel free to write us via the “Contact Us” function on the Murphy Method website. We’ll answer any questions we can!

Tags: DVDs
Posted in By Red | No Comments »

Kamp Pictures

Friday, June 26th, 2009

Casey Henry Here are a couple of shots from Kaufman Kamp.

Casey Henry and Bill Evans. Great minds think alike!

Casey Henry on stage at Kaufman Kamp Week 1. (L-R Adam Masters, Casey, Mark Cosgrove, Cindy Studdard)

There will be more to come, I’m sure!

Tags: kaufman kamp
Posted in By Casey, pictures | 5 Comments »

Student Response

Friday, June 26th, 2009

We love this stuff. A couple days ago a student sent this comment on our DVDs:

LOVED Beg Banjo Vol.1 – The Murphy Method has been the only thing that’s moving me forward! The success of Vol 1 (for me) convinced me to continue on with the next videos in the progression.

It’s always good to hear that we’re helping people learn to play!

Tags: fan mail
Posted in By Casey, General | No Comments »

Misfit Jam

Thursday, June 25th, 2009

Murphy Henry We had a big crowd tonight at the jam and for the first time the flattops outnumbered the “minner dippers.” Mark, Bob Mc, and Susan were the plunkers, while Ellen, Bill, Bob Mc’s daughter Jennifer, and I were the strummers. The ever-trusty (if smart-mouthed) Bob Van was on bass and lead vocals.

We started out playing “Banjo in the Hollow” and “Cripple Creek” in unison. Mark and Susan have both learned the “long” two-part ending lick which ends with “shave and a hair cut,” so I said let’s try that instead of the short ending lick which first shows up in Boil Them Cabbage. Well. Easier said than done. After a couple of “ending lick malfunctions,” I pointed out that you have to leave the last pinch off in order to add this ending lick which begins with a pinch. That smoothed things out considerably.

Then Bob Mc showed up with Jennifer, so I had to go get another chair. A nice problem to have! And before we could start on our third warm-up song, “Cumberland Gap”, Bob had to show Mark his newly repaired banjo peghead, so Mark could ooh and ah over it. Which he did.

Digression: Back in early May, Bob’s Gibson had taken a tumble off a banjo stand and the peghead had basically snapped at the neck. It remained attached only by the veneer, which was also cracked. He was heartsick. But it was a fairly clean break so Casey and I both thought it could be repaired and suggested he ship the banjo to Robin Smith, the fine luthier in Nashville. (Who made Casey’s Wonder Woman banjo neck for her Stealth.) So Bob did. He got the banjo back in a matter of weeks, and you can’t even tell it’s been broken. Which is what Mark was oohing and ahhing about. So, here’s a shout out to Robin. Good work!

I now return you to the jam, still in progress. We finished up our warm-up with the aforementioned “Cumberland Gap” and then it was on to:

“Blue Ridge Cabin Home”

“Foggy Mountain Breakdown” (in which Mark once again demonstrated his proficiency with the E minor “rake” he learned from the Fabulous Ruth Steelman)

“Old Joe Clark” (which we did first in unison to get everyone warmed up. We still had a few meltdowns, but, hey, it’s a hard song!)

“I Saw the Light”

Then we did a new song, “Banjo Picking Girl”, which was Susan’s suggestion for a tune she could improvise a break to. Which she did. And at her lesson right before the jam I realized that BPG sounds the same as Roll on Buddy. So at the jam, after we’d gone around on BPG (to which Mark improvised a nice break right on the spot), I yelled “Switching songs!” and swung into ROB and everyone took the same break again to this different (sorta) song. (Well, the words are different!)

We closed out with “John Hardy”, played in unison because basically we were out of time. Which sure flies when you’re having fun!

P.S. Happy Anniversary to my folks, Dr. L.G. and Wynk Hicks—still known and Daddy and Mama–who are celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary today. I love you both so much!

Tags: murphy's misfits
Posted in By Murphy, jamming | 2 Comments »

Good Advice from Kamp

Wednesday, June 24th, 2009

Casey Henry I am still firmly ensconced at Kaufman Kamp for the rest of this week. At this camp I always learn at least as much as the students who attend. So far I’ve picked up a couple good pieces of advice that I’ll pass along.

