Thanks!

Thanks to everyone who came out to see us this weekend; at the Homegrown Two show Friday night at the Buttonwood Tree Arts Center in Middletown, CT, and at The Homegrown String Band show at the Port Jefferson Library here on Long Island. It was great to see all the familiar faces at the Port Jeff show and it's always a pleasure to play at the Buttonwood Tree, a great venue and organization supporting the arts in Connecticut. "From its opening it has been a grassroots, avant garde center for all ages, all comers, artists and audiences." Here's a little piece of our Buttonwood show.

Next show is 7pm Saturday April 16 at the Arkell Museum in Canajoharie, NY

The Amazing Annalee Works For Peace

A great photo of Annalee is being featured as part of a 15 second promo spot on the CBS Times Square LED screen located on 42nd Street between 7th and 8th Avenue. The spot was produced by The Fellowship of Reconciliation, an interfaith, international organization promoting peaceful solutions to conflicts around the world since 1915. The photo montage began running yesterday and will appear every hour eighteen hours a day (6 AM to 12 AM) for the next six weeks.

"The Fellowship of Reconciliation is composed of women and men who recognize the essential unity of all creation and have joined together to explore the power of love and truth for resolving human conflict. While it has always been vigorous in its opposition to war, the Fellowship has insisted equally that this effort must be based on a commitment to the achieving of a just and peaceful world community, with full dignity and freedom for every human being."

“Your goal is, in my opinion, the only reasonable one and to make it prevail is of vital importance.”
—Albert Einstein, in a letter to FOR

On another note: Come see The Amazing Annalee, star of the big screen and the Siberian Jaw Harp Museum, perform with her family, The Homegrown String Band, at The Irvington, NY Public Library Saturday March 26 at 2 pm.

Earthquake in Japan

The Homegrown String Band sends our prayers and good wishes out to the people of Japan after that country was hit by a devastating magnitude 8.9 earthquake and seven meter tsunami this morning.

Make a donation to the Japanese Red Cross Earthquake Relief Fund 

Ray Alden - Songcatcher

This Saturday night, March 12, 2011, at 7:30 pm The Homegrown String Band will be returning to the Croton Free Library in Croton-on-Hudson, NY. The last time we played there, in 2007, I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Ray Alden. After I played "When the Apples Bloom in NY," a song I wrote that mentions old-time fiddler Tommy Jarrell, I made an announcement that I would give a free CD to anyone who knew who Tommy Jarrell was. Little did I know that Ray was in the audience. Of course Ray knew exactly who Tommy was. Not only did he know who he was, he had known Tommy personally. Ray Alden, a great old-time musician in his own right, had spent a lot of time visiting, recording, and photographing Tommy and many other old-time music legends. After the show Ray introduced himself and we had a long talk about banjos and old-timey music. I gave Ray a copy of our "Ragged but Right" CD and let him know what a pleasure it was to meet the man who had recorded one of my all time favorite albums: "Tommy and Fred," banjo/fiddle duets by Tommy Jarrell and Fred Cockerham. A few days later I received a package in the mail with an 8X10 copy of a B&W photo of Tommy and Fred standing on Tommy's porch, along with a CD of his old-time band The Southern Schoolhouse Rascals. We were sad to hear in the late fall of 2009 that Ray had passed on in September. Though Ray is gone he has left an indelible mark on the old-time music community, with his stellar banjo playing and also by making his great field recordings available to the public through his Field Recorders' Collective. Ray started the collective in 2004; since then they have released dozens of priceless recordings of traditional American musicians that will go a long way toward keeping the music we love so much alive. Thanks Ray.

Ray Alden

July 2, 1942 − September 19, 2009

Homegrown Two @ Trumbull

Sunday, February 27, Rick and Georgianne will be performing as Homegrown Two - the duo, at the Trumbull Connecticut Library. The show starts at 2pm and will focus on the oral traditions that helped shape American folk music. You will see and hear a lot of dulcimer/guitar duets as well as clawhammer banjo, doumbek, harmonica, banjo-ukulele, and some fancy foot work. Come on down and help us get over those Snow Shoveling Blues as we get Back to the Future of American Roots Music.

The Trumball Library

33 Quality Street
Trumbull, CT 06611

(203) 452-5197

 

Snow Shoveling Blues

The record snowfall in January gave me a sore back and a new song.

The Snow Shoveling Blues by the Homegrown String Band
January 29, 2011 - Mineola, NY

Back by Popular Demand

The Happy Family at The Watkins Glen Oldtime Fiddlers Gathering June 2010

Happy New Year everyone! January 2011 marks the 14th anniversary of the Homegrown String Band. It's hard to believe the family has been performing in public for nearly a decade and a half. We have gone from home school music lessons in the living room to live radio and TV, recording sessions, and prestigious venues around the country, including The Festival of American Music in Branson, MO, and The National Theater in Washington DC. Being a band on the road isn't all fun and games, there's the loading and unloading, traffic jams, performing in less than ideal conditions, and sometime sub standard accommodations, (not to mention just generally getting on each others nerves) but overall the experience of traveling and performing as a family has been a blast (see photo above). In 2010 Georgianne and I did a couple shows as Homegrown Two. We also performed as The Homegrown String Band with Tim Hryvniak on bass. In 2011 look for various configurations of family and friends ranging from a one man band to a five piece ensemble.

As we begin our 15th year as a performing family, we are pleased and proud to be once again selected to be a part of the Town of Oyster Bay's Distinguished Artist Series, a program where outstanding local artists are invited to perform at various venues around the town. Our performance will take place in the auditorium of the Plainview Old Bethpage Library on Saturday, January 15th at 8:00 pm.