Bark in the Dark

On the night of an extremely bright Full Moon:

going Eastbound on Oak Street

the event: "Bark in the Dark"

It was another dog walk in Fort Collins. This time it was to benefit the Search and Rescue Dogs of Colorado.

The African drum group "Fale" provided entertainment

In addition, the World Famous Samba band "Bloco em Foco" performed (i.e., even more drum music!)

First Friday Gallery Walk

Bloco em Foco was playing on Oak Street Plaza, but at the Art Lab:

Northern Colorado Harpist - Mary Ellen Holmes

She was playing her harp at the Art Lab gallery which became part of Fort Collins' First Friday Gallery Walk.

As seen from the Art Lab front window.

If you want live music for your wedding, anniversary or whatever, and you might think a samba band may be a bit too loud, why not contact our friend Mary Ellen of Harp Accents.

Lab Ratz

It's the Art Lab house band:

Kevin Cripe, Larry Dolgin, Tommy Campbell and Steven Johnson

Nice drum head logo!

Ringing in the New Year!

It's 'Bloco em Foco' in Old Town Fort Collins:

The Surdo line

This worked out well. We were outside, and a whole lot of music fans needed something to do before midnight. New Years and samba bands seem to go together! Beleza!

Paul leading the band

It started with a little bit of marching samba to the Art Lab for a 30 minute gig. Then some more marching around Old Town for a bit. Finally ending near the 'Transcend' statue for the fireworks display.

Seven Morris Dancers

In Old Town Fort Collins:

Border Morris Dancers

Of course there are Maroon Bells and Breathless in Berthoud in Colorado, of which the latter is represented above.

Nine Pipers Piping

At yet another parade:

Per Robert Browning:

Once more he stept into the street

And to his lips again

Laid his long pipe of smooth straight cane;

And ere he blew three notes (such sweet

Soft notes as yet musician's cunning

Never gave the enraptured air)

Of course this is a fractured blogified version of the Twelve Days of Christmas. There really could have been eleven pipers in this parade, but 'PhotoShop can Crop' and crop it does.

Having some kind of limited theme like this lets me pre-post a bunch of stuff while I'm actually busy with the usual holiday madness and it's likely that any real-time posts won't return until 2010. So what's left? 5, 7, and 10 I think. The prediction: Expect arthropods to dominate. They usually do.

Six Carolers Jammin'

in Oak Street Plaza:

Linda Anderson

of the Choice City Singers is shown here performing the drum solo from the song "Whipeout" on a chilly December evening. The caroling group met up with the internationally known Afro-Brazillian drum group "Bloco em Foco" for an impromptu jam session in Oak Street Plaza in Fort Collins.

Eight Bubbas Drumming

At Catalyst Coffee in Fort Collins:

The Drum Bubbas

Starting in December the Drum Bubbas will introduce an open drum circle at the Catalyst on Wednesday nights!

Once they start, they don't ever want to stop!

...and they even let me play along side! It gives me a chance to try out some of those home-made percussion instruments I have in the garage! TUA!

Bloco at Oak Street Plaza

A Black Friday Benefit

IN FORT COLLINS!

'The Renegade Performance'; We just showed up on Oak Street Plaza dressed in black and played samba for an hour. It was a benefit for homeless Vietnam Veterans and even though there were not too many Old Town shoppers (All at the Walmart, I imagine!) we collected over $100.

Noite Brasileira !

Back into Laramie, Wyoming:
It was a benefit concert for Partners of the Americas' breast cancer prevention program

Gisele Dias was there!

...and Bloco em Foco !

Hart's Alley

is a "speakeasy' in Laramie Wyoming!

It was "Hot Brazilian Night" on Saturday!

With Fort Collin's World Class Samba Band "Bloco em Foco" in attendance. It was a real trip!

Fort Collins Police break up Brazilian party

News at 11. But for now, let's look at some art:

Featured this week at the Art Lab

there are works on display

by graphics artist Nikki Arnell

As part of the merging of various arts per the concept of the Art Lab, the premier Fort Collins Samba band 'Bloco em Foco' also appeared for a short performance, much to the dismay of some of the other tenants in the building. The Fort Collins Police were called and some sort of new arrangement was made so that 'Bloco em Foco' could continue into the night.

