The Angela Hayes Quartet at Vienna Town Green

I'm always shocked that more citizens either don't participate in, know about, or show up at our local parks in the summertime to take advantage of the entertainment tax dollars that are going into the local parks programs. Those tax dollars are shrinking so badly that here in Vienna our programs are being subsidized in a big way by our local merchants. Lucky us. But that's the kind of community we have here, and I'll always be the first to applaud our town government and the neighborhoods that comprise our fair ville. Another great season of bi-weekly entertainment is available at our local 'Town Green' performance space. You have one more month to enjoy it - take advantage of it - come on out and meet your neighbors - and especially bring the kids.
I'm a counter. I always count the crowds, just to get an idea of who's coming out to see what. I've found out in my own very generalized survey that weather doesn't really matter. The crowds have been there in the intense heat and threatening storms, and you can't help but notice that New York Pizza over on Church Street is doing a land-office business right at 6:30 every Friday and Sunday evening. Tired of California-inspired New-Voe cuisine pizzas? New York Pizza serves it up the old-fashioned way. Straight pizza - no avocados - no Kiwi Fruit.
The Angela Hayes Quartet appeared at the Town Green on July 16th and this is straight-up lounge jazz done very well. The music enhanced the warmth of the summer evening and was thoroughly enjoyed by all ages. There was a multitude of kids - there were kids running everywhere and though it was just a tiny bit distracting to this style of music, the kids enjoyed it none the less. Your music attitudes and appreciation of a crowd changes when you become a grandparent - wait - you'll see for yourself. Angela Hayes went into a set of jazz standards out of the 40's and 50's and the dateline seemed to stop at early Charlie Byrd and Antonio Carlos Jobim. This is OK. It worked. It's music designed to take you back to a simpler time. If I have any complaints (complaining about free entertainment?) it's about the sound that evening. and that's something really hard to control in an outdoor venue. Hayes has an excellent delivery, knows her material, and knows how to please a crowd - if we only could have heard her and trumpeter John Friedman a little bit better.
There is something going on in lots of Parks across the breadth of Fairfax County, and on most nights of the week. We are afforded great entertainment at just the right price - totally free! You're crazy not to take advantage of it.
The Angela Hayes Quartet: Angela Hayes, Vocals. Gary Lutzker, Guitar. John Dapogny, Bass. John Freidman, Trumpet. Jamie Parker, Drums

Two For the Price of FREE!

The Hillbilly Gypsies at Libertytown, Md. 1 August 2010

Ty Jaquay, fiddle - Dave Asti, banjo - Libertytown, Md. 1 August 2010

Trae Buckner - Libertytown, Md. 1 August 2010

Ernie Bradley and Grassy Ridge at Libertytown - 1 August 2010

Sunday Afternoon in Libertytown, Maryland - a beautiful cool day after all the heat of July. One would have thought it was mid-September. We packed up the car and headed toward Damascus and then north of there to Libertytown. Suffice it to say, I had never in my life been in Libertytown, Maryland, but it was an interesting experience. I knew the Hillbilly Gypsies were playing but had no idea that Ernie Bradley was on the same bill. I was pleasantly surprised when we walked in to the event area and saw Ernie Bradley and Grassy Ridge up on the stage. Hot Damn! One of my favorite bluegrass practitioners. We thoroughly enjoyed the last part of their performance and then waited for the Hillbilly Gypsies. By this time the day had ended for the 'carnival' part of the Libertytown festival and the 300 or so hangers-on were hardcore fans of Grassy Ridge and the Gypsies. The Hillbilly Gypsies came on stage to have fun and do what they do best, and that's deliver hard-driving mountain music at its authentic roots. I need to mention the 'authentic roots' part because by all outward appearances (and if you had never actually seen them in a live performance,) it would be easy to dismiss them as some sort of Hee-Haw take-off - the name, the CD-cover artwork, the bib-overalls they sometimes like to sport, the ball-caps. They're making a statement that it's OK to laugh at yourself and be a Hillbilly. That's where the joke ends. I've never heard more deadly serious musicianship. Dave Asti on banjo might be one of the best pickers around and coupled with Ty Jaquay's fiddle work, these two are a dangerously combustible combination. In fact they're all good. Bass-players never get the full recognition they deserve - in Jason Teel you get a good bass-line and also a fine song-writer. Rounding it all out is the leadership of Trae Buckner on guitar - who can fire a Flatt G-Run like an automatic weapon -and Jamie Lynn Buckner provides excellent vocal support. If you've come to hear pseudo country music, or "Rocky Top" played over and over till you vomit, or something that vaguely sounds like bluegrass, forget it and go home. This is the real deal. This is about as real as it gets.

