Pickin' Party #35 - Sat, October 1st, 2005
(pictures)
with Guest Pickers - Paul Moseley (& Dave
Duncan) - Jim Volk
I've been wanting Jim Volk to come play for the club
every since I first heard him play a few years ago - especially for the
old die hard thumb picking fans. I just knew that they would
somehow find pleasure in hearing where "else" thumb and finger
style guitar can go - and, they did. He plays an acoustic guitar
with aggression, however with subtleties that sometimes defy
logic. The knowledgeable listener just can't sit there during his
performance and presume they can know where he is going. Because
every tune he plays is a trip that only he knows where "we"
are going - and, I swear sometimes - even he doesn't really know where
we are going. But, we always get there - and, with much joy and
admiration of the man's talent, humor, and musical taste. Several
people came up to me after his performance and asked me how they could
find out where he plays. Hey, "www.jimvolk.com".....
To an embarrassingly small audience, Paul Moseley then
showed us why he is considered by many to be one of the top attractions
at the annual Chet Atkins Appreciation Society convention. His
smooooth steady beat thumb is one of the best in the business and the
tone he got out of his new Nashville Classic Gretsch guitar was
unbelievably beautiful. So reminiscent of "our" hero,
Chet Atkins. He, ably accompanied by our good friend and club
member, Dave Duncan, pumped out some classic thumb pickin' tunes like
Nine Pound Hammer, I Am a Pilgrim, Bells of St Mary, Back Up and Push,
and many more. It was such a treat for all us wanna be thumb
pickers to sit there and listen to the absolute mastery of this style of
guitar playing. Paul was magnificent.
He, then, grabbed Dave Sullivan's Kirk Sand nylon
stringed guitar and invited one of his traveling companions and singer,
Dena Ashley, to come up and sing a few tunes with him. She and he
are part of a gospel band back in Western Kentucky and she knocked our
socks off with her beautiful voice. (Wadn't to hard to look at,
either... Her husband Lucky er Gerry just sat in the back with a little
smile on his face. (lol)
Dave Duncan then took a break and JD Norman came up
onstage to rip a few tunes off with Paul. (Those two should cut an
album...) Great up tempo music.
We then formed a big circle and all us spectators had
a chance to pick a tune. This is always a lot of fun. A
special thanks to Chuck Henley for coming and bring a couple buddies all
the way from Michigan. And, for Bruce Mock for driving all the way
in from Indianapolis.
Pickin' Party #34 - Sat, May 14th, 2005
(pictures)
"Poole Party - All Jazz"
with Guest Pickers - Kenny Poole - Stan Smith
& Paul Brown
I know it seems like a diversion from our finger style
guitar club charter to feature jazz at one of our Pickin' Parties every
now and then. But, it's not really.. Even though our club
hero's (Chet Atkins, Merle Travis, and Jerry Reed) were primarily
"thumb pickers" - they were greatly influenced by the jazz
greats: Django Reinhardt, Johnny Smith, Joe Pass, and many others,
etc. And, it is very useful to have an all jazz Party occasionally
to keep this style fresh in our minds - and, hopefully into our playing.
Two of Columbus' best jazz guitarists, Stan Smith
and Paul Brown, opened the afternoon with a set of brilliant
music that they have put together as a duo over the past two years. Paul
has become one of the country's best jazz fusion guitarists with an
"in-yer-face" "take-no-prisoners" aggressive style -
where Stan has a more laid back standard approach to his jazz music
which works very nicely with Paul's. However, standard jazz is not
what they play - rather a fairly complex mixture of Paul's jazz fusion
with Stan's extremely interesting chordal harmonies. The audience
was duly impressed.
Kenny Poole then took center stage for an hour
of solo jazz guitar surrounding good old standard tunes with chords and
bass lines that only Kenny can do. The true brilliance of Kenny's talent
can only be fully appreciated in complete silence (not some smoky lounge
full of disrespectful patrons) - and, the Griswold Center provides
exactly that. There were 70 fortunate spectators in complete
silent awe of his playing.... Except for the occasional outbursts of
"oohs" and "aahs" from the professional guitarists
in the room that were glued to his every note.
Kenny's good friend and fellow musician, Tom
Schofield, played a few tunes with Kenny on his clarinet.
Kenny and Tom are a favorite duo in the Cincinnati area and have a CD
out called "". Wonderful stuff.
After a quick smoke break Kenny came back on stage and
was kind enough to play with anybody brave enough to do so. First,
back to the stage was one of our lead off guys, Stan Smith -
almost like they had been playing together for years. Then, our
good friend from Cleveland, Pete Cavano - talk about
smooth. Then, came our local Columbus wizard, Chaz Mechenbier,
who played a new guitar built by long time OFGC member, Richard
Everhardt. Jazz enthusiast, Todd Collis, then showed
that he has practiced over the years.. I guess maybe I got up
there with Kenny to make a fool of myself - but, fortunately Pete
Carey came in late with his brother, Andy Carey, and his
daughter, (sorry I forgot her name - even after I asked her a second
time.. ) - and, they formed a group with the daughter singing, Pete
playing bass, Andy on guitar, Tom Schofield on clarinet, and of
course Kenny Poole on guitar... What a nice finish to a beautiful
afternoon of music at the Griswold Center.
To tell you all the truth - I was a little nervous
that maybe the "all jazz" venue might not draw enough folks to
make a successful Party - but, you folks never cease to amaze me with
your support. The turnout was less than our typical "thumb
pickers" Party, but it was more than we used to get at any Party -
and, they dug deep in their pockets to show our Guests just how much
they enjoyed their world class guitar talents... Thanks,
folks.
Oh yea.... your humble club organizer, Palmer Moore,
got the surprise of his life when two of the original members of OFGC,
(Alan Yeoman and Dave Sullivan) his personal friends, and just so
happens to be the OFGC Hall of Fame committee - caught me off guard and
presented me with a Life Tiime Achievement Award for being a loud mouth,
or something... (lol) Well, I guess it was for having the
vision and courage to start the Ohio Fingerstyle Guitar
Club. Thanks to the club and all my old friends for this
recognition - it means the world to me.
Palmer Moore - Organizer, OFGC
Pickin' Party #33 - Sat, February 26th, 2004
"Who Can Stay with Scotty? Bob
Can...."
with Guest Pickers - Scotty Anderson & Bob
Saxton
Nobody seemed to be taking pictures of this fabulous
Pickin' Party - however, the club has made a two DVD set of both Bob
Saxton's opening set, and then Scotty Anderson with Bob Saxton. If
you would like one send a check made out to Palmer Moore for $11 and
mail it to Palmer Moore, 6700 Hayhurst St, Worthington, OH 43085.
(Eleven bucks just covers copying costs and mailing..)
Pickin' Party #32 - Sat, December 11th, 2004
"Christmas in Columbus:
with Guests Pickers - Ray Cummins & Robert
Anderson
(I didn't get any pictures sent to me of this party,
but it was a good one...)
Pickin' Party #31 - Sat, August 21st, 2004
(pictures)
"Instrumental Bluegrass on Steroids"
with Guest Pickers - Robert Shafer & Johnny
Staats
Yep, they were flat pickers - but, they had us finger
pickers right on the edges of our seats for an hour of some of the
most amazing pickin' we've had at a Pickin' Party, yet. (And,
we've had some good ones.) Robert Shafer and Johnny
Staats were the perfectly matched and absolutely amazing as they
ripped their rapid upbeat tempo tunes at us with the most precise points
and counter-points imaginable. Individually, they are both
amazingly good musicians - but, together they become greater than
two... So, well matched musically, rhythmically, and
personally.
