There is nothing better than hearing live music performed where it was intended to be heard. Fife & Drum is best on an open field, traditional Celtic music is best in a dark, small pub over a few pints, ‘Take Me Out to the Ball Game’ is best with peanuts at the park, root’n on the hometown boys, and Vivaldi is best in Venice with the sound of the un-amplified strings reverberating off stone statues within a charming church just a few meters from the Grand Canal.
Here’s the first movement from a concerto in d minor.
Today, walking through Dorsoduro, just around the corner from the Santa Maria della Salute, we happened upon a couple playing on my two favorite instruments, flute and guitar. They were really superb and they chose a courtyard with perfect acoustics, which you can hear nicely in the recording. I would have recorded more, but my phone was almost dead. Uhg. Here is the bit I did record and posted to soundcloud:
Diane and I went to church this morning…in Venice! It was the best way to experience the Basilica of San Marco, a gem of Byzantine architecture. I’ve never been in a more grand building, that is, until just shortly after we left church and went to the Doge Palace.
Words, pictures and sounds won’t do the Basilica justice, but I can tell you that the inside glistened as light poured in and reflected of the gold lined domes in the basilica. And when the service started we were treated with a earth moving pipe organ, and a angelic choir, singing in Italian, of course. Now why don’t we do church music like this at home? Very inspiring indeed.
I did my best to discretely record the service and take some pictures, although neither were allowed. But, I did ask for forgiveness while I was there.
You can hear the recording at http://soundcloud.com/baconworks/basilica-san-marco
I recorded this version of Peggy ‘O on my iPhone the other night while practicing for a show in July. It was the first time we tried banjo with it…and I quite liked it. Mark Evans on banjo, Luke Stark on bass, and I on guitar and vocals.
I first heard Peggy ‘O on a recording of the Dead from the seventies. It was one of those moments where I was completely captivated by the combined beauty of the melody, the story, and the way the Grateful Dead wove together the piano, bass and guitars. It was the only song I listened to for at least a week.
Here is a youtube video of a Dead version of Peggy ‘O from the seventies. Not as much piano in this version as the one I fell in love with. But still, you get the sense of what a powerful ballad this was. If you don’t get chills at least once during this performance…well…I’ll get off my Head soapbox now.
The members of Stoneybatter Band can often be found playing tunes at John Stone’s Public House in Ashland, MA. Here is half the band in the pub working out a new set of tunes late one evening. The first tune is one that I wrote called The Marlin Spike. The other two are tunes Jim dug up and I’d tell ya the name of ‘em if I could remember ‘em.
I’m gonna make a concerted effort to post at least one video a week of something musical. The only rule is that the video will be one that I took. I will not be reposting video’s of my new favorite band, The Avett Brothers, who have a very deep repertoire of some of the best songwriting I’ve heard in years, or versions of Phish’s brilliant Split Open and Melt, which some have called the “best sounding chaos you will ever hear”, or even gems from the Transatlantic Sessions. Nope, none of the above. Instead, I will post just videos of people I know that make great music…and maybe a few from me.
Here is the first from my buddy Mustachio. He is playing a tune that he recently wrote. He didn’t have a name for it…so, in the interest of getting this video posted, I named it for him. The video is from April 12th, 2011 at John Stone’s Public House in Ashland. He played this after everyone had pretty much gone home, which is always the way it works. Musicians know that the best stuff is always played when no one is around to hear it.
Late at night, after the session ends at John Stone’s in Ashland, Mustachio and I usually try to sneak in a bit of practice before they throw us out. One night in February I decided to see if there was enough light in the room to record us running through Farewell to Fiunary. We almost had a near disaster when the waitress came over shortly after recording this to pick up a bunch of empty pint glasses that were sitting on a stool. What she didn’t realize was that pint glasses were sandwiching my iPhone, which was carefully balanced on its edge while recording. This could have been a really expensive video. Fortunately, I was able to leap up in time to catch the phone before it plummeted to the floor…and here is the video that was on it.
On Monday, March 7th, I will be playing a fun selection of shanties and sea ballads at Framingham State College from 1:30pm to 2:15pm. I will be joined with George Arata on bouzouki, Luke Stark on bass and Mark Evans on concertina. In fact you can hear Mark in a recording I posted of him awhile back. Also, you can check out a recording below from one of our practices to get a sense of what we’ll be playing on Monday. We’re really looking forward to it.
My friend Tracy captured this video of my band, Stoneybatter Band, from the front row of Club Passim. She took the video on her iPhone during the 2011 BCMFest. Gotta luv the iPhone. Thanks Tracy.