The Hillbilly Gypsies will be appearing in Frostburg, Maryland on September 10th at the Palace Theatre, 8:00 pm, for a special benefit to raise awareness of Autism in children. Tickets are $15. See my other entries for full details.

"Cooking" - A 20's jazz term meaning all the band members are on the same wave-length, the heat is on and all the burners are firing just at the right temperature. A crazed spirit has settled in and audience members are feeling the adrenalin and responding in kind. Need I say more? This is Appalachian Hardcore mountain music - very pure - very committed to never straying into any questionable gray areas of genre. You come away from a performance of the Hillbilly Gypsies saying to yourself I just experienced something from way out of a dark hollow somewhere and the only thing that's missing is the smell of pine-smoke. Here's your opportunity. Thank God for Facebook. I received notice that Hillbilly Gypsies will be performing in Frostburg, Maryland at the Palace Theatre on September 10th, at 8:00 pm. It's a special benefit to raise awareness of Autism and is being promoted by Deb Lashbaugh of Frostburg. The show will include Hanna Livingston, who recently performed at Delfest in Cumberland.
You must pre-purchase tickets for the evening's performance. Here are the particulars: Contact Deb Lashbaugh at deblashbaugh@yahoo.com or send a self-addressed stamped envelope along with a check or money order to "Chase For a Cure" 14201 View Point Lane, Frostburg, Md. 21532. Tickets are $15 each.

September 10, 2010 - The Hillbilly Gypsies at the Palace Theatre in Frostburg - 8:00

Tickets will also be available through Main Street Books, Fitness for Life in Frostburg, and the Allegany Arts Council in Cumberland.

"Like a Heat Wave!!"

Roger Green and the Annapolis Bluegrass Coalition at Davidsonville, Maryland

17 July 2010:

It's a busy season for one of my favorite groups but the traveling's been tough. I ventured out to Davidsonville, Maryland last weekend to visit with the Annapolis Bluegrass Coalition. They were performing (once again) at Homestead Gardens. By mid-afternoon the outside temp was running in the upper 90's and my camera was overheating - overheating! That had never happened before at an outdoor show. I mention this because I've done a lot of shooting in Viet Nam, the Philippines, Malaysia, and other hotspots of the world. The official record here right now is 43 days of continual 90 to upper 90's heat. Just months ago I was writing about record snow accumulations. The world is going to hell in a handbag - or are we just whining more? Pity the artist - the show must go on. Musicians understand the term 'sweat equity' and know what it means to have to pay their dues. So the next time you're out there listening to your favorite group or you're out at Wolf Trap digging the Washington Opera Scene, tell your favorite artist how much you care for them and 'Feel Their Pain.'