Robert showed us why he was a two-time Winfield flat
picking champion with his clean crisp Django influenced bluegrass riffs,
licks and most magnificent backup rhythm accompaniments. Johnny
became part of his mandolin. From the downbeat of every tune his
head almost lays down on his mando with his eyes partially shut as he
breathes fire into the tiny instrument. And, quite the
"cut-up" with his "down home" accent and
humor.
There were several of Ohio's best bluegrass musicians
in the crowd: Troy Herdman (rhythm guitar), Oscar Ball (mando) and
Gaylord Johnson (who won a fiddle contest the day before the Pickin'
Party) - and, they all sat there with theirs jaws at their feet as they
listened to Robert and Johnny perform their magic. Folks, we had
two of the best instrumental bluegrass musicians in the world come to
Columbus to play just our little room of 50 some attendees. And,
our club deserves a big round of applause as they dug VERY DEEP
into their pockets to show our Guests how much they were
appreciated.
Palmer Moore - OFGC Organizer
Pickin' Party #30 -Sat, May 15th, 2004 (pictures)
"Georgia on Ours Minds" Weekend
with Guest Pickers - Julian Smith and Bob Saxton
Friday Night - We held a special Tuesday Night
Club Jam at Scottie MacBeans Coffee House on Friday and lot's of people
showed up - some having driven several hours to get there.. and,
what a treat it was. Club regulars JD Norman (electric), Frank
LeFebre (nylon electric), Jerry Cummins (keyboard), and myself (C-clamp)
started the evening off with our usual "stellar" performance
of "passing the token" around the horn... which to be truthful
is worth the price of admission in itself - these guys are very good..
I'm "comin' along."
We were then joined by Bob Saxton for a couple
good thumb pickin' tunes - and, then "our gang" took a break
and let Bob let loose for an hour of pure magic at the coffee
house.. They have entertainment of all sorts at the
"house" all the time - but, they ain't never heard nothing
like Bob.. or, seen anything quite like him - he's quite the ham.
"Our Gang" then came back on for a few more
and we were quickly joined by Julian Smith who had driven 11
hours that day to get up to Columbus from Bowdon, Georgia. JS was
in the mood to "jam" and he refused to let us retire - we
jammed some great thumb picking tunes (to our greatest pleasure) for
another hour and a half - "until closin' time." (The
"house" management, being thoroughly impressed with the music,
took me aside and asked, "Where in the world do you find these
guys!")
Saturday's Pickin' Party - Bob Saxton
got things going around noon by showing everybody why he is one of the
most popular guitarists at the annual Chet Atkins Appreciation Society
Convention in Nashville every year. His patented arrangement of
"Stardust" is always his greatest crowd pleaser. He
played for over an hour one wonderful tune after another - almost
without break in between songs. He was our first Guest Picker
several years ago - and, will remain our favorite for years to come.
We then took a half hour break for a delicious Pulled
BBQ Pork lunch from the Pig Iron BBQ just down the street from the
Griswold Center. Followed by trays full of scrumptious cookies
baked and donated by one of our handier members. Providing some
great "lunch music" was a traveling companion of the Smith's
from Chattanooga, Tenn by the name of Waymon Vickery - who wasn't afraid
of "stepping up to the plate" as he played ALL OF "Petite
Waltz" - no small task. (A big thanks to Waymon for coming up
with Julian and Robin for the weekend..)
Then, Julian Smith took center stage and proved
to everybody why I've been adamantly attempting to get him to come up
and play for all of my members for years. And, why I was just as
adamant that my members show up to hear him play - the man is
nothing less than brilliant. Every tune he played was
flawlessly executed on his two beautiful Taylor acoustics with the
cleanest, clearest and most precisely played notes that we have heard
from anybody we've had at our Pickin' Parties, yet. And, we've had
some of the best in the world kindly come play for us. It is truly
a shame that more folks don't know about this amazing talent.
Obviously Julian was raised on and played Chet
Atkins style guitar for most of his life - which he can still lay
down with the best of him. In fact, that's pretty much what he
played at the CAAS Convention when I first heard him 6 years ago - and, very
well. But, I believe that the influences he subsequently
discovered through the CAAS organization (and, events) like Pat
Kirtley, Tommy Emmanuel, Doyle Dykes, etc., opened his
eyes to a wider variety of styles - that has allowed him to broaden his
musical prowess to include acoustic guitar of many different sounds --
and, to write many wonderful songs of his own and to arrange some very
beautiful arrangements to many classics - especially his favorite gospel
numbers.
Mr. Smith held the packed room of spectators spell
bound for close to two hours as he played pretty much every tune off his
CD "Pickin' in Paradise" - almost every tune off Chet and
Tommy's "The Day the Fingerpickers Took Over the World" - and,
many, many more beautiful compositions of his (that deserve to be on
ANOTHER CD.) Then, as a favor to me (primarily) he grabbed his old
Gibson electric (that he doesn't play much, anymore), and invited JD
Norman and myself to come join him for a round of good ol' time Chet
tunes that he knows I surely love to hear him play (Levee Walking,
Copper Kettle, Freight Train, See Me in Yer Dreams, etc..... WHAT
A TREAT... (for me... lol)
After the concert most of the crowd dispersed and we
let our "stars" go out for a breather. At which time a
few of us remaining formed our little "circle of horror" to
have a structured club jam.. (Which I have said many times can be
just as much fun as listening to our world class stars.) In the
circle was two of our "first" PP attendees: Bruce Mock (3 1/2
hour drive from Indianapolis) and Dan Collins who is finally back pickin'
with us after 40 weeks of brutal Hep3 shots.. which worked just fine and
he's back picking better than ever. Bruce showed us what 5 years
of practice can do, too. Also in the circle were regulars Jim
Lafferty and Jerry Hyland (who had driven over from Springfield, OH two
days in a row), Gail Haush who had stayed over the night before, Frank
LeFebre, Ted Christy and Cuz Goldian. --- You probably wouldn't want to
record the music that's produced in our "little circle" - but,
if you could "can and sell" the joy that's felt by all - you'd
be millionaires, fer sure... lol
IT STILL WASN'T OVER - After a quick dinner,
Julian, Robin, and Waymon came over to my house where Julian put on a 2
1/2 hour concert in the Texas Fingerstyle Guitar Room of the internet
PalTalk "live" for a great "on-line" crowd from
around the world.. I had the very difficult task of sitting only
3 feet from right in front of him at the computer console...
Hey, somebody had to do it.... lol WHAT A TREAT!!! (Many
of the "on-line" folks were thanking me for bringing Julian to
them on the "net" - and, I said, "Oh, no - thank
you!!" Because of them - I got a personal VERY UP CLOSE
concert... lol)
Folks, I have a tendency to shy away from calling
folks the much over used phrase "gentleman" - because most of "us"
fall short of really being such. But, I've got to tell you that
besides being the most prolific undiscovered talent in the guitar music
business - that this Julian Smith is truly a gentleman in
every sense of the word. Gracious, considerate, modest, not a bad
word spoken about anybody (even me) - and, I'm proud to have had the
likes of him and his wife, Robin, visit Columbus, Ohio and to call him
my friend. Thanks again, JS, for coming all the way up here to
share your talents with us.....
