Fifty years ago, debating the question “What is Folk Music” could lead to a “knock-down-drag-out” fight. Today not so much. That said, I waited for years before writing an article on the subject. Please let me know what you think. https://creekdontrise.com/fol…/what_is_folk/what_is_folk.htm
In the late 1800s, an ethnomusicologist (Folk song collector) published the lyrics to several versions of a traditional song in which a maid is begging the hangman to delay until her friends or family can come up with enough cash to buy her freedom. It’s called “Child #95: The Maid…
Though I play most of the instruments featured on my recordings, I like to use a MIDI sequencer or DAW to “scratchpad” arrangements before I commit to recording audio tracks (which always winds up being more complicated than it “should be”). Plus, when the cello comes in on the second…
Here’s another musing about what I don’t miss about teaching guitar one-on-one. (I may pick it up again now that I’m retired, but this still bears mentioning.) For some wannabees, “learning guitar” really means: “learning to play the guitar part for some currently popular song,” not “learning enough about the…
I was considering giving lessons again, and came across something I wrote years ago when I was trying to put together some online materials: One thing I don’t miss about giving one-on-one guitar lessons is that nearly every guitar-star wannabee I attempted to teach “knew more about music” than I…
Are you breaking the law with your home studio or giving lessons in your house? Turns out, many, if not most communities have rules intended to keep you from engaging in money-making activities of any kind in the privacy of your home, even if no one in your neighborhood knows…
So my music prep of late has looked a lot like building shelves. When we moved in a hurry, I filled the garage with stuff I want to keep or at least sort through before I got rid of it, and now I’m sorting stuff into bins and building shelves…
Here’s an observation about helping people who aren’t really interested in helping themselves from a perennial gardener, though the implications go WAY beyond what you can do with plants. At our old home, I had several hardy and attractive varieties of hosta and day lilies that needed thinned on occasion.…
After a whole string of concerts, festivals, etc. last summer and fall, I’ve been pretty much focusing on getting my home studio set up so I can record more of my music better. What’s the use of calling yourself a songwriter, if only about ten of your songs are available…
The 2018 Dayton Porchfest is history now. If you haven’t heard of a “porchfest,” people in a neighborhood open their front porches or side yards to local musicians who play on a staggered schedule around the neighborhood. In Dayton, so far the porchfests have been in St. Anne’s Hill, a…
