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.
More to come…
DJB
On Friday, September 19th, the National Endowment for the Arts Heritage Fellowships free concert will be held at Bethesda’s Strathmore Music Hall. Each year the NEA awards one-time-only awards to traditional and folk artists, and I have special memories of the music of two of this year’s recipients.
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.
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.
More to come…
DJB
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…
DJB
Many family and friends know that our son Andrew is the real singer of the family. After a stellar career as a cathedral chorister (assuming you can have a career that ends at age 13), he began singing in high school last year with his new baritone voice.
Candice and I were so pleased last evening to hear Andrew’s first performance with the five-boy a cappella group at his school. They got a great reception and Andrew was pleased with this first performance. We expect to hear a lot of a cappella singing around our house over the next three years…
…And that thought led us to think about what happens to people who get too deep into a cappella singing. Fortunately, there’s an institute for "A Cappella Recovery." Watch this video…and pray this isn’t in Andrew’s future.
🙂
More to come…
DJB
The storms in the Midwest from Hurricane Ike and related weather systems have resulted in flooding at the Farnsworth House , a modernist architectural icon and National Trust Historic Site. National Trust Graham Gund Architect Barbara Campagna posted a report on the PreservationNation blog which describes the impact. Site Director Whitney French and other staff and volunteers from Trust partner Landmarks Illinois are on site and made this short video on Saturday which shows the water rising at the site.
Stay connected to www.PreservationNation.org for updates as the situation develops.
More to come…
DJB
Today’s Washington Post Magazine had a travel-related article on Monument Valley in Utah. The author is a huge fan of John Ford’s classic Western The Searchers and he went to Monument Valley in search of sites from the film.
We had just visited Monument Valley in August, so the article brought back fond memories of our vacation. Everyone who travels to this special place takes photographs because the landscape is so evocative. You’ll find a gallery online in the Post website, and I’ve added a few here from the Brown family collection.
More to come…
DJB
UPDATE: Here’s a wonderful photo of Monument Valley taken by my friend, the professional photographer Carol Highsmith.
Top image of Goulding’s View at Monument Valley by Claire Brown
Double Rainbow at Glen Ellen
I just heard from my good friend Susan in California. Her note reminded me of a wonderful time that my daughter Claire and I had a couple of years ago at Susan and her husband Bill’s vineyard and winery on the Sonoma/Napa border. Susan was writing to say she enjoyed the blog and that she loved baseball, acoustic music, historic places, and teenagers. Hey, she’s my target audience! This is a post to connections and friends.
Susan is a preservation lawyer. Bill is a surfer, poet, and winemaker. Their wonderful wine is Random Ridge and Claire and I enjoyed a delightful lunch and afternoon at their winery a year or two ago with the staff and families of the Western Office of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
The day was rainy (hence the appropriateness of Susan’s photo of the double rainbow at Glen Ellen) but the friendship was warm. Claire and the other children enjoyed playing with Susan’s dog and marveling at Bill’s ceilings made of surfboards. The adults enjoyed the wine, food from the nearby town of Glen Ellen, and conversation.
Since wine isn’t one of the things I claim expertise in (although I do enjoy it), don’t take my word on Random Ridge. Gourmet magazine has written, "…the Zinfandels of such tiny producers as Lore Olds at Sky and Bill Hawley at Random Ridge are memorable of course…" Candice has 30+ years of Gourmet , so they are like the Bible in our kitchen. If you are in California, search for some Random Ridge on the wine list. (It is available in a few places outside the Bay area .) And if California isn’t in your plans, then simply connect with a friend this weekend and enjoy the company.
More to come…
DJB
One of the unexpected joys of starting a blog is that as you move around the Internet to find information or connect links, you stumble across interesting blogs that catch your fancy. These blogs may or may not be connected to your topic(s), but you find the writing or subject so compelling you want to share with others.