Palmer Moore - OFGC Organizer
Pickin' Party #29 -Sat, March 6th, 2004 (pictures)
"Unbelievable" - Guest PIckers -
Richard & Julie Smith, Pat Begeson & Bob Saxton
Let me start off by
welcoming Happy Traum of Homespun Videos as a new club
sponsor and thanking him for donating four instructional DVDs as
doors prizes. They made four lucky attendees very
"happy."
Folks, all the talent
that comes to our Pickin' Parties as Guest Pickers are top notched
guitar players. But, this time we had THREE OF THE BEST IN THE
WORLD... And, they played for a "very" full Room of
zealous spectators just 15 to 20 feet away from our noses - for close to
5 and a half hours.. Quite a few of our membership jokingly (I
hope) asked me, "Palmer, how are you going to beat this
Party?" The answer is, of course, "we can't."
All of our Parties are wonderful, but this one was a special one that
dreams are built on.
In my humble opinion,
young Richard Smith is one of
the top three thumb/finger style guitar players in the world - sharing
that spot light with the fabulous Tommy Emmanuel and the very confident
Doyle Dykes. However, those other two charge an arm and a leg for
an appearance, so we won't be seeing them anytime soon at an OFGC
function. Richard, on the other hand, in spite of a very
successful touring career he and his talented wife Julie have, still
finds time in his busy schedule to visit the grass roots clubs around
the
US
at a very reasonable rate - the
kindness of his heart and the generosity of our membership donation.
At this Party our membership in attendance dug very deeply into
their pockets to show our visitors that we really appreciate their
coming to
Columbus
.
Pat
Beregson is one of the most
sought after touring and recording “sidemen” in the country music
business in
Nashville
. Besides
being a close friend and side man to Chet Atkins he has played with the
likes of Bill Frisell, Alison Krauss, Dolly Parton, Suzy Bogguss, Martina McBride,
Kenny Rogers, and Peter Frampton to name a few.
Pat compliments
Richard Smith’s playing like a nice looking tie makes or breaks the
look of an expensive suit…. And,
he did so for several hours this wonderful day.
He did take a request and played his own composition, All
Through the Movies.
Very tasty piece that my good friend Russ Jenkins from
England
is tabbing up for us.
Bob
Saxton still doesn’t take a
back seat to any player. The
man has been playing guitar for more years than most of us have been
alive. And, I say this next
statement with all the respect due a true master of guitar:
Like all of us that
are starting to “get on” in age, our brains just don’t work as
well as they did when we were much younger. And,
the same goes for Bob – as you can see him struggle sometimes to
remember certain passages as he is playing some of his tunes.
However, this is where he reaches out and captivates all the
other guitar players in the room. This
is where you see the true genius in this man – as he rearranges
(sometimes, recomposes) new stuff for you right on the fly. Like
I mentioned before – a true master of guitar.
When Julie
Smith came and played duet with her husband, Richard, for the first
time several years ago we immediately noticed how obvious it was that
her classical training in cello had taken Richard into a more subtle
direction, musically. She
added more classical structure (and, tempo) to his playing – while not
stifling his creative brilliance. The Richard and Julie show has only
become better with time as she is now “jammin’ a little bit more –
while still tactfully holding Richard’s presentation down… lol
Bottom line, folks –
it was the Pickin’ Party not to have missed.
And, I thank the one hundred and….a…..
well, the fire code limit for the Room is 125…. so, I’d like
to thanks the 125 folks (wink wink) that came out to support this
wonderful event.
Palmer Moore
– Organizer,
Ohio
Fingerstyle
Guitar Club
Pickin' Party #29 -Sat, January 17th, 2004 (pictures)
"The New Kid in Town" - Guest Picker -
David Paul
I have got to kick off this review with a standing ovation for
the room full of club members and guests that braved horrible weather
conditions (some driving vast distances) to make this Pickin’ Party a
gigantic success in spite of Mother
Nature. (She obviously is
not a big fan of thumb pickin’… In the five years that we have been
having official Pickin’ Parties, she’s snowed and iced out two of
them – and, that mean old lady gave it a great try again this past
Saturday, Jan. 17th. But,
she fell short because in spite of the miserable driving conditions we
had our second largest attendance.)
And, our Guest Picker, David Paul, made it, too, and was simply
wonderful.
This thumbpickin’ guitar sport sometimes just ain’t for the meek and
mild.. But then again, I
have to remember that I’m originally from Upstate New York and up
there if we waited for perfect weather to ever do anything or go
anywhere – we’d have never done anything or gone anywhere.
Yesterday started out as a disaster – I hadn’t got any sleep the
night before because I was up all night watching that incoming
ice/sleet/snow storm system on the “weather channel” - knowing full
well that the 100 or more folks that were planning on coming to see the
David Paul Pickin’ Party were doing the same thing – and, that 90%
were going to decide not to come. (Some
have not come before because it was raining..)
Shoot, at that time I didn’t even know if Mr. Paul was going to
make it.
Dog tired and questioning the “meaning of life” I dejectedly drove
through freezing rain (but, salted roads) over to the Griswold Center at
10 am to set up for the Party and instructed the center staff that we
would “see how many folks showed up” – with full expectations that
we would just close down in an hour or so when nobody showed up.
I was somewhat relieved when a few minutes later Charlie
Berwinkle (our opening act who lives 60 miles away in West Lafayette)
and my trusty right hand men Arnie Alpert and Mark Bidlack (from
Bluffton – 50 miles away over back roads) showed up to help set up.
Shortly thereafter our first members, James and Grace Brown (who
had driven in that morning from up near
KALAMAZOO
,
MICHIGAN
) showed up. And, a few
other stragglers arrived, but still we only had a handful of people in a
room that is used to holding 100 attendees.
At this point I was wondering how it could get worse – and,
then the David Paul entourage showed up…
“Oh, dear – have I got bad news for you folks - that just
drove 6 ½ hours to be with us – expecting a room full of 100 new
fans….”
We went ahead as if nothing were wrong and set up all the sound
equipment and ran sound checks, etc. and at
11 o’clock
we had set up only 20 chairs because we only had 15 people in the room.
By
11:30
5 or 6 more showed up and Mark Bidlack and I looked at each other with a
quick smile of delight and said in unison,
“Hey, maybe (hopefully) we better set up some more chairs.”
By
noon
when Charlie Berwinkle (and, JD Norman) kicked off the Pickin’ Party
with a wonderful set (that was worth the price of admission in itself)
– the room had filled up to where we were wondering where we were
going to put more chairs.. Folks
from all over the state had driven through the worse weather this winter
to enjoy their favorite sport – finger style guitar.
And, did we ever hear some great picking.
Mr. David Paul is an entertainer, folks… that just happens to be a
very good and confident thumb picking guitar player.
As soon as he enters the building you know he didn’t come to
show you how many notes he knows on the guitar – and, how quickly and
loudly he can play them for you. He
came to entertain you – and, that he does very well.
His shows are productions where each tune has been perfectly
composed, arranged, and played. Though
he only played one “Chet Atkins” tune (a tribute to Chet – "Snow
Bird" (appropriate and ironic for the horrible weather we were
having that day 8^) - every
tune he wrote and plays was influenced by the legacy Chet left behind.
Tone, effects, bends, licks, tricks, presentation and production
– all as if Chet had done it himself.
