by Christine | Jul 28, 2014 | Welcome Column
There are several bluegrass organizations within California and a multitude of them around the world. All of them are working hard to further bluegrass and to introduce new fans to this American musical artform. Festivals, like Grass Valley and Summergrass, and local...
by Christine | Jul 16, 2012 | Welcome Column
I’d give anything to be good at it. Some people just have a knack for it, like when Matt Cain reads the signs from his catcher and pitches a perfect game. In the Major Leagues, no less! Just let me have one perfect jam in the bush leagues with my jamming buddies...
by Christine | Apr 6, 2014 | Welcome Column
There’s an old platitude: Those that can’t do, teach. As a thirty veteran of the classroom, I’ve learned not to rise to such bait whenever I hear it. (Besides, in the next breath, this person usually utters something about “reading, ‘riting, and ‘rithmatic”—the so...
by Christine | Sep 19, 2012 | Welcome Column
I’ve been writing this welcome column for at least 5 years now, and at a rate of 50 or so per year, that’s about 250 columns. Sometimes, my columns tickle the heck out of me, and land with a thud. No reaction. Others were tossed off with just the wispiest of premises...
by Christine | May 7, 2020 | Welcome Column
Back before the viral change happened, I jammed on Monday nights with some really good guys and some good music usually. I’m telling you this so can tell you another something more relevant to this column. On the drive home from the jam, I tune my Sirius XM radio, in...
by Christine | Mar 3, 2019 | Welcome Column
Okay, let’s face it, time marches on, and if we are fortunate so do we. The birth years become the early years. The early years become the teen years. The teen years become the young adult years. The young adult years become the adult years, leading to the senior...
by Christine | Mar 11, 2016 | Welcome Column
Roger Jones called me up one night a couple of weeks ago and he said, “I’ve got a twelve string guild I’ve been working on that I don’t know what to do with. Would you like it?” And since I had a few square feet of floor space left that didn’t have a guitar resting on...
by Christine | Feb 11, 2019 | Welcome Column
Rain DanceThey squinted and danced through the rain as they crossed the studio parking lot. Then they clambered up the steps to the door, balancing drums, cymbals, and hardware, all wrapped in towels and blankets to keep them dry. Scott Clark had brought the good drum...
by Christine | May 18, 2020 | Welcome Column
The Daily Grist: “Behold, I am toward God as you are; I too was pinched off from a piece of clay” (Job 33:6)We all grow up somewhere and we all get used to those surroundings like it’s the only place on earth. The land forms a certain way. The contour is what we...
by Christine | Sep 10, 2020 | Welcome Column
To walk in amber glow while knowingglow in daylight means a devil ember in the wind and hither, not so far to yon,and on its own for all this red sky morn.Hear it whisper in it’s trickster voices:”I’ll be for the country roses bloomingyou know...
