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.
CHRISTIE BURNS 
Once you get your school up and running, you can invite Forward Kwenda to Chattanooga – just like the Old Town School does in Chicago. Now that would be amazing!
Y’know, Fred, I didn’t realize what an impact our trip to Chicago would have on my future! That Old Town School really inspired me. I need to go back there sometime this year, I think.
“Walkin’ in the Parlor”: a tune from the Hammons Family of West Virginia, learned from Dwight Diller.
Yeah, I agree. I looked at their schedule recently and didn’t see signs of another Trad Fest like the one we attended, but one of my guitar heroes Bill Frisell is playing there this Spring. Of interest – they do a lot of World Music concerts in conjunction with all that world music they teach. Although they started out as a folk school teaching traditional american music, they branched out to much, much more. Oh to have something like that locally!! Perhaps that’s what you’ll create in Chattanooga. No sense not thinking big (although it will take time).
BTW: another good folk school to look at is the Folk School of St. Louis: http://www.folk-school.com/. Loads of good stuff going on there!