David’s playing was met with wild enthusiasm from the full room of
spectators – playing mostly tunes from his CD “picking our way”
and his DVD “New Kid in Town.” However, he did play us his latest
composition that will be on his next CD – a very nice tune – that I
forgot the name to… (sorry.) He
plays a ’98 Gibson CG, and wonderful sounding electric nylon that I
didn’t catch the name of… But,
he is equally comfortable and accomplished on both. The
crowd favorite was (Just
Another Cosmic Cascade Rag) that is a combination of three tunes:
Cascade, Cosmic Square Dane and Just Another Rag that he does on his
nylon electric. Mr. Paul
finished up the afternoon by playing and singing the parody he wrote
especially for this trip to
Ohio
– “Ode to
Palmer Moore
.” And,
of course, invited yours truly up on stage to “act up” and to pick a
couple rounds of Steel String Blues with him. It
was an honor for me that he asked me to play with him, and that he later
presented me with a framed autographed picture of his 2004 promotional
piece.
What started out a
disastrous day – ended in surprising bliss.
Our many thanks go out to David Paul, his assistant Joyce Lalla,
and his dad for driving all the way out to
Ohio
from eastern
Pennsylvania
to entertain us. And, I am
so sorry for those club members that were unable to see this wonderful
talent.
My true unexpected joy for the day, however, was much later in the day
after the big hoopla was over and our Guests had left as well as most of
the attendees – and, we were sitting in our very small “circle of
horror” – our “structured club jam.”
The first couple that showed up (that I mentioned above - James
and Grace Brown) were still there and James joined us in the
“circle.” He was playing
this very pretty electric nylon that looked and sounded a whole lot like
a Kirk Sand – but, in fact, was one that he built.
(Yes, he once worked at the Gibson factory in
Kalamazoo
..) The first few times
around the circle, when it was his turn he played a few rather simple
gospel tunes – that he invited us all to play a verse of..
Very cleanly played, but not overly difficult.
Later on he asked, “Does anybody play Blue Angel?”
“Yea, right!” was my idiotic remark… “I tried to learn the
“chords” to it when Ray Cummins came here and needed somebody to
play along.” At which time
Mr. Brown simply ripped through that tune like a chain saw through
butter… OUCH!!!!
WHAT A PLEASANT SURPRISE. Then
a couple of us got laughing that here was this absolutely beautiful
guitar music being played – and, only 5 or 6 of us were left to hear
it… This “sport” is
definitely – “sometimes just ain’t for the meek and mild.”
Palmer Moore - Organizer
Pickin' Party #28 -Sat, December 6th, 2003 (pictures)
"A Christmas Present From Chet" - Guest Pickers -
Meagan Taylor & Robert Anderson
I’m not sure if it was the threat of snow or the oncoming
holidays, but a bunch of OFGC members missed one of our better Pickin’
Parties. Meagan Taylor and Robert
Anderson were a real treat to see, and they kept a small showing of a little
over 30 attendees glued to their seats for over four hours..
(Which included a half hour break for a delicious smoked BBQ buffet from
The Pig Iron BBQ.)
Meagan Taylor (Chet’s grand-niece)
is growing up and coming into her own as a competent guitar picker,
folks. (Much to the relief
of “this” aging writer who is finding it tougher and tougher to
“dance” much, anymore..8^) She’s
always had a neat “folksie” vocal presentation and a great comedic
stage presence (which she is honing, also), but I am so pleased to
report that her guitar playing has improved to the point that she can
soon emerge from out of Uncle Chester’s shadow.
In fact, during one tune she was doing with Robert (CRS
disease keeps me from remembering the tune) JD Norman turned around to
me and said, “Pay attention and learn her part!”
But, seriously, she has really
improved her guitar playing immensely. She
was a stitch on stage, too. Constantly
cutting up with Robert and the audience as they played and sang their
tunes on and on for hours.
Due to a last minute cancellation of
our opening performer, Robert Anderson opened the Party with a solo set.
Man, can that guy play the
guitar – he is obviously one of the emerging premier finger style
guitar players, today. He
played a number of familiar Chet tunes as well as a few very nice
compositions of his own. As
I watched him play I had a feeling that he had improved his playing, but
initially couldn’t put a finger on what it was that he improved.
But, after quite awhile of primarily watching his note execution
I realized that it wasn’t playing the notes that he had improved (he
has always been able to play the notes) near as much as his stage
presence and confidence. He
has become much more aware of his audience and that made his performance
much better.
We continue to pick up new members
and fans at each Pickin’ Party who are so appreciative that they have
found this venue of thumb pickin’ guitar.
And, what a Party these chose to come to first – it was a good
one.
Pickin' Party #27 -Sat, November 15th, 2003 ("picture")
"Summer Daze During Winter
Days" - Guest Picker - Ray Cummins
Folks, it’s too bad that Ray
Cummins doesn’t get hired into more secular venues.
It’s not that I don’t like his church/gospel format.
In fact, I love his church programs.
But, you just can’t get to hear the complete talent of Ray when
he’s restricted to gospel tunes. He
has a very rare talent of being exceptionally clean, clear, precise –
and, quick on the guitar – to the point of sounding “exactly like
Chet.” ----
Besides, in church one doesn’t get to see the part of his act
where he tears his shirt off and throws it in the crowd… (Just jokin’
on that last part…. he’s
quite reserved.. 8^)
Ray doesn’t try to hide the fact
that he has spent his whole life “trying to sound just like Chet” -
and, he has succeeded very well. Whether
the tune he plays is Take My Hand Precious Lord or Copper Kettle,
Cascade, Jingle Bell Rock, or Levy Walkin’ – the man has captured
the precision, sound and feeling that Chet used to put in his every
tune. And, he played every
one of those tunes plus a bunch more to the amazement of a room full of
OGFGC members. He is no less
than brilliant.
A local semi-professional guitarist,
Bob Murnahan, opened for Ray on his nylon stringed electric.
I had heard Bob one of Bill Dutcher’s monthly “all acoustic
guitar” shows at 2 Co’s in downtown Columbus and he simply knocked
my socks off with his flair to “use his thumb” and play melodies
more than most of the modern acoustic set. Obviously
he had honed his teeth on Chet once upon a time… (Which it turned out
he had.) After his first
tune his initial jitters subsided (it is very nerve wracking to sit up
in front of 60 silent guitar players and aficionados and play) and Bob
played some very nice mellow yet complex solo tunes very reminiscent of
how Chet played in his later years when he favored nylon stringed
guitars. Thank you, Bob, for
gracing our club meeting with your talent and fine guitar playing
You made a bunch of new friends and fans.
Members from all over came in to
hear Ray at this Party.
Michigan
,
New Jersey
,
Kentucky
,
Indiana
and of course from all over
Ohio
. Finger pickin’ is alive
and well…
Palmer Moore
– Organzier, OFGC
(Sorry about not having more
pictures of this Party - our club photographer had "technical"
problems.. We'll just have to cut his salary right in
half... (lol) "Nuthin' from nuthin' leaves nuthin"...."
(he he) I'd love to have anyone that took some send them to me to
post here.)
Pickin' Party #26 -Sat, October 25th, 2003 (pictures)
"That Muhlenberg Sound" - Guest Pickers -
Eddie Pennington & Paul Moseley
My heartiest thanks to everybody that attended this Party - you made it a smashing success. You folks not only come and support these Parties (some driving up to 8 hours one way to be here), but you seem to understand the limited “economies of scale” with our rather obscure music genre and dig very deep into your pockets to show our Guest Pickers just how much you appreciate them taking time to visit us – for just tips.
