Chris is currently reading to the children the Childhood of Famous American’s biography of Stephen Foster.  It’s a wonderful book!

Tonight he read that someone was wearing a “snood” and we were all like, “What in the world is a snood?!?”  We envisioned it being something like the creatures in a Dr. Seuss book, but it was obvious it was a hair covering, not a little animal of some sort.

I looked it up online and found out that it is the net-like covering that women wear over their hair.  We commonly see them in restaurants holding the hair of cooks.  Here is a link to a photo of a snood:  http://www.moonstruckoriginals.com/snood.JPG

Anyway, I love learning new words and thought some others of you might like to learn this word as well.  And if you haven’t read the Childhood of Famous American’s books, I would definitely recommend them!  They are absolutely fabulous.  Children enjoy them, too, and don’t even realize that they are learning.  These are great to teach biographical and historical information more informally, yet more in depth than what students would get from a textbook.

Sonya Haskins

Homeschooling for the Rest of Us will be available in three weeks!

Just thought I’d post this video –

I’m trying out new strings (Worth clear) on my Ayers ukulele.

00311.0000 OLD FOLKS AT HOME
Words and Music by Stephen Foster

Lyrics and Chords Link
Peformance Video

Way down upon the Swanee River, far, far away,
There’s where my heart is turning ever;
There’s where the old folks stay.
All up and down the whole creation, sadly I roam,
Still longing for the old plantation,
And for the old folks at home.
All the world is sad and dreary everywhere I roam;
Oh, brothers, how my heart grows weary,
Far from the old folks at home.

Do you remember the words to the song Beautiful Dreamer by Stephen Foster? (July 4, 1826 – January 13, 1864) Beautiful Dreamer written by Stephen Collins Foster 1862  If you do, hum along and read the words. Quite magical and beautiful tune.

Beautiful dreamer, wake unto me,
Starlight and dewdrops are waiting for thee
Sounds of the rude world heard in the day,
Lulled by the moonlight have all passed away
Beautiful dreamer, queen of my song,
List while I woo thee with soft melody
Gone are the cares of life’s busy throng,
Beautiful dreamer, awake unto me

Beautiful dreamer, out on the sea
Mermaids are counting the wild lorelie
Over the streamlet vapors are borne,
Waiting to fade at the bright coming morn
Beautiful dreamer, beam on my heart,
E’en as the morn on the streamlet and sea
Then will all clouds of sorrow depart
Beautiful dreamer, awake unto me
Beautiful dreamer, awake unto me
Beautiful dreamer, awake unto me

Sheffield Wednesday defender Darren Purse has not had the best of times since his move from Cardiff to Hillsborough. The veteran centre-half has been targeted by fans for some below-par performances following the disappointing defeats at Sheffield United and Derby. But Purse has bounced back and produced a fine display in the 2-0 win over Coventry, scoring his first goal for the club. That performance earned him his highest score of the season and his 38-point haul also saw him take his place in the Actim Team of the Week.

Lineker v Adams, Wright v Mabbutt, Hoddle v Brady have all been famous battles that have taken place in the north London derby over the years. However, Wayne Routledge v Jay Simpson was never one that got an airing in the famous clash between Tottenham and Arsenal. Now former Spurs winger Routledge and Arsenal loanee Simpson have joined forces at QPR, both playing an integral role for Jim Magilton’s men this term. The pair were in form again during the 4-0 win over Preston last weekend, with both men getting on the scoresheet. Routledge is the leading QPR player in the Index in 17th position overall and notched a season-best 36 points. Simpson recorded a 34-point haul and both men were in the Team of the Week.

As crazy footballing decisions go, there have been a few down the years. Sven-Goran Eriksson taking the untried Theo Walcott to the 2006 World Cup and Sol Campbell joining Notts County are just two of the most recent ones. Another strange one that can be added to that list is the decision of Plymouth to allow their defender Marcel Seip, on loan at Blackpool, to play against them when the two sides met at Bloomfield Road last week. Inevitably Seip played a blinder and scored the opening goal against his employers to put his temporary side on the way to a 2-0 win. His performance gave him a 34-point haul, which is more than half of his overall tally.

Jerome Thomas, returning from a three-match suspension, capped a man-of-the-match display with a brace to end a three-match winless streak for West Brom in a 3-1 victory over Reading. The former Arsenal trainee claimed the top score in the latest Championship Index with 53 points and was also the second-highest mover, climbing 136 places to 144th with 102 points overall. Was also named in the team of the week.

Having helped Northern Ireland claim a goalless draw against the Czech Republic in Prague, Grant McCann made an impressive return to league action, grabbing a double as Scunthorpe beat Sheffield United 3-1 at Glanford Park. McCann notched the second-highest tally of the week with 42 points and jumped into 38th place with 149 points. He was also included in the team of the week and is the second-highest Iron player in the Index, two points behind striker Gary Hooper.

Former Liverpool trainee Adam Hammill helped Barnsley continue their revival under new manager Mark Robins with the only goal at Doncaster. Hammill netted his third goal of the season to earn the Tykes only their second away win in the league this season. He posted 40 points – the third-best score of the week – and moved 70 places to 52nd in the Index with 139 points. He is also the highest-placed Tykes player in the Index, 16 points ahead of defender Stephen Foster.

View the latest Actim Index >

The Federal Hill mansion in Bardstown, KY, was the inspiration for Stephen Foster’s song, “My Old Kentucky Home.”

Stephen Foster didn’t live in the house that his song, “My Old Kentucky Home” made famous. But he and his wife did spend some time there in 1852 as guests of its owner, his cousin Judge John Rowan.

The stately mansion, Federal Hill, inspired Foster to write the chorus of a song he’d been composing, which he named “My Old Kentucky Home.”

Although nothing in the house relates directly to Foster, docents dressed in 1800s attire bring the elegant rooms to life as they relate stories about the Rowans and the lifestyle of that time.

Foster also wrote “Oh Susannah,” “Jeanie With The Light Brown Hair,” “Beautiful Dreamer,” and lots of other favorite songs. During the summer, visitors can enjoy them while attending “Stephen Foster The Musical.”

We stayed close by at My Old Kentucky Home State Park. Towering trees, views of the park’s lush golf course, and proximity to attractions made the campground an enjoyable place to stay.

Hoewel een banjo er op het eerste gezicht een beetje uitziet als een ietwat rare gitaar is het eigenlijk een heel ander soort instrument. In essentie is een banjo een drum: een drum met snaren. Daarom is de wijze van bespelen ook helemaal anders. Een gitarist tokkelt: hij plukt aan de snaren van beneden naar boven, terwijl een banjospeler “slaat” met de achterkant van de nagels, met een beweging richting de vloer.

Er zijn zelfs twee geheel verschillende speelwijzen voor de banjo.

