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
