Dan Worrall Posted January 8, 2016 Share Posted January 8, 2016 It's that time again, time to start thinking about bringing yourself and your concertina to East Texas for the 12th Annual Old Palestine Concertina Weekend (a part of the 15th annual Palestine Old Time Music and Dulcimer Festival). The festival will occur March 31-April 2, 2016, in the small town of Palestine, Texas. For new folks, the Palestine music festival is an absolute gem, with a charming location in the East Texas Pineywoods, in high springtime. Organized each year by Jerry and Margaret White, there are workshops for every conceivable stringed instrument, from various forms of dulcimers to fiddles to banjos, and shape note singing workshops for singers....for me those shape note sing-ins are among the high points. There are superb lunchtime and evening concerts each day. The performers -- old time genre for the most part, but always some variety too -- are accomplished, and very approachable. And then there are sessions of every sort, 24/7! It is all very laid back. For the concertina workshop, Jody Kruskal will return for in what is, I think, his sixth appearance at our concertina weekend. Jody is a superb teacher and a superb performer, and focuses his teaching here on an old-time style. Here is what he is planning, similar to that offered last year but with new tunes and skills: Friday #1 Beginner Anglo + anyone else who wants to join.Friday #2 Learn the three tunes and work on bellows and old time style.Saturday #1 Keep working on the tunes, bellows and old time style.Saturday #2 Show and Tell masterclass where everyone brings their stuff to the session and we work on it. On other concertina items, we always have a number of duet players attending who get together. I’ll offer a session for complete beginners on Irish playing, where we’ll talk about old style playing and learn a tune or two. Sean Minnie, our South African new Texan, will be there along with a number of us who will form and demonstrate a Boer ‘orchestra’. Should be fun! There is lots for non-musical spouses to do in town (an old steam train; dogwood festival that week, azaleas in bloom if our timing is right, etc.), and there are the great festival concerts every lunchtime and every evening, in an old auditorium seemingly right out of a Faulkner novel. To confirm and get on the mailing list, send me a PM via this site, and we’ll email you Jody’s tunes plus other information goodies. The Old Pal festival cost for participating musicians (in workshops and concerts) is $80 for the three day weekend or $40 per day (last year’s numbers), with non-musician spouses charged much less. On top of this, we charge an extra $30 for the concertina workshops, to defray travel expenses of our workshop leader and performer, Jody. Send me a message, and we’ll get you in on the action. Here is a link to the review on this site of last year’s concertina weekend, and here is the link to the overall Old Pal Festival site. Hope to see you there! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jody Kruskal Posted January 9, 2016 Share Posted January 9, 2016 Hi Dan, Old Pal 2016 is looking good. Rereading the link you posted, 2015 Concertinas At Palestine Recap brought it all back to me, the tunes, the concerts, sessions, workshops, food and fun. Can't wait for March and the warm smell of Texas flowers in the air and the gentle picking of old-time music heard from afar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimLucas Posted January 9, 2016 Share Posted January 9, 2016 Still hoping to make it to Palestine one of these years, but unfortunately not this coming March... unless I win the lottery. It's obviously something I would greatly enjoy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jody Kruskal Posted January 14, 2016 Share Posted January 14, 2016 (edited) I've picked three American Old-Time tunes to teach at the Old Pal concertina workshop in Texas this spring. All concertina systems are welcome including English, Duet, C/G and G/D Anglo. The tunes I've selected are moderately easy and totally satisfying, each in its own charming way. As we work on playing them, I will address as much technical stuff as we can handle, including issues of bellows control, constructing an arrangement and Old-Time music in general... style points including double stops, anticipating the down beat, off-beat accents and other absorbing details as we learn how Old-Time can be enjoyed on the concertina. Here are the tunes: Barlow