Martin D-16 Offered Up In A Raffle For Fisher House

11 December 2013

     Here's some great news for somebody who wants a guitar-upgrade. The people who promote the Annual 12-Hour Jam for Fisher House over near Baltimore are raffling off a Martin D-16 RGT guitar on 22 February, 2014.  It's regularly valued at around $1,800.00. Money raised through the 12-hour Marathon Jam and the guitar-raffle goes toward the Fisher House organization. Fisher House has built residential units all around the U.S. so families of wounded troops can be near their loved ones during recuperation. There are two of  the Fisher House residential units right here in the D.C. area. Fisher House also offered to pay death benefits to families during the recent government shut-down/financial chaos.

     The 12-hour Bluegrass/Jam Marathon has been an Annual Event in Maryland and Virginia and other sites around the U.S. It normally begins at noon and music is played continually for the next 12 hours. The raffle-drawing will take place at 8:00 pm. All bluegrass musicians are welcomed to come in and join up. The format is mainly bluegrass/acoustical music. Anyone who wants to come in and listen is also welcomed. I've attended the past Virginia Marathons and it's always a good time, with good music, and a chance to see old friends. Food and drink is usually available, with everything dependent upon donations. ALL collected funds go toward Fisher House - 100%!  The Maryland 12-Hour Marathon will take place:

February 22, 2014  (starting time 12:00 pm)
at:  American Legion Post No. 276
8068 Quarterfield Road
Severn, Maryland, 21144

For Raffle Tickets for the Martin D-16:  ($5 for one chance,  $20 for Five chances)
Contact: Dave Bageant   e-mail:  dbageant@yahoo.com
or mail to:
David Bageant
552 S. Rolling Road
Catonsville, Maryland, 21228

Checks can be made to Fisher House and are Tax Deductible

My Polish Rose

 Photo by Connie Henry

10 December 2013

     The story behind the photo is always more interesting than the photo. Every time I see this picture of a rose I have to laugh. Connie took this picture last summer. I grant you, it's a prize-winner. On our second trip to Poland we were cruising down the Oder River along the Poland/Germany border on a luxury river vessel appropriately named the Chopin. The nicest thing about the trip - we were the only Americans on board along with mostly Germans and a few English people. You get introduced to practically everyone on such a small craft. Dinners were extravagant. So much so, I gave up eating after the third day on board. We took day-trips along the way to see castles and old monasteries. There was some interesting World War II history, too. At night we would seek out the lounge to listen to a young Russian lady play melancholy romantic pieces on the piano - she would finish with a few Chopin pieces that always brought down the house. We had a Polish river-pilot on board who would drag out his accordion and join her. Connie and I danced and danced and made friends with two or three German couples. They were determined to make sure they got their money's worth out of the trip, and have a lot of fun.

     One night the boat's  Hotel Manager talked to us. He's second in command to the Captain and is responsible for everything pertaining to the safety and comfort of the passengers. He asked us the usual 20 questions but then honed in on Connie's heritage. We told him she still had relatives in Krakow. She told him her family name was Konieczny. At this his face lit up with a broad smile. He grabbed my arm and loudly said, "Ah! You lucky Man! You're married to a Polish Rose!" We all laughed. One of the things I love about the Polish people is they still have a sense of the romantic concerning a man's affection for his spouse. So much so that they would even connect a nationalism to it. From that day forward I had to think of Connie in a new light and I gained a lot of insight into how different cultures certainly have different views of the state of matrimony.
     It's not that the Hotel Manager's exclamation wasn't humorous - it was, and we all got a good laugh. Attached to it was a sense of  authentic reverence in his deference to Polish women. It made me feel very proud that I'm married to a "Polish Rose."

Be Still and Know That I Am God.