Bij clawhammer of “oldtime” gebruikt de speler enkel de duim en de wijs- of middelvinger van zijn rechterhand.

de clawhammer techniek

Ofwel worden er plastic of metalen fingerpicks op de vingertoppen geplaatst. Bij deze techniek gebruikt de speler, behalve de duim, drie vingers. Dit levert een veel drukker geluid op, dat vooral bij bluegrass erg populair is.

de fingerpicks techniek

Herkomst

Midden 18^de eeuw was de banjo het instrument van de zwarte slaven. Het was terug te vinden op elke plantage in Maryland en Virginia. “Een uniek instrument is de banjar,” getuigt ene Thomas Jefferston, wanneer hij in 1781 het leven van de slaven op een plantage in Virginia beschrijft. “Die hebben ze mee overgebracht uit Afrika,” concludeert hij.

Verdere studie leert echter dat de eerste beschrijving van een banjo-achtig instrument helemaal niet uit het Appalachengebregte stamt, maar uit Martinique. Daar dook de banjo ruim een eeuw eerder op: in 1678. Later volgen nog getuigenissen uit Jamaica (1869) en Barbados (1708).

Vanaf het begin van de 17^de eeuw werden massaal mensen uit West-Afrika naar de Nieuwe Wereld  getransporteerd om er te werken als slaven op de plantages. Onder de harde omstandigheden was muziek een van de weinige dingen die hun troost kon bieden. In eerste instantie was dat zang, met begeleiding van percussie. De blanken ervoeren dat tromgeroffel achter als een bedreiging, omdat ze vreesden dat hiermee boodschappen werden doorgegeven. Mogelijk kon zo een opstand worden georganiseerd. Al snel volgde er een algemeen verbod op het gebruik van trommels. 

Daarom zochten de slaven naar andere instrumenten. Voor het bouwen daarvan baseerden ze zich op het voorbeeld van de vertrouwde instrumenten uit het thuisland. Ze maakten gebruik van goedkope materialen die in de nieuwe leefomgeving te vinden waren: kalebassen bijvoorbeeld. Dat zijn niet-eetbare pompoenen (in het Engels: gourd) met een harde schil. De vrucht werd uitgehold en met een dierenvel bespannen. Daarop werd dan een lange hals gemonteerd, waarop drie tot vier snaren werden aangebracht.

In verschillende studies wordt gewezen op de overeenkomsten tussen de banjo en de luitachtige instrumenten die door de griots werden bespeeld. De ngoni uit Mali wordt genoemd, de akonting uit Senegal en nog meer exotische namen als de busunde, de kasinta en de ngopata.

Omwille van de bamboestok die dikwijls oorspronkelijk als hals werd gebruikt, kreeg het nieuwe instrument namen als banjar, bangie, banjer, banza of banjo. Of naar de pompoen-klankkast: gourd-banjo.

Echter, naar het voorbeeld van de Spaanse en Portugese snaarinstrumenten, verschenen in de loop van de jaren Westerse vernieuwingen aan de hals: houten pinnen om de snaren aan te spannen en een kam.

Na verloop van tijd werd ook de pompoen vervangen. In de plaats kwam een tamboerijn-achtige romp: een ronde klankkast, met aan de voorzijde een strak gespannen vel. Doordat de kam rust op het gespannen vel kan de energie die bij het bespelen van de snaren wordt toegevoerd zeer snel weg. Dit levert een kort maar hard geluid op. Het beklemtoont het percussiekarakter waarnaar de muzikanten op zoek waren ter vervanging van de drums. Het beklemtonen van het ritme is immers essentieel als begeleiding van worksongs. 

Honderd jaar lang was de banjo het uitverkoren instrument van de zwarten. Niet alleen tijdens het werk maar ook ter begeleiding van zang en dans ter vermaak. Het cliché van een zwarte jongen of man met strohoedje en een banjo in de hand is in zowat elke Lucky Luke strip terug te vinden.

Minstrel shows

In de vroege jaren dertig van de negentiende eeuw ontstond de minstrel show of minstrelsy. Een troep rondtrekkende acteurs en muzikanten brachten vermaak met sketches, parodieën, slapstick, dans en muziek. Een onderdeel van hun show was de blackface act. Blanke mannen kleedden zich in lompen, maakten hun gezicht zwart en imiteerden zo de zwarten. De typische manier van spreken en bewegen, de muziek en de dans van de zwarten werden er uitvergroot tot vermaak van de blanken. Een van de veel voorkomende typetjes was de ex-slaaf die terug verlangde naar de plantage waarin hij was opgegroeid. De boodschap die de minstrels brachten was: ‘je hoeft je geen zorgen te maken om de slaven, die zijn best tevreden met hun lot’. En ook ‘Zwarten horen niet thuis in de noordelijke staten’.

Om de “negermuziek” authentiek te laten klinken begonnen ze typische “zwarte instrumenten” als de banjo en de tamboerijn te bespelen.

Een van die allereerste blanke banjospelers was Joel Walker Sweeney (1810 – 1860). Hij was, in zijn eentje, misschien wel verantwoordelijk voor de doorbraak van het instrument bij het blanke publiek. Daarvoor had hij wel een paar aanpassingen nodig, zoals een vijfde snaar!

Niet dat die extra snaar een uitvinding van hemzelf was. Er zijn oudere afbeeldingen bekend van vijfsnarige banjo’s. Maar tot dan toe werd die vijfde, veel kortere snaar tot klinken gebracht door de resonantie van het instrument zelf. De bespeler raakte de snaar zelf niet aan.

Sweeney ging de snaar bespelen met zijn duim. Sterker nog: hij ging precies die duimsnaar gebruiken om de melodie te spelen, terwijl hij op de andere vier snaren een begeleiding tokkelde met de vingers. Dit opende geheel nieuwe perspectieven.

Een niet onbelangrijk element in de groeiende populariteit van de banjo was het werk van Amerika’s eerste professionele songwriter: Stephen C. Foster (1826 -1864). Vele van de songs die hij schreef voor de minstrels groeiden uit tot klassiekers zoals ‘Oh Susanna’, ‘Swanee River’, ‘Hard Times’, ‘Beautiful Dreamer’ en ‘Camptown Races’.

Oh Susanna

Camptown Races

Een andere songwriter was Daniel D. Emmett (1815-1904). Hij begon als blackface fiddlespeler bij de Virginia Minstrels maar schakelde later over op de banjo. Voor dat instrument schreef hij tientallen songs waaronder ‘Dixie’s Land’. Als ‘Dixie’ groeide het tijdens de Burgeroorlog  (1861 – 1864) uit tot het lijflied van de Confederatie en later van de gehele South.

Na die Burgeroorlog bloeide de nieuwe five-string banjo op als het populairste instrument, zowel in de huiskamers van de hogere en middelklasse als op de concertpodia en de schamele huisjes in het Appalachengebergte.

Evolutie

Tot het einde van de 19de eeuw bleef de banjo een heel eenvoudig instrument, enkel geschikt om er een zeer eenvoudige melodie mee aan te geven. Het ontbreken van frets op de minstrelbanjo maakte het erg moeilijk om de juiste toon aan te houden. Hoewel Henry Dobson al in 1878 patent aanvroeg voor een commerciële banjo met frets, duurde het bijna drie decennia eer het concept aansloeg.

Dat gebeurde pas toen de stalen snaren hun intrede deden. Naar analogie van de mandolines waarbij een plectrum werd gebruikt, begonnen banjospeler toen ook te experimenteren. De plectrumbanjo was geboren en de vijfde snaar werd meteen weer overbodig.