Knife: well known classic with lyrics. Look it up. Ora Lee: from the playing of Tennessee fiddler Edward Winter via James Bryan and the Canotes @ http://stringband.mossyroof.com/OraLee.mp3 Pearl Blake's Tune: from the playing of Melvin Wine via the Canotes @ http://stringband.mossyroof.com/PearlBlakesTune.mp3 I'm hoping to play with some of you end of March down there at Old Pal... Piney woods springtime and dogwoods in bloom. Springtime in Texas just squeezin' with you, Edited January 14, 2016 by Jody Kruskal Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jody Kruskal Posted January 16, 2016 Share Posted January 16, 2016 You can hear me play Pearl Blake's tune on Soundcloud here: https://soundcloud.com/jodysconcertina/pearl-blakes-tune-c-g-anglo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roger Hare Posted January 17, 2016 Share Posted January 17, 2016 (edited) You can hear me play Pearl Blake's tune on Soundcloud here: https://soundcloud.com/jodysconcertina/pearl-blakes-tune-c-g-anglo What a super tune! Anyone know of an ABC source? I can't find one, and investigation via Google & fiddlehangout.com makes me think there ain't one - worth asking though? Otherwise I'll just have to rely on my (unreliable!) ear... Ta. Roger Edited January 17, 2016 by lachenal74693 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gcoover Posted January 18, 2016 Share Posted January 18, 2016 As a long-time attendee of the Old Palestine Concertina weekend I can highly recommend the playing, learning and camaraderie - especially the East Texas BBQ at Shep's. And the late night sessions where one year the concertina folks outlasted everyone else until 2am! And of course all the wonderful tunes and insightful instruction from Jody, absolutely first-class and incredibly helpful no matter where you are on the learning curve. I probably won't be able to make it this year, but I'm happy to donate a few Anglo tutors and tunebooks, perhaps copies of "Easy Anglo 1-2-3" or "Civil War Concertina", if Dan and Jody can figure out a clever way to select some winners. Gary Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KMTX Posted January 19, 2016 Share Posted January 19, 2016 I am so looking forward to this year's festival! I had an great time last year and can't wait to go again. I was nervous about attending last year, being a quite new player and worried about not keeping up, but Jody is a superb instructor and does a really amazing job of adapting his instruction to a wide variety of skills--from new beginners all the way to those impressively advanced. I can honestly say my playing improved from the 2 days spent in Palestine, besides which I had a great time--it is a lovely little town. Jody has a really unique style of playing the concertina, and I got a lot of great tips and ideas from taking classes with him last year--looking forward to this opportunity again! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cjmiller Posted January 19, 2016 Share Posted January 19, 2016 You can hear me play Pearl Blake's tune on Soundcloud here: https://soundcloud.com/jodysconcertina/pearl-blakes-tune-c-g-anglo What a super tune! Anyone know of an ABC source? I can't find one, and investigation via Google & fiddlehangout.com makes me think there ain't one - worth asking though? Otherwise I'll just have to rely on my (unreliable!) ear... Ta. Roger Sadly, my ear isn't good enough to even try. If anyone has the ABC I'd love to get it too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jody Kruskal Posted January 22, 2016 Share Posted January 22, 2016 (edited) Here is Pearl Blake's Tune with my buddies Michael Gorin on fiddle and Indy Hoover on guitar. https://soundcloud.com/jodysconcertina/pearl-blakes-tune-with-jody-michael-and-indy Edited January 22, 2016 by Jody Kruskal Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Worrall Posted January 29, 2016 Author Share Posted January 29, 2016 The Old Pal festival website (http://www.oldpalmusic.com/Home.html) has just been nicely updated by the festival folks. Please note that we concertina folks now have a subpage, which I'll try to update. I'll soon be sending out sheet music and mp3s for Jody's workshops, as well as a tune or two for the Compleat Beginner's workshop that I will hold with Katie Meeks and Nancy Bessent. It goes out to confirmed attendees, so if you are coming please let me know via email or PM via this site. It is going to be a great ride this year; hope to see you