Tiny Circus Blues

This tiny project included my first published performance of the blues: 25 seconds of improv humming for an animated cartoon called The History of Blue (from 1:15 to 1:40 in the video below).



My son Shane helped with animating and sound effects, notably the wolf whistle.   We're in this photo watching as the video is shot frame by frame.

Creating video stills with Tiny Circus, July 3, 2010, at ICON in Fairfield.
Shane Welty is in foreground under a camouflage cap, operating editing software.
I'm standing at the back wall with long hair over right shoulder.
Torrey Witherspoon is seated in front of me.

The art gallery ICON hosted Tiny Circus and Fairfield participants in their activity room (pictured above).  After the topic "The History of Blue" was chosen, we needed a story line.   We tossed around lots of ideas and considered every notion of "blue" ~ the sky, pigments and paints, fabric dyes, the water cycle, the rainbow, cold weather, and others.   My mind gravitated to love and heartbreak since that's what I write about in my songs, so I suggested that as a storyline and they ran with it.

We made sound effects in ICON's basement.  Torrey Witherspoon played mandolin for the happy-dancing first part of the video and voiced the sighing transition.   I don't remember the name of the young man who strummed chords on Torrey's mandolin for the end where I hummed.   He said he had just begun learning blues and knew one chord progression.   Well, that's all we needed.

Tiny Circus wrote about the day on their blog.   If you know other details about this day (like the strummer's name), please tell me and I'll add to the story.

Foliba headlines Open Mic

Back during a 10-month dry spell on this blog, Foliba headlined Open Mic at Cafe Paradiso on October 10, 2012, playing traditional West African rhythms.  Dave Winningham handed me his camera to record some rhythms, so it's my fault the video is kinda shaky and beheads the players.

In the first video below, Open Mic host Keith DeBoer introduces the group and they begin with "a celebratory rhythm", Sinte.   From left to right the players are Dan Craig, David Winningham, JoLynn Gates, and Bob Miller.



Later in the set, they electrify the room with Jansa ~~ tremendous, vibrant energy swells to the ceiling and bulges the walls!   From left to right the players are Dan Craig, David Winningham, Bob Miller, and JoLynn Gates.  



These players anchor most of the drum circles in Fairfield.

Both videos were uploaded to YouTube by David Winningham.

Big Band O Yeah (Artie Shaw)

At the Sondheim tonight, I saw, heard, ingested the Artie Shaw Orchestra, a tribute band of the legendary band leader.   Their encore number was Mack the Knife, one of my favorite dance songs.   It usually played at least once during a Lindy Hop dance practice.   So inspired I rewrote the song for us and I hope Ira, Mike, and Russ are as excited as I am.

An old photo of the new incarnation of the Artie Shaw Orchestra.
These are different members than we saw.

Very enjoyable to listen to the big band swing sound of the orchestra.   The conductor kept the music moving along, sometimes starting a new piece before our applause for the previous piece ended.

I figure in our band blurb I'll say we have a small horn section.   That would be a small section (one horn) and a small horn (flute).   :)

* When I say "tonight" it means the evening during the time period before I sleep.   The posting says this was posted Saturday morning, and the orchestra played Friday night.   So, to bed I go now ... goodnight!

Monster Bassist Duffy

I've been wondering how an Open Mic feature set of Burnt Sugar might sound with minimal to no drums and only core players on stage.   I got my chance to hear a really cool rock/blues/folk/country/reggae band tonight as the feature at Open Mic ~ no drum kit ~ so I checked it out.

Bassist Tim Duffy of the
Jefferson County Green Band
(and guest player with 
Burnt Sugar Blues)

Cafe Paradiso's Wednesday night Open Mic featured the Jefferson County Green Band, who promoted an "unplugged" set although each of them had at least one mic or amp, sometimes two.   They did not, however, have a drummer.   Bassist Tim Duffy held down rhythm in fine form.   Most of their songs were new, some from their latest album Great Spirit (including the title cut) and some from their next album (as yet unnamed).   Duffy spends most of his time brokering hotels while living in Cedar Rapids, 95 miles away, so he heard JCGB's newest songs for the first time at 5 pm . . . four hours before taking the stage with the band.   This man is a master!   Tim Duffy monsters the bass!

Lead singer Steve McClain sounded buoyant and the 45-minute set was full of easy, happy vibes.   Fatherhood looks good on Steve ~ radiant, actually.   His wife, Michaela, sang two songs with the band ~ one was a really beautiful calypso version of Islands in the Stream (sung in 1983 by Kenny Rogers/Dolly Parton) . . . calypso because they "had to spice it up."   Mmm, scrumptious.

The Green Band will be at the Neil Young tribute at Red Rock tavern tonight, Thursday night.

So . . . I'm excited about doing a feature set for Open Mic sans drum kit.   We have some songs that would be perfect.   :)

*** Update: Friday 12:02 am ~ I changed Tim's career info above to hotel brokering.   He handed off hotel management last summer.