For My Own Information

 AcrosstheTrack Bluegrass - one of my particular favorite traditional bands working in Maryland. 

Mike Hartnett, James Langer, Rex Smith, Fred Long, and Darin Wassum.

31 December 2014
Vienna, Virginia

      In the past few years I had been sensing a shift in my preference choices for bluegrass by slipping across the state-line to experience more of it in Maryland. I even wrote about it in several postings. Believe me, I caught some flack about it when my addiction for traditional bluegrass went over the line too, and I began searching for new haunts in Maryland. Make that new haunts (venues) and new (old) bands I hadn't experienced yet. The more I discovered in Maryland, and the more I wrote about it, the more the personal criticism from bluegrass friends here in Virginia deepened. But it's still a humorous situation - nothing serious to write home about, or nothing that's going to permanently banish me from Vienna, Virginia. I'll caveat my statements right here and now with some geography: I live in the "DC Metro Area" which straddles the Potomac River, so it's easy for me to draw an imaginary 100-mile circle around 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and call it my OPs area ('Operational' for all you non-military types). Since Virginia is roughly shaped like a triangle with a northern pointed top, the circle includes more of  Maryland than Virginia. If the circle were a clock, the upper right quadrant - from 12:00 to roughly 3:30 - would include portions of what is now considered Baltimore suburbs. The whole circle is actually becoming one great big megalopolis with very few defining boundaries between suburban commuter 'bedroom' communities. Traffic congestion anywhere within a hundred miles of this imaginary picture has become a major social disease that controls our lives - or disrupts it now on an almost daily basis. One traffic accident on I-95 north or south can cause grid-lock anywhere on the two major beltways around Washington, D.C. and Baltimore. The older I get the more I ask myself why I want to live here. One of the major reasons why I want to live here is the "100-Mile Ops Area" is rich in the diversified activities that Connie and I like to indulge in, rich in the arts, and our slice of the good life includes a little parcel of  Virginia property that just keeps sky-rocketing in investment value. We like Vienna, Virginia, because we have a town government that is dedicated to maintaining Vienna as a small town amidst the morass of  out-of-control suburban sprawl that is Fairfax and Loudoun Counties.

      You would think that such a rich and diversified area as northern Virginia would be supporting and presenting a lot of traditional bluegrass - it once did. The D.C. metro area was once the hot-bed of bluegrass. But times and tastes change and those changes are reflected in a pure dollars and cents attitude with club and bar owners and the promoters who want to stage entertainment that will turn them a profit. For more than a few years now I've been to bars and clubs here in northern Virginia that attempted to draw customers with fairly well known bluegrass bands and the results were usually disastrous. The usual complaints were rampant and up-front: "I can't get a drinking crowd in here with bluegrass."  The northern Virginia suburbs has hundreds of  bars and restaurants offering live music - traditional bluegrass is not an option. There are a few exceptions, but even the music is "Americana" and geared toward a younger audience that is going to spend more money on beer-drinking. The taste of the music loses its importance over the taste of  the 'artisan' 'hand-crafted' fruit-flavored and fruit-laced beers that younger drinkers seem to be hooked on. I blame none of this demise of the music or demise of truly authentic beer-drinking on the club and bar-owners. They are in the business to make money selling alcohol and food. I often laugh at the naivete of the older bluegrass guys when they tell me, "Yeah, that bar doesn't hire us any more. We used to play there regularly and now they never call us."  I don't say anything in return. There is no sense in saying anything. They're not getting the big picture of alcohol economics.

       If  I couldn't find traditional bluegrass in northern Virginia I could find it by going 50 or 60 miles north, east, or west of where I live. Even now to go south, you have to travel almost to the outskirts of Richmond to find  traditional bluegrass. There is no sense in arguing with me on this point because I frequently check all the resources (what little there are,) to keep abreast of the Traditional Bluegrass Scene in my area. I am excluding here discussion of  the infrequent special show, the one-time event of a well-known or lesser-known bluegrass act, and the staged summer-time big festival setting. We have a number of long-running, successful, summer bluegrass festivals in Virginia and Maryland and I don't like to attend them. It's another personal non-preference of mine. The more I traveled around Maryland the more locally known secrets I uncovered; not so much through open-advertising, but by word-of-mouth. Older folks and younger folks would approach me with, "If you like this then you have to go over to this place to hear this group!" I discovered something else, too. A core group of bluegrass bands and families connected to those bands were providing regularly scheduled entertainment - on any given weekend throughout the year - in any number of venues in Maryland. Not only that, but this core group provides a lot of the traditional bluegrass for Delaware, southern Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and certain areas of West Virginia. The names of the bands may change, the configurations of players may change, but certain family names of members keep popping up to constantly surprise me. Or, a family member will offer up a hot tip: "You know I have a brother who's playing next week at the VFW in Martinsburg!" Keeping up with my own personal preferences was becoming a bit much every weekend.