10 December 2013

     This is the time of the Great Turning. Soon we'll celebrate the birth of Christ. Spring will follow and we'll talk about his death and resurrection. We'll mainly do it among ourselves as Catholics, but we should be doing it just like the guys on the Road to Emmaus did. "Have you heard the news?" They were strangers traveling on a dusty road and this terrible thing had happened and they talked local gossip just like any traveler would at a gas station or airport. The local news for me yesterday was Danny Paisley's heart surgery. The wonder of the internet in today's world. The news spread like wildfire instantly that bluegrass musician Danny Paisley finally had his long-awaited bypass surgery and was doing OK up in Pennsylvania. Every weekend over in Maryland and beyond fellow-musicians and fans wondered if Danny was doing OK and did he have his surgery yet? The good news finally came via the digital airwaves yesterday.

     I love the bluegrass community. It's always trading gossip and information about each other - a lot like a family or a real town would. Sometimes it's even like a church. People gather in the vestibule (we Catholics call it 'The Narthex') and trade stories about recent good or bad news. There's even an unsung code of not talking politics or religion, but you know it's only human to have those two subjects laying right below the surface of face enface interaction. I've never been a Catholic afraid or ashamed to tell others that I'm Catholic. I also stay aware of any Catholic, or anyone of any religious persuasion for that matter, who is proselytizing in the name of any religion. I remain aware of them; that's all. I give them their space (their perimeter). Because that's what they do. They build up perimeters and walls around themselves and proclaim that their God is better than your God.

     One of the highlights for this Catholic in 2013 was having the unique opportunity to travel in Viet Nam with a Priest-Hero friend of mine. He would castigate me for calling him that. He is also a recognized writer. He is also a veteran. He's punched a lot of unusual and (what society would deem as) important tickets. He comes out of the Maryknoll Missioners' teaching and tradition, and since I'm a convert and have little knowledge of such matters, I had to do some study as to what the Maryknollers really do. Every religious order has a Rule. The Rule guides the daily lives of those attached to an Order. The Maryknoll Missioners are exactly that. They are world missionaries working in some of the most frightening places on our planet. The basic marching order is this:  Go into a village, establish yourself in the community and say nothing about your religion unless you're asked. It's all about winning hearts and minds through living by example. As the neophyte Christian I have to constantly ask myself if I would ever have the guts to do that. Having spent some quality time with this friend of mine as we "traveled the road' in Viet Nam. I was itching to get at the heart of a few deep, theological questions about my Church and my faith and this would be the one-on-one opportunity. So I asked him one night, what's the most important thing to know to lead a good, Catholic/Christian life? His answer stunned me at first and then later made a lot of sense. He said it's all about saying "Yes."

     How much we complicate that. We complicate every day and every daily routine with our negativism and unwillingness. When you first asked me if I was Catholic I sort of laughed inside. Father's words came to mind a second before I answered: "Yes." The more we say Yes the more the fears fall away. The more we say No,  the more stunted and ossified our lives become. I do not want to die sitting in a chair. I am saying Yes every time I tell somebody I love my spouse and family. I am saying Yes every time I tell somebody that I'm quite happy and contented that I made a decision to enter into the Church. So my Friend, I'll leave you with a final caveat and a final thought. I made my decisions and I'm happily living with them. They are not for everybody. I'm trying to exist like everyone else. I try to view others in the same light. My chosen path is still filled with questions and doubts about the path itself. To each his own . . .

Pour Me a Double!

 The Martins & Aspen Run

 Blue Train

7 December 2013

     Blue Train and The Martin Brothers & Aspen Run played at the Eureka Fire Hall in Stewartstown, Pennsylvania. I mention that first off to see if that's what shows up on my Google-searching. What a tremendously interesting age we live in wherein you can search just about anything on the internet and come up with some information about it, or practically any person on the planet. Still, I had to tell somebody the other day how to use hyperlinks to gain information. They had been using a computer for a few years and didn't know what a hyperlink was. We take so much for granted in this age of technology. I often fail to realize that a sizable portion of  the American public is still in the dark about computer-use. The other night on Jeopardy a school teacher was crowing over the fact that he didn't own a cell phone and didn't know how to use one. I don't think I'd want my child in one of his classes. I'm sure he runs around all day asking other people to make phone calls for him, or else he's so oblivious to what's going on he has to be supremely egotistical. The good news is he was soundly beaten by the other contestants.

