The Last Straw

9 September 2013     

        I promised myself I would never use this public space for political ranting. I promised it would be about bluegrass music and my occupation, which is traveling. Last week was a watershed of sorts. Old angers returning to haunt me as an inept leader tries to bluster himself out of another fine political mess. More talk of sending our youth into harm's way as we attempt to become the New Centurions - the World's Police Force for the oil cartels. This blog also has a military attachment in its banner - 782 Gear. Marines know what that means. I don't even need to explain it to the rest of you. Just like I don't have to explain anything to you if you are a parent or a grandparent who has a son or daughter serving anywhere in the world today in our military services. You live each day with a certain gnawing worry about your family, just like my parents did every day when I was in Viet Nam. Now I have my own son and my own grand daughter. I promised years ago that no government would ever lay a hand on my child. Would never take him away from me if I had anything to do with it, or only, if he really wanted to sign on the dotted line and face the consequences of his actions.
       Facing the consequences of your own actions is what this is all about. We currently have a U.S. leader who doesn't understand the concept. I did not vote for him therefore my conscience is clean. He also doesn't understand the first rule in a street-fight. If you pick it, you better complete it, or else have help waiting around the corner near the dumpster. The smart guy doesn't pick the fight in the first place. He doesn't pick a fight and then go knocking on doors to see if any of the local citizens will take a vote on whether or not he should throw any punches. The smart guys in the military are laughing right now at this ridiculous charade. It would be great theatre if it weren't so horrendously scary for the future of our foreign policy and the future of our country. Just when you thought America's image around the world couldn't get any lower, we have  a third-rate political hack drag it down even further. People who pick fights understand the meaning of a Line and they're willing to lose a tooth or two defending it. This man just showed his hand to our enemies abroad and exposed his own personal gutlessness. He's no better than Snowden and Manning - two other wonderful examples of never having to live up to the consequences of your own actions. I fear for the outcome of this senseless exercise. My heart sinks another notch every time I see PBS listing the names of the men we're losing each day in Afghanistan. You conservatives may hate PBS and NPR, but I don't see any of the other news outlets offering any sense of  honor to our brave men and women in our military services. Now if only our current U.S. leader could learn some lessons in honor and leadership. What an incredible waste of time, our country's resources, and more important, the lives of our sons and daughters.
      
      

Lazy Afternoons - BLUE TRAIN Performs Again at Goofy's

 Blue Train:  Mike Hartnett, Dave Propst, Tom Reeves, Rick Miller, and George Osing at Goofy's Eatery and Spirits (Spring Grove, Pa.) One of the last bastions of traditional bluegrass music in the Pa. Md. Del. W.Va. region.

1 September 2013

       Nobody on the dance floor; at least not yet. It's a holiday weekend near the border-line of Pennsylvania and Maryland. Even though it's the Labor Day Weekend it hardly feels like the end of summer. As a matter of fact, it's still hot and sticky. But I know from experience that as the sun starts declining in an hour or two it will soon be very pleasant in the rural valley along the road to Hanover. Blue Train has almost finished the first of three sets. I look around and there aren't too many patrons. This could be a wash, I'm thinking, A holiday weekend could be a boom or bust depending on how many people are off at family picnics. Donnie Hudson says "Stick around. They're coming." Another regular customer confirms the prediction. I'm hoping they're right. This is a band you don't want to miss. And besides, there's no predicting what kind of entertainment they'll throw your way. The band breaks into "Pain in My Heart." George Osing on banjo is going nuts on it. One of the best renditions I've heard in a long time. Out on to the empty dance floor comes a tossle-haired little wild child who's mesmerized by the banjo - children can't resist the twanging of a banjo. The kid starts moving like a wind-up toy that's out of control. Naturally there's adult laughter and a combination of human fascination and flashes of memories, an evocation of lost days when we were all kids moving to live music, or watching our own little ones staring in awe at someone manipulating a wooden box-full of strings producing music. We're there rooting for the kid, maybe the kid in all of us. I watched the child and realized how primal it was. You have to get up and move when the rhythm urges you. It's a lazy afternoon and the folks are sipping cool drinks in the heat. A high-energy group of musicians had just started their work-out which would last another three hours.