there! Dan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Rhoads Posted February 3, 2016 Share Posted February 3, 2016 Just bought my plane tickets. I'll be there! I play mountain dulcimer as well, so I will be dividing my time between two sets of workshops. I'm sure this will mean a certain amount of frantically running up and down the stairs. Just as well... I'm not likely to get any other exercise there. Looking forward to it! TomR Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jody Kruskal Posted February 25, 2016 Share Posted February 25, 2016 Ora Lee will be the main tune attraction at the 2016 Old Pal workshop when participants will get the chance to premier this ten part old-time concertina band arrangement. Ora Lee is a tune from the playing of Tennessee fiddler Edward Winter via James Bryan and the Canote brothers. C/G and G/D Anglo concertinas are all played here by me. In Texas, there will be parts for all systems of concertina ranging from very easy to extremely difficult with the goal of including everyone in the fun as we play this fine old fiddle tune. https://soundcloud.com/jodysconcertina/ora-lee-band-master Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kelteglow Posted February 25, 2016 Share Posted February 25, 2016 Nice tunes I would love to come to your great festival one year but its a long way from Cornwall.Excuse my ignorance but In the soundcloud of Ora Lee ,have you joined two tracks together to get that great sound ( Yes I know even Jody can't play two concertinas at once.)Bob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Worrall Posted February 25, 2016 Author Share Posted February 25, 2016 Ora Lee will be the main tune attraction at the 2016 Old Pal workshop when participants will get the chance to premier this ten part old-time concertina band arrangement. Ora Lee is a tune from the playing of Tennessee fiddler Edward Winter via James Bryan and the Canote brothers. C/G and G/D Anglo concertinas are all played here by me. In Texas, there will be parts for all systems of concertina ranging from very easy to extremely difficult with the goal of including everyone in the fun as we play this fine old fiddle tune. https://soundcloud.com/jodysconcertina/ora-lee-band-master Nice one, Jody....all ten parts of it! We've got a goodly sized bunch of concertinists coming; in fact it looks like a record-sized group for our workshops. If anyone else wants to take part, you are very welcome. Just email or message me; I've sent the sheet music out to confirmed attendees, and there is still lots of time to join in on the fun. See above posts for links and information. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jody Kruskal Posted March 12, 2016 Share Posted March 12, 2016 (edited) The Rivers of Texas is a fine old song that will fit in well at Old Pal. I've just concocted a nifty concertina band arrangement and that will be the other main song we'll be working on at the festival. Eight parts that range from easy to moderate and I wonder who will do the singing? Me or someone else? I'm sure the whole audience will join in on the chorus when we play this. You can hear two versions of this song on Sound Cloud. There's my solo version played on the C/G Anglo and also the Virtual Concertina Band version that I'm hoping we will all play together. Happy listening! https://soundcloud.com/jodysconcertina Edited March 12, 2016 by Jody Kruskal Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don Taylor Posted March 15, 2016 Share Posted March 15, 2016 Jody I really enjoyed that, thanks for posting. How do you get that Tex-Mex accordion sound out of a concertina? Is Rivers of Texas in one of your songbooks? Don. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jody Kruskal Posted March 15, 2016 Share Posted March 15, 2016 (edited) Hi Don, I'm glad you liked it. Both of my books are collections of my original dance tunes. No traditional songs at all... sorry. There is another rather different sounding version of Rivers of Texas on my CD, Paul & Jody: http://jodykruskal.com/buy_stuff.html As for that Tex-Mex sound you hear on Sound Cloud, you are likely referring to the parallel thirds I'm playing in the descending ending line of the song, the phrase I reiterate in the Intro, Bridge and Coda. Parallel thirds (and their inversion, parallel sixths) fit nicely on both the Anglo concertina and the Cajun accordion, so it's natural to feature them. Edited March 16, 2016 by Jody Kruskal Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now