Ken Waldman

In this day and age of overproduced music, it’s good to hear someone who isn’t part of the “commercial pop” aspect of music, but who is out there making a living playing music the old fashioned way, with fiddle, mandolin guitar, and banjo. I just happened to meet someone like this the other day at work. I received a phone call from one of the music professors saying that this guy who was on campus speaking to classes and performing, would stop over to talk to me about some books and CDs he has out that might be of interest to the library. Well, in comes Ken Waldman carrying a fiddle case and a big bag over his shoulder. We get to talking, and had an interesting hour or so discussion on music, poetry, Alaska, the life of a touring musician/poet, and other stuff. Being a “musical instrument junkie” I asked what all he had and he pulled a mandolin and banjo out of his bag, and a fiddle. We noodled around a little bit on the banjo and mandolin, and then Ken played some of his tunes on the fiddle. Later that night, I took my family over to see the show, and had a really enjoyable time. In his show, Ken, who bills himself as an Alaskan Fiddling Poet, plays old-time fiddle tunes—both traditional, and ones that he has composed. Along with the music, Ken tells stories about his life in Alaska, and recites his poems. On the night that I saw him, he had other musicians with him: the Druckenmillers, who played fiddle, guitar mandolin and banjo; and Mark Tamsula who played banjo, fiddle, and guitar. All five of them played together, then they played some tunes in smaller groups of two and three. It was a really good show, and just reminds me that there’s more to music than what you hear on the radio. Good music is out there and sometimes you have to hunt it down, but other times it finds you.

 Check out some videos

And here's a video I took of Ken and Mark playing Miss Renee's Waltz (well the last minute of the tune)

Musical Styles

As I was saying in the post on Pink Floyd and David Gilmour, I don’t discriminate against musical styles just “because” (Well except for current corporate pop which is just about anything on the radio…)*

There’s a quote attributed to Duke Ellington, “There are two kinds of music. Good music, and the other kind.” I agree with this but there’s more to it than just good and bad. It means that someone has to decide what is good and what is “the other kind.” Someone has to “judge” this is good, and this isn’t. And what it comes down to is personal taste, and although I don’t particularly care for Death Metal, if someone likes it, what difference does it make to me? More power to them. And if I listen to a style of music that someone else doesn’t like, why should they care? If someone likes a style of music, then that music is valid, just don’t expect it to remain the same forever. Change is going on constantly.

Purity has a place in music, but if nothing changes, nothing advances. Every style of music is based on a preexisting style, not every change is going to be to my tastes, but if someone likes it then great. Dvorak, Copeland, and other composers took folk songs and made them “classical.” Duke Ellington took “classical” compositions and made them jazz. Pete Seeger played Ode to Joy on the banjo. Heck, I’ve even played it myself on the dulcimer. I actually like when someone takes a song or style of music and does something to it that makes me go, “Wow, I never would have thought of that!”

Here are some examples of people thinking outside the box. Taking one style of music and playing it with another style’s instrumentation, or taking an inane pop song and finding the underlying heart. Hopefully some of these will make you say “Wow!” Or maybe at least a “Well, that was interesting.”

Psychograss play Hendrix

Richard Thompson – Oops I Did It Again

Shine on You Crazy Diamond on ukulele

They Harder They Come on fiddle

Wailing Souls – Whiter Shade of Pale

Peter Tosh Johnny Be Good

*Okay disclaimer time. My niece did a lip sync video to Jessie J’s song Price Tag, which I then learned on uke to try playing it with her... and I actually kinda sorta liked the song.

Now Be Thankful

Song For Today

Happy Thanksgiving!



Fairport Convention from Maidstone an outdoor concert from 1970.
Dave Swarbrick  - Lead Vocals
Richard Thompson - Guitar
Simon Nicol - Guitar
Dave Pegg - Bass
Dave Mattacks - Drums

In looking for the chords online, what I find doesn't seem to match up.
For one thing, Simon is capoed on the fifth fret, and at 1:49, Richard appears to be reaching for a G chord.
These look a little better for what Richard is playing.
I haven't sat down to try and figure it out myself, but I may give it a try.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

David Gilmour and Pink Floyd

I put on a CD the other day of a band that I hadn’t listened to in probably over 15 years--Pink Floyd.

In the 80s, I was a huge fan of Pink Floyd and David Gilmour. Gilmour’s first two solo albums, Pink Floyd Live at Pompeii, and Wish You Were Here were my favorites. I had a giant poster of Gilmour’s About Face album on my dorm wall in college, but again I hadn’t listened to them in a long time.

I recently read a Mandolin Cafe piece about Pink Floyd and heard a ukulele version of Shine on You Crazy Diamond on ukulele cosmos (requires registration), and another on YouTube, and it made me remember how much I used to love Pink Floyd. Although I like a lot of their albums, Ummagumma, Animals, Meddle, and enjoyed The Wall and some of The Final Cut, those albums don’t hold up for me. Dark Side of the Moon is overplayed, and I don’t care if I never hear it again, but Wish You Were here is an album I can still listen to.

To me, the best thing about Pink Floyd was David Gilmour. Now I’m not discounting Roger Waters or any of the others, I mean I bought The Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking when it came out. I saw Roger Waters on the Radio K.A.O.S. tour, and then the refigured Pink Floyd (without Roger Waters) on the Momentary Lapse of Reason tour, and I actually thought that the Roger Waters show was better. However it was Gilmour’s guitar that drew me in, and like I said, I hadn’t listened to Pink Floyd for close to 20 years.

Anyway, I guess what I’m getting at is how musical tastes can change over time, and there’s no real rhyme or reason. It’s not that one musical style is better than another; there are good things in all good music. Here’s a quote from an interview with David Gilmour stating just that:

RC: “You’ve always had an ability to turn your hand to many different styles.”

DG: “I’m a real jack of all trades. I'm completely the anti-purist. I was never going to dedicate my life to being BB King. My influences were Pete Seeger, Lead Belly, Bob Dylan, Hank Marvin, all the blues guys and everything. It was all a complete hotchpotch, a mass of different styles and influences. I saw no reason why all these influences could not co-habit reasonably and I still don't!”
(David Gilmour Interview - Record Collector May 2003)

This isn’t the first time that I’ve read/heard this from a musician, and it’s something I completely agree with, whether it’s Johnny Shines saying that Robert Johnson, the “King of the Delta Blues Singers” was a “polka hound”; Howling Wolf saying that he started “howling” because he was trying to yodel like Jimmie Rodgers; Martin, Bogan and Armstrong playing Polish, Italian, and other ethnic music depending on what section of town they were in; Anthrax playing with Public Enemy; Chris Thile playing Bach one minute, then Bluegrass or the Beatles the next; Richard Thompson playing “Oops I Did It Again”, or Darol Anger and Bruce Molsky playing Jimi Hendrix on fiddles.

To me, it’s all music and it’s all good. I want to show some examples of cross pollination in music from some well-known musicians and some unknown musicians, but before I get to that, here’s some David Gilmour and Pink Floyd:

David Gilmour – Shine on….

Pink Floyd Live at Pompeii - Echoes

Pink Floyd Live at Pompeii – One of These Days

David Gilmour – There’s No Way Out of Here

( Check out Ian McLagen of the Small Faces/Faces on organ)