Been back at the novel as well finally

Thanks for the tip on the C#m whosever you are. I like this place for chords:

http://www.musicopedia.com/chords/5-banjo.php

I feel like the little boy banjo is growing every day. I keep thinking back to sitting here, playing Oklahoma Hills over and over to learn the D chord.

I keep throwing our name in for things. Other Swap Meets, Farmers Markets, Night Clubs The Venice Summer Fest, the LA Marathon, Keep it moving. 

Daydee has confronted the bad guys- (look back for episodes from the first draft in the blog, the first 70 or so single spaced pages are there) 

Went to see Kermit play his banjo in the new Muppet Movie. His left hand moved this time. He's slowing down like the rest of us. He used to play so fast, that it looked like his hand didn't move at all.

My kids grew up on the Muppets and Fraggle Rock and Sesame Street. I grew up on the Muppets. 

The Real Banjo:

Saturday Morning

We played at Edgewater Home in Long Beach on Saturday morning. An hour and a half. Great audience, great fun playing with these guys. I did Freight Train in its original slowness. Even thought of playing my banjo upside down:

Last Night

Went to visit the "Songmakers" Hoot on the 4th Sunday in Santa Monica. Everyone is my age of course, or older. Thousands of guitars and one fiddle, one flute, one little vibe set, a piano and me. The only ones that play throughout all are the ones that can just hear the music and play it. No beginners, just a good size group of singers without instruments. They go around the circle. If you are lucky, you get two turns for a 4 hour stay. Nice folks, but I want to play more and learn. The leader sez its not good to have your head stuck in a book all the time. I was talking about trying to do original music with a band. And a random lady sez 'Well, you know, its hard to play to some else's sensibilities.' Isn't that what you do when you play a cover of someone else's song? A lot of the old chestnuts were sung. Probably won't bother going back. The open mics and the other Santa Monica group that meets once a month amounts to the same experience: 4 hours and two songs and a lot of so-so mixed in with good stuff and no one learning a thing. Nice folks though.

Back to embedding from YouTube

Believe it or not, this is exactly the same file as the one posted in the first square in the earlier post. I guess I go back to doing it this way. Upload to You Tube and then embed the video back into the blog. It works better in Facebook this way as well. Weird.

I'm trying this again, to figure out what version I should be uploading- the first couple I tried, didn't present the picture clearly. Usually I just upload to YouTube and embed it back into the blog. It's another one of Nancy's songs from her performance at the The Talking Stick. 

Nancy singing "Green Eyes" by Kate Wolf last night at The Talking Stick. The band is picking this up. It has a C#m that leaves me banjo out in the four string limbo, but I willing to do it. I'm open to good sounds and she has a voice, don't you think.

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving day. I cooked straight through from 8:30 to 2:30 and we had a remarkable meal. I love doing the gourmet thing when it's just mine. I'm for hire. I could do a holiday for $300.00 plus expenses, or for nothing if I love you.

Been Buzy

Been busy running around. Playing cards, going back to yoga, Really practicing the banjo. Getting back on the schtick. A band mate sent a sheet for a song called Devil's Dream, which I haven't ever heard before so I found it in my Fiddlers Fakebook Songbook and then went on You Tube to hear it. Then I decided to see if there were words to it- when I didn't find any I went my curious "Favorite Songs & Hymns" published 1899. Didn't find it there, but did run across this:

The words made me think maybe I'd found a cool song that could maybe express what a soldier in Afghanistan on watch might be feeling (with a little rewrite) So I went looking for it performed,

 Found this: 

It sort of sounds like one of those automated music mp3s thingee you run into when you look for old old melodies. Not the guy, the music.

This is our author: John Braham (c. 1774 – 17 February 1856) was a tenor opera singer born in London, England. His long career led him to become one of Europe's leading opera stars. He also wrote a number of songs, of minor importance, although The Death of Nelson is still remembered. His success, and that of his offspring in marrying into the British aristocracy, are also notable examples of Jewish social mobility in the early 19th century.

Definitely Public Domain song. Got a melody and some words, needs a bit of work Probably not.

(This is what I do these days instead of real work)