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Preserving Country Blues through Education, Performance and Technology.
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Fetch It! - Steve Cheseborough |
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Written by Andrew Mullins
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 Fetch It! - Steve Cheseborough
Independent
Portland-based musician and author Steve Cheseborough has put together a strong set of country blues for his latest CD, Fetch It!, which was released in January. The author of the guidebook Blues Traveling: the Holy Sites of Delta Blues, Cheseborough is a part-time blues historian, but never comes across sounding like one on this CD. He takes a laid back approach to the music that is very appealing - it's always a pleasure for the listener when the performer sounds so relaxed and sure of their material. Just sit back and enjoy.
The record opens with "Hear Me Talking to You", an arrangement of a Ma Rainey song with a beautiful melody that provides the title for the CD in its lyric, "you got to fetch it with you when you come." The pace sets the tone for much of the rest of the disc. Cheseborough adapts the song - originally played by a jug band - for solo guitar in Vestapol tuning to great success. His arranging talents are in evidence throughout the record, but particularly on Little Brother Montgomery's "Vicksburg Blues", a slow blues that transfers surprisingly effectively from piano to guitar, and the wonderful Georgia Tom Dorsey song "Been Mistreated", which sounds a little like it's gone through a Bo Carter machine.
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Written by Weenie Campbell
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 It rose, it rose, it rose from the dead
It rose, it rose, it rose from the dead
It rose, it rose, it rose from the dead
And the Juke shall bear my spirit home.
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Just in Time for the Holidays |
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Written by Weenie Campbell
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 The past year or so has seen a number of new releases from members and friends of the Weenie Campbell community. We've collected them here as a few gift ideas for your holiday season. Talented Weenies and Weenie favorites have their own kind of joy to bring to the world. Here is some music to save you from relatives who insist on spinning Josh Groban's Noël or the soundtrack from A Charlie Brown Christmas yet again. Along with a couple other suggestions. Let us know if we've missed your release. Share the list with friends and relations who are stumped each year when shopping for a country blues fiend. Or buy yourself a present.
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This Old Hammer - John Miller |
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Written by Andrew Mullins
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 This Old Hammer - John Miller
Orb Discs Orb-1010
This Old Hammer is John Miller's first solo blues outing in over three decades, so one can understand how some people may have been getting a little impatient waiting for this record to appear. His LPs made for Blue Goose in the 1970s are highly regarded -- and nearly impossible to find. Shortly after those albums, John was off exploring different musical directions, with projects over the years ranging from jazz to bluegrass to world music. While those who have had the opportunity to see him perform live in recent years have been able to catch tantalizing snippets of this new blues album at a gig or workshop, finally that music is gathered in one place.
(I should say in the interest of full disclosure that I know John and have studied with him at the Port Townsend Country Blues Workshop for years. Like a lot of people, a great number of them his fellow musicians, I admire his talent and the depth of his knowledge of country blues styles. But given the strength of this album, any possible bias I might have seems irrelevant to me.)
The overall creative approach taken on This Old Hammer is to reinvent country blues originals that have caught John's ear over the years. As he explains in his notes for the CD, "I wanted to retain particular aspects of the songs that I was starting with, but always to be introducing different elements, as well -- perhaps a new melody, different lyrics or a new harmonization, in addition to, in every instance, a different accompaniment." The other element that I think is at least in part being reinvented here is an approach to solo blues guitar playing. John is an extraordinarily creative guitar player in several genres, so it was unlikely that he would stick to tried and true guitar formulas and vocabulary when he is a master at creating his own. Still, these are some startlingly fresh and thoughtful arrangements. Sometimes he will exploit different tunings and positions on the guitar to achieve sounds and textures that open the genre up, while at others he just dazzles with what can be done with a few chords in standard tuning. All of it, however, is in the service of solid music, never simply to appear flashy or impress.
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Written by WeenieCampbell
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Weenie Campbell is proud to announce . . . Weeniepedia!
With respect to the loyal contributors to Weenie Campbell Country Blues Forum, and in response to specific advocacy from some members, Weenie Campbell is today proud to launch a new feature to which everyone can contribute and use: Weeniepedia.
