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 box to add other upcoming concerts of note. And over the next couple of months, take the opportunity to listen to some live music.
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 of the Indian community of Memphis on Gandhi. It reminded me of my visit last year to Gandhi’s burial site in New Delhi (see photo). Today I had the same emotions and gratefulness for courageous and visionary leaders.
In my talk at AIA Memphis last evening, I quoted historian and National Trust for Historic Preservation Trustee Emeritus David McCullough:
We are living now in an era of momentous change, of huge transitions in all aspects of life – here, nationwide, worldwide – and this creates great pressures and tensions. But history shows that times of change are the times when we are most likely to learn.
We all learn about history from books, certainly, but reading history can’t compare with the experience of walking through history, seeing in the deferred dreams of the Lorraine Motel or the lively sweep of a historic Beale Street an entryway into our collective memory. We need places like this because we need our collective memory.
I also had a delightful visit with the Chairman of the Board and the Director of the Center for Southern Folklore. We shared many acquaintances (including my former professor Dr. Charles Wolfe) and I was pleased to hear of a Save America’s Treasures grant to help preserve a marvelous collection of photographs from Memphis’ African American community by the Rev. L.O. Taylor. SAT was started by the Clinton Administration and the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Preservation magazine has a story on SAT’s 10th Anniversary coming up in the next issue.
A couple of other things to see: the famous Peabody Hotel ducks taking their stroll from the fountain in the lobby to the elevator. They generate quite a crowd! And June and I had an early lunch today at the Arcade Restaurant on S. Main Street, a classic diner and the city’s oldest cafe. It has a great atmosphere that capped off two very interesting days to highlight preservation work in Memphis.
This was a business trip, so I couldn’t play tourist. Things I missed that tourists enjoy: the Stax museum, which June says is terrific, and Graceland. (I joked in my talk that the last time I visited Memphis, Graceland had an occupant.) But of course, even these sites have preservation implications. Many of the Stax stars lived in homes around the neighborhood worthy of preservation and Graceland is – of course – the historic home of the King.
Back at my home now…and getting ready for next weekend’s work trip to North Carolina.
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.
I’m in Memphis for a talk sponsored by AIA Memphis and Memphis Heritage and I soon discovered that this is a city that surprises. Nothing catches your eye so quickly as the wealth of historic buildings that remain throughout the downtown and surrounding neighborhoods. In fact, according to Memphis Heritage the city ranks sixth in the nation in the number of properties listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
The day began with a tour of a terrific preservation project at the Lincoln American Tower. In the past ten years, the downtown has seen a number of buildings brought back online by enterprising developers such as Willie Chandler and architect Chooch Pickard. (The “Chooch” is a high-school nickname for “Choo Choo Charlie.”) Willie and Chooch gave me a top to bottom tour of the Tower and adjacent Lowenstein Building (see photo at right) which is under renovation right on Main Street. This mixed-use development has incredible views of the downtown, Court Square Park, and – of course – the Mississippi River. Downtown housing units have increased from 10,000 just a few years ago to more than 27,000 today, and with the rapidly developing urban vibe one can see why.
Jumping into Chooch’s mini-Cooper convertible, we took a quick tour of the business districts, stopping across from the 1974 Gassner Building (see photo at top of post) to take in this very significant – and threatened – mid-century Modernist building.
The C&I Bank Building was completed in 1974, designed by Francis Gassner, FAIA (1927-1977) of Gassner, Nathan, and Browne Architects. The innovative design used tubular truss framing and butt glazing to shape the building and enclose its atrium. When completed, the C&I Bank was applauded for its geometry and light-filled atrium. The C&I Bank was recognized by both state and local AIA Awards, and, in 1979, the Museum of Modern Art included the building in its exhibit of the 400 buildings that “have had a significant influence in the recent directions of architecture.” In 2000, the C&I Bank building was recognized by the Memphis Chapter of the AIA as the Design of the Decade (1971-1980).
