Monday, July 31, 2006

An Experiment in Microcommerce

I decided to put up a little of my artwork and photography for sale on Cafe Press, a Web site that lets folks market their designs on tacky T-shirts and whatnot. I haven't ordered any of this stuff myself, but it looks like they put them together quite professionally. Here's the link, in case you're just dying to get your hands on a "Viking Funeral" T-shirt, etc.:

http://www.cafepress.com/smokinbill

 (This mug features a brand new watercolor of an old-time fiddler.)

Sunday, July 30, 2006

History in Rust

Saturday, July 22, 2006

Early Blues on Video

I've been surfing through videos over at YouTube today, and I've found a lot of great DIY music video, even clips of great old acoustic stuff. For example, there is this guy from Montreal doing an excellent job with an old Charley Patton song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmEM24NPQt4

And here's one that's even more impressive. It's Mance Lipscomb playing on a 1960s TV program (with a broken finger in a cast, no less):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXCE7-Xb60g

Thursday, July 20, 2006

A Not-So-Tough Nut

Last summer at the Farmers Market, my banjo suffered a serious injury -- a cracked nut. (The nut is the slotted thing at the end of the neck, near the tuners, that holds the strings in place.) The nut held together for almost a year, but finally about a week ago, it succumbed, and the first string fell out of place. I thought about buying a new one from www.elderly.com, but instead of shelling out 55 cents, I decided to make a new one out of a small piece of hardwood. I think what I found was either oak or maple (I'm good at identifying live trees, but not types of cut wood.) It took some cutting, shaving and sanding, but I made a passable nut in less than an hour.

In the picture, I'm holding the old, cracked nut next to the new one in place on the banjo neck.

Here's a sample of what it sounds like now (it's a traditional fiddle tune on which I'm a little rusty):

Over_the_Waterfall.mp3

Monday, July 17, 2006

Regarding that Woody Guthrie T-Shirt

Adam Miller sent this photo of himself pickin' an grinnin' down at the Woody Guthrie Free Folk Festival in Okemah, Okla. I'm glad someone got a chance to put my artwork to good use.

Back From the Trail

I emerged from the wilderness muddy, blistered and exhausted yesterday, having hiked the first 22 miles of the Northville-Lake Placid Trail. The trip was difficult due to the effects of all our recent wet and windy weather: All the streams and bogs were higher than normal, mud was abundant, and fallen trees blocked the trail in many, many locations.

Check out the photos in the gallery at left, and be sure to read the captions for details.

Wednesday, July 12, 2006

Heading to Okemah (in Spirit)

Well, there's a big Woody Guthrie festival this weekend in his home town of Okemah, Oklahoma. No, I won't be going. Instead I'll be hiking and camping with my sister and brother-in-law as they set out on the Northville-Lake Placid Trail. I will be represented at the festival, though, by a guy named Adam Miller. He was nice enough to send me the following message today:

Hi Bill, 
I was looking for a picture of Woody to put on an iron-on T-shirt I'm making for myself to wear at the Woody Guthrie Free Folk Festival in Okemah, Oklahoma this weekend and I saw your painting of the trio. Would you mind sending me a bigger version? I like the painting and hope you don't mind. I'll represent for us both in Woody's home town. 
 
See more about the festival at
http://www.woodyguthrie.com 
 
Thanks, 
Adam Miller
 

I'm flattered that he liked my painting enough to put it on a T-shirt, so of course I gave him the go-ahead to make one. (If I can find the time, I might offer T-shirts with that design for sale online. It could be a fund-raiser for a worthy charity such as the Put Bill Through Grad School Society. Stay tuned for details on that project.)

Anyway, my body will be trudging over the Adirondack Mountains this weekend, but my painting of The Corncob Trio (and my thoughts) will be in the hot, dusty plains of Oklahoma.

Genre Jumping

I suppose you've heard that Pink Floyd founder Syd Barrett died the other day. What an interesting character. I've never been a huge Floyd fan, but when I was a senior in high school, my father bought me a copy of "The Wall" on cassette tape. (Thanks, Dad, you wacky psychedelic animal, you!) And when I was in college, two decades after the album was released, "Dark Side of the Moon" was still required listening.

These days, as readers of this blog know, I'm a hardcore traditional/folk/acoustic music aficionado, and Pink Floyd is pretty far off my current aesthetic radar. One can always find connections, though -- or create them, I suppose -- from genre to genre. For example, the band was named after two American blues musicians, Pink Anderson and Floyd Council. I'm a big fan of the former, whose version of "Every Day of the Week" is often on my set lists.

And here's another folk-psych/rock link: The Be Good Tanyas, my favorite "hobo-erotic" female roots group from Vancouver, recorded a folk-pop song onto which they grafted a verse that was written by none other than Syd Barrett. The song is "The Littlest Birds." Here are the lyrics (the last verse is Syd's):

The Littlest Birds

Well I feel like an old hobo,
I'm sad lonesome and blue
I was fair as a summer day
Now the summer days are through
You pass through places
And places pass through you
But you carry 'em with you
On the souls of your travellin' shoes

Well I love you so dearly I love you so clearly
Wake you up in the mornin' so early
Just to tell you I got the wanderin' blues
I got the wanderin' blues
And i'm gonna quit these ramblin' ways one of
these days soon
And I'll sing

The littlest birds sing the prettiest songs...

Well it's times like these
I feel so small and wild
Like the ramblin' footsteps of a wanderin' child
And I'm lonesome as a lonesome whippoorwill
Singin these blues with a warble and a trill
But I'm not too blue to fly
No I'm not too blue to fly cause

The littlest birds sing the prettiest songs...

Well I love you so dearly
I love you so fearlessly
Wake you up in the mornin' so early
Just to tell youI got the wanderin' blues
I got the wanderin' blues
And I don't wanna leave you
I love you through and through

Oh I left my baby on a pretty blue train
And I sang my songs to the cold and the rain
I had the wanderin' blues
And I sang those wanderin' blues
And I'm gonna quit these ramblin' ways
One of these days soon
And I'll sing...

The littlest birds sing the prettiest songs....

I don't care if the sun don't shine
I don't care if nothin' is mine
I don't care if I'm nervous with you
I'll do my lovin' in the wintertime

Sunday, July 9, 2006

Ontario Troubador

My Canadian friend Pat Johnson has recorded a new CD, "Pitchin' Days." The title track is about playing horseshoes. Samples of his roots-rock music can be heard at http://www.patjohnson.ca

He's one of the superlative musicians who taught classes at a guitar workshop that I attended several years ago. Check out some of his online guitar lessons at http://www.workshoplive.com/music-lessons/
pat-johnson.html