From: owner-jangle-poets-digest@smoe.org (jangle-poets-digest) To: jangle-poets-digest@smoe.org Subject: jangle-poets-digest V8 #83 Reply-To: jangle-poets@smoe.org Sender: owner-jangle-poets-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-jangle-poets-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk jangle-poets-digest Saturday, December 30 2006 Volume 08 : Number 083 Today's Subjects: ----------------- [JP] The Kennedys' E-Newsletter Message ["The Kennedys' E-Newsletter" Subject: [JP] The Kennedys' E-Newsletter Message (disclaimer: Pete & Maura just debuted a fancy new monthly mailing format, and I am not sure it's going to come through prettily, so bear with me. ~ Sheila) [demime could not interpret encoding binary - treating as plain text] (Mailing List Information, including unsubscription instructions, is located at the end of this message.) __ The Kennedys Monthly Newsletter January 2007 The Kennedys E-Newsletter for January 2007 Contents: 1) Tour Diary: James Brown 2) Using Meditation and Lucid Dreaming to Unlock Your Creative Potential: a Six Session Course for Songwriters. Begins Wednesday, January 24th 3) Upcoming Guitar workshop: Beyond Do-Re-Mi; Jammin' on the Modes, Sunday, February 4th 4) Tour Calendar for January 2007 including Outpost In The 'Burbs new location! 5) Extended calendar through April 2007 6) Kennedys Music Videos Debut on YouTube! 7) Upcoming Guitar workshop: Swing Guitar, Sunday March 11th 8) Kennedys weekly radio show on SIRIUS Satellite radio 9) Kennedys Merchantile 1) Tour Diary: December 2006 James Brown A lot of hot bands played the Apollo Theatre. Basie and Ellington, Cab Calloway, Lionel Hampton. On the package shows, every band would try to blow the others off stage, and all of them played their best on 125th St., grooving with the echoes of all the great performances that had gone down there. Tonight, the hottest band in the business was peeling the paint off the walls. The JBs International, with Maceo Parker on alto, and the great Clyde Stubblefield on drums, were tearing through “There was a Time”. Three dynamic backup vocalists, the Famous Flames, were executing intricate dance steps straight out of the sanctified church. The band galloped ahead, stopping suddenly for a two bar break. The silence was stunning, and in the first four beats of nothing, you could almost hear Calloway’s “Hi-de, hi-de, hi-de, ho” echo in the rafters, a ghost from decades ago. Then Stubblefield brought his sticks down in a mighty flam, and they were off again. Four bars into the groove, Maceo turned and signaled for a breakdown. The horns laid out, leaving the drums and bass to vamp on a D9th chord, with guitarist Jimmy Nolan scratching out a sixteenth note pattern straight from the Yuroba campfire. They brought it way down, and a single spot beamed down on the big chrome-plated microphone at center stage. From out of nowhere, an apparition glided out of the darkness. It slid across the stage like a drop of liquid mercury. It was a small man, who seemed to be wired to a higher voltage than the rest. Even when he stood still at the microphone, he seemed to be vibrating at a frequency that was energizing the crowd. He cocked his head to the left, and then to the right, like a colt shaking out it’s mane, and then grabbed the microphone and spoke, not to the crowd, or to the band, but to the venerable old theatre itself. “Building, is you ready? Cause we gonna tear you down!” Two hours later, one of the most innovative bands of all time was still shaking the foundations, not only of the theatre, but of American music itself. Their innovation was to move the accented beat from “two” and “four”, the signature sound of swing, to the “one”. This marked the end of the complex grace of the Lindy-Hop era, and the beginning of a gritty sound that reflected the city streets the way broken glass reflects the neon on 125th St. It was the sound of a Harlem airshaft, and the crowd recognized it. It was also the sound of Africa, the roar of Storyville, and they recognized that, too. It wasn’t a smooth sound to swing and sway to, it was rough and beautiful like “Guernica”, like the Fifth Symphony. They called it “funk”, and this slight man, who seemed possessed of a transcendent energy, was rightly known as its inventor. When showtime was supposedly over, he refused to quit the stage. Forsaking the