The biggest change since I last wrote about making music videos in 2018 is that I've largely gotten away from tracking tunes and creating finished videos and more into looping music live while streaming on twitch (see the link to my twitch channel at the bottom of any page here). I've also spent...
Getting ready to record
When I decide to make a video for a tune the first thing I do is fire up my computer on the desk in my music room. I pull up a copy of the sheet music and watch a few youtube videos of people playing the song if I can find any. Depending on the tune I either learn the g...
Folks in the US honor Veterans this weekend. While we're on the topic, lets not forget those Veterans of the Psychic Wars. The first reference of the term appears to be in Jim Morrison's poem Far Arden, 1969 (ref starts at 2 min 50):
A constant theme in Michael Moorcock's Elric novels (1972) w...
I've listened to Rich Conaty most Sunday nights for maybe 25 years now. He didn't know me, but I feel like I knew him some. He was always there as the week came to its close when I knew I'd have to be getting up in the morning and doing it all again soon. Sadly, Rich won't be getting up anymore...
A musical Christmas card with good wishes to you for the New Year from The Berry Family String Ensemble, performing Joy to the World as arranged by Lowell Mason at the homestead in Vermont for Christmas, 2016
The sheet music is freely available here:
One thing I need in a vehicle is a working radio. It doesn't have to be flashy, or even have bluetooth or a touch screen - I just need it to be able to tune in AM and FM radio and have a clock in it. The Van of Doom didn't have a radio. It was supposed to have had a radio, but when I went to pi...
Bardic Circle was invited to play at the SCVF Emerald Society meeting last night which was hosted by Ridge FD, but since 2/3 of Bardic Circle couldn't make it on such short notice, I ran out by myself. I usually don't do solo gigs and I certainly missed Cate's great harmonies and mandolin as...
I ran down to the Grey Horse Tavern in Bayport again to see Luke Powers and Bernadette Fee make the rafters roar once again, but also to say good luck to Austin who will be heading down to start his new life with Raleigh FD. I met up with Chief McKenna and the Honorable Kate Browning and a couple...
I met up with John Corr yesterday to play Irish music at Kings Park Day. This street fair is kid friendly and has a wonderful small town America vibe. I found this picture of us in the Kings Park Notebook gallery [note: login required, 2024] of the event. I got to play a bunch of fiddle tunes...
I've been down to the Grey Horse Tavern in Bayport the last two months in a row to see Luke Powers on Uillean Pipes, Bernadette Fee on fiddle, Pat Coyne (and last time, Tom Falco) on guitar, Jerry Miller on accordian and others at their traditional session on the last thursday of the month. T...
I bought this amp from my brother a long time ago for $50, quickly blew the speaker which I replaced, but then left it languishing in the basement after concentrating more on acoustic music. Now that one of the kids has an electric guitar I've found myself playing my Gibson SG more often as well...
Derek Warfield called my buddies Kevin and Nick up on stage to finish their set at St Margeret's Church in Selden where he was playing as Derek Warfield and The Young Wolfetones. They even pimped our gig the next day at the Hauppauge FD to the crowd (Thanks!). Damaris Woods was absolutely awe i...
I was shocked to find its been almost four years since I last wrote about seeing Buddy Merriam play. When Tim was more active in Bardic Circle we'd try to squeeze in a "field trip", as we called it, every so often to see some live music both to just have a good time and to try to learn how...
What is the Book of Song?
In late 2008 I was getting tired of lugging around the thick three ring binder that held all the songs my little troupe of folk musicians had learned up to that point. Over time the lyrics to the songs we did, complete with chords and sometimes with some of the history b...
Just discovered these guys tonight, but so far every video I've seen has been absolutey brilliant. As an acoustic guy, I'm probably a bit biased since they do a lot of that - but really, this is special.
I have boxes of audio cassettes that I can no longer play because all of my cassette players are broken. A lot of these old cassette tapes were just recordings of LPs (those were big black discs that look like oversized CDs, kids) which I've since replaced with wonderfully re-mastered digital ver...
I don't pay for TV. Right now I pay for a cable connection to the internet which I really have no reason to complain about. It goes down sometimes, but for the most part Cablevision provides me with a fairly decent (speedy) connection, and they offer pretty good service to boot when things go bell...
