David Chen & the Muddy Basin Ramblers

New Year's Eve 2012 at Taipei Artist Village

2011-12-31T01:48:00.002+08:00

Most holidays, the Ramblers celebrate on their own. This year, we're inviting you to join our party.

We'll be back at one of our favorite venues, the Taipei Artist Village. By now, you know the place from earlier posts, so it hardly seems necessary to remind you that it's at No. 7 Beiping Road. near the Shantao Temple MRT Station.

This event is being billed as a black-tie affair, and yes, the Ramblers will be turned out in their finest, but we always are. This black and white party will be a chance for the audience to dress to impress us, instead of the other way around.

The show kicks off at 10 and will go until the wee hours. I expect there will be a countdown to midnight.

We've invited a few guest artists to join us if they can, but you'll have to show up at the gig to find out who they are. If you've got a reasonable excuse for seeing in the New Year somewhere other than at TAV, well then I suppose you could check back here for the post-party wrap up in a few days.

We'd much rather you came down and celebrated the New Year with us. 2012 has received some bad press in the past, but the latest forecast is no doomsday for at least a couple more years.

We didn't get around to making a poster for this affair, but here's a photo of the Ramblers getting ready for our show last year at the Flower Expo.

That's the state of mind we're in right now. Getting ready for a big show. Looking forward to seeing you at TAV on Saturday, December 31, at 10 PM.

Blues Bash Blues Party 8

2011-11-02T07:37:00.001+08:00

The Muddy Basin Ramblers will be playing at the Blues Bash Blues Party 8 this Saturday at Dream Girls, Core Pacific Mall (Living Mall) 京華城購物中心. For those unfamiliar with the (Death Star) Living Mall, it's at 138 Bade Rd. Sec. 4. Dream Girls is located on the 12th floor.

We'd like to invite all fans of the Blues to come join this annual event. It's hard to believe this will be the 8th one, but the number is there on the ad for the show, so it must me true.

DC Rapier, organizer of BBBP8, released this schedule of the acts that will be performing.

17:00   DOORS OPEN
17:10   FUNSONG BAND
17:35   TAIPEI ROCKETS 88
18:00   KENYATTA FUNK STERS
18:25   BB COOKY & STEVIE
19:00   BLUES VIBRATIONS
19:40   DAVID CHEN & MUDDY BASIN RAMBLERS
20:20   MARIMBA , CELLO & DRUM SESSION by Cadeson Musical
20:45   BOPOMOFO WITH SHUN KIKUTA
21:35   NACOMI BAND
22:15   JAM SESSION
22:30   Go to Bobwundaye's for more Blues and more fun!

As you can see from the last item in the schedule, the party will be traveling to Bobwundaye for the Blues Bash Blues Party's after-Blues Bash Blues Party.

The Blues Bash is one of our favorite events of the year. It's a great chance to see friends and listen to great music,

We hope you make it out. We'll have CDs for sale, so if you feel like taking us home, you can.

To whet your appetite, here''s a video of us at last year's show.

Muddy Basin Octoberfest

2011-10-16T16:50:00.000+08:00

No, we didn't play a gig to celebrate Octoberfest, but we did put on a show to welcome David's family at Bobwundaye.

Coincidentally, it was also October 10th, the 100th anniversary of the the founding of the Republic of China.I don't think any of the Ramblers made it down to the spectacle in the square in front of the Presidential building, however.

Instead, the highlight of our day was performing for David's relatives, including his father, who had never seen his son perform on guitar before.We played two sets featuring many of our favorite songs, and certainly some that will end up on our next CD.

This show was different than our last one at Daniel Pearl Day for two reasons. First, Sandy had returned from Scotland, so we had our usual sax sound. Much thanks to Louis Goldford for filling in for Sandy while he was away. Louis has now left Taiwan for the States, and we look forward to his return.

Another difference was the lack of percussion. The washboard man was recovering from surgery on his right hand and arm and was unable to accompany the band as he is accustomed to. Instead, he grabbed his one-button video camera and filmed two songs while on stage with the band. If you've ever wondered what it's like to stand amongst the Ramblers while they play, this video puts you in that very position. Hear how loud the sax and bone sound when you get in the way, and the roar that comes out of Dave's steel guitar.

