This isn’t the Tomo Yamaguchi I was looking for.

But it’s a good one!!

meow.

Merry Merry Merry Merry Merry

Here’s a brand new Christmas song I made myself!  With a little help from my new toy, the Boss RC-50.  Fun Fun Fun Fun Fun.

Merry!

Catcerto

I have to take a break from this Christmas program to show off this clip I found today!  Thanks to my friend David, who mentioned the famous Youtube “piano playing cat” to me, right after his daughter drew a picture of a cat playing the piano (which now lives on top of my piano!).  As if it wasn’t crazy enough that this cat named Nora–from Cherry Hill, NJ, no less!–truly plays the piano, and is an internet star for it, then this Lithuanian composer comes along and features Nora as his soloist in a concerto written around her music.  You people have got to be thinking I’m just crazy obsessed with cats by now, but seriously, this is really special!  I applaud the composer, Mindaugas Piecaitis, for recognizing the potential of those homemade video clips, and hats off to Nora’s family for appreciating her music as they do.  And ladies and gentlemen, let’s give a big hand to the internet for putting all of these pieces of the puzzle into a common pot, from which we can all find inspiration!  This composition is like the product of a worldwide Art X-Tractor, just like the one we had on Main Street during MainX24.

Wild times in Blue Mountain Lake

There is a gathering of musicians that takes place every summer in the Adirondacks– every summer for the past 28 years.  So it was quite an honor for me to be invited as the hammered dulcimer instructor for the Northeast Dulcimer Symposium this year.  I had wonderful class, very opened minded willing-to-try-anything students!  Two unusual instruments made an appearance at the week: Laurie McCarriar’s hammered mbira and Ken Lovelett’s orthagonal lap drum.  Here they are, one clip from the sound check (with Tom White walking in and out of the frame as he set up the stage), and one clip from the performance, which was done in complete darkness while Laurie played with her light-up hammers.  Oh man, that was cool!

Ken Lovelett and Laurie McCarriar at the Northeast Dulcimer Symposium, June 2009:

Funky Teacher

Here’s a random lesson video from YouTube… I’m lovin’ this guy’s teaching style…. I think anyone who’s had a lesson or workshop with me sees a little of that in me (or I hope!).  Maybe I’ll be this funky someday!

And here’s Dr. Lonnie Smith doing his thing.  Can’t beat that!!

Walkin’ in the Parlor

It’s been a while since I’ve posted a good old fashioned recorded-it-in-my-living-room kind of post.  Partly, that’s because I haven’t been in my living room lately for long enough to record a tune.  But the other evening, Matt came by for some tunes (as well as folk school plotting and scheming), and this is what we made.  Exploring the quiet, the slow, the simple, the serene side of old time music… We’re inching towards the place where old time music meets African music, or at least the kind of African music I love to listen to.  [I reference this mbira post.]  Actually, now that I think about it, most of the traditional mbira music from Zimbabwe I’ve heard is fast and busy… And maybe I’m just really into what Forward Kwenda does when he takes those traditional melodies to a mellower place.  Well certainly I appreciate knowing how to reach that mellower place in old time music.  Matt Evans is the conductor on the express train to old time mellowland…the slowest, quietest, most peaceful train you could ever imagine.  Here’s my first official wish to the universe in 2009: I wish for Matt and myself to someday collaborate with Forward Kwenda.    Crazier things have been wished for on blogs, haven’t they?

Walkin’ in the Parlor, recorded by Matt and Christie on 18th St., Chattanooga, Jan 11, 2009.

Wouldn’t be Thanksgiving Without it.

I haven’t known a Thanksgiving with the Burns family that didn’t include music played on water glasses.  This time we coerced Steve into playing “Alleycat”.  And yes, it was noted by several siblings that Ben Franklin had invented the glass armonica (or glassharmonica), an instrument I’d love to get my hands on someday.

Here’s my brother-in-law, Steve Patient, playing “Alleycat”, Thanksgiving, 2008.

Mountain Music Folk School

This is an exciting day!  I am announcing the opening of the Mountain Music Folk School, co-founded by myself, Matt Evans, and Steve Daugherty.  And in the spirit of all things nifty and new, I’ve changed the look of my own blog–And yes, I will continue to post clips from my musical adventures on this blog, but keep an eye on the Mountain Music Folk School blog as well, because there’s going to be a lot of activity there!  All of the teachers are blog contributors, so there will be a variety of stories, videos, and photos coming soon.

There’s a great video there now of Casey, Matt, and myself playing “Cockeyed Hen”, an original by Casey Phillips.

http://www.mmfolk.com

Mbira for a Rainy Sunday

I’m sitting on my futon with the hot pink tee shirt sheets and an incredibly soft brown faux fur throw on top. Cymba, my gorgeous new kitten is kneading my chest and purring away. His eyes are closed like he could drop his little head and fall asleep at any moment. I’m so glad I took the time to sew silk flowers onto the bottom edge of my curtains, because now when they’re twisted back they make this bright floral frame for the picture outside. It’s not a particularly nice picture otherwise. Lookout mountain is there, sure, but so is the big muddy field recently cleared for townhouses that have yet to be built. And word on the street says we’ll soon be seeing a cell phone tower planted behind our properties…how’s that for beautification? Maybe when it comes, I’ll go sew silk flowers on it.

But it’s beautiful inside my room. The warm, magenta glow as all the pinks and reds and oranges soak up the daylight, even during this morning’s storm. The minidisc recorder seems to have gotten lost in all the commotion here at the house, so another way to share this track from mbira player Forward Kwenda is to link to this YouTube clip someone else posted. This is the music I want to be hearing when I’m taking my last breaths.

Tadzungaira, “We Are Suffering”, played by Forward Kwenda on his 1997 album, Svikiro.

Appenzell, 2003.

This is what happens when you stay up too late vainly googling yourself. I found this mp3 that my friend Paul Beck had posted in the CWA (Cimbalom World Association) online forum sometime after the 2003 congress in Appenzell, Switzerland. It’s a clip from my solo performance, where I was simultaneously representing Ireland and the USA. I do recall the stagefright I was experiencing at the time. I do recall Kalman Balogh watching me from the wings. I don’t recall the names of some of the tunes that wriggled their way into this mad medley, but I do know that the first one is “Flying to the Fleadh” (a longtime favorite), and the second tune is “Bear Island Reel”. “John Stenson’s” is the final tune. I also know that my playing style has changed a lot since this performance. For one thing, I NEVER play this fast anymore when I’m on my own. And even though I’ve all but lost my grip on Irish tunes these days, I know that I play them with far more swing… Anyway, it’s a rare recording that captures me, on stage, solo, stringing together tunes willy-nilly, improv and all. And what’s with the long airy intro at the beginning? I don’t remember doing that, or even thinking of it. But heck, I think I oughta use it from now on!

Christie Burns, on stage at the CWA congress in Appenzell, Switzerland, October 2003: