Native Americans

Many of you will get a day off tomorrow for the Columbus Day Holiday, but not me. September is the holiday month for me. Not only do I get Labor Day on the first Monday of the month like everybody else, I also get Native American Day on the fourth Friday. I work as a...

Need a “Reset” Button

A few years ago, a group of my musical buddies and I were asked to provide live music for a fiftieth anniversary celebration which was to be held on New Years Eve down at Lake Havasu. Since we are Snowbirds and were headed there for the winter months anyway, we agreed...

Nellie Kane Revisited

You’ve heard it. You’ve listened to it many times. You like it. You love it. You’ve tried to sing it. You did sing it. You memorized it. That’s right. The catchy song penned and sung by Tim O’Brien with Hot Rize, “Nellie Kane.”“What?” Some of you may say. You don’t...

Neural Notions

A couple of years ago I read an article that cited research from MIT suggesting that “human brains don’t just recognize music – our evolution has actually produced a dedicated neural circuit for it.” The researchers were excited about how continued studies might...

Never Inhale

With six months to go till the CBA Father’s Day Bluegrass Festival, I give you a compilation of festivation and camping wisdom:1. The only thing worse than having a spider in your tent is losing a spider in your tent.2. Remember to bring a large indelible marker for...

Never No More Blues

A few weeks ago I attended an open jam session at an East Bay bar and restaurant. There were about a dozen pickers there from older geezers like me (one fellow who said he had actually played in a New York coffee house years ago with a young Bob Dylan) to some much...