Sunday, January 30, 2011

Another one of those 'that's entertainment' moments

I have written in the past about the 'that's entertainment' moments, when a musical performance or performer puts on a show that stays with you. Well, I experienced one of those recently and the fact that I was still smiling about it over a week later was a signal that I needed to write about it.

I worked at the Parks & Recreation Jamboree--an event held at the Jefferson County Fairgrounds where arts professionals man a table and offer information about themselves to the various Parks & Recreation staffers and others who walk through the event. I had a little "Steel Pennies" table, with flyers for our band, stickers, my computer set up with some of our videos from You Tube, and a banjo on a stand. I was sitting next to a couple of guys who are drummers and do presentations for children. Then event ran for six hours, and there was a stage where some showcase acts had a chance to perform.

I saw some good showcases: The Andy Hackbarth Band--I knew him before he went to Nashville and learned the ropes of being a singer/songwriter. I really enjoyed the country rock band, Triple Nickel--and I talked with the lead singer afterwards about how fun it would be to do a show together with them. Triple Nickel and Steel Pennies could do the spare change show!

The band that really made an impression was called Papa Juke. I actually didn't get their name that day, but contacted the event organizer later to ask who they were. They were a four piece, with electric guitar, drums, electric bass, and harmonica. Their genre is what they call blues, juke, jam. And they rocked out! When they took the stage they played with absolute abandon. It was fun and put a smile on everyone's face. It was a great way to end the event.

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Jam at Paul's Coffee



Dave and I host a weekly jam at Paul's Coffee & Tea in Louisville. Paul Waitinas, the owner, is an old friend of ours and he sold me my first bass and gave me lessons on it back in 2005. We also worked with him on the first bluegrass shows at the Grange, back in 2007.

The jam typically has different people every week. It is a lot of fun. Tom Stuart comes out to the jam sometimes, and he took these pictures on one fun Saturday.















































Saturday, January 8, 2011

Steel Pennies Recording--Again



Steel Pennies is back working on some recording. This is about our third attempt at trying to get something done. This one, I think is going to work out--it's just going to take time. We are recording the tracks ourselves, which is serving to save us all from having to declare personal bankruptcy. The guys are incredibly picky and will record their sections over and over trying to get the right sound. If we were doing that in a studio, the bills would mount pretty quickly.



Terry and Dave both have equipment to do the recording. Typically, Terry records his tracks at his house. Dave does his stuff at our house. Jerry and I coordinate with Terry and he makes a trek usually to our house and records our sections. It's pretty interesting. After all the tracks are done, we will send it to a professional to do the mixing and mastering.



This last shot is from when we were finishing up our little Christmas song and deciding on the final sound. Someday we'll have a CD done.

Sunday, January 2, 2011

New Year's Eve



Typically on New Year's Eve, Dave and I go to a friend's house; he has an "early" party, which runs from 5:00 to 9:00 p.m., and they always serve chili and salad, with bread and champagne. This year, although we were really looking forward to going, we felt like the roads just weren't good enough to make the trek to the other side of Boulder.

Instead, we decided to cook up our own chili, and added the bread, champagne, and salad, and ate in front of the fire.



I set out the good flatware and linen napkins and David built the fire, and it was really nice.



Molly and Lucille, of course tried to get in on the act.



And the chili turned out great, as the condition of our plates attested!