Pandora certainly aren't the only folks to offer a streaming music recommendation service on the web (I had accounts on reverbnation and last.fm for awhile myself) but services like this generate lists of music programmatically in some way, either by simply sorting on the "genre" tag on the mus...
Ever since getting my Gibson SG back from the shop (Sean brought it to the guy he uses to set up his guitars - thanks, Sean!) I've been playing it every day. I had mostly given up on it since I could never get it to stay in tune, but for the most part its pretty good now, despite the normal prob...
At my last show I got to play Cate's new octave mandolin (known as the "Tenor Mandola" in Ireland) and I wondered what the tuning was supposed to be on it having never played one before. This led to the following investigation:
The 'cello (and viola) as well as the violin (and so, mandolin) are t...
Saw a powerful and thought-provoking film today on NetFlix called 180° SOUTH by Jeff Johnson which is a film record of his journey to Patagonia in the footsteps of his heros Yvon Chouinard (founder of Patagonia, Inc. the outdoor clothing company) and Doug Tompkins (founder of The No...
So this is still a bit of a mystery, but its obvious that somehow someone has managed to get hold of the login account for the RUSH (the band) Facebook page. I first noticed strangeness yesterday, but it reared its head again today so I took a couple snapshots. I'm pretty sure we're dealing with the official Facebook page for the band because it's linked off the official RUSH website, but it's possible of course that the official page has been hacked and they replaced the link with one they control. The defacement thats been done is pretty lame - if I stolen the account I'm sure I'd be able to come up with something a tad funnier like a post about Geddy getting his vocal chords surgically shortened so he could sing all the good tunes again.
I've never been an avid reader of poetry, though I have read some and I've had some friends who were published poets. I see poetry as the very heart and soul of any good song. I like songs that tell a story, and while I find I really enjoy prose stories, the craft of condensing a tale into a few s...
Last year I posted here about why its not really possible to get a guitar in tune. I heard from a friend today about tru-temperment fret boards [link dead 2019] which may actually make it possible! Some anecdotal posts in guitar forums indicate that you can play barre chords all the way up...
I've been looking into getting a new amp to replace the old Peavey Backstage Plus that I've been "making do" with for almost 20 years. The old 35W Peavey looks like a 1987 model. I got it from my brother for pretty cheap sometime around then, and a few years back I replaced the original speaker...
You may not be able to get that guitar in tune because it isn't possible. Most of us don't notice anyway, but it's comforting to know that you're not necessarily incompetent if you can't ever seem to get your guitar to play perfectly in tune in every key - since it can't really be done.
Let m...
Update: Had another great time up at the Checkmate this month! Updated image.
I play Irish and Celtic music for fun. For about a year now I've been getting together pretty regularly with a friend to practice at least once a week. Occasionally we'll cruise out to another friends' place for a se...
We used to quote a line in a punk song when we younger: 'you're only bored when you're boring' and it's proven to be a truism. I've had just way too much to do lately to spend very much time writing about any of it as well. This entry is really just a summary of several recent activities - altho...
This is a modified version of a post I just made to the TdB message board: The family was bummed that it wasn't really feasible to truck down to PA to see Ned's band, the Trespassengers play at the 2nd annual NewBerry bash, but we had a great time at the Slainte Irish festival for the short t...
I played 'cello for many years and later, traditional Irish music on guitar with my brother on fiddle. I played in the Dowling Orchestra for awhile in the 90's after a friend had told me they needed Cellists. I was only starting to get my chops back when I dropped out (I don't remember why now - the...
Moved from the Message Board
I dragged out the guitars and an amp. I got some lyric sheets ready, and plugged in. My eldest was strumming on the acoustic, and I fiddled around on the Gibson for a bit, but there was nothing there. I thought about revisiting CORN, but it only sounds good when I...
reposted from Yabb Message Board
HOLY MOLEY!!
It was pouring, a fine Nor'Easter was blowin'. I had called everyone I knew that might be into going and here its Saturday night at 5 O'Clock and nobody had called me back! I had heard DTB on WUSB a bunch of times and they sounded like the funkie...
Left the house at 7:30 to swing by the bank and get cash, I was taking my time, because even though I knew it would be a better idea if I took the train in, it would be a lot more convenient to drive the hour or so to the city and I was purposely dawdling so I would get to the train station and miss...