In de eerste decennia van de twintigste eeuw leidden Europese elementen, onder meer de invloed van de gitaar, tot een meer klassieke speelstijl. Tegelijk ontstonden er allerlei hybride instrumenten waarbij de banjo werd  ‘gekruist’ met een ander snaarinstrument. Op de klankkast van een banjo (vaak met resonator) werd dan de hals van een ander instrument geplaatst. Bedoeling was om het bespelers van andere instrumenten mogelijk te maken gebruik te maken van het penetrante banjogeluid. Dat was vooral zeer gegeerd zolang er nog geen elektrische versterking beschikbaar was.

Nergens was zo belangrijk om luid te kunnen spelen als in het drukke nachtleven van New Orleans. De banjo was dan ook perfect om het ritme in de blaasbands te accentueren. Omstreeks 1920 ontstond zo een nieuw genre: Dixieland (ook gekend als New Orleans jazz of traditional jazz).

Maar dat was een laatste opflakkering, want eens de elektrische versterkers hun intrede deden waren de gouden jaren van de banjo voorbij. Enkel in het Appalachengebergte bleven five-string banjospelers populair bij de southern dance bands en andere hillbillymuziek. Het publiek genoot er van instrumentalisten als Uncle Dave Macon, Stringbean, Clarence Ashley en The Carter Family met June Carter.

Een van de grootste namen was Charlie Poole (1892-1931).

Als jongen had Charlie twee passies: spelen op zijn zelfgemaakte gourdbanjo en baseball. Bijna kwam aan allebei een eind toen hij eens een bal met de blote hand wou pakken, omwille van een weddenschap. Hij hield er een paar gebroken botten in zijn  rechterhand aan over met een permanente vervorming van enkele vingers als gevolg. Poole was echter een doorzetter. Hij bedacht een geheel nieuwe techniek om de banjo te bespelen: de “threefinger picking style”, waarbij hij melodie, arpeggio en ritme wist te combineren

Zijn eerste echte banjo kon hij pas kopen toen hij ging werken in een textielfabriek.

Poole zag in de banjo een uitweg om niet, net als zijn ouders, zijn hele leven te moeten zwoegen in die fabriek. Hij vulde het weinige geld dat hij kon sparen aan met de opbrengst van illegale alcoholstokerij, om zich zo een eersteklas banjo te kunnen veroorloven. Met die Gibson van $200 kon hij professioneel gaan spelen. In 1917 richtte hij, samen met zijn schoonbroer, de fiddelspeler Posey Rorrer, een eigen stringband op: de North Carolina Ramblers. Drie jaar later waren ze een veelgevraagde band op dansfeesten en partijen door het gehele zuidoosten.

Op 27 juli 1925 mochten ze in New York hun eerste plaatje gaan opnemen. Het was meteen raak. Meer dan honderdduizend exemplaren van ‘Don’t Let Your Deal Go Down Blues’ vlogen de deur uit. En dat in een tijd waarin slechts zeshonderdduizend mensen een grammofoon hadden. Charlie Poole werd de eerste countryster.

Hoewel hij zelf nauwelijks songs schreef groeiden vele van de zeventig nummers die hij in de volgende jaren opnam uit tot klassiekers in bluegrass en country: ‘Can I Sleep In Your Barn Tonight, Mister?’, ‘Old and Only In the Way’, ‘White House Blues’…

Toen de depressie de verkoop in elkaar deed stuiken, ging hij graag in op een aanbod van Hollywood om te gaan werken voor de filmindustrie. Hij zou echter nooit in Californië raken. Na dertien weken (!) van fuiven en drinken begaf zijn hart het. Poole werd slechts 39 jaar oud.

‘White House Blues’ – Charlie Poole, opgenomen op 20 september 1926 en voor de eeuwigheid bewaard op de Anthology of American Folk Music.

Revival

Pas in de tweede helft van de jaren veertig, werd de banjo, net als de mandoline, terug opgepikt door bluegrassspelers. Hoewel Bill Monroe zijn eerste Blue Grass Boys band oprichtte in 1939, was het pas zes jaar later dat het genre echt van de grond kwam. Dat was te danken aan de komst van een banjospeler uit North Carolina: Earl Scruggs. De jongeman liet het publiek helemaal uit de bol gaan door zijn razendsnelle solo’s, gespeeld met een geheel eigen drie-vingertechniek. Hiervoor maakte hij gebruik van fingerpicks: een soort plastic of stalen kunstnagels die op de duim en vingers worden geklemd.

Zijn vernieuwende “Scruggs style” banjospel sloeg zo aan dat hij wel gek zou zijn om niet voor zichzelf te beginnen. Samen met Lester Flatt richtte hij The Foggy Mountain Boys op. Hun grootste succesnummer was ongetwijfeld ‘Foggy Mountain Breakdown’, uit 1949. Twintig jaar later werd het instrumentale nummer wereldwijd populair door het gebruik in de film Bonnie & Clyde – over een gansterkoppel in de jaren twintig!

‘Foggy Mountain Breakdown’ – Earl Scruggs met Steve Martin

Bonnie & Clyde

Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs in de Grand Ol’ Opry Show

Drie jaar later schoot, opnieuw dankzij een film, een ander instrumentaal banjonummer naar de top van de hitlijsten: ‘Duelling Banjos’. De oorspronkelijke versie heet ‘Feudin’ Banjos’ en werd in 1955 geschreven door Arthur Smith. Hij nam het zelf op, op een vier snarige plectrum banjo, met Don Reno op een vijfsnarige instrument.

In de thriller Deliverance zien we de acteurs Billy Redden (de hillbilly dorpsidioot op banjo) en Ronny Cox (de Yankee op gitaar). Maar we horen respectievelijk Eric Weissberg en Steve Mandell, in een productie van Joe Boyd.

‘Dueling Banjos” uit de thriller Deliverance (1971).

Maar ook buiten de countrywereld maakte de banjo een comeback vanaf de jaren veertig. Dat was voornamelijk te danken aan Pete Seeger. Hij keerde terug naar de traditionele muziek die nu folk werd genoemd. In 1948 publiceerde hij de eerste versie van zijn boekje, How To Play The 5-String Banjo,  dat groeide uit tot het handboek voor vele generaties banjospelers.

Dankzij de folkrevival kwamen de oorspronkelijke uitvoerders terug in de belangstelling. Velen van hen kregen de kans om hun oude opnamen nog eens over te doen, met veertig jaar ervaring en veel beter geluidskwaliteit als bonus.

Een van hen was Clarence ‘Tom’ Ashley. Op 23 oktober 1929 zette hij, in Johnson City, Tennessee, de oorspronkelijke versie neer van het aloude ‘The Coo Coo Bird’. Harry Smith had het plaatje in 1952 terug onder de aandacht gebracht op zijn Anthology of American Folk Music.

Maar in 1961 zette hij de definitieve versie neer, met de hulp van een blinde gitarist uit Deep Gab, North Carolina: Doc Watson.

Clarence ‘Tom’ Ashley – The Coo Coo Bird.

