The Murphy Method Blog

Murphy Henry

We had a new guitar student join the jam tonight which was fun. Cody is a delightful young man, age 20, who lives near me and has been taking lessons for about four or five months. (If you read my General Store column in Bluegrass Unlimited you will have seen a reference to his father, Elvis, who plows our driveway in the winter. What did we ever do without him?)

Cody was welcomed heartily by Mark, Ellen, Bob Mc, and Bob Van. Susan had to cancel at the last minute and was missed, and Logan was absent for the second week in a row and is now on probation!

In deference to Cody, I tried to choose songs that had easy chord patterns. (So, no “Banjo in the Hollow,” no “Cripple Creek,” and no “Old Joe Clark”!) Our set list was as follows:

Foggy Mountain Breakdown

Blue Ridge Cabin Home

I Saw the Light

John Hardy

Lonesome Road Blues

I’ll Fly Away

Then we did one of the songs Cody has been working on, “Folsom Prison Blues” in the key of E. (He’s a big Johnny Cash fan. He also wants to learn “A Country Boy Can Survive” by Hank Jr., but I’ll have to learn that one first, myself.) We’ve never done anything in the key of E at the jam, so I quickly went over the vamping (move all the basic Key of G vamps backwards three frets) and told Ellen to capo up four and play out of C position. (Also known as “four C” to many bluegrass players.) Bob Van was really slapping the bass in the Johnny Cash style, which added a lot of pizzazz and authenticity to the song.

We closed out, as always, with “Wagon Wheel” which, unfortunately, has really quick chord changes. But, hey, it’s our theme song, so what could I do?

At one point in the proceedings, Cody asked if there were any flatpicks that were easier to grip, since he almost dropped his. (I told him that was pretty normal.) Bob Van whipped out a pick with a hole in the middle for Cody to try. At the end of the evening, Cody said he liked the pick pretty well and he guessed he’d go home and drill a hole in the pick he had. Got to admire a man who is comfortable with power tools!

There was much laughter all through the jam and a good time was had by all. And, perhaps best of all, Cody said he’d be back. We didn’t scare him off! We must be getting better!

Murphy Henry

As you read this, Red and I are on the road, headed for Nashville and the IBMA World of Bluegrass where we will set up our Murphy Method booth at FanFest. (Friday and Saturday, if you want to make last minute plans to come see us!) Casey, as you may know from reading this blog and the Bluegrass Blog, is already there (since she lives in Nashville anyhow) along with my Fiddle Sister Patty Pullen who is staying at Casey’s house. Which is where we will be holed up also during the hours when we are not tending our booth!
Tonight (Thursday) Casey and Patty and I will be attending the IBMA Awards Show which will feature none other than Steve Martin! Also, the Dillards are being inducted into the IBMA Hall of Fame and I’m almost as excited about that as seeing Steve Martin. (You may know the Dillards best from their appearances as the Darling Family on the Andy Griffith Show. The great banjo player Doug Dillard is also the author of “Banjo in the Hollow”!) I hope we’ll have some pictures to post on Friday!

Now, a word about the Misfit Jam. We had an observer tonight, a former beginning banjo student who has been taking some time off. He stayed for the whole hour so I figured he was enjoying himself. Mark and Susan acquitted themselves admirably on banjo, while Ellen, Bobby V. and I held up the rhythm section. We were having so much fun, especially when we played “Banjo in the Hollow” and “Cripple Creek” FAST, that I declared, “Who needs Logan?” (He had ditched us for College Night at the mall. Can you believe that?)

The quote of the night was from Ellen. She was explaining to our guest that this is a Misfit jam and said that tonight we had “a whole lot of misses and a couple of fits.” I said, “That’s going in the blog” and promptly wrote it down next to Jody Stecher’s picture on the front of Banjo Newsletter.

Ah yes, and the title, Grip Packed To Travel. That’s from the chorus of “Blue Ridge Mountain Blues”: My grip is packed to travel/And I’m scratching gravel/For that Blue Ridge far away.”

As I write this, my grip is currently lying open and partially packed on the floor of my bedroom. Guess I’ll go throw a few more things in it, read a few pages about Jamie and Claire, and hit the hay. Oh, yes, and there’s supper to eat. I think I’ll do that first. Hope to see you in Nashville!