Tag Archives: Easy Ed

Bruce Molsky: From Beacon to Brooklyn

Bruce Molsky Lots of live music, a few highs and a couple of rough spots defined this past week. Before I get on topic, I want to mention a book I found at the local library, where ink and paper still give me a thrill. Whispering Pines by Jason Schneider is subtitled ‘The Northern Roots of American Music…From Hank Snow to The Band’. Just about a third of the way through, I can already tell you its a great read about the Canadian musical heritage. Paul Cantin reviewed it for No Depression a few years ago and it’s probably still up online if you want to check it out.

On a Saturday afternoon in the last weekend of October, about a dozen of us sat inside a small cold room with cinderblock walls. In the basement of the local bowling alley here in the Hudson Valley, it serves as the home of the Beacon Music Factory. A great facility where both kids and adults can come to take lessons and enjoy the benefits of many events and programs. These type of places are important community centers, especially during an era where art and music programs are too often stripped out of the budgets of local public school systems.

We’d come on this particular day to hear folklorist and master musician Bruce Molsky talk a little about Appalachian fiddle and banjo music from the early 20th century. He held a fiddle workshop earlier that morning, but since I only fiddle around with a guitar, dulcimer and banjo, it was this second session that was more to my interest.

Sitting in a semi-circle around Bruce, with fiddle and banjos at his feet, he took us through the styles of mountain music from Virginia and North Carolina, over to Eastern Kentucky and down to the plains of Texas. His playing and singing are extraordinary, and his knowledge of the people and places where this music comes from is absolutely staggering.

Should you not be familiar with him, I can count at least a dozen albums available featuring both his solo work and with various groups. A great entry point would be the 2013 release of If It Ain’t Here When I Get Back, which is described as “an aural autobiography, paying tribute to the people he has lived his musical life with over the past 45 years, and incorporating the sounds of his travels”. Here’s a video from 2012 that I really like.

The following day I got to cross over the East River for the first time and set foot in the urban hills of downtown Brooklyn. It was the Third Annual Brooklyn Bluegrass Bash at The Bell House, a benefit concert series that helps raise money for the restoration of the Old First Reformed Church. Established by Peter Stuyvesant in 1654, it serves as a homeless shelter, a day-care facility, and a magnificent performance space for local arts groups.

Why this particular borough of the city has become the center for roots music of all sorts, I can’t really explain. But the pool of talented musicians who have settled down and made their homes here is exceptional, and they’ve developed a strong and vibrant community. Whether it’s old-time traditional, bluegrass, blues or more contemporary excursions, the audience and players are mostly of a younger generation, and they easily mix with those of us wih a touch of grey.

On this day we got to hear a wide range of sets of acoustic music from a diverse group…let me give you the list: David Bromberg with Mark Cosgrove, Darol Anger, Joe K. Walsh and Grant Gordy, Haas/Kowert/Tice, the Calamity Janes, Kristen Andreassen and Cricket Tell The Weather…love that band and their name. The emcee was actor Peter Sarsgaard, another neighborhood local. Closing the show was Bruce Molsky once again on fiddle and vocals, collaborating with legendary banjo picker Tony Trischka and guitarist-singer Michael Daves. This was the second time I’ve gotten to see this trio play, as they were the afternoon headliner at this summer’s American Roots Music Festival at the Caramoor Center for Music and Performing Arts.

Just to put an exclamation point on the day, Daves called out everyone to join a finale to end all finales. Imagine three bass players, three fiddlers, two each on mandolin and banjo, and five or six guitarists all on one stage. And it seemed like everybody took a turn vocalizing at the mic. I left feeling that I got to cross that old river more often.

Here to close it out this week is two-thirds of that trio…Michael and Tony…at this this year’s FreshGrass festival.