A special thanks to Sanese Catering for giving us the facility and buffet for only $4 a head. An additional big thank you to Chaz Mechenbier who not only took time out of his busy schedule to come over and play bass for Eddie Pennington and Paul Moseley (just for “grins”) – he charted out every one of Eddie’s tunes ahead of time. (That's a true professional.... thanks,
Chaz.)
Even though it wasn’t our largest attendance (65 to 70), it was by far the most enthusiastic and most appreciative gathering we have had. Eddie Pennington, in particular, represents the “roots” of our thumb pickin’ style of guitar playing developed in his native Western Kentucky and made popular by Merle Travis. A few in the audience were big “Travis” fans, but the majority I dare say had never been exposed to this “heavier thumb” approach to the rhythm line in thumb pickin’ guitar – however, they obviously were overjoyed in hearing it. Eddie is truly a national treasure, and showed everybody why. (Quite the comedian, too.)
Paul Moseley, also from Western Kentucky, plays more of a Chet Atkins style “alternating single note” bass rhythm and is an absolute master at that style. He simply amazed everybody in the room with his intricate and smooooooth pickin’. (Thanks to Dave Duncan for providing rhythm for Paul, too.)
Then, they both came out and played together…. To die for. Simply top notched talent entertainment that you just can’t get everyday. One tune after another – one request after another… Then, they opened it up for a club wide jam.. What a blast.
BUT, IT WASN’T OVER!!!!
After dinner we got the Penningtons and Moseleys over to my house where I hooked Eddie and Paul up to the Texas Fingerstyle Guitar Club Room on PalTalk (internet) – where they gave the largest audience (from all over the world) that Room has ever had a blistering two hour “virtual” concert.
(Oh, yea – after the Party and while we were waiting for our Guests to check into their hotel – Chris Vickers and I took to the hotel lobby to impress ourselves with our recent “finger” accomplishments… I gotta admit – that “boy” picks thangs up a tad bit quicker than this old guy
does…8^)
Please help me extend our warmest thanks to the Eddie Penningtons (Penny) and Moseleys
(Lanna) for coming all the way from Western Kentucky to provide us with some very fond memories..... You are all welcome back to Ohio anytime..
THE LUCKIEST GUY IN THE WORLD,
Palmer Moore – Organizer
Pickin' Party #25 -Sat, September 13th, 2003 (pictures)
"Simply One of the Best" - Guest Picker -
Bob Saxton
Even though we had a disappointedly small attendance
Bob Saxton played his heart and talent out all day - and, into the
evening.
First, however, leading off for Mr. Saxton was a
reunion of two of Columbus' finest guitarists - Terry Efaw and Craig
Goodwin. The pure joy of watching these two "soloists"
play together is that Terry is a "thumb picker" finger stylist
and Craig more of a flat picker - and, together they compliment each
others playing like few can do. Terry is very fortunate to have
very large hands and long fingers - and, an extreme talent for playing
overly complex "large" chords in his melodic
arrangements. However, he acknowledges that he has a tendency to
"rush" the beat "a little." Which is his
obvious joy when he plays with the "rock" because Craig not
only "holds him back" a little - he provides Terry with some
brilliant musical breaks.. The man is one of Ohio's best single
line guitar players.. It has been several years since they adorned
Columbus eateries with their duo - and, they are very much missed.
What a treat it was to catch them in this very wonderful reunion - just
for us at our Pickin' Party.
Terry and Craig, then, took a seat with the rest of us
to witness a guitarist with probably the best knowledge of the fret
board of any guest we have ever had - Mr. Bob Saxton. Bob plays
this Super 400 "looking" RC Allen big bodied guitar with the
ease that most of us wipe our noses. His fingers glide effortlessly
over ALL of those frets as the audience is amazed as to how he can
arrange every tune he plays "on the fly." Like our good
friend and jazz great, Kenny Poole, majors and minors are only fleeting
passes from one more interesting chord shape to the next for Bob.
And, all with an uplifting sense of humor that permeates his presence -
that can even laugh at himself when his "composes" a blooper
on the fly. (After the ONLY occurrence of that all day, he quipped
as he continued to play, "Well, I'll throw THAT ONE out next
time..." The crowd roared with approval..)
After the Pickin' Party several of us OFGC members
took Bob out for dinner at the Pig Iron BBQ ("best smoked meats in
the mid-west") - we headed back to my house where we hooked up to
the Texas FGC Room on PalTalk for their Saturday Night Jamboree - and,
Bob gave an exclusive concert for up to 44 lucky "netizens"
from around the world who were fortunate to have logged on that
night. He was still a little unsure of "where" he had
just played when he left here last night, but I gave him a print out of
all the text conversations, and the applause and accolades he got from
from his international audience so that he could read it later. It
was very nice that somebody had asked everybody to say where they were
from - I'm sure Bob will be impressed with those locations...
A great day for this organizer....
Palmer Moore
Pickin' Party #24 -Sat, August 2nd, 2003 (pictures)
"Walk Don't Run?" - Guest Picker - Nokie
Edwards
What an unbelievable great time was had by at least 60
- 70 folks as we enjoyed our Guest Picker - Nokie Edwards.
I think I can best reflect on the intense enjoyment I had yesterday with
Nokie Edward’s visit to Columbus, Ohio is by remembering the comments
made by some very special people:
“Boy, are we glad we didn’t hold
back – Nokie is a killer guitar player - there's no way we could have
hurt him!” This comment
was made by two of the finest jazz guitarists in
Columbus
that did the club a huge favor and opened for Nokie – Tom Carroll and
Tim Cummiskey. Tom is a
professor of jazz guitar at
Dennison
University
and a highly acclaimed and sought after heavy weight musician in
Ohio
. Nokie was his childhood
hero and Tom never gave it a second thought when I asked him to
“volunteer” to open for Nokie. However,
prior to their performance I had a little huddle with him (and, his
young sidekick with “killer chops,”) and pleaded with them to
“take it easy” on the aging “rock” guitarist.
Well, being the brilliant vibrant
musicians they are, they got caught up in their music and the gratitude
that was pouring in from the 60 or 70 attentive and very pleased
spectators sitting within 20 feet - and, they pretty much “let
loose.” Just an incredibly
wonderful exchange of melodies, chords, harmonies, and flat out great
jazz guitar. Then it was
Nokie’s turn, and they were gladly relegated to the audience.
As much of a fan of Nokies that they were – they had NO IDEA of
what they were about to hear…
“We didn’t know that he could
play like this!” This was
the consensus, (with mouths agape) of almost every Nokie Edwards Fan
Club member in attendance. (Oh,
yea – and, his small band he put together that drove up from
Kentucky
for the day to help him out with some Ventures stuff.)
Those folks had only heard him on the big stages playing the
Ventures venue - and, Nokie is MUCH MUCH MORE.
He’ll play Walk Don’t Run for you – but, watch out – it
ain’t the version you heard on record so many years ago.
OUCH!!!! He is a true
master of “lift offs”…….
“Did you know he could play this
well, Palmer?” Responding with my usual considerate tact, "NO....
