Note from the Assistant Editor:
Rick is at the Great 48 today, leaving me in charge of the website. And, of course I can’t open the file sent by John Karsmeyer with today’s Welcome Column. I have decided to re-post one of Rick’s columns from November. Not only does it say a lot of good things about me but focuses on things we could read over again. I am sure – as soon as Rick gets home he will get it all back on track for us. Here it goes.
Good morning from Whiskey Creek, where, for the first time in a LONG time, Whiskey Creek deserves to be called a creek. I don’t mean to sound critical of our old friend, and Lord knows we never wrote her off, it’s just hard to take a water way seriously if it has no water. Well, Whiskey Creek’s living up to its name this morning after more or less twenty-four hours of rain yesterday. Isolated showers forecast for today and then the next rain is forecast for next Monday, which, I guess, is better than a stick in the eye.
I’m happy to report that I’ve been playing a whole lot of fiddle lately. I drove down to the Camp Out in Lodi on Wednesday morning and played straight through till late Saturday night…with, of course, plenty of eating and talking and laughing and general carousing breaks. I’d have to say the highlight of the Camp Out for me was meeting one Kay Nichols, a relative new-comer to bluegrass, close friend of Pat and George Calhoun, multi-instrumentalist, very strong singer, bright, dry-humored and, BEST OF ALL, possessing of virtually every skill set required to serve as Assistant Web Master, which, be still my heart, she signed up for before the end of the Camp Out. We’ve always had good, committed members on the web team, but never, in fifteen years, someone who was both able and willing to create news item content for cbaweb.org. Until now. Already Kay is crafting and posting every day here at the CBA site.
Then last week I was invited to a little picking gathering (sort of a jam-rehearsal) just up the road on Highway 49…a bunch of guys who play locally around the Sonora-Jamestown-Columbia area and thought a fiddle might be a nice addition to their act. It ain’t bluegrass, but it’s fun and it’s a reason to get the old left-handed fiddle out of the case. A disparate group of fellas, both in musical taste and background; the retired teacher, electrician, real estate appraiser, college professional and stay-at-home-dad played everything from Mumford and Son to Chuck Berry. What? Oh, yes, I play Chuck on the violin.
And then this past weekend, my old pal Billy Schneiderman and I drove up to Pittsburg for Jon Bluemel’s annual Pick-O-Ween jam. My oh my was there some sweet music emanating from that place for ten or so hours. EVERY kind of music being made by awfully good pickers and singers. I’m not quite sure how he gets away with it, but each year Jon makes what’s essentially a public invitation to his party and every year just enough people show up to completely fill, but never over-crowd his place. Clearly Jon and Martha have stored up one big bushel of good karma over the years. Anyways, thanks to you two for the chance to see and make music with so many of my closest bluegrass friends.
Before I forget, I want to share an interaction I had with a CBA member at the Lodi Camp Out. It was with a woman, maybe my age or a little older, who sought me out to lodge a complaint about the new Message Board we launched back in mid-August. She said she used to post routinely on the old Board but hasn’t done a single one on the new version because it’s so confusing and “doesn’t work the same way.” My natural impulse was, of course, to tell the woman that the new Message Board works EXACTLY the way the old one does: you click on “Add a Topic,” if you’re not logged in the system asks for your username and password, you stroke that in and then you post your message. But I didn’t blurt that out. (I spent 12 years running a web applications software development business and never, ever forgot the classic “How many Help Desk people does it take to change a light bulb?” joke. Answer—“None, the light bulb in the Help Desk office isn’t burned out.”) So instead, I asked the dissatisfied web site visitor what she found confusing. “Everything,” she said, “everything looks completely different and there are so many more buttons to push and boxes to check.” After listening carefully and asking some clarifying questions I told the woman that, yes, things do look different, but that, basically, the important stuff…logging on, creating a new post, responding to an existing post…works exactly the same. And, yes, it’s true that there are now a lot more options, but they’re ONLY just options. You don’t HAVE to include links in your posts, or images, and you don’t have to embolden or italicize text.” I suggested she give the Board another chance and just sort of ease into the new page, and she promised she would. I’d make the same recommendation to those reading this Welcome.
And speaking of the CBA web site, a subject near and dear to my heart, the web team is on the prowl for a new Welcome columnist. We’re well aware of the fact that for many people sitting down and grinding out words and sentences and paragraphs is NOT a pleasant experience; but we also know that, for some, the experience can be a satisfying one. Twelve hundred words or more, one day a month, on any topic that strikes your fancy. Interested parties write to me at rickcornish7777@hotmail.com.
I couldn’t finish a first week in November Welcome column without congratulating the winners of this year’s board of directors’ election. Thanks to Montie Elston, Tim Edes, Mark Hogan, Larry Phegley, Steve Goldfield, Maria Nadauld, Geoff Sargent, Jim Ingram, David Brace and Dave Gooding for the enormous amount of work you do to keep the California Bluegrass Association healthy and vital and on the cutting edge of bluegrass and old-time music. And a special thanks to Mikki Feeney for agreeing to join this leadership team. I guess my ten years of coaxing has finally paid off. Mikki brings some very, very strong skill sets to her new job and, more than that, a true love and dedication to the music that brings us all together.