From: owner-jangle-poets-digest@smoe.org (jangle-poets-digest) To: jangle-poets-digest@smoe.org Subject: jangle-poets-digest V9 #16 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 Wednesday, January 31 2007 Volume 09 : Number 016 Today's Subjects: ----------------- [JP] Electric Sitar in pop songs [Nieldsforever@aol.com] [JP] The Kennedys' E-Newsletter Message ["The Kennedys' E-Newsletter" Subject: [JP] The Kennedys' E-Newsletter Message (Mailing List Information, including unsubscription instructions, is located at the end of this message.) __ The Kennedys E-Newsletter for February 2007 Contents: 1) Tour Diary: 2) Guitar workshop: Swing Guitar, Sunday, March 11th, Northampton, MA 3) Upcoming Guitar workshop: Rhythm Guitar, Sunday, April 1st, Northampton, MA 4) Tour Calendar for February 2007 (including Pete Kennedy's birthday celebrations!) 5) Extended calendar through May 2007 6) The Strangelings debut show premieres on YouTube 7) Kennedys weekly radio show on SIRIUS Satellite radio 8) Kennedys Mercantile 9) New Feature: Current News Articles and Photos, including New York Times article! *********************************** 1) Tour Diary: January 2006 Years ago, I was playing an open mic at the Red Fox in Bethesda Maryland, a long-gone club, legendary as the launching pad for Emmylou Harris and the Seldom Scene. The place had a great open mic, and you would meet all kinds of people when you stepped off the bandstand. One night, I had just gotten through a rambling, funky version of "How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live", and I was packing my mandolin up, when a pipe-smoking stranger approached me. "I'm Chip Cliff". "Hi, Chip Cliff". "You play really well. Are you working much?" In my mid-twenties, I had just quit a two-year gig playing on a passenger train, and I was considering retiring as a down-and-out gentleman farmer in the foothills of the Blue Ridge. Chip dashed that vain hope. "You should be working. The first thing you need is a teaching gig. Do you teach banjo? I played banjo, but I had never taught banjo, or anything else. Before I could formulate a response, Chip settled the matter. "Be at Ellswort h Studios at ten a.m. on Monday. They need a banjo teacher. I'll tell them you're coming". "But what'll I teach?" Chip tamped the tobacco in his bowl. "Just show up. All you have to do is know more than the students!" On this slim thread, I began my teaching career. The Ellsworths, a family of concert violinists, fortunately had no idea what constituted a qualified banjo teacher, and for the first few weeks, I just arrived early, read the next chapter in the Earl Scruggs book, and taught that chapter. That kept me a week ahead of my students until, after a year or so, I'd been through all the current banjo, guitar and mandolin methods, and was starting to arrive at enough ideas of my own to become a real teacher. I stayed there for fifteen years, teaching twenty or thirty students a week, and when I finally said goodbye to set off in Mary Chapin Carpenter's tour bus, I knew I would get back to teaching someday, but the next time I would have more to teach than the next chapter in the book. The myriad experiences that lay ahead, with Chapin, and later Nanci Griffith, and finally the culmination of it all with Maura, would be the grist for the second round of teaching. It was Dick Pleasants of WUMB, Boston, who sounded the siren's call that drew us back into teaching. He's been running a music camp for grownups, Summer Acoustic Music Week, at a camp in an idyllic loon preserve on Lake Winnipesauke in New Hampshire, for a number of years. We'd heard that it was a great experience, with a great faculty including master songwriter Bob Franke, philosophical/spiritual/musical eclectics Lorraine and Bennett Hammond, and others of their caliber. When Dick started telling us, "We've got to get you guys up there", we thought he was overestimating our talent as teachers, but I heard Chip Cliff's voice echoing down the years; "Just show up!" So we showed up, just as uncertain and skittish as the first-year students. We needn't have been, because we were immediately welcomed into a benevolent "cult" of music lovers, sort of like the group who gather in the woods at the end of "Fahrenheit 451", memorizing the great books against the onslaught of the barbarians at the gates; "Hi, I'm "Wuthering Heights". It was a welcoming and supportive situation, and at the end of the week, as many of the students felt a sense of themselves as performers for the first time, we felt a sense of ourselves as a teaching duo as well. We've gone back to the lake lots of times, since, and we hope to keep going, but thanks to Dick and the other campers, teaching has become more than a week vacation in New Hampshire. It's part of our mission, if you will allow us so grandiose a word. We believe that music can do more than just bring people together for a few hours. It has a healing force that is real, and lasting, and it could bring about world peace, if the feeling at the end of a concert by U2 or Pete Seeger could be bottled. That's a worthy thing to try and teach, and we consider the seminars that we conduct, regularly now, to be real high points of our journey. Many thanks to Dick for luring us up to the loon preserve and setting us on such a rewarding path, and special thanks to our once and future students. You teach us as much as we teach you, and you give us a chance to synthesize our fourteen years on the road into something that we can pass along, something that might enhance your own musical journe y. We look forward to all of our seminars this year, and to Summer Acoustic Music Week, and we promise to try and stay a chapter ahead... *********************************** 2) Guitar Workshop: Swing Guitar (offered