Living Tradition Jam - 22Jan05

Geneva and I checked into the Living Tradition Folk Jam in Anaheim on Saturday night. I hadn't really thought she'd be interested, so I wasn't planning on going, but at 5:00, we were just sitting around, and I glanced at the clock and remembered that the Jam was that night, and asked Geneva if she wanted to go. She was all for it! So we packed up quickly and jumped in the car.

Anyway, it was pretty big fun -- especially, and amazingly, for Geneva. She snuggled up to the whistle-lady to her right (and her music stand), and sight-read as best she could. She did OK on the slower ones, but she didn't seem at all frustrated by the fast ones that she couldn't catch up on. Patty had a feedback form to fill out at the end, and Geneva just wrote "More slow songs!" in the comments section. Other than that, she had a great time.

I just strummed along on guitar. At first I thought I could keep up by watching another dude's hands, but a lot of the songs change chords too fast. The guitar guy on my left figured that out and moved his music stand over closer, and I did all right from then on. I figured that guitar players were a dime a dozen so they wouldn't really need me, but when Patty asked my guitar-neighbor what song he wanted to do, he chose "Golden Slippers" 'cuz he's learning to flat-pick the melody. All the other guitar players took the opportunity ("Easy song!") to get out their respective melody instruments (mandolin, etc.) so I found myself the only one playing rhythm!

Patty (who ran the jam) was kind of going around the circle, asking folks what they wanted to play, and after a while decided to notice Geneva, asked her her name, and if she had a song she wanted to do. When Geneva asked for "Ashokan Farewell", they were all totally thrilled (and impressed) (and, probably, relieved that it wasn't, say, "Hot Cross Buns").

Unfortunately, our glory was short-lived, as Patty's gaze turned to me next, and by way of explanation, I told her that I play with Warren (who's been going to these for a while) at coffee shops. She asked what kind of music, and I said mostly 70's pop -- "not this kind of stuff". "Like what?" "Well, 'Fire and Rain', and such." "Play it!" "Now?" "Sure!" "Well, it's a 'singing' song." "So, sing it!" "Well, OK." "What key is it in?" "Um, F?" "Go ahead!"

So, without my songbook open (you'd think that, by now...) I sang the first verse, forgot the words to the first chorus, sang the third verse, second chorus, and quit. Flipped open the book and found the second verse, which they implored me to go ahead and do, as some of the better fiddlers were starting to get the hang of something.

Anyway, it just kind of landed with a thud. Even if I hadn't completely blown it, I don't think it was very well advised. Generally regrettable. If she'd'a asked "Do you know any folk songs?", I could have pulled out "Tennessee Waltz", or something. But she asked "what we did" and drove me down the wrong street. Made a bit of a fool of myself, I'm afraid, though they're quite forgiving, or at least well-practiced at ignoring embarrassing events. Hopefully, at the next one, we can pull something a little better planned out, and redeem myself.

But, I only really only drove out there for Geneva's sake, and she loved it, and really pulled it off far better than I did. And, of course, they loved having her. I think she's definitely in for another go next month, and if she wants to go, I'm inclined to take her. Unfortunately, it's another RSM gig, so we'll have to bug out early again. (This one broke up at 6:50-ish.) And the month after is a Mission Viejo gig. At least that one has an 8:00 start time.

Acacia's School Bus Pinecar

Three years ago, when we went to build the annual pinecars, Acacia asked for a school bus. It turned out to look kinda cool, even though it's so simple. A bit of Monster Truck feel to it, because of the big black tires on the "outside" of the bus body.

I had half tried to talk her out of it, since it was too simple to be a Design Award winner, but that was the year that Acacia was in 1st grade, and she was pretty intimidated by the (real) school bus. It was loud, and there were Big Boys in it, and only the presence of her big sister got her into it every morning. I think maybe it was a subconscious plan to "conquer" the thing -- her own personal Moby Dick. Bringing it down to scale, and "owning" it probably helped her deal with it in Real Life.

"Paper Moon"

I've lately added "Paper Moon" to my song list. I was inspired, not surprisingly, by a James Taylor version from the movie "A League of Their Own", in his sweet and affable fashion. It's got that great old Tin Pan chord progression, which defied/challenged me to figure it out. I've been working on it for a while, actually -- my first downloaded version languishing on my hard drive was from September 2001. I've been poking at it lately again, trying to get it by ear, but could only catch parts. But, while searching for some Christmas tune, I encountered a batch of jazz-chord songs' sheets, and there it was again. Combining hints from there, and my own sensibilities (created by my limitations), I worked up a pretty passable chord-set.

I've also been poking at, less successfully, "As Time Goes By", which I can do the verse of, but the bridge needs work. The jazz-chord site's version works (for me) for a while, and then falls apart. Strange how these Internet songsheets (and, almost as much, paid-for commercial songsseets) just never seem to work as is. I *always* have to tweak them -- usually for the singable key, but almost always also to get 'em to sound right.

Maybe it's just me.

"Martha, My Dear"

My brother suggested "Martha, My Dear", which sounded kinda easy in my head (ragtime-y, should work with Travis picking -- or so I thought). Turns out to be really strange -- the first part is in Eb, and the middle section is in F (on the record). And the verse is played, twice, on just piano (as intro and as an instrumental verse).

So, first I had to find a (pair of) key(s) that were playable (and, hopefully, singable as well), and then I had to work up a passable instrumental verse, which, remarkably, is coming along pretty well. Noting Juber needs to be worried about, but pretty OK. I can't usually play it well on the first time through, but I'm working on it. I ended up transposing it up (!) a whole step, and capoing two. I'm singing down an octave from there, of course, so it's really down a 5th or so. A fun challenge.