anyone???

walk today: moriah walked down the street from ave coffee to cross at a crosswalk (and not be another crazy tucson pedestrian crossing the street randomly on campbell), and then walk back over to the folk shop :) i played a cool 12-string guitar - very fun.

But on a more important note: my bandmate is in trouble! her cello is dying and she needs to sell her current cello for just it's historic, antique value. If anyone wants a German cello, made in the 1850s for pure cool, antique-y reasons, let me know! She's trying to sell it for around $1000 (original value was $3200).

Because she now needs to buy a new cello! So if anyone wants to donate to Laelia/Lemon Abbey so we keep playing - also let me know. Or if you know someone who knows someone....

not to be compared

i've been practicing this song, and i found a video of two famous mandolinists playing it as well. i am trying not to compare myself to them in thinking i shouldn't even attempt to play anymore, but they do look like they're having fun :)

today

i played at a bluegrass jam! it was great fun, and since it was for beginner's, i didn't have to feel bad about playing crappy :)

i walked a little but not much :( mostly around campus with lori smelling the orange trees...

so i posted

about kate rusby before, but laelia and i tried playing some of her songs today-great fun! and so here's one to enjoy that we tried :)



you can also enjoy their accents!

there are no words...

but since i'm an extrovert, i will attempt to describe it anyways...

i have seen many bands, but The Low Anthem has got to be one of the most gifted set of musicians i've ever seen. this is the second time i've seen them in the past year and WOW! i am very much blessed. everyone played at least 4 instruments - the pump organ, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, electric bass, stand-up bass, harmonica, the fun machine, drums, other random percussion instruments, a horn of some kind, a mini-banjo, and twin clarinets (playing in harmony no less).

seriously...

at one point the lead singer was playing a crazy rhythm on the drums while flailing both arms and legs, while intermittently soloing on the harmonica. they also had a song where the 4 of them sang into an old school, super powerful mic (right in front of me!!!) in 4 part harmony -insert ecstatic scream here.

on one song, called "This God Damn House", he puts two cell phones on speaker phone and whistles into them, and it creates this weird echoing effect from the feedback between the phones. but this time around, he asked us (audience) to call each other and do it too, so we did :) it was just awesome...so we also soloed with him on speaker phone while the rest of the band kept playing.

i just keep laughing because i'm just utterly amazed! they played songs from both albums, a cover, and several new songs they just finished recording - oh happy day!

if you want to look up some of their music, they're new album is called "Oh My God, Charlie Darwin". The songs "To Ohio", "Ticket Taker", and the song I posted yesterday are my three current favs.

thank you The Low Anthem!

playing at Plush tomorrow!

so so exciting, but so so tired...

one more post for the day...

this is perhaps one of the most beautiful string pieces i've ever heard...

walking and playing

has been much more difficult this past week with life being crazy - school observations, lab, holidays, etc...

but i've got a few walks this week, albeit not many and not far...

But on St. Patrick's Day, we went to a friend's house who is Irish and also happens to be in a string band. They played and it was so awesome!!! Then they graciously let Moriah and I jam with them a little and it was so much friggin fun!!! We played The Low Anthem, Gillian Welch, among others and it was just a rockin good time.

Thanks Mas o Menos String Band!

And they may be playing at Tucson Folk Fest, so keep an eye out! :)

punch brothers are friggin awesome

i love this song and my hope is to one day play it :)

She sounds awesome

Sharon Van Etten on Daytrotter

Sharon Van Etten had a Daytrotter session posted today. Check it out here, along with the latest release, Because I Was In Love, out via Language of Stone.

Found this on the blog "Count Me Out"

sounds pretty rad

attempt #1

So I spent all this time trying to make a good recording of the song I learned on my pennywhistle to post up here, and I can't figure out how to post a sound file - anyone know???

So I spent about a good hour practicing my pennywhistle to get ready for tomorrow's big day!!! Getting observed by my boss, but more importantly, St. Patrick's Day!!! (here's a picture of my new instrument - heck yes)

Augie March song

Enjoy some pennywhistle tunage here. I can't display the video b/c of copyright

ahhh the pennywhistle...

I have been greatly enjoying playing my pennywhistle. :)

Today, I played some songs from my book and figured out part of the melody of "Once Upon a Dream" from Sleeping Beauty. I used to love that movie as a kid and Wikipedia-ing around led me to the movie so I thought I'd try it :) what fun!

Today's walk consisted of shopping around Fry's to get lab supplies for school and Target to try to find cheap St. Patrick's Day stuff with no such luck. By the time I got home, I was too exhausted to go do anything else...

in 2 days, chicago will look like this

St. Patrick's Day is only 2 days away!!! How I will miss being home amidst the Irish culture...

saturday

my walk on friday consisted of walking up and down 4th ave to try a find a particular hat...no such luck.


On Saturday, Moriah and I got coffee at Luce, then walked around campus looking at people with parasols and getting folders at the bookstore.

I had my second mandolin lesson too :) Woohoo!