Memphis Heritage and AIA Memphis – like preservationists all across the country – are increasingly at work to save buildings like the Gassner which were built mid-century or later and are already threatened with demolition. The Gassner appears to have a better chance than many to be saved – thanks to the indefatigable leadership of June West (Heritage) and Heather Koury (AIA) and the work of their boards and membership.
We had a great time with tonight’s talk at the Brooks Museum, focusing on endangered historic properties and how preservationists can use tools such as the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s annual list of America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places to rally support for preservation. After a spirited Q&A session, Heather, her husband Joseph, June and I headed for a Memphis institution, the Rendezvous, for a rack of dry ribs. It was heaven! When I was in college, I waited tables for a year in a Nashville rib place called Spats that fashioned its ribs after the Rendezvous, so it took me back in time. And you can’t beat a place that rates a mention in a John Hiatt song.
We finished off our ribs and drinks, and I went back to June’s Jeep to pick up my bag and computer for the trip around the block to the Peabody Hotel. I’d been glancing at this writing on her dashboard, but only focused on it now. “What is this?” I asked. “Why that’s where Wynonna Judd signed my dashboard,” replied June — as if this was something that everyone had in their car. “Okay, why was Wynonna in your car and why did she sign your dashboard?” I asked, playing the role of straight-man. And the story was pure Memphis, going back to the King himself.
As June tells it, Elvis (you knew there had to be an Elvis sighting somewhere in Memphis) was to be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. Since Elvis is dead (at least most people believe he is), they asked Wynonna to be the stand-in recipient. She came to Memphis for the ceremony, and a friend of June’s was responsible for getting her around. June had the only non-sportscar among the friends, so her Jeep was selected. June said, “Sure she can ride in my Jeep, she just has to sign the dashboard.” Wynonna apparently thought this was cool…and 10 years later June has a great story to tell. But she can’t bear to sell the car!
I’ve met a lot of preservationists in my line of work, and I almost drowned in a Jeep going through a creek in Kentucky about 12 years ago to look at a historic site, but this story tops them all. If June can talk Wynonna Judd into signing her dashboard, she can certainly talk some recalcitrant developer into saving a historic building. Memphis is in great hands.
With two bang-bang plays at the plate, I may have been an eyewitness to the week when we see the crowning of the Philadelphia Phillies as repeat NL East Champions amidst another historic Mets breakdown.
Friends will know that a couple of years ago I started on a quest to visit every Major League ballpark. And in the last week of the 2008 season, I was lucky enough to squeeze in my fourth new stadium visit of the year.
Don and Nancy, friends and great preservationists from Philadelphia, read of my goal on More to Come. Don called a week ago and said “I have three tickets – two for Nancy and me and one for you if you can make it.” That was all I needed to hear, and I was on I-95 for the short two-hour drive to Philly yesterday afternoon.
Citizens Bank Park is a beautiful stadium, opened a couple of years ago. After a short walk around the park and picking up my free “Fightin’ Phils” rally towel, I joined Don and Nancy for dinner and baseball in terrific seats right behind the plate. Getting to see the ballpark was a treat in itself. Experiencing a fantastic game in the last week of a red hot pennant race was heaven.
The Phillies entered last night’s game 1 1/2 games ahead of the Mets for the NL East title with 7 games left to go. The Mets were playing the Chicago Cubs (who’ve already clinched the NL Central title) in New York, trying desperately not to fall out of the playoffs as they did last year when they squandered a 7 game lead with 17 games left to play. The Phillies jumped to a quick one run lead in the first and the home fans were ready for more.
In a crisply played game (how many American League games are over in two and a half hours), the Atlanta Braves battled back and tied the game 2-2. It stayed that way until the eighth. In the meantime, scoreboard watching was required, as the fans cheered when the Cubs took an early lead and then became restless when the Mets came back to tie it 2-2 in New York.
Two bang-bang plays gave a clue as to how the night was going to turn out. In the middle innings, the Braves had a runner on third with less than two outs, and the Phils had the infield in. On a sharp grounder, Phils Shortstop Jimmy Rollins fired to the catcher just in time to beat a sliding runner for the out. The crowd roared.
