It’s been a long summer filled with music, kids, weddings, funerals, and the vast Atlantic ocean. Went to some great festivals; down to Philly for the big folk fest, also went to the Lowell Festival, to Mystic for the Sea Song Festival, and then up to the Champlain Folk Fest where the BEST part was hanging out with octogenarian Willie Beaudoin, whose brother Louis was so influential on all these NE fiddlers. Willie and I just sit and play old jazz tunes (no one else likes that music) talk about Django and all the great players, and show each other a thing or two. He learned the guitar on an aircraft carrier in the Pacific. He probably floated past my father who was somewhere out there too. Too late to ask Dad what the name of his vessel was. I suppose through the internet I could find all that out.
Our most elegant venue I played with Nat was in the beautiful Unitarian church in Nantucket. That morning we played for Nantucket TV, and that was fun, out on Straight Wharf with the wind whipping my hair every which way, the kids scarfing down the crew’s donuts and staying quiet.
Saw old friends- Bob Carlin who has a new album out with an African player, he is just as funny and the same snappy dresser- as always. A great jam with James Leva and Jane Rothfield at Philly. Got to play with Bob Naess at a wedding (an old hero of mine from the “Gypsy Gyppos”, which any old time fan should know about). Got to sit in with The Hot Club of Portland at the Portland Lobster Company (at low tide on Commercial St). Good beer, great summer spot. Their guitar player (Bryan Killough) has worked out the Django solos to a T. He is amazing. Plus- they trusted me, sight unseen, to hand them a chart and sing.
Glad to be home — not going anywhere far for a little while. Gotta make sure the kids have real shoes for school. Hide the flip-flops. Looking forward to getting back to teaching. Been working on learning some Joseph Spence tunes, they make me, my hands, happy.
Great books from the summer of 2007:
The End Of Faith, by Sam Harris
They Poured Fire on Us From the Sky, by Benjamin Ajak, Alephonsion Deng, Benson Deng, Judy A. Bernstein
Blink, by Malcolm Gladwell
Flow, by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Ahab’s Wife, by Sena Jeter Naslund
TTFN-
1 response so far ↓
Lauren // Oct 25, 2007 at 6:01 pm
Great website!Thanks for the booklist. I ‘ve read two already. I’ll check out the other four.