Lemon Abbey tonight at Bentley's

yesterday it was so cold i just went to get the mail. i did practice my mandolin for a while.

not sure what the walk is going to look like today, may go walk around the mall actually...

but TONIGHT at Bentley's Coffee House, Lemon Abbey (Laelia and I) is going to be playing! We decided we just need to play somewhere, so it will be songs we've played before, but oh well, it's a new venue :)

hopefully both of our voices hold up - feel free to come watch somewhere between 7:45 and 8:30 ish???

listen to old crow medicine show

little stressors at work built up enough to where i actually wanted to go for a run after school today - so weird! especially if you know how much i HATE to run...but it was good, de-stressed me, and i saw a cute little kid with a yellow car. and i listened to the above mentioned band.

i'm getting ready to play my mandolin here in a sec :)

musical tuesday

so the past few times i've gone to go on a walk, i've gotten shanghai-ed by my neighbors...which isn't bad! last time 5 of us had a wine sitting outside while the sunset - fabulous!

and today i got to see the newest pet to our little commune - Harry the long-haired cat :)

also today, with the beautiful rain, i upgraded my penny whistle because playing some songs, the high notes sounded pretty dang terrible...and you play them a lot, so Moriah begged me to get the nicer one :)

also, Moriah bought a violin!!! WOOOOHHOOOOOO!!!!! Let the Irish band begin.

We had an awesome dinner at the Dubliner to celebrate :)

back on track

i haven't been super great about keeping up with walking or posting this past week...

so to try and get back on track-

i walked along the rillito today, and again, it was so beautiful with all the rain. i also got the privilege of watching 3 quails fight with a few prairie dogs, which was highly entertaining.

i played my penny whistle for about 2 hours and practice soloing on my mandolin, which was super fun :)

i heart trade-ins

i bought this crappy guitar to do some lessons for school and have never used it once.

then Laelia and i decided it might be nice to have an irish whistle in some of our music, which has the same fingering as the navajo flute i've been playing... oh yeah :)

so today i traded in the guitar to the folk shop and got a whistle with a book to play irish music!

Everyone! Go support The Folk Shop! It's awesome, and the guys there can play anything and everything :)

here's the epigraph in the beginning of the book:

"Listen to the story told by the reed,
of being separated.

'Since I was cut from the reedbed,
I have made this crying sound.

Anyone apart from someone he loves
understands what I say.

Anyone pulled from a source
longs to go back.

At any gathering I am there,
mingling in the laughing and grieving,

A friend to each, but few
will heart the secrets hidden

Within the notes.' "

-Rumi, from The Reed Flute's Song

it's a very inspiring little poem - way to go Rumi

Persuasion

this is the most recent of Jane Austen's books, and now movies, to be added to my collection of beloved films. i got the most recent version of Persuasion on netflix, and it is such a beautiful and faithful narration of the book. definitely go watch it :)

in the mean time, this has been a pretty good week at school, with the finale being a test tomorrow.

i've been playing my mandolin a lot and Lemon Abbey is forming at the Village Drumming Circle tomorrow evening...woohoo :) Walking around from place to place, with a stroll around the neighborhood with Emily, is all the walking this week has afforded me

we walked along the river

yes, the river.

the Rillito has water in it, and so much so that it would be dangerous to walk in it - oh joy and rapture :) a few of us walked along the river around 10 at night, listening to its subtle roar down below. i'd forgotten how much i miss the sound of water. there was also a full moon, which added to loveliness of it all...walks at night along the river...something i never consider as a possibility here in tucson. i guess i need to keep allowing God to do the impossible. i too often don't give him enough credit...

still have been practicing scales, and Emily and i walked around the neighborhood before watching a newer version of Jane Austen's "Persuasion", which is a movie that I absolutely love. i liked this newer version better than the old one, so it was great fun to watch. :)

it's March!

and to honor the month of March and St. Patrick's Day, here's an Irish blessing...





Played scales on the mandolin and walked along the Rillito River - so much water and so beautiful!

a very good day at school

the kids were great, and i started a new disciplinarian strategy, so hopefully it starts getting both the kids and i on the same page (cross your fingers and pray!)

then some fun phone conversations from friends and family :) yeah!

but some things these days in life are just really frustrating and upsetting, yet are really, really sad, and i was talking to Katrina about how to be sad - as we both grew up in families where getting angry is much easier and is the only emotion that is heard, because if you're sad or hurt, no one cares unless you express it as anger.

so i started thinking about this song as i was talking to my sister. i began listening to punk music when i dated my high school boyfriend, and since he loved this CD, naturally i listened to it all the time. as i watched the video i so found myself going back and forth between relating with the sad kids in their bedrooms, to the Tom (lead singer) who's screaming into the microphone and jamming out on his electric guitar, and was just kinda shocked how that's kinda how my life was gone. i was sad, scared, and hurt a lot as a kid, but it wasn't super safe for me to express it. then my mom got sick and dad got a job far away, so no one really had time to take care of me, leaving me to do it myself, and now im the one reaming on my guitar. but i love how he talks about all the things he wishes he could do or be, but yet talks about how he's so frustrated by the limitations of the world...which is SO HOW I FEEL!!! and so the song is appropriated titled "I Feel So" - a thousand different emotions, yet really helpless and powerless with lots of things...

i don't know, but the video and this song brings that out and makes me think about it...no real moral, but i thought i'd share the video anyways :)