Tegen het einde van de jaren zestig ontstonden de eerste, voorzichtige toenaderingspogingen tussen twee geheel verschillende werelden: country en rock. Het waren de rockmuzikanten die, onder invloed van de muziek die ze in hun jeugd op de radio hadden gehoord, het initiatief namen: Gene Clark, Bob Dylan, Gene Parsons, Michael Nesmith, …. Voor het bespelen van specifieke instrumenten als steelgitaar, mandoline en banjo keken de rockers naar de beste bluegrassartiesten. Earl Scruggs beroerde de vijfsnarige banjo op Dylans ‘Nashville Skyline Rag’ en The Byrds vroegen Doug Dillard van The Dillards mee op tournee. Zijn banjospel moest hun geluid wat authentieker maken.

Na afloop van de Europese tour vroeg ex-Byrd Gene Clark hem om samen Dillard & Clark op te zetten. Zij omringden zich met fantastische countrymuzikanten waaronder Bernie Leadon, die later The Eagles zou helpen oprichten.

‘Train Leaves Here This Morning’ uit The Fantastic Expedition of Dillard & Clark.

De banjo in de Britse rock

De Britten beschouwden de banjo als een zeer primitief instrument. Volgens de overlevering zou de Britse muziekhistoricus Cecil Sharp, toen hij tijdens de Eerste Wereldoorlog door het Appalachengebergte trok op zoek naar songs, uitdrukkelijk hebben laten weten dat hij geen banjo’s of gitaren wou zien. Die interesseerden hem niet. Wat hij zocht waren oude Ierse en Schotse balladen of dansmuziek. Niet van die niewerwetse dingen.  

Vanaf het midden van de negentiende eeuw zochten banjobouwers naar manieren om meer mensen aan te spreken door de mogelijkheden uit te breiden.

De tenorbanjo had een kortere nek met 19 frets en wordt bespeeld met een plectrum. Het was een uitstekend begeleidingsinstrument voor de jazz- en dancebands in de jaren twintig en dertig van de vorige eeuw. Vooral omdat het te horen was boven de blazers en saxofoon uit. De komst van de elektrisch versterkte gitaar verdrong de tenorbanjo van het podium. Enkel in de meer traditionele Dixieland jazz bleef er een plaatsje voor over.

Een andere, voor de hand liggende oplossing om de mogelijkheden te verruimen, is het toevoegen van een zesde snaar. Vooral jazzmuzikanten, zoals Johnny St. Cyr en Django Reinhardt, experimenteerden met de guitanjo, zoals het instrument werd gedoopt. Maar ook een bluesman als Reverend Gary Davis had er een.

Helemaal er over is de zither-banjo: met zeven snaren is er wel erg ver afgeweken van het oorspronkelijke concept.

De stiefmoederlijke behandeling van het instrument in de Britse muziek is merkbaar in het feit dat de banjo slechts zelden wordt gebruikt in de pop- of rockmuziek. Enkele uitzonderingen zijn: ‘Stop Stop Stop’ van The Hollies, ‘Squeeze Box’ van The Who, ‘Gallows Pole’ van Led Zeppelin, Bright Side of the Road van Van Morrison, ‘Cowboy Dreams’ van Prefab Sprout of ‘Sing’ van Travis.

Veel meer kan ik er eigenlijk niet bedenken.

‘Cowboy Dreams’, uit The Gunman And Other Stories, met Eric Weissberg op de banjo.

En om af te sluiten nog eentje die helemaal buiten alle categoriën valt: de slaggitarist van de Amerikaanse garageband The Monks. Dave Day bespeelde een zessnarige banjo alsof het een elektrische gitaar was. Met behulp van een kleine ingebouwde microfoon verkreeg hij zo een speciale metaalachtige klank.

The Monks met hun enige pseudohit, ‘Cuckoo’, uit 1966.

I think it’s probably fair to credit Nick Hornby with starting the avalanche of football books that is now upon us. You can now find books looking at football from just about every perceivable angle; biographies, tactical analysis, academic research etc. To guide you through this maze we have decided to publish the Official Between the Lines List of the Top Ten Football Books Ever Written:

1. Fever Pitch by Nick Hornby. Still the undisputed champion. He perfectly captures the feelings of an Arsenal supporter during a season with the most perfect of endings (if you’re an Arsenal supporter). But what really sets this book apart is the sheer quality of the writing. All toiling blog editors should envy his seemingly effortless style. I know I do.

2. Brilliant Orange by David Winner. Winner tries, very successfully, to capture the the essence of the distinguished and sophisticated football culture of the Netherlands, and explains why Total Football was born there.

3. The Damned Utd by David Peace. An absolute page-turner relating the story of Brian Clough’s brief spell as manager of Leeds United in 1974. The book is very elegantly structured, with the Leeds story told in parallell with Clough’s career as a player at Sunderland and very successful manager at Hartlepool and Derby County. Well-researched and well-written.

4. Why England Lose by Simon Kuper and Stefan Szymanski. A happy marriage between a top journalist and a sports economist gives us the rare pleasure of an enjoyable read about academic subjects.

5. My Father and Other Working-class Football Heroes by Gary Imlach. An unusal book about football in the 50’s that shows how totally different the life of a top footballer was then compared to the present. Given extra depth by the fact that a son is writing about his father.

6. The Miracle of Castel di Sangro by Joe McGinniss. The story of how a smalltown club rises from regional amateur football to the Italian Serie B. Very well-written.

7. She stood there laughing by Stephen Foster. This is the best of a number of books trying to follow closely in the footsteps of Fever Pitch. But Foster supports Stoke City which means that most of the time the best he can hope for is not to be unjoyful at the end of ninety minutes.

8. Cantona – The Rebel Who Would be King by Philippe Auclair. The French journalist Philippe Auclair sheds light on several aspects of Cantona’s complex personality, and the book therefore rises head and shoulders above the average football biography.

9. My Favourite Year, Ed: Nick Hornby. A collection of stories with contributions from Roddy Doyle and Nick Hornby among others, each focusing on a particular club during a particular season. My favourite is Olly Wicken’s account of Watford during the season 1974/75.

10. Inverting the Pyramid by Jonathan Wilson. A history of how the development of football tactics spread around the world, and how important steps in this developmet were taken in Italy, Brazil, Holland and the coffee-shops of Vienna.

Please let me know if I’ve missed a book that should be on the list.

Published in The Woodford (County, Kentucky) Sun, September 23, 2009.

I’ve never quite gotten over the closing of Midway’s Odyssey Books. Bookseller Walt Mates had put together an exquisite collection, and the intimate location couldn’t be beat.

A treasured read, sourced from Odyssey Books, was Stephen Greenblatt’s
Will in the World: How Shakespeare became Shakespeare, a National Book Award finalist published in 2004.

I hadn’t thought of this biography in quite a while, but that changed a few days ago as I was driving down Pisgah Pike.

I noticed leaves scattered across the road, one flanked by cattle on one side, Thoroughbreds on the other, and lined in any direction you’d care to look by stone fences.

 The leaves once belonged to tobacco plants, and that fact triggered a mental tug-of-war. I asked myself if it was alright to appreciate what I was seeing, tobacco leaves on the pike.