So every now and then I’ll share a discovery with you. And the first such find is Miss Music Nerd!…because nerd is the new cool . Last evening after posting a story on the new Edgar Meyer & Chris Thile CD, I clicked on the tag I established for Edgar Meyer and was taken to Miss Music Nerd’s blog. There I found a wonderful posting entitled Music Vocab: Catching Some Bass . Here was a witty take on the "lowest instrument or voice part in an ensemble, whose name is spelled like a fish but pronounced like a foundation: the bass."
Miss Music Nerd is classically trained, but lest you think she’s boring (or too nerdy), read some more from Catching Some Bass to see the musicians she’s listening to;
But enough with the jargon… let’s listen to some badass bassitude!
- Not the most complex bassline, but one of the catchiest ever: White Lines by Grandmaster Flash
- Classical and “crossover” (I hate that term but sometimes it fits) bass player Edgar Meyer has several great audio samples on his page
- Bassist Frederick Charlton has recorded transciptions of several of Bach’s Partitas for solo violin, including the notoriously difficult Chaconne from Partita no. 2
- Here’s a sample of jazz legend Ray Brown and his trio playing “Caravan”
- I’ve always loved John Entwhistle’s little bass breaks in The Who ’s My Generation
Some other posts I enjoyed on my perusal of the writings and music of Miss Music Nerd:
And finally, a post about Mahler’s 9th, which lends itself to big thoughts:
Hearing a live orchestral performance brings to mind Many Great Truths — for example:
- Despite what numerous naysayers, nervous Nellies, and nattering nabobs of negativism like to say, classical music is not dead and the symphony orchestra is not obsolete.
- The sound of a live orchestra will never be equalled, even by the most audiophile’s-dream-come-true, money-no-object sound system you could imagine
- It is possible to listen to a piece of music lasting nearly 90 minutes, with no intermission, without feeling bored or impatient even for a moment
- The contrabassoon is frickin’ cool!
I’m sure you’ll find something on Miss Music Nerd to enjoy.
More to come…
DJB
Double-bassist Edgar Meyer and mandolin phenom Chris Thile are set to release their first CD together on September 23rd on Nonesuch Records. Entitled – appropriately enough – Edgar Meyer & Chris Thile , the new release brings together two of the most amazing instrumentalists of their respective generations of acoustic musicians.
My friend Scott Gerloff and I had the chance to see Meyer earlier this year when he played in Washington with Sam Bush and Jerry Douglas. The show was terrific and Meyer was phenomenal. We were both slack-jawed. And I’ve written to countless friends through the years following Nickel Creek concerts with accounts of some amazing piece of musicianship from Thile. Needless to say I’m looking forward to this collaboration.
The Nonesuch site provides a good background on both musicians:
Throughout a lifetime of performing and composing, Edgar Meyer has turned the double bass into a modern virtuoso instrument that is equally at home in classical music and in the American vernacular. In 1994, Meyer became the first bassist to win the Avery Fisher Prize. He is also a recipient of the prestigious MacArthur Foundation “Genius” Award and three Grammy Awards. Meyer has found devoted audiences through a vast range of projects, from his own double bass concertos that he continues to perform regularly to recital collaborations with Emanuel Ax and Amy Dorfman and performance and recording projects with artists including Joshua Bell, Yo-Yo Ma, Bela Fleck, Zakir Hussain, Mark O’Connor, Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas, Mike Marshall, and many others. The New Yorker calls him “the most remarkable virtuoso in the relatively unchronicled history of his instrument.”
Widely regarded as one of the most interesting and inventive musicians of his generation, mandolinist Chris Thile has elevated his instrument from its origins as a relatively simple folk and bluegrass instrument to the sophistication and brilliance of the finest jazz improvisation and classical performance….As the San Francisco Chronicle asks, “Why didn’t someone think about mixing bluegrass, jazz and classical music together sooner? Chris Thile … is doing it with his new outfit, Punch Brothers, and the result is totally mind-blowing.”
There are a couple of good videos on You Tube of the Meyer/Thile duo. Check out the one above.
More to come…
DJB
