Back on tour again!

Wednesday, March 21st - 09:00 PM
The Fire (at the Philadelphia Bar and Grill)
Trio show with (the other) Jimmy and Maggie
412 W. Girard,
Philadelphia, PA 19123
$7.00 admission
with Cowmuddy, Luke Schurman (NY) and others.

Friday, March 23rd - 08:30 PM
Minstrel Coffeehouse
Morristown Unitarian Fellowship,
21 Normandy Heights Road, Morristown, NJ 07960
Cost : $7.00 on the way in (plus what you thought it was really worth
on the way out)
o/f Notorious

Saturday, March 24th - 09:00 PM
The Postcrypt Coffeehouse
The basement of St. Paul's Chapel at Columbia University,
New York CIty, NY
Cost: Tips

Sunday, March 25th - 09:00 PM
The Fort at the Sidewalk Cafe
Trio show with (the other) Jimmy and Maggie
6th and Avenue A,
New York City, New York 10009
Cost: Free (tips)

Greetings all.

I'm truly excited: It's been a long time since I've sent out a good
old-fashioned gig announcement. Longer still since I've legitimately
toured. Yes, I've been busy with myriad dulcimer festivals (both with
and without my talented wife). Those are good times. They are always
good times. But it's been a long while—years—since I've been back out
on the open road, hitting my old stomping grounds, playing some
familiar clubs with some dear friends.

So here’s a little backstory for those of you who have walked into
the middle of this movie: Long before the dulcimer was my main axe, I
was a singer/songwriter. With an old guitar I went running up the
miles on my dilapidated but beloved Honda Civic, stomping around the
northeastern United States, playing folk clubs, coffeehouses, tribute
nights, bars and anyplace else that would have me. I tried to break
the doors down by banging my head against it, thinking all the while
that I was not working hard or smart enough.

Being a performing songwriter combines the romance of riding the
rails, with glaring horror of rubbernecking a gruesome roadside
accident starring you. It is an addicting combination: you oscillate
between the rare magical gig and the exceedingly good story. I can't
tell you the number of times that I've walked away from this life;
the remains of my self-worth with whatever else I could carry with
two hands. The life is a cruel mistress and a mean drunk, but we go
back. We always go back.

Somewhere along the way I discovered the mountain dulcimer (actually
it was a gift from my friend Mary Krause who has a knack for buying
the right gift at the right time). With that, doors began to open: I
met my wife; I played more of “magical” gigs than soul-sucking ones;
toured the British Isles and generally got people excited. Then a
woman said, “Hey, you make web sites, right? I’ll trade you one for a
masters degree”

So between the moving, the marriage planning and subsequent soaking
ceremony, and multiple dulcimer festivals here and abroad, I’ve been
working on a master’s degree in Folk Studies. So the part of my life
that comes to you in these brief increments has been essentially put
on hold while I finish THAT little task.

But as you read this email that part of my life will be behind me (or
at least to my committee for final consideration before my defense),
and I will be doing what I have been telling myself I’d rather be
doing for the last two years; touring and playing music.

There’s a state of euphoria that hits me after I’ve been out on the
road a few days. The last time I felt it was about 1:15am on a
Friday, somewhere near the Delaware Water Gap on I-80 West. It’s a
sense of place that I think (and hope) comes from being where you are
supposed to be. I have that feeling right now.

I know what I’m getting into. I have no preconceptions, save that
inevitable romanticism that accompanies nostalgia. The odds of
success given the geographic distance I must travel to play these
gigs is slim, I am asking for changed time slots, questionable pay
schemes, and headaches caused by greed, ego and ineptitude.

And that’s just my part.

I am also looking at a 12-hour one-way trip, at NPR, at books on
tape, the realization that Virginia I stunningly beautiful (but only
for about two hours), and the distinct possibility that nobody cares.

But I also know I'll be reconnecting with old friends (some that I
have not seen in years). I'll be playing rooms that I love to play to
people I know are truly passionate lovers of good music. Their
company validates what I do, and reminds me that I don’t do it for
me, not if I hope to glean what truly counts out of life.