The Crackle of 78s and Record Store Memories

DREAM ARE MADE OF

Last week I struggled a bit with a post-operative pain-reduction opiate-derived haze, but now I’m sitting up, walking, talking, thinking, moving, rehabilitating, writing, interviewing, plotting, scheming, making music, listening to lots of it, and sitting up straight as an arrow on a sturdy chair with some lumbar support. Today I bought a bagel, got a haircut, found a lightbulb, ate an apple, and have been listening to that great eight-disc set from Yazoo Records called Times Ain’t Like They Used to Be. It features music of the 1920s and ’30s. Fiddle tunes, banjo songs, rags, jigs, stomps, religious selections, blues, and some of the best traditional American music culled from 78s. They got lots more too, like that R. Crumb collection pictured here. A great record label indeed.

The other night I visited the website of an old friend from England that I’ve not checked in on for quite a while. I guess you could say it lives on the edge, as it’s a music collector’s site where hundreds of fans come to talk about any and every type of musical fetish one can have, and they upload their record collections to share. Records. Vinyl. Plastic. Most everything is pretty damn old. And ranges from the very popular to the absolute obscure.

Reading through all the notes and stories that people write reminded me of the customers we used to get at the record store I worked at about thirty years ago in Santa Monica. Straight out of High Fidelity (the film, not the magazine). The guys who wanted Japanese pressings of all of the Johnny Otis Savoy recordings, who talked about Jam singles and EPs, needed the German mono version of the Fantastic Baggys’ album, bought picture discs and colored vinyl, would argue about who was the best or who was the worst, and would come in with lists of songs that Carol Kaye played bass on.

What ever happened to those guys? I’ll tell ya. They live on my friends website. And there’s got to be hundreds more just like it and thousands of people still into it. Some folks sit around and reminisce about the old days and ask whatever happened to the neighborhood record shop. And others have used technology to recreate a virtual experience of it. Like I said, it lives on the edge. But it’s out there.

I’m not even gonna get into all the television shows and films I’ve been watching during this recuperation thing, but I will mention a documentary called The Last Mogul which is about the life of Lew Wasserman, the man who, along with founder Jules Stein, helped build MCA (Music Corporation of America…now Universal) into the giant media company that it eventually became. From the Jewish ghetto of Cleveland, to Chicago and New York City, and eventually Hollywood, although it focuses mostly on the film industry, there is plenty about how the music industry was built from the ground up. MCA booked almost all of the early big band acts, from Jelly Roll Morton to King Oliver to Kay Keyser, into the speakeasies during Prohibition, and are credited with creating the modern touring industry that we have today. Mobsters, molls and musicians. A great book when I read it years ago, but an even more interesting visual and audio history. Netflix it.

I had to skip seeing Lucinda Williams twice last week, and also Dom Flemons. He played a free show down in the city at Madison Square Park on a threatening damp but ultimately dry Saturday afternoon. It might have been some of his videos I watched or the reading of an extensive interview he did a few years back, but he got me into this “back to the past” funk that I’m in. Tell you what, next time he comes rollin’ around, I’ll not miss it. He’s a helluva performer.

How’s you email inbox? Mine overflows every day, and for the past three weeks I’ve been unsubscribing each morning to all sorts of newsletters and companies and charities and whatever. Publicists and marketing companies? For the most part, gone. Hey musicians — save your money. If you need to turn someone like me onto your music or promote a new album or tour, just find me here and hit the contact button.

Here’s one giant exception to that rule. Hearth Music. When Devon Leger sends me a message talking about someone his company represents, I listen. Because it comes straight from his heart. Or hearth. The man has great ears, is an accomplished musician himself, and has built a marketing firm (the big tent version, that can cover soup to nuts) that represents some of the finest traditional, folk, bluegrass, and Americana music being made today.

Case in point: Meet the Locust Honey String Band. Based in Asheville North Carolina, the band features singers Chloe Edmonstone on fiddle and Meredith Watson on guitar, with the banjo pickin’ of Brooklyn New York’s Hilary Hawke, from the duo Dubl Handi. Their new album is in heavy rotation here in the Hudson Valley farmhouse, fitting in right along with all those killer 78’s from Yazoo, with the early string bands and Southern musicians. Grab a copy of Never Let Me Cross Your Mind and put on your dancin’ shoes.

This article was originally published as an Easy Ed’s Broadside column over at No Depression: The Journal of Roots Music.

