The Hikes Without Mics Joshua Tree Adventure Gig was great. The acoustics, staging, and vibe were unfuckingtouchable.
Joshua Tree roadtrip pictures
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Author Archives: lucasgonze
Hikes Without Mics Joshua Tree Adventure
I’m playing a Natural Stage Project (aka “Hikes Without Mics”) field trip to Joshua Tree National Park tomorrow, which I expect to be fun, sweet and ridiculous. Here’s my blog from the last time I did a Hikes W/out Mics thing:
In practice what this meant was a longish walk on a barely-visible trail by a creek, at the the end of which was a pretty waterfall with a woman standing in front of it to sing indie-rock type songs while she accompanied herself on ukelele. I did the hike with my Estralita on my back in a gig bag for bass, and instead of the bowler and brogans I usually wear I had a coonskin cap and psychedelic emerica sneaks. I ran into Pamita halfway up the path. She was rocked out in cowboy boots, a dress, and fishnets, which is an outfit that’s just slightly better adapted to scrambling over boulders than the corset she usually wears.
There was no real crowd to speak of, but there were plenty of musicians there to play and play for. The acoustics out in the forest were special and listening to the other acts was a profound pleasure.
Because the issue is lurking, I should point out that this was not a Grateful Dead setup like a drum circle. These people knew irony. The tactic is along the same lines as a dance party on the subway, where a group meets up at a subway car and dances to electronic music on a boom box for a few stops, then gets off and disperses. This was an acoustic flash mob.
Something I love about playing is the way it draws me into unexpected places. I end up in places I would never have gotten to go to, meeting people at events I wouldn’t have been invited to, like this one. So cool.
And afterwards in Historic Pioneertown:
A cosmic prehistoric natural environment, and an indie rock honky tonk bar and grill, 2 hours away with cheap lodgings. Stunning monster rocks, a movie-set town for 40s Westerns, spacerock, country/rock DJs, danceparty, hottub, and general good times. ALSO! Daytime acoustic concert in the park at Jumbo Rocks put on by The Natural Stage Project’s “Hikes Without Mics”… info on that here.
Pappy & Harriet’s is an honky tonk in historic Pioneertown that books both country and psychedelic indie rock like Cat Power, Spindrift etc.
about the phase effect
In retrospect the phasing effect on the guitar in my recording of Widow’s Plea For Her Son is criminally annoying. Fortunately few listeners were harmed.
soup greens on muxtape
Over on Muxtape, there is now a Soupgreens page on Muxtape. On Muxtape.
Not sure what’s it’s for except looking pretty, but it sure does look pretty.
Thanks for Empty House Cooperative for hooking me up with the acct.
drinks and Soup Greens after work tonight at Cinema Bar
7-8:30 tonight I’ll play a set at Cinema Bar in Culver City for the after-work drinkers. TGIF: a couple Coronas, killer tacos at Tito’s next door, and americana music.
Delmore Brothers do * River Blues
I learned the folky country tune “Big River Blues” from Doc Watson. Somewhere or other he mentioned he learned the song from the Delmore Brothers, and yesterday I came across that original version.
Here it is: Big River Blues (mp3)
This recording is from the 1930s. The genre is self-aware as something like country and western, probably with an emphasis on the western. Their conception of the style is that it’s slightly slick rube music, more in tune and less liquored up than the crude early days only ten years before. The single-note lead guitar line might be on an early electric instrument. It a step on the evolutionary path to rockabilly, and you can start to hear how something like Carl Perkins would come out of this.
Their guitar lead got picked up in Doc Watson’s version, modified to use his Merle Travis influenced picking technique rather than a flatpick. I didn’t grab that lead line when I learned the Doc stuff, it just didn’t catch my ear that strongly. And I used the title from Doc’s version; _Deep_ River Blues rather than _Big River Blues_.
Creative Commons: what’s in it for me?
The hidden value of Creative Commons:
Every so often, I get a little Google news vanity alert about a photo that’s been credited on the Internet. One of my faves is the remix of Lawrence Lessig at the top of this post. It is actually a collage that was created by Andy on the fly for a G33k dinner.
Tag up your photos and try it yourself. If they’re on a free hosting service, what do you have to lose?
Makes sense to me. A big part of why I use CC or public domain licensing on my music is to encourage reuse and hopefully create viral effects.
So something holding back CC musicians is that it’s hard for potential reusers to find permissively licensed music on independent sites like mine.
Rolling stops on a bicycle allow for efficient riding
Belfer Cylinders Digital Connection
I just stumbled across a big collection of digitized cylinders at Syracuse University Library. It’s not very big but it is clean and modern.
Check out, for example, this 1916 one-step by Vess Ossman. What’s a one-step? No idea. I think that he was 7 years from death at this point, and pretty much at the end of his career.
100 years ago: Temptation Rag, Fred Van Eps
Listening: Temptation Rag (mp3) performed by Fred Van Eps and Albert Benzler in 1909, graciously provided by the Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project, found on the Facebook page for the Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project.
To put it in historical context, ragtime was getting long in the tooth but wasn’t over the hill yet. Pop was morphing into a rowdier, hotter, and blacker form. Lynchings were at their height. Blackface minstrelsy was still common but was a style for older people. Blacks were abandoning the banjo en masse; the saxophone was hip; brass military bands were becoming New Orleans -style second lines. The reigning white banjo virtuoso Vess Ossman was declining and Fred Van Eps was taking his place.