     This has been quite a week leading up to that down-hill stretch we call The Holidays. I sit back and wonder where the year went. I notice that tanned pictures of me taken in the summer of 2013 are now looking pasty and sickly as we get into winter. Nelson Mandela died this week for the historical record. The flags in my home-town went to half-staff and I wondered whether it was for him or for Pearl Harbor Day. I asked our mayor what the reason was, and she said she'd get back to me with an answer. I don't remember our flags going to half-staff when the President of Poland died tragically in a plane-crash. If it was for Pearl Harbor Day  I applaud our town leaders. Our first major winter "weather event" finally intruded upon us here in our area, and last night while I was out enjoying a double-shot of bluegrass up along the Mason-Dixon Line everyone seemed tensely aware that it was probably a good idea to get home sooner than later and hunker down. For those of you who missed the party, you missed a real wing-ding. Two high-energy bands that offered a small respite away from the Christmas shopping,  impending doom of our first ice-storm, and 24-hour a day news coverage of Nelson Mandela. The only agenda item was traditional bluegrass served up in "McCoury Country." For the past two musical seasons David Ober of the Eureka Fire and Ambulance Company in Stewartstown, Pa. has produced this show as a sort of an end-of-season extravaganza for the Martin Brothers & Aspen Run out of Westminster, Maryland. Herb Martin (the Martin Brothers) usually asks another band to come along for the ride. The event is pretty special. This year, newcomers "Blue Train" joined up with the Martin Brothers. The dancing started early and never quit. The price to get in is dirt-cheap and there is always good food available. Dave's staff at the fire house go out of their way to welcome everyone in for a good time.

     The Martin Brothers & Aspen Run (Westminster, Md.) came loaded for bear, all decked out in their western gear and trade-mark white boots. Fiddle-player Billy Hurt from Roanoke, Va. was hired on for the evening as an extra dose of energy. He's phenomenal and nationally recognized for his talent. The Martin Brothers and Aspen Run remain a group with rough edges, but 200% entertainment value. I've always loved these guys. There is nothing pretty about their music. Nothing slick. It's honest and that's the group's selling point. Aaron Martin (Stand-up Bass) had just played on Thursday night with John O'Dell and Kenny Wise, and here he was singing his heart out in Stewartstown. Youth can be deceiving. There has been so much improvement on his vocals and the limits to which he can push his voice. If you think it's easy to sing well and slap out a bass-line (perfectly,) then get up on a stage sometime in front of hundreds of people and try it. But Aaron is only a  part of a machine that has the ability to get a crowd moving. Brothers Clayton and Herb Martin, III, plus Steve Unkart and Guy Herbert had the room rocking from start to finish. And it was a good crowd too - fans of both bands from Goofy's, Jumbo Jimmy's, Baltimore City, other local bluegrass musicians and a couple people who'd driven a hundred miles just to catch up with Fiddler Billy Hurt.

     Blue Train rounded out the program and kept up the energy. Fiddler Tom Lyons had also played at Stables Restaurant with Kenny Wise and John O'Dell on the previous Thursday night. While The Martins are shutting down for the winter, Blue Train has any number of gigs running into February and beyond  and it looks like they'll have a busy 2014. Blue Train is almost unique in the business. The band is still trying to "Find it's legs" get in a performing groove that suits them and their audiences. But talent and audience appeal? No questions here. They have the 'slick' that The Martins lack and maybe it's because they still need to figure out a direction: are we sticking with traditional or are we going to push the limits? The Martin Brothers hold up their traditional stance like a battle flag. I like them for that reason. Blue Train is so good they can tackle anything. I like them for that reason, too. Entertainment value? For that answer all you needed to do was pay the admission fee last night to get into the Fire Hall and witness the party-event that was going on. It was pretty wild, folks, and I knew before I got there that high energy bluegrass was going to be the only agenda item. 

The Martin Brothers & Aspen Run:  Herb Martin, III,  Clayton Martin, Aaron Martin, Steve Unkart, Guy Herbert, and special guest: Billy Hurt (Fiddle)

Blue Train:  Rick Miller, Dave Propst, George Osing, Tom Reeves, and Tom Lyons.