The next public performance for the Ramblers will likely be at Blues Bash Party 8, being held at Dream Girls at the Core Pacific Mall on Nov. 5. According to the event's founder/organizer DC Rapier, tickets will be on sale at the door. The event will take place from 5 PM to 11 PM. Expect to see local favorites from Taiwan's blues scene as well as international acts here especially for the show. Check the above website for more information as the day approaches.

Daniel Pearl Day of Music

2011-09-06T23:16:00.001+08:00

Harmony for Humanity

Daniel Pearl World Music Days is an international network of concerts that use the power of music to reaffirm our commitment to tolerance and humanity.

Taipei will be honoring the Daniel Pearl Day of Music this Sunday, September 11, 2011. More than a dozen bands will be performing on two stages at Huashan Grassland Park. The first act to perform will be our old friends Two Acres Plowed on the Roots Stage at 1 PM. The last show will be Jam w/Butter at 9 PM. See the full stage schedule at the bottom of this post.

David Chen and the Muddy Basin Ramblers will be performing at 7 PM on the Roots Stage. Dark Eyes will be on before us at 6, and Blues Vibration will follow us at 8.

We’ve become something of a fixture at Taipei’s Daniel Pearl Day, having performed at the 2004 show at Taipei Artist Village and many others since then. We have great memories of Daniel Pearl Days gone by, some high voltage, and others high octane.

David will never forget shorting out the sound system at the 2004 show by plugging a 110-volt PA into a 220-volt socket, while TC undoubtedly enjoyed a memorable pitcher of mojitos at the 2007 show held at 44 South Village.

The Daniel Pearl Day show at Huashan in 2009 was unforgettable as it featured FODfest, a band that included Daniel Pearl’s friend and fellow musician Todd Mack. Here's a short video of the Ramblers jamming with FODfest member Chris Merenda.

The next evening, there was another jam bringing together the Ramblers and FODfest at Taipei Artist Village.

Todd will be making the return journey to Taipei to perform at Daniel Pearl Day this year. He’ll be jamming with Blues Vibration, featuring the Ramblers’ Conor Prunty on harp.

In fact, Todd will perform several times in Taipei in the coming days. He’ll take the stage with Blues Vibration at Bobwundaye at 9 PM on Thursday, September 8, and he’ll also be at TEDx Taipei on Saturday, September 10.

We hope to see you at Daniel Pearl Day 2011. Bring the family.

時間 | TIME: 9/11（日/Sun）13:00-22:00 中秋節
地點｜PLACE: Huashan Grassland @ Beiping E. Rd + Linsen N. Rd
捷運｜ MRT: 善導寺 Shandao Temple Stn
入場｜ ticket: 免費！ FREE ENTRY!

Roots Stage
1pm     2 Acres Plowed
130pm Opening Ceremony
2pm     BoPoMoFo -ㄅㄆㄇㄈ
3pm     Funky Brothers 放客兄弟
4pm     Passiwali 巴西瓦里
5pm     Les Enveloppes Rouges 紅包
6pm     Dark Eyes 夜暮之眼
7pm     David Chen and the Muddy Basin Ramblers
8pm     Todd Mack w/ Blues Vibration
9pm     Jam w/ butter

Rock n Reggae Stage
130pm Mary Bites Kerry 瑪莉咬凱利
230pm Skycruiser
330pm The HJ’s
430pm Taimaica Sound System 台買加音效組織
530pm High Tide
630pm Pan Africana
730pm Skerrit Bwoy
8pm     Kou Chou Ching 拷秋勤
9pm     Hang in the Air 盪在空中

Bobwundaye is Back

2011-08-20T12:53:00.000+08:00

Last evening was the soft, soft opening of the new, bigger Bobwundaye. The joint was hopping as friends old and new showed up to check out the new digs. Kat and River were behind the bar, while Conor and Paul mingled with the crowd.

The Ramblers were represented by David, Sandy, Tim, and Conor. Wee Sandy, our honorary roadie, was back o' the bar, jumping on barstools, scaring up petrified cicadas out front, and gettin his finger caught in cupboard doors.

Since it was a soft opening, the interior wasn't finished yet, but the all important bar was up and running. It is the same one from the old Bob's, so a familiar air is lent to