Sunday, October 18, 2009

Banjo versus TV week 84: Point your toe if you're going to tag the song

A check-in on the Banjo versus TV project — J.R.'s ongoing plan to spend more time on his banjo than on TV. This post covers 10/4/2009 through 10/10/2009.
Banjo 540 hrs, TV 473 hours

I went to Costello's Bluegrass Jam, played along and earned one more stamp on my sandwich card.

Only five more stamps until my free sandwich!

At the jam, Dale showed me a trick I haven't seen before. You know how you raise your foot to indicate that you're going to end a song at a jam? Like this:

End it.

Well, Dale said that he went to a jam in Florida where they added a pointed toe...

End it and tag it.

...to indicate that you're not just going to end it, but you're going to end it with a tag.


Also in the last week:

  • I ordered up a copy of Oliver Sacks' Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain.

    Musicophilia
  • Saw the Carolina Chocolate Drops at the Old Town School of Folk Music. What a show!

    The banjo was an African instrument, brought to America and appropriated by white men in blackface. (I'm looking at you, Joel Sweeney.)

    It's great to see the Caroline Chocolate Drops bring the banjo back towards its roots. The group's entire style of music draws from a long tradition of African-American string bands.
  • I picked up a couple of CCD CDs that I didn't have:

    Live at Merlefest 2008 Heritage
  • I've been watching two DVDs from Greg Cahill (of Special Consensus fame) that I rented from NetFlix: Blazing Bluegrass Banjo Vol 1: Developing Jamming Skills and Blazing Bluegrass Banjo Vol 2: Expanding Stylistic Variety.

    Blazing Bluegrass Banjo Vol 1: Developing Jamming Skills Blazing Bluegrass Banjo Vol 2: Expanding Stylistic Variety

    They're really good, but NetFlix doesn't include the tabs that ship with the purchased version. So I ordered them up from Amazon.

Cross-posted at J.R. Jenks' blog

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