I can’t remember who said this first one: “Don’t measure your progress (on banjo, mandolin, guitar, or whatever) in increments shorter than a year.” Learning an instrument is a life-long project. You’ll have good days and bad days, good weeks and bad weeks, and sometimes you’ll feel like you’re actually regressing. But compare where you are now to where you were a year ago and you will see how far you’ve come. Of course, it’s hard to remember how you sounded a year ago, so taping yourself (and then putting that recording away and not listening to it for twelve months) is a great way to compare.

This second item comes from Stacy Phillips, who taught fiddle this year. He said, when you practice your hardest material, your best is getting better; when you practice your easy material, your worst is getting better. Often students fall into just practicing their newest, or hardest, songs, or just the difficult passages, which can be a bit of a drudgery. Remember to play your fun/easy tunes as well. It keeps it enjoyable for you and improves your lousy level (the level at which you play when you are totally and completely out of practice).

I’m playing on the concert this evening (Wednesday), so if any of you blog readers are in the Maryville, TN area, come on out! I’ll have the marvelous Kathy Chiavola on guitar, Andy Owens on mando, and Bob Rostollan on bass.

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What to Listen to While Driving to Florida and Back

Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009

You may recall that most of my recent posts were all about driving down to Florida and back, to play at the Florida Folk Festival and record with Dale Crider. Yes, it’s a long way from here to there– about 14 hours each way! So what was I listening to on the car? Some mighty entertaining CDs (these are not listed in any particular order):

Donna Green Townsend, “Train Wreck II”: This second CD from the Train Wreck group features a wide variety of songs ranging from first-generation bluegrass (the Stanleys’ “I’m Going Back to the Old Home”) to “Faded Coat of Blue” and “Hot Buttered Rum”. My own favorite, as Donna knew it would be, is her “Hold Back the Waters” montage, which features many different singers performing Will McLean’s masterpiece, including Will himself. Of historical interest is an interpolation of one done by the Red and Murphy & Co. band, from a recording made by Donna herself at Winfield, Kansas in 1982. Ah, nostalgia…

Chris Henry, “Monroe Approved”: This assemblage of Mighty Fine mandolin playing was well-produced in Nashville, and is some of my favorite listening. My favorite cuts include “James River”, “Indians are Coming”, and “Red’s Zeppelin”.

Carrie Hamby, “Stand Up Eight”: (The title comes, I understand, from a Japanese proverb, “Fall down seven times, stand up eight.” Carrie’s an excellent singer-songwriter from Florida, and this disc features mostly original music including (my favorites) “Black Berry” and “Solidago.” Carrie included a nice version of “Little Annie”, too.

Ron and Mary, “My Florida”. This new release showcases Ron Johnson and Mary Mathews singing a very enjoyable set of mostly-original material. My personal favorites were the title song and also “Rescue Train”, Ron’s composition about a dramatic and tragic true incident during a hurricane in the Florida Keys. Other numbers standing out include the leadoff track, “Times is Hard”, and also, particularly, the “Rave-on” by Raven-Stands-Alone”, which you have GOT to hear.

Dale Crider, “Wild Wood Swamp”: We (Murphy, Casey, Chris, and myself, plus Tuck Tucker on Dobro) recorded this CD with Dale on Thanksgiving Weekend, 1999. It features some never-before-released numbers such as “Wood Photons of Light” and “Waltz of the Dirt Road Sport”, along with re-cuts of several of Dale’s older songs like “Conservation Notion” and “St. Johns Saving Time”, as well as some excellent material from other writers, especially Don Grooms’s “Vitachucco” and Will’s “Tate’s Hell” and “Dance of the Sand Hill Crane”. All still fun to listen to, and still available from Dale, I expect!

Live recording, “Bill Monroe, Seattle, Washington, Nov. 1982″: Bill presented an assortment of old and new tunes, backed up as usual by the Blue Grass Boys. Good stuff to listen to while traveling to play bluegrass!

Live recording, Gamble Rogers, Radio broadcast from club in Athens, Ga., in the Early 1980s: When I hear Gamble working his magic for a live audience, it all comes back in a rush. This recording, only about 45 minutes long, includes several of Gamble’s songs plus a wonderful version of his story about the Airstream Trailer Orgy. Gamble’s presentation and vocabulary really shine in this live performance.

. . . . .

Well, as you can see, I had a lot of things to listen to while driving to Florida and back! I confess that this list is just a selection, but I wanted you to get the idea. Will I work up a few of these songs? Maybe so. Can’t let good music get away…

Tags: CDs, driving music
Posted in By Red, CDs | No Comments »

Bluegrass: Simple or Not?