Jamie Parker Debuts with Angela Hayes Quartet

Drummer Jamie Parker at the Village Green in Vienna, Virginia, 16 July 2010

Richard Morris and Cologne No. 10 for Men

A long time ago I promised I would never write a review for a friend's book. It's dangerous territory - akin to either taking a bribe or being a traitor. But sometimes you have to draw the line and attempt to explain yourself. I've only known Richard Morris for two years so that's hardly time to really call him a friend. Let's just say that Richard and I have a lot of mutual associations that go beyond the Facebook-2010-internet-academic-artsy fartsy-Washingtonian Magazine - variety of what people profess to be relationships in this latest decade. Richard Morris and yours truly are mainly connected through the Memorial Day Writers' Project of Washington, D.C. and for a full explanation of what that Project does you can easily google the name and find out for yourself. So I ran into Richard Morris two years ago when he was performing his music before an audience at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and I was immediately floored with gut-painful laughter when I heard his songs - war songs set to a bizarre mixture of disco, lounge lizard styling, and schlock broadway musical. It was all very deranged, and very, very funny - because that's what war is.
There has always been the tradition of glorifying the inglorious - but it was amplified in western literature after the end of World War I. There's also a human need to report upon the humorous dark side of our nature and that was also a product of post-World War I literature. Some of the most terrifying and some of the funniest things happened to me when I was in Vietnam. Chalk them up to those youthful experiences we all lived through - well, some of us Boomers, any way. I can't speak for the uninitiated. We drew lines in the sand and made our personal choices. I'm living very happily with the choices I made. How about you? Still feeling that pang of guilt? Still asking yourself "What if . .?" You can always sign up for duty in Iraq or Afghanistan and find an answer to those questions that are haunting you. It could be arranged today at your local Recruiting Station. Of course I say this humorously, the kind of humor that I or Richard Morris or countless other Vietnam veterans out there would understand.
And now Richard Morris wants to share the joke with his reading audience. What if the idea of war and conflict were turned completely on its head? What if the war in Vietnam was suddenly and completely taken over and controlled by the newest and lowliest lieutenant? This is the situation that the main character of the story Lt. Wilfred Carmenghetti, USA, finds himself in.
The answers hold a lot of surprises for the reader. There are all the usual Vietnam War cliches, political statements, and snippets of dialogue you've read in a hundred Vietnam stories or seen on the screen in any good or bad Vietnam War movie. But the difference for this reader was the way in which Morris weaves his material into something fresh, new, and more important, - interesting.
The author's writing ability shines when he's describing combat - not an easy thing to do. He's also very good at fabricating a basic story line and set of characters. Sometimes the dialogue falls flat, but this is a minor personal complaint of mine. In the end I found the whole experience enjoyable and well worth the purchase price of the book.
I'm in touch with a constant stock of writers, film makers, and documentarians. They all tell me the same thing - their publishers and producers keep telling them 'they don't want, will not accept, or want to have anything to do with the Vietnam War any more.' If it's the truth, it's a sad commentary on our times. Published in 2007, Cologne No. 10 for Men is a testament to the fact that there is still a lot of good stuff out there, that we haven't read yet, haven't seen up on the silver screen, or viewed on a DVD.

Available through Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Contact Richard Morris at richardmorrisauthor@gmail.com

Darren Beachley and the Brunswick Fundraiser (No. 2)

Bill Yates and Darren Beachley in performance, July 10, 2010

It's real tempting to throw around a lot of superlatives. It's real easy to take the accusative route and say, "If you weren't there, too bad, you missed THE performance of the season." So it was at Brunswick Highschool last Saturday night for the 2nd Annual Brunswick Junior Baseball League fundraiser, produced once more by League member Jill Hossler, with the help of her family and many other League members. I feel very fortunate - we happened upon a notice for this show last year while the Lucketts Bluegrass Season was in full swing. Last year's show (July 2009) was headlined by none other than Darren Beachley and the Legends of the Potomac and Kenny Ray Horton and Friends. I thought to myself: What? Darren Beachley is showing up in Brunswick, Maryland?
It all made sense. Darren calls Brunswick home, and his family is a big supporter of the Junior Baseball League. Enter Jill Hossler, who threw her whole heart into making it a magnificent (and downright inexpensive,) night of entertainment. It was no accident that when the word went out about this first bluegrass fundraiser, bluegrass fans from a hundred mile radius showed up for the 2009 show. I talked to them, took my own personal survey of how far they had traveled and made note of it. They were all Darren's fans who had been closely watching his career since he had established the Legends of the Potomac. So the first Brunswick Fundraiser was a strange coalescence of baseball moms and dads and bluegrass cognoscente. Then came the much anticipated release of the Legends' first CD, Take Off. The rest of the story is history as they say, but not really. Darren Beachley continues to be a 'statement-maker' in the field of bluegrass artists. It's not easy to mount a stage and say "Watch me - and watch and listen to what these guys can do!" but that's exactly what you get when you go to a Darren Beachley performance. He's surrounded himself with some of the best musicians in the business. More on that in a later blog.
This year's show included the addition of Bill Yates and the Country Gentlemen Tribute Band, after Kenny Ray Horton had to bow out due to his U.S. Navy commitments. What ensued were two and a half hours of solid good music and interesting stage camaraderie - all these guys know and respect each other, having all played together in different configurations and there was an ample amount of 'legend' status to go around. Missing was Tom Gray, who was obligated to attend an important family function. Todd and MaryFran Stotler once again provided excellent sound engineering for the evening's music. Even while the show was in progress there was already rumor of a "Year-Three" fundraiser, possibly later in the year so that more people could attend and there wasn't so much competition with the summer sports activities. We'll watch this closely and see how it unfolds. It's a good idea to get your tickets early! Jill Hossler is wonderful about sending out early notices concerning upcoming fundraisers.