in March) Pete will be offering this one-day guitar workshop on Sunday, March 11, 2007 in Northampton, MA. Duke Ellington said, It dont mean a thing if it aint 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 *********************************** 3) Upcoming Guitar Workshop: Rhythm Guitar Workshop (offered in April) Pete will be offering this one-day guitar workshop on Sunday, April 1, 2007, in Northampton, MA. There's a world of rhythm guitar styles beyond boom-chuck and Travis picking. We'll explore a number of them ranging from Gypsy and Western Swing to the complex counterpoint of African Soukous and James Brown's "chamber funk", with the emphasis on how simple parts combine to create a full ensemble sound. A must for jammers. Open to players 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/GuitarSeminar040107.html *********************************** 4) Tour Calendar for February 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. Saturday, February 3rd, 7:30pm Folk Music Society of Huntington Congregational Church of Huntington 30 Washington Drive, Centerport, Long Island, NY 11721 Phone: 631-425-2925 Price: $20/$15 members Concert begins at 8:30, with a 7:30 one-hour open mic. Must sign up for open mic before 7:20pm http://fmshny.org/ Sunday, February 4th, 11am - 6pm Guitar Workshop: Beyond do-re-mi and the pentatonic box: Jammin' On The Modes -- only a couple of seats left. Northampton, MA 01060 email: kennedylst@aol.com Price $120.00 http://www.kennedysmusic.com/GuitarSeminar020407.html Friday, February 9th, 8:30pm Puck Live 1 Printers Alley, Doylestown, PA 18901 (Pete Kennedy's birthday is today! Come celebrate) Phone: 215-348-9000 Price: $15 http://www.pucklive.com/index.php Saturday, February 10th, 7:00pm Jammin' Java (Celebrating Pete Kennedy's Birthday!) 227 Maple Ave. E, Vienna, VA 22180 Phone: 703-255-1566 Price: $17.50 http://www.jamminjava.com/ Friday, February 16th, 8:30pm Del Rossi's Trattoria Route 137N, Dublin, NH 03444 Phone: 603-563-7195 Price: $10 http://www.delrossi.com/ Saturday, February 17th, 8:00pm Club Helsinki 284 Main Street, Great Barrington, MA 01230 Phone: 413-528-3394 Price: $18.00 http://www.clubhelsinkiweb.com Saturday, February 24th, 8:00pm Night Eagle Cafe new location: 200 State Street, Binghamton, NY 13901 Phone: 607-843-6105 Price $17 http://www.nighteaglecafe.org/ Remember to always call venues ahead of time to confirm showtimes and locations. *********************************** 5) Kennedys endless tour continues: ***Coming in March 2006*** Sunday, March 11th - Day-long 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*** Sunday, April 1st - Day-long Guitar Workshop: Rhythm Guitar, Northampton, MA 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 ***Coming in May 2007*** Friday, May 4th - Crossroads Community Foundation Fundraiser, Chestertown, MD Saturday, May 19th - Coffeehouse off the Square, Hingham, MA Saturday, may 26 & Sunday, May 27 - Warwick Valley Winery Bob Dylan festival 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) The Strangelings debut performance video on YouTube! This is from The Strangelings debut performance 1/12/07 at P.A.C.E. in Easthampton, MA, and is the only recording of the group. Here, performing the first 10 minutes of the 40-minute "Nuah Suite", this section includes "Nuah" (The Kennedys), "Harvest Moon" (C&M Thompson) and "Tanglewood Tree" (by Dave Carter). The Nuah Suite is a chain of myth-based, enigmatic songs, a rich blend of goddess imagery and classical themes drawn from around the world, woven into a complex fabric that flows like an orchestral sonata. YouTube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8OhvYTEBa4 Who are The Strangelings? The Strangelings: two electric sitars, flute, percussion, and the ethereal voices of three beautiful women, all blended into an alchemical potion of earthy mythology and deep grooves that will have you dancing while your soul takes flight. Also, visit The Strangelings myspace page at: http://www.myspace.com/thestrangelings *********************************** 7) 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. *********************************** 8) 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: $15.0 0 "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 *********************************** 9) New Feature: Current News Articles and Photos, including New York Times article! Recent New York Times article on The Kennedys at the Outpost in the 'Burbs: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/21/nyregion/nyregionspecial2/21njarts.html?_r=1&ref=nyregionspecial2&oref=slogin Newsletter Subscriber's review and photos: The Kennedys at Outpost in the 'Burbs review by Kevin Papa. The Kennedys on January 5 at Outpost in the Burbs in Montclair. WOW. I fell in love with the Kennedys when I first heard "Dharma Cafe" on WFUV in 2003. Maura's beautiful voice, Pete's twangy guitar, the harmonies, the Byrdsy sound, the whole package. They blow me away every time I hear one of their songs. Listen to "Nickeltown", "Stand", "Tupelo", or the covers of "Wall of Death", "Eight Miles High" or "Sin City" and you will be hooked. I have been trying to see Pete and Maura since 2004 and always had something come up. This time I decided I could not miss them. The show at Outpost was incredible. All the originals and the wonderful covers from the recently released "Songs of the Open Road". Photos from the Outpost show are posted on: http://www.newjerseyrock.com/kennedys.html Thank you Pete and Maura for a wonderful show. I could feel the love in the room. *********************************** Thanks, all! Please be careful out in the world. We adore you all! Namaste, Pete & Maura Kennedy 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 V9 #16 *********************************