Someone with a family member who’s suffered from cancer caused by cigarette smoking might be deeply offended at seeing the leaves, I reasoned, just as someone whose family has been affected by alcohol abuse might grow upset by what a bourbon bottle represents.

 This point-counterpoint spurred me to remember the biography of Shakespeare.

We would be hard pressed to imagine the theological tumult of that time, during the mid-1550s, when people might not know from one day to the next if the official Church of England was Protestant, or Catholic.

According to Greenblatt’s scholarship, a few months before William Shakespeare’s birth and in the years that followed, Chamberlain John Shakespeare, father of The Bard, oversaw “reparations” of Stratford, England’s Guild Chapel.

Reparations actually meant that the senior Shakespeare hired workers to take buckets of whitewash into the chapel, then ruin Medieval paintings, including those depicting St. Helena and the Finding of the Cross, St. George and the Dragon, the murder of St. Thomas á Becket, and the Day of Judgment.

The workers also broke up the altar and pulled down the rood loft. Town authorities then sold off elaborate vestments worn by Catholic priests who had once celebrated the Mass.

Greenblatt provocatively writes that John Shakespeare’s acts were “material manifestations of the reformed church, calculated acts of symbolic violence against the traditional Catholic religious observance, ways of compelling the community to acknowledge the new order and to observe its practices.

“But the deeds in Stratford, for which the chamberlain disbursed the payments were not subtle; men with hammers, awls, and grappling hooks violently changed the appearance of the church and the form of worship that would take place within it,” he adds.

The idea of compromised fine art and lost history makes me sick.

If I choose not to write about my perception of tobacco leaves that had likely blown off someone’s wagon enroute from a field to a drying barn — might I, in some way, be taking a gentler hammer, awl, or grappling hook and whitewash over something that has been agriculturally symbolic of Woodford County? Or, might my calling attention to it deeply hurt someone who has been negatively impacted by tobacco usage?

It’s not the first time questions have been as vexing.

My elementary education included a survey of American music history. The teacher led us in singing, among other things, African-American spirituals and compositions from Stephen Foster.

One of the Foster tunes was “Old Black Joe,” a lament composed from the perspective of an aged cotton plantation slave.

I’m guessing that particular song was included in the music survey because it represents thinking embraced by most of Anglo heritage at that time. As such, discussing the song’s lyrics provided a “teachable moment,” an opportunity to speak to how art reflects life, and of how beliefs may be challenged.

The same is true of “The Ballad of Davy Crockett.” Its first two stanzas were taught to me like this:

Born on a mountain in Tennessee
Greenest state in the land of the free
Raised in the woods so’s he knew ev’ry tree
Kilt himself a b’ar when he was only three
Davy, Davy Crockett, king of the wild frontier.

Fought single-handed through the Injun war
‘Til the Creeks was whipped and peace was in store
And while he was handlin’ this risky chore
He made himself a legend forever more
Davy, Davy Crockett, king of the wild frontier.

This tune delivers a double-whammy in the political correctness department. The first blow is to animal rights; the second is to Native Americans.

Good, bad, or somewhere in between, these examples represent beliefs pervasive at a particular time, and this was precisely the case with the fine art destroyed at John Shakespeare’s command.

I’m bothered by ignoring, pretending, and destroying.

By squarely facing the fact that we have done, seen, said, and believed specific things, I think learning can happen. Consciences can be raised, and attitudes can evolve.

If there’s anything to be gained in the long run by exorcising these icons from our conversations, songs, artistic canvasses, pages and computer screens, I’m struggling to see it.

And this is how I ultimately grew comfortable writing about the tobacco leaves. I found them quite beautiful that day, driving down Pisgah Pike.

Sometimes songs of grief are so fully human that they are, in their own way, joyful.

The pain can be intense, but these songs also celebrate that we have the capacity, the gift, of feeling loss as fully we do.

That’s how this beautiful, mournful song by Stephen Foster makes me feel. Sung by the wonderful McGarrigles.

Who would have thought that just three months ago Newcastle’s fans were crying into their Brown Ale, watching constant reruns of their 5–0 win over Manchester United in 1996 and shouting ‘Shearer, Shearer’ at the top of their tear–choked voices following relegation from the Premier League? The answer is not many when you witness the stunning way in which the Toon Army have taken to life in the Championship. Not only do they sit top of the table, they also make up 35% of the top 20 of the Actim Index with a staggering seven players making the transition from zero to hero quicker than you can say ‘Wor Kevin Keegan’. Shola Ameobi leads the way in fifth place, while Ryan Taylor (7) and Kevin Nolan (9) also make the top 10. Although Jonas Gutierrez has still to use the Spiderman mask that he dons when scoring a goal, he can settle for 19th place.

Elsewhere in the north–east, Middlesbrough manager Gareth Southgate had little to smile about last weekend as his men fell to their first defeat of the season at Bristol City. But he will have breathed a huge sigh of relief on Tuesday afternoon when the transfer window slammed shut with Adam Johnson still a Boro player. The England Under–21 winger has been in outstanding form this season and not only did he score his fifth goal of the term at Ashton Gate, he also picked up a further 19 points to move himself up into second place in the overall Index. He was eclipsed by City striker Nicky Maynard, though, whose double earned him 52 points, a place in the Team of the Week and moved him into sixth place overall. Make room for all those on your mantelpiece, Mrs Maynard.

Another to enjoy a profitable week was Sheffield Wednesday striker Marcus Tudgay, who also smashed the 50–point barrier with his two–goal salvo in the 3–1 win at ailing Plymouth. Burnley tried to tempt the pint–sized forward to the Premier League during the summer but he resisted their advances and signed a new four–year deal to stay in South Yorkshire before belatedly celebrating his new deal at Home Park, with his 53 points – the best score of the week – propelling him into third place overall.

Nottingham Forest’s players certainly had a lot to celebrate last weekend, with four of their players making it into the week’s top 20 players. Maybe that is why Nathan Tyson was waving a corner flag in the air after the 3–2 win over Derby. That aside, Tyson (34 points), was joined in the week’s elite by Radoslaw Majewski (37), Dexter Blackstock (32) and Chris Cohen (28). Cohen is Forest’s highest–ranked player in the overall Index, coming in at number 74 and while City Ground chief Billy Davies will have enjoyed getting one over on his former employers, he knows his men must keep on winning if they are to justify all the money he has spent on them over the summer.

And what of poor old Watford? Not only did they lose their manager to Reading over the summer, the Vicarage Road club have now lost some of their prized–assets in a deadline day scramble that almost reached Portsmouth proportions. Ironically, Pompey did take two of the Hornets marquee men, with Tommy Smith ending his association with the club to join the south coast side. The striker remains in fourth place in the Index, reminding the Watford faithful of what they have lost. If that was not enough, while they were peeling Smith’s name from the back of their replica shirts, defender Mike Williamson also headed off down the A3 to Fratton Park. Worry not, though, Hornets, he was only 112th in the Index. With summer signing Danny Graham sitting proudly in eighth, it is not all bad news.