Many of my past columns, articles, and essays can be accessed here at my own site, therealeasyed.com. I also aggregate news and videos on both Flipboard and Facebook as The Real Easy Ed: Americana Roots Music Daily. My Twitter handle is @therealeasyed and my email is easyed@therealeasyed.com

The Post-Newport Earthquake: Watkins Family Hour

Watkins Did you feel it? That’s what everybody in Los Angeles asks each other whenever a shake or quake rattles and rolls through the valleys and flatlands. Sometimes there’s just a release of pressure beneath the crust, and other times it’s an up and down jolt that lasts only a second. And then you forget about it. Until the next time.

Sunday night there was a seismic shift. A movement of the tectonic plates. A tilting of the axis. Not in California, but here in Rhode Island.

Just hours after the 55th Newport Folk Festival had ended, several hundred people gathered together and laid witness to a roots music earthquake of significant proportion. A rolling thunder of music that may one day be noted as the moment when the old folk memories of the ’60s stepped aside and a new paradigm emerged.

Bringing their LA-based monthly residency Watkins Family Hour to Newport for an after-festival party, brother-sister duo Sean and Sara Watkins invited some friends to share the stage and create the most unanticipated and joyous musical experience that added three exclamation points to an already stellar weekend at Fort Adams.

WFH

Let’s see if we can get the order right:

Sean and Sara started it out with three songs, and then brought Willie Watson onstage for one together and two on his own, followed by…wait…damn. I’ll never get this right.

Let’s try it like this….here’s who else was performing as a single, duo, trio, or with a group, or in some cases just hanging out at the side, edge or behind whomever was at the mic:

Langhorne Slim

Willie Watson

Chris Funk

Aoife O’Donovan

Hurray For The Riff Raff’s Alynda Lee Segarra

Sam Doores from the Deslondes

John C. Reilly and Tom Brosseau

Milk Carton Kids

Pokey LaFarge

That’s the best that I can come up with for the moment, but there were even more. Pokey’s band, whose names I do not know, sizzled. Horn, clarinet, harp, percussion, guitarist, bass. And there was a piano player who sat in all throughout the night, who pumped the living daylight out of the house upright. Hot guitarists, clawhammer banjo, fiddle, slide, harmonious vocals.

Some musicians brought their own songs or favorite covers. But, running through it all were mostly old time classics pulled out of hats like magical rabbits. At the epicenter of the magic was Sean and Sara. The Watkins kids not only put this party together, they kept it rolling on the fly with enthusiasm and talent, well-learned skill sets, and deep musical knowledge; and a sense of humor, and a welcoming invitation to come on in and join in the fun.

A new Grand Ole Opry for the under-35 beard and flannel set.

I was just thirteen (you might say I was a musical proverbial knee-high) when Dylan came to Newport and shook it up by plugging in his Fender. Like you, I’ve heard this story many times as it was passed down, and it’s become one of the many Newport legends. This festival is just full of ghosts and spooky stories runnin’ around.

The Watkins Family Hour? Seems like I’ve been waiting all my life to see and hear something like this. Pete can rest easy…the kids did more than alright in Newport this year. They stole it back from the ghosts.

The finale…you might hear my voice deep in the background.

Instrumentally Speaking…Woodstock Gets Hungry For Music

In 1992, while he was enrolled at George Washington University, Jeff Campbell had an idea that initially was inspired by a class project. The concept was to bring street musicians and other D.C. music talent together for a concert called Hungry for Music, that would benefit the Coalition Against Homelessness.

These concerts were held in 1992 and 1993, and included a food drive. Two years later, Hungry for Music became a tax-exempt non-profit charity, with the purpose of supporting music education and bringing the positive qualities of music to others through concerts and workshops at schools, church programs, retirement homes, and homeless shelters.

Twenty years later, HFM has evolved into an organization that “supports music education & cultural enrichment by acquiring and distributing quality musical instruments to underserved children with willing instructors and a hunger to play.” Explained best on their website: “We serve children who demonstrate a desire to learn music as well as teachers who have students willing to learn.”

By holding events and benefits, community drives to collect musical instruments, and releasing CD compilations to raise awareness and funds, HFM has been able to donate over 7,000 musical instruments in 41 states and 11 countries.