      I started putting together my own calendar on my blogsite so I could personally keep up with it. I started the calendar on Boxing Day, December 26th, 2013.

782gear.blogspot.com/2013/12/traditional-grass-good-times-galore.html

My original intent was to run it for a few weeks into the New Year of 2014 and then keep changing it by deleting old entries. After a month into 2014 I went public with it and was soon shocked to get over a thousand hits on it, (and also a story I had written about the Annual Jumbo Jimmy's Christmas Party).  That party was significant because one band disbanded and another formed up to become "Northern Connection." In the following months I  recorded the emergence of new bands and configurations as long as the band in question followed my own prejudiced guidelines of what constituted traditional bluegrass. I wanted to see for myself how the health and vitality of  Maryland traditional bluegrass was faring. What better way than to record the births and deaths of  bands, or how many times any certain band was being asked to perform at a venue. The calendar also quickly became a dated record of productivity. I smiled too, when printed hard-copies of the calendar started showing up, usually in the hands of older folks at some of the places I liked to hang out. At the end of 2014 the Calendar exhibits some unique facts about the state of traditional bluegrass in Maryland - and Maryland bands and bluegrass musicians playing in and out of the State of Maryland:

1. Over 200 performances by local bands occurred in 2014. This is traditional bluegrass only and does not include any band that mixes contemporary music, blues, Celtic, Irish,  'old-time,' or originally-written material. There are any number of  bands in Maryland that are working, and producing this style of music.
2. The Calendar does not reflect Maryland bands that also participated in the larger, organized, multi-day festivals.
3. The Calendar also does not reflect amateur local bands that end up playing (gratis) at Churches, public picnics, street fairs, and local town gatherings such as pumpkin festivals, market openings, street carnivals, etc. There are plenty of these local, thrown-together bands in Maryland, and some of them are extraordinarily good!
4. Cypress Creek Bluegrass Band, The Rocks Bluegrass Factory Band, Northern Connection, Special Blend, Hickory Hill Bluegrass all emerged this year and are gaining audiences. Blue Train experienced its first full year of completing a busy schedule.

      In helping me to compile the First Year of the Calendar I need to acknowledge the assistance of  the Families at the center of  Maryland's bluegrass production. Thanks and sincere appreciation to the Paisleys, the Lundys, the Millers, the Martins, the Meeks, the Shorts, the Blair Brothers, the Beachleys, the Streetts, the Runkles, the Eldreths  - and I've probably missed a few more who've helped me along the way. Please feel free to correct the error of my ways the next time you see me - and I'll post the correction. It's all for the good of the cause - letting the world of traditional bluegrass know that traditional bluegrass is alive and doing quite well in the State of Maryland.

Ed Henry's Maryland Traditional Bluegrass Calendar - begun 26 December 2013

Encounter of The Third Kind - Flavio Sala in Reisterstown, Maryland

 Flavio Sala  (Bojano, Italy) at Temple Emanuel in Reisterstown, Md. 13 December 2014

15 December 2014
Reisterstown, Maryland

      Children are so funny. They can be brilliantly honest or so far out in left field in their thinking that as an adult you have to shake your head in wonder. I have witnesses to this event I'm about to relate, so rest assured I'm not making this up. Again, it reinforces in me the distrust I have for any adult or parent I hear use the over-worn phrase, "Children are so smart nowadays!"

