Picture courtesy Luc Sante, who got it on ebay. Click on it to see the whole full-res deal.
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Monthly Archives: September 2009
raw Talk About Suffering
Talk About Suffering by lucas_gonze
Bleak gospel in a raw bluesy style w/ bottleneck on resonator guitar + whistling and singing.
Recorded in a single live take using the mic on my laptop, so the singing goes out of tune in a couple places. I did this just to hear what the arrangement was like, then forgot about it for six months or so. The jagged guitar tone is the cool thing about it.
It’s the same song as “Rocking Yukon Gold” — an old time number called “Talk About Suffering” that Ricky Skaggs, Doc Watson and many others have covered.
vintage ammo
classical guitar
I finally appreciate classical guitars, after all these years of being baffled by them. It’s about how wide the dynamic range is. You can change volume so much more easily on nylon strings than on steel strings that you can make volume changes a big part of your phrasing.
I hope this means I don’t start playing it. Classical guitarists are like tiny dogs with muscular asses. But I will probably lose that battle.
Waltzing Bears moving photograph playlist
St Louis Waltz needed a video in the Flickr “moving photograph” style, because I wanted to do something with the cinematic flavor of the music, so I clipped out a 130-second fragment of 1899 Thomas Edison footage of dancing bears and put it next to a 130-second segment of the music. And then I made a playlist of my Flickr moving photographs:
To see just the one new item, go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/lucas_gonze/3919617319/.
St Louis Waltz
Here’s a video of a parlor guitar instrumental version of a sentimental dance tune called “St Louis Waltz.” It’s a civil war -era song that I learned from The Drummer’s and Fifers’ Guide by Bruce and Emmet.
Just the files:
MP3,
Ogg Vorbis,
Ogg Flac,
Aiff,
My recordings here are all hereby dedicated to the public domain per CC0 1.0 Universal.
Hyperion show tomorrow night 9/10; Where/MMM snafu
Tomorrow night, Thursday 9/10, I’ll be playing the all-acoustic night at Hyperion Tavern in Silverlake. Three new tunes since the last time I played there. Set time probably 10pm. So c’mon and goof off at the bar. You know you want to have a beer before bed.
In other news, the Friday 9/11 show at Where/MMM is temporarily off. One of the other acts flaked out at the last minute and I figured it was better to reschedule than limp along.
Here’s the map to the Hyperion:
Mornings Nights at Where/MMM on Friday
I’ll be playing in a night of music at the Where/MMM coworking space in Silverlake. The idea is to cater to the small scene of people who hang out on the block on a regular basis, either at the coffee place next door, Mornings Nights, or at Where/MMM.
I put the event together. The idea is about the way that live music and real world communities have this symbiotic relationship. I noticed that people on the block know each other, and that there are plenty of musicians and creative people.
It’s a hyperlocal genre in that it’s about a specific place.
Particulars for the gig:
- On Friday 9/11
- Starting around 8 or 9.
- No $ required, not exactly, but by no means would your contribution be refused.
- There will be three main acts doing full sets. If you don’t know at least one of us on a first name basis, you probably aren’t the target audience. I have the impression that Jesse’s and Steve’s acts are good enough to have followings and bookings and all that kind of stuff. Jesse’s band is indie rock. It has a name, I just don’t know it. Steve’s thing is hip hop. He’s an MC. I will perform on the flying trapeze as always.
- Every local is welcome to do a song or read their poem or do whatever they do. But only locals can perform.
Too Utterly Too (Clog Dance)
Over in the classic banjo group on Ning I came across a couple recent versions (by Clarke Buehling on cello banjo and by Tim Twiss on minstrel banjo) of a catchy old number called “Too Utterly Too.” It looked fun to play so I learned the song on my 1916 Orpheum mandolin-banjo.
Just the files:
MP3,
Ogg Vorbis,
Ogg Flac,
Aiff,
MP4
It’s from a book called “Banjoist’s Budget” by Mr. A. Baur. According to Carl Anderton:
Baur was from New York, soldiered in the Civil War, was badly wounded in Georgia during Sherman’s “March to the Sea,” and spent the next 9 years recovering his health. He practiced banjo constantly during his convalescance and became one of America’s leading players. His “Reminiscences of a Banjo Player” published in S.S. Stewart’s Banjo and Guitar Journal are quite insightful.
I didn’t find the date of this book, but I did find a stray comment on the internets claiming it’s from 1880, which sounds just right.
Here’s the sheet music for them that can read it:
My recordings here are all hereby dedicated to the public domain per CC0 1.0 Universal.
All the relevant files are on Archive.org.