I invited him to drive all the way to
Columbus
to play us "Pipe Line!" 8^)
(No - I wasn't that crass. I
could see the utter joy on the questioners face, so I admitted that just
a few years ago I didn't know Nokie could play like that, either. And,
that we all owe a big thanks to Doc Pritcher of CAAS who keeps inviting
him back to the convention every year.…8^)
“This is your best Pickin’ Party
ever, Palmer!” Many long
time and new club members just got caught up in the great music and
atmosphere that is generated when so many wonderful finger style guitar
players and fans get together in a “small room” atmosphere and enjoy
our “sport.” (So much
that they obviously forget the past visits by the likes of Bob Saxton,
Ray Cummins, Scotty Anderson, Robert Anderson, Muriel Anderson, Meagan
Taylor, Kenny Poole, Craig Wagner, Pete Cavano, Scott Taylor – oh, yea
– and, Richard Smith…. It’s
a great life with so many nice friends…)
I think this is my favorite comment
I remember from yesterday…… looking down at his watch, Nokie looked
up at me and said, “Hey,
it’s almost
midnight
….” He was graciously
saying “good night” as he and I sat in the back of the small
breakfast nook of the motel they were staying at – softly playing our
guitars with a small number of his fan club and my OFGC members “in
tow.” .
“Tha’d be a B minor (or, some other equally simple chord
I’d missed,)” he’d coach every now and then… 8^)
What a beautiful, kind, considerate, and talented man he is.
And, what a joy and privilege it was for me (and, those that were
lucky enough to have hung in there with me) to have spent the day with a
true master of guitar – Mr, Nokie Edwards - "original" lead
guitar player for the Ventures…..
One happy organizer,
Pickin' Party #23 -Sat, May 17th, 2003 (pictures)
Our Guest Picker, Robert Anderson, is getting
more and more notoriety every year - and, deserves every bit of
it. He has a deep wealth of knowledge of old Chet tunes - just
about everyone he ever recorded. And, plays them all extremely
well. He usually comes up as Meagan Taylor's (Chet's grandniece)
sidekick, but this spring we were able to get him up here by himself so
that we could enjoy all the Robert can do. And, he
did.
The Party was kicked off by a great short set by our
own Pete Cavano - Mr. Smooooth. I can't believe that he is
getting better and better. Pete plays a mixture of thumb picking
and jazz.. quite a nice combination. And, everything he
plays is smoooooth - never so fast that it gets away from him.
Blue Moon is his most requested tune to play, but he played many more
for the crowd. A big thanks to Pete and his family for driving
down to play for us.
With a half hour to go before Robert Anderson was to
go on - I surprised my check in guy, Frank LeFebre by asking him
to come up and play a couple for us on Pete's beautiful Kirk Sand
guitar. Frank plays some great tunes from Chet and Jerry Reed's
albums - and, play them very well. The audience was very
appreciative.
Then our Guest Picker, Robert Anderson, took to the
stage and showed us what 25 years of practice and a great talent can
sound like. He brought some beautiful Wallace guitars to play for
us - but, we pretty much kept him (by request) on his orange Country
Gentleman.. Lot's of thumb pickin' tunes... The man can
pick... whew.. A couple members from Logan, Ohio that will only
come to the Parties with "true thumbpickers" in them - were
very satisfied.
A few of us got up and played a couple with Robert in
the "play one with the star" segment - that just naturally
migrated into our "pickin' in the round" session for the rest
of the evening.
The highlight of any Pickin' Party for me is when a
new "basement picker" shows up. And, I'm happy to
announce that WE'VE FOUND ANOTHER.. Mr. Gail Hausch, from Green,
Ohio, said (like so many of us had,) "I never have played with or
for any other pickers in my whole life." Gail sat in the
circle and (of course) was nervous as a Palmer in church, but he stepped
right up to the plate and played very well. We are pleased and
proud to have found him.
Another newbie showed up to play in the "circle
of horror: - Rod Brown. Well, he came to the Scotty Anderson
Pickin' Party back in November, but didn't hang around and play that
time. Well, folks, I gotta tell you that this young man pulled out
his Les Paul Gibson and laid down some licks with his flat pick like we
haven't heard much at our affairs - and, then could use that
"illegal" pick to start "thumb pickin'... Wow -
what a treat to have him in the circle. He's a professional player
that enjoyed sharing his talents with us.
There weren't a whole bunch of folks in attendance at
this Party (probably around 38), but all in all it was a whole lot of
fun - and, we heard some great guitar playing.
A special thanks to George Mayle and his wife for
driving all the way from Morgantown, West Virginia to make this Party -
and, for taking the attached pictures for us.
Palmer
Pickin' Party #22 -Sat, Dec 7th, 2002 (pictures)
Richard Smith
I know I have mentioned before what a positive
influence Julie Smith has had on her husband Richard's music, but it
just seems to be getting better and better. Not only is he adding
a wider range of music to his repertoire (Hungarian wedding songs) - he
is approaching his older tunes with more sophistication and relaxed
speed. He still plays brilliantly rapid runs, arpeggios, chime
harmonics, super-licks, etc. - but, it now seems that he has found out
how to "park the double-parked car." And, it is obvious
that he has revisited many old tunes and added sweet nuances of
movement, if not in certain cases (such as Ain't Misbehavin') putting in
complete jazz verses... The highlight solo of the day for me (and,
several others I talked to) was Mayan Dance from Chet's Caribbean Guitar
album.. Or, maybe it was Blue Angle he did with Julie... Or,
maybe Cascade he did with JD Norman. Or, Stars 'n Stripes...
Or, maybe everything he did....
Many thanks to Jon Mosey who drove down from Arkon to
open for Richard. It was Jon's first time to a Pickin' Party and
his laid back singer/songwriter persona was greatly appreciated by
all. AND, he picked some real good finger style guitar..
Custom made late '70s era Martin D-45 lookin' thing... A real
beauty.. And, he made it sing...
Julie Smith joined her husband Richard for the first
part of his concert with her beautiful cello playing. (A nice lady
in attendance that belongs to the Griswold (Senior) Center where we hold
our events had only been to one of our All Jazz Pickin' Parties before -
and, she initially was quite annoyed that the "jazz guys"
weren't going to be there this time. I convinced her to stay and
give Richard and Julie a listen. After their first tune the lady
was franticly waving trying to catch my attention to give me a big
"thumbs up" to what she was hearing...) And, she had
every right to be impressed - they were simply wonderful
together.
Richard then played and hour and a half set of
solos... One fabulous tune after another. Chet, Jerry, Merle,
classical, marches, jazz - and, all with a "bit of Django"
interjected in at the nicest times... A pure delight to hear when
you least expect it. The audience was laced with
"professional" guitar players who had never heard him play
before. Nothing but heads shaking back and forth the whole time..
Heads shaking in disbelief. (And, I'm in the back of the room
lovin' every minute of it... "I told you guys he was the
best...." 8^)
Lonnie Coots, Chris Vickers, Dave Duncan then joined
Richard to pick a couple and had the times of their lives. Surprised
by his boldness and in spite of his nervous performance, Bruce Mock
"stepped to the plate" and played a Richard Smith original
with the composer... Richard was very pleased and honored that
someone took time to learn the tune... (And, I have forgotten the name
of it.... duh....)
When then formed the "circle-of-horror" and
had a great club jam that included a new member that recently moved to
Ohio from Pennsylvania, Frank Lefebre. Pretty good player,
too.
Pickin' Party #21 -Sat, Nov 16th, 2002
Scotty Anderson is
"Unbelievable" (pictures)
Despite the recent loss of his mother Scotty Anderson
came to Columbus and put on a superb show. He tailored his normal
performance back to include many more good ol' thumb pickin' tunes that
our basic club membership enjoys so much. He played with his
normal band that includes rhythm guitar, bass, and drums - but, kindly they
were all quite subdued knowing that we wanted to see Scotty play.
