Cape Cod Girls Have No Combs

A recent trip to the mainland found me at the Cape Cod National Seashore, ending up at the Red Nun Bar and Grill to play a little music with friends, and far be it for me to go anywhere without turning it into a multi-media event. Chit-chat, scenery, photos, and savage Irish music all contained within.

Life is What Happens...

While settling in to work on a few projects, the alert in my gallery rang (and rang, and rang - how many people just came in, anyway?). I went downstairs to respond and found a lovely family, looking for some music, and it turned out that Riley, the seven year-old, happened to be an Irish step-dancer. Alright, then, let's get out the fiddle. Lovely!

 

Holden, Riley, and Cooper

Three Saras

Well, this was fun. And when I say "fun," what I really mean is it was an extreme exercise of shooting, playing, and editing that took most of a day. I'm sure there's an app that will do it all much more easily, but I don't have it. For me it involves getting the lights right - yeah, I'm too old (and vain) to allow every wrinkle and bag to show up; exposure and settings on the EOS R (I've said it before, but sometimes I think flying a jet plane would be easier than operating the new cameras with the many layers of menus and customizable functions) - and that's the easy part, because the next thing that has to happen is I have to create an acceptable initial track - in this case it was the fiddle melody - and the word acceptable, for me anyway, means perfect, which means doing it over and over and over, and still never really being happy with the result. Next, it goes into my video editor on my computer and I save it as an mp4 that I can watch on my phone and play along to which is not as easy as it sounds. When playing with real people there's a subtle micro-adjusting to each other that is going on constantly. When playing with one's self, the adjustment is one-way. After I've recorded everything to my reasonable satisfaction, I layer all the tracks in my video editor on my computer. The most time-consuming part of the process is syncing all of the audio waves, both visually and sound-wise (the clap at the beginning of each track is key). The more advanced video editors can auto-sync; mine does not, and involves lots of manual sliding of tracks, matching the audio wave as close as possible. And while I did a decent job of syncing the tracks here, you can still hear where my playing got off track from myself, at least I can. Then there's the trimming, adding transitions, cropping, and arranging. Oh yeah, and usually some time-wasting tech issue along the way. By the end of the day, I am totally sick of looking at myself (and I usually end up with a hair cut the next day), and I don't ever want to hear or play that tune again.

All of that is a long way of saying "Here is three of me playing Da Slockit Light on (L-R) fiddle, bouzouki, and mandolin." (This is in lieu of my being in Ennis, Co. Clare, where I was scheduled to be at this very moment, playing music with my friends.)

Porch Session with Rose and John

It was a quiet summer, music-wise, with my right-hand man, Colin, having been over in Ireland all summer, and we will all be the beneficiaries of all that he's learned, I'm sure. I've enjoyed a spattering of smaller sessions, and have had many evenings of solitary playing on the porch, which I've actually rather enjoyed - taking the opportunity to learn some new tunes and listening to myself for a change. On the last Sunday in August my friends Rose Clancy and John Alden came over from the Cape and paid me a visit. We had a lovely day together - one of those clear and dry August Vineyard days - did a little Edgartown secret back-woods tour, played some afternoon pre-session warm-up music on the porch, and managed to scare up a few musicians for a porch session that night, all in all a wonderful late-summer treat. Thanks for coming out, everybody - and Colin: we miss you!


A walk to town, the secret back-woods way.


Lunch at the Wharf


Ready!


The pre-session warm-up session.














Moi, by Rose.





A few local fans and dinner guests: Janet, Orion, and Maria.


Matthew, showing his stuff.


Violet - lovely.


Violet, Mary, Irene, John, and Rose.


Mary and Irene.

Music on Main Street

It couldn't have been a more perfect weekend - perfect weather, a perfect blend of friends and music, and a perfect variety of guest stars who happened by - including (but not limited to) the group of dancers who walked in off the street last night; my cousin Edson Rodgerswho blew us out of the water with a guest appearance with his horn; the lass - Katrina - who stepped up and sang us a song; and last but not least, the young man from Brazil who was apparently moved to tears by the music he heard coming from the porch and stopped and sat with us a while. It was great to have Mary Wolverton on board, too, with her friend Tim from Iowa. With a special thank you to my guests Rosanne, Wynter, and Dan - who made the trek down from Boston and environs - no easy feat on an August Saturday, particularly when the president of the USA is pulling into town on the same day. The plu-perfect weekend was topped off by a showing of the super Sturgeon Moon on Sunday night.

Fourth of July 2013

From getting ready, to the parade, and music on the porch. As always, wishing I could clone myself so as to be able to simultaneously play music, cook, hostess, and photograph. A lovely day altogether, even managed to sneak in a swim. Thanks, Edgartown, for a great party, and many thanks to the friends who made the trip over and made the music on the porch great.






























This house on Morse Street was built when our country was only four years old.


Everyone's favorite summer officer: Neal Condlin.


Geno, Joe, and the colonel.


Margaret and April





Bill and Pat Black, over from Falmouth.


Mike











My favorite Yankee Doodle boy.


Ben





Lidia


Levi





Joan





Colonel Morgan, stepping lively at 92.


Skip


Our Sheriff
































Every good session eventually ends up in the kitchen.