A Rainy Night In Santa Monica

Drake

Born in New York City, he was orphaned when young and entered a mercantile house. While still a child, he showed a talent for writing poems. He was educated at Columbia College. In 1813 he began studying in a physician's office. In 1816 he began to practice medicine and in the same year married Sarah, daughter of Henry Eckford, a naval architect.

In 1819, together with his friend and fellow poet Fitz-Greene Halleck, he wrote a series of satirical verses for the New York Evening Post, which were published under the penname "The Croakers." Drake died of consumption a year later at the age of twenty-five.

As a writer, Drake is considered part of the "Knickerbocker group", which also included Halleck, Washington Irving, William Cullen Bryant, James Kirke Paulding, Gulian Crommelin Verplanck, Robert Charles Sands, Lydia M. Child, and Nathaniel Parker Willis.^[1] A collection, The Culprit Fay and Other Poems, was published posthumously by his daughter in 1835. His best-known poems are the long title-poem of that collection, and the patriotic "The American Flag" which was set as a cantata for two soloists, choir and orchestra by the Czech composer Antonín Dvořák in 1892-93.^[2] "The Culprit Fay" served as the inspiration for a 1908 orchestral rhapsody of the same name by Henry Kimball Hadley.^[3]

Fitz-Greene Halleck's poem "Green be the turf above thee" was written as a memorial to Drake. Joseph Rodman Drake Park in Hunts Point, Bronx, was named for him in 1915.^[4] This park has received $180,000 of New York State funding to memorialize slave workers likely to be buried there.^[5]

                Late at night, over too many Rum & Snapple, I run across this. I'm reading on line all of my new novel's heroine's husband's columns from 1874 to around 1879 in Scribner's Monthly when my novel ends, looking for tidbits. This is a poem written off the top of his head (Helena's Grandfather to his buddy.) It honestly reads like something out of Shakespeare- he had that ear and grace of ease with the rhyme. He was Joseph Drake -wrote "The Culprit Fay" early 1800s poet. This probably was never published anywhere but in this column. Not that anyone gives a hoot. Read it aloud if you are into the language. If not go to bed.

Where I was on Sunday

Who Knows Where The Time Goes (Cover) by Dan McNay

Jams

                               Jams. So Thursday night I go out, up to the Art Gallery in Santa Monica because the owner invited me up again to his very odd free form music things, which can be very challenging and interesting, where the musicians are freely creating music to go with the paintings he has on exhibit. Some of the folks are very gifted and its fun to interact on an entire free form level and It's turned out some interesting things. No one showed but me. So we visited and I decided I would go to the bluegrass jam at the Mar Vista Market since I was out and ready to do something anyway. I haven't been to any kind of jam for a while now. I was going to the one at the Mar Vista Market, but it had gotten weird and negative and I just quit. I don't sing at jams. I perform 50 -60 times a year, singing and playing with my banjo, with whatever skill set I have. I wanted to practice my banjo skill set and develop my ear. I have a lot of respect for people I understand are better players than I am. So, there's a banjo player that's in his seventies that knows it all. Got a great gift, knows every lick Earl ever played. Anyway, he says where you been? I mutter something about the band I play with has been doing gigs and I did a lot of County Fairs this summer. And he moves away. I did free videos for some of these folks, got nothing in return. Passed on some gigs to others, got zilch. Brought in a flyer for a gig we were doing at The Mint, and was questioned and got a beer set on top of them. And had nobody show. I've brought Cds in to give away. and was treated like I was black plague.
                               I know what I am. I am the guy that his teacher just diagramed today why my downbeat note on my banjo roll doesn't start where its supposed to start. I'm the guy that goes to a teacher because I am still having problems hearing what I am playing and composing. I chart everything because I still have have problems with my recording genius guy in expressing what I'm trying to compose. I'm the guy that the banjo player next to me moves away from, because I'm doing something weird and annoying. I still get a whole lot of invites to go hear someone I used to play with, perform somewhere. Like really? It's been years now since anyone I know has shown up to one of my gigs. But I guess it don't really matter. I've known all along that your friends won't build anything for you. They are mostly just trying to stay afloat like you are. Right now I'm playing at a Swap Meet in Whittier, which is great therapy. People come and throw money in my tip jar, people tell me they like me. One guy came over and said I sounded like somebody's radio playing. Who really needs friends or ex-friends (the long list of people who used to sit next to me and play) Trust the money in the jar, is what I think. You guys out there that have been throwing money at me, are really my best friends. I come home with fifty or hundred, well that means a hell of lot more than some manager of an event that doesn't think you sound like John Denver.

Where I'll Be

Where I'll Be - July

Where I'll Be -June

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Another Day in the life

So, this is what I got from my friends over in Sunland after asking if we were rehearsing again:

Hello Dan:

I apologize for not contacting you after our meeting to follow up. I thought I had and just realized I hadn’t.

