All posts filed under: Random DJB Thoughts

This is where I put anything that is not easily categorized…

Getting Ready for Merlefest

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Later this week I’ll head to North Carolina for four days of bluegrass, blues, and Americana music at Merlefest.  I was reviewing the lineup tonight to begin to get a sense of how to schedule my time among the 14 stages.  In the process, I was reminded of recent stories about some of these musicians on More to Come…: Tony Rice Missy Raines and the New Hip Wayne Henderson and Doc Watson Jerry Douglas (with two posts) and the Lovell Sisters. I’ll be adding reviews and updates from Merlefest later this week, so return to find out what’s caught my fancy. More to come… DJB

A Different New Orleans

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I am in New Orleans with supporters of the National Trust for Historic Preservation on a visit to see how the city is recovering in the three and one-half years since Hurricane Katrina made landfall.  I’ve been in the city many times – and several since Katrina hit – but on this trip I found a couple of gems that tell me that I really haven’t seen all this great city has to offer. First, an update on our work.  The National Trust had staff on the ground just weeks after Katrina hit, and we still maintain an office where we help homeowners – primarily in the historic Holy Cross neighborhood of the Lower Ninth Ward – rebuild their homes and their lives.  Meeting the homeowners we’ve helped, seeing the way ravaged buildings have been turned back into beautiful homes, and listening to the volunteers and partners who’ve helped us in this recovery is always inspiring and gratifying.   In Holy Cross you can’t walk down the streets without seeing our Home Again signs, or those …

Nashville Cats

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In his 1996 book on the Southernization of America entitled Dixie Rising:  How the South is Shaping American Values, Politics, and Culture, former New York Times Atlanta bureau-chief Peter Applebome compares Charlotte, North Carolina and Nashville, Tennessee.  Much of Applebome’s thesis was turned on its head with the election of 2008.  But one thing he said has always stuck with me and it came back today as I was traveling to New Orleans. In comparing the two cities he notes that Nashville is a lot like Charlotte – except that its major industry is music and not banking.  And that difference makes all the difference in the world. I had a layover today in the Nashville airport.  You have to love a city where the airport has live music (in at least two places, including the food court) AND a photo exhibit by none other than Marty Stuart.  Heck, the musicians could have been employees of the Burger King.  The Lovin’ Spoonful’s Nashville Cats immediately jumped to mind: Well, there’s thirteen hundred and fifty-two guitar …

No Obama First Pitch for the Nats

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It appears that George, Tom, Abe, and Teddy will be the only presidents to appear at Nationals Park tomorrow for opening day. The current resident of the White House, President Obama, has turned down an invitation from the Washington Nationals to throw out the first pitch for the home opener tomorrow against the Philadelphia Phillies. Perhaps Obama has watched the Nats lose their first two series of the season, to begin a rousing 0-6 – MLB’s only team still without a win.   Or perhaps he has enough problems to deal with without having to take time out to watch a team that’s still not ready for prime time. Let’s hope a change in scenery and coming home will help the Nats get that elusive first win.  And we can dream about the time that Washington has a baseball team that even a basketball-loving president would want to see. More to come… DJB

Good Friday 2009

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Good Friday was a day of heightened – and mixed – emotions.  It began with an email from Andrew’s school about the irrational act of a disturbed man that some of the students observed.  In the early evening, Candice and I helped Andrew and Claire’s youth group prepare sandwiches and meals for Grate Patrol.  And while they delivered the sandwiches to the homeless throughout Washington, Candice and I closed out the day with the powerful Good Friday meditation at the National Cathedral. We’ve been around the Washington National Cathedral for years, but I only discovered this Good Friday service a couple of years ago.  It quickly became my favorite. Held in the St. Joseph of Arimethea chapel (photo) – the most appropriate of spaces – the service showcases all that is wonderful about the Cathedral.  The stone and marble combine with the vaults and intimate space to send the music on a magical journey to your ears.  And make no mistake – this is a service made for music. A hauntingly beautiful cello solo – Candice …

Vintage Roadside has New Route 66 Design

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Last October I wrote a post about the Vintage Roadside folks and their great t-shirt designs from old and often defunct roadside businesses.  This morning, the weather in Washington promised to be warm enough to get around in a t-shirt, so I pulled out my Route 66 t-shirt (see photo at left) from Vintage Roadside and didn’t think much more of it. But when I opened up the blog this morning and went to the Word Press home page, there was a blog posting from a Route 66 News blog that featured a great new design from – you guessed it – the Vintage Roadside folks.  Just too cool and too much of a coincidence not to write a bit about it.  I posted a comment on the blog and took the opportunity to give a shout out to the wonderful folks at Vintage Roadside.   To top it off, they are members of the National Trust for Historic Preservation and contribute some of the proceeds to help save historic places.  If the great designs aren’t enough to …

Home to Tennessee

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One of the great things about going home has always been the chance to get together with my brother Joe and play a little music.  So last week when the children and I were in Tennessee, I eagerly looked forward to heading out to Joe and Kerry’s house with my guitar and mandolin in tow. Joe (with a beard grown for a play at the Arts Center of Cannon County) had told me that his oldest children had begun to pick up the banjo, guitar, mandolin, and fiddle.  And sure enough, as we pulled out our instruments my nephew Joseph joined in with some clawhamer banjo.   It was great fun to play along with the next generation of pickers. Joe is an ornamental blacksmith and we had a good time checking out his new wares as well as his expanded shop.  Joe and Kerry essentially built their house by themselves, and it was great to see the new stairway they designed and constructed to open up the living room.  Joe’s shop is usually on the annual studio …

Aereo-Plain

Taking the Steam Powered Aereo Plane to that desert island

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The last album in my review of top five albums to take to a desert island may be my all-time favorite.  I’ve long loved John Hartford’s quirky, hippy-bluegrass Aereo-Plain album.   So it was only fitting that last night, as I was returning from a dinner in Nashville with a long-time friend, I turned on Del McCoury’s Hand Picked show on XM Radio’s Bluegrass Junction and what was coming out of the speakers but Steam Powered Aereo Plane.  Damn, Del has great taste in music!  I was reminded all over again of why this album is on my list. What do I love about this album?  Let’s start with the cover. My mother hated this cover when I was a teenager and my wife hates it still.  I loved it so much that I had the father of a high-school friend who was a commercial artist do a charcoal drawing of Hartford with his shaggy beard and aviator glasses.  (My friend Judy’s father had a side business of doing spot-on drawings of photographs from 1970s record albums.)  …