From what I recall, I think my most successful class project was growing a bean plant in a Dixie cup.

This past Father’s Day weekend, the Bearsville Theater (which might be located in the hamlet of Bearsville, but has a Woodstock address) presented an HFM benefit called A Tribute to Harry Smith’s Anthology of Folk Music, featuring some of the area’s residents. This concert culminated a month-long Hudson Valley music instrument drive sponsored by Radio Woodstock.

MMJH Supporting this great charity by lending their time and talent were John Sebastian, Happy Traum, Jay Ungar and Molly Mason, Steve Katz, Ed Sanders, Mikhail Horowitz and Gilles Malkine, Charlie Knicely, Bill and Livia Vanaver, The Saturday Night Bluegrass Band (with Bill Keith and Eric Weisberg), Professor Louie & the Crowmatix, Women of the World, Michael Eck, and the Rosendale Improvement Association Marching Band and Social Club. There may have been a few more; forgive me if I missed someone.

It would be fruitless for me to even try to explain how magical the music and performances were, but I’ll tell you something…it sure was a night to remember. The old time folk, blues and roots music was presented as an Our Gang-style revue, with each performer doing a couple of songs before turning it over to the next act. Jay, Molly, Sebastian and Traum (above photo) kept popping up to support other musicians as well as doing songs of their own.

In what for me was probably one of the most interesting moments of the night, Ed Sanders spoke eloquently about his friendship with Harry Smith; and told stories about his life and times in the East Village, the bookstore he ran, and recording with the Fugs. (That’s Ed on the right, playing a song about nothing.)

As I was thinking about how I could best talk about the mission of Hungry for Music, and also share the evening’s sparkle and shine, I discovered that photographer Mike Melnyk was in the house and he’s given me permission to share his work. Check out his website for some great galleries of roots music events he’s covered over the years.

There’s a lot of organizations that do great work and ask for our time and money. Hungry for Music does the same, but it also offers musicians and collectors something different. By turning over our unwanted or unused instruments, we can experience and contribute to changing and transforming our big old planet just a tiny bit…one note at a time.

Hangin’ Out With Jules Shear and Pal Shazar

JulesAAA_0 Last night I greeted musician, artist and my internet friend Pal Shazar the same way I did the first time we met a little over a year ago: with a big hug. As those who read my posts know, and those who don’t will…me and Pal became pen pals since I began writing about her and her husband at the end of the year before last. And she and I share something in common in addition of a fondness for dogs. We both love the music written and sung by her husband Jules Mark Shear.

When the two of them decided to join creative forces and record an album together for the first time, Shear/Shazar, it coincided with my furious search for the ‘hiding in plain sight’ Shear that found me looking far and wide. I tracked him from Woodstock to Ojai, to North Carolina and back to the Empire State…never thinking to look in South America, and if I can be honest it was just a half hearted attempt at best. I do not stalk, but it was driving me a little crazy that here was a man in this day and age without an internet footprint. At the time there was no presence on Facebook, Twitter, a website, an email address, local clippings, tours or gigs. Even his last known label, and he has recorded for what seems like dozens of labels, only had some peripheral information on a static page.

Pal has always been out there though. As half the band Slow Children, an occasional solo foray, and with her beautiful and glorious art…she could be found with very little effort. But I kept myself at bay and just waited. And waited. And waited. When one morning Pal created a Shear/Shazar Facebook Page, I think I was one of the first visitors. And so began the beginning of this small community of fans from around the world who are entranced by the words, music and unique sound that this family has been generously sprinkling into our world once again. And with a vengeance it seems. For in addition to the first duo, there is a second on the way. And in the middle of last year, Jules released another brilliant solo album…Longer To Get To Yesterday…which was his first in five years.

