Highlights
news
(by Keith, November 2005)
Well, the first news is the web site that you are looking at. I had taken the site off line sometime last spring because it was so out of date and it really needed a major overhaul. So now it's back thanks to the work of our friend and neighbor, Barb Ackemann, budding web wiz. We return with the sincere hopes and promises of better maintenance in the future. Your comments on the site are welcome.
One impetus for the site is the release of my first solo CD, Bound For Canaan - traditional songs from Eastern Canada and New England. I had been planning this project for about seven years, I would say. I was delighted to finally be able to get the right people together to record it and I am very happy with the result. The CD came out in July and I hope to organize some concerts of this material in the near future.
Becky and I also made a recording with accordionist, Andy Davis called Any Jig or Reel and this CD just came out in Oct 2005. It is a CD of traditional New England dance tunes and the medleys are long enough to actually use them for dancing. It is a production of New England Dancing Masters which provides materials to schools and community dance programs. Becky and I had a great time playing with Andy whose playing we have always admired. He has an amazing sense of rhythm and I love the groove on this CD. I think it is also a great source of traditional New England tunes for players who want to expand their repertoire.
I have also been playing with the Boston based group, Childsplay for the past few years. It is large fiddle ensemble comprised of players of instruments made by Bob Childs. I am one of a few non-fiddle players who have been invited to play with the group. Last December, the group made a new CD called Heaven and Earth and it has just been released. I did a little singing on it and the group recorded one medley of my tunes - a French style air and gavottes - Finistere and the Walls of St. Malo. It's a pretty exciting sound. For more info, visit Childsplay.org
In August, Becky and I led our second session of the American Dance Musicians course at Pinewoods, sponsored by the Country Dance and Song Society. It was a week long intensive course with about 15 students focused on developing skills for playing in contra dance ensembles. We did a lot of ear training, working on how to better learn dance tunes by ear and developing harmonies and rhythmic ideas. The class also worked a lot on how to develop arrangements for dance medleys. As in the previous year, we were really gratified by how hard people worked and the results from the smaller working groups people formed within the class. We won't be running the class next year, but perhaps again in 2007.
Becky has had a busy fall with the dance band, Wild Asparagus, with which she has played for over ten years. She played with them in Chatanooga, TN in September, at the Leaf Festival in North Carolina and in Colorado in October. In November, she will be touring wih the band in Oregon and Washington state. For more info, visit wildasparagus.com
Meanwhile, I have just been doing some concerts with the great Scottish style fiddler, Hanneke Cassel from Boston. I may be doing some work with her on a new recording project of hers later this fall. I also hope to work on a recording with my long time musical friend and fiddler Sam Amidon. He and I have played for the past few years with all-Ireland flute/ whistle and Irish Pipes champion, Isaac Alderson. That is an exclusively Irish music project, and we enjoy playing in a very traditional way without a lot of the usual contemporary-style arranging that I am often invovled in. It's great music and a lot of fun.
I am also happy to have another small tour coming up in January with Ruthie Dornfeld and Joel Bernstein in the Seattle area. We made a recording a number of years ago of Old Time music, Ways of the World. I think it's a cool CD. Joel and Ruthie have a great sound together on fiddle and harmonica and I played guitar in my usual Irish/DADGAD style (and sang a couple of songs). It is an interesting mix of sounds - non-traditional, but in a unique way, I think. Anyway, it will be fun to play some of that music again with those guys.
And of course, Becky and I continue to do a lot of work with Jeremiah McLane as part of Nightingale. We had a great tour in California in September and are especially looking forward to our trip to Ottawa and Montreal in November. Check out the Nightingale web site, NightingaleVT.org