microphone, he dismissed the organist and took over the keyboard himself, pumping out a riff that yoked the rhythm section into a single propulsive unit. The house lights came up, and the curtain finally closed, but he wasn’t quitting. As the crowd filed out, some of them dancing like a New Orleans second line, the funk was still blasting from behind the curtain. They were playing for themselves now, channeling a spirit that knew nothing of union overtime, They were playing for themselves, and for the old theatre, inhabiting the rafters with their own inextinguishable genius. Today, James Brown lies in state in that old building, in the very room he tore down and rebuilt so many times, and some night in the future, when a band, not even born yet, takes a two-bar break, there’ll be a moment in the silence when they could swear they hear an echo from long ago, somewhere up in the rafters…”Building, is you ready?”. And maybe they’ll feel the spirit, and tear the old place down one more time. So long, James, and thanks for the funk. 2) Songwriting Workshop! Kennedys repeat their popular songwriting workshop series: * Using Meditation and Lucid Dreaming to Unlock Your Creative Potential: a Six Session Course for Songwriters*, Wellesley, MA, Wednesdays, January 24 - Feb 28, 2007. Due to high demand, we're repeating the songwriting workshop series: Using Meditation and Lucid Dreaming to Unlock Your Creative Potential: a Six Session Course for Songwriters. Wednesday evenings from 7pm-9pm, starting Wednesday, January 24, 2007 through Wednesday, Feb 28, 2007. These sessions will take place in Wellesley, MA (exit 13 off the pike, and a short walk from the Framingham/Worcester line of the commuter rail, and close to the end of the D line of the Green line). For further information, email: kennedylst@aol.com Is there a struggling songwriter locked inside you, longing to break free? Maura Kennedy believes that each one of us is a master poet and a liberated singer. All we need are some useful tools to unlock the creative spirit within. In this six-session course, Maura draws on this broad range of material, and from her own experience as a professional singer-songwriter, to guide you through the creative processes of meditation, lucid dreaming and dream recall, giving you tools to unlock the master within, and connecting your head, hands and heart with your innermost source of creativity. Pete Kennedy assists. Fee for this six-session course is $250/person. If interested, please respond to this email and include "Songwriting Seminar" in subject line, or register online at: http://www.kennedysmusic.com/SongwritingSeminarSix.html If you are interested, but can't make this session please let us know that too. 3) Upcoming one-day guitar workshop Beyond do-re-mi and the pentatonic box: jammin' on the modes Pete will be offering this one-day guitar workshop on Sunday, February 4, 2007 in Northampton, MA. Broaden your improvisational and composing skills with this exploration of alternative scales that are easy to learn highly effective in adding variety and color to your music. Jamming with others is the quickest way to get comfortable with modal playing, so there'll be lots of group interaction. Requirement: for intermediate players who are comfortable fingering a major scale on the fretboard. This day-long seminar will include two intensive 3-hour sessions, with a break to explore the cafes and shoppes of beautiful downtown Northampton, MA. Tuition is $120 for the full day. Enrollment is limited. Regiser online at: http://www.kennedysmusic.com/GuitarSeminar020407.html *4) Tour Calendar for January 2007* Please check our website or Musi-cal calendars for changes or because it allows you to view our calendar outside the cramped confines of your mailbox. /Friday, January 5th, 8:30 p.m./ The Outpost In The Burbs (first concert in NEW LOCATION) The Unitarian Church, 67 Church Street, Montclair, NJ 973-744-6560 Price: $18.00 in advance, $20.00 day of show Also appearing will be Liz Carlisle, as the opener Smoke-free show http://www.outpostintheburbs.org/ Saturday, January 6th, 8:00p.m. Sounding Board Universalist Church of West Hartford 433 Fern Street, West Hartford, CT reservations@folknotes.org or 203-272-8404. Price: $16.00/$14.00 for members http://folknotes.org/ Friday, January 12th, 8:00 p.m. Pioneer Arts Center of Easthampton (P.A.C.E.) 41 Union Street, Easthampton, MA with Chris & Meredith Thompson 413-527-3700 Price: $11.00 advance & members/$13.00 day of show The Kennedys and Chris and Meredith Thompson share the bill on this show, and for the first time introduce The Strangelings -- a floating four-piece featuring the Thompsons and the Kennedys, performing what they call mystery songs, originals and traditional moods and melodies that reach back to the deepest roots while pointing outward in directions that lead toward an interestingly dark horizon. Think Fairport jamming with Tull in the basement Rosslyn Chapel. http://www.pioneerarts.org/ Saturday, January 13th, 8:00 p.m. Joyful Noise Coffeehouse 1580 Massachusetts Ave, Lexington, MA Co-bill with Nerissa and Katryna Nields 781-861-0142 Price: $20.00 http://www.joyfulnoisecoffeehouse.org/ Note: due to circumstances beyone our control, the Evening Muse concert we had scheduled for Thrusday, January 18th in Charlotte NC has been cancelled. Friday, January 19th, 7:00 p.m. Fiddle & Bow Blessings, 823 Reynolda Road, Winston-Salem, NC 336-724-9393 Price: $10.00 http://www.fiddleandbow.org/ Saturday, January 20th, 2:00p.m. In Conjunction with the Unity Center for Peace location TBA Guitar Workshop: Heartbeat Soukous - Soukous is a joyous style of African music that features several guitars playing simple, melodic riffs. The resultant counterpoint is a marvelous groove-based mini-symphony that is deceptively simple to construct. It's all in the interplay of the guitars, and the jam usually takes on a life of its own. For players of all levels. Bring your guitar. Percussion, bass, and anything else welcome. Led by Pete & Maura Kennedy. We teach some guitar yoga at the beginning of class to get everyone's hands warmed up. These are simple exercises that you can take home and use throughout your guitar-playing lives. Phone: 919-968-1854 http://www.unitychapelhill.org/ Saturday, January 20th, 7:30 p.m. Unity Center for Peace 8800 Seawell School Road, Chapel Hill, NC Phone: 919-968-1854 Price: $10.00 http://www.unitychapelhill.org/ Sunday, January 21st, 7:00 p.m. Gravity Lounge 103 South First Street, Charlottesville, Price:$10.00 http://www.gravity-lounge.com/ Wednesday, January 24th, 7:00 p.m. Start of 6-week songwriting workshop Wednesday evenings, 7-9pm, Wellesley, MA (Boston area) Price: $250.00 for full course http://www.kennedysmusic.com/SongwritingSeminarSix.html Remember to always call venues ahead of time to confirm showtimes and locations. 5) Kennedys endless tour continues: ***Coming in February 2007*** Friday, February 2nd - Club Helsinki, Great Barrington, MA Saturday, February 3rd - Folk Music Society of Huntington, Huntington, Long Island, NY Sunday, February 4th - Guitar Workshop: Jammin' On The Modes, Northampton, MA Saturday, February 10th - Jammin' Java, Vienna, VA Sunday, February 11th - House concert, Malvern, PA Friday, February 16th - Del Rossi's Trattoria, Peterboro NH Saturday, February 24th - Night Eagle Cafe in new location: Binghamton, NY ***Coming in March 2006*** Sunday, March 11th - Guitar Workshop: Swing Guitar, Northampton, MA Friday, March 16th - Music in the Cafe, New Bedford, MA Saturday, March 17th - New Moon Coffeehouse, Haverhill, MA Thursday, March 22nd - Hideaway BBQ, Raleigh, NC Friday, March 23rd - Ashland Coffee & Tea, Ashland, VA Saturday, March 24th - Concerts at the Crossing: Neil Young Tribute, Titusville, NJ Sunday, March 25th - Sleepy Hollow Folk Club, Sleepy Hollow, VA Saturday, March 31st - Friends Coffeehouse Series, Windsor, CT ***Coming in April 2007*** Thursday, April 5th - Falstaff's at Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY Friday, April 6th - Garden Stage, UU Congregation of Central Nassau Coffeehouse, Garden City, NY Sunday, April 15th - The Mansion, Middletown, NY Friday, April 20th - Godfrey Daniel's, Bethlehem, PA Saturday, April 28th - UU church, Columbia, SC Sunday, April 29th - Mountain Spirit Coffeehouse, Asheville, NC For info on future tour dates, and all kinds of Kennedys' info including road diary, tour photos, and more, check out our official web site at www.kennedysmusic.com. Last minute changes in the schedule can occur. Please call venues to confirm before hiring baby sitters and making the trip! 6) Kennedys Music Videos Debut on YouTube! Click the following links to see our videos