In the meantime, careful scoreboard watchers noted that the Cubs had loaded the bases against the Mets in the 4th inning, and when the Cubs-Mets score changed from 2-2 to 6-2 in one fell swoop, the crowd exploded. The score was highlighted on the big screen, and only later would we learn that it was the Cubs pitcher who hit the grand slam. Incredible! Maybe those two losses to the Nationals last week really rattled the Mets.
The bottom of the eighth arrived in Philadelphia with the score still tied at 2-2. The crowd was getting nervous. But a leadoff single, followed by a throwing error on a pick-off move, put pinch runner Greg Golson on third base. Time for the second bang-bang play. On a grounder to third, Golson broke for home. The throw beat him, but Golson got his foot on home plate just before the tag, and the crowd erupted (see opening photo). Two very similar plays. Two vastly different results.
To make sure the run stood, Pat Burrell added a three-run home run later in the inning and the celebration was on (see photo above) with rally towels in abundance. Mopping up in the 9th was simple, and I headed back down I-95, listening on XM Radio to Kerry Wood of the Cubs throw three heaters past a hapless Mets batter to wrap up a Cubs win and to give the Phils a 2 1/2 game lead in the division. Great night, great pennant race, and great ballpark. It only seemed appropriate – given that Don and Nancy are big bluegrass music fans – to crank up XM Bluegrass Junction on Track 14 for the ride through Delaware and Maryland. Thanks Don and Nancy!
Last night’s game between the Nationals and Padres was tough. It is bad enough when two of the three teams with the worst records in baseball are playing. But when the Nationals enter the game needing to win 5 out of the remaining 8 games to avoid losing 100 games for the season, there’s extra pressure.
The pressure won.
Routine grounders that should extend a shutout pitching performance turn into 3 unearned runs. Balls lost in the lights turn into triples. And the explanation for the latter shows just what we’re facing. In this morning’s Washington Post, Nats left fielder Willie Harris provides the following explanation for his adventure in lights:
“They’re among the brightest (lights) in the league, he said. Sure, they’re a problem for opposing outfields, too, ‘but, I mean, we haven’t been hitting many balls in the lights. They’ve been hitting the balls in the lights.'”
Say no more, Willie. It is a tough time to be a Nats fan. But hey, let’s go win 5 out of 7. And remember, the Tampa Bay Rays went from worst to first this year. Stranger things have happened.
The Infamous Stringdusters, a terrific bluegrass and acoustic music band, will be playing in the Washington, DC area on Saturday, November 1st, in the fall concert of the DC Bluegrass Union. Highly recommended!
If you can’t get to Washington, then check out this YouTube video to get a taste of the band’s sound.
Bluegrass master Mac Wiseman has one of the great voices in bluegrass music. Back in the early 1970s, I had stopped listening to rock and pop and was acquainting myself with all types of acoustic and traditional music. I decided to attend a bluegrass festival, and the one I chose was Mac Wiseman’s Bluegrass Festival in Renfro Valley, Kentucky. This was a time before the huge festivals and the Wiseman affair was definitely small scale. However, it was very friendly to a young college student eager to soak up the music. I remember hearing Wiseman, Martha and Eddie Adcock (they were also doing the sound), the Lewis Family, and more. Mac Wiseman’s tenor and Adcock’s innovative banjo playing stuck with me through the years, and when I hear Wiseman sing Jimmie Brown, the Newsboy it brings back great memories. I wore holes in my Mac Wiseman Bluegrass Festival T-shirt, and would probably still have it if I hadn’t married someone with the fashion sense to throw it away. It is great to see Mac Wiseman get this recognition.
My memories of traditional jazz musician Michael White are more recent. In 2006, less than a year after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, the National Trust for Historic Preservation and Tulane University hosted a Rebirth: People, Places & Culture in New Orleans conference, which I had the privilege to coordinate for the National Trust. Working in close partnership with Tulane and with co-sponsors including the Preservation Resource Center and Xavier, Dillard, and Loyola Universities, the Trust participated in this high-profile examination of the role of the city’s unique culture – its architecture, music, food, and neighborhood Social Aid and Pleasure Organizations – in the rebirth of New Orleans. More than 230 people attended the conference and heard national leaders such as First Lady Laura Bush, NBC News Anchor and Managing Editor Brian Williams, and Aspen Institute President and former CNN Chairman and CEO Walter Isaacson, as well as cultural critics from the New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, USA Today, and Newsweek.