Spare a though for the one man who did not even get to worry about the transfer window. Simon Davey became the first Championship manager to lose his job this season following Barnsley’s 3–1 loss to Reading last Saturday, but there is little surprise about the Tykes predicament as the Index perfectly illustrates. Their defence has been leaking goals like nobody’s business this season yet it is one of their defenders, old war–horse Darren Moore, who is their highest Index entrant in 157th place. Jon Macken is not far behind in 163rd while Stephen Foster (184) is their third and final player inside the top 200.

View the latest Actim Index >

I’ve been away, for a few days. We took two disparate holidays in one: 7 days in the remotest of remote cottages in Brittany followed by a sop for the children; 3 days at a Eurocamp.

The day of the interchange didn’t really work. From being friends with no-one except Mr Vin de Pays de l’Aude and Mr Minervois for a week we had to suddenly be part of what appeared, at first sight, to be Blackpool a la France. The 7 hour (when it should have been 5) journey didn’t help much, it has to be said.

Eurocamp got better: in a matter of hours high season became low season and a *lot* of people went home, leaving us with a fantastic site and precious little badly mangled vowels.

Cross blog promotion: I read the new canon from ‘Sunday Times Bestseller’ Stephen Foster while away. I wrote a few hundred words for the book that didn’t really work- having read, rather than looked at (part time stay at home day, even more part time blogger, even more than that part time proofreader), the text it seems obvious why, so I’ll add them here (and maybe to Amazon) as a precis of the book.

These PHWs know nothing. There are those of us who have been honing the art of Pulis hating since the early 1990s.
Dateline Bournemouth, 1992. The Redknapp era of glory, cup upsets and promotion has come to an end. Harry’s had his head turned by the prospect of stealing his best friend’s job. His suggestion as successor: Anthony Pulis. Overnight, we went from exciting wing play to dour midfield battles. One by one anyone with any talent was sold and replaced by a workmanlike drone. Crowds dwindled, revenue dropped, watching Bournemouth ceased to be fun. The day before the 1994/95 season started the board, in their wisdom, sacked Pulis. Things had got so bad that having a collection of players with no experience whatsoever pick the side was preferable to anymore of the dross Pulis was serving up. As a mark of respect to their former boss’ ideas and tactics, the team started the season with the following set of results: LLLLLLL.
I kept an eye on his subsequent career, with an ever growing incredulity that he continued to find gainful employment as a football manager. In some instances he was even head-hunted! This incredulity came to a high-water point last year when, somehow, he led Stoke to the Premiership. At last he would get the national humiliation he richly deserved. Stoke would be relegated before Christmas. This, as your author has spent a whole book describing, did not turn out to be the case. Indeed, far from revelling in Pulis’ humiliation, my opinion of him swayed and I began to revel in his new found success.
Provincial teams have been promoted and survived before and I’ve managed to maintain a distinct lack of interest in their achievements. What was different with Stoke (author’s note: we are not provincial) and their unique brand of Pulisball was the element of reductionism that was introduced to achieve their success. In utilising Delap’s throws they managed to distil football to its sheer essence. The aim of the game is to score goals, how this is achieved is of little import. For all the artistry of your Liverpools or your Arsenals, a 1-0 win is a 1-0 win. If the tiny brushstrokes of Wenger suggest Monet then the clarity and straight lines of Pulisball suggest Mondrian. Going further, if we are to argue that Pulis has taken the functional and turned it into art, then maybe his Stoke team can be compared to Duchamps’ Urinal (a crude, yet valid analogy: after all, most supporters of Stoke’s opponents last season would have expected to, to use the vernacular, ‘piss all over them’.) This, however, is not what impressed me most about Pulis. No, my own Damascene conversion came about not in his success on the pitch, but his success in the minds of the players.
Many managers have tried their own Route One variant, few have had success. At Bournemouth in the past two years we have had two. Kevin Bond (narrower of the pitch & hump it long merchant) and when he failed, Jimmy Quinn (hump it even longer and hope more merchant). Last season Bournemouth started the campaign with a 17 point deduction and were odds on favourites for relegation. We were playing for survival, not for plaudits. But even the fear of relegation to the Conference and almost certain loss of livelihoods for the players could not get them to buy in to the manager’s philosophy. Following Quinn’s sacking on New Year’s Eve and the installation of (another) ex-player Eddie Howe, who wanted to at least try and play football, results picked up and the fear of relegation receded. Even Big Phil Scolari, who knows what he’s doing, couldn’t get the likes of Terry & Lampard to ‘get’ his ideas. Clearly then, to unite 20 odd players into believing one-hundred-and-ten percent in what you are trying to do, when what you are trying to do is so evidently against what these 20 odd players would prefer to have been doing (these guys would have been in the playground during Beckham’s pomp, do you think they were running around pretending to be Robbie Savage?), is to have a touch of genius about you. It is this which finally swayed my opinion of Pulis. He is Pete Waterman to his squad of Rick Astleys, Simon Cowell to his Gareth Gates. Without him, they are nothing. He is a modern day Svengali.

Okay, so here is a new one: A night trip with a convertible and an iPhone.
Why? Why not.

I am staying out of town for six weeks, only home on the weekends. This week I have the convertible.
And where I am staying is rural…not urban…not town-ish…not suburian….I mean rural.
We are talking cows, people driving farm tractors on the roads – the whole “country” scenario.

So I decided that I wanted to go see stars; yes, the real stars up in the night sky … with the convertible top down.
What an experience that would be: to see stars on a clear dark night in a convertible.

So I started to look for a deserted country road where I could drive in an out of the way place and just take in the view.

This is where the iPhone fits in. Mine has an application called MAP which is simply a GPS. It allows me to find me current location and shows me what is coming – left or right – as far as side roads and where they lead. This was actually more wonderful than when I first imagined it as working with the GPS function of my iPhone proved to be very intuitive.

Navigating with a mobile device and driving with the top down on a starry night….Van Gogh watch out!
Actually the Miata did Gogh (sorry about that) as it were and I stayed out for over two hours. I went out just before dusk and drove around. Again, it was more wonderful that I could possibly imagine as the darkness fell and revealed a velvet blackness with these points of light whirling all around me on curvy two lane back roads.

Watching the big oblong red ball go below the horizon was the start of the adventure; but finding a place where it was so quiet to see stars all over the place from the safety of your car was the crescendo.

This is a “day’ trip in Florida I would do again.

My route started in Lake City, FL at I-75. Take Highway 90 west to Live Oak. Several in between roads let you cross back over I-75 and I-10 since the two Interstates cross near Lake City, so this is a novel experience. To be out in the middle of “nowhere” and then immediatley be on top of an Interstate…not once but twice with two different Interstates.

I ended up driving through White Springs just northwest of  Lake City. White Springs is the home (edited 8/16/09 – see comments) of Stephen Foster and the historic Suwanee River. I also passed about 5-10 miles beyond that towards a smaller town called Jasper. I eventually turned around and headed back to White Springs and then ultimately back to my hotel at the I-75 & US Hwy 90 juncture.