Nickeltown: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LqmG9T2jU4 Pick You Up: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMzV6QgJkvI Free: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7u3Dl7U-Ow0 Stand: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoifWP5yyko Listen: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSJ7EfjMf3U Time Ain't Long: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ye2WB0RyyQo 7) Upcoming Guitar Workshop: Swing Guitar Pete will be offering this one-day guitar workshop on Sunday, March 11, 2007 in Northampton, MA. Duke Ellington said, “It don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing”. This workshop will explore the basics of swing guitar, especially the essential rhythm styles and progressions and will also touch on melodic soloing in this great tradition. For intermediate and above. This day-long seminar will include two intensive 3-hour sessions, with a break to explore the cafes and shoppes of beautiful downtown Northampton, MA. Tuition is $120 for the full day. Enrollment is limited. Register online at: http://www.kennedysmusic.com/GuitarSeminar031107.html 8) Kennedys weekly radio show on SIRIUS Satellite radio Our weekly show airs on SIRIUS Satellite radio channel 24: SIRIUS Disorder, every Saturday from 7 AM - 10 AM eastern time, and every Sunday from 11 AM - 2 PM, hosted by us, Pete & Maura Kennedy! These are two DIFFERENT shows each weekend, not a rebroadcast! Past guests have included: Chris Smither, Catie Curtis, and Jim Lauderdale, David Jacobs-Strain, Ray Lamontagne, Susan Werner, The Roches, Janis Ian, Tom Russell, Mark Erelli, Susan Cowsill, Gandalf Murphy and the Slambovian Circus of Dreams, Tracy Grammer and Jim Henry, Kris Delmhorst, Salif Keita, Eric Anderson, Robert Kirby, and others. Anyone with requests or comments on our show should email us at: thekennedys@sirius-radio.com. We create a virtual cafe on the Dharma Cafe, and include not only great music, but poetry, commentary, and words of wisdom from the great writers and thinkers who have inspired us! We run a comprehensive list of live concerts across America. If you're interested in subscribing to SIRIUS Satellite radio, with it's more than 100 channels of commercial free music and news, visit www.sirius.com to try it for three days free on your computer. Once you subscribe, you must purchase the hardware, which can be installed in car and/or home (you will also be able to listen online). Sirius also offers a satellite boom box. Other DJs on SIRIUS that we like are Meg Griffin, Vin Scelsa, David Johansen, Mike Malloy (he's finally found a home on SIRIUS Left 146!), Stephanie Miller, Dave Marsh, Andrew Loog Oldham, Michael Tearson, Cousin Brucie, Marky Ramone and others. 9) Kennedys Mercantile "SONGS OF THE OPEN ROAD" (October 3, 2006) The disc is a collection of our favorite songs by other writers, and songs that we always listen to when we travel the highways and byways of America. It's our favorite road music, and so we recorded our own versions! "Songs of the Open Road" will be our second release on the very groovy Appleseed Recordings label. Songwriters represented on this disc include Victoria Williams, Jimmy Webb, Gene Clark, Roger McGuinn, David Crosby, Stephen Stills, Gram Parsons, Chris Hillman, Dave Carter, Nick Lowe, Bob Dylan, John Stewart, Bob Neuwirth, Mahalia Jackson and Nanci Griffith. We recorded many more songs than we can fit on this disc, so we imagine there will someday be a volume two! Songs include: This Moment, Eight Miles High, A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall, Pretty Girl Why, Gypsy Rose, Raging Eyes, Gypsy Rider, Galveston, Jasmine, Eye on the Road, Happytown (All Right With Me), Sin City, I'm On My Way, Late Night Grande Hotel. CD: $15.00 "HALF A MILLION MILES" (August 23, 2005) Songs include: Half a Million Miles, Midnight Ghost, Namaste, Live, Listen, Nuah, 9th Street Billy, Everything's On Fire, Time Ain't Long, Here and Now, plus cover versions of Richard Thompson's How Will I Ever Be Simple Again, and Bob Dylan's Chimes of Freedom. CD: $15.00 "STAND" (2003) "Stand" features original songs by The Kennedys, as well as cover versions of Dave Carter's "When I Go," and Nerissa Nields' "Easy People." Guests include Joziah and Sharkey of Gandalf Murphy and the Slambovian Circus of Dreams! $15.00 "RIVER OF FALLEN STARS" reissue, with