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Billy's Blog
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Home Store Schedule |
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Howdy, |
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| January/ February 2010 | ||
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SPRING 2009 Original Poem by Banjo Billy Mathews This is about many instruments that I made that have re-appeared in my life in the last few years. A reunion of sorts between me and my banjos. Ode to The Banjo 9/26/06 Oh where, oh where do my lovely children wander? So long away, so far from home. What a joy, your return after all these years. A lifetime in the hands of a minstrel boy. All will finally find a place and roam no more. Let the music serve the redemption of your soul. Touch as many hears as possible, lovingly with patience and care. The wandering minstrel back to the fold once more. The ancestors will be pleased with a heavy sigh of relief, In anticipation of renewed affirmation of all we hold dear. |
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FALL 2008 Greetings, There is a cool breeze blowing up here on the mountain this evening which for sure means that fall is here. I finished off my summer with a great workshop at the Inn in Mountain View, Arkansas. My musical cohort, Colin Blair, and I put on a medley of workshops for 2 days; Guitar, Mandolin, Banjo and Fiddle. We had about 30 people from many places; Little Rock, Dallas, St. Louis. It was a huge success and we hope to offer this event again in August 2009. The specific dates will be on my schedule. I am looking forward to going back to Urbana, IL for a couple of gigs and a Fiddle Workshop. Our annual workshop is the first full weekend in March in Champaign, IL. There are plenty of good players over there and more of them turning up all the time! We are now taking orders for the next installment of my 500 Fiddle Tunes Collection. The Tune Tally is 201. This offering should be ready to go by November 1st. I want to sincerely thank all of you folks for your continued interest and patronage in my 500 Tunes Project-- I couldn't do it without you! Well, I will be going back out on the trail to the Annual Bean Festival in Mountain View where they cook up a 1/2 ton of beans to feed all the visitors right there on the Court House Square. And then on to the Raven Center for the Arts in Elsinore, MO for the Annual Old Time Music Weekend. I will be in Springfield, MO playing a dance Presented by the Traditional Dance and Music Society. If you can make it, come and see me before I wrap up my season of 2008. This year has really been a roller coaster ride---- Tornadoes, Floods, Hurricanes and even earthquakes right here in the Lower Midwest! So hopefully, going in to the Holiday Season we can hope for some calm and peace. If I had any advice to give at present, it would be to: "Have Faith, Press On, and always carry a tune in your Heart." Peace Out, Banjo Billy |
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May/June 2008
Howdy! Well spring has finally here and that means summer is just around the corner and at this juncture, I can safely say, from what I have seen this year in particular is , that Old Time Music in America, is alive and well. Many of the young folk are picking up a banjo or a fiddle and hopefully are beginning a life long love affair with traditional American Roots music. The kind of music that once made this country strong and self determined. As the old folks steeped in the aural tradition, we are more than happy to see new and vigorous interest in the old tunes. We all had a big time at the Ozark Folk Festival in Mountain View, Arkansas. Lots of old and familiar faces and many wonderful memories of festivals past, tunes played, and history shared. A lot of things change but the music is getting better all the time. I also traveled north to the Annual Community Folk Festival in Gays Mills, Wisconsin. I had not been there for the last 5 years and had forgotten how much I missed going. The festival is on Mother's Day weekend and is one of the few prime examples of a community that preserves and perpetuates American Traditional Old time Music and Dance. I highly recommend this event. For more info: www.gaysmills.org I also wanted to mention our new event: A Medley of Old Time Music Workshops coming up on August 15th and 16th held at the Inn at Mountain View. Colin Blair (from St. Charles, MO) and I will team up once again, to host workshops for: Backup Guitar Mandolin Fiddle Interpretive Clawhammer Banjo The spaces for these workshops are filling fast and time is running out! Registration ends on July 1. For more information or to register: Phone: (800)-535-1301
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Spring has Sprung!