Police visiting the Art Lab on Saturday

The official Fort Collins Police blotter recorded this as incident # 092830258 on 10/10/09 at 15:29. Location: 150 W. Mountain. Disposition: Necessary Action Taken.

So, this is the second time in two weeks that someone called the cops on 'Bloco em Foco'. Hopefully we will try again tonight at 6:00 pm and see what happens!

Duncan Madog and the Green Warriors

Sounds like some sort of rock band, but


Duncan Madog marched with the Green Warriors at this year's CSU Homecoming Parade! He met lots of students and was given all kinds of treats from the CSU Vet school. He even got to ride shotgun in the official CSU command vehicle!

Duncan walked the entire route behind a group dancing to a continuous music loop of Ray Steven's "Witch Doctor" so now I can't seem to get "Ting Tang Walla Walla Bing Bang" out of my head. Help Me Please!

Joyful noise

These guys came to visit us in City Park - Fort Collins:
The guy with the Rockies shirt is from the park district and the other guy is from the Fort Collins Police department.

They were here to tell us that we (Fort Collins premiere Samba band, "Bloco em Foco") were possibly in violation of the local noise ordinance in that we were creating U.N. or "unreasonable noise". Section 20-21 , article II of the FoCo Noise Ordinance states that "U.N. shall mean any sound of such level and duration as to be or tend to be injurious to human health or welfare, or which would unreasonably interfere with the enjoyment of life or property throughout the city or in any portions thereof".

Apparently between the hours of 7a.m. and 8p.m., the sound from our band cannot carry over to the nearest property line with a sound pressure level greater than 85 dB.

We let them take their dB meter and walk over to the nearest property line and take some measurements while we played a few measures of "Gutchaka!" So, across a field, tennis courts and the street they measured 95 dB !

Wow! Our samba band can injure and/or interfere with the enjoyment of life or property! Cool!

Ragbrai Left Handed Banjo 'Tubes

Banjo playin' on the old RAGRRAI:

At the Peanut Butter Jam: Tom and Jim (The Roadside Boys)

Banjo Only

Dueling Tubas

Near the CSU-UCA back door:

Martin Mull would like this

FYI: CSU faculty Robert Brewer performs tuba music composed by fellow Coloradoans as part of the Colorado Composer Project on September 21, 2009 at 7:30PM at the Organ Recital Hall, UCA.

Agogo Solo, et alia

At an outdoor festival:

Levada Solos!

Bloco em' now have matching shirts and have been seen performing in public. Breaking out some solos even! We even have some gigs lined up! We are an offical Fort Collins Samba band!

They don't play banjo in Samba bands, so I have decided to play the agogo; it's easy to carry and can fit into a pocket just like the shakre.

Beleza!

Breathless in Berthoud!

Roadside Mysteries must be getting soft; Here's another post about Berthoud!

Border Morris Dancers

Calling themselves "Breathless in Berthoud", they are Colorado's Border Morris Team! They practice the art of Border Morris Dance every Thursday in the studio above Jones Plumbing and Heating in beautiful downtown Berthoud, Colorado. Sticks are generally used in the dance, but some variations exist as in The Ladies of the Rollin Pin !

West Fest Groovin'

Here we go!

The Camel Showcase Presents

The weather was just right on Sunday! Here the vendors and dancers are highlighted at New West Fest with music by Euforquestra. Note: There were no real camels in the camel showcase!

Eiee ! Beleza !

At the Civic Center:

Euforquestra!

Hey look! A band playing Surdo and Caixa and it's not Bloco em Foco! It's Euforquestra and they are playing a SAMBA! Eiee!

From Reggae to bluegrass I guess you could call what they play "World Music"; They will be back in Fort Collins for New West Fest on Aug. 16. Look out for them!

African Drums of Fort Collins

and Dance!