bonus tracks (Varese Sarabande). The new reissue of our first CD contains six bonus tracks, including "Belfast", "Sendera Blessing" and "Fog" (all previously unreleased), and instrumental versions of "River of Fallen Stars," "Run the Red Horses," and "Spirit Compass". $15.00 "LIFE IS LARGE" reissue, with bonus tracks (Varese Sarabande) The reissue of our second CD, originally released in 1996, contains six bonus tracks, including "She Just Don't Care" and "And Your Bird Can Sing" (a Lennon/McCartney song), both non-album tracks, as well as acoustic remixes of "Life Is Large", "One Heart, One Soul", "St. Mark's Square," and "Sirens." $15.00. "GET IT RIGHT" (Jiffyjam Records 2002) Get It Right features "Didn't It Rain," "Pearl's Eye View," "Get It Right," "Angel and You" and more. Special guest appearances include Nanci Griffith, Pam Bricker (Thievery Corporation) and Starz Vanderlockett! This CD is an enhanced CD, and includes photos, video and more! SALE: $10.00. "POSITIVELY LIVE!" (Jiffyjam Records, 2001.) Kennedys first live acoustic concert recording! Includes seven previously unreleased songs, including "Come In My Kitchen" "Orange Blossom Special," "Rappahannock," "Distant Thunder," "Highway 10," "Jesu, Joy Of Man's Desiring" and the classic Pete song, "Run Red Lights!" $15.00 "EVOLVER" (Rouner/Zoe Records, 2000) Kennedys return to the incandescent pop style of "Life Is Large" with catchy hooks and splashes of psychedelia. Featuring the songs "Pick You Up," "Can't Kill Hope With A Gun," and "Down, Down, Down" CD only: $15.00 "ANGEL FIRE" (Rounder/Philo, 1998). Featuring "Jesse," "Common Bond," "Angels Cry" and "The Coo." CD only: $15.00. Pete Kennedy's Solo Titles: "SHEARWATER: THE ART OF THE UNPLUGGED GUITAR" (Pete solo instrumental). Guests include Jerry Douglas, Tony Rice and Jon Carroll. CDs - $15 "CHANNEL 3" (Pete's electric solo album) Available in CD only. $10. "FINGERS ON FIRE" Pete Kennedy and Tom Principato. This is a newly released CD of a concert "Pete and Pato" played back in 1978, when they were both in their early teens. You gotta get it if only for the haircuts on the cover. And the music? Guitar swing at its finest. $15.00 Holiday CD available! "On a Night Before Christmas" - Sloan Wainwright and Friends (Kennedys are among the friends!) This Holiday Celebration CD features guest performances by The Kennedys, Cadence Carroll, Penny Nichols and Gandalf Murphy and The Slambovian Circus of Dreams. Kennedys contributions are their acoustic version of "How Beautiful Are the Feet" from Handel's Messiah, "We Three Guitarists", featuring Pete on electric sitar, and background singing and playing scattered here and there. "On a Night Before Christmas" was recorded Live at Northern Westchester Center for the Arts in Mt. Kisco, NY on December 18th, 2004. See our December schedule, above for more of these holiday shows! CD - $15.00 Sheet Music: Life Is Large/St. Mark's Square (2 song folio) $4.00 River of Fallen Stars/Day In & Day Out (2-song folio) $4.00 Send check or money order to: The Kennedys, PO Box 1264, Northampton, MA 01061-1264. If you'd like to print out an order form, you can print it at: www.kennedysmusic.com/orderform.html Or order using Paypal by logging onto: http://www.kennedysmusic.com/order2005.html /Visit us online at /KennedysMusic.com/ or /MySpace.com/ for lots more!// / // - -- The following information is a reminder of your current mailing list subscription: You are subscribed to the following list: The Kennedys' E-Newsletter Using the following email: jangle-poets@smoe.org You may automatically unsubscribe from this list at any time by visiting the following URL: If the above URL is inoperable, make sure that you have copied the entire address. Some mail readers will wrap a long URL and thus break this automatic unsubscribe mechanism. You may also change your subscription by visiting this list's main screen: If you're still having trouble, please contact the list owner at: The following physical address is associated with this mailing list: The Kennedys PO Box 1264 Northampton, MA 01061-1264 Check out the Kennedys' Official Home Page: http://www.KennedysMusic.com/ Fab photos, the Official tour diary, dashboard Buddha haiku, groovy merchandise...what more could you ask for? ------------------------------ End of jangle-poets-digest V8 #83 *********************************