Thursday, February 13, 2014
WHERE IN THE HECK IS JAMES DODD?
I had asked that question to several pickers in this area and they all just shrugged their shoulders. I got my answer last Saturday in Missoula. There he was in the flesh, Jimmy Dodd!
James was devastated nearly a decade ago when the first love of his life, his wife, was stricken with a deadly disease which first took both of her legs and later her life. The last time I saw her was at the wedding of Archie and Barbara Bott at the White Bird School House where she asked me to play "Faded Love" on my fiddle. It is now great to know that he has recovered from that tragic event and moved on. Jimmy shook my hand with a big grin and introduced me to his new lovely wife. He said they had currently been living in Belgrade, but were planning to move to Missoula quite soon. If we want to see and hear him growl out those lyrics and play his dobro or guitar again we will probably have to head to western Montana. Best wishes to you and your lovely wife, Jimmy.
Tuesday, February 11, 2014
MONTANA ROCKIES BLUEGRASS ASSOCIATION
MRBA Winter Jam on Saturday, February 8, 2014.
I decided to drive to Missoula last Saturday to visit my daughter and her two little girls as well as go to the February version of the MRBA winter jam series. The roads were pretty bad. The Friday road report had been quite good with bare highway over most of the route although they always caution that conditions can quickly turn in Montana. And they did! The weather forecast seemed to suggest flurries, but that may have been my optimistic reading of them. It was great driving on bare pavement upon leaving Billings early in the AM. Around Greycliff, though, it began snowing heavily. The roads were still quite bare, but visibility was becoming a problem, especially when coming up behind a truck. Passing became rather risky. Returning on Sunday was much worse. The roads became covered in snow and the plows could not keep up. Even big rigs were seen that had slid into the barrow pit. At my age I should have known better and in the future I will not be quite so adventurous.
As far as the jam it was a lot of fun although attendance was somewhat down compared with other winter jams. Most blamed it on the weather although pickers were there from places like Ovando and Kalispell. This jam featured a planned "Slow Jam" at 3:00 PM. This was a teaching session for newer pickers. The leaders were teaching the 1 2 3 4 5 chord progressions from the music theory "Circle of Fifths" concept. Instead of learning that a tune in G, for instance, has the chords G, C, and D in a certain pattern it is more useful to think of them as 1, 4, 5. Then if a singer or picker wants to play that tune in another key like A or C you already know what chords to play. The Slow Jam group then went on to play a tune slowly until every picker could play it before speeding up. It was a good learning session for all the participants.
The MRBA jams have some very friendly pickers to jam with. The stress is definitely on bluegrass not country music in other forms. Those who only want to play classic or modern country songs do not last very long in this group. I like that approach which is gentle, but still firm. There were also some really good pickers including the Franks of "Two Bit Franks," and Chad Fadely plus others. Two Bit Franks performed at the Big Sky Big Grass Festival earlier this month with some of best bluegrass bands in America. Emily Frank was especially helpful in assisting other pickers with their technique and singing. Around 6 PM a very good potluck was served including roast chicken, beef enchilada casserole, fresh fruit and many different salads. A separate dessert table had sweets from homemade brownies and cookies to carrot cake.
The final MRBA Winter Jam will be held on March 8, 2014. (BTW, daylight savings begins the next day. That should be figured into any travel plans. My personal feeling is that the daylight savings concept has outlived it's usefulness and should be eliminated in this more modern era. Now it is just a pain to have to change the times on most watches and clocks twice per year. Not to mention our personal biological clocks.)