As important as all of these perspectives were to the success of the conference, the heart and soul of the discussions came from four panels made up of an extraordinary collection of local residents who have been working – often for decades – to keep these cultural traditions alive in New Orleans. From the city’s top chefs and leading Creole cooks to the Chief of the Zulu’s from Mardi Gras; from nationally renown jazz musicians such as Ellis Marsalis to the head of the Broadmoor Neighborhood Association who is saving her community’s historic architecture – all the panelists told of their efforts at recovery in the months following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, providing stories of hope for renewal tempered with a realism for the difficult job they faced. Many of us felt we learned more about the city – and how the various aspects of its culture work together to make it so unique – in those two days.
Now, my Michael White memory. It was a privilege to work with Dr. White and to hear of his educational efforts to keep traditional jazz alive. As we were listening to Michael and his quartet play Bourbon Street Blues at the final luncheon, National Trust Trustee and former Indiana First Lady Judy O’Bannon leaned over to me and said, “What would you do if you had to have a regular job for a living?” Then she added, “Thank God for old houses” – because they put us in contact with the most extraordinary people, places, and cultures. This conference and the work that grew out of it demonstrates why preservation is so relevant to American life today. Thanks Mac Wiseman and thanks Michael White for all you’ve done to keep the extraordinary culture of this country alive.
Chief Justice John Roberts (left) was the keynote speaker on Constitution Day at James Madison’s Montpelier in Orange, Virginia. Under a beautiful late summer sky, several thousand people came together this morning on the front lawn to hear of Madison – the Father of the Constitution and one of the most under-appreciated Founding Fathers – and to celebrate the completion of the restoration of his home, Montpelier. It was a wonderful day that, as National Trust for Historic Preservation President Richard Moe said, doesn’t get any better if you’re in this business.
All the speakers rose to the occasion, but I found the remarks of Virginia Governor Tim Kaine especially thoughtful as he highlighted a Madison accomplishment, thought, and character trait. The accomplishment was his role as Father of the Constitution. To appreciate that accomplishment, Sir Christopher Wren’s epitaph at St. Paul’s Cathedral was recalled, “If you seek his monument, look around you.”
Governor Kaine then referenced Federalist #10, which he described as one of the most influential political thoughts in American history. This emphasis on the pluralism of America meant that
Finally, Governor Kaine spoke of a character trait…the ability to change his mind. The Governor talked of how Madison originally opposed adding a Bill of Rights, but he changed his mind – or “flip flopped” – when he saw that the Constitution would not be ratified without it. Kaine celebrated the fact that any of us can wake up each morning a little smarter than the day before!
Perhaps the most moving moment of the celebration came when two young people came together to read the preamble to the Constitution. One was a descendant of James Madison’s sister (Madison himself did not have any children). The other was a descendant of a slave born at Montpelier, who later helped Dolley remove the Washington portrait from the White House during the British attack, received his freedom after James Madison’s death, became a leader of the abolitionist movement, and then gave Dolley food and money from his own pocket as she was living in Washington after being forced to sell Montpelier to pay for debts. To see and hear these two young people reading these famous words reminded us of what we have to be thankful for as citizens of the United States – and how much work we still have to do to reach that “more perfect Union.”
We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
As Barbara Campagna – the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s Graham Gund Architect – reports on the PreservationNation blog, the flood waters have receded at the Farnsworth House. Flood waters from the remnants of Hurricane Ike rose to about 18″ in the house before cresting. Check out Barbara’s post to read about the way the staff protected the priceless furniture and panels in this modernist masterpiece.
Tomorrow I’ll be at Montpelier in Orange, Virginia, to help celebrate the restoration of James Madison’s home by the Montpelier Foundation and the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Check out the blog tomorrow evening for pictures and an update.
MORE TO COME... 