Author: DJB

Pokey laps the field at Day I of Red Wing II

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The second annual Red Wing Roots Music Festival in spectacular Natural Chimneys Park began on Friday afternoon under a beautiful summer sky.  The promise of the inaugural festival – hosted by the Steel Wheels – brought out an even larger crowd this year.  And for the most part the music didn’t disappoint. My friend Oakley Pearson and I arrived in time to catch the full set of Furnace Mountain, a band from the Berryville, Virginia, area.  Comprised of Aimee Curl on bass and vocals, Danny Knicely on mandolin and fiddle, Dave Van Deventer on fiddle, and Morgan Morrison on bouzouki, guitar and vocals, Furnace Mountain is a first-rate roots music band.  Knicely is an especially inventive mandolin player, and he displayed some great chops and songwriting skills in today’s set. Caravan of Thieves was a band I wasn’t familiar with, but they grew on me very quickly.  Their web site has a catchy – yet pretty accurate – description of this group:: Driving gypsy jazz rhythms, acoustic guitars, upright bass and violin lay the foundation for …

A Weekend (and More) of Celebration

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  A pre-July 4th visit to Mount Rushmore, the annual craziness that is the Takoma Park July 4th parade, our traditional Independence Day picnic at the wonderful Franklin Knolls pool, Claire returns after six weeks in Vienna, Andrew knocks it out of the park with a National Anthem, Dad turns 89, and two days with dear friends to celebrate a 50th wedding anniversary and an 80th birthday…I can’t imagine a better July 4th weekend (and a bit more). My celebration of things Americana began last week.  While on a work trip, a colleague and I took a short detour in the Black Hills of South Dakota to visit Mt. Rushmore. It was my first trip there, and the monument is as awe-inspiring as advertised. I took the expected pictures of the monument — from the front, with the state flags, and from the perspective down at the sculptor’s studio. Then I did something out of character — and took my very first selfie.  I was actually pretty pleased that I knew how to do it …

Happy Anniversary, Mom and Dad!

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  Today – June 30th – was the 64th anniversary of the day my parents were married. I just hung up the phone from talking to my Dad, who turns 89 this Saturday (July 5th).  Since Mom died in 1998, I’ve always tried to call him on their anniversary, just to let him know I’m thinking of him. I’m so glad I reached him tonight. When he answered the phone, I asked him how he was doing.  “Oh fine,” he answered.  “Today is my anniversary.” “I know,” I replied.  “That’s why I’m calling.” He went on to tell me that he drove over to Franklin, Tennessee, today. By himself.  Mom and Dad both grew up in this wonderful town, and they were married in the old Baptist (now Presbyterian) Church downtown. “What did you do there?” I asked. “Oh, just went by the church.  It was locked up, so I just sat outside and reminisced.  Then I went over to McDonald’s for a cup of coffee and reminisced some more.” “Well,” I said, as I …

Thomas Merton’s Revelation About Slack Key Guitar…

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…or how life on the road can become a bit confusing. Since the middle of May, I’ve traveled to Detroit, Honolulu, Chicago and Plano (twice), Seattle, Louisville, New York City (twice), and occasionally I’ve been here in Washington.  On Monday, I leave for Hot Spring, South Dakota. It has been a month where I’ve been with great friends and colleagues and have seen and experienced so many wonderful things…but they do have a tendency to get jumbled up when you spend so much time on planes and trains.  So forgive me if I have a famous monk playing some wonderful slack key guitar along the way. Here’s my grab-bag – in no particular order – of things sacred, wonderful and (perhaps) absurd from a month on the road. Cyril Pahinui is the Epitome of Cool I was in Honolulu to work with colleagues and partners to try to save the Natatorium, a beautiful if neglected saltwater pool and war memorial. While there, my colleague Brian Turner and I – both lovers of roots music – …

How to Lower Your Blood Pressure

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When it comes to the Washington Nationals, I’ve figured out how to lower my blood pressure: simply stop watching the game (or leave, as was the case last night) before Rafael Soriano comes out to “save” the ninth! I am NOT a fan of leaving the game early, but Soriano’s brushes with disaster in the ninth inning are becoming much too predictable – and too hard on my heart!  Last night’s game was a case in point. Candice and I strolled into Nationals Park on a picture perfect Friday evening.  The surprises began as we walked in the gate:  who knew it was Wilson Ramos bobble head night?!  So in the man cave I now have The Buffalo, down in his crouch, ready to catch a pitch from my Stephen Strasburg bobble head!  (And with former Nat Michael Morse – the Beast – in the on-deck circle, among others.) In a break from tradition this year, the Nats jumped out early against the Mets, with a three-run first.  Young Tanner Roark was pitching a masterful …