Back when I was still living in California and beginning to make plans for a move to the lower Hudson Valley just north of the Bronx, I shopped on the web for a new Unitarian congregation that my youngest son and I could join. Note that I do not use the word ‘church’…as most ‘congregations’ are called simply that, or possibly a simple generic “fellowship’ or ‘society’. That I refer to our spiritual path as the “Church of Long Haired Women and Bearded Men’, which often gets me called into the minister’s office, we are a liberal and humanist breed of folks and there often is a musical component or connection. Hardly any acoustic musician these days within the roots music community doesn’t miss a chance of performing when they can in a Unitarian building, along with usual suspects of house concert, coffee house, small club and festival date.

And so it was that we found the First Unitarian Society of Westchester in the town of Hastings-On -Hudson. FUSW is the name we call it. (Our past congregation was called PUUF. A separate story could be written about these little alpha-hybrid names.) And the reason we chose this as our Sunday home base, (besides that it’s close to home, has a great minister, strong youth group and a thriving membership), was in large part because of Carter Smith. He produces the amazing long-running Common Ground Community Concert series, which is based in our building and sometimes uses other venues in the area. As one scans the list of artists who have graced this stage(s), it becomes clear that this is one of the pre-emininet stops on the road for great roots music. In January of 2013 I encouraged Pal to email Carter, and fourteen months later, in the early Spring on a quiet night by the river, the Shear/Shazar show came to town.

This could be a review of the night, and maybe it will be. Here’s what I’ve written before about Jules’ last album, and I might as well use it again for the show because it’s the same thing I heard last night, with the addition of Pal’s special presence onstage and in the room: “An acoustic bedrock layered with woodsy tones and touches of tasteful amplification, country twang, almost classical-like strings (note: forget that part…there were no strings other than .12-.53), warm earthy vocals, harmonies that don’t sound like harmonies, lyrics of intelligence and humor, music for grown ups and for those who sometimes wish they were.” Quoting myself does seem redundant. but accurate and on the money. So be it. I’m recycling words to save the world.

I will share that while at The Living Room show in Manhattan, almost a year ago to the day, which was an all Shear/Shazar bill, last night was half duo and half Jules. Performing together, the two are a delight to watch and listen to. Voices blend with ease, and they have a soft and gentle manner, with both pointed and loving banter. It’s clear to see that they amuse each other, and the romance drips from the stage and envelopes the audience. You’d have to have a heart of stone not to be enchanted and encouraged by these two.

With occasional heckling, comments, direction, jokes and clarification from the wife who left the stage and stood in the back of the room, Jules gently guided and took the audience through a generation of words and music that he has been bringing to us from the first 1976 Funky Kings’ album up to Jules and the Polar Bears, the Lauper, Bangles and Moyet hit singles, the duet and cover albums, his short stint with The Band, almost a dozen solo albums and the unrecorded song that sits on the shelf waiting. It was indeed a special night for those of us who witnessed it.

Which now brings me to Andy LaValle. Like myself, an old veteran of the Great Record Distribution Company Wars of days gone by, he has had a similar journey with Jules’ music. The difference being, he’ll be bringing that experience to life in a movie called Chasing Jules that will end with an all-star concert. The premise is this:

“One fan’s journey as he backtracks through a musician’s history to rediscover the art inside the artist that changed his life. Andy LaValle was stunned. While browsing through the internet he discovered that one of his idols was performing in town; a musician that had been virtually forgotten about. A cascade of memories followed and he was transported to a simpler time in his life. A time when the rules weren’t so strict, when his responsibilities weren’t so great. And in the modern age of point and click, he purchased a ticket, “for twenty bucks.” Within the day he received an email from Jules’ wife, Pal Shazar. Pal was curious, “how did Andy know about Jules?” Andy replied, “Jules and the Polar Bears changed my life.” Just like that, his journey of rediscovery began.”

Andy was at the show last night, and he and I and Jules spent a few minutes chatting about the old days. Guys we knew, places we’ve been. Pittsburgh. Florida. Philly. Growing up. Shopping at National Record Mart. Lenny Silver from Buffalo. Jack Tempchin. Frank. Greg. Eric. Rob. The Hooters. Germantown and Hecate’s Circle. I’ll tell you, this is going to be one hell of a film.