We heard the drumming and found our way to the Council Tree Library

where there was dancing and drumming!

Here's a sort video

We went to the library to get some books on decking! It looks like another project is in the works! We love home improvement!

The Last RAGBRAI Post?

Maybe, maybe not...

Here's Tom from the Roadside Boys

And here I am playing behind Teresa and John of the Buck Hollow Band.

Another picture of John. He knows A LOT of songs in the key of G ! What a guy!!!

Here's Jim

This is Ed

I forgot her name. If I remember it, I'll edit this caption.

Rosemary's Birthday Gig

Road trip coming soon!

Bloco em FoCo invited to a party

It was a very nice evening to get out and drum and meet new people. Now it's time to pack up and go to the farm country of Iowa!

Jazz Fest, F.C.

In Old Town, Fort Collins we have:

The Groove Society

Aakash Mittal

Erik and Ben of Red Sylvester

... and Kevin and Wil of Red Sylvester

YES YOU CAN:

hear a band in Fort Collins that ain't got no banjo nowhere in sight!

Returnin' to de island mon!

We just had to go back...

Not to worry... those are Christmas lights in the eyes of that mask!

and Marcus was there to make sure we didn't sway (in the wrong direction)

Check out those Surdos and the Timbau

it was a great venue for drumming

The ashiko and djembe players are looking and sounding fine!

You could leave the island if you had to, but we all stayed!

Look! The boat is bringing more drummers!

There is this half-tailed cat living on the island it seems.

...but he didn't mind as we recorded our Island Samba!

I guess I could get back in the groove and run the shekere a bit, but I'll have to finish my piña colada first. I do have my priorities!

Entertainment Update #6

Looking back a week or two:

At Bas Bleu: I'm Not Rappaport

Excellent performances by Earlie Thomas and Jonathan Farwell (above). We are always amazed at the quality of the theater around here; we have just become the theater co-chairs for the Newcomers Club! Our tour starts in September!

Oak Street Plaza: Grupo Aztlan

That's Gerald Sandoval on the right playing a requinto guitar. They play Latin jazz, cumbias, Tex-Mex and rancheras! Mmmmm! Sounds good!

Dale Cisek of the Modern Rhythm Project at the Catalyst Tap Room

We were at their CD release party with Kim and Tom from Kansas City! Hear the MRP here!

A Roadside Boy visits FC

Hey! Is that not Tom and his guitar?

It's Tom from the 'Roadside Boys' Band !

Not to be confused with this Tom from the Edgar Rice Band. It's entirely another Tom who also plays guitar and plays in a band that I occasionally inject banjo licks from time to time.

Here are Tom and me and Tom's brother John on the roadside in 2005!

We get together once a year on the highly religious feast of Ragbrai to eat pork chops and pie while we entertain 10,000+ bike riders. This year Ragbrai begins on the night of July 18 with music from the Barenaked Ladies. Then someplace on someone's farm or near a grain elevator or next to a cornfield, if you're lucky, and you're riding a bike through Iowa, you might hear the Roadside Boys entertaining YOU! It could happen.

Old Picture Archive #12

Someone sent me this the other day:

It's Tom, Bugman, Ray, Kathy, and Len!

It's a picture taken in Oak Park, Illinois maybe around 1975 of the Edgar Rice Burroughs Memorial String Band playing our 'hit' song: "I'm not a Lincoln, I'm a Ford!"  This band was well known to Peoria radio stations for unknown reasons as we never set foot in that town! We think they liked the name of the band, so our motto was "We should'a played Peoria". 

We used to practice in a house once owned by Mr. Burroughs in Oak Park where Tarzan was created!

Jazz Singers @ Harmony

Sometimes we forget we have free concerts practically in our back yard!

Tonight is was the FRCC Vocal Jazz Ensemble

The back up band was great. Here they are playing next to the circulation desk!

Note: We used to go to the Fort Collins Library, but NO MORE! From now on it's the Poudre River Public Library District!

