Wedding Musicians and Party Band for Boston, New England and Cape Cod | Bluegrass, Swing & Old Time Music | The Goodtime Stringband

Saturday, October 22nd and 29th, 2011  from noon – 3pm

The Goodtime Stringband will be performing at one of the country’s largest ongoing Halloween celebrations in the coming weeks – Haunted Happenings in Salem, MA! Stop by the town Common in the coming Saturdays to enjoy our music and some family fun.

The town common will be the center of tons of activities including costume parades, a zombie re-enactment of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” video, ghost tours and much more.  On the common, there will be stuff for the whole family including small rides, face painting, balloons and much more. It will be spooktacular

For more information visit http://hauntedhappenings.org

Swing Dance Saturday Night! – Organized by the Boston Swing Dance Network

Saturday October 8, 2011, 8:00 pm – 12:00 am
St. James Armenian Church
Mt. Auburn St
Watertown, MA 02472
Phone: 617-901-9787

Returning after the  “wowwing” the Boston Swing Dance Network last year, our friend Bombay Jim will keep you dancing all night long! Since the release of their CD “Keep Honkin”, Bombay Jim and the Swinging Sapphires have been hailed as one of the country’s hottest swing bands. They were featured on the HBO Series, “Family Bonds”, and can be heard on jazz and swing radio stations throughout the nation.

This month’s beginners’ swing dance lesson will be taught by Susan Huppe. Check out her website for information about her next session of classes.

No partner necessary, and beginners are always welcome.
Lesson: 8-9pm with special guest instructor – Susan Huppe
Dance: 9-midnight
Admission is $15, and $10 for students with a current ID.
Web: http://BostonSwingDance.com

Another interesting article from Associated Press.  Hey, didn’t Fred Rose write all the hit songs?  Where are his notebooks?

Stars bring Hank’s ‘Lost Notebooks’ to life

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Over the years, Holly Williams never felt much of a connection to her grandfather. So when she slipped on a pair of white gloves and lifted one of Hank Williams’ old spiral-bound notebooks to inspect its pages full of careful cursive script recently at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, she was a little bit startled to feel a deep visceral reaction.

“Just amazement,” she said a few minutes later. “Just shock and awe.”

Touching the notebooks left her with a feeling of “just how prolific he was.”

“I’m 30,” she said. “It makes me go, ‘God, I sure haven’t got much done.’ … He died at 29 and he wrote these songs.”

Williams’ notebooks not only inspired his granddaughter, but an all-star cast of artists who put the country archetype’s unfinished lyrics to music for the new project “The Lost Notebooks of Hank Williams.” Williams used to carry the notebooks in a battered old leather briefcase he always had with him, including at the time of his death just before or on Jan. 1, 1953, on the way to a show in West Virginia. His mother found a cache of material after his death as well. She turned the song fragments over to Williams’ publisher and they’ve sat in a vault for most of the ensuing decades, until producer Mary Martin came up with the idea for breathing life into them.

All participants were challenged to put Williams’ words to music. Some added lyrics of their own to flesh out fragments, and all were responsible for their own melody and instrumentation. For the most part, the principles stick close to what they imagined the source material should have sounded like, but each brings something a little different.

Williams is joined by her father Hank Jr. on her contribution “Blue is My Heart.” Dylan, his son Jakob, Alan Jackson, Merle Haggard, Jones, Jack White, Vince Gill and Rodney Crowell, Lucinda Williams and Sheryl Crow also cut songs for the long-simmering project, which Bob Dylan released this month on his Columbia Records imprint Egyptian Records, in association with the hall of fame.

Jackson delivers the closest homage with leadoff song “You’ve Been Lonesome, Too,” Norah Jones keeps it stripped down to acoustic guitar and harmony on “How Many Times Have You Broken My Heart,” and Crowell and Gill lay down what sounds like a classic song coming out of the radio circa 1950 on “I Hope You Shed a Million Tears.”

Gill and Crowell frame part of their song as a spoken-word monologue, adding a classic feel.

“To say you wrote a song with Hank Williams, yeah, that’s pretty cool,” Gill said. “Rodney was the biggest part of that, of taking it and making it something special. You couldn’t envision that would ever happen. You wouldn’t think there’s a bunch of unfinished Hank Williams songs laying around and they’re going to be giving them some folks who are kind of eccentric and talented, and have them finish them up.”

