Flatt & Scruggs on Netflix Watch Instantly

I just noticed that The Flatt & Scruggs TV Show is available on Netflix Watch Instantly.

This would have been counted as both banjo and TV for the Banjo versus TV project.

Cross-posted at J.R.'s Banjo Hangout blog

Banjo versus TV week 88: Earl Scruggs, Henhouse Prowlers

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 11/1/2009 through 11/7/2009.

They don't want you to take pictures at concerts at the Old Town School. Maybe that's because pictures come out badly.

So please imagine that that was a very clear photo of The Legendary Earl Scruggs, Family and Friends, who performed at the Old Town School of Folk Music on Saturday night.

It was nice to see the band again. I walked up to say hello and several of them remembered me.

Their opening act was Henhouse Prowlers, a great bluegrass band from my neighborhood of Rogers Park. The Prowlers were a perfect choice for an opener. Our other neighborhood band, Sexfist, would have been inappropriate.

Henhouse Prowlers set:

1. Who Me?
2. I'm a Drifter
3. Syracuse
4. Caroline
5. Diesel
6. Angeline Malone
7. Helter Skelter

Earl Scruggs set:

1. Salty Dog
2. Borrowed Love
3. Earl's Breakdown
4. Steamlined Cannonball
5. You Ain't Goin' Nowhere
6. Soldier's Joy
7. In the Pines
8. Doin' My Time
9. Sally Goodin
10. Sittin' on Top of the World
11. Dim Lights, Thick Smoke and Loud, Loud Music
12. Foggy Mountain Rock
13. All Night Long
14. Black Mountain Blues

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Also in the last week:

• Since I went to Costello's jam for the sixth time, that's just four more jams before I get my free sandwich.
  
  
• Ran across All Folked Up: The Punk Rock Collection, Vol. 1 (folk covers of seminal first and second wave punk music).

Cross-posted at J.R.'s Banjo Hangout blog

Banjo versus TV week 76: Earl again. Also, peaches with maple syrup.

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 8/9/2009 through 8/15/2009.

You'll recall how my friend Warren and I had the best weekend ever seeing the Scruggs band perform in Warren's home state of Colorado a few weeks back. Well, we realized at the time that Earl and friends would be performing in Michigan which, although it's not Chicago, is nonetheless my part of the country. So we made arrangements to meet up and see the band again at Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park.

The evening kicked off with opening act Green Sky Bluegrass, a jamming kind of bluegrass group from Michigan.

But the real draw, of course, was Earl Scruggs.

The redhead had told me that my pictures of Earl from Colorado didn't capture his happiness, so I tried to pay a little more attention to the timing of the shots. I hope you can see that Earl is happy to be on the stage, 'cause that's how it came across.

Speaking of happy, it was fiddler Hoot Hester's birthday so the band gave him a cake and we all wished him a happy birthday.

After the performance I got a chance to go backstage with Warren and say hello to the band. They remembered me, which was nice. 'Tis sweet to be remembered, you know.

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Also in the last week:

• David and I met up with Warren and some of Warren's old friends in Grand Rapids. And we jammed. What a lot of fun.
  
  I'm so glad I was travelling with my washtub bass.
• I am quite embarrassed to discover that my banjo instructor, whom I've been calling Dave for more than a year now, prefers to be called David. Now I'm going to have to go back and edit...let's see now...30 posts that call him "Dave". Fortunately I keep all of these posts under source control so that's not so hard. But still.
• My new-to-me Nechville banjo arrived in the mail! I just love it. It looks great and sounds even better.
  
  Here's its former owner, Kyle James Hauser, playing it at RockyGrass.
  
  
  
  Kyle, by the way, plays in the 4-fingered style of Crooked Still's Greg Liszt, which you can see on the video I took of Greg at Four Corner's Folk Festival last year.
  
  While we're watching videos of more-talented-that-I musicians playing my banjo, here's Jim Marsh.
  
  
• I followed through on a year-old promise and lead a jam for some friends that I see once a year. More on this in future posts when I catch up on my way-overdue summaries of my banjo lessons.
• A simple family recipe from Heidi, the wife of Warren's friend George: sliced peaches with maple syrup on top. Yum!

Breakfast with Earl Scruggs. Rockygrass. A new Nechville banjo. Best weekend ever.

Why was the last weekend in July the best weekend ever? Let me count the ways.

I finally saw Earl Scruggs perform. Remember last year when I was so excited about going to the Four Corners Folk Festival to see Earl Scruggs perform? And how disappointed I was when Earl was ill and had to cancel, last-minute? Well I finally got my chance to see Earl.

How did this happen?

My friend Warren scored RockyGrass tickets, backstage passes and a hotel stay. Warren, a great banjo player from Colorado, is a long-time friend of the Scruggs family. He did the tablature for Earl's book and, as you'll recall, he filled in for Earl when Earl was ill at 4CFF. The Scruggs family had tickets and VIP passes to RockyGrass which they gave to Warren, then Warren gave one set to me.

That's me, Kyle and Warren at RockyGrass. More on Kyle later when I talk about my new Nechville banjo. (That's right, a new Nechville banjo. I did mention that this was the best weekend ever, right?) But first, more about that hotel stay I mentioned, which resulted in...

I had breakfast with Earl Scruggs. Since we were staying in the same hotel, I got to have the free hotel breakfast with the whole Earl Scruggs with Family and Friends band. I asked Earl if I could have a photo as proof, since I could hardly believe it myself.

But enough about my stalking of Earl Scruggs (with family and friends). RockyGrass was so much fun, it'd have been great even without the extra helping of Scruggs goodness.

More RockyGrass highlights:

• The gorgeous Colorado scenery of RockyGrass
  
• Showing off my sawed-off banjo
  
• Strangers sharing their funnel cake
• Vocal harmonies workshop with Anne & Pete Sibley
• Constantly being mistaken for Vince Herman of Leftover Salmon ("Dude, it was five in the morning and you had that woman dancing on that cooler, remember?")
• Having a VIP backstage pass
  
• Lots of great bands
  
• Dancing in the rain
  
• Tom Nechville teaching me how to loop back the string on the banjo peg so it doesn't slip
• Band contest
  
• Quietly sitting off to the side, playing chords on my banjo, along with the band
• People in cool T-shirts
  
• Taking a hike while playing my banjo
• Jamming (and recording jam sessions for later use in practice)
  
• Spending time with Warren
  

Best weekend ever.