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It was a thrill to be in a packed house at The Guild a couple weekends ago, for a screening of You’ve Got Gold. I thought it was fantastic. Gillian Welch and David Rawlings were a favorite. I also liked Jason Isbell. (I must admit that I’ve never sug into his catalog.)
The film is on a pretty big tour. You can find out more about that, and watch the trailer here. https://www.yougotgoldmovie.com/
We got to hear Robyn Hitchcock at the South Broadway Cultural Center last week. He’s such a fantastic performer.
He played two sets of music, all requests, with his wife Emma adding some harmony for the last few songs. Then, he played the “encore” in the lobby. It was incredibly beautiful when he started A Day in the Life by the Beatles and everyone gently joined in for a sing along.
Listening to Morphine and drawing crows.
This evening’s practice with a Cretacolor 46122. I bought it today at Artisan because it was think and black. It was in a plastic package so I wasn’t sure what it was going to draw like. It’s like a very cool crayon. I wasn’t into it at first, but it grew on me. I imagine I’ll go back to it.
Man, I LOVE listening to Morphine late into the night. Perfect night-drawing music.
“Together, we create our community”
I’m so pumped to be part of the New Works program, sponsored by the City of Albuquerque and facilitated by Off Center Arts.
I’ll spend the next few months working along side a cohort of 11 other artists, as we each make up to four pieces of work. We’ll be sharing that work in process and practicing the skills artists need in the “real world” like approaching galleries and creating biographies and artist statements.
It all culminates in a gallery show at Fusion on June 6, 2025.
I can tell from the positive energy, from both the other artists and facilitators, that this is going to be a fantastic few months! Can’t wait to share my new work with you.
Today, I passed along The Perfect Wrong Note: Learning to Trust Your Musical Self by William Westney. When I consider the repair process I went through after college, this is one of the most important books. I highly recommend it.
Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sacklar Dynasty by Patrick Radden Keefe
I thought this book was fantastic. I listened to it on Albuquerque Public Library Libby audio book app.
It is an excellent reminder that, while our current governmental situation is certainly very messed up, a lot of very nefarious shit has been going down for a long time before. I find the “shock and awe” narrative at the moment is very demoralizing. This book helped me bring things back to, what I would consider, reality. Not that it is anyway pleasant, but I don’t need to be “shocked”. More important for me to continue to do the work that I hope bring folks together to make a more beautiful world.
I’ve been the sole banjo picker at a lot of son jarocho jams. But, last Saturday I was one of TWO banjo players! So cool.
I have a thurough self-led lesson about playing by ear in the works. For now, I thought I’d leave you with this.
My advice on how to learn to play by ear.
OK. While that video is just kind of a kidding around, playing by ear is a goal of many of the people I work with. Here is a video I made awhile back demonstrating one of the processes I use to learn a song by ear.