I’m playing two of these shows with Jim Taggart on drums and Maggie
Marshall on upright bass, meaning that at least three of us will have
a good time regardless.

I am leaving behind a beautiful wife, a wonderful and newly adopted
hometown and a brand new house that I’ve owned for less than two
weeks to go play a gig to a beer mug full of tip money (that’ll have
to split three ways).

Am I insane? Likely.

Am I happy? Definitely.

and really, how often do we get to say that?

C-ya out there.

Two, no three, for the New year

Okay, here we go, in roughly reverse chronological order. Happy New Year.

1. Cluck Ol' Hen. Me fooling with my new Loop Pedal and Dan Landrum's guitar and upright bass, I edited out some mistakes, but basically what you hear happened in the order your heard it and all at the same time.

2. 500 Miles, the original demo for Moonshiner's Atlas, with Maggie Marshall and my wife to be Christie Burns on backing vocals.

3. Ode to a traffic jam. this is my first song ever, recorded sometime before my voice changed obviously. My favorite line "Doc Hudson in his office at 11:45/making love to his nurse behind his wife's back" Yeah, I used to be brilliant, what happened?

Pot revisited

In 2003 I did a show at the Tin Angel with Jim Taggart on drums and myself. George, the sound guy, recorded the show and gave it to my on DAT. So I have spent the last three years trying to find a DAT machine. But I did it earlier this year and sent it to my drummer, who promptly made a myspace page for it.

One of the tunes we did was "Pot Calling the Black" and since the version with Jim is substantially better than the one without, I thought that I would repost it here. Enjoy!

One Big Love

Years ago, I was a guitar player for a guy named Brian Seymour. Nice guy, good songwriter, married with a Masters Degree in Art History. Who was slowly building his own strategy, assembling his team, chasing the dream of the "big record deal" (back when one would have been useful). I was playing lead guitar, mostly noodley, spacey stuff. It was a good time, got me out of the house, I did some label showcases, met some industry juice (and their attendent weasels). The guys in the band were and are some of the nicest people I've ever met, at the time we were called "One Big Love". One of them, Kenny Kearns, was perhaps the funniest person I've ever met (and that's really saying something).

Anyway, here are two from the vaults. Nice-n-lazy which was never released (so I hope he doesn't mind) but was one my faves to play. This is taken from a magnetized cassette, so forgive the sound quality (even Pro-tools couldn't help much). I don't really remember playing most of these licks, but I know I did because Brian was honest to a fault and in the interest of honesty he would have let me know if he had done something with my intellectual property, so if somebody recut something, I believe he'd have told me.

The second tune is called redhead, recorded live at the Tin Angel in Philadelphia. If I'm not mistaken recorded the same night I played three shows (two with Seymour and one with Deirdre Flint) in the same night. This second track is on his CD "Brain Seymour and One Big Love". the CD is out of print, but he re-recorded it with his new and even spacer guitar player on his CD "When I Was Blonde", you can buy it here.

Oh, in the second track the guitar is actually out of tune, you're not hearing things. It happened a lot (in case you were wondering why it didn't work out between us).

No Drums!

That was the mandate when we started to record "the Moonshiner's Atlas", there were lots of reasons for that, all of them good. But here's the demo for "Atlas", a tune by Russell Wolfe that I always thought benefitted from a good backbeat.

By the way, Rusty caught some sort of disease that landed him in the hospital for ten days and almost killed him. So I was asked by Andy World to record one of his songs as part of a get well CD. Having just gotten the dulcimer as a gift, this seemed like a good way to try it out.

...it was all downhill from there.

I like singing folk songs

I have no idea how people made records before the internet. When i was working on what would become "The Moonshiner's Atlas" scores of mp3's were send back and forth as Robert Force, Chris Martin (seen here desparately trying to make me sound good) decided which tunes to use, and how they should be arranged.

THIS SONG is a demo version of "I like singing folk songs" I found buried in my external HD. I recorded this in my bedroom and played all the instrument (which, when you hear the banjo come in, will be obvious). Back then, I was working as a tour guide back then so my voice was completely shot most days, hence the fuzziness (and total lack of pitch focus) The drums, by the way, are me playing brushes on the back of the dulcimer. Although I'm pleased and proud of the final version, which features some great playing by Matt Sircerly (mandolin), Jeanie Murphy (banjo), Maggie Marshall (bass) and Mark Pearson of The Brothers Four (guitar), this demo version has a vibe to it that i still really enjoy. Maybe it's those "drums".

