My friends Grant and Lan gave me a copy of Harry Smith’s Anthology of American Folk Music Vol.4 for my birthday this year. This song, originally sung by Uncle Dave Macon is particularly prescient considering the current economic climate and my line of work. Bah!

Thanks for the CD though guys – its ace!

Mish and I have just returned from our trip to Boston.  We had a great time reconnecting with our friends, seeing our old stomping grounds and even discovering some new ones.

This trip turned into a bit of a musical adventure.  Our friend Bethany had asked me to sing at her wedding (a favour I was happy to be able to repay as she had sung beautifully at ours in 2006).  Bethany is the Contemporary Music Director at Newton Presbyterian Church, where the wedding was to be.  She has assembled a talented bunch of musicians and it was great to be able to play in a band again.   After some rehearsal I managed to get through the song without messing up too much and the backing was great from the guys.

I had also dragged my banjo over the ocean with me. I don’t think I could stand being apart from it for a whole week so it was nice to be asked to sing a wee song at the reception in-between the sets from the Ceilidh band.

Before leaving, I had briefly looked for opportunities to play in Boston.  I had noticed a couple of open-mic nights and sessions but they just didn’t work with our schedule.  Our good friend Lisa, who we were staying with, had suggested we try the Cantab Lounge as it has a very well established open-mic night on Mondays.

By this point in the trip I must confess I was a little knackered.  We had been enjoying a nice dinner in Harvard Square with Lisa and Kelly who was visiting, so I wasn’t too bothered when time got away from us and we were quite late for the start of the open-mic.  I thought at this point it would be way too late to sign up and was actually relieved.

We decided to walk along to the bar anyway and check it out for next time.  On the walk over to Central Square we happened to walk passed a music shop called Sandy’s.  I remember buying guitar strings there when I lived in Boston for a short while in 2004.   I had to make a quick double take when I heard and saw a bunch of banjo, fiddle and cello players crammed in the shop and jamming away.

Unbelievably they were having an Old Time open jam session.  I plucked up the courage to ask if I could join them and they were more than welcoming, so I tuned up to the key of A and away we went.  I kept up with the playing as best as I could whilst Michelle, Lisa and Kelly managed to squeeze in to the shop and find a seat.

I shakily shared a couple of songs with the group and learned a good few more.  It was amazingly serendipitous to happen upon the session like that and I was thrilled to get the chance to  play with other clawhammer and traditional fiddle players.  It was interesting to hear the difference in styles between traditional American and Scottish traditional fiddle playing, particularly the cross-tunings and I learned a lot just by listening to what was going on.  I’ve made a good few mental notes of improvements I can make to my playing for the next time I accidentally come across a jam session.

Jon and Kathy, two of the musicians there,  have set up a nice website called planetbanjo.com where you can hear some soundclips of the type of music we were playing.

Here is a link to Sandy’s Music shop in Cambridge: www.sandysmusic.org You can find out more about their instruments,  services and regular jam sessions.

After a wee while we headed off to the Cantab but I was not overwhelmed by the place so decided to head home, my musical appetite already well and truly sated.

Mucking about in “Double C” tuning after a long, stressful day at work.

This weekend was pretty manic.  We stayed up all night with the church youth group we volunteer for at their annual Easter Vigil.   Much coffee and chocolate was consumed and we rounded the night off nicely with a wee campfire and S’mores – afterwhich I found myself with severe sugar shock…

…so a couple of hours kip later I decided to head back out to Portobello, near Edinburgh to join a Sunday afternoon folk session. 

I’d been humming and hawing about this for weeks now.  I’m pretty comfortable playing in the bedroom but out in public is a whole other story.  After walking into the Dalriada pub and hearing the quality of the musicians at the table I almost turned heel and walked straight back out the door.  There was a banjo player playing three finger style who may have given Scruggs himself a run for his money, a fiddle player, three guitarist/singers, a lefty switching between guitar and clawhammer banjo and me with my ukulele and trusty banjo.

Me – “Any chance I can sit in?  I’m not that good so please be gentle”
Fiddle Player – “Aye, but y’ell hae tae gie us a song”
Me – “Oh Dear” (actually it was a more profane reply but like I said; I’d been up all night)

So off they went, and I tried to keep up.  And they were relatively gentle.  I have to confess chickening out of a couple of solo breaks after a nod came in my direction and I’ve got a world of stuff to learn but it was such a buzz to be playing with proper musicians who seemed so comfortable as to be part of the furniture. 

I don’t know if it was because it was Easter Sunday or because it was such a lovely day but the place was rammed and it was amazing hearing a hundred-odd folks singing along to the likes of “Whiskey in the Jar” and “I’ll Fly Away” as well as some of the Scottish classics too.  The three hours flew by!

Now I’m going to get my “learn on” and prepare for the next session.  Sorry Mish – Better get some earplugs!

I got some really nice comments from folks all over the world on the last youtube vid I put up after the Costello’s linked to it over on their tangiersound blog.   Encouraged by all the nice things folks were saying I put another couple of tunes up.

First up, a banjo tune called Sandy River Belle…

…and here’s one of me singing along to Who’s Gonna Shoe and completely ballsing up the tune.  Hey ho…

I’ve decided to chart my adventures in folk (and other sorts) of music so I’ve jumped on the bandwaggon and had a go at YouTube.  I’m still working on sorting the quality so please bear with me. Here’s me frailing a couple of Scottish classics: Scotland the Brave and Loch Lomond.