Two for the Road; Cajun Kate's

Georgianne and I did a duo show at The Darlington Arts Center last night. It was our third show in a row down in the Philly area. We hit the road early Friday hoping to avoid the Friday afternoon traffic we hit last week. No traffic this time; we breezed down the turnpike and got to Garnet Valley several hours early. We decided to use the time to check out the Booth's Corner Farmer's Market. We found a great little Cajun eatery tucked in amid the craft, produce, and antique vendors. Cajun Kate's serves authentic Cajun cuisine at very reasonable prices in a no frills setting. The cooks let us sample several dishes before we placed our orders. Georgianne settled on the tomato garlic bisque with pesto and garlic croutons. I went with the slow cooked pork gumbo and the gator on a stick. Deee-licious! I should have gotten a crawfish pie for the road! We rolled down the road, literally and figuratively, and did two sets of acoustic Americana for a full house at the Darlington Arts Center Coffehouse. We had a great time and met some real nice folks, including Barbara and Paul Macatee. Paul took some great photos of us including the one below and one I already put up on the Rooster Rick page of our website. We finally pulled into our driveway around 2:30 am. Long day, but lots of fun!

Homegrown Two @ The Darlington Arts Center: Photo by Paul Macatee

The next Homegrown gig is another Homegrown Two show, next Thursday, May 3, 7:30 pm at The Windsor Arts Center in Windsor Connecticut. Windsor Art Center is a place for the visual and performing arts located in Windsor, Connecticut. Begun in 2007, the Center is housed in a former freight house adjacent to the Amtrak line in downtown Windsor. Parking is free, easy and accessible.

Windsor Arts Center

40 Mechanic Street

Windsor CT 06095

info@windsorartcenter.org

860-688-2528

www.homegrownstringband.com

Photo by Steve Gravano

My old ibook, circa 2005, was starting to act kinda funny so my wonderful wife, Georgianne, took up a collection and my generous friends and family all pitched in and got me a nice new Macbook. Recovering files and contacts has kept me pretty busy the past couple weeks. My old html editing web design and ftp programs don't work with the new OS, so I had to load and learn to use some new software. I needed to access the HGSB website to update our calendar, so this old dog spent the better part of this week learning some new tricks. As of today I've got all the pages on our site redone in xhtml code with a new look. As my friend Steve says; "Take a Look Around"    www.homegrownstringband.com

HG2 at The Darlington Arts Center

The Darlington Arts Center

The band had a great time performing for an enthusiastic audience at the Friday Night at St. Paul's concert series in Exton, PA last night. Georgianne and I will be back in the Philly area again next weekend performing at The Darlington Arts Center Coffeehouse Series in Garnet Lake, PA. The show is Friday night, 7:30 pm on April 27, 2012. Come on out to see Homegrown Two, the roots of The Homegrown String Band, in an intimate setting.

Sounds Across the Sound; Saturday & Sunday

The Long Island Sound

This weekend we will be heading across the Long Island Sound to Barrington, Rhode Island. On Saturday, March 31, at 2:00 pm Erica and I will be presenting beginner to intermediate clawhammer banjo and fiddle workshops at the Barrington Public Library in Barrington, Rhode Island. The following day, April 1st, also at 2:00 pm, the full family band will be performing in a concert setting at the same venue. Both events are free and open to the public.

The Barrington Public Library

281 County Road,

Barrington, RI 02806

(401) 247-1920 

Earl Scruggs 1924 - 2012

Photo by Rivers Langley

Legendary bluegrass musician Earl Scruggs passed away yesterday at the age of 88. Earl was an incredibly talented guitarist and banjo player who is often credited with inventing the three finger style of banjo picking. While he may not have been the first to play the banjo using three fingers, he definitely elevated the three finger, rolling, picking style to an art form. It was Earl's high energy banjo style that turned Bill Monroe's country band into a "bluegrass" band. His "Scruggs style" banjo picking would become synonymous with bluegrass banjo. Earl's wife and agent, Louise, once defined bluegrass as "folk music in overdrive," and it was the Scrugg's style of banjo that shifted the music into high gear.

Gerry Riemer: So Long and Thanks For the Music

R.I.P. Geraldine Riemer

We were shocked and saddened to hear of the untimely passing of our friend Gerry Riemer this week. I hadn't seen Gerry since last fall at the Sherwood-Jayne Apple Festival and only found out about her passing when I decided to investigate why a certain post, on this blog, that mentioned her was getting so many hits. 

Geraldine was a lady and a scholar too. The first time I tuned into Gerry's Monday Night Traditional Folk show on WUSB I fell in love with her melofious voice, and was greatly impressed with her vast knowledge and deep understanding of the folk musics of America and the British Isles. Over the past fifteen years, Gerry was always very supportive of the musical efforts of the Homegrown String Band. I think she really appreciated the idea of us carrying on the tradition of families making music together. Her thoughtful and encouraging words were always welcomed and appreciated by our family. We usually ran into Gerry at a few festivals and music events each year, mostly here on Long Island, but sometimes far from home where it was nice to see a familiar face. Whenever she was an MC at a festival where we were performing she would always make a point of being the one to introduce us. I was often humbled and always grateful for her wonderful introductions. Between sets I enjoyed sitting and visiting with Gerry. I always looked forward to, and will miss, my discussions with Geraldine about obscure musicians and songs, as well as the social and political significance of the music of the people.

In this fair land I will not stay

Here labor is in vain 

I'll leave the mountains of my youth

And seek the fertile plain 

I'm going to the west. . .

So long Gerry, it's been good to know ya!

Better Than Sliced Bread

I just put a loaf of bread in the oven and for some reason I thought of the saying "the best thing since sliced bread." What a weird saying. Pre-sliced bread is terrible! 99% of all Americans get their highly processed, pre-sliced, tasteless, possibly toxic, mishmash of artificial ingredients they call bread from a plastic bag. Products like Wonder bread probably put thousands of traditional bakeries out of business, or else forced them to specialize in dessert products, while simultaneously replacing a traditional nutritional food staple with an unhealthy tasteless facsimile. Here's a photo of my homemade bread:

Homemade Music and Homemade Bread

I used 4 cups of King Arthur Bread Flour (I usually use 3 1/3 cups of white flour and 2/3 cup of whole wheat flour), 1/4 tsp yeast, 1 tsp salt, 2 cups of water, and 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar (homemade with a live mother). I covered the dough and let it rise overnight then baked it for 42 minutes in a preheated Romertopf covered unglazed clay baker at 475º F. I don't know what the difference is between "bread" flour and regular unbleached flour, but it came out pretty well; I don't miss the whole wheat at all. 

So, what does homemade bread have to do with music? Well, just like bread, somewhere along the line, music has become a mass-produced consumer product. These days we are eating less and less nutritious homemade food and listening to less and less heartfelt homemade music. Thanks to clever marketing, slick packaging, and the misdirection of consumer's attention to superficial appearances and details, most people now prefer the perfectly formed factory made facsimile to the rougher hewn traditional, locally produced, artisan product.