      Only a few people know I'm a calligrapher. It's a hobby. It's me making the rebellious statement that in an increasing world of technology there is still an old and artistic way of producing something timeless and beautiful. For a few years I was tasked to take my pens and inks to a basket-ball free throw competition at a local church gymnasium. As the kids progressed through the competition I would have to sit there and hand-letter 60 or 70 very nicely printed completion certificates. Since we didn't know who the winners would be, it was the only way to assure that we got the right names on the right certificates. So I mastered a quick way of doing it, and the more I did it the easier it got. I was utilizing the French Humanist form because of  the flow and rapidity required. The children came in groups of  two's and three's by age. I'm whipping through the certificates asking name spellings, laying them aside so the ink can dry, like a drill sergeant moving along with a battalion of  Marines. I barely looked up from my work and I'm still trying to have conversations with some of the adults next to me. I had to work on an old gymnasium bench; not the best of places to be handling Renaissance-styled calligraphy. The children watched me work; fascinated that pen and ink could still be used in such a fashion. Three 10-year old girls were right in front of me. I could hear them having a disagreement:
"Look how he does that!" one said.
"He's not really doing it." said the other.
"Yes he is. I've seen my teacher write like that!" the first one said.
" You're wrong! It's not really him. It's the Pen!" said the other.
We adults laughed. It broke up the monotony of the day and eased the pain in my cramped fingers. The beauty of pure statements coming out of children's misdirected thought processes and total lack of reasoning.

      You know by now that crazy thoughts and memories like this go through my brain while I'm being transported through other worlds. I'm at my third Flavio Sala performance in Reisterstown, Maryland. The concert is nearly ended and Terry Mandell, one of the concert directors is asking Flavio Sala to talk a little bit about the unique, one and only, guitar he had been playing all evening. The guitar was made by Master Luthier Camillo Perrella of Bojano, Italy, which also happens to be Flavio Sala's hometown. Flavio tried to turn his attention to the work of Camillo Perrella, the intricacies and artistry of  turning wood into a world-class musical instrument, the science of sound, acoustical properties, it was all a bit too much to explain in a few minutes after completing a rigorous and exhausting 2-hours of playing classical guitar and then in the second set, introducing works from his upcoming 'discographical' project. I could see some looks on people's faces in the audience; non-musicians and non-acoustical science types who were probably thinking, "It's not him. It's that fantastic guitar!" They laughed. They applauded. They stood three times and delivered three ovations. With a chuckle, Flavio stated, "I'm really tired!" and left the performance area. Give him a break. Let him rest. He floated out of the main auditorium area while the crowd gathered for snacks and drinks and there was a hub-bub of excitement in the room. Flavio would be back to meet-and-greet and sign autographs. Performing causes a natural adrenalin rush (only when it's done right; only when it's done well) and I could see that look on Flavio's face when he graciously and humorously excused himself. Let him rest. Let him catch his breath.

      As beautiful as it is, as perfect as it is in its harmonics and acoustical quality, the Camillo Perrella Guitar is nothing more than a pretty piece of wood-sculpture unless it's in the hands of a master. I've had the "Flavio Sala Experience" now for three concerts and I can more easily focus on audience reaction to what guitar and master can produce in a matter of two performance sets. I've learned by now to expect more than a few surprises at any Flavio Sala concert experience. On this particular evening at Temple Emanuel, Flavio executed his per usual first set of classical selections with flawless enthusiasm. I need to add that he garnered excellent audio assistance from Randy Goldberg who was running the sound system. The temple is basically a huge, open space with a flat, back wall of windows and could have been an acoustical nightmare. Flavio can spend up to an hour before each performance perfecting the range of that beautiful piece of wood sculpture. I'm fortunate to be able to sit quietly and listen to every note, every nuance, as Flavio works with his sound engineers to get the perfect quality that he wants. Once maintained, there is no going back, no interruptions, no changes. He and the sound techs get it done once and then the guitar mastery takes off  like a rocket ship.

      Flavio's normal first set is comprised of selections from Fernando Sor, Bach, Chopin, Rodrigo Riera, Vincente Ascencio, and a host of others. Tonight's presentation of Ignacio Figueredo's "Los Caujaritos" was especially memorable for it's fire and passion. He ended the set with an homage to Carlos Santana's "Europa" which is one Flavio's most frequently selected songs on YouTube. The reason for the concert was the second set; devoted to introducing and show-casing selections soon to be available by signing up on Flavio's website. The "discographical project" - Mi Guitarra y Mis Amores - will be, as Flavio Sala announced, "A Gift to all my fans. All those people who have followed me and enjoyed my music."  There is nothing to buy, nothing to order. Flavio will automatically download monthly offerings from the project - a raft of music he's been feverishly recording since September. All one needs to do is contact Flavio's website to sign up. He's got a plan. A succinct plan to move himself forward as I've mentioned in other articles. Tonight's concert was a prelude; just a teaser; and I was as much interested to know what was going to be offered as the next listener. As the second set progressed Flavio introduced only a few of the songs by author and title. Some I recognized, most were obscure, some I hadn't heard in years, all of them were brilliantly interpreted in the hands of Flavio. I was especially struck dumbfounded by the third selection, which I tried to pin-point as something out of the height of  the English Renaissance. I made a note to get the author and title from Flavio at a later time. (He was swamped after the show with mobs of people asking questions - he's always swamped, and gracious enough to accept the adoration!)

