Pete's Bluegrass Weblog - or BGBlog

Subjects: bluegrass, old time music, and vaguely related items. You are invited to join in, as you wish. E-mail them to us and we'll add your comments, which are welcome.

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The Very Lonesome Boys had a great time last month, playing for a major trail ride in the back hills of Santa Barbar County - more than 500 riders and passels of musicians of many types. Since the ride continues for an entire week, the varipous musician from the 18+ sub-camps had many chances to visit and jam with each other (one of the real highlights of the event). Since the group hosting the ride is so large, getting from one venue to another can be difficult without a horse. However, hay trucks can come in very handy -- as this photo shows:

Here's a photo of one of the many jam sessions on the ride, with fiddlers Phil Salazar and Kevin Wimmer (at left in photo) holding forth on a Cajun tune (click on photo for larger version):

While we are having lots of rain this winter, it doesn't seem to be stopping people from coming out for our shows. Dan Crary and Beppe Gambetta arrived in Los Olivos for a program at St. Marks on February 11th. We had time for a fun dinner before the show. For many, it was the first time to see and hear Beppe's great guitar stylings, and to reacquaint themselves with Dan's powerful guitar solos. Here's a view of the show (a click on the image will bring up a larger view). Remember that Byron Berline and band will be stopping by the same venue March 17th.

Just received this from LeRoy McNees, a fine singer and dobro player from old Kentucky Colonels days:

Hello my dear friends,

I have had many of you ask me about letting them know when I am doing a local concert, so here it is.

The show is called "LeRoy Mack and Friends" The friends include Herb Pederson, Chris Hillman, Bill Bryson, and Tony Recoupido. It really is a stellar line up.

The Dates are; March 5th at 8:00 PM Bluegrass show
March 6th at 4:00 PM Bluegrass gospel show

The place; The Blueridge Pick'n Parlor 17828 Chatsworth St. Granada Hills, Ca 91344
The phone (818) 282-9001
The tickets are $20.00 each and they do take reservations. There are only 100 seats available for each *show.

I hope you can make it.

    Happy New Year!

    Wow, a very wet beginning to 2005 in the Southern California area ... we've had storms for most of the past two weeks, and they seem not to be done yet. Nevertheless, we had a great turnout for our Earl Scruggs birthday celebration last Saturday. We were quite impressed that so many of you braved the storm to enjoy some good bluegrass, including several Scruggs' tunes ably played on the five string banjo by David West. As promised, we'll be sending a high-resolution print of the photo below to Earl in Nashville with our fondest birthday greetings. A special thanks to Catherine and Garret Marton for helping with tickets and bringing a huge supply of chocolate chip cookies ... and to all the folks at the SB Trust for Historic Preservation for making the Presidio Chapel available to us.   Thanks to all of you for attending.

Click on image for larger view...

   We're in the middle of what is now called "The Holiday Season", which I remember experiencing as Christmas and New Year's. While living in the 1960s up in the community known as Mountain Drive (in the mountains behind Santa Barbara), a third celebration, "Twelfth Night" (January 6th) was added to the list, and made a nice concluding celebration to our activities around the time of the winter solstice.

This year, I'd like to add another connection to that series; the 6th of January. It's the birthday of a wonderful musician named Earl Scruggs. January 6, 2005, marks Earl's 81st year on the planet I and the Very Lonesome Boys will be celebrating his birthday with a special show at the Presidio Chapel in Santa Barbara. Come join us if you can

Earl Scruggs, 1945   

My major project for 2004 was producing a CD celebrating the music of someone I have long considered a musical grandfather, David Harrison Macon, better known as "Uncle Dave Macon" or "The Dixie Dewdrop". Rather than attempting to imitate his style directly, I decided to arrange some of my favorites of his recordings in what I call neo-classic country music. I asked several friends (Byron Berline, Bill Bryson, Dennis Caplinger, Dan Crary, and Wayne Shrubsall) to help me out, and in August of this year, we got together in Escondido, California to put some of Uncle Dave's songs on a hard drive. The CD, due to be issued in January, 2005, is called "Grey Cat On The Tennessee Farm", and contains 14 tunes and songs performed by Uncle Dave. You can find out more about it HERE.

Some photos of the sessions, which lasted 4 days:

Steve Wetherbee, Dennis Caplinger, Peter, Byron Berline

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