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(by Keith, November 2006)
There have been a few teaching projects for us this past six months that have been particularly exciting. I started a class for young people (mostly ages 11 to 13) here in Brattleboro, teaching celtic tune repertoire by ear. The class has been run through the Brattleboro Music Center (BMC) which in the past has been primarily a classical music organization. It turned out to be a great group of kids who, with minimal background in fiddle music, worked hard and made great progress in developing their repertoire. And I have been happy to be connected to an important local music institution that is looking to expand the breadth of its music program.
I have also been working with an enthusiastic group of musicians from Marlboro College who are keen to develop as a contra dance band. Becky and I have been playing for student contra dances at Marlboro for years and have watched student interest in dancing grow dramatically. So it has been great to help foster the beginnings of a traditional dance music community on campus.
Becky and I also taught at several camps at the end of last summer. We have been at Meadowlark Camp in Maine for ten years, every year the camp has been held. It’s a bit of a second home and was better attended than ever. We enjoyed the company of some great musical friends - Grey Larsen, Cindy Kallet, Richie Stearns, Ken Kolodner, Malke Rosenfeld and many others. We ended our summer at Pinewoods with another great roster of musicians. And I led another class on learning by ear with many former students from the American Dance Musicians course that I really enjoyed.
In early September, I had another chance to perform with Fair Play - a slightly shifting conglomeration of people which this time included Mark Simos, Shannon Heaton and Becky. The band focuses on my song material, much of it from my solo album, Bound for Canaan. We were at the New World Festival in Randolph, VT and it was good to get another chance to do that material. Becky and I did a couple of double bill shows with Shannon and her husband, Matt Heaton in August, and those were particularly fun. It was nice for Becky and I to do stuff on our own, which doesn’t happen so much these days. And we did a few things together with Matt and Shannon. And on top of all that, we got to sit back an enjoy their great playing while they did their duo set.
Nightingale has had a string of shows this fall. (Becky and I are actually on a plane to Lawrence, Kansas as I am writing this) We did a series of semi local concerts in Nelson, New Hampshire (Monadnock Folklore Society), Cumberland Rhode Island (Blackstone River Theater), Bradford, Vermont (Middle Earth Cafe) and New Market, New Hampshire with David Surette and Suzie Burke at the Stone Church. We were also in Nashville, Tennessee and - soon to be - Kansas for a dance weekend.
Becky was busy with Wild Asparagus in Minneapolis and Washington, DC and she just got back from her annual week with the band in Oregon. They also recently played a new festival in Northampton that sounded exciting. I was part of Childsplay again this year - the fiddle orchestra comprised primarily of fiddlers who play instruments made by Bob Childs of Boston. It was a great show again this year and I particularly enjoyed doing a version of the song Clamanda from Bound for Canaan, with the benefit of 28 fiddlers and an array of other instruments. It was a wall of sound. And finally, I had the pleasure of playing accompaniment in a series of shows for a few friends who have been performing their own solo material - New England fiddler/ singer Lissa Schneckenburger, wild fiddler Hanneke Cassel and singer song writer Lui Collins. They all have recently released CD projects that I played on and it was good to do that material live again.
On the home front, we have been enjoying the development of the newest fiddle player in the family. Our five year old son, Aidan has been taking violin lessons for almost a year, now, and is really beginning to look like he's connected to the instrument. Look for his newsletter sometime in the future.
Becky and I have a few more gigs through the end of the year. Nightingale has a dance in Concord, MA in early Dec, Asparagus has a few things in Connecticut and New York and Bec and I will play with Big Bandemonium in Greenfield at the end of December. New Years Eve, we do our annual concert with the Amidon Family here in Brattleboro. That’s one of our most enjoyable events of the year. Hope you can make it. More next year.
Keith
--Keith Murphy and Rebecca Tracy
Blackislemusic.com
104 Washington St
Brattleboro, VT 05301