by Christine | Apr 6, 2009 | Welcome Column
profound effortlessness to their passionate playing. The cello and viola would double up on growly notes while the lead fiddle sang with every ounce of its being. Each instrument would rise to the top of the dynamics occasionally and then drop back into its support...
by Christine | Jul 4, 2012 | Welcome Column
What a lucky man I am to be writing the Welcome Column for the CBA on the 4th of July! And what a lucky man I am to be writing the Welcome Column for the CBA on the 4th of July in an election year! National election years in this country can become very, very tedious...
by Christine | Sep 13, 2020 | Welcome Column
The Daily Grist: “Bill Monroe’s importance to American music is as important as someone like Robert Johnson was to blues, or Louis Armstrong. He was so influential: I think he’s the only musician who had a whole style of music named after his band.” (Ricky...
by Christine | Apr 12, 2020 | Welcome Column
This is not a normal Easter but we can still celebrate the beautiful spring and the importance of rebirth. We WILL renew our shattered lives and all it will take is that we stick together and support each other. I was going to write a piece about one of my favorite...
by Christine | Oct 31, 2018 | Welcome Column
It being October 31st, and a Wednesday, my mind turns to fright and terror, and I recall, shivering, my three most terrifying gigs…. The Day the Guns Came Out As a young man, I lived in a “band house” with a bunch of other musicians, and our next door neighbor was a...
by Christine | Dec 19, 2009 | Welcome Column
Six days until Christmas! Can you believe it? Every December, most of us will utter the same words, “Where did the year go?” or maybe, “Time sure flies, doesn‘t it?” There is no foundation for the second statement. Time is quantifiable and constant, with the exception...
by Christine | Jul 4, 2018 | Welcome Column
What a coup! I get to provide the 4th of July welcome column! Our country is in a lot of trouble. Public opinion seems highly polarized, and rational discourse is at a premium – damn hard to find, as a matter of fact. But remember this – the reason this is...
by Christine | May 13, 2012 | Welcome Column
Father’s day welcome columnists often write about the “column that nobody reads” (because we’re all at the Grass Valley Festival). Mother’s Day might be the column that almost nobody reads because you’re all off to the great annual...
by Christine | May 8, 2016 | Welcome Column
It’s a great Mother’s Day here in the wine country. Both kids are in the house for the weekend and as I write this my wife and daughter are out for a little bike ride together. Happy Mother’s Day everybody. My second Sunday slot has...
by Christine | Jan 1, 2015 | Welcome Column
I’m ready to get back to normal. What is normal? No colored lights hanging from the gutters and ledges, the pine tree out of the living room and back outside, minus the lights and ornaments, drinking coffee from a real mug, without Christmas bears on them, all that is...