Happy Birthday: The Pot Calling the Kettle Black

One of my mySpace buddies has a birthday today, she wanted to get a copy of THIS SONG. This is as good an excuse as any to do it. Recorded live at the Point in Bryn Mawr, PA, sardonic song (based on true experiences) from my singer/songwriter days (which are coming back BTW). Enjoy!

I played a Dave Carter song at Launde Abbey

I was at the Nonsuch dulcimer weekend at the Launde Abbey a few weeks ago. There I decided to learn a Dave Cater tune, just to have something great to play at their evening song circles, which are always filled with fantastic traditional folk music. The guys singing harmony to a song they've never head before was —to say the least— heady. You can LISTEN TO IT HERE.

and you can buy the original (and significantly better version) HERE

Just a reminder

We're opening for Jay Mankita at the Center for Well Being in Lemont, Learn more here.

Well It's official

September 2nd, 2006

In the midst of the remnants of breifly-hurricaned Ernesto. Miss Christie Burns and I officially became man and wife (or woman and husband...whatever). It was a beautiful ceremony surrounded by tons of friends and lots of music: we were led in by Nykleharpa Players and there were THREE different kinds of bagpipers there. The event was (even more-so than most weddings) unforgettable. There were 217 there to brave the elements, a tree fell during the ceremony, and the father of the bride came dressed as Boss Hogg.



The rain only served to underscore the outpouring of love from both our closest friends throughout every stage of our lives and around the world, as well as strangers who became friends that weekend. If you feel like you should have been invited but were not, you are probably correct. We had a bear of a time with both paper and e-mail invites and our online registry things we so scattered and hectic that I know a good many people we would have liked to have there fell through the cracks. If you think that's you, you're probably right and I'm sorry.

I still have to write this thesis so we're playing just a few shows before the end of the year. Then you can look for me to be on the road a bit more in 2007. Including a much neglected tour of the Northeast again.

We'll get more pictures up again soon. And I'll be setting up a chat board for folks to share their wedding stories soon. stay tuned.

Kentucky Music Weekend Redux

What a wonderful, wonderful time we had at Kentucky Music Weekend. So good to see old friends like John Gauge, Rick Thum, Molly McCormack, Bing Futch, and of course Nancy Johnson Barker (not to mention folks like Josh, April, the Strothers and many more I'm sure I'm forgetting) And what a treat to meet both Jean RItchie and George Pickow! we're honored.

Much love and thanks must go to Nancy Barker for the faith and the opportunity.

Much bigger thanks to all of you in the audience for responding so enthusiastically, you humble us with your generosity and spirit.

...Can't wait to get back to Louisville again.

Kentucky Music Weekend

Well, it’s been a pretty good summer for the girl and I. We’ve been playing a lot of gigs as a duo, and in-between doing engaging stuff like planning the wedding and house shopping(!!!) But before we retreat to the north to finalize the big gig, I wanted to invite you out to our last (and second-largest) show of the summer.

Kentucky Music Weekend
07/28-29/2006 07:00 PM
Iroquois Amphitheater,
Louisville, KY
With John Gauge, Zoe Speaks, The Juggernaut Jug Band, the Reel World String Band, Kentucky Standard band, Lou and Peter Berryman and JEAN RITCHIE.

Did I mention Jean Ritchie? Not to brag, but how cool is that? Anyway, it’s all thanks to Nancy Barker and the Kentucky Colonels, who have put on this event for 31 years, and it’s all Free!

Anyway, that’s all the news for now. Hope life is good for you in your part of the world.

C-ya out there.

How I'll spend my summer

Happy May Day to you all!

So how long has it been since we last spoke? Months maybe? As usual, and through no fault of my own, I find myself in the enviable position of once again having new people to welcome to this list. Those of you who have been here a while may take it upon yourself to let the newbie know, It’s usually like this… months of silence followed by a rant of sorts and then a plea to go to my show(s), usually later that day. I’m not a self-promotion guru guy you know.

