by Christine | Jan 4, 2021 | Welcome Column
Back in the middle of the last century, about spring of 1962 “The San Joaquin Valley Boys” band, fell victim to one of these phony T.V. “Talent Contests”. Here’s what triggered the memory of that phony “gig”.One day this week,...
by Christine | Jan 5, 2021 | Welcome Column
There are a lot of great banjo players in the world, we all know. I guess if you had to pick one as the Very Best you’d have to go with Bela Fleck. A few weeks ago I watched a live stream on the internet from Nashville as Bela performed his own concerto for banjo and...
by Christine | Jan 6, 2021 | Welcome Column
The title is a joke – of course I wish everyone a happy new year. As I’ve mentioned before, our culture tends to make a big deal about calendar-based transitions and raise them to the level of important life events. We do this in our financial lives –...
by Christine | Jan 7, 2021 | Welcome Column
Me, like every other amateur or semi-amateur musician (I lost my amateur status long ago,) when faced with the prospect of being locked down for some extended time, promised myself that I would get to the shed and improve my chops. I started well, working with Strum...
by Christine | Jan 10, 2021 | Welcome Column
The Daily Grist: “I never met a man I didn’t like” Will RogersDivision is really hard. Just ask any third grader struggling with their math assignment. Other divisions are even more traumatic. We have seen deep divisions boil over in a way recently that we could never...
by Christine | Jan 12, 2021 | Welcome Column
Well, this may be a bit nostalgic, but there is nostalgic and then there is NOSTALGIC! I have been away from “the old home place” for more years that you can count, but I can still recall the sounds and smells of the marshes of my home of my early years – in...
by Christine | Jan 13, 2021 | Welcome Column
I served on the CBA Board of Directors for 2 multi-year spells and really enjoyed the experience. It’s fascinating to watch the process whereby a group of people endeavor to steer an august organization that serves nearly 3000 members in a way that will be satisfying...
by Christine | Jan 16, 2021 | Welcome Column
Remember the first time you heard Earl Scruggs play, “Foggy Mountain Breakdown” on the banjo? Remember the first time you heard David Grisman play his dawg-grass on the mandolin? Do you remember the first time you heard Rhonda Vincent and her band live?...
by Christine | Jan 17, 2021 | Welcome Column
There’s this idea floating around that it takes about 10,000 hours of practicing something to become an expert. I’m not sure I agree with that but my own take on getting good at something is that you need to be more than a little obsessive about practice. ...
by Christine | Jan 18, 2021 | Welcome Column
The search for professional music we can play any time we want, anywhere we want has been ongoing since the days of the wax cylinder. Sounds have been recorded since the mid nineteenth century but they were only able to be played back during Edison’s time. We have...