High Drive at The Stables Restaurant in Westminster

 High Drive:  Tom Lyons -Kenny Wise - Bradley Sams - John O'Dell - Terry Wittenburg

Date-line: 5 December 2013

     John O'Dell is up on stage sitting in the gloom warming up his Martin. He's improvising  on "Fly Me to the Moon" and it sounds great. It's about 6:00 at The Stables Restaurant in Westminster, Maryland. The dinner crowd is just starting to roll in. The Christmas decorations have gone up since the last time I was here to see the Martin Brothers and Aspen Run. They look pretty nice, compared to what you see in most music joints. It's funny hearing "Fly Me to the Moon" coming out of the guitar of a bluegrass guy. John sounds obsessed with the song. I know the feeling. You get a song going in your head and you can't get rid of it. Sometimes I have whole operas going around in my brain. I should probably see a psychiatrist for the affliction. John O'Dell is performing tonight with "High Drive" - a combination of players from "Windy Ridge" plus Kenny Wise. It's a spur-of-the-moment combination that is flying by the seats of their pants and in the end they won the house, but more about that later. Stables is continuing with a once-a-month bluegrass night featuring a lot of highly recognized local talent. Other weekend nights are booked up with rock and country bands. I'm here for the bluegrass. I don't really care about the other options. It's interesting this evening because local boy Kenny Wise has made somewhat of a name for himself in the country genre. In conversations around the tables and the bar area that's all I heard about. Kenny Wise is the local boy made good in country music. I had to take it with a grain of salt because I don't know anything about him, his career, or for that matter what's going on in country music today. So as far as my approach was concerned, I'm happy I was going into this with a blank mind. I was there to hear some bluegrass.

     High Drive is Kenny Wise, John O'Dell, Bradley Sams, Terry Wittenberg, and Tom Lyons. Kenny Wise and John O'Dell were new faces to me; the rest of the group I had seen in other configurations and I had a pretty good handle on what they could do with a bluegrass song. Bradley Sams (Bass) Terry Wittenberg (Banjo and vocals) and Tom Lyons (fiddle) are right up there with the crop of bluegrass professionals working in Maryland and beyond. John O'Dell (Guitar and lead vocals) is a walking juke-box of music repertoire (that's what everyone calls him - a walking juke-box). Kenny rounded it out with his own lead vocals and Mandolin. John O'Dell dominated the evening with his singing and stage presence. He's a big guy with a dominating big baritone. But this is not to say he wasn't entertaining. I had a ball listening to old chestnuts like "Rose-Colored Glasses," "Last Train from Poor Valley," and "Rebel Soldier." Even though Kenny Wise and John O'Dell did a sterling job on the leads, the group sounded a lot better when they were all taking parts. The sleeper here is Terry Wittenberg's high tenor offerings. There were a lot of rough edges easily worked out with more performances. The entrances and exits were rough; nothing disastrous. All these guys are pro's and it just seemed to need a bit of polish here and there. Kenny Wise did two purely country numbers - not bad. Aaron Martin (bass-player and vocalist for the Martin Brothers and Aspen Run) was sitting in the audience with Herb Martin. Kenny and John invited him up on stage to do two numbers with the band. Aaron Martin constantly amazes me with his sense of musicality. He's continually improving and maturing.  As the three sets wore on and the night wound down the vocals got better. The group unity got better. There was a sense of them having fun with the music. It's worth watching these guys to see what they do in the future.

Traditional 'Maryland-Style' bluegrass is offered once a month at the Stables Restaurant on Main Street in Westminster, Maryland. Foggy Hollow will appear in January followed by the Martin Brothers & Aspen Run in February.  The food is excellent - the music is even better.

"We Will Not Forget You."