I give this trip 5 out of 5  stars *****

Til next trip

This episode of Scott’s Cowtauqua & Almanac includes original renditions of “Riverside By Side” and Stephen Foster’s “Hard Times” performed by Scott Bussen.  An Eliza Cook poem “The Mouse and the Cake,” an Aesop fable, “The Crow and the Pitcher” and the usual Cowtauqua antics.

One of my three princesses, the one that lives, loves and works in Virginia, created a painting for her friend Sue as a house-warming gift. Sue had recently relocated from Virginia to Huntsville, Alabama and needed a mantle-piece decoration suitable to that part of our country. My daughter e-mailed me and included a photo of the painting (shown at right with the proud owners). Check here to read her posting on the painting and its journey to its new home.

This is my reply to her e-mail:

I shore do lak ‘at, especially the sky—and as you said, the trees on the horizon eliminate competition between the clouds and the cotton field.

Beautiful, simply beautiful.

At the instant I viewed this image, a phrase from a refrain immediately popped into my remembering apparatus, a song we learned in Miss Mary’s elementary school, probably around the second or third grade—I hear those gentle voices calling—I googled the phrase, and this is the song:

Old Black Joe
by Stephen C. Foster

Gone are the days when my heart was young and gay,
Gone are my friends from the cotton fields away,
Gone from the earth to a better land I know,
I hear their gentle voices calling “Old Black Joe.”

I’m coming, I’m coming, for my head is bending low,
I hear those gentle voices calling, “Old Black Joe.”

Why do I weep when my heart should feel no pain,
Why do I sigh that my friends come not again,
Grieving for those now departed long ago,
I hear their gentle voices calling “Old Black Joe.”

I’m coming, I’m coming, for my head is bending low:
I hear those gentle voices calling, “Old Black Joe.”

Where are the hearts once so happy and so free,
The children so dear that I held upon my knee,
Gone to the shore where my soul has longed to go.
I hear their gentle voices calling “Old Black Joe.”

I’m coming, I’m coming, for my head is bending low,
I hear those gentle voices calling, “Old Black Joe.”

A word of caution—you probably shouldn’t spend a lot of time on Foster’s poem. If you do, you may find yourself becoming misty-eyed and feeling a certain tightening in your throat, a sure indication of a heavy heart and bitter-sweet memories (of course it could be nothing more than an psuedo-allergic reaction to the heat and dust and airborne molds found in cotton fields and wooded areas).

Your painting and the poem brought so many memories crowding in that I didn’t have enough room for them—I had to push some aside so I could concentrate on others.

SPECIAL NOTE FOR SUE: She might want to consider printing the poem on a small placard and placing it near the painting—after reading it viewers (anyone over the age of 16 and assuming a reasonable understanding of the English language), would lapse into a moment of reverie, alone with their memories, oblivious to sights and sounds around them, even though they may have never seen a field of cotton, in Alabama or elsewhere.

And then again, maybe not.

Some thoughts on picking cotton:

While in basic military training at the mid-way point in the past century, I was discussing cotton-picking with a new-found friend from Aspermont, Texas. I mentioned that, at the tender age of 11, I picked cotton in Mississippi for a few days. I was never able to pick one-hundred pounds in order to reach the dollar-a-day wage. Some adult males picked as much as 200 pounds in one day by working from dawn to dusk. Early in the season, when the cotton was heavy on the stalks, pickers earned a penny a pound, but later in the season when the cotton was sparse on the stalks, the rate rose to two-cents a pound (it was sparse when I picked it, but my never-indulgent step-father paid me only a penny a pound).

Bummer.

My friend told me his mother picked as much as 800 pounds a day. I figured this was nothing more than a tall Texas tale, but after further discussion I learned that there was a huge difference between the states in the method of removing the cotton from its stalk. In Mississippi we picked the cotton ball out of its bowl—in Texas they pulled the cotton, bowl and all, from the stalk, and occasionally also placed the stem in the cotton sack (inadvertently, of course).

The latest ginning machinery that separated the ball from the bowl had not yet found its way to the deep South. In rural areas Mississippi also lagged behind the rest of the country in electricity, paved roads, water lines and sewers.

I know—I was there. We cooled ourselves with hand-held fans, usually purloined from church benches, we heated our homes with wood-burning open fireplaces, we cooked our meals on wood-burning cast-iron stoves, we did our school homework by lamp-light, we hand-pumped our water from wells, we made the long trip—out to and back from—outdoor privies in daylight and darkness, in the heat of summer and the cold of winter—and the only way we talked to anyone other than family members was either face-to-face or by sending and receiving letters.

Ah, those were the days, my friends.

http://ihatemusic1943.blogspot.com/2009/07/beautiful-dreamer.html

Our second set of family has come and gone..We had so much fun.. Those of the privileged few who are on our facebook can see pictures of family and places we went… They went down the river while I went junk shopping in town… We had lunch and then they went swimming in the river.. Made a whole day of it.. Was so much fun…. We went to Stephen Foster State Park got to see two museum’s… you can see that in pictures also… Other family that came Gene took them to the river as I was not feeling well.. I have pulled some muscles and I get up very sore and takes a while to get untangled …so to speak…

I sold something on my eCRATER store this week … Thanks to the person and please send your friends and tell their friends and their friends and so forth.. Buy four books get a fifth one free… In the United States, shipping and handling is full price on first book and everyone after is one dollar each..  We are putting more and more things in everyweek.. I have to catch up with what I started last week as I did not finish before kids got here and I took time off.. I did fill my orders and mail them… Have to go to the post office today with two orders… maybe by this afternoon I will have more… check out my books and other things at http://readerwave.ecrater.com  or http://readerwave.com 

Today I will be putting in the rest of my Carley Phillips and Shannon Drake,Heather Graham Pozzessere, Christina Dodd.  I have lots of books I have not had a chance to get to so if you are looking for something special (not new) I will most likely have it in the back stock waiting to go in.

picture of the day is……………………….

Butterfly looking for water on the rocks by the river

Notes: From French vocal chamber music, to operas of Mozart and Puccini, to musical theater roles like Christine in Phantom and Guinevere in Camelot – you’re career has encompassed an impressive range of performances and genres! Can you speak about what your professional aspirations were when you were a student, and what it’s like looking back from where you are now?
Erin Stewart: My musical interests have always run the gamut!  When I was a student I couldn’t decide if I wanted to follow the musical theatre or opera path.  I ended up carving out my own by straddling both worlds. It hasn’t been easy, as both worlds couldn’t be more different from each other. Musical theatre is really where my heart lies now and where I’ve worked primarily.  I’m determined to bring back “legit singing” to theatre!  But I’m also so very interested in chamber music, doing new works, collaborating with other musicians.  I love being challenged and I love bringing my theatre background to the table.

Notes:  What do you look forward to today?
Erin: As far as my career is concerned, I’m ready for more musicals written for operatically trained singers!  I look forward to more recitals and concerts- everything from Broadway to Stephen Foster to Debussy.  And bring on the recording projects.
Apart from music I look forward to continue to decorate my house (it has been a huge creative outlet for me!)  I love antiquing and recycling furniture ‘as is’ or with a fresh coat of paint.  It’s amazing what a little TLC can do, and it feels good to be reusing- much better for the environment.   I look forward to the vegetables coming up in my garden and cooking from the garden all summer long and through the winter.

