Archive for April, 2010

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No Hiding Place

Thursday, April 29th, 2010
Murphy Henry

Murphy Henry

Greetings from Florida! Our whole family is down here celebrating Red’s mom’s 85th birthday. Last night Casey cooked the most stupendous birthday supper for us, complete with an Italian Cream birthday cake. This morning she made poppy seed muffins. I could make this whole blog about the food that Casey has cooked, but instead will now turn my attention to telling you about the second jam with my newest group of Misfits.

You may recall that last time we had four students present: Zach, Judy, Randy, and Matt. This time Matt was sick (dare I say he was sick of learning “Boil Them Cabbage Down”?) but the others were present along with Kim and Bill on bass. Along with an audience of Zach’s parents, his aunt, and his little cousin.

Zach had had his lesson the hour before the jam and I took my requisite Nature break before we got started. This time when I returned to the room, the students were at least talking to each other. Or maybe it was just Kim, breaking the ice.

My goal at this jam was to get us through Foggy Mountain Breakdown. By now, everyone had learned it even though I’d just showed most of them the vamp chords a few days earlier. (I will have to say that my new idea to have the students actually memorize the vamp chords to these first songs is really working well. Wish I’d thought of that years ago.)

We started out with that tired and true favorite Banjo in the Hollow. (NOTE: did I just type “tired and true”?? Yes, I did! Hmmm, I guess, as my brother-in-law says, “Freud lives!” I meant, of course, tried and true!) Again, I had Zach kick off all the songs—rather than letting everyone have a turn–because, again, it adds some structure and consistency to the format. And he does such a good job. We followed that with Cripple Creek and Boil Them Cabbage. I wish I could report some fireworks or major meltdowns (just for the drama) but, from my point of view, everyone played very well. (I’m sure all of them would tell a different story!) No, they didn’t play perfectly, and yes, everyone missed a few vamp chords, and Randy did have to adjust the timing on his entrance to Cripple Creek (reverting back to his original version rather than the Earl Way he was trying to work in), but all in all everyone seemed to understand the gist of the songs and recover from their mistakes which is all I am ever looking for in a Misfit jam.

We skipped Cumberland Gap (which seems to always get short shrift) in order to get to Foggy Mountain Breakdown. After we played it slow, I turned Zach loose for a Very Fast Version which he managed to hold together until his third break when he rushed through that open fourth string note at the beginning of the D lick and ended up finishing before I did. I told him there was no prize for getting there first and he just grinned. He was playing his new Gold Star banjo and his playing has really taken a jump since he moved up from his starter instrument.

We had just enough time left to slide in I Saw The Light, which we did as an instrumental. So all in all, we got through five songs. And a great big Thank You to Bill, whose bass playing was a welcome addition.

I am so proud of all these students not only for the hard work they do on their own time, but for their willingness come to out and lay it all on the line (as the Kendalls sang in “The Pittsburgh Stealers”) in front of the other students. As the old gospel song says, “There’s no hiding place down here!”

And now it’s time for Casey and me (not I!) to take a beach walk. Wish you were here!

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Find that Common Ground

Wednesday, April 28th, 2010
Red Henry

Red Henry

As you may have been informed by now on this blog, we’re at the beach for a week. We made excellent arrangements for the Murphy Method orders to be taken care of back in Winchester, and here we are at the Florida seashore for several days. Life is hard.

Along with relaxing and getting enough sleep, one thing we do on vacation is pick. In the last two days we’re had several excellent picking sessions, the participants being (at various times and in different combinations) myself, Murphy, Casey, Christopher, my banjo-playing uncle John Hedgecoth, and Chris’s fiddle-playing girlfriend Jenny. The music’s been good, and it’s been a big help in getting in shape for shows we’re playing next weekend.

What songs do we play when we pick, and how do we go about it? Well, for one thing, since all the people here have known each other for a long time, we know quite a few of each others’ favorite songs and tunes, and we’re never at a loss for what to play. The material this week seems to be ranging from Bill Monroe, through lots of Chris’s original material (and mine too), to the Stanley Brothers. And we like the hard-core stuff. But just what does that mean?

