New Trail Coaching, Scott Malyszka

Tuesday night I saw Cindy Mangsen and Steve Gillette at the Reston-Herndon Folk Club. I have never seen this duo before, though the emcee noted that they had performed maybe eight times at the folk club over the past twenty years.

I must admit that I was a bit unsure about the show, since I had not heard Cindy and Steve before. I decided to look for some music samples on CDBaby that afternoon. The first thing I found was an entire album of songs about cats sung by Cindy. Now that is probably fun for some folks, but it’s not quite my taste. but then I found samples of an album by Steve and cindy with some real good stuff. There was a stirring song about facing a hurricane, and some fun concertina tunes.

The show was very nice. No doubt the duo performs in classic seventies folk style. Mellow, sweet, and a little spunky. Lots of topical and story songs, and some apologies beforehand when they were going to sing something a little more poetic. I can take a lot more of the poetic stuff than most folkies maybe. Steve’s guitar picking is really sweet. I was impressed with his tone; it sounded like he was using a fairly thin pick on a dread or jumbo. The sound was clear and big, with some of the thin-pick percussive sound that can sound a bit like autoharp picking. Cindy’s concertina playing was spot on, sometimes playing backup for a song, and then ripping real good stuff on an instrumental like “Nola” or “Flowers of Edinburgh.”

Overall a very good show. I am definitely in a different generation from these folks and their fans, but I am sure glad that I went to hear them.

Last Tuesday I performed some new songs at the Reston-Herndon Folk Club. I had won their monthly random drawing for someone to play a 25-minute set. I decided to ask my musical friends Harny and Al to join me, and folks seemed to enjoy the trio set.

I was a little extra nervous that night. Performing new songs makes me a little worried that some of them are just going to stink. Being nervous affected my guitar playing a little, but overall it went fine. Harny played harmonica, slide guitar, and sang some harmonies. Al played mandolin and guitar. These guys are very capable and knowledgeable musicians, so it was a treat to have them join me. I showed them what I wanted them to play without writing out charts, and they really got a good ninety-some percent of it.

We did five of my originals that I want to take into the studio. Overall the board recording was OK, though the stuff was pretty sloppy and ragged at a lot of points. Some of the slop just comes from putting three guys together and only practicing a few times. I also didn’t like how I was singing. I think that I was pushing for volume at some points and not letting my body resonate naturally. I think that the mike I was singing into sounded very tinny while the guitar mikes were very boomy. That could have been the mikes or the board, or maybe it sounded better in the room than on the recording. But, the songs did well and the trio situation added a lot.

We also played a reel called “Reuben and Sandy,” written by Al’s friend Charlie Hall. Al played mando and I played flatpick guitar. This was the best part of the whole set. Al plays very clean mando, and my picking held up pretty good too. Just a good bluegrassy number. I will have to decide if I want to put this or any other instrumentals on the next CD. I really don’t want to go through the hassle of licensing and paying for someone else’s material on a CD when I have so much of my own. But, this is an exceptional tune. We’re also going to add it to our tune lists for Feel The Wag, so I will need to work out something with the composer anyway.

So now I have the hard part of listening to this board recording for a week or two and deciding what really needs to be fixed. Mostly I need to work on possibly choosing better keys for one or two, and also just exercising the songs a little more so I can hit the notes more accurately with my voice. Hopefully I can get Al and Harny to record with me, but who knows?

On we go.

A week or so ago my banjo student gave me a CD of Sufjan Stevens songs so that I could hear his banjo style. I had heard of Stevens, but I had not paid much attention to his music until now. I had always associated him with the crazy Danielson Famile act, with whom he has performed at times. Danielson Famile is a kooky Christian folky crew that I had heard here and there a few times. I like anyone who takes a strange, artful, intentionaly poetic approach, but I found the Famile stuff a little tedious after a minute or two. The vocals I had heard were in a silly falsetto, and the lyrics were too didactic for my taste. I told myself that I would have to come back and give Danielson another try when I felt like putting in some effort.

So I had ignored Sufjan Stevens, associatinghis music with the Famile as silly stuff. But wow, was I wrong. Maybe I’m wrong about Danielson too, we’ll see.

Stevens’s music is child-like, delicate, sweet, and yet epic, stirring, anguished, mesmerizing, beautiful. I have never heard anyone take a lo-fi approach and yet create such beautiful, clean, vast sounds on albums. I have to get shopping to get more of his music in our stereo.

Stevens’s song “Casimir Pulaski Day” is the most touching song I have heard in a long time. I get weepy listening to it. The simple melody, the plunky banjo and soft trumpet, the stark plot in the lyrics. Man, this is good music.

Another time I might write about Stevens’s banjo style here. But for now, I just want to let loose with a big “Hurrah!” for finding fresh, real, beautiful music. And I’ll have to say a few more “thank yous” to the person who pointed him out to me.

Last week I finally got a copy of “The Portlan Collection, vol. 2.” The Portland books are two volumes of fiddle tunes collected by contra dance musicians from the northwest United States. I’ve had volume one for several years now, and I never tire of it. Volume two just picks right up and continues the intriguing music and commentary.

