Seventy-Six Trombones

Via my friend Bill, here's the Ambassadors of Harmony telling the story of when Gilmore, Pat Conway, the Great Creatore, W.C. Handy and John Phillips Sousa all came to town on the very same historic day!

Happy Birthday, Dad!

Dad and the boys at Santa's Village, 1968.

Preorder The Devil's Alphabet

My friend and college roommate Daryl Gregory's next novel, The Devil's Alphabet is available for preorder on Amazon.

What are you waiting for? Order today!

Moral foundations questionnaire

My results from the moral foundation questionnaire at YourMorals.Org:

I found this questionnaire because a friend sent me a link to the TED talk Jonathan Haidt on the moral roots of liberals and conservatives, which is really good. (Thanks, Becky!)

Banjo versus TV week 86: Jug Band Battle prep and Steve Martin

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 10/18/2009 through 10/24/2009.

The Brass Note Jug Band is getting ready to compete in Chicago's Second Annual Battle of the Jug Bands.

We're a geographically diverse band with members from Tennessee, Oregon and Illinois. We won't get the whole band together to practice until the day of the competition so we're practicing by playing along to recordings from albums. Two of our recordings were in different keys than we wanted so I used Audacity to change their pitch to our desired key.

Then I put the songs onto my iPhone, changing the icons to remind me which instrument I'll be playing for each song.

The big challenge for me will be the banjo part on Bay Rum Blues, which calls for the chords F#, B, E7 and A. I could do that without a capo...

F#	B	E7	A

...and the F# chord would require me to finally get good at switching to that F position, something I've been bad at for two years now. I already know A and B. That E7 would be easy.

Or I could capo at the second fret...

F#	B	E7	A

...which makes for still-easier chords. That F# is the same as the E chord I'm used to playing.

I'll probably go with the capo so I can try out a little up-the-neck stuff.

One other thing that's kind of a challenge: The kazoo part in Sun Brimmer's Blues, which you can hear here.

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Also in the last week:

• You know from my very first banjo post that I love Steve Martin. This week the redhead and I saw Steve perform with Steep Canyon Rangers at The New Palace Theatre Cadillac Palace Theatre in Chicago. It looked a little...like this:
  
  
• My estimation of the ratio of Steve playing clawhammer versus Scruggs style during the performance:
  
  
• I already have Steve Martin's CDs The Crow, The Steve Martin Brothers, A Wild And Crazy Guy, Let's Get Small and the audio edition of Born Standing Up, A Comic's Life , so what was I to purchase at the concession area of the concert? Two Steep Canyon Ranger albums:
  
  
• Speaking of CD purchases, look what I got cheap from Half Price Books:
  
  
• Purchased through Amazon, so not as cheap but essential nonetheless::
  
  

Scandal, internal conflict, general backstabbing...

I'm reading Japanese Business Culture and Practices: A Guide to Twenty-First Century Japanese Business. Jon P. Alston's dedications and acknowledgements entry is pretty juicy.

Banjo versus TV week 85: Roll your own banjo mute

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 10/11/2009 through 10/17/2009.

I had some time to kill at an airport terminal and I had my banjo but no mute. I wanted to practice, but I didn't want to disturb people.

So I rolled a mute out of paper napkins.

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Also in the last week:

• I came across the Banjo LiteCase at Stewart-MacDonald.
  
  
  
  I sure like the looks of it! Let's add this to J.R.'s wish list.
• I've been reviewing that DVD of Blazing Bluegrass Banjo Vol 1: Developing Jamming Skills with Greg Cahill. The tabs that come with it are handy, but a little incomplete. I wanted to add his scale practice to my daily routine and it wasn't included in the tabs. So I tabbed it out myself. Here ya go:
  
  
• I got this CD because some day I want to learn Viva Las Vegas on the banjo:
  
  

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.

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:

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

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

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Also in the last week:

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

Banjo versus TV week 83: Going back to Cripple Creek

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 9/27/2009 through 10/3/2009.

David, my banjo teacher, recently discovered that I had never really learned Cripple Creek. I just kind of whizzed past it when I was just starting out.

So this week has been all about Cripple Creek, over and over again.

Here's Tony Trischka, playing it the way it oughta be played.

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Also in the last week:

• I love my new-to-me Nechville banjo, but I need a little more capo capability than its railroad spikes offer. I occasionally want to capo the fifth string where there isn't a spike. So I'm trying out Earl's Suspender Capo. We'll see how I like it.
• Got a nifty chair/instrument stand gadget: Farley's StagePlayer 2 Guitar Stand Stool with Foot Rest.
  
  
  
  The promo pictures show a guitar, but it works well for a banjo, too.

Mark your calendar: Chicago's Second Annual Battle of the Jug Bands

It's the Big C's big B. It's the Second City's second annual. The battle that's big in the city that butchers pig.

Yes, it's Chicago's Second Annual Battle of the Jug Bands. We've got a space, a line-up, a poster and everything!

Who?	You, watching opening act Northside Southpaws and cheering on six competing jug bands: The Barehand Jug Band, Strictly Jug Nuts, Deep Fried Pickle Project, The Hump Night Thumpers, The Brass Note Jug Band and The Schticklers.
What?	No-holds-barred jug band action.
When?	Saturday, November 12th at 7:00 pm
Where?	Morseland, 1218 W Morse Ave, Chicago, IL 60626, (773)764-8900
Why?	Because last year was so much fun.
How much?	Seven bucks, cheap!

I'll be there, competing as part of The Brass Note Jug Band. You should be there, too.

Banjo versus TV week 82: Move that tailpiece

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 9/20/2009 through 9/26/2009.

I'm continuing to fix up those four low- to mid-end banjos. This week I took a good tailpiece from one banjo and used it to replace the broken tailpiece on another.

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Also in the last week:

• Got a Shubb radius capo for my Nechville banjo. The non-radiused capo wasn't hitting all of the strings.
• Spent a chunk of time photocopying music from my banjo books to put into one easy-to-carry binder. For a binder, I used the Cardinal 09261 Vertical Easel Ring Binder, which doubles as a music stand.