    Two days later Ruth Perrella Barker e-mailed me a set-list and I matched it up with my notes- the song was from Queen! - "Love of My Life." I rolled over with laughter because I'm not unfamiliar with Freddy Mercury and Queen. I also laughed and gave Ruth a wink at the concert when Flavio slid quietly into "Are You Lonesome Tonight" written by Lou Handman. I looked around the audience to see how other people were reacting to this Elvis classic. There were a lot of smiles. The woman next to me grabbed my arm. She asked me, "Is he really playing that??"  Yes, I said. He's really playing that and it never sounded that good when Elvis did it. My reason for writing this is to give you the listener an opportunity to know what's coming up in "Mi Guitarra y Mis Amores" I've decided not to. I'll just leave you a few hints. I don't want to spoil the surprises. It would be like yelling out the punch-line of a good joke or telling a child what's underneath the wrapping of a Christmas present. I don't want to spoil it for you. You can also find out by attending the next Flavio Sala Concert. It'll make you a firm believer in this talented, young Italian with the beautiful guitar.

      With many thanks and gratitude to Tesca Concerts of  Temple Emanuel in Reisterstown, Maryland. Tesca founders Steve and Terry Mandell have produced some outstanding programs at the Temple and in the surrounding region. Thanks too, to Randy Goldberg for the audio engineering.

 For more information about Mi Guitarra y Mis Amores  contact  www.flaviosala.com
For more information about Tesca's upcoming events contact:  tescaconcerts@gmail.com
Visit TESCA Temple Emanuel on Facebook.

Ruth Perrella Barker, Flavio's manager and Terry Mandell (Tesca Concerts)

Christmas 2014

15 December 2014
Vienna, Virginia

Hello Dear Friend

Christmas season always causes within me the urge to write. In a former life I wouldn't have thought of it. I was always depressed and self-absorbed. The older I get the more I can't be around  people who are what I used to be like. Depression is a contagious disease that I need to steer clear of. And negativity too. I once heard a man tell me that he was wasn't happy that his grandchildren were coming over to stay for a whole weekend. That one statement told me everything I needed to know about him.  I didn't want to know anything else about his life. Yeah. I can be highly critical and judgmental of other people. I listened to his whining and thought about all those who would love to have grandchildren, or in my own case, not having the geographical ability to see my grand daughter as much as I'd like. I'm one of the lucky ones. God has been good to me. Should I squander away the good things in life He's gifted me? It's better for my mental  and spiritual health that I stay away from depression and negativism. Christmas has always been a time for me to think about these things. Summer's gone. The harvest is over. The cold gloom of winter sinks in and then deepens until the ground thaws again in the Spring. We're fortunate here in Virginia. It comes early and stays late. Christmas is the time of the great turning and the shortened days. I remember one Christmas when my son was about two or three years old. The room was warm, the tree was lit and I rocked him to sleep in a rocker we still have. Christmas music was playing on the old WGMS fm. station. Not too many Christmas days are that memorable; or held for me the contemplative possibilities of that moment to hold my son and think about the Catholic Christmas Story. Basically, at the heart of the matter, I was feeling the deepest human meaning of being a father to my child and a husband to my spouse. Basically, I was feeling human!

We've had many conversations over this past year about the two of us and where we're headed as the great turning of  the year approaches. We can continue - in Communion; and isn't that the best news? It's a secret between us, you and I, because we have no idea where all those 'others' are with their choices of religious profession. And that's OK. It's the foundation of living in a free society. The joy of knowing you is not having any secrets about where we both are with our commitment to the Eucharist as Catholics. That's my ultimate Christmas gift for such a special friend as yourself - "When we eat this Bread and Take this Cup" we promise over and over that friendships are more precious than going down that lonely path of solitude. As long as we're friends I don't ever have to chose that path. My own promise of the Eucharist is that I don't ever have to face loneliness again. "When we eat this Bread" I'll be quietly wishing you a Merry Christmas.