I love this interview/riff/rant on participatory music by the stellar childrens’ musician Dan Zanes.

I have assembled a little PDF booklet for “African Polka”, a song which I have blogged previously here and here and .

My booklet has the original sheet music from the old olden days with chords added to make it easier to jam on. It has an introduction talking about the tune in general. It has new sheet music for my own version of the song. This new notation has less extraneous detail and more white space, so is easier to read. There are transposed versions of the new notation for Bb instruments like trumpet and for F instruments like alto horn. My booklet also has the Lilypond source code for my own version.

I did this as a hack, I guess. It’s an experiment in making ebooks for music.

Download my booklet here: http://soupgreens.com/africapolka/AfricanPolka-book.pdf

My Lilypond source code is also at http://soupgreens.com/africapolka/African Polka.ly

My solo gigs at an upscale local grocery chain called Andronico’s have bloomed into five weeks of steady bookings for a 3-4 piece band. It’s a neat idea: they’re in the food business, and food is a sensual experience that goes with music. Us live human musicians help to make their customers passionate. I respect that this is a solid business case for performers, Napster or not.

We’ll play noon-3 at the San Anselmo store the first four Saturdays in March and in the Berkeley store on the last Saturday. The band will have trumpet, alto horn, guitar, violin, dobro, mandolin, and standup bass (though not all at every gig).

A fringe benefit for the musicians is getting to wisecrack about groceries. The down side is interrupting your solo to help with bagging.

Mantra: always be gigging. When you get in the flow of playing out a lot, that’s when the performances get good. No one thing makes your music good. It’s about the flow.

I’m playing the grocery store again next Saturday, this time with Paul McCue on trumpet and Rolf Wilkinson on guitar and singing. It’s the same chain, Andrononico’s, this time in San Anselmo instead of North Berkeley.

On Sunday I’m playing a cafe in Berkeley called Nomad. I’ll be doing dobro and mandolin with a bluesy singer named James Byfield.

After that, Friday night March 9 at a bar in Alameda called the Frog and Fiddle. James and I will be joined by our friends Huntley and Cal on standup bass and violin. Here’s a sample recording (with bad sound) from a rehearsal:

Next after that is March 25 – Paul and I will play at the Oakland marathon. There will be an endless stream of exhausted but exhilarated people going by. It’s a morning gig out in the sunshine. No money but the runners whoop and wave. It’s fun and I get a tiny bit better.

Christian Hymns Salve Jewish Soul: Ex-Yeshiva Girl Finds Comfort in Rootsy Sacred Harp Music

This is a spoken word radio piece – http://www.forward.com/workspace/assets/audio/BESHKIN_SACRED_HARP.mp3.

About a year-and-a-half ago, I went through a devastating breakup and, soon after, began a love affair with perhaps the strangest hobby an ex-yeshiva girl could imagine: Sacred Harp singing.

Surely, in 1759, when Joseph Hart wrote the words “Speak and let the worst be known, Speaking may relieve thee,” in the hymn that later became “The Grieved Soul,” he did not mean, “You may feel better if you call your Upper West Side therapist.” But that was what I heard. The song “Poland,” with the words “God of my life, look gently down, Behold the pains I feel,” was not really about a breakup. But from the depths of my grief, it sounded as if it was written just for me. After awhile, however, all this comfort I was taking in Sacred Harp music began to make me a little uncomfortable.

What was I doing? There is no doubt that I have managed to lose my place in the Jewish world, and each year it gets harder to return. I’m nearing 40. I don’t have kids. I always figured I would stake my claim somewhere in the Jewish community. Instead, here I was, singing about salvation in a dimly lit church, a few feet away from a granite bowl of holy water.

IMO 6 am is the *perfect* time for recording my loudest mandolin playing in a hotel room. What does the guy in the next room know.

Sleep? Wha? #sorryboutthat #jetlag

The tune is http://www.paperclipdesign.com/19ctunes/japanesa_1m.gif