by Christine | May 16, 2019 | Welcome Column
The favorite pastime of bluegrass musicians is taking part in jam sessions. Before launching into a new tune in a session there is always the key question, which is just that – what key are we doing this in? If the session is being led by a banjo player there is a...
by Christine | May 16, 2019 | Welcome Column
The favorite pastime of bluegrass musicians is taking part in jam sessions. Before launching into a new tune in a session there is always the key question, which is just that – what key are we doing this in? If the session is being led by a banjo player there is a...
by Christine | Mar 30, 2018 | Welcome Column
(From 2010)Every summer around June 4, I’m looking at the clock at work. As the big hand slowly swings its way to 3:35, I get real antsy. I’m a teacher and 3:35 is when school is out for the summer. Watch out kids…gang way, I’m busting out of the parking lot faster...
by Christine | Sep 14, 2018 | Welcome Column
Every summer around June 4, I’m looking at the clock at work. As the big hand slowly swings its way to 3:35, I get real antsy. I’m a teacher and 3:35 is when school is out for the summer. Watch out kids…gang way, I’m busting out of the parking lot faster than a Barry...
by Christine | Jun 20, 2011 | Welcome Column
A long time ago in his work shop far away, a master luthier of mandolins and his wife stood over their workbench. It was late at night and this was a very special day. He had built many mandolins over the years and earned a reputation as the best of the best....
by Christine | Aug 11, 2012 | Welcome Column
In the past I’ve written a couple of columns on Claude, The “Singing” Dog. I wrote about how Claude was homeless in Oregon, and how he made his way up the driveway of friends of mine, a house on a five acre, tree studded paradise that became Claude’s home for the last...
by Christine | Dec 10, 2009 | Welcome Column
How does one learn to play music? I recall reading somewhere that in Portugal (or maybe Greece?) when a kid gets to be six or seven years old, they put a balalaika in his hand and plunk him down in the band, where his initial dissonant efforts are drowned out by the...
by Christine | Mar 20, 2019 | Welcome Column
I have never had expensive sunglasses or an expensive pen, because pens and sunglasses are easy to lose or break, and the expensive ones break and get lost just as easily as the cheap ones. Of course, I’m not always so intelligent or consistent. Most of my life, I got...
by Christine | Jan 14, 2010 | Welcome Column
Many years ago when our children were little, we were members of a parent cooperative nursery school. Two of the other children were Sten and Eric, sons of our friends Pat and Ed. Pat and Ed moved away from Point Richmond in 1978, ending up in Chico, where Pat grew...
by Christine | Jan 25, 2017 | Welcome Column
I know I’ve written in the past about the highly visible lifespan of a spontaneous jam at a bluegrass festival. Stage 1, a few pickers begin playing and singing together. Then, like a planet forming from the accretion of orbiting particles, wandering musicians like...