For some time we had been aware that masses of great extra-forum content had been accumulating in the database and was not being accessed. The challenge was to provide a way to get to it easily. A related open question was how to better harness the collective knowledge of everyone concerned with a minimum of admin to allow the site to keep growing unrestrictedly and organically to its full potential.
The new Weeniepedia area is a wiki-based system. So you might ask "why not just contribute to the country blues content on Wikipedia?" The consensus we reached was that while Weeniepedia will have much in common with Wikipedia in look and feel we needed to achieve and preserve some strength and quality of content. The specialist nature of weeniecampbell.com and its well-established tone of civility and respect for the music makes us believe we may be well placed to do this. Another consideration was accommodating the very slightly warped nature of Weenie Campbell. We like to pursue our own little side-tracks from time to time, fascinating for country blues fans but likely to be incomprehensible to the general public.
Country blues will always be a sub-sub-sub-topic on Wikipedia. On Weeniepedia it will be the entire focus. We have elements of longevity, expertise and continuity within the Weenie Campbell community to be able to maintain a strong focus on "The Real Country Blues, according to Weenie", whatever we collectively perceive that to be. Another advantage of taking it 'in-house' is that we are free to create our own hierarchical structure to suit the content and are not constrained by Wikipedia's somewhat 'flat web' organization. Naturally, in the spirit of all things wiki, we would expect and be delighted when some Weeniepedia content ends up on Wikipedia, and vice versa.
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Weenie Juke Is Off the Air |
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Written by Weenie Campbell
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Thanks to Sound Exchange, the RIAA and the Copyright Royalty Board of the Library of Congress, the Weenie Juke has been forced to shut down.
Were we to stay on the air, we could be forced to pay unfair performance royalty rates that equal approximately 100% of our total revenue, and which would equal more than twice that as rates increased each year until 2010. We are not against paying royalties and fully believe in supporting artists who make music, even though most of the artists we play have long been dead and gone. We also believe in paying for music and have encouraged listeners to purchase CDs from the labels that put out the country blues music we love.
We are, however, against extortionate rates determined by those who care nothing about music and musicians -- only about cash. Not cash in the hands of artists, but in the pockets of executives, corporate lawyers and shareholders. Should Sound Exchange’s rates stand, hobby webcasters, medium-sized webcasters and even large webcasting companies will be forced to stop broadcasting, as no individual or company will be able to afford the fees.
The current “reprieve” proposed by Sound Exchange is purposefully vague, and it is unclear what we would be legally bound to pay were we to stay on the air, since their existing rates and policies still stand as of July 15, 2007, until newer, more sensible rates have been negotiated or Congress passes the Internet Radio Equality Act. The statement by Sound Exchange that they will not enforce the royalty rates yet applies only to those large companies that went before the Copyright Royalty Board. It is unclear what the position is on small webcasting operations like the Weenie Juke.
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Written by Weenie Campbell
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 The future of Internet radio -- and of the Weenie Juke -- is in immediate danger. Royalty rates for webcasters have been drastically increased by a recent ruling and are due to go into effect on July 15 (retroactive to Jan 1, 2006!). To protest these rates and encourage the millions of net radio listeners to take action and contact their Congressional representatives, a national Day of Silence will be held June 26. Webcasters across the country will observe this day of silence in a number of ways, including dedicating entire programs to the campaign to save Internet Radio and broadcasting complete silence. Weenie Juke Radio plans on participating in this National day of Silence.
H.R. 2060, The Internet Radio Equality Act (PDF) was introduced by Representatives Jay Inslee (D-WA) and Donald Manzullo (R-IL ) to save the Internet Radio Industry. Please call your congressperson to ask them to co-sponsor H.R. 2060 by clicking below.
We are asking all members and listeners to please call their congressperson to support this bill. Our survival depends upon the success of this bill and every phone call will count toward the goal of enacting this legislation. We appreciate your help in saving Net Radio from extinction and in helping our site and broadcast continue the dream of bringing Country Blues to the world. |
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