Topic: Introductions: When the Roll is called...

[kenneth]

My Profile- Kenneth Cooke


As my profile indicates I have played Guitar since I was 15 which is 50 years during that time there lave been long layoffs as I have not enjoyed the best of health. In the 60's I played actively around folk clubs which were usually located in the upstairs rooms of pubs. Folk music and folk clubs were springing up all the time in the 60's and in Leeds UK were I grew up there was a club every night of the week in fact The Grove Inn Folk Club was the second oldest in the country outside London only beaten by 3 weeks by The Topic Folk Club in Bradford. Both of those clubs are still running and the Grove also hosts a Bluegrass Club the last Thursday in every month. Old Timey/ Bluegrass were a difficult genre to pedal in those days, most clubs were very traditional and in one or two clubs one rarely saw anyone play guitar it was all finger in the ear unaccompanied song.

 

My first decent guitar was a Levin Jumbo with a blonde front. It was sometime later that got my first Martin, a Brazilian Rosewood D35. I got the chance to play Tom Paxton's D35 at Cambridge Folk Festival and decided there and then that a D35 would more than suit my needs.

I was also playing a little bit of mandolin, autoharp and fiddle and fronted various Old Timey/ Bluegrass bands with a leaning towards Old Timey stimulated by bands such as The New Lost City Ramblers. We learned alot through them and I remember playing with a guy called John Healey who owned 3 fretless banjos. We played various small festivals and visited The Cambridge Folk Festival for a good few years. Cambridge had a strong Bluegrass following and some excellent musicians. My first wife and I played duets similar to the style of Sandy and Jeanie who toured here from the States and were a big influence on many of us

 

I came back to playing again in the 80's but having sold all my instruments I bought a Brazilian Rosewood HD28 and a Brazilian Rosewood 0021. My musical tastes continued from the 60's playing finger-style with National finger-picks and a Dobro thumb-pick and Flat-pick guitar. In the late 80's I had 4 strokes that disabled my left hand making it impossible to play so with very great sadness I sold the Martins.

 

At the beginning of 2013 a longtime friend and Dobro player suggested that I might try to play again and after some consideration I bought a new Martin D35. Progress was painfully slow but at least I was trying and that pleased me . About a month later I read an article on the net about a limited edition Bozeman Montana Gibson LG2 3/4 Arlo Guthrie Guitar. I envisaged that a 3/4 size guitar might help me form chords easier so I bought on and in fact it did help. I was then able to transfer that skill over to my D35.

 

The Gibson is a beautiful guitar, Sitka Spruce tone-wood top with Mahogany back and sides. The neck is also Mahogany with a Rosewood finger-board. I am now considering looking into open tunings which I have no knowledge of, hence me joining a forum like this. I have acquired a glass slide and a brass slide and I propose to get a Dobro slide and nut raiser but I will discuss that with my Dobro friend.

 

He has played Dobro for many years, longer than I have played guitar and he has a beautiful 1927 Dobro plus a new one he bought when last on holiday in Nashville. He also bought a couple of Gibson F5 mandolins, why 2 I can't answer, and he has recently acquired an Indian Rosewood D45. In fact I am planning to visit him on Wednesday this week as I have not seen him for some time. I am not planning to take the music back out again it will just be really good to be involved once more, and wow the internet was not around when I last played. There is so much great stuff out there, this forum included. And also unlimited access to records, or should I say CD's. My favourite label has to be Folkways Records out of New York.

 

Anyhow I think that covers my playing life. I have had 2 marriages and I have a daughter to each. I also packed in the booze in the 1990 as I was drinking myself to death. It was the best move I ever made and I am pleased to say that I have remained sober although sobriety threw up a whole heap of life issues that I had masked with the booze





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[Slack]

Welcome to Weeniecampbell Kenneth - and I'm so glad you found your way back (or keep finding your way back) to playing! 

[Mike Shipman]

Hi Kenneth, welcome from a southerner (Hampshire). If you have limited use of your left hand, playing lap style can be a great option. Have a look for Tom Doughty on YouTube, he has developed a great style and is a great player, I have one of his CDs and plan to get more. Quite inspirational.
Best of luck with it!
Regards Mike.

[CanadianStringPicker]

Hello all.

Wes from Ontario Canada.
28 years old.
Been listening to delta, country and pre war blues since 13.
Playing guitar since about 16.

Always wanted to learn to play fingerstyle blues. Could never find anyone that even heard of the artists let alone teach the style up here unfortunately. Since the rise of Youtube, I've been watching and learning every lesson I can find. I'm really enjoying playing guitar for the first time since I picked it up. Have a whole bunch of songs down already and teaching myself how to apply it to my own progressions.

Waxwing John sent me here after he set me straight on the progression for Pattons Some Of These Days in an e-mail. What a great site! Glad to be amongst y'all.

Hoping to really get deeper into the style and specific songs here.

Just wanted to introduce myself and say hello!

-Wes

[Rivers]

Welcome CSP, glad you joined us.

[HoboKing]

Hello all, just discovered this forum, I've been looking for something like this for a few years now! I'm a 41 year old guitar player who dables in other stringed instruments as well as singing once in awhile. I founded a jugband/hot jazz/blues mash up 4 years ago in Southern Oregon called The Bathtub Gin Serenaders. Relocated to Ventura CA two years ago and founded a new band there doing something similar called The Barrelhouse Wailers.