Well, in the case of Bill Monroe material, it means that we’re not likely to play Uncle Pen or Love Come Home, but instead we’d play more intense, lesser-known things like Stoney Lonesome, On and On, and Brown County Breakdown. On the Stanley side, we’re not likely to play How Mountain Girls Can Love or Clinch Mountain Backstep (even though we really like those numbers), but instead we might pick Hard Times or sing Mother No Longer Awaits Me at Home. Maybe even Hey, Hey, Hey. Or even Please Papa, Don’t Whip Little Benny, one of the most cheerful numbers we know. It just depends on how far we want to get into the “deep catalog,” as they call it.

But what I was saying all this for was to point out that every jam session has its natural material. The people in each picking circle have a natural kind of bluegrass they like to play and are best at playing, and it’s very sensible and polite to find a “common ground” and play that kind of music when you’re with that group. You wouldn’t get into a newgrass session and try to sing hard-core three-chord numbers with complex harmonies, like Your Selfish Heart or I’m Waiting to Hear You Call Me Darling. You wouldn’t get into a beginning or intermediate-level session and try to play complex or obscure tunes, even if they are your favorites. Murphy Method students may play their favorite selections from our Slow Jam with Murphy and Casey or Picking Up the Pace DVDs. Suit your song-suggestions to the folks you’re with. The music will sound better, the musicians will be happier, and everybody will look forward to the next time! Find that Common Ground.

Posted in By Red, jamming | 1 Comment »

May Half-Price DVD: Blackberry Blossom

Tuesday, April 27th, 2010

17Our May DVD special is the half-price Blackberry Blossom and Other Banjo Favorites. Get them while they’re hot! It features the ever-popular title tune, as well as “Katy Hill,” “Turkey in the Straw,” “Roanoke,” and Casey Henry’s original tune “Big Panther Creek Waltz,” which she recorded on her CD Real Women Drive Trucks.

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Passing off the Break in a Jam

Monday, April 26th, 2010
Casey Henry

Casey Henry

I have been holding an almost regular student jam at my house for a few months now. Most weeks we only have two people – Ginny and Jean – but on a couple of occasions we’ve had third person join us. Week before last it was Matt, who has been taking from me for years but who rarely gets to come and jam. When there are only two people, looking at the other person to pass the break becomes less important. I mean, where else is the break going to go? But as I watched the three of them play the first couple songs I realized that they needed a reminder to make some eye contact. They took the reminder to heart and looked at each other very conscientiously.

It occurred to me that what many students don’t realize when we tell them to look at the next person to pass off the break, is that you don’t have to wait until the END of your break to look at that person. You can make that eye contact at ANY point during your break (though probably sometime after the halfway point), just long enough to confirm that the next person is going to take over from you. Of course, this requires that the next jammer be paying attention to the person who is playing lead – if not looking at them directly then at least keeping track in their peripheral vision so that they can tell when they’re getting the hairy eyeball. Once that confirmation has been made the lead player can concentrate on finishing out their break, and the next person can concentrate on coming in right.

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Mast Farm Inn

Friday, April 23rd, 2010
Casey Henry

Casey Henry

Last night the Dixie Bee-Liners played at the beautiful Mast Farm Inn in northwestern North Carolina. The drive through the mountains after you get off the interstate at Johnson City, Tenn., is one of my absolute favorites (route 321). Winding, but not dangerously so, there are lakes, rivers, and river valleys that reveal themselves around every turn of the two-lane road. As I crossed the North Carolina line I couldn’t help but think (especially since I had Diana Gabaldon’s An Echo In The Bone in my car CD player), “This is near where Jamie and Claire’s cabin on Fraser Ridge must have been!” (If you don’t know what I’m talking about, don’t worry about it, but you really should read Outlander and the books that follow it.)

The Inn is idyllic and since I forgot to take pictures yesterday, and it’s raining this morning, I’ll just link to their website. My room last night was the Blacksmith’s Shop, which is a lot more luxurious than the name might suggest. Take a look at these pictures. See that chair? I’m sitting there right now.

Henri Deschamps and his family own and run the Inn and are kind enough to occasionally host all-acoustic shows for about 25 people (that’s a sell-out!). Henri also runs the Bluegrass Legacy Facebook page, which has amassed a following of over thirteen thousand fans. This was the first time the Bee-Liners had played here and we (along with every other band who does this gig) now want to move and become the house band.