Notes:  Do you have any advice for aspiring young singers in making a life in music?
Erin: This is going to be so cliche, but right on the money.  You have to do what you love.  Sometimes it’s not an easy path!  You just have to keep doing it.  Sometimes that means creating projects for yourself when work seems elusive.  There may be times when it looks bleak, like you’re on a dead-end road.  But remember things can change on a dime!  We never know what’s in store for us!   I recommend doing what you love on a daily basis and not waiting for others to decide when you get to work or not.  Empower yourself by creating projects.  I also recommend creating several different money streams if possible so you’re not dependent on one source of income.
A good way to help visualize your career is make a board with clippings, phrases, anything that inspires you.  Make it over the top.
A young singer will get lots of advice on the industry, which may or may not be helpful.  Ultimately only you can know what is going to work for you.  Always follow your gut.  Follow those instincts.
A very good book I recommend for young singer/ actors is Auditioning by Joanna Merlin.
Most of all- eat well and exercise!  (I find Yoga is a great way to get centered)

Notes:  Given that you’ve spent so much time on the road, on tour and performances throughout the United States, Canada and Japan, do you have some special memories to share, and tips on travel and well-being?

Erin: Travelling for work is the best ever!  I’ve been lucky enough to visit some pretty awesome places and i hope to do more of that.  It can also take a toll on your wellbeing when it’s full time.  Sleep is key!  Also it’s helpful to bring along some comfort items if you’re travelling full time.  (like your favorite pillow, a blanket, photos, ect)  Although be reasonable with the amount of things/ clothes you’re travelling.  It can end up being a huge burden.  It can be hard to eat well when you’re always on the road.  One sometimes has to resort to fast food which REALLY can take a toll.  If at all possible, make what you can or make effort to seek out healthier options.
I’ve been lucky enough to visit some pretty awesome places…. places like Japan where I was based in Osaka and traveled to Kyoto, Hiroshima, Miyajima and other neighboring cities.  I’ve been to Calgary where I was able to attend the Stampede and where I visited Banff National Park.  Other favorites have been Vancouver, Ottowa, Philadelphia, and New Orleans.

Notes: Can you talk about being under management, and what you feel are the pros and cons of having an artist representative? or just about the relationship between artist and manager? (if you feel comfortable – this would be really interesting!)
Erin: I think it’s really hard to have a career nowadays (as a singer/actor) without someone out there pulling for you, making the phone calls, booking the auditions.  I am not saying it’s impossible, but it would be difficult.  When looking for an agent or manager make a list of everything you would want in that person.  Think about how you would want them to work for you, because that’s what they’re doing- working for YOU.

Notes: A teacher that has greatly inspired you?
Erin: Two teachers have inspired me greatly and contributed to my growth as a musician and singer.  My first oboe teacher, Ferdinand Prior was the gentlest soul with such a wealth of knowledge.  I was lucky to have known him.  The second is my current voice teacher, Kate Johnson.  She is not only a voice teacher but a mentor as well.

Notes: A place you’ve been that you felt you had been there before?
Erin: I felt that about New York City when I first moved there.

Notes: Inspirational quotes?

Erin: “To be an artist means not to compute or count; it means to ripen as the tree which does not force its sap, but stands unshaken in the storms of spring with no fear that summer might not follow………….Patience is all!”  Rainer Maria Rilke

“Maybe it’s time to consider living dangerously.  Maybe it’s time to reject the commands of power, the dictates of society and public opinion, and to stop worrying about what other people think about what you do.  You have the power and ability to create your own reality- to change what isn’t working and to manifest what you desire.”  Dick Sutphen

For more information about Erin, please visit her website:www.erinstewart.net

I wouldn’t exactly call the Great Famine an act of God, Shanoah. The reasons are a little hard to explain, so just stay with me here.

First off, most of the land in Ireland was owned by about 8,000 landlords who – surprise, surprise – were English descendants. They rented out their lands to tenant farmers who, in turn, rented out their land to subistence farmers called cottiers.

And cottiers had it good, let me tell you. In return for tilling the tenants farmers’ land, the cottiers got the priceless privelege of tilling their own teeny tiny plots of land. They weren’t paid, mind, but they could grow their own food and – crazy, I know – keep it.

Well, turns out that the potato is perfect for growing in teeny tiny plots of land. I read somewhere that you could feed six people for a year on just an acre of potatoes. Whether this is true or not, I don’t know. What I do know is that, by 1845, when the famine broke out, most of the rural population was living on potatoes and buttermilk… and nothing else.

So let’s break it down. You have an entire population relying on one crop for its subsistence and, once the famine breaks out, a distant government that devolves all responsibility for dealing with the disaster to local government and the free market. (Sound familiar?)

As with most disasters, the gun was cocked long before the Great Famine. All the potato blight did was pull the trigger.

Again, sound familiar?

You’re right in one thing, though, Shanoah. The oppressed rarely manage to blow up the Death Star or kill the wicked Sheriff of Nottingham. A certain exchange from the film adaptation of V for Vendetta comes to mind:

“What do you think will happen?”
“What usually happens when people without guns stand up to people with guns.”

So, yeah, treasure the few times when the oppressed have managed to pull it off.

This song, Hard Times Come Again No More, was written in 1854 by Steven Foster. It was a popular song back during the American Civil War, when about half the United States had a collective temper tantrum because the mean old Fedril Gubmint wouldn’t let them own human beings as property. This version is sung by Mavis Staples, who pretty much sang the soundtrack for another struggle in the South, the civil rights movement.

The civil rights movements is one of those few times when the rebels did manage to blow up the Death Star. And they did it without firing a shot, too. Not bad.

Courtesy of Ellis Creative (site here).

By the way, Shanoah, I just thought of this: Guess what the English band was playing when Lord Cornwallis surrendered to the nosepicking Continental Army at Yorktown. Why, it was The World Turned Upside Down.

Of course, this may not be true; I doubt an English military band would play a protest song against the English. That would sort of be like the boys in the NYPD choir singing Cop Killer. And like most things of this sort, I don’t care. A line from The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance comes to mind: “When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.”

I’m in the process of adding links to some of the posts but I’ll list them here so you don’t have to look through the whole thing.

Day 3

To book a stay at the Kuttawa Harbor House go to www.kuttawaharborhouse.com

Day 4

Visit the Corvette Museum: www.corvettemuseum.com

Day 5

For your first class accomodations at The Narrow Way B&B go to  www.thenarrowwaybb.com

Day 6

Mammoth Cave National Park: www.mammoth.cave.national-park.com

Day 7

My Old Kentucky Home State Park:  http://parks.ky.gov/findparks/recparks/mo/

Wild Turkey Distillery:  www.wildturkeybourbon.com

Day 8

To book a stay at the Cardwell Cabin see http://www.bbonline.com/ky/foxridge/index.html

Day 9

Here’s a youTube of Knob Creek.  When you get there you’ll find lots more.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRJuzUNJFIE

Night shoot: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARIXOC3qe0o

This is the page for info from the club on upcoming shoots.

http://www.machinegunshoot.com/shootinfo.htm