[Slack]

Welcome Wayne, glad you finally found us!  Looking forward to your website when you get it up and running.

[CanyonHiker17]

Hello!  Just discovered this place from a reference posting on Stefan Grossman's forum.  Been playing acoustic guitar for about 2-1/2 years now, taken up as a retirement hobby.  I started with bluegrass flatpicking but have since been concentrating on fingerstyle, especially the music of Mississippi John Hurt and others.  I'd played bluegrass banjo for a number of years and after a 20 year hiatus, I've found that some of my picking skills have come back and made MJH's music a bit more attainable.  I plugged my location onto the map...it appears I'm the only Arizona member there for the moment.  I'll probably be more of a lurker than contributor, but I'm looking forward to reading all of the posts and absorbing what I can.

[Rivers]

Welcome to the forum CanyonHiker.

There might be other Arizonans present, since not everyone places their pin on the map. We would like them to though. So not wishing to miss the opportunity of doing a shameless plug, if you're a logged-in weenie and haven't placed your pin please consider doing so, somewhere in the general vicinity of where you live. We respect everyone's privacy, it doesn't have to be right on your pad, just the general area would be fine.

http://weeniecampbell.com/yabbse/index.php?action=googlemap

[frailer24]

Welcome to WC, Doc! Anything you want to know about the blues, or stringband music can be found here.   -Larry

[tinpanallygurl]

Hi I have been viewing this site for two years.  I live in NC and one of the few gurls who listen to country blues.  Skip James is my fav but I really like almost all of em.  Will chat with yall later. Tootles

[Rivers]

And welcome to the forum tinpanallygurl

[joebanjo]

Howdy Folks,

I'm Joe Seamons, a musician and teacher based in Portland, OR. I perform with three different groups, the pertinent one here being my blues duo with Ben Hunter:

http://benjoe.bandcamp.com/

All five tracks you'll find at the link above are pay-what-you-will downloads, and all proceeds there are funneled into our Rhapsody Blues and Folk Music program, the goals of which are laid out below.

I got plugged into this community when I attended the Sheecarp Regatta three years ago. Lauren Sheehan saw me singing along with Waxwing's Charlie Patton tunes and told me about the Pt Townsend Festival. I haven't missed it ever since. Eventually, I'm interested in attempting to do with Country Blues the same type of thing that Welch & Rawlings are doing for America's folk music, but I believe I need to spend a decade or two more just absorbing songs first before I can do it right. For now, I'm just trying to hone my skills while developing the Rhapsody Program.

I'm really excited to think that some of you might be willing to get involved, but as you can see from the links below, the thing is just in its infant stages right now. Please do let me know if you'd like to get involved in some way, though!

http://www.communityartscreate.org/Community_Arts_Create/Rhapsody.html

http://www.communityartscreate.org/Community_Arts_Create/Rhapsody.html

Here are the goals of our program:

- Deliver school residency programs to stimulate awareness & inspire participation in American blues and folk music tradition. Focus these programs on underserved districts and communities. See our video (link above) describing the first of these programs.

- Unite, strengthen, and inspire communities through communal live music events on a regular basis (initially monthly shows in Portland and Seattle). Ideally, each performance will serve as a follow up to a residency that immediately precedes it. Furthermore, these community concerts will be free to folks under 18, and feature traditionally-rooted performers discussing their craft and their role in musical tradition (as well as performing relevant tunes from their repertoire). Where possible, concerts will be preceded by a jam / potluck to help accentuate the communal dimension of the music.

- Using social media, we will continue the momentum established by these interactive residencies and concerts to nurture ongoing interactions between young community members with masters of traditional music & folklore that live in students' neighborhoods.

- For instance, if the residency program was delivered in a more rural school, we would encourage students to begin filming and uploading their own interpretations of traditional songs, and receive encouragements and/or critiques from our wider community of educators and participants. Communities that took up this challenge and demonstrated their ongoing involvement in the program would then qualify for more residencies and concerts.

- The other major goal for Rhapsody is to strengthen and develop the network of organizations pursuing similar goals in the Pacific Northwest. That is, connect the resources and people of organizations--such as Centrum, Dusty Strings, Artichoke Music, Community Arts Create, and the Freight & Salvage--so that their communities gain access to a greater diversity of performers and opportunities, while worthy performers get access to better gigs. Our dream is to make the great experiences and education provided by fully developed programs--such as Centrum's Blues or Fiddle tunes week--and make the integrated workshop/jam/concert/community-building model into something that is brought to--and ultimately fostered by--the students.

Currently, we are working to enlist private donors and business sponsors to create a sustainable budget for these programs and events. We are also spreading awareness through friends like you, social media, and our blues duo recordings.



It's thrilling to discover that there are So many folks out there that are not only deep into country blues, but also starting to form a sizable community through this website. This is amazing, I really feel like I can click on any thread of conversation on here and be tickled pink with both the content and the characters--you all are great.

[Rivers]

Welcome Joe, Rhapsody looks like a great project.

Folk music is built on the notion that everyone can participate in music

[blackdograilroad]

Hello from Devon, England, I'm Ian, 53, guitar and bass player, about eight years ago found Chasin' That Devil Music by Mr. Wardlow of this parish and the door opened..................big Patton enthusiast, Tommy Johnson, Garfield Akers, Willie Brown...........glad to be here.......good wishes

cheers
Ian
[madly saving for tricone resonator]