Author: DJB

Lilly is blessed…and so are we

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Yesterday, on a beautiful fall afternoon perfect for the Feast Day of St. Francis, our Sussex Spaniel Lilly took a trip down to the Washington National Cathedral for the blessing of the animals.  Dean Sam Lloyd gave Lilly her annual blessing in front of the beautiful Gothic cathedral.  Since I was traveling, Claire reports that Lilly took it all in stride.  Of course, as an older dog Lilly sleeps a lot these days and takes just about everything in stride. The custom of blessing pets is conducted in remembrance of St. Francis’ love of animals.  It is great fun to join together with other owners of all manner of pets.  (I’ve even seen goldfish blessed in past years…not sure they felt the drops of holy water.) Shortly after posting this picture, Andrew told me there was a great Gene Weingarten article in today’s Washington Post Magazine called Something About Harry:  Old dogs…are the best dogs.  I read it and knew immediately I had to update this post to link to the article.  Because Weingarten (a writer Andrew …

In Praise of Tracker Organs

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While traveling on work today in North Carolina, I had an unexpected treat: the chance to hear Bach on a beautiful historic tracker organ that had been restored by some dear friends. First, a bit of background.  As Wikipedia notes, tracker action is a term used in reference to pipe organs that “indicates a mechanical linkage between keys or pedals pressed by the organist and the valve that allows air to flow into pipe(s) of the corresponding note. This is in contrast to electrical or electro-pneumatic actions, which connect the key to the valve through an electrical link or an electrically assisted pneumatic system respectively.” Tracker organs are built the same today as they have been for hundreds of years.  I came to love tracker action organs while living in the Shenandoah Valley and becoming friends with George Taylor and John Boody.  George and John are the founders and principals of the world-renown Taylor & Boody Organbuilders located just outside Staunton, Virginia.   These two men and a small group of craftsmen build and restore some of …

Searching the Internet and Finding…October Belongs to Baseball

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This is another one of my “I was searching the Internet and found something I had to share” posts.  On the InterSportsWire (motto:  “Because there aren’t enough sports blogs”) there’s this beautiful post entitled October Belongs to Baseball which has a “great sports folk song about the mystical aura of baseball.”  The song is by Sam Baker.  Click on the link to October Belongs to Baseball to see this video and give yourself a treat. More to come… DJB

Time for the Playoffs

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Forget March Madness.  Even though last evening’s Twins/White Sox game had the feel of a NCAA basketball tournament play-in game (i.e., two teams who weren’t expected to be in the playoffs, win or go home), it was baseball at its best.  Crisply played (how often can you say that about an American League game), great pitching by both teams (John Danks throws a 2-hitter in a pressure game), and two great plays. The old bulls came through.  Ken Griffey, Jr. – who will now get another shot at a World Series – threw a strike from center field to nail the Twins’ only scoring chance at home plate, thanks to a strong tag by A.J. Pierzynski.  Jim Thome hit a home run a mile long for the only run in a 1-0 win.  So, the White Sox are in to play Tampa Bay, keeping hope alive for the first all-Chicago World Series since 1906.  Ozzie and Lou – now that would be fun!  Great start to the playoffs. More to come… DJB

David Lindley featured in new Fretboard Journal

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Regular readers of More to Come… will know that one of my favorite magazines is The Fretboard Journal, which bills itself as “Not Just Another Guitar Magazine.”  The Fall 2008 issue showed up in the mailbox the other day, and it contains more great articles and photos of the world’s most beautiful acoustic guitars.  Multi-instrumentalist David Lindley is featured in an extensive interview with Ben Harper, while banjoist Tony Trischka talks about the banjo as the great antidepressant.  That article begins with a great quote from Pete Stampfel, banjoist in the Holy Modal Rounders, the anarchist folk group from the 1960s: “The real reason the Great Depression happened was that people quit playing the banjo.” An interesting thought for the day when the Stock Market dropped 777 points. More to come… DJB