They moved all the tables out of one of their dining rooms, moved in rows of chairs, and we stood in front of our very attentive, very appreciative crowd and played two sets. That was after they fed us a stunningly good supper of Fire-Roasted Chunky Tomato Soup, Caesar Salad, fancy Corn Bread, white bread, and herbed butter. They brought Brandi some of their own honey to put in her coffee and it was wonderful—light and flowery tasting.

Playing for such a small, close crowd is fun, and we were able to get a nice rapport going. Jason Burleson (banjo player for Blue Highway) and his wife and son came to watch and were sitting on the front row. Every mistake I made I thought, “Jason’ll hear that” even though I knew no one else would be able to tell. It was a bit disconcerting.

Our bass player Sav, who is a powerful singer, sang, “Walls of Time” in the second set and just killed it. He actually got a standing ovation. When he was done Brandi turned to me and said, “Why don’t you sing one?” I answered, loud enough for the crowd to hear, “Seriously? You’re going to make me follow THAT!?” It got a laugh.

Soon there will be YouTube clips of our performance up, and I’ll try to link to them when they appear. The Mast Farm Inn truly treated us like royalty, and this is definitely a gig we’ll jump at the chance to do again. I just hope they

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Posted in By Casey, shows | 3 Comments »

This Thing About Words

Thursday, April 22nd, 2010
Murphy Henry

Murphy Henry

I am in the midst of learning something and don’t quite know what to make of it. Maybe you can help me!

I have just begun to realize that some of my students don’t “hear” the words to songs. They don’t listen to the words while playing or vamping, and when I encourage them to do so, they have trouble retaining the words.

Now, I am a 100% words person myself. I even sometimes hear words to instrumentals! In the tune “Ashoken Farewell” I hear the words “You’ll come a-waltzing Matilda with me” on the last line. And in Monroe’s “Road to Columbus,” at the beginning of the second half I hear “Come and sit by my side little darling…” I could go on. So memorizing words comes automatically to me.

So, my question to myself is: Can you play bluegrass (and I’m talking about jamming) without knowing the words to the songs? And by “knowing,” I don’t mean knowing all the verses to every song, but at least being able to recognize the chorus of the song when it comes up. Or is this just me imposing the way I do something on someone else?

I didn’t realize this was a problem until Susan and I were working on jamming skills and how to anticipate whether you might be asked to play a break or not. I was explaining to her that there are some songs that usually start off with the chorus (Going Down the Road Feeling Bad, Roll In My Sweet Baby’s Arms). In that case, the singer might give the nod for a break after that initial chorus OR she might choose to sing chorus/verse/chorus without a break. It happens all the time. And that in any singing song, the break always comes after a chorus. And it never comes after a verse. Unless the song is all verses and no chorus.

Well, Susan (who is a wonderful folk singer) couldn’t tell the difference between the chorus and the verses. Bluegrass is a new music to her, these are all new songs to her, and she hadn’t been paying attention to the words. After all, she had her hands full learning to play the breaks and doing the vamping. So the question came up in my mind: Is it necessary to ask you to learn the words to the choruses of all these songs you’ve never heard before?
It seems to me that it is. But, as I say, maybe that’s just me. After all, we all play instrumentals fine without hearing any words. But what happens when someone asks you to kick off a singing song you can’t quite remember? I always use the words to get me on track. Maybe it’s possible to recall a melody without the words. I simply don’t know.

Can I get some feedback from all y’all? What are your thoughts? Anybody else having trouble remembering words to songs? Anybody doing just fine without knowing the words? Talk to me, folks!

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Ginny Hawker Clapped for Me

Wednesday, April 21st, 2010
Casey Henry

Casey Henry

Last weekend The Dixie Bee-Liners had the great pleasure of playing at two wonderful festivals: Knoxville’s Rhythm n’ Blooms and the Bear on the Square festival in Dahlonega, Ga. I’ve been wanting to make it to Bear on the Square for several years now. The promoter, Glenda Pender, knows Murphy from way back and remembers seeing me when I was just a little baby.