      It was almost as if the kid was calling us all to get out of our seats and have fun. I hadn't looked behind me in a while and more bluegrass fans were filtering in and filling up Whitey Runkle's back pavilion. Soon into the second set it had already grown into a party with a lot of Goofy's regulars taking their usual seats and picnic benches. The drink and food orders started multiplying. A few motorcycles came roaring into the ample parking lot. The day was cooling off and it was going to be a nice evening for music. Surprises were in store, but we didn't know that yet. Into their second set, Blue Train was just limbering up. By the end of the second set the house was packed, and here's the best part, by a lot of people who had never been to Goofy's before, but had heard about Blue Train's first two appearances at Whitey's establishment. Whitey runs a tight ship. He'll only give the audience the classics: whether it's classic rock, classic country, or classic hard-core bluegrass. I like that. You can depend on it for a good time. He's also not afraid to step out and take a risk on a new band, as long as it entertains his steady customers. There are only one or two of these places left near the Rt. 83 corridor and you have to do some searching to find them. Goofy's Eatery and Spirits on York Road outside of Spring Grove, Pa. is one of them. Owned and operated by 'Whitey' Runkle, this is where the bluegrass cognoscenti hang out - but they, the experts, don't consider themselves experts. They wouldn't dream of calling themselves that. But they do enjoy talking about the music form and who's who, and who was, and who's playing where these days. It's a better source of information than you'll ever get on Google. Right from the horse's mouth so to speak. Being a gardener, I've also learned why my eggplants didn't do so well this year and the older ladies have taught me a thing or two about how to improve my bean and tomato production. I don't get this kind of knowledge from conversations I have in my Fairfax County subdivision. Whitey provides the platform - keeps the ship in motion for the passengers to gather and commiserate about the weather and the reason for the voyage - to listen to some traditional music done the old-fashioned way. Build memories for a small child who is going totally ballistic on banjo-music.

       Blue Train is a relatively new band, but not really. Each member is a professional. They each have long histories of working with some of the best traditional bluegrass musicians in the U.S. - let me repeat that - in the U.S. More fascinating, they haven't even hit their stride yet. They've been together for such a short time and have had such few rehearsals they don't even have a website. Just drawing on the strengths of the names of the players, and their individual talents, they've already filled up their dance card to Christmas. This is an amazing feat when you consider how many bands and musicians out there are starving to do the same thing, or have tried for years to obtain this level of quality and somehow, just can't get their act together. When you know the names, then you understand:  Rick Miller (guitar). Dave Propst (mandolin). Tom Reeves (bass), George Osing (banjo), and Mike Hartnett (fiddle). These guys live and breathe bluegrass - hardcore bluegrass. None of that New Deal communist stuff with a lot of 21st Century suburban angst or psycho-babble. Jimmy Martin and the Johnson Mountain Boys would offer their stamp of approval. Most bands bring along a lot of personal baggage. Blue Train provides surprises. Tonight was just another testament to the good times.

     Word soon spread that Harold Tipton was there for the party. He's a legend in the Maryland bluegrass circuit. He says he's retiring. Not only that, but Mike Munford had returned a second time to have some fun with Blue Train. Mike was there when Blue Train appeared at Goofy's the last go-round. Toward the end of the third set Tipton and Munford mounted the stage and really turned it into a party - an event. The dance-floor was packed and people were hooting and hollering. Everybody was shouting requests. Blue train took over again and closed out the evening with a rousing encore of Jimmy Martin's "Sunny Side of the Mountain."

       The last person to leave the dance floor was the tossle-haired little wild-child. He'd been dancing and running around for four hours. His name was Tyler. I talked to his father, a nice young guy. Years from now Tyler will be remembering the night he heard the guys with the acoustical instruments. He'll remember way back in the recesses of his human DNA the ringing of George Osing's banjo-picking or how fast Dave Propst could pick his mandolin. He has no idea right now that he was there listening to Harold Tipton and Mike Munford, but when he grows up, and if he gets hooked on bluegrass, or even returns to it years from now, he'll know those names. He'll be telling his friends he was there that night to see it for himself. The night he spent with his Dad listening to the experts.

Next Stop: Blue Train will be at the Williamsburg Inn at White Marsh (Baltimore area) October 5th, 2013, from 8:00 to midnight.