asdormire
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Posts posted by asdormire
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i wasn't kidding. i think that track sounds like concertina. perhaps it's the sound quality at the computer i'm working at just now......
Ceemonster, don't feel bad, the old German style box with the wooden action I am playing at the moment while I am waiting to get the Tedrow fixed has an harmonica like sound.
Alan
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I saw this request when I got back, and had meant to reply.
Songs of American Sailormen, Joanna C Colcord, Oak Publications
Alan
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Check with Jody Kruska, he gave me a chord chart several years back with the chord forms drawn in the middle and the name of the chord for the c/g on the left side and the g/d on the right.
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All in all, I think we didn't come out to bad. While we no longer live in 19th century building, we no longer have some of the difficulties of a building that age either. The schoolhouse had been built in 1880. This house was built in '59, has three bedrooms, a finished basement complete with a dry bar, air conditioning, and is extremely well insulated. The neighbors seem to be reasonable people, though admittedly they are both louder and more lively than our previous neighbors. Of course, my previous neighbors were mostly dead and buried in the cemetery next door. I have a good sunny side yard to put my vegetable garden, though I all ready know I am not going to have as good soil as I had before. Both the the front room and the basement have plenty of room to host a good size session, which is something we haven't had since we left Michigan in 1991. While the mortgage payment is a little more than three times our previous rent payment, it is extremely reasonable. (We had a sweetheart deal before, but that meant I was on call for emergencies at the church and my wife was always doing extra things at the church.) Ultimately, the fire may have been a blessing.
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I couldn't agree with you more, Bertram. I find that is fairly easy to set down with my C/G box and play a tune straight from the written music in the key written.
By the way, I picked up a copy of your old time studies, though I haven't had a chance to go through the exercises yet. I did read through it and found it to be interesting and thoughtful, and am sure it will help my playing.
Alan
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I don't consider it random at all, as I do something similar with Western wear of roughly the same period.
And around Christmas time, I consider doing it, but never do.
And I agree with the others that Jodi's site is the place to go.
Alan
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A year ago, I would have given a different answer, as we had several years back two guitars stolen out of the car, and the insurance company promptly paid up. The same company unfortunately gave us a really rough time of it this spring after the furnace fire some ten years later. Our new company does cover the instruments under a rider in our new home owners policy for the circumstances you describe. Fortunately, our agent does understand musicians and was able to give us guidance. His cousins own the local Irish pub that regularly books in bands. Unfortanately, we live here in the States, so our experiences probably does not apply but it might help the folks on this side of the pond.
Alan
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I don't believe I have been in the forums since February.
While I was working down in San Antonio, I received a phone call from my wife at 5 a.m., Saturday February 2, informing me that we had a furnace fire at our house. Fortunately, the damage was confined to the furnace. Unfortunately, the furnace was unrepairable. Also, our church, which owned the former one room school house we were living in, received an emminent domain notice for the building making it unreasonable to replace the furnace. My wife stayed with friends for the next two weeks while I finished my assignment in Texas. When I returned, we moved into a hotel room, and we began looking for a place to live. The church paid for our first month. While I had insurance that should have covered this, the claims agent was a complete jerk. Thank the Good Lord we didn't lose any instruments. We ended up buying a house ten miles south of where we were living and closed on it Friday April 12. I have spent most of the summer packing and moving the possessions we had accumulated over the 14 years we had lived there, mostly by myself, as the laboratory my wife works in also moved over the summer. I really have not had time for extraneous activities. I have not played the concertina much in this period, partially because of the other time restraints, but also because I have a loose reed in my main box, and I either need to take it apart and fix, or send it back to Bob and have him work on it. I have gotten out my old Bastari box with the old action and played that some. Anyway, I felt you all might like an update on what has been happening.
Alan
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Lois, I am roughly 4 to 6 hours away from you, depending on whether you are closer to Monroe or Flint, but I am originally from Genessee County. I just read the entire thread, and had several thoughts. I have found that the bellows on the Stagis tend to be harsher to use than on any of the modern hybrids I have tried. The ten button box you have found looks cute, and I would guess from the looks it would be of german construction. I have tried the Castilogne instruments and they don't play to bad, but they are definitely bigger than your stagi. On the bright side, they are located in (or were in) Warren which makes them relatively close to where you are located. As to the Marcus, there is a fellow here in the Columbus area who is handling the Marcus out of his home. He is part of the local Irish dance community, so it might take me a bit of time to locate him. He also worked at my former local grocery, but as I have moved south 10 miles, it is unlikely I would run into him there. I don't know if any of this is useful, it was just some thoughts.