Frank Solivan at Cedar Lane

Frank Solivan stirs the pot

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If you had to be inside on a drop dead gorgeous Sunday afternoon in Washington, I couldn’t imagine a better place than sitting in the sun-drenched hall of Cedar Lane Unitarian Universalist Church listening to the incredible musicianship of Frank Solivan & Dirty Kitchen. The Dirty Kitchen Band is on a roll.  Besides making the More to Come… Best of Bluegrass 2013 list (a high honor indeed!), banjoist Mike Munford is the 2013 International Bluegrass Music Association (IMBA) Banjo player of the year, while guitarist Christ Luquette is the IBMA Instrumentalist of the Year Momentum Award winner.  Bluegrass Today said that with their second release (On the Edge), “Frank Solivan and Dirty Kitchen could now be reaching the kind of name recognition that puts them into any conversation about the elite contemporary bands.”  And what other band is fronted by a chef who will whip up a special meal for you prior to the concert (and hence the name). Their two-hour show as part of the Concerts at Cedar Lane series showcased tunes old and …

Nikckel Creek Reunion Tour in Charlottesville

Haven’t missed a beat

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Seven years after their “Farewell for Now” tour in 2007, Nickel Creek – the precocious bluegrass child prodigies who’ve grown into some of the best progressive string band musicians of this or any generation – reunited this year for their 25th anniversary tour. You may ask how a band with players in their early-to-mid-30s has a 25th anniversary tour.  Well, mandolin mad man Chris Thile was nine when the band first formed, and neither of the Watkins siblings were teenagers back in 1989. It doesn’t really matter.  I’m just glad they’ve come back together for this tour.  And I was thrilled to see this group of talented musicians – anchored by veteran bass player Mark Schatz – last evening in Charlottesville. I was at the downtown mall pavilion for the 2007 farewell tour…and I was at the same place for the reunion last evening.  If you don’t believe me, I have the t-shirts to prove it! In addition to the reunion tour, Thile, fiddler Sara Watkins, guitarist Sean Watkins, and Schatz released a new CD …

Church in the old city of Stockholm March 2014

Beautiful Stockholm

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Our trip to Scandinavia last month ended with Andrew joining Candice and me for four days in Stockholm.  While Claire (who had to head back to school) visited the city a couple of years ago, it was the  first time for the three of us. We were not disappointed. Candice had booked us in a small boutique hotel in the heart of the old city, just steps from the Royal Palace and the Cathedral.  That proved to be a perfect launching point for our explorations. We knew we wanted to follow-up on our visit to the design museum in Copenhagen with a visit to the Swedish design museum. After walking over to an adjacent island (see Andrew and Candice on the bridge, with the Cathedral and Royal Palace in the background), we spent the better part of a day at the design museum and adjacent modern art museum, Moderna Museet.   We were all enthralled with Blockholm — The Fantastic City, a project where everyone was invited to rebuild Stockholm using the Minecraft computer game. The Moderna Museet collection …

Bobby Jones Grave in Atlanta

Savor every precious moment

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I’m going to interrupt my string of posts about our wonderful Scandinavian adventure to insert this short grab bag of recent experiences that have made me laugh, think, or cry (or more accurately in most of these cases: chuckle, pause, or tear up).  Because, in the words of that great philosopher Jimmy Valvano: “If you laugh, you think, and you cry, that’s a full day. That’s a heck of a day. You do that seven days a week, you’re going to have something special.“ So let’s gets started. Since it is Masters week in Augusta, where better to begin than the grave of Bobby Jones in Atlanta’s beautiful and historic Oakland Cemetery.  I was in Atlanta last weekend for work, and we toured the cemetery…along with many other historic sites in the city. I’m sure the number of golf balls at the foot of Jones’ grave are much higher this week, as some Masters fans make the pilgrimage to Oakland every year.  But that interesting funerary art isn’t want caught my eye.  No, I soon …