And, he did. Boy, did he ever.
Scotty took a moment in the middle of his concert to
answer a question about his patented "double" and
"triple" stops. The double stop is where he grabs his
thumb pick as if it were a flat pick, and picks it in "back and
forth" motion catching a different note up and down a riff with
each motion. (This is what I used to think "double
picking" was.) However, he adds the finger nail of his 1st
finger to catch an adjacent string which means he is playing those
"back and forth" motion riffs up and down the neck with 3rd
harmony. If that don't blow yer mind - he then adds ANOTHER
fingernail to grab a 5th harmony (I think), too - that's the TRIPLE
STOP. (Reach down on your guitar right now and try to play Guitar
Boogie Shuffle - in three part harmony... Remember to "double
pick" all three fingers at the same time.... Yea, I know -
it's impossible... But, Scotty does it - all at 270 beats per
minute....
It was wonderful to be able to sit within a few feet
of bright lit room and watch his right and left hands blaze trails
across the strings of his strat like Fender guitar. And, of course
- the highlight of the day was watching a few folks that were seeing him
for the first time. Jaws were dropped throughout the room.
We need to get him back every year at this time to lead off a great
Pickin' Party - and, to go see him where ever he is playing between now
and then... .
Pickin' Parties #19 & #20 - Fri & Sat, Oct 25th
& 26th, 2002 (pictures)
Buster B Jones in Concert
What a show Buster B Jones put on Friday night
- albeit, there is a difference in what you will hear if he has had a
"couple beers" before the show. (Which he had..)
He's a "tad" more brash, and a lot LOUDER. (A
couple of times he caught me heading to the sound board mid-tune, and he
barked at me, "Don't you be turnin' me down....
" Which I didn't...)
The previous evening he had put a little workshop on
at the small Music Royale guitar store here in Columbus. It was a
evenly mixed crowd with a number of children, and Buster appropriately
put on his "school boy" routine. However, Friday night
he quickly assessed the presence of NO CHILDREN at our pickin' Party,
and responded in kind. The first thing he said as he sat down on
stage and was attempting to pull the mic up to his face (that he
purposely loosened so it would keep creeping down), "Hey,
Palmer - can I get a YOUNGER MIC?" ---- An audible "Ooooo"
could be heard from the crowd, but no one took offense.. Which
just added fuel to his fire.... He then asked for more "horse
power" from the sound system - and, off he went.....
Whew.....
He played a few of his older tunes that "put him
on the map" and "paid the bills" for a number of years -
that forced a few fingers to be stuck into the ears, but they all
quickly became numb to the volume and started bobbing up and down to the
rapid tempos. And, then he played a number of tunes off his new
CD, "Just Us"... Some very pretty stuff. He
has this very entertaining and interesting anthology of "thumb
picking" guitar that he puts in his shows where he demonstrates how
our style came from black blues players, up through Merle Travis adding
thumb pick, Chet adding some intricate licks, and finally Jerry
Reed lighting Buster up as a teenager...
You know, Buster is constantly putting on this
"dumb ol' country boy" routine, but the last thing his is - is
stupid. I'm sure he kinda ruffles the feathers of promoters where
ever he goes, so he says to me (an aging old rank amateur "thumb
picker",) "You gonna pick one with me,
Palmer?" I asked him which tune, and without so much as
a hesitation and so matter-of-factly his shoots back, "Well
-- Let the Sun Shine In. (Of course...)"
Folks, he had no way of knowing that that tune was my
favorite from his new CD "Just Us" - but, yet it was.
(Of course, it was the only true "thumb pickin' tune on the CD - that
I could have played... "Buster B dumb as an old
fox, folks... 8^) Well, we picked it - I choked as I usually
do in spots, but it was wonderful playing it with him.
All in all it was a concert I wouldn't have missed for
the world. And, I would strongly suggest that if he "pops
up" (which he does from time to time) - take advantage and go see
his show. (It might help, however, to have had a couple
"pops" yerself before hand, so you can be as loose as he's
gonna be....)
Kenny Poole & Craig Wagner - "All
Jazz"
To a rather disappointingly small audience, two of the
best finger style jazz guitarists in the world put on a demonstration of
pure solo brilliance. Young Craig Wagner, from Louisville,
with his worked out arrangements of constant bass lines with intricate
chord structures and melody lines - and, a seasoned and more subtle
Kenny Poole who arranges every tune he plays
"on-the-fly." (With plenty of bass movement in them, as
well.)
Craig plays a seven stringed arched top guitar in an
almost unbelievable fashion like two musicians at the same time.
His arrangements (which include standards as well as a little funk and
be-bop) all include this constantly running base line (some walking, and
some just a repeating line) and he then lays the melody down over the
top - complete with some very intricate and complex chords. He
jokingly refers to himself as "two bad guitar
players..." (He picked Chet's back pocket for that
"tag.")
To break things up a bit (and, to further blow the
listener's mind) he will sometimes continue to play the bass lines on
his guitar (hammer style), and hammer out these wonderful jazz jam lines
on a "stick" guitar that he has laying out in front of him
like a stand up steel guitar. A strange looking multi stringed
instrument... (I have no idea how many strings, but it was in
excess of 8...)
Kenny Poole has been considered one of the
greatest finger style jazz guitarists in the world by many professional
guitarists. Because he arranges every tune as he plays it, any
given composition can sound completely different each time he plays it
depending on his mood, his health, the barometric reading, the moon...
etc. I've written all the accolades about Kenny I can think
of, but maybe this gracious excerpt from an e-mail I received from Kraig
Phillips after the concert might shed some more light on his genius:
".... few mortals could ever begin to realize the obsession it takes to produce even a single passage that these guys pull off with ease, The guy
(Kenny) is world class, if I were a rich man I would have written him a check that Sat for $100,000., a small payment for a lifetime of work and work and beauty, but I would hope that money wouldn't change the art, only make the mans everyday needs be more accessible."
Both Kenny and Craig then came back up to play a few
tunes together for us - what a treat. Having quite diverse
approaches to jazz guitar, they blended superbly - as the more astute connoisseur
of jazz would have suspected. Ma'sef - I waz jes' blown
away....
Pickin' Party #18 - Saturday, Sept 28th, 2002
- "Down Home" (pictures)
Robert Anderson is one of the finest picker’s around. We witnessed that during his concert with
Meagan Taylor (who’s coming right along with her guitar playing
skills), and later on in the “circle of horror” when we all got to pick a couple… As good as Robert is, I think he was duly impressed with the level of “casual pickers”
that filled the “circle”, too. JD Norman, Dave Duncan, Dave Sullivan, and Pete Peel can all play with the best of them… Oh, yea – I picked a little, too.. (I’m a
legend in ma’ own mind….8^)
It’s so much fun to hear Meagan sing and play, too. Just to have her there with her
lineage, family and upbeat personality was a treat. She and her family (mom, dad,
and grand-mother Billy Rose – Chet’s sister) have lot’s of stories about Uncle Chester, and kindly share them with all of us.