Alan
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I always figured you for a bowler hat kind of guy, myself. And I am sure that would be fine. And no rhinestones needed.
Though I realize it is a fair piece to go, but it would be cool to see you.
Alan
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One song that I play in octaves is Amazing Grace. I'll play the first verse in octaves, the second on my right hand, the third on my left hand and then finish it out in octaves. The folks I have played it for have enjoyed it, though I originally started doing it as a practice exercise.
Alan
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Jody, you need to come out to Ohio in June and do my lazy day in the Gene Autry Days Singing Cowboy Idol Competition. After all, a concertina player won it last year.
Your 2012 Singing Cowboy Idol
Alan Dormire
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I hate to say it, but it is a lot more common then we would like to believe, and in more than one publishing area. I agree with Ransom, strike it out.
Alan
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After reading this, I keep thinking about all my old high school mates, as well as friends of my father who are working (or retired from) the Chevy truck plant in Flint (they made both Chevy and GMC pickups there) who now have more work because of all of the free reed enthusiasts buying new pick up trucks.
Alan
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I've sat and thought on this for a day, and I still come back to the question "How did Illinois (and now Massachussetts) know you had purchased the Dipper?"
Obviously, US Customs is giving them the information, but what does the customs form actually say?
For the record I firmly support paying any and all taxes that are due, but let's just suppose that the form said "Concertina, value $XXXX". How do they know that the concertina is a new purchase and not a family heirloom sent back to the Mother Country for repairs and restoration? I would imagine that a concertina restored by Mr. Dipper would look brand new when he was done with the restoration, so how can they tell? I believe those restoration services would be exempt from this tax, right?
If this catches on with other States, it could become a real issue. Maybe in 5 years people like Barleycorn will be quoting prices broken out into parts and labor-- Instead of quoting a price of $3000, it might be: Concertina $300, restoration of said concertina $2700.
I'll buy that. When we moved south, we filed federal tax and the Michigan tax we owed from the new Ohio address. Several months later we received a notice from Ohio wanting to know where their tax was, as the Feds had shared with them that we had filed from an Ohio address. Ohio didn't like the arguement that since we hadn't lived in Ohio until January of that year, we didn't owe any Ohio tax. It took a couple years to clear that up.
As far as whether restoration would be exempt from the tax, that would depend on how an individual state's tax code is written.
Alan
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I've sat and thought on this for a day, and I still come back to the question "How did Illinois (and now Massachussetts) know you had purchased the Dipper?"
That aside, every year Robin and I end up paying a similar tax here in Ohio for items we couldn't find here, including musical instruments. The state income tax form has a nice line on it so that we can declare it and make it easy to pay it. My advice is to pay the tax.
As to the arguement about only being able to buy the concertina from a local source, I am sure that the tax folks in Springfield will point out that you can buy a concertina at "Fred's Music Emporium" in Quincy, never mind that is chemitzer or a cheap Chinese import or some other such thing that is not what you wanted.
Alan
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If I remember right, my wife bought it through a laboratory supply outfit. Admittedly, this isn't a source a lot of folks won't have easy access to. I went down to the laundry room and garage to see if we still had some, but could not find any. I thought maybe giving another brand name might help. If folks would like, I will ask Robin tonight when she gets home from the lab to see what she remembers about where she bought it.
Alan
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Has anyone tried this stuff?
http://www.leevalley.com/en/garden/page.aspx?p=10175&cat=2,42194,40727,10175
Lee Valley is a reputable store and I intend to try this myself unless somebody warns me off it.
It can't hurt, and might help...
Don
I don't know 'bout 'bakker smoke, but I have used the same mineral in animal rooms and it does help with the musty urine smell from concentrations of small rodents.
Alan
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One of these days I'll make it down there, Wally, but as I will by driving home from the Great Lakes Festival in East Lansing that Sunday, it won't be this year. Robin says Noel will be doing workshops up here this weekend, so I guess I will see him up here. Even though I never get down there, I appreciate that you have presented these concerts the last few years.