Some photos from the February winter jam follow:
I decided to drive to Missoula last Saturday to visit my daughter and her two little girls as well as go to the February version of the MRBA winter jam series. The roads were pretty bad. The Friday road report had been quite good with bare highway over most of the route although they always caution that conditions can quickly turn in Montana. And they did! The weather forecast seemed to suggest flurries, but that may have been my optimistic reading of them. It was great driving on bare pavement upon leaving Billings early in the AM. Around Greycliff, though, it began snowing heavily. The roads were still quite bare, but visibility was becoming a problem, especially when coming up behind a truck. Passing became rather risky. Returning on Sunday was much worse. The roads became covered in snow and the plows could not keep up. Even big rigs were seen that had slid into the barrow pit. At my age I should have known better and in the future I will not be quite so adventurous.
As far as the jam it was a lot of fun although attendance was somewhat down compared with other winter jams. Most blamed it on the weather although pickers were there from places like Ovando and Kalispell. This jam featured a planned "Slow Jam" at 3:00 PM. This was a teaching session for newer pickers. The leaders were teaching the 1 2 3 4 5 chord progressions from the music theory "Circle of Fifths" concept. Instead of learning that a tune in G, for instance, has the chords G, C, and D in a certain pattern it is more useful to think of them as 1, 4, 5. Then if a singer or picker wants to play that tune in another key like A or C you already know what chords to play. The Slow Jam group then went on to play a tune slowly until every picker could play it before speeding up. It was a good learning session for all the participants.
The MRBA jams have some very friendly pickers to jam with. The stress is definitely on bluegrass not country music in other forms. Those who only want to play classic or modern country songs do not last very long in this group. I like that approach which is gentle, but still firm. There were also some really good pickers including the Franks of "Two Bit Franks," and Chad Fadely plus others. Two Bit Franks performed at the Big Sky Big Grass Festival earlier this month with some of best bluegrass bands in America. Emily Frank was especially helpful in assisting other pickers with their technique and singing. Around 6 PM a very good potluck was served including roast chicken, beef enchilada casserole, fresh fruit and many different salads. A separate dessert table had sweets from homemade brownies and cookies to carrot cake.
The final MRBA Winter Jam will be held on March 8, 2014. (BTW, daylight savings begins the next day. That should be figured into any travel plans. My personal feeling is that the daylight savings concept has outlived it's usefulness and should be eliminated in this more modern era. Now it is just a pain to have to change the times on most watches and clocks twice per year. Not to mention our personal biological clocks.)
Some photos from the February winter jam follow:
MORE MRBA NEWS
The annual Spring Old Time Bluegrass Festival and fund raiser will be held from noon until 11 PM at the Lone Rock School at Stevensville on Saturday April 12.
The dates for the annual Hard Times Bluegrass Festival near Darby are July 25, 26, and 27, 2014. This is a great event for a family camp out with good music on the stage and jamming nearby.
The dates for the annual Hard Times Bluegrass Festival near Darby are July 25, 26, and 27, 2014. This is a great event for a family camp out with good music on the stage and jamming nearby.
WYOMING
NEW WORLAND JAM ANNOUNCED BY TERRY COOK OF ROCKY MOUNTAIN FRAMING.
This was forwarded by Ed Capen. Thanks Ed. The jam will be held on the second Monday of each month at Rocky Mountain framing. Genre will be "Country, Rock and Roll, Bluegrass, and Gospel." That will likely turn off any dedicated bluegrassers, unless they are motivated to gradually convert all those other picker- singers to true bluegrass music. That seems to be the current attitude of the Yellowstone Bluegrass Association in it's Billings jams. Actually as a co-founder of the original Billings bluegrass club I can testify that going back more than 20 years ago that was the situation back then in Billings, too. We had to tolerate a lot of general country music until local musicians caught onto how real bluegrass is performed. I recall telling the second association president that "Bluegrass is based on old time mountain music. We don't have many hillbillies in Billings, but we have lots of cowboys playing country-western music." We still don't have many genuine good old boys from the southern states, but bluegrass has made a definite foothold in this northern rocky-plains region. Hurrah!