(I thought I had?- Who thinks they thought I had?)

Thank you for coming. I hope you enjoyed the experience and dinner. We certainly enjoyed meeting you and playing some of your songs.

We played this past weekend. (Meaning that I hadn't invited them to any of my gigs.)

We just uploaded a bunch of songs on our Twitter:
https://twitter.com/storytellers_LA/ (Cool, I guess.)

Almost all of our tunes are uptempo songs, Dan. We would need a much more experienced banjo player to accompany us. (They play at in the 60s beats per minute. I play in the 80s, edging into 90s, I was trying to slow down to match their slower pace.)

It didn’t seem possible after playing together that you would be able to reproduce the sort of playing that you do on your CD. For a long time, we couldn’t produce the same sound as on our CD. (He had forced me into hiring the guy I recorded it with- I was supposed to pay him, It would have sounded exactly like the recording if I'm playing with him on it- What kind of idiocy logic is this?)

Unfortunately, Dan, we have a full schedule of shows coming up without much time to rehearse to get these songs up to speed. (60s beats per minute)

We’re going to have to rearrange the schedule of the SunSpace concert/fundraiser with someone who has more experience at this time. We might actually scrub the show altogether and start over since it’s coming up fast.

I’m very sorry about that and I regret being careless and scheduling this gig before playing together to see if there was better chemistry.

We’re open to working with you down the road if we can get there.

I hope there are no hard feelings, Dan. We like you very much and admire your songs and your singing as much.

Sincerely,

Michael

(The guy is a pimp, he has two boys playing in his band which are unpaid and are living with him. And probably the other two in the band as hired hands. This is what pimps do. They create a situation where you are supposed to feel bad that you have not lived up to their expectations. This ia what he is doing to the two boys that are living with him. (This was my response):

"You know exactly why this wasn’t going to work. I completely understand. I’ll never be one of the boys. It was difficult trying to play down to your stupid covers that are halfway there."

They are doing Tom Petty and "wanta be" Jerry Garcia, and Donovan and sing off key. He told my recording guy that I had cancelled the event. Who does Tom Petty covers? Or Donovan covers? My wife asked me to turn it off about the third time I listened to it.

Ya wanta to hear some really bad singing, check out:
https://soundcloud.com/…/the-storytellers-sisters-and-broth…

I would have lied, and just said, I'm sorry, its not working out. I've done it myself too many times. I don't try to prove why I think I'm maybe better. Because I never do. I also try to to be responsive to real people. Not people I think are pawns.

Walking down Yosemite One More Time

Dan McNay

Just now · 

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A week of silence, walking, maybe filming, sleeping in the wild, maybe drinking with random folks in same random spot where I've stopped. A night fire. Nothing to dream about except where you are. Bears and deer and whatever else wants to pop in and share your existence. There's few places left where there is no ambition, no god, no responsibilities, no adulthood, nothing but getting up at sunrise when you agree to get up and making some coffee and deciding when to begin walking again. And on a trip that is all downhill. I did this trip before with four teenagers, they are all grown and gone and really happy people I think. I did a different trip years later and came out at Bridal Veil Falls where I found that 3 kids had gone over the falls and died the day before. (This walk comes out at the same place.) I want to write a song about that, this is a way to relive it, reignite it. - Something about the children flying off- they were college kids playing on the the shelf where they weren't supposed to be- There is a reason to relive things. To find a new meaning a way to express it.

Where I'll be!

What I decided I couldn't post to a Facebook Page about Bluegrass

I grew up going to the Bill Monroe Bluegrass thing in Southern Indiana and was amazed by the folks sitting around the campfires playing music and having a great time. I began playing at 55 and have taken a while a to develop an ear (which I still don't trust) so its hard for me to just sit down and play with people without charts in front of me. I also realized a jam is a great place for folks who really can't hear or play well, to be buried in the sound that is happening. I wanted to perform, I wanted to get better. I wasn't gifted with an ear so I had to grow one. I'm performing perpetually with charts in front of me. I keep finding myself drawn to blues and other forms of music. I want to do MoTown on banjo these days. I make money by playing Kid Rock on the banjo. I've tried getting into the Bluegrass Festivals as a performer, without luck. But I can perform everywhere else in the world. It's all so white. I watched Rihanna Giddens the night before playing downtown LA Sunday night. She said we stole the music, which is probably true except for the Irish and English stuff. I don't play like Earl and I'm not sure I want to. The banjo is a self inventing instrument and can be played however the hell you want to play it. I enjoy Bluegrass, when its done with finesse and grace. And honestly. But, the truth be told, Dylan and Elvis and The Band and the rest of the music world went back and stole blatantly from those black blues guitarists that really created the world of roots music.

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