The books are formatted simply. All tunes are listed in alphabetical order. In the back are several of the usual indexes, by key and title and alternate title, etc. There is also an alphabetized commentary section that gives background, sources, recommended recordings, and playing tips for the tunes. A fiddler could have these in her or his bathroom for thirty years and never run out of stuff to look at.

The tunes are transcribed in very simple arrangements. No bow markings for the fiddlers, and very few double stops and drones. They leave it up to you to add your style, which I like. For example, from Feel The Wag suggested that we try “Horace Hanesworth,” which has a fairly vanilla B part if played as written. But when I put a little Georgia shuffle on it, that B part turned right Appalachian without hardly trying.

I like the choice of tunes in the Portland books. They have a lot of common tunes found elsewhere, but they have so many tunes that just don’t show up in other books. It is a treat to flip through and see a new tune to try spontaneously. “One-Horned Sheep” came to our band this way, when I saw at a glance that it had some affinity with one of my favorites, “Money In Both Pockets.” When Bud opened his book to look at “One-Horned Sheep,” he pointed out “old Grey Cat,” a forgotten favorite on the opposing page. So the cat jumped immediately onto the band’s lists as well.

OK, so every old-time or contra fiddler should have these books: Portland Collection volumes one and two, Stacy Phillips big collection of tunes (only volume one is in print), and Phillips’s collection of waltzes. There are probably better waltz books for American fiddlers, but I haven’t found any. Please send along your suggestions.

I must comment here on David Brody’s “Fiddler Fake Book.” This is a very nice book and well worth having. But for some reason it does not captivate me the way the Portland and Phillips books do. Perhaps it is the large, clumsy page size of the Brody book. Or it may just be that it doesn’t have as many tunes as the others. I know that Brody’s book is the canon for some bands and jams, but I always go to Portland or Phillips first.

No one book has all the definitive versions of tunes, for certain. I play “Duck River” in the traditional Appalachian or old-time contour, but I don’t think I’ve found that version of the tune in any of my large fiddle collections. The only place where I have it for sure is in the Molsky-Fisk-Marxer slow jam book that has maybe a dozen tunes or so.

So stop reading this blog, and take your Portland collection to the john to find some new fiddle tunes!

On Sunday, Groundhog’s Eve, I attended a clawhammer banjo workshop taught by Adam Hurt. The workshop took place at Lew Stern’s Little Bear Banjo Hospital in Arlington VA. This event was planned for experienced players to learn some tunes from Kentucky fiddlers. Adam taught three tunes, one each from John Sallier, Art Stamper, and Ed Haley. Adam took the fiddlers’ interpretations directly to the banjo. He explained that sometimes banjo players learn tunes from other banjo players, and the learning pickers often simplify the tune for themselves. Then other players learn it down the line and simplify it even more, until all your left with is a bump-ditty ghost of the original. So he wanted to point us back to the fiddlers as a primary source for picking up new tunes.

I really liked the tasteful way Adam pulled this off. Some banjo players seem to be more mechanical in putting a fiddle tune onto the banjo. Sometimes trills, cuts, and endless runs of notes just seem a little too ambitious for even the best clawhammer player to pull off. Adam definitely keeps the drive in the music and isn’t scared to put in a well’placed brush here and there. It might be called a “tasteful melodic clawhammer” style.

Two things I picked up about tunings. Adam uses a gEADE tuning a lot for tunes in G, Am, etc. he says that he doesn’t use standard bluegrass G tuning very much. I really like this gEADE tuning as well. It gives a more pentatonic sound, and it does allow the 6 note and vi chord a more prominant place. Also, Adam usually tunes up without a capo. I don’t know how common this is, but I’ve usually seen people tune up to aDADE, AEAC#E, etc., with a capo. I really like the tension in the strings when tuning up without the capo. Bigger tone for sure.

One thing I picked up about right-hand thumb: Adam kept encouraging economy of motion, which is a concept I understand from classical playing. But he applies it in a unique way on the banjo. He prepares his thumb on the fifth string as soon as possible and keeps it there until it needs to play that note. He even said that he leans the thumb into the string and displaces it slightly. I assume that he also does this thumb placement on other strings when drop-thumbing. He seems to put the thumb on the string two or three beats before it needs to play. I’ve been practicing this slowly for a few days, and suddenly my volume has increased and my tone has deepened. Preparing the thumb seems to keep the rest of the hand very close to the strings, so the motions must all stay relaxed and efficient. Awesome stuff.

On sunday I bought a copy of chance McCoy’s CD from Adam. Man, I love this stuff. The full title is “Chance Mccoy and the Appalachian String Band.” I had heard a couple of Chance’s tracks at Les thompson’s studio when I was recording my CD last year, and I must admit that at that time I thought they seemed just OK and maybe a little too sleepy. but hearing the finished CD, man I love it. the fast, full band numbers are super tight and super energetic. I love the raucous frenzy of folks like Old Crow Medicine Show, but this other, tight sound is so powerful. Fiddle and banjo notes just driving down the tracks. And the slower, quieter numbers are very stirring. Chance sings “Little birdie” solo with clawhammer banjo, and I can’t get it out of my head. Just when I thought I heard enough versions of “Little Birdie” and “Gospel Plow” in one lifetime, chance really pulls off some sweet new interpretations.