Speaking of self-promotion: the wedding plans are coming right along. Looks like it’s going to be Labor Day weekend. Not four hours wedding reception for us, we’re gonna suck up the whole weekend at Jimmy and Maggie’s. Of course many of you are invited, some are expected, and I suspect some of you may just show up. Just as well; the more. The merrier. Anyway, the point is if you haven’t got your yet, it’s because the invitation designer (that would be me) has been busy with other things like grad school.

More self-promotion; the future Mrs. Ross (this is the first time I’ve seen that not used in reference to my mother, Christie is totally keeping her maiden name) and I will be doing a good bit of dulcimer festivals this summer (details below) and it is my plan to do a good ol-fashioned tour of the NE in late summer, between frantic wedding plans. I figure the summer is the best time cause that’s when the gas will be cheapest.

Christie and I played the first of our summer shows last weekend, at a summer festival in Russellville, Kentucky. Pretty, pretty town, famous for being the home of first bank Jessie James ever robbed. People seemed to dig it, and I even got a request for Ruben’s Train (fiddle tunes requests are rare, except for the Orange Blossom Special for some reason, which I don’t know, don’t ask). Some drummer from a heavy metal band playing later that afternoon said he dug, it was “real relaxing”, I tried to return the compliment but what am I gonna say? “Yeah dude, when I wanna chill out, I like to take a nice long walk in the wood, perhaps by a stream, listening to ‘Sabbath Bloody Sabbath’”. Ah well, he meant well, and for a heavy metal drummer, he didn’t suck.

One of the coolest things I’ve ever been involved in was when Christie and I performed in a Jewish synagogue with Basya Schechter, at the Mid-East Mountain Fusion Music Festival in Louisville. We did two TV appearances and played the show with her. Basya plays Oud in a Mediterranean rock band called “Pharaoh’s Daughter”, (I just totally freaked my spell-checker out) and Christie and I were hired to mix Appalachian tunes with her music, which is in these Middle Eastern modes and bizarre time signatures like 6/7 or 11/2. Needless to say, I was really pushing the limits of what I could do with the dulcimer. Something I love to do anyway. And Basya has quickly become one of our absolute favorite people. Christie’s gonna be playing with her in North Jersey in a couple of weeks. Check out Basya here: http://www.pharaohsdaughter.com

Upcoming Shows

We have been crazy stupid busy, busier than ever before. But we’re doing what we love so that’s okay. But the semester is ending and we are about to hit the road. Here is a bit about how we’ll be spending our summer.

Next week, we’re going up to Columbus Ohio for the Central Ohio Folk Festival. This is a good time, a pretty low key but fun festival in the Batelle-Darby Park, which is just southwest of the city (and outside the beltway). They’re a nice mix of a dulcimer festival and a folk festival, held outside with jams and music and workshops. Last year’s headliner was Tom Rush this year it’s David Massengill. Christie and I will be teaching and performing with Randy Clepper, a great Bouzouki player and part time member of Hammer On! Well be doing a mix of his stuff and ours, Irish, Old-time and Swedish, and who knows what else.

Then is on to Owensboro, one of two towns that claim to be the birthplace of Bluegrass, for the Yellow banks dulcimer festival. Where not only will I be teaching dulcimer but Irish guitar and old-time guitar workshops as well. Christie will be teaching claw-hammer banjo in addition to her hammer dulcimer classes as well.

Nancy Barker, of Kentucky Music week, has us playing a number of gigs this summer at state parks all over Kentucky, as well as the very cool Kentucky Music Weekend at Iroquois State Park (they air condition the lawn seating there!). Check the gig schedule for that. But the two big gigs I’d like to talk about are the Kentucky Music Week and the Chattanooga Dulcimer Festival.

The Music Week as many of you know is a weeklong, training-intensive festival in Bardstown, KY. It involves some of the finest dulcimer players on the planet and has lessons in everything from dulcimer to songwriting to steel drum, this year includes workshops on Native American Flutes and Painted Gourds! http://www.kentuckymusicweek.com/KMWeek/ be sure to check out the schedule to see how many great players are gonna be there this year!