Monday, June 22nd, 2009

Marty came this weekend for another marathon lesson. We played for many hours Saturday, and many more hours Sunday. In between songs we discussed the problems of the world. Didn’t solve a single one.

One of the topics we meandered onto was the conundrum that banjo (and bluegrass) is not as easy as it looks! Bluegrass appears simple, but, as all you students know, it ain’t! On the other hand, if you know G, C, and D chords you can actually participate in making music. So, it’s not like classical music or jazz or even playing hymns on the piano where you have to have years of training to be able to play music in any of those styles.

So bluegrass is simple, yet it’s not simple. What a paradox! Marty and I decided that best way to describe this apparent contradiction is thusly: bluegrass (particularly banjo!) is not simple, but it is accessible. Not simple, but accessible. Which means if you want to play it, you can. It’s not so hard that the average person—with a ton of “want to” and a lot of practice—can’t play it at some level.

The two operative points are the “want to” and the practice. As I told Marty, persistence trumps talent. If you’ve got all the talent in the world, but you don’t practice, then you you’re not likely to accomplish anything musically. On the other hand, if you have a lot of “want to” and a modicum of talent (which I think we all have), then with persistence and lots of practice, you will learn how to play. (And if you have a lot of talent and a lot of practice then you become Kristin Scott Benson or Alison Brown or Bela Fleck!)

Marty has given himself the goal of learning to play reasonably well in five years. I think that’s doable. He heard somewhere that he needs 2000 hours of practice and he has been most diligent in “putting the thumb to the five” as Alison Brown once said.

In less than a year’s time he has learned:

Banjo in the Hollow
Cripple Creek
Cumberland Gap
Boil Them Cabbage (low and high)
I Saw the Light
Do Lord
Worried Man/Gal
Two Dollar Bill

And, to be fair, he can play most of the notes to “Old Joe Clark” but I can’t brag on him about that because, against my advice (!), he learned it out of sequence, so I did not have Total Control which makes me crazy! (As he knows! Grin.)

Marty can vamp to all of these (except OJC), although hearing the off beat is still hard. (We worked on that a lot!) On Saturday some of the Misfits came over (Susan, Bill, Mark, Ellen) and we jammed on all of these. Marty held his own admirably!

I sent him home to North Carolina with the assignment to learn “Foggy Mountain Breakdown” (the low break) and to polish up OJC. I figure that will hold him till July, when he’s off to camp at Augusta Heritage in Elkins, WV, and will come under the tutelage of Casey.

I can’t tell you how proud I am of you Marty! (Although I guess I just did!) Way to hang in there. Looking forward to hearing what you sound like with your new Stelling!

Tags: marty
Posted in By Murphy, banjo, lessons | No Comments »

How to Sound Good On Stage

Friday, June 19th, 2009

Okay, folks, this is where it’s at! The Country Gentlemen– Charlie, Doyle, Bill, and Bill– show us how it’s done:

These guys were masters not only of playing but also of performing through a sound system, and here, they show everybody how to do it. They only had a few mikes, but they used the ones they had to achieve precisely the sound they wanted the audience to hear!

Consider this: there’s NOT a banjo rattling away all the time in a mike, to drown out the vocals. Bill Emerson hardly plays at all, in fact, on the choruses. There’s NOT any “Carolina Slam” on the guitar, just Charlie Waller’s incredibly tasteful, well-done rhythm (and he doesn’t push it into the mike to drown himself out with it, either). Bill Yates is never trying to be noticed (beyond just playing perfect bass). On the mandolin, there’s NOT any fancy, syncopated backup messing around with 6th chords and 7th chords, or any pentatonic lead or other showoff stuff– there’s just Doyle Lawson playing MASTERFUL mandolin, exactly in time. So any time Charlie is singing, there’s simply PERFECT rhythm and MINIMAL backup from the guitar, mandolin, banjo, and bass. And any time he’s not singing, the whole band is focusing the audience’s attention on whoever’s playing lead.

These guys used their voices and instruments to put EXACTLY what they wanted to through the mikes at EXACTLY the right times, and they gave the audience a beautiful performance (in spite of what sounds like spotty work on the sound board)!

Not many bands can do this, presenting their best sound to the audience in a way that compels listening. I wish some bands out there would LISTEN to this and LEARN!

Tags: country gentlemen
Posted in By Red, General | 2 Comments »

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