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There’s at least one good story in today’s Wall Street Journal

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On the day the stock market fell another 678 points, the only good story I could find in today’s Wall Street Journal was on Dobro God Jerry Douglas.  Entitled:  Jerry Douglas:  Irreplaceable Instrumentalist, it is a nice feature on how Douglas thinks like a vocalist when he plays.  The article also has Douglas’ take on why so many young bluegrassers expand their playing into more jazz-oriented music:

 Bluegrass is such a chops-oriented music. It builds stamina and strength in your hands because it’s such a physical music, so hard-driving. And you have to stay up; you can’t just play half the song. Sometimes it seems like it’s an endurance test to see who can play fastest the longest! And with that training, you can go just about anywhere else, because you’ve already played all those notes in rapid succession.

Thanks to the irreplaceable Bluegrass Blog for highlighting this story on an otherwise dreary news day.

More to come…

DJB

Beauty in Metal

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About 15 years ago, my younger brother Joe left his corporate job to work full time as a blacksmith artist.  It was a gutsy move, but he’s loving life and never looked back. 

Over that time, he’s matured as an artist and has received increasing publicity.  So I was pleased but not surprised when I was looking online and found this Nashville Public Television blog for the Tennessee Crossroads  program where my brother’s work was featured.

For those in the Nashville area, the show airs on October 9th and 12th, but anyone can see the clip by watching the video at the NPT website.  It is a good piece, but any short television feature isn’t going to capture the fundamental niceness that’s at the core of Joe’s being.  He’s simply among the nicest people on the planet and he’d give you the shirt off his back.  I’m looking forward to seeing Joe and his family next month when I’m in Tennessee.  Maybe it will be warm enough to sit on that wonderful front porch of his and pick some bluegrass.

With the holidays around the corner, check out Joe’s website to see the wonderful items he has for sale.  And remember, he ships!

More to come…

DJB

Touring Old Salem

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Last weekend I had the chance to tour Old Salem while on a work trip to Winston-Salem.  It had been more than 10 years since I visited this historic home of the Moravians in North Carolina, and it was a great way to reconnect to this very historic – and special – place.

I knew the day would be a treat when a long-time and dear friend, Martha Hartley, stepped on our bus with her husband Mo to give us the traditional Moravian escort from the boundaries of Wachovia.   Martha and I worked together in preservation many years earlier in Virginia, and I didn’t know she had been tapped as the organizer of the day’s tours.  Mo and Martha traded special insights back and forth about the founding of Salem, the impact of the landscape and waterways, and the practices of the Moravians.

After the short organ recital on the David Tannenberg Organ by Janette Fishell (see my earlier post In Praise of Tracker Organs), we spent the rest of the morning touring the town, gardens, and museums.  The visit whetted my appetite for a quick return, and I’ll post a few photographs (beginning with the bakery door above) that may entice you as well.

More to come…

DJB

 

Lilly is blessed…and so are we

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Lilly receives her blessingYesterday, 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 enjoys) gets it right.

“But it is not until a dog gets old that his most important virtues ripen and coalesce.  Old dogs can be cloudy-eyed and grouchy, gray of muzzle, graceless of gait, odd of habit, hard of hearing, pimply, wheezy, lazy and lumpy.  But to anyone who has ever known an old dog, these flaws are of little consequence.  Old dogs are vulnerable.  They show exorbitant gratitude and limitless trust.  They are without artifice.  They are funny in new and unexpected ways.  But, above all, they seem at peace.”

If you love dogs, do yourself a favor and read the article.

More to come…

DJB

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 the most beautiful organs in the world.  And so it was a great treat to visit Old Salem today in North Carolina and see the historic David Tannenberg organ from 1800 which George and John restored as part of a fifteen-year project.  Dr. Janette Fishell, the Professor of Organ at the Jacobs School of Music , Indiana University, was in town for a concert tomorrow and played a movement of the Bach Concerto in G Major, BWV 592, for our group.  It is always wonderful to hear Bach played on an organ that – were he alive – he would find very familiar.

The Tannenberg organ (see top two photos) was completed in 1800 for Home Moravian Church, and its historical importance was recognized when it was dismantled in 1910.  In storage for 88 years, it was restored with meticulous care and understanding by Taylor & Boody.

The tracker organs built today by Taylor & Boody are in the same Germanic tradition and of the highest craftsmanship.  They have organs all over the world, including a magnificent instrument at St. Thomas Church Fifth Avenue in New York City.

My years in Staunton were a great time in my musical life, as I sang in a group with John that was led by George’s wife Carol and soaked up the terrific musical experiences of this talented group of musicians and craftsmen.  And today’s concert reminded me of that time and of our family’s wonderful connection with another Taylor & Boody organ.

Our parish in Staunton had ordered a Taylor & Boody organ as part of a major restoration of the historic church building.  At about the same time, we told John Boody that we had to remove three very large walnut trees from our side yard in Staunton, and we would be glad to donate the wood for the organ.  John stopped by, loved the look of the wood, and came to supervise the cutting.  After curing at the Taylor & Boody sawmill, our trees were incorporated into the beautiful Opus 34 installed in 2000 at Trinity Episcopal Church in Staunton, Virginia.  When we return to Trinity, we always stop by the choir loft to say hello to our old friends, the walnut trees.

Take a walk through the Taylor & Boody website and see some of the most beautifully crafted instruments in the world.  If you’re in Old Salem, visit the Tannenberg organ and think about the beauty of things that last.  If you stop by Trinity Church in Staunton, say hello to our old trees.

More to come…

DJB

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 where my father learned of the recording and bought the CD.  The first two tunes are fiddle/banjo duets that are in the tradition which will be showcased by the Carolina Chocolate Drops on Monday at the Kennedy Center.  There’s also a terrific tune, Walk Around in Dry Bones, by the Nashville institution The Fairfield Four.  You may have seen them in O Brother Where Art Thou (they are the gravediggers near the end of the movie), but if you want to get a taste of this wonderful black gospel sound, check out the YouTube video below.

This CD showcases a great little label – Spring Fed Records – which is the records division of the Cannon County Arts Center near my hometown of Murfreesboro, Tennessee.  My brother and his wife contribute some of the photography to these recordings, which feature:

…the highest quality digital mastering, interpretive liner notes, engaging graphic design and, of course, the finest old-time music around.

More to come…

DJB