Thank God for the Mariners

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Well, last evening our hapless Washington Nationals lost their 100th game of the season…an easy-to-understand measure of futility in a 162-game season.  While the Phillies and Brewers are hoping to finish off the Mets and snare the last two spots in the NL playoffs, and the Twins and White Sox battle down to the wire in the AL Central, our Nats are fighting with the Seattle Mariners for worst record in baseball.  Going into the last two games, the Mariners have lost 101 and the Nationals 100.  That rainout for the Nats on Thursday evening, which won’t be replayed, may keep us out of the cellar! Wait ’til next year. DJB

John Work, III: Recording Black Culture

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My father recently sent along a copy of a new CD from Spring Fed Records entitled John Work, III:  Recording Black Culture.  This is a recording of great interest for anyone who cares about African American culture in the South in the mid-20th century.  A Fisk University professor, Work helped the better-known folklorist Alan Lomax collect songs in the African American community, but he also collected songs on his own.  Late last year, the New York Times published a terrific article on this CD and Work’s efforts to record African-Americans. Where Mr. Lomax tended to treat black vernacular music as an artifact in need of preservation, Mr. Work sought to document it as it was unfolding.  Thus on “Recording Black Culture,” instead of spirituals harking back to the 19th century, we hear febrile gospel shouting set to the cadences of what soon would become rhythm and blues and rock ’n’ roll. Bruce Nemerov, who won a Grammy Award for the liner notes to Recording Black Culture, spoke at the Rutherford County Historical Society, which was …

Two Months of Great Acoustic Music Coming Up

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For all lovers of traditional and acoustic music in the Washington, DC area, there are some terrific concerts coming up over the next two months. Monday, September 29 – The Carolina Chocolate Drops at the Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage (Free!).  A terrific band playing in the African American string band tradition of the Southern mountains.  Check out the video below. Monday, September 29 – Kevin Burke and Cal Scott for the Institute of Musical Traditions.  Yes, this day brings an embarrassment of riches, as just about the best Irish fiddler on the planet plays at St. Mark’s Presbyterian Church on Old Georgetown Road in Rockville. Monday, October 6 – Nightingale, a great contra band, for IMT at St. Mark’s in Rockville. Saturday, November 1 – The Infamous Stringdusters play for the DC Bluegrass Union’s fall concert in Falls Church.  Catch one of the hot young bands in bluegrass. Monday, November 24 – David Grier, one of the great guitar flatpickers of his generation, plays for the Monday night IMT concert at St. Mark’s. Use the comments …

A few more Memphis Highlights

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A few quick observations after spending the last 24 hours in Memphis… Any first-time visitor to the city has to make time to see the National Civil Rights Museum.  (Photo at the beginning of the post.)  I spent an hour on a tour with the museum’s curator and the head of Memphis Heritage this morning, and I’ve seldom been as moved as when standing between the restored rooms 306 (Dr. Martin Luther King’s room) and 307, viewing the balcony at the Lorraine Motel.  One listens to excerpts from his final “Mountaintop” speech, delivered the night before, and then looks up to see the boarding house across the street where history changed.  Later in the tour, the view is reversed, as you stand next to James Earl Ray’s bathroom and see the balcony, with the historic cars parked outside beneath a large wreath.  Very powerful. Tracey gave us an insiders tour.  We talked a great deal about the decisions behind the original exhibit and the thinking now underway for future exhibits.  I was pleased to see a section added with the support …

Passing 1,000

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Sometime between leaving Memphis this morning and arriving home this evening, More to Come…the DJB Blog passed 1,000 page views.  I started this blog less than 45 days ago as a way to update family and friends on our western trip this summer, but it has become a bit of therapy over the intervening six weeks.  Some fun stats:  the highest day of activity had 73 page views; the lowest had two.  I only started to figure out how to use this tag thing to attract visitors in the past two weeks, so my numbers since then have been much higher.  I realize 1,000 page views isn’t a lot in the blogosphere, but I’m okay with that.  Thanks to you for reading and for passing along some great comments. More to come… DJB