The Bee-Liners closed the show on Sunday. The weather could not have been more beautiful. Sunny and warm, but not hot. We arrived in Dahlonega several hours before our set so that Buddy and Brandi could do a songwriting workshop. That gave me time to walk around and look at the wonderful arts and crafts vendors who were set up on the square. I was instantly smitten with these two wooden tables, made by Skip Staab, and consequently spent a good portion of my paycheck before even being paid for the gig!

woodentables

My Aunt Argen and Uncle Mike came out to see the show, as well as my cousin Elaine. I sat with them to listen to Ginny Hawker and Tracy Schwarz’s set. I had been looking forward to hearing them for months – ever since I saw the festival schedule. I absolutely love Ginny Hawker. She sings with an intensity that cuts straight to your heart. She sings with every fiber of her being. Our paths rarely cross, so I savor the times when they do.

Before her set I ran into Ginny at the backstage refreshment table and I said hello, reintroducing myself since it had been years since we’d met. I was flattered when she said she remembered reading in Bluegrass Unlimited that I’d joined the Bee-Liners. She said she’d never heard the band before and I told her I was really looking forward to hearing her sing.

Later, when we took the stage for our own set I noticed to my delight and dismay that both Ginny and Tracy were in the audience! Playing on the same show as your heros is one thing, knowing that they might be somewhere in the area and might hear you when you’re on stage. But playing when they’re right there in the audience watching the show is quite another. It says a lot about a person when they’ll actually sit down to listen to younger, up-and-coming bands.

I only sing one song on the set, but it was no easy thing to sing my number with Ginny looking on. Thankfully I made it through without forgetting any words or developing any frogs in my throat. When I was done Ginny, as well as the rest of the audience, clapped heartily, which made me feel awesome.

After our show the festival fed us at the Smith House and we got to see the old gold mine that is underneath the building, re-discovered in 2006. Then I headed home, a 4 ½-hour drive back to Tennessee accompanied by Chris Brashear in my CD player, dark chocolate fudge from the Fudge Factory, and the satisfying feeling of a job well done.

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Posted in By Casey, shows | 4 Comments »

A Visiting Mandolin

Tuesday, April 20th, 2010

Red Henry

Red Henry


A friend of ours has left a mandolin with us, just for a visit. It’s a very nice mandolin but he hasn’t been playing it much, so he wanted me to “play it in” and bring it back to sounding its best. I play it most of the time for my daily practice, and its sound is indeed improving. This is something that happens with most instruments. If you play them regularly, they sound better than if you don’t.

Some folks don’t believe this happens, and say there’s no such thing as an instrument’s sound improving from being played. But I believe that they ought to say, “I haven’t heard this happen myself.” Maybe they’ve never heard an instrument improve, but it sure happens, and folks all over the stringed instrument world are aware of it.

It’s well known in the violin world that instruments sound better if they’re played. A friend of ours was in a group which played a concert in Cremona, Italy, where many of the old master violins were made, long ago. He and his friends visited a violin museum there. Among all the beautiful old violins there was a little old man whose job it was to play them, each of them, every day, in order to keep them sounding their best. What a job, to play millions of dollars worth of violins every day of the week. Life is hard! But it did keep the instruments sounding great.

So why am I telling you all this? Because it applies to the instrument you play, whether it’s a mandolin, fiddle, guitar, or banjo. Play it every day, and keep it sounding good. You’ll have your own million-dollar sound.

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Posted in banjo, By Red, guitar, Practice | 1 Comment »

Susan’s Story: I Did It!

Monday, April 19th, 2010
Murphy Henry

Murphy Henry

As some of you may know, our musician friends David and Linda Lay host a jam session every Thursday night at their Vegetable Stand on Route 522 North in Winchester. (Shout out: Organic fruits and veggies and grass feed beef! Check ‘em out!) Susan had gone once or twice last year and sent in a blog report. She was Very Brave to go (since she’d only been playing a little more than a year) and found the experience “challenging” to say the least. (There were also some good parts.)

The past few months she and I have been working hard on jamming protocol: how to look up after every chorus to see if you are going to get a break, what the heck IS the chorus and how do you distinguish it from the verse, how to be alert for the upcoming ending. She is making Great Strides and things are Coming Together.

So, last Thursday she went to the jam again. Her first words in an email (subject line: I Did It!) were: I suggested a tune (“I Saw the Light”) at the Vegetable Stand Jam, kicked it off with a banjo break, then vamped to Linda Lay’s singing of the tune!