Right before that is a new festival put on by our dear friends Dan and Angie Landrum, the Chattanooga Dulcimer Festival. It’s not actually held in Chattanooga; it takes place up on Signal Mountain (which is significantly cooler). This festival is great because it focuses exclusively on technique. Karen Mueller and myself will be there, and the elusive David Schnaufer will also be teaching master classes! Where Kentucky Music is going to be a great place to learn a bunch of songs, Chattanooga is where you’ll get the chops together to learn those songs well. I can’t recommend these two festivals enough.

Okay lots more coming up as well; I’m planning a northeast tour in August, writing a couple of songbooks this summer, and finally developing a members area on the web site. But all that can wait until later (when it’s been done). I just really wanted to drop you all a note to tell you how I would be spending my summer, instead of how I did!

C-you out there.

COOL NEW SHOWS THIS SUMMER! check the new shows page.

Greetings!

So the summer is comin' in. Got some new shows posted on the web site and some super cool tentative ones that will confirm next week.Looks like we'll be seeing a lot of Kentucky, especially Bardstown with both the KENTUCKY MUSIC WEEKEND and KENTUCKY MUSIC WEEK.
Plus back to beautiful Signal Mountain, TN for the Chattanooga Dulcimer Festival run by our dear friends Dan and Angie Landrum Check out the website for all the details. and we'll see you there!

-Br

KMW Winter Weekend

Thanks to everyone who came to my workshops at KMW. I hope you had as much fun as I did. I thought I would make these lyrics part of the new website I was designing. but that has taken longer than expected. so without further ado....

Hard Times
1. Let us pause in life's pleasures
and count its many tears,
While we all sup sorrow with the poor:
There's a song that will linger
forever in our ears;
Oh! Hard Times, come again no more.

Chorus
'Tis the song, the sigh of the weary;
Hard Times, Hard Times, come again no more:
Many days you have lingered
around my cabin door;
Oh! Hard Times, come again no more.

2. While we seek mirth and beauty,
and music light and gay,
There are frail forms fainting at the door:
Though their voices are silent,
their pleading looks will say,
Oh! Hard Times, come again no more.

3. There's a pale drooping maiden
who toils her life away,
With a worn heart whose better days are o'er:
Though her voice would be merry,
'tis sighing all the day,
Oh! Hard Times, come again no more.

4. 'Tis a sigh that is wafted
across the troubled wave,
'Tis a wail that is heard upon the shore,
'Tis a dirge that is murmured
around the lowly grave,
Oh! Hard Times, come again no more.

______________________________________
Why Walk When You Can Fly (words and music by Mary Chapin Carpenter ©1994)

In this world there's a whole lot of trouble, baby
In this world there's a whole lot of pain
In this world there's a whole lot of trouble
But a whole lot of ground to gain
Why take when you could be giving, why watch as the world goes by
It's a hard enough life to be living, why walk when you can fly

In this world there's a whole lot of sorrow
In this world there's a whole lot of shame
In this world there's a whole lot of sorrow
And a whole lotta ground to gain
When you spend your whole life wishing, wanting and wondering why
It's a long enough life to be living, why walk when you can fly

In this world there's a whole lot of cold
In this world there's a whole lot of blame
In this world you've a soul for a compass
And a heart for a pair of wings
There's a star on the far horizon, rising bright in an azure sky
For the rest of the time that you're given, why walk when you can fly

RIP: Chris Whitley

A really great genre-blending singer/songwriter named Chris Whitley died last weekend. He was someone whose music I really dug. His record Dirt Floor was a catalyst for a lot of the things I've been doing on the dulcimer lately. I was even considering his tune Indian Summer for the next record.

One of the things I found rather depressing is the picture that develops if you read between the lines. Not always the cleanest living rock star, he seemed to avoid, or negotiate most of the trappings of rock startdom. His was still a young man of 45, with much more to say. Whitley died in the home of a close friend, stopped mid-tour by the penultimate stages of lung cancer. The family speaks highly and lovingly of his voyage into the next world, and the angels down here that made his final days bearable. They put I nice face on it, but it occurs to me the guy died there because he probably didn't have medical insurance.

so you wanna be a rock in roll star...