Martin’s original intention was for Williams fan Dylan to do a full album, but he eventually scuttled that plan. He spoke with Holly Williams about it around eight years ago, giving her a handful of copied lyrics while the two stood outside his tour bus.

“And you could tell it was a Hank song in an instant because of the way it was written,” she said. “I said, ‘These are Hank lyrics,’ and he said, ‘Yeah, they want me to do an album of these but that’s a lot of pressure on me, so I may give them to a lot of different artists.’ I wanted to take them and run with them and read them, but he put them back on the bus.”

Two years later she got a call saying it was time to come pick up a few samples of what was available.

“I ran down to my publishing company and got the lyrics and spent two days soaking it up, like a lost ‘Harry Potter’ book or something,” she said. “I could not wait to get my hands on it.”

“Blue is My Heart” had just six lines when she picked it. She fleshed out the song lyrically and added a melody.

“I hope that you can’t tell when he stopped writing and when I started writing it because it was exactly half,” she said.

Her father, Hank Jr., makes an appearance on her song. But that’s about all he has to do with the album. Asked what he thought of the project, he said: “Yeah, yeah, it’s different. Some of it’s OK, some of it’s not. It’s all right.”

Asked if he had a favorite song, he pointed to the entries from his daughter and Jackson.

“That’s probably the best two on there,” he said. “I wasn’t really contacted about it at all. Let me tell you, if you don’t need me, go ahead, rock on, brother.”

Holly Williams is extremely pleased with the project, though. She thinks it provides a chance for a new generation of fans to access the music of her grandfather in a meaningful way.

Williams combined lonesome country sounds with the blues and other influences from his childhood in Alabama to revolutionize country music with universal themes almost anyone can identify with. He sold his first song at 19 and went on to record timeless classics like “Your Cheatin’ Heart,” ”Hey, Good Lookin’” and “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry.” His hard-living lifestyle and his tragic early death helped ensure his place as an American icon.

Combined with recently unearthed material on the new collection “The Legend Begins” and last year’s “The Complete Mother’s Best Recordings,” there is a new sense of discovery swirling around Williams in the 21st century.

“I feel like (‘Lost Notebooks’) is just going to open a door where people say, if Jack White or Norah Jones or Lucinda love this, maybe I should check it out,” Holly Williams said.

___

AP writer Caitlin R. King in Nashville contributed to this report.

The Goodtime Stringband will be performing at one of the country’s largest ongoing Halloween celebrations in the coming weeks – Haunted Happenings in Salem, MA! Stop by the town Common in the coming Saturdays to enjoy our music and some family fun.

The town common will be the center of tons of activities including costume parades, a re-enactment of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” video, ghost tours and much more.  On the common, There will be stuff for the whole family including small rides, face painting, balloons and much more. It will be spooktacular

David Surette (one of our local musical heroes) will be performing as part of his Grateful Dead duo next week. Come on out for lots of Garcia/Hunter classics, plus a healthy dollop of the cream of the crop of the Dead’s folk/blues/country covers. Great food and drink, too.

Sunday, October 16th, 7-10pm
Dolphin Striker
15 Bow Street
Portsmouth NH
www.dolphinstriker.com

It’s just about a months until the 7th annual Fiddle Hell Massachusetts, which has moved to the Colonial Inn in Concord, MA.

This move is due to the major fire at the Old Groton Inn on August 2nd (fortunately with no injuries). Owner George Pergantis had graciously hosted Fiddle Hell for 6 years, and we are very sorry for the loss of his historic inn. Our thanks to manager Vicki as well.

This year will bring more sessions and workshops for Southern oldtime, Scottish and Cape Breton, Quebecois, Irish, bluegrass, New England, Klezmer, and Swedish styles; more opportunities to jam; more Q&A sessions with traditional fiddlers, and even a contra dance!

The Friday night concert is back, as well as the big Saturday night event, to be held in spacious new quarters. Becky Tracy from Wild Asparagus will be teaching for the first time at Fiddle Hell, as well as Pete Anick from Fiddler Magazine. Other new teachers include tunesmith Mark Simos and Scottish fiddler Barbara McOwen. Dave Reiner is even teaching a workshop on how to play Orange Blossom Special (over the top but fun). Craft beers on tap!