Samba Dancin'

A Drumcircle with movement:

Doing the Levada with Marcus Santos

It used to be we just sat around in a circle and beat some drums.  I'm glad I play a light-weight instrument (agogo and shaker).  This is the beginnings of Bloco Em FoCo, Fort Collin's mobile percussion ensemble. We saw a group in Eugene, Oregon called Samba Ja in March last year and they were fantastic.  It's danceable street music! Fort Collins will really dig this!!!

Swing 'n Colorado!

...with Rosann Winn and the Colorado Swing!

Rosann Winn

At a dinner party at the FCCC (Fort Collins Country Club) 

Harlem Nocturne, Satin Doll, Zoot Suit Riot! 

It's Big Band Swing music! When you include the FoCO Music Experiment and Bloco Em FoCo, we must have hit into every music genre possible in one month!  Maybe next week we will go see a movie or something?

FoCoMX (Cont.)

From Saturday night:

The Neon Knights @ Alley Cat

Otem Rellik @ Avo's

Square Peg @ Catalyst

The Dave Dardine Project @ Catalyst

The Heyday @ the Aggie

What a mix! Electronic Ambient, Hip Hop, Jazz, Blues and Pop all in one night! Thanks to Greta Cornett and the Fort Collins Music Association!

Fort Collins Music Experiment

So many musicians, so little time:

Dan Barton (on piano) @ Everyday Joe's Coffee

and Josh Greene (on dobro).

Alan Vasquez (on everything!) @ Stonehouse Grille

Johny Hickman @ Hodi's Half Note

Jonestown Potion @ Catalyst Coffee

and Bourbon Toothpaste!

The FoCoMX brings together local musicians for this two day event where you can experience all kinds of music at 12 different venues.  We thought that this would be a great opportunity to check out some of these places (like The Aggie or The Cork) all for one low, low price. We purchased a couple of two day passes at Rock 'N' Robins (my, what a fine selection of hookahs they have!) and were on our way. We were back in time to walk Duncan Madog at about 1:00AM today and after some needed rest we will be back at it tonight!

Everyone's Irish Today

Another reason for a parade!

There were bikers

And pipers

And a bunch of other stuff. I really don't know! I came too late to actually see the parade!

Oh, here are some archive pictures from Ireland:

John Cleer in Kilkenny

O'Flaherties in Dingle

Jamming with the locals after the pub closed.

The banjo in the above pictures no longer exists! It was made out of a baseball bat blank and a cooking pot in 1974. I played it for years until one day the strap broke and it fell onto some sharp rocks cracking the neck in half. 

Pipers in Old Town

Sono un Paparazzi !

Caught this group with my camera:

Lisa, Kaleigh, Wyatt and Cynthia

The Amani String Quartet is the graduate string quartet in residence at Colorado State University. They were having their pictures taken for their website, so I joined in with my camera!

On the other side of the world archive

I have a feeling we're not in Colorado anymore.

A sign in Chongqing says it all!

Whoa! It's way too windy to go biking today, so while I clean out some of my old picture folders, here's something from a trip to China in 2004.

and on a boat in Suzhou.

Suzhou is known as the Venice of China. Our gondolier was very kind, but I think he would have liked the rest of the tourists on board to please shut up during his song.

Too Many Notes

In Denver, at the 2009 Mid-Winter Bluegrass Festival:

Bluegrass Compilation w/ music by Sons and Brothers

Lots of music this weekend! There were great shows all day long; jams and workshops all over the place!

JAZZ night!

Hey, free jazz at Avo's tonight!

Here's Ron Holleman alternating between flugelhorn & trumpet

A sample of Matthew Arau on saxophone

Amen to the Blues!

It's bluesman Mr. Jeff Strahan

Somehow we got front row seats. The place was packed!

Jeff plays what he calls "Texas Red Dirt Blues"

Jeff's electric guitar is wireless and he likes to walk into the audience as he plays. He jumped onto our table and gave us a little taste of close-up blues guitar!

Oskar Blues

This place in Lyons is a lot of fun:

It's sort of a 'Cajun' restaurant with live music, but not Cajun music typically!