CD update

Ms. Burns and I have finished the remainder of the tracks. Adding some vocally stuff and adding a guitar to Driving Forces (turns out my chart is basically unreadable if you actually can read music). Dan wants to add some djembe on like two tracks, then we sequence and mix. Will it be done for Christmas? well, we'll see. Christie is down there this week doing some fieldwork for school, and I will encourage her to put a fire under that boy.

A little something for the road.

John Lennon once said that "Life is what happens when you're making other plans", it's so good that I refuse to believe he said it. :-) For you dear reader my other plans have included writing this blog and updating my life to you all. I believe the last post was in reference to the recording. maybe that's a good place to start...

The basic recording has been done and we've been playing email tag with Dan as he sends us mixes and whatnot. Our new buddy Hussian was gonna lay down some bass on "driving forces" but he's mostly in Japan and couldn't make sense of the chart I made for him (this is not surprising) his schedule being so demanding, we may have our buddy Tim do it instead. Anyway, once we get it done then we have to get it out the door. we've pretty much decided on a name, and we're calling it "two birds one".

Being that we're still in school, Christie and I were apart for the month of August. She in LA doing an internship and me in Indiana. I didn't really have that much fun up there in the Hoosier state, but then dummy me never realized just how close I was to Shipshewana or Dennis DenHartog's place in Ft. Wayne. Coulda played some gigs, coulda met some folks. Ah well, that what I get for taking my eyes off the prize. I did however play the Kentucky Homefront radio show with the legendary Homer Ledford. I have to say it went very, very well.

Back from Winfield

I think somewhere in here should be a post about the rest of the recording process. Well, I'll get to that in a minute. I slept most of the day yesterday and awoke sore and achy, but it was worth it. a good deep sleep was something I was sorely missing.

I went to Winfield without Ms. Burns, to the chagrin of the No Strings boys, the managing staff of Sing Out! and former winner David Mahler, but it's the fall semseter and since we've reinvented the term overextended we had to choose our battles.

Anyways, I got into the second round but botched the Bach piece, the other folks play flawlessly. Same 12 tunes as always but with skill and precision which is really the whole ball game there.

I went to do what I went to do, and I would have liked to have been more lucid (and maybe won one of those giant trophies) but you do what you do. I don't think I'll be competing anymore

On the other side of things, Tyler Grant my driving partner in this came in second in the flatpicking competition which is no small feat. Good for you Tyler!

and I saw the Wilders from kansas City, MO one of teh best live bands I've ever seen, period! hey were so good, first as a mainstage closer then in their really messed up 2AM set on the anarchy-run stage 5

In the end I am so glad I went, whether it's Philly, Falcon Ridge or Winfield I need a big major festival in my year. Winfield is 12 hours away (and it was cheaper fly actually) but as long as I'm out herre I might as well go. To my it's like philly Folk except all the drunken idiots have been replaced with drunken pickers.

It's not a bad trade.

Recording:
we slammed through nearly 9 or ten tracks in three days, including overdubs and preliminary mixes. Chose not to record "hangman's reel" because we had "boatsman" then we dropped "boatsman" and now wonder why we never recorded "hangman's" ah, well its a starting point for number two I guess. We're hoping that the incredible Hussian Jeffreys will lay some bass on "Driving Forces" and then we will talk about simple percussion and mastering with Dan. When will this be out, not sure. But at least this time I know beter than to try and guess.

Recording in Chattanooga, Day 1

Today completes day one of the recording sessions that Christie and I working on. Originally this was planned to be a solo record for Christie but the more we talked about it, the more we decided it was a better idea for a duo album. This was Christie's idea mostly, The Moonshiner's Atlas is still brand new and I'm happy to go an play gigs in support of that record, but as much as Christie and I play together, we have never made a decent recording of us. Our friend Dan Landrum is recording us and for the third time this month, we are in Chattanooga.

You spend the first day setting up mics of course but we still managed to bang out three tunes today. Tomorrow we should be well settled in and hopefully getting more done. It sounds great so far.