However, is wasn’t till later on (after dinner) back at ma’ house that we (ME) got to hear the best of Robert. You get him on his CE nylon stringed guitar and you
realize that he knows every note of every Chet tune he ever recorded – plus a bunch of very good tunes Robert wrote himself… (I’m sorry – I couldn’t invite the
whole club back to ma’ house….. 8^) Next year we are going to have to figger a way to feature him at the
Pickin’ Party with just his nylon guitar…
The SUPER BEST part, however, was when he and I were jammin’ a little bit later that
night in my basement. I wasn’t really keeping up very well (though I wazn’t
doin’ bad), and all of a sudden I remembered that it was Sat night and Larry Kuhn, Ken
Godderd, Pa Cobble, Paul Doty, and all those guys were havin’ that
PalTalk thing on the internat… I said to Robert, ‘Hey, you wanna have some fun. Let’s go up in ma’ office
and play a couple on PalTalk and tell them it’s ME… I’ll tell them “I’ve been a
practicin’……..
Well, (thanks to Larry Kuhn who spent a half hour getting my computer “selections”
correct) Robert did play quite a few for the 20 plus folks that were on it. And, it
was the best he played all day. Unfortunately, there weren’t as many of the “usual” gang on
there that could have really appreciated his talents.
Pickin' Party #17 - Saturday, May 25th, 2002
- "Unbeliveable"
No matter how many times you hear Richard Smith play,
he's just as "Unbelievable" as the last time you heard
him. However, your organizer double booked himself with a
wedding that same day, and missed most of the party. I would
like to request a club member that was in attendance write up a short
review for posting, here.
Pickin' Party #16 - Saturday, April 6th, 2002
- "Women Can Pick, Too" (pictures)
Another great time was had by all at last
Saturday’s Pickin’ Party. It turned out to be a wonderful display of
modern acoustic and quasi-classical guitar music. John
Morgan co-opened for Muriel Anderson with his powerful, yet precise,
Celtic style of guitar music. John was obviously classically trained as
his performance is very structured and accurate, however upbeat and full
of his wonderful original music.
A special thanks to Bill
Dutcher who (at the last minute) agreed to helped John welcome
Muriel with a short set that set the room on fire. Using mostly de-tuned
configurations on his Collins, Davis custom harp, and slide-lap guitars,
Bill drew the audience into his modern original acoustic music with his
brilliant playing style and wise use of effects. He’s a stand up
guitarist that puts on quite a performance - full of humor and great
playing. I especially enjoyed how he bridged the age gap in the room –
the kids loved him as well as us old "thumb pickers" in
attendance.
Then Muriel
Anderson took center stage and our hearts. Her classically
influenced music was played to a room full of dropped jaws – and,
occasional winces with "how did she do that" looks… Each
tune had an interesting little story about how she was inspired to write
it – or, when she first "borrowed" it. A beautiful lady with
a tremendous talent (and, obviously influenced by Chet) – kind enough
to come all the way up to Columbus from Nashville just to share a little
time with us.
Every attendee was given a free current
copy of Fingerstyle Guitar
Magazine - our newest club sponsor - and, they also gave away a door
prize of a free annual subscription to the magazine - which was won by
club member, Mike Farrington from Westerville, Ohio.
Congratulations, Mike.
We, of course, then formed the
"circle-of-horror" and enjoyed a 3 hour structured jam –
where there was some good ol' thumb pickin’ to be heard..
Pickin' Party #15 - Saturday, March 2nd, 2002
- "All Jazz - Home Run"
What a home run we hit at this party. What could
have been a very sad affair (due to our Guest Picker Kenny Poole's
recent tragic loss of his dear Tina) in fact turned out to be one of our
best spontaneous events.
Knowing that Kenny would probably be nervous about how
he would handle his arrival, Tim Cummiskey (a killer young jazz
guitarist from Columbus) and Chris Haney (upright bass) donated their
time and talents to get things kicked off early. When Kenny
arrived he walked into a room full of love and incredibly good music
thus averting any uncomfortable conversations. (Please help me
thank Tim for his efforts by visiting his web site
tc7string.com and considering the purchase of his new CD "alone
together" - Tim Cummiskey Trio.)
A short while later Kenny joined Tim onstage for a
couple wonderfully played tunes (much to the joy of Tim who had been
wanting to play with Kenny for some time, now.) As good as Tim is,
you could see the look of amazement and adornment on his face every time
Kenny would move his hands around the fret board. Folks - this
listening experience alone was worth the $10 donation. But, things
were just starting to happen.
A short while after that internationally acclaimed
jazz master, Gene Bertoncelli, joined Kenny onstage for a reunion that
left the 50+ spectators breathless. As the two masters feathered
their strings in solo, accompaniment, or counter point - they seemed to
know each other's moves before they were played. So much different
in styles, but so much like one instrument as well. What an
experience. --- These guys made an album several years ago -
"East Meets Mid-west" - JCurve Records.
Kenny then played a solo set the way only he can
play. Slow, smooth, groovy, special complex constantly moving
chords with interspersed walking bass lines that immediately suggest to
the reasonably accomplished player that we haven't even scratched the
surface of this sport. The thing this organizer enjoys the most
about his playing is that his music transcends the gap between true jazz
aficionados and traditionalists - each tune has a recognizable melody
that he keeps in every movement - yet, groovin', movin' and keeping it
miles ahead of pedantic "refrains." The man is simple
brilliant.
He then submitted to our Pick One with the Star
segment which included such brave souls as: Charlie Berwinkle
(superb), Pete Cavano (the best I've ever heard him play), Bob Cox
(surprised his self with how well he did), and (of course) yers truly
(who showed the room why we call ourselves an "amateur" club.)
Kenny then finished up with a short solo set, and we
called it a day - gave him a big hug, and sent him on his way back to
Cinci.
A huge thanks to Jim Staley for being Kenny's chauffeur,
and Mike McGannon for being Gene's.
The Ohio Fingerstyle Guitar Club would like to express
it's condolences to Kenny Poole for his recent loss of his life partner
- Tina. Our heart, thoughts and prayers go out to him and his
friends through these next few months of dealing with their grief.
Pickin' Party #14 - Saturday, Jan 26th, 2002
- "Bob-in-a-Box" (pictures)
Our Guest Picker, Bob Saxton, and several other travelers stayed at the
MicroTel Inn in Columbus, and they were nice enough to let us stage a
little jam session in their breakfast nook on Friday night until about
mid-night. Folks were checking in and coming right in to hear Bob
(primarily) play. All un-plugged acoustic - and, we had a ball.
At the Pickin' Party Bob played excerpts from his new
Gospel and Christmas CDs that he recorded using his McPherson acoustic
to a crowd of a little over 50. And, tons of standard thumb pickin'
tunes and requests on his beautiful RC Allen. He surprised us by
playing a number of tunes on his newly acquired orange Grestch 6120 that
Chester Atkins himself owned a few years back. He amazed us for an
hour and a half, and then invited anybody that had the courage to come
up on stage a pick a couple with him.
Nobody seemed to move on that offer right away, so,
yers truly, strapped on his old 335 and did a couple with the
wizard. (It was actually a lot easier than I though it was going
to be... A little faster than I usually play - but, I had a great
time.) That must have greased the skids because then we got Dave
Duncan,
Chret Vickers, Billy Tustin, Charlie Berwinkle, and Chas Mechenbier to
all play a couple with him. Great music.
After we gave a big applause for his efforts, Mr.
Kenny Poole stepped us and gave us a sample of what we will be hearing
at our next Pickin' Party on March 2nd - "All Jazz."
What a smooth guitarist. Simple incredible he has been called by
this organizer many times.
We then tore down the stage and moved the party
upstairs for a club jam. One after | 