She followed that energetic opening with:

I got there a little after 7 and left a little after 8, with my tune being the last one I played. I stood up and vamped and rolled chords to every tune that was played and knew most of them or had heard them at Nancy’s jam.

When I asked for more info like what key did Linda sing in and the names of some of the tunes she replied:

Since we had just played a tune in A, I asked her if she wanted G or A; she said that she couldn’t sing in either of those keys and laughed. But by that time, I had basically kicked it off in A, so in A she sang. What was so cool, is that up until that time the “audience” just sang along limply to the tunes  that they knew. When we started “I Saw The Light” the crowd really started to sing with energy and volume!

As to other keys, for the hour I stayed, the tunes were in G and A (capo second fret, of course). No C or D or E, however I did see something that I’d never seen before: a man playing guitar, capo 3, using the E-chord shape as G!

I knew it was going to be a good night when they kicked the jam off with “Fireball Mail,” but I didn’t take a break due to it being a hair too fast for me. Also, being the first song, I needed to settle in a little.

Names of Tunes ?!?!?!?! Was I supposed to remember names of tunes ?!?!?!?! I recognized them, that was about all—”I’ll Fly Away” was one. These folks like to sing a lot of gospel stuff which is why I suggested “I Saw The Light.”

Anyway, you may call me Earl Scruggs! a.k.a. Susan :)

And there you have it! Susan, I am so proud of you and all the “grunt” work  you have put into learning to jam. Way to go! Other students: Go thou and do likewise! <G>

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Custom Lessons I’ve Done Lately

Friday, April 16th, 2010
Casey Henry

Casey Henry

I thought I’d give you an update on some of the custom lessons I’ve been doing lately. The songs that people request never cease to amaze me. Some of them I never would have thought of. Then sometimes I think, “Oh, yeah, that’s a great song!”

As you may know, I wrote about doing these lessons in April’s Banjo Newsletter. I made the comment that no one had yet asked for Kermit the Frog’s version of “Rainbow Connection.” Sure enough, before the article was even published, someone emailed asking for that very song. Unfortunately I had to tell him it was too hard (it has many, many chords in it and he hadn’t started Beginning Banjo Vol. 1 yet). The same day I got that request another one came in for “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.” I thought two rainbow songs on the same day was odd. I’m still working on an arrangement for that one.

One song that I really enjoyed learning, and teaching, was “Eastbound And Down,” which is the theme song from the movie Smokey and the Bandit. I taught a fairly simple break to it, but it also has a lot of chords! I bought the recording of it from iTunes and loved hearing Jerry Reed sing it. Murphy told me who played banjo on that recording, but I have now forgotten.

My next three lessons, coincidentally, were fiddle tunes: “Little Liza Jane,” “Lost Indian,” and “Chicken Reel.” Someone requested Ralph Stanley’s version of “Chicken Reel,” like he played it on the old Rainbow Quest television show. (There’s rainbow again. Hmmmm.). We had the show on video when I was young, but now there’s a clip of it up on YouTube. Chick Stripling does a flatfoot dance to it that is absolutely brilliant. Vaudeville meets bluegrass. You can’t see much of Ralph’s hands in this clip, but I figured out what he was doing the best I could.

Today’s project also has to do with a YouTube clip. On the same show (I think) Ralph plays his most famous tune, “Clinch Mountain Backstep.” Luckily for the banjo players of the world, the camera focuses on his hands the entire time. Although this tune is on our Ralph Stanley Style DVD, Ralph’s version is significantly different than the way we teach it. (The tune’s not different, just the rolls.) So today I’m studying Ralph!

Also on my list to tape in the coming days are: “Get In Line Brother,” “Dusty Miller,” “One Teardrop and One Step Away,” and “Whitewater,” which is a Bela Fleck tune. Wow, those songs really run the gamut of bluegrass history—Flatt and Scruggs, Bill Monroe, Reno and Smiley, and Bela Fleck. And because I know you want to know, “Whitewater” is for Murphy’s student Logan. What? You think SHE plays any Bela Fleck tunes? Ha!

As always, if you’re interested in any of these lessons, just email me (themurphymethod@gmail.com). They’re $30 each.

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Posted in banjo, By Casey, lessons | 3 Comments »

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