Sarah Jarosz Reconceptualizes The House Concert

Sarah J This is a tale with two moving parts. First, a twenty-two year old young woman becomes so good, so fast…and delivers two sets of impeccable and improbable American roots music last night that it just might be as good as it gets. And for the second part of this story, she performs this magical musical feat at a simple house concert with two old friends from four years of summer music camp. Well, maybe not quite your usual house concert, but by description and definition a house concert nevertheless.

Katonah is officially classified as a hamlet, although the 1,679 residents prefer to call it a village. Located in New York about a good hour (without traffic) north of Manhattan, it’s the residential destination of more than several celebrities, has a private day school where Doonesbury creator Garry Trudeau attended and was once home to Alcoholics Anonymous co-founder Bill W. For such a relatively tiny space of incredibly beautiful countryside, they have three public schools, two private ones, a hardware store, an annual carnival, a parade and a Chili Night, which I suspect has little to do with the weather of late.

Rosen House Of more importance to you and me, is that Katonah is home to Caramoor, the ninety-acre summer home and country estate purchased by Walter and Lucie Rosen in 1928. The rambling stucco home, which at 26,000 square feet is slightly larger than my apartment, took a decade to build and was filled with their vast collection of European and Asian art and furnishings. In 1945, the Rosens bequeathed the Caramoor estate and the contents as a center for music and art, in memory of their son who was killed in the second World War. The next year the Music Room was opened to the public for three summer concerts. Not just a beautiful venue surrounded by priceless art, this room is finely tuned for the most natural acoustical sound that has yet to grace these old ears. And from those intimate concerts that the Rosens shared with their friends when they lived there, it has “evolved into a non-profit foundation to serve the public as a venue for year-round concerts, and as an engaging learning environment for the more than 5,000 local school children who take part in Caramoor’s arts-in-education programs each year”. (From the Caramoor website.)

While some may imagine a program of strictly classical music, you might be surprised to know that they have been presenting an American Roots Music series, with concerts in the exquisitely appointed Music Room, and also outdoor in various settings and locations on the estate. With ninety acres, there’s room to breath and enjoy the landscaped grounds. Artists who have visited, or are planning to, include Emmylou Harris, Richard Thompson, Aoife O’Donovan, Del McCoury, the Stray Birds and Rosanne Cash…the latter will be headlining the annual American Roots Music Festival on June 28th, which is an all-day event.

Bones Last night, which would be March 8th if I get this written and published before midnight, Sarah Jarosz performed to a sellout crowd. Showing poise, personality and professionalism that astound given her young age, she played songs drawn from her three albums and live EP, some favorites from friends and mentors Tim O’Brien and Darrell Scott, two Dylan covers and the Paul McCartney tune “On The Wings of A Nightingale” which was written for the Everly Brothers’ comeback concert in the 1980’s.

Accompanied by cellist Nathaniel “Old Smitty” Smith and Alex Hargreaves on fiddle (or violin…your choice), Sarah alternated between clawhammer banjo and guitar, but stayed mostly with the beautiful sounding octave mandolin. She handled all the lead vocals with a range and projection that reminded me of both Joni Mitchell and Nora Jones, with a sprinkle of Gillian Welch. Her melody lines, especially on songs from the new album Build Me Up From Bones, can be traced back to a bluegrass tradition, but also effortlessly slide back and forth to jazz and classical scales and modalities. (The pic here is from the Grammys this year.)

Born in Austin, she started learning mandolin at age ten, attended and graduated college at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, and now calls New York her home. As we have come to expect these days at roots music concerts, whether in a home or a hall, the audience was mostly older…they could be her parents or more likely grandparents. I sat near a young couple who were friends of violinist Hargreaves, and they too were thinking the same thoughts as I: how do we fill the seats with younger people? While certain hubs from Portland to Brooklyn offer affordable and attractive options and scenes that cater to a more age-appropriate crowd, other genres such as jazz, classical and blues are also experiencing an audience that is turning grey. It is a challenge we face as the boomers go bust.

Those of you who read my posts know that I usually like to drop in music, and for this one I’ve found something special. Sarah and the guys did an NPR Tiny Desk Concert just a few months ago, and it captures much of what last night’s show offered. So here you go…and make sure you visit her website and continue to support live shows and buy some music. And here is the website for Caramoor too.