This was forwarded by Ed Capen. Thanks Ed. The jam will be held on the second Monday of each month at Rocky Mountain framing. Genre will be "Country, Rock and Roll, Bluegrass, and Gospel." That will likely turn off any dedicated bluegrassers, unless they are motivated to gradually convert all those other picker- singers to true bluegrass music. That seems to be the current attitude of the Yellowstone Bluegrass Association in it's Billings jams. Actually as a co-founder of the original Billings bluegrass club I can testify that going back more than 20 years ago that was the situation back then in Billings, too. We had to tolerate a lot of general country music until local musicians caught onto how real bluegrass is performed. I recall telling the second association president that "Bluegrass is based on old time mountain music. We don't have many hillbillies in Billings, but we have lots of cowboys playing country-western music." We still don't have many genuine good old boys from the southern states, but bluegrass has made a definite foothold in this northern rocky-plains region. Hurrah!
IDAHO
IDAHO SAWTOOTH BLUEGRASS ASSOCIATION
The Seventh Annual ISBA "Spring Super Jam" will be held on May 16 to 18, 2014, at the Lewis and Clark Resort in Kamiah, Idaho. Kamiah is four hours south of Spokane and three hours west of Missoula, MT. Traveling from Billings one would have to take the Missoula route. That goes on Hwy. 12 to Kamiah, the route that has seen many protests about the huge rigs hauling big equipment parts to the Canadian Oil fields. Central Idaho is impassible from east to west. There are two huge wilderness areas there, the Selway-Bitteroot and below it the Frank Church River of No Return. Idaho is similar to two separate states, the northern panhandle and the southern Snake River route from Idaho Falls to Boise. Kamiah is in a beautiful area and is along the route that the Lewis and Clark expedition traveled and were fortunate that Sacajawea found her Shoshone brother, who provided a guide to help them through the mountains. On the western side they came upon the Nez Perce who lived in the Kamiah country. Some warriors wanted to kill them, but an old woman intervened saying she had been treated well by white men. There they obtained horses and were able to move on toward the Columbia River basin. Other wise they would have perished and disappeared into the mists of our history of the western United States. Meriwhether Lewis, William Clark and President Thomas Jefferson, all white men, are given most credit for the expansion of the United States to the Pacific a movement also known as our "Manifest Destiny." Actually two native American Indian women, Sacajawea and the older Nez Perce woman, made the success of the expedition possible. They deserve more credit that they usually get. Behind great men there are great woman - not always their wives or mothers.
The Seventh Annual ISBA "Spring Super Jam" will be held on May 16 to 18, 2014, at the Lewis and Clark Resort in Kamiah, Idaho. Kamiah is four hours south of Spokane and three hours west of Missoula, MT. Traveling from Billings one would have to take the Missoula route. That goes on Hwy. 12 to Kamiah, the route that has seen many protests about the huge rigs hauling big equipment parts to the Canadian Oil fields. Central Idaho is impassible from east to west. There are two huge wilderness areas there, the Selway-Bitteroot and below it the Frank Church River of No Return. Idaho is similar to two separate states, the northern panhandle and the southern Snake River route from Idaho Falls to Boise. Kamiah is in a beautiful area and is along the route that the Lewis and Clark expedition traveled and were fortunate that Sacajawea found her Shoshone brother, who provided a guide to help them through the mountains. On the western side they came upon the Nez Perce who lived in the Kamiah country. Some warriors wanted to kill them, but an old woman intervened saying she had been treated well by white men. There they obtained horses and were able to move on toward the Columbia River basin. Other wise they would have perished and disappeared into the mists of our history of the western United States. Meriwhether Lewis, William Clark and President Thomas Jefferson, all white men, are given most credit for the expansion of the United States to the Pacific a movement also known as our "Manifest Destiny." Actually two native American Indian women, Sacajawea and the older Nez Perce woman, made the success of the expedition possible. They deserve more credit that they usually get. Behind great men there are great woman - not always their wives or mothers.
IDAHO
Information will be coming later on the annual bluegrass festival in Pocatello later in the summer.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)