... and even though most of the live acts are blues bands, every Tuesday they have an open Bluegrass Jam ! 

Opera Colorado

We were at a Madrigal dinner featuring the Opera Colorado!

J&J being medieval again...

The going of ye olde pudding!

Swing again

Ah, the old VW gets a full tank of gas! Compare with this price!

On the way to The Swing Station...

For a short bit o' jam!

They play honky tonk there. More hard drinkin' than Avo's. It's on the way North side of the county.

LaPorte

In some other town...

Pretty weird jam on Sunday night! We will try again next week.

Symphony Happens

BACK STAGE PASS!

We saw/heard the Fort Collins Symphony on the 4th of July at City Park. They were quite marvelous then, and we just knew we would hear them again soon. It turns out we had our chance last night! There was a late announcement that Lincoln Center was allowing a select few to come backstage to listen to a rehearsal and actually BE ON STAGE for part of the rehearsal!!

Here is music director Wes Kenney telling us about the music we will be hearing tonight. He will direct the orchestra and we will be right there with the musicians as they play the 'National Anthem', John Williams' '1984 Olympic Fanfare' and Rimsky-Korsakov's 'Dance of the Tumblers'.

We sat in the row behind the violin section and in front of the woodwinds. No photography was allowed, but my camera was set on movie mode, and it was collecting a few frames! Here Mr. Kenney is addressing the cello section.

Now he is asking the violin section to be a little more 'andante' on that last part!

The sound was amazing! We never experienced symphony like this before!

We were on stage for about 30 minutes. After that, we were allowed to listen to the rest of the rehearsal in the music hall. I took a few pictures from there as well:

They are really quite good!

The harp player was on break at this moment! We never heard her play! We will have to check the FoCo Symphony out again real soon!

Home away from home

I'm here at least once a week.

Avo's patio

The gazebo

The snake fountain

The Tree House

The temps are in the mid to upper 70's so the patio is still a great place to meet and play with fellow musicians. We will have to move inside to the regular stage area when it gets colder however!

Joe and Hannah @ Harmony for Humanity

We were entertained by this fabulous duo the other night:

They call themselves ACOUSTIC EIDOLON
It was a special concert as part of the Daniel Pearl World Music Days in October.

Prairie Dog's Companion

Prairie Dog Companion was on hand at a free concert in Old Town.

There were other bands, but my batteries went dead, so no other pictures for today!

The Red State Blues

A free concert tonight at Avagadro's Number!

It's the Kathleen Strong band at Avo's Patio.

 Avo's seems to be the place to be for great live entertainment. I expect that we will stop by often.

So, you think you can dance?

It's Friday in Old Town... Ya gotta dance!

People love to dance around here. I never saw so many public dance displays back in the Mid-West.  On the 4th-Of-July we saw some guy dancing to the 1812 Overture! It seems that at any live music event there is going to be someone who will get up and start moving to the music.  I expected to see people dancing to the 1000 drum symphony, but never to the Fort Collins Symphony Orchestra.

UU Sunday Brunch

This morning we went to the UU Brunch. A fiddle player and two guitarists were there!

It sounded like we know all the old favorites!

We will do this again soon!

Today I'm hooking up the electrical circuits in the basement to get our hot tub working and to get better lighting in the work room. Jeanne is helping out at the UU yard sale. (As I am typing this, I can hear an old DC3 airplane overhead! I wonder if there's another air show at the Ft.Collins/Loveland airport?)

1K Drum Symphony!!!

The Symphony is now over! And we had a grand time!

Thanks to our composer:

Halim El-Dabh

And our Director:

Grant Marquit

Analysis of the Symphony for 1000 Drums

Jeanne and I participated in the symphony. We brought with us a gig bag full of various percussion instruments including: claves, tambourine, tar, vibratone, rain stick, and cow bell. I also brought along my Canon GL1 digital video camcorder so I could take some candid frame shots of the action.