Alan
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John, I'll be hiking up to the Irish Festival later this afternoon, and would be willing to sit down with you this weekend, should you wish (I live in Dublin and will be at the festival all three days). My primary interest is old time and western music and I play a 30 button CG Tedrow, the one pictured in that little window in the upper right. I expect that I will be wearing Carhardt dungarees, either green or tan held up with Carhardt braces, black and gray cowboy boots,a beat up straw Stetson and a short sleeved shirt (not a tee). I stand 5'8", have a dark brown pony tail and a beard that has grayed out around the muzzle like an old dog. I'll check back here before I walk up this afternoon.
Alan
Excuse me, the picture is in the upper left. This left right thing still confuses me.
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John, I'll be hiking up to the Irish Festival later this afternoon, and would be willing to sit down with you this weekend, should you wish (I live in Dublin and will be at the festival all three days). My primary interest is old time and western music and I play a 30 button CG Tedrow, the one pictured in that little window in the upper right. I expect that I will be wearing Carhardt dungarees, either green or tan held up with Carhardt braces, black and gray cowboy boots,a beat up straw Stetson and a short sleeved shirt (not a tee). I stand 5'8", have a dark brown pony tail and a beard that has grayed out around the muzzle like an old dog. I'll check back here before I walk up this afternoon.
Alan
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In "Folk Song USA" , a kinda strange presentation of Alen Lomax's work presented by Old Gold Cigarettes, Lomax goes on at great length about "Red River Valley" and its wholesale suitability for concertina, comparing the sound to smoke from a campfire wafting away on an evening wind. Pretty prosey.
As for the list, have you included "Buffalo Skinners Blues"? It has a plaintive melody just right for the subject matter and instrument.
Cheers,
Rob
I'll have to smoke a few packs of Old golds and get me a copy. Oddly enough, red river valley isn't'at in Folk songs of North America! I went to look to see if that story was in there.
By "Buffalo Skinner Blues", do you mean the song tha starts out, "'twas in the town of Jacksboro, In the spring of seventy three"?
Alan
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Point me at your lists I couldn't find them in a quick search. And, if you get up to Minneapolis (Gopherland) and out of Buckeyeland give a holler and we'll find some way to get together. EC and Anglo go nicely together.
I have a small collection of cowboy collections. My three favorites are the aforementioned "Cowboy and Western Songs" by Austin E. and Alta S. Fife, Songs of the Great American West by Irwin Silber, and "The Hellbound Train" by Glen Ohrlin. The Ohrlin book is nice for the asides as he was both a working and a rodeo cowboy as well as a performer of cowboy songs. The Fife is the most comprehensive. I have other books as well including John Lomax's "Cowboy Songs", but it is light on tunes. Often I have use the two collections he did with his son or the son's "Folksongs of North America" for the tunes. I have two other cowboy songbooks, plus two that are Texas oriented that my wife got for me from a friend who has been liquidating his books. One of those is Margaret Larkin's "Singing Cowboy" that I picked up in East Lansing during the Great Lakes Folk Festival. I found it at the local book store before D W Groethe did. Unfortunately, D Dub found the Fife's Comprehensive index of Western Song. So, actually not a bad day for either of a couple of cowboy song collectors. The last book, "The Whorehouse Bells were Ringing," is a collection of cowboy songs that includes several blue songs as the title might suggest. I can't lay my hands on it at the moment for the name of the collector. I don't remember what the name of the topic that I posted the information in earlier, but it was a while back, and it only had a handful posts.
I wish we could have got together three years back when I was in Brooklyn Center for a month for work. It would have made it go a lot more pleasantly.
Alan
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This is one of the only YouTube hits for "cowboy concertina" that seems to be what we're looking for:
- Jody Kruskal and Paul Friedman performing "Bravest Cowboy" on Anglo concertina and fiddle from their album "Paul and Jody - American Songs and Tunes" JMK 104, available at http://www.jodykruskal.com/We need more cowboy concertina on YouTube (hint, hint).
If I played as well as Jody,maybe. Actually, given sometime, it maybe possible.
Alan
How Do You Handle The G# In The Foxhunters Reel On Anglo?
in General Concertina Discussion
Posted
While I haven't tried this tune, I agree with Bruce's evaluation. I play enough tunes in A and E that I regularly use that third finger on the G# key. Try running through your A scale a few times just to get use to using the finger and then go back to playing the tune and see if that helps. I know it did when I started to play tunes outside of C and G.
Alan