A little ditty

Proud to have been part of the Small Guitar In Motion Project (https://www.facebook.com/pages/small-guitar-in-motion-project/91270933095), a rather odd collection of videos by some folks who are passing this little (nearly unplayable) guitar from one to another. Here's my contribution, written and recorded this past Wednesday:

http://youtu.be/bvqS46VUcdw

End of Summer and into the Fall, then a break

First, a couple of small Bob Dylan items:
1- Have you heard his new rendition of the Frank Sinatra classic "Full Moon And Empty Arms"? It's worth a listen. http://youtu.be/GZ2PHtS2bKg
2- He's also going to be releasing a Beatles cover tune soon. Yup. He's slated to be singing "Things We Said Today" on an upcoming  Paul McCartney tribute album. I'm trying to imagine it. Pretty interesting list of other artists who are going to be on this thing, too. http://theartofmccartney.com/

On to promotion-land...
My acoustic cohorts The Old Part Of Town and I have three gigs lined up in the next month and a half, and after that we're gonna take a little break from live shows to try and do some proper recording. So now's the time to come see us if you're thinking of it, we don't plan to start up again until Spring. All three of these shows feature sets from some other great area bands, and the first one, on Sept 20th -- A WEEK FROM SATURDAY --will also include our friend, percussionist Steve Raskin, sitting in with us. Hope to see you at one of these! The posters with details are shown below.

Meanwhile, here's a link to a new mix of a living room recording we did back in March, of my song "Mabelline." Came out all right ...
https://soundcloud.com/the-old-part-of-town/mabelline-1

See you soon,
Sam

The "Our Ales Concert Series" gig

The first of three gigs before we take a break over the fall and winter to do some recording.

My 2014 posts have vanished

No idea why, but all my posts from 2014 prior to today and back to Sept 2013 have mysteriously disappeared.  I'll try to update things here eventually, or  not ...

Newsic

Well, it seems about time to write another one of these.  A bunch of shameless self-promotion in a bit, but first:

I watched a great film last night:  "Throw Down Your Heart", a documentary showing banjo virtuoso Bela Fleck's trip to Africa in 2008.  Incredible music, where he goes to several countries and plays with local musicians.  Since the banjo's roots came from Africa, it shouldn't be so remarkable how well it fits in with African music, but it is (of course, it helps if you have the chops and the sensibility of Bela Fleck).  Really, really enjoyable film, great special features on the DVD, too.  (Just found its nice website as well, with samples: http://www.throwdownyourheart.com)

OK ... me!  I've been very active lately and have some events coming up soon as well.  (Some of this stuff I posted on Facebook so I apologize if you've seen this before.)

-- The Charm City Reactors Reunion gig in May was a whole bunch of fun, and I've put together a CD's worth of recordings from that night, all remixed and shined up.  It's available in high-quality "FLAC" files as free downloads for you to burn to a CD if you'd like (there's even cover artwork), or the tracks can be individually streamed, all at this page at the Reactors website: http://www.reactorsmlc.org/audiomlclive.html . 

-- The Reactors are going to be playing soon yet again.  We've been invited to be a part of a two-day festival, October 5th and 6th, organized by a guy who started a Facebook group called Baltimore Bands Of The 70's, 80's and 90's.  The guy's name is Stan, so he called the festival (regrettably) Stanstock.  But it's all for a good cause, with proceeds going to Johns Hopkins cancer work, and there's going to be about 35 bands and two stages.  Somehow we're booked to be the final act of the festival (prior to an ending jam session which sounds like it's going to have a Beatles theme, in honor of this year being the 50th Anniversary of their arrival in America).  Here's the Stanstock web page and Facebook page links, hope you can make it: www.stanstock.org / www.facebook.com/stanstockmusicfest

-- Speaking of The Beatles, I felt the need to put together and record a song of theirs, but with a twist (and shout?).  So here's a link to my folky-ish take on George Harrison's "Within You Without You.  Hope you enjoy it.
https://soundcloud.com/sam-nitzberg/within-you-without-you-final

--  As you may recall, I've also been getting together with Matt Douglass over the last few years to play acoustic stuff.  And we've been joined by Patrick Sheridan (bass) and Davis Shingleton (mandolin) when we played at a Dylan tribute and at a Woody Guthrie one.  Well, we've made it official, and we're getting married -- wait, I mean -- forming a band.  We're calling ourselves The Old Part Of Town, and we've got a debut gig scheduled for Saturday, November 16th at the same Fell's Point bar where the Reactors Reunion was, 1919 (at 1919 Fleet Street).  We'll be doing a combination of old and modern folk and country songs, originals, basically whatever feels right to us.  Here's a recording from our practice the other night -- still working out the kinks, mind you -- of the Skeeter Davis tune "I've Forgotten More Than You'll Ever Know": https://soundcloud.com/sam-nitzberg/ive-forgotten-more-than-youll

What else, hmm...?  Don't know, there's something I'm forgetting.  Oh, well, if I remember I'll bother you again.

'Til next time,
Sam

Reactors Videos

Videos of all songs from the second set of the Reactors Reunion Gig are now available HERE.

(The audio for the first set was not recorded properly due to operator error. This operator. I forgot to press "Record" - D'oh!) Particularly enjoyable, at least for me, are Matt and Alex's guitar interplay on Mabelline, and the jam leading from Scarlet Begonias into Houses In Motion.

Until next time ...

Reactors Mid-Life Crisis Edition: The Website

The Reactors website is basically complete now, with the recent addition of all of the two-camera videos from 2007 of our first Reunion.  We'll still be adding some various steaming audio, and then, after this coming Saturday's reunion gig at 1919 I'm sure there'll be more to add.  But please visit it and peruse what's there, if you're so inclined.
http://www.reactorsmlc.org/video2007.html