The composition was called 'Symphony for 1000 Drums'. Some anal types might ask 'Were there really 1000 drums at this symphony?' Well, were there?
It probably does not matter. Why couldn't you play the symphony with 900 drums, or even 500 drums? Hell, I play musical pieces clearly labeled 'FOR PIANO' on my banjo! Does it matter?

Oh, well, let us look at some pictures and review the evidence:

Clearly not every person there came to drum.

Sometimes as many as six people beat on ONLY ONE DRUM!!! How inefficient !

...and what the hell is this? That ain't no drum!


Hmm, lots o stuff here... probably 150 percussion pieces right there!
Native American drums, frame drums, ashikos. 20 more drums!
Perif- drums, about 100 or so.
At least 4 kit drums. With cymbals, that's gotta be 500 percussion instruments right there!
Djembes! Don't forget Djembes! Maybe 100 more!
I'm gonna count any noise making thing as a DRUM!
Four kettle drums!
The dancers clapped their hands! Add 12 more!
Rattles, sticks, etc. How about 200 of them!
They all had a great time making music!
All kinds of hand drums!
Frame drums!
Congas, Djembes, whatever!
Traps, dumbecs, tamas, dondos, tambours!
Talking drums, ashikos, bodrans, steels drums,
Dong sons, dhaks, cajons, log drums,
congas, bells, snare drums,
Casabas, tom-toms, maracas,
Even more Djembes!
another doumbek
wood blocks and washboards!
and more djembes!
Shakers!
At least 1000 drums, to be sure!

..and after the performance, a little ovation for the composer!

Symphony for 1000 Drums: The Rehearsal

Here is our first gig in Fort Collins!!! This evening was the rehearsal for an event sponsored by the Peace Corps Reunion Committee.

See if you can spot Jeanne drumming!

Bohemian Nights 2008

A free concert by Little Feat !

Holy crap! Some guy playing banjo, but it's not me!

It's none other than Dr. Banjo, Pete Wernick!

...at Bohemian Nights 2008 in Fort Collins. I have one of his banjo books somewhere packed away in the basement.

Oh! Deer!

Bohemian Nights 2008

This weekend there are free concerts in downtown Fort Collins! Tonight we saw Bongo Love and the Taj Mahal Trio. I had my camera, but I forgot to put the memory card back in, so Duh! No film!! Tomorrow should be better!

In other news:
The other night I went to the Horsetooth Mountain Drum Circle via the VW Cabrio. It was up in the foothills (where we looked at houses in March), so it was good to see how well I could drive on those narrow gravel roads at night. Actually, it has not been too much of a problem so far, but I can imagine what it's like when there is ice and snow.
This was the second time I drove to the drum circle, but on the main highway past the horsetooth park, I came into contact with a deer crossing the road! I grazed it on the passenger side of the VW. The deer kept on running into the brush, so I am sure I didn't kill it, but I heard some car parts drop off of my vehicle.

Here is a picture of the front of the VW when I stopped for gas in Naperville, ILL last month.

This is the VW today. It looks like the parking light panel is now history!

Alice! Who the hell is Alice?

Hey, It looks like I had some video of Mike McAbee!

signs, etc.

Another jam with Mike McAbee

Memorial Day English

It's American English on this Memorial Day. Actually the lads played yesterday at the Bike the Drive rest stop in Grant Park. They play at Arlington's Frontier Days on the 4th of July; we think they are the greatest Beatles tribute band around. Check them out sometime!

John

Paul

George

Ringo

A song about BUGS!

The best song of the night!

More RH music highlights

A few more here...

A Duke and a King

It's the Duke of Uke and then the King of Cowboys

Highlights from the Red Herring, Part Third

Seven Are Dead!!!

I'm not on the road. I'm busy with Spring cleaning. It's no fun, but when I'm on a break I have some time to sit and edit some of the data I collected from last weekend's Channing Murray reunion. So here is a highlight clip:

On Saturday Albert Melshenker sang a new song dedicated to his wife and the families of service men and women. He has a son serving in Afghanistan.

Playin' Spoonful

Michael Powers, drummer from the Finchley Boys: