f train farwell

The f train is sending me off in style. I have three weekends left before I move. During each of those weekends the f train will be hoyting the entire time. I see this as tough love, being spurned and slapped around by the subway will make me miss it less. It's true I won't miss the crowding and the heat and the delays, but I will miss how close it is to my house and how easy it is most of the time.

So my head did not explode the way I said it would

I had one of those NYC crazy moments last night, the kind that make my jaw drop. I got backstage to be introduced to Chris Thile last night, but that wasn’t the craziest part. After we had been introduced, I turn around and he’s talking to Renee Fleming. My jaw dropped and I may have kind of freaked out a little. I turned to my friend and tried to whisper in my tiniest voice, “That’s Renee Fleming”. And she didn’t even know who that was. I don't think anyone else there knew who she was really, well except for Chris Thile.

And after we left I had to call my mother right away. I had a feeling that a musicologist would appreciate such a thing. And also I think it's kind of cool that Renee Fleming would come see this band that I love so much.

And the setlist:
11th reel
Wayside (back in time)
Punch Bowl
1st movement
Ocean of diamonds
It’ll happen
Watch at Breakdown
Heart in a cage
3rd movement
4th movement
Brakeman’s Blues

Encore:
Poor Places
Molly and the Tenbrooks

And really now, how can I leave when things like this happen?

Crooked Still/Infamous Stringdusters/Chatham County Line

I saw this trio of bands play the Bowery Ballroom last Wednesday, all in all it was a good show, even though there were far more obnoxious drunk people than I am used to. Crooked Still was awesome, but my favorite part of the show was when Chatham County Line came and played in the audience at the end of their set. I thought they were done and then they're in the audience jamming. I have never seen any band/performer do that, but it was great and they finished with one of my favorites "Handle with Care". Actually it was kind of like this:



PS the videos are obviously not mine, so thanks to whomever posted them.

should I be studying folklore instead?

Maybe.... I posted this on LJ and will just put it here for my reference.

I read this really long book about the history of bluegrass. And it yielded a few moments which made my jaw drop a little. Noteablely when it detailed how Flatt and Scruggs appearred on the Beverly Hillbillies and a few quotes I had to make note of below before the book goes back to Lincoln Center. The first quote is interesting because I keep going to see this mandolin player who pretty much always plays a Bach piece in his solo shows and the second because I have also heard some Beatles songs covered by bluegrass bands. It is interesting that these styles of music do have some history of being linked together, or in other words, their similiarities were noticed well before today's current bands were even born.

Bluegrass: A History by Neil V. Rosenberg, Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1985
p. 189-90: Paul Rothchild: Becoming interested in the local folk scene, he began checking out the coffeehouses. One night he and his wife went to Club 47, the best known of the Cambridge coffeehouses. "We got over there, walked in the door, and heard bluegrass for the first time in my entire life. The Charles River Valley Boys were on stage. At one point in my life, I had been a serious student of Bach, and now I heard bluegrass. It was country Bach! It had contrapuntal arrangements, all the fugal stuff. I just completely went insane. We both fell apart. We stayed the whole night." original source: von Schmidt and Rooney, Baby Let Me Follow You Down, p. 142

p. 195: They utilized [David] Crosby's expertise at arranging vocal parts to delve into Beatle music. Though folk revivalists were not supposed to be involved with rock music, [Jim] McGuinn had been excited about the Beatles the moment he heard them. As he learned about their music he understood why it appealed to him: "It became just electrified folk music to me. And the Beatles, whether they knew it or not, were doing what I always dug in music, but with electric instruments. They were into modal music, like mountain music and banjo playing, bluegrass harmonies, and things like that." original source: Bud Scoppa, The Byrds p. 16

Book to read:Bob Artis, Bluegrass

Album to check out: 1971 John Hartford, Norman Blake , Tut Taylor, Vassar Clements - Aereo-Plain