The whole event is beginner and advancing beginner friendly, but there is plenty to keep intermediates and advanced players happy. Please reserve your room now (or find a friend to stay with, or just commute and park free), and register for the Pre-Fiddle-Hell Workshops http://www.reinerfamilyband.com/fiddlehellmassac/pre-fiddle-hell-workshops.html while there’s space. More details below, and please do pass the word along to your fiddling friends

Dave Reiner and Andy Reiner, Fiddle Hell Directors

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Introduction: Fiddle Hell is an amazing gathering of fiddlers from near and far to meet, jam, learn and have fun.
The term “Fiddle Hell” refers to the Saturday night event when all the fiddlers play a tune each and a bunch of common tunes together. Last year, we had 200+ fiddlers at the 6th Fiddle Hell Massachusetts, from 14 states and 5 foreign countries! There will be lots of different styles represented, by fiddlers with varying experience, including New England, Irish, bluegrass, swing, Cape Breton, Scottish, Southern oldtime, gypsy, French-Canadian, Texas and Western Swing styles. We encourage each fiddler to play a short tune of your choice for the group on Saturday night; and to play along with the common tunes (that you know). Join us for a single day or for the whole weekend!

The 52 Fiddle Hell common tunes are listed at http://www.reinerfamilyband.com/fiddlehellmassac/common-tune-list.html , and are available on a 2-CD set played fast and slow. The 2-CD set is just $15 at http://www.reinerfamilyband.com/store.html – a great way to prepare, or to learn the tunes even if you can’t make it this year!

Pre-Fiddle-Hell Workshops:Friday, Nov 4, 9AM – 5PM. Pre-registration info at http://www.reinerfamilyband.com/pre-fiddle-hell-workshops.html
2011 instructors are: Becky Tracy, Kimberley Fraser, David Kaynor, Dave Reiner, Andy Reiner, Clayton March, and Julie Metcalf.
Styles: Irish, New England, Cape Breton, French Canadian, Irish, Swedish, oldtime, bluegrass, and more. Also, workshops on bowing, chords, harmonies, improvising, writing tunes, learning by ear, and more. Fiddlers of any age: $80 Adult accompanying a kid: free (for Pre-Fiddle-Hell only)

These 30 workshops during the day on Friday are a bit more relaxed than Fiddle Hell itself, and a great way to start out your Fiddle Hell weekend. If you’re coming from far away, these will add to your experience and help amortize your travel costs. The seven workshop leaders are excellent traditional fiddlers and very experienced fiddle teachers. This event is for beginners (who know at least 6 tunes, say), for advancing beginners (who know at least 12 tunes), and for intermediates (who know at least 20 tunes, and are comfortable playing and learning at a somewhat faster rate. Pre-registration requested (let Dave know at mailto:dsreiner@rcn.com ).

Fiddle Hell:Friday, 5PM – midnight, Saturday 9AM – midnight, Sunday 9AM – 6PM. Register at the event itself; schedule is at http://www.reinerfamilyband.com/schedule.html
Over 60 workshops and guided jams; also informal jams and free giveaways. Dozens of instructors! Workshops include bowing patterns, improvisation, bluegrass, backing up a singer, contradance fiddling, gypsy fiddling, French Canadian fiddling, fiddling for kids, and more. We’ve also set up many jams in particular styles, like Oldtime, Cape Breton, Scottish, Irish, Bluegrass, Klezmer, and Western Swing, and some beginner jams. There will be several half-speed tune workshops to prepare for the common tunes on Saturday night. We will invite selected local players (guitar, banjo, mandolin, piano, etc.) to accompany the jams. The vendor room will have fiddles, fiddle repairs and bow rehairing, T-shirts, and CDs. Adult fiddler: $60 [for the weekend] Kid fiddler 18 or under: $40 Senior fiddler 65 or older: $40 Adult accompanying a kid: $20

Friday fiddle concert 7:30PM (free if you’re at Fiddle Hell or Pre-Fiddle-Hell; walk-ins $10). Performers include Becky Tracy, Kimberley Fraser, David Kaynor, Andy Reiner, Clayton March, Julie Metcalf, Eric Eid-Reiner, and your hosts, the Reiner Family Band.