Phillip Henry and Hannah Martin: Mynd And Meteorology

Phillip and Hannah They say that the world is a lot smaller these days, what with news, culture, art, fashion and all sorts of events traveling at supersonic speed through Earth’s inner space. For a few days last week it seemed that everyone posted something on their social media weapon of choice about the passing of Nelson, and today I’m seeing pictures and music of Lennon and tomorrow it will be remembering Sandy Hook. Or snow. The weather is of utmost interest. And in fact, I had a flashback tonight about weather or rather the forecasting of it at the little Chinese restaurant in our village as my sixteen year old son and I shared dumplings, ribs and sesame chicken. And oh yes, we did have brown rice so that made it all ok and healthy-like.

But I was riffing on the fact that although long range forecasts say that in six days we’re going to have a snow storm, three days from now the forecast will likely change to being sunny with highs in the upper fifties. Nobody will remember what the weather person on the tube said just a few days earlier, as long as they get tomorrow’s weather right. And then I entered the Wayback Machine.

When I was a kid there was never a long range weather forecast on television news. It was relegated to a couple of minutes about 24 minutes into a 30 minute show, and the guy…it was always a guy…came on screen with a map behind him with little cloud, sun, rain or snow cut-outs stuck to it (and this is before Velcro), and he’d tell us what tomorrow would be like. He was right usually, or at least half the time.

Weatherwoman But then somebody got a great idea. Why just a one or two day forecast…when you can have a week’s worth! A long range forecast. And it didn’t have to be right or even real, because as each day went by you could keep changing it. All you had to do was increase the odds for tomorrows weather prediction from 50/50 to (let’s say) 75/25, and the rest would just march into place and you’d be a genius. It was at this moment in time, probably the early seventies as I recall, that weather became big. Fat men with bow ties were replaced with handsome male models, later to be replaced with blonde women except in Latin America. And that’s not a gender stereotype. It’s just that women weather people spend a lot of time telling us about the weather while out on location, and their hair is naturally lightened by the sun.

Anyway, back to the music.

I was thinking about the end of the year reader’s favorite album poll tonight and making sure that I wasn’t missing anything, when thanks to the webbie thing, I discovered that there is this duo in England that seem to be on everybody’s list back (or is it ‘over’) there. Last year they received a Spiral Award (have no clue what that may be) for Best Duo, and they’re up for the same award this year (well…actually they call it the 2014 award…I don’t know why) from the BBC Folk Awards. I’ve heard of the BBC.

They are Phillip Henry and Hannah Martin. And the album they released this year is called Mynd. So I Spotified it tonight and love it to death. They are damn good. He’s a slide guitarist and harmonica player and she is a singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. Someone named Mike Harding, whom I don’t know, wrote (or maybe he said) “On hearing the first notes of the first track I knew that I was listening to a modern classic. One of the most exciting albums I’ve heard in years” And Martin Chilton of the Daily Telegraph wrote (I’m sure) “An imaginative and innovative album – songs that linger in the memory held together by the fine musicianship of Henry and Martin. Strong and original – an unusual treat.”

So with such a small world we live in, it’s astonishing to me that here in our midst we have a truly wonderfully produced and executed roots album from just five or six hours away by air, and most of us I’d venture to guess never heard of it. And probably won’t. Unless Rick Rubin produces the next one for Lost Highway or T-Bone puts them on his next Coen soundtrack. I don’t know.

I went to You Tube, and found that they have quite a few songs and visuals up. Some are well produced. And then there was this one. A lonely little cover song from James Taylor, with just a paltry 163 views. Miley Cyrus gets a 163,000 views in a nano-second. And this is far from their finest performance or best song (in fact, I don’t think its even recorded on their albums), but it says a lot. Listen and watch. This is music happening in some small club, on any night, at any time, in any corner of the world. And we miss it. In a blink of an eye, it’s over. But now, here in the 21st century, we have ways to capture and preserve. And we do. Which is pretty cool.

I heard it’s going to snow on Saturday.

When I originally published this piece at No Depression, I titled it: I Was The 164th Person To Watch This Video