 "We Will Not Forget You" - The Support Our Troops packing-team - Christmas, 2013

3 December 2013

     You hear the most absurd and insidious comments come out of people's mouths. I had to mention this because on Sunday a core group of us at our church packed up Christmas boxes for the troops in Afghanistan. One person had asked a friend to contribute some items for the boxes or at least some money to pay for the mailing costs. This person responded with "I thought the war was over and everybody was home!" Another person helping with the packing jumped into the conversation and replied that he had heard that from a couple people, and that all the troops would be home for Christmas. We all chuckled. Most of the people packing up the boxes had sons or daughters serving in Afghanistan or had done some time over there or in Iraq. One person mentioned how much the misinformed comments hurt them personally. We all intently listened, but we also all understood that for the majority of Americans who don't have a personal attachment to the war in Afghanistan, they continue to live on micro sound-bites they think is news of the day. Please understand that my church is comprised of fairly well-to-do and generally highly educated Washington suburbanites. We have a high number of our parishioners who served in the military and they in turn raised sons and daughters who are serving today. The current administration is doing a wonderful con-job in making a majority of citizens believe the war is ending, every one is coming home, and we'll be out of there by next year. The parents I talked to while packing up the boxes for the troops know better. They still quietly pray for their sons and daughters and do the best they can to take their minds off their anxiety.

     This is the seventh year - mark that - the seventh year our church has been providing a little bit of home for the troops. We do it every month and promise not to stop until it really is true that the troops are clearing out and coming home. It's our hope. In the meantime, we can never forget them. The greater sin is to forget them.

Simple Mercies - and Maybe a Few Tender Ones.

3 December 2013

     Honest discussions are marvelous. It takes a life-time to realize their importance. They keep us human. It's always such a marvel to talk to you as we discover who each of us is to the other. It's become too cliche to use the term "on a journey" together. I've grown so tired of hearing that hackneyed phrase in every conversation since 1980. It's right up there with "not only my (lover, wife, brother, sister, mom, dad) but My Best Friend!" ad nauseam. I cringe every time I hear it at a wedding, funeral, or anniversary party. American marketing and capitalism (and television) have reduced our communication with one another down to the level of the latest fad in greeting cards. The result is collective failure to forget that what happened in life may have been driven by God's plan for each of us, and not how many Hallmark cards or Lexus automobiles Hubby granted us during a life-time. If he was really "your best friend" he would have been above all that and shared your heartache and personal pain when it was needed. He would have been there for you instead of dead to the world, permanently affixed like a stuffed bear to a recliner. I won't leave the women out of this accusation either. It takes two to tango. Neither gender is above the other when it comes to dishing out the personal pain. It might come as a surprise to you ladies, but men talk too, and usually it's about "I'm glad he's married to her and NOT ME!" What an astounding thing, this battle of the sexes - it's real - and keeps our world procreated for the future. And it has nothing to do with what's on television or movie screens or the latest batch of greeting cards at Rite Aid.

     Today was exceptional when we talked. At the heart of it was a discussion of "God's Plan" for each of us and I suppose the average Catholic would wonder what any of that has to do with our Catholic Faith. We are a church and faith driven by rules and rituals and rote prayer. I have nothing against that; as a matter of fact I love it because it keeps our minds from drifting away from the center of who we are. We are a Church centered on the Holy Eucharist. I got a question as to why I had made the comment about 'people lining up for a wafer made of water and flour' in my last entry. I knew the remark would spur some people to think about it. The respondent wanted me to mention "Transubstantiation" the reasoning behind it, etc etc. It's one of those fifty-dollar words better left to be bandied about by PhD candidates and sophomores at Catholic University. I understand it fully and to the doubters, I can respond honestly on a stack of  Bibles that I believe in it. It was in God's Plan for this convert to be driven toward it and want it in my life. I've had to think about God's Plan for me ever since I made a decision to enter into Communion with the Church. I was mentioning to somebody the other day that I've lived a most extraordinary life of travel, creativity, and also times of sorrow. I would not have wanted to live this life in any other way. I've tried to let God be the instigator and director. I'm human. It's not easy. I have an Ego as big as Texas and think I can do anything. God is constantly there to yank my chain and take away my water-dish or slap me around not with violence, but with loving challenges to believe in His goodness. I'm a stubborn case. That's why I have to keep going back to Communion. I have to hear the words over and over again that Christ's message was about unconditional love for all of us, no matter how much we don't want to be there to hear those words. We design, produce, and execute our own sense of unworthiness and show it to the world. We wear it as a badge of dishonor a lot of the time. Life's a lot more interesting when we can turn that unworthiness into something more positive.