March / April 2008 |
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Howdy! Well, I thought I was finished talkin' about the weather for awhile, but I guess its never ending. March came in like a lion with a big 12 inch snowfall, but the crocus and daffodils didn't mind a bit. So we are finally moving on. Spring has finally "sprung" and we have leaped ahead so hopefully everything else will even out. I just got back from a Fiddle Workshop and concert in Champaign, Illinois. It was a great time with great people. We did a tag team marathon with guitar mandolin, banjo and fiddle workshops. This time I had a lot of help from my musical cohort, Colin Blair from St. Charles, Missouri. Special Thanks go out to Paul and Christine Breen for the use of their wonderful facility at the Green Street Studio in Champaign and their superb hosting of this event. We are already making plans for next year./ I am still working on the second group of 100 tunes and hope to have them "ready to go" by the end of May. Colin Blair and I will put on our annual concert at the Mountain Music Shoppe on the 10th of April in Shawnee Mission, Kansas. Then, I will be on my way to the Arkansas Folk Festival in Mountain View, Arkansas-- where I have been a prominent figure on the Courthouse Square for the past 32 years. The festival was started by Jimmy Driftwood of Timbo, Arkansas in 1963. It is the annual coming out spring music party, after the cold doldrums of winter, the hill folks venture down to town for a weekend of pickin' and grinnin' on the Courthouse Square. Besides the local hill folks, there is usually several thousand other people who make the pilgrimage from all over the the U.S.A. The generosity of the folks in Mountain View is beyond compare. They open up the town and throw out the red carpet for all to enjoy. So, if you are looking to get out and about his spring, join us on the Square in Mountain View for pickin' and grinnin'. We'll make room for everybody. I'm a headin' for the hills, see you there! Banjo Billy |
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500 Fiddle Tunes - Old Time Archive Volume 1 - The First 100 Tunes Available For Pre-Order February 15, 2008 In order to finance the project to release the entire 500 Fiddle Tunes , I am offering a special PRE-ORDER of the first 100 Tunes in a signed Limited Edition for only $35.00 (that's $0.35 per tune!). There are only 20 numbered copies, so get yours today! The CD should be ready for shipping early Spring 2008. The 2nd Phase of the 500 Tunes Project is the completion of a Book of Musical Notation that will accompany all 500 Tunes. The Book of Notation will also include other essential information about each tune. Robin Kearton, Director of the Bow-Dacious String Band, has taken up the task of putting all 500 tunes on paper. If you are interested in contributing to the project or want to know more, please email: contact@banjobilly.net. Contributors / Sponsors of the project will be recognized in the Book of Musical Notation upon its release following the completion of the 500 Tunes Project. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Waiting for Spring February 2008 Howdy Friends and Neighbors! Welcome once again to my virtual homestead. You are (as always) invited to come and visit anytime and stay for as long as you like. We have been having a wild time with the weather here this winter. We had tornadoes in January, more tornadoes in February and the 3rd ice storm in progress as we speak. For those of you who don't get ice storms, its when Mother Nature lays down 2 or 3 inches of ice that covers everything on the woodland, hills and hollers. It's just Mother Nature's way of pruning all the trees in the forest and apparently, she ain't done yet! Now here in the Ozarks, we generally still go by the signs of nature. The official Groundhog predicted 6 more weeks of winter, but instead of taking his word for it, I checked with my groundhog that lives under my shed out back. I stomped around his den and yelled in there to see if he would wake up and come out, but apparently he's still sleepin', so no luck there. Did I mention that we're waiting for Spring? Seems like we are always waiting for something; waiting for spring, waiting for summer and then waiting for summer to be over, wait your turn, wait in line. Just now, I put some water in a pot on the stove to boil so guess I'll have to wait to make the coffee. Did I mention that we're waiting for Spring? I have been working on my 500 fiddle tune archive and I am pleased to announce that the First 100 Tunes have been recorded and are now available and for sale here at the homestead. I am now working on the 2nd installment of 100 more tunes, they should be available by Spring, when ever that is.. April or May. Since this is a work in progress, it could be a while before the whole project is completed, 500 tunes on CD and the book of musical notation plus other valuable information about the tunes. So, there is still a lot of work to be done. I would like to mention that any of you folks that help out with a purchase of any CD's of the project will get their name and hometown printed in the book listed as: Project Patrons. I appreciate any and all support, I hope there are some tunes that you can use. Did I mention that we're waiting for Spring? I asked a neighbor lady here recently what she thought about the weather this winter, she said, "The weather's been a might particular here just lately." I asked, "don't you mean peculiar? She said, " Well yes, like I was a' sayin', I don't know whether to put on my coat or take off my shoes!" I always say, plan for the worst and hope for the best, but we also have to wait and try to be patient and see what develops. The coffee water is boiling, I got to go. See you next time. Did I mention that we're waiting for Spring? Best Wishes, Banjo Billy Mathews _______________________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________________ Happy New Year 2008 January 1, 2008 Luckily at this point in my life, I am fortunate enough to have the opportunity to finally post my new offerings on this site and post more information about my travels and new projects. My mission, of course, is to preserve and promote our great American tradition of Old Time Music, specifically Old Time Fiddling. Before I get started on new things, I would like to thank all the folks who have visited this site, which includes all the folks who have ordered recordings, books and T-shirts. I would also like to thank all the people who have helped me with production and infrastructure costs, scheduling, logistics and tech support, because without them , none of this would be possible. So, once again.... THANK YOU! We are hoping to have may more things to offer in 2008. More workshops, concerts and recordings are presently in the works. This past summer, I started my new project which is recording a collection of my first 500 tunes. I am hoping to release 5 triple discs (15 CD's in all)of my first 500 tunes with a book of musical notation to accompany the recordings. The idea is to present a reasonable rendition of the tune; not too fast, pretty much straight up with very little ornamentation, which will be very helpful for many people who, like me, learn by ear. So, I am embarking on yet another artistic adventure of epic proportions to truly find out how many tunes I really do know. So, I guess we will find out! Happy New Year 2008! Banjo Billy |
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