Saturday contra dance 6:45-7:45PM (David Kaynor will call: dance some very easy contra dances, or you can sit in with the band to play common New England tunes for the dance)

The big Saturday night event 8-10:30PM(Get a chance to play a short tune for the group, and play along with the tunes you know when we play some medleys. Free giveaways and a fine time for all! More jamming afterwards…)

Levels: Fiddle Hell is not for novices who can’t play any tunes yet; it is intended for beginners (who know at least 6 tunes, say) and advancing beginners (who know at least 12 tunes) through intermediates and advanced players. We have very limited space for non-fiddlers; please contact Dave first at mailto:dsreiner@rcn.com .

Where:The Colonial Inn http://www.concordscolonialinn.com/ , 48 Monument Square, in Concord, Massachusetts, 01742 (phone 978-369-9200), a beautiful old New England inn built in 1716, about a half hour west of Boston.

Lodging:The Colonial Inn has great rooms if you’d like to stay over. Prices are reduced for Fiddle Hell attendees, of course. Single or double rooms in the Prescott Wing are $115/night plus tax. The Inn also has “Historic Rooms” at $145/night plus tax. All rooms include continental breakfast. To make reservations for 2011, call 978-369-9200 or 800-370-9200 and ask for the Fiddle Hell discount. Book your room now to be sure! There’s lots of free parking at the Inn and nearby.

Food:For Fiddle Hell attendees, buffet lunch and buffet dinner will be available on Saturday, and buffet lunch on Sunday, at reasonable rates. Alternatively, the Colonial Inn has two fine restaurants, one casual and one traditional, for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

More Information:http://www.reinerfamilyband.com has all the details on common tunes, schedule, jamming guidelines and Pre-Fiddle-Hell workshops. Look for the Fiddle Hell Massachusetts 2011 event and the Fiddle Hell Massachusetts group on Facebook, follow FiddleHell on Twitter, or email Dave Reiner at mailto:dsreiner@rcn.com or 781-863-0140.

Another AP story focused on bluegrass music! | By CHRIS TALBOTT – AP Entertainment Writer

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Steve Martin and The Steep Canyon Rangers turned the International Bluegrass Music Association Awards into funny business Thursday night.

Martin and his group of crack bluegrassers took entertainer of the year, the night’s top award at The Ryman Auditorium, while super group The Boxcars took home a leading four awards.

“I want to thank all the other nominees … for losing,” Martin joked after accepting the award.

Martin, the Grammy and Emmy award winner best known as a comedian and writer, is also an accomplished banjo picker who has taken the medium to a wider audience with two albums of mostly original music and a high-profile series of performances. Entertainer of the year goes to the act that does the best job representing the genre.

“It really means a lot, sort of like winning two Oscars,” Martin said afterward. “It’s something we work very hard at and I kind of started from scratch. I mean I’ve been playing banjo for 50 years, but performing in a band I’ve never done. I’ve done it for about two years … You know, the hardest part was talking and tuning.”

It is the first IBMA award for Martin and the second for the Rangers, winners of the 2006 emerging artist of the year award. They snap Dailey & Vincent’s three-year winning streak in the entertainer category.

The Boxcars took home four awards. Three other acts, Michael Cleveland, The Gibson Brothers and a collaborative effort among J.D. Crowe, Doyle Lawson and Paul Williams, each won two awards.

The Boxcars are made up of former Dan Tyminski band members Adam Steffey and Ron Stewart, who enlisted John R. Bowman, Keith Garrett and Harold Nixon to form the new group. They were the night’s lead nominees with 10.

The quintet won emerging artist and instrumental group of the year, while Steffey won mandolin player of the year and Stewart shared banjo player of the year with Kristin Scott Benson of the Grascals, who has won that trophy four years in a row.

“We’re grizzled veterans, heavy on the gristle,” Steffey joked after the group won instrumental group of the year.

The IBMA honored Bluegrass Hall of Fame inductees Del McCoury and George Shuffler and host Sam Bush paid tribute to the late Bill Monroe, the father of bluegrass, who would have turned 100 this month.

The Gibson Brothers won album of the year for “Help My Brother” and the vocal group of the year award, crediting Ricky Skaggs “for teaching us how it’s done.”

Cleveland, which his band Flamekeeper, won instrumental recorded performance of the year for “Goin’ Up Dry Branch” and won Cleveland won his sixth straight fiddle player of the year award and ninth overall.

Crowe, Lawson and Williams won recorded event of the year and gospel recorded event of the year for their “Prayer Bells of Heaven.” Russell Moore won his second straight male vocalist of the year award and Dale Ann Bradley won female vocalist of the year. Both have won those categories four times apiece.

Martin fell in love with the banjo as a child listening to legends like Earl Scruggs, Pete Seeger and Doug Dillard. He often incorporated a banjo into his humor but gave little public hint for his love of bluegrass until later in life. He released his first album with the Rangers in 2009 called “The Crow: New Songs for the Five-String Banjo.” That album won a Grammy Award. They released “Rare Bird Alert” earlier this year.

Martin previously won a Grammy for his 2001 “Foggy Mountain Breakdown” collaboration with Scruggs.

The 66-year-old and the Rangers have taken bluegrass to “The Ellen Show,” ”The Late Show with David Letterman,” ”The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” and the Capital Mall over the last year.

“And when I play a concert hall somewhere I know half the audience isn’t even familiar with bluegrass,” Martin said before the awards. “That way we really reach a really wide audience for this music I love and that I love listening to.”

Reposting Article By CHRIS TALBOTT, AP Entertainment Writer
Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Ricky Skaggs can imagine the look his old friend Bill Monroe might have had on his face if he were alive today to see the bluegrass world celebrate his legacy.

“He would get out of the car and have that back straight as an arrow, and he’d have that hat on, and he’d be pulling it off and thanking people,” Skaggs said. “He’d really be happy about people celebrating his life.”

As members of the International Bluegrass Music Association gather for their annual awards and conference in Nashville this week, Monroe and the message of his music are foremost on their minds. Monroe, the architect of bluegrass and a patron saint of country music, would have turned 100 on Sept. 13. He died in 1996 at the age of 84. Monroe is being honored with concerts in his memory and historical discussions this week, and he’ll play a prominent role during the Bluegrass Awards on Thursday as well.

He left behind a legacy that’s more vital and thriving than ever and a diaspora of former players and acolytes who continue to spread his music today. Bluegrass, developed from roots deep in the soil of his native Kentucky, has spread around the world. It’s evolved with each generation that’s passed since that mythic “birth of bluegrass” concert in December 1945 at The Ryman Auditorium that featured the debut of pioneering banjo player Earl Scruggs and guitarist Lester Flatt.

“Every country that I’ve ever been in in my whole life, I’ve always run into somebody who’s either talked to me about bluegrass or there was a bluegrass band there, whether it was Russia, Thailand, wherever I’ve been,” Skaggs said. “It’s a huge music that’s crossed lines.”

Monroe will be a featured presence at The Ryman on Thursday night when lead nominees The Boxcars, Russell Moore & IIIrd Tyme Out, The Gibson Brothers and Alison Krauss & Union Station featuring Jerry Douglas join most of the genre’s biggest names for the annual IBMA Bluegrass Awards. He’s always been revered in Nashville, but the centennial gives those who knew him a welcome chance to talk about their memories and tell stories about a man who was larger than life.

“I think it’s a great time because we still have so many originators of styles such as Ralph Stanley, Earl Scruggs is still around, Doc Watson we still have, and we’ve got all these great young new bands,” said Sam Bush, who will host the awards show. “Some of them play what you call Nu Grass and some of them take great pride in following the tradition of Bill Monroe. So I think he’d be pretty proud of the entire scene that’s going on here.”

Bush said he’ll focus his remarks on something he once heard Monroe say after listening to a player mimic his sound flawlessly: “Bill looked at him and said, `Now that’s real good. What can you play on your own?’”

Monroe, born on a farm near Rosine, Ky., was already arguably country music’s greatest mandolin player when he formed his Blue Grass Boys in 1938 and began refining his sound.

“Bill Monroe was one of the greatest experimenters of them all,” Skaggs said. “The whole creation of bluegrass was an experiment. It was a test-tube baby.”

By the time he found Scruggs — Monroe reportedly began to dance with joy as Scruggs showed him his new three-fingered playing style — he was writing songs that would help redefine country music.

“One time he told me, `People don’t know it, but I learn from them,’” said Del McCoury, who was Monroe’s lead singer for a year in 1963-64. “He meant other musicians. His music comes from a lot of different styles, jazz and what he heard as a kid.”

In turn, he would influence new generations of young listeners with his sound. Doyle Lawson first heard Monroe in the late `40s on an Opry broadcast.

“I fell in love with it,” Lawson said. “I asked my mother, `Who is that?’ and she told me it’s Bill and he played mandolin and he sang really high. And from that day on I never took my eye off the ball. I knew I was going to play music.”