bluegrass camp2011

liam and i just go back from bluegrass camp-at the grass valley fairgrounds. here's was our cozy home away from home.

what a fabulous time. liam took mandolin with john reischman. he really enjoyed it. i took beginner clawhammer banjo with wayne erbsen. i was very frustrated with my class as it was suppose to be clawhammer from scratch for total beginners-i was overwhelmed and felt like a total----better not use that word-i don't think it's politically anymore. but i still got a lot out of it. i'm really inspired to practice and i want to get my fiddle in working order and start playing old time fiddle.

the really cool thing about bluegrass camp is there are people just jamming everywhere! here's liam with friend thomas jamming a bit.

every morning we had our 3 hour intensive class. then all afternoon and into the night there are elective classes that just rocked. in fact it was really hard to pick which one to go to. i took contra dance, clogging, old time banjo-accompaniment for singing with debby McClatchy, another beginner clawhammer class by ivan rosenberg. jamming 101 with sid lewis was a hoot! very funny guy. by the end of the day we were pooped. i got about 10 minutes of knitting done the whole time we were there-and i thought i'd get a pair of socks finished-ha!

i want to give a big thanks to hubby who took care of the homestead while we were gone!

i leave you with a jam video of liam, thomas and his friends playing cluck ole hen.

bluegrass & taxidermy forever!

whoa nellie- not all computer monitors are created equally-i hope you are seeing what i'm seeing. i recently redid my blog appearance-and i really like it. but then i saw it on a different computer and holy crap-my eyes balls nearly fried right out of their sockets! what i am seeing is a nice soft warm pond scum kind of yellow green. on the other computer my eyes met with an electric chartreuse-now i admit to liking chartreuse a lot but this was vibrating way too much.-i hope to gawd that you are not seeing my new blog this way. please let me know what background color you are seeing. i don't want to be held responsible for vision loss.

Well, as some of you know last weekend was the annual father's day bluegrass grass festival in town. i usually shy away from crowds but do venture out to this event. the best part of the festival is the parking lot scene. small jam groups form outside RVs and tents and the music is real. liam and i went on friday as his homestudy picking group was meeting up there for some jamming. here's liam with his new mandolin he got from the Darrell Johnston Lending Library.


during the kids jamming session two old-timers joined in- they were in their 80's and 90's.

i caught some video footage before my camera ran out of batteries!



if you want to see a longer video of them playing "bury me under the weeping willow" go to my youtube channel and check it out.

we had a good time but i was bummed the one band i did want to see i missed- G2, a bluegrass band from sweden. did anybody get to see them?

as you know of my obsession with taxidermy- this was the best thing i saw at the bluegrass fest- at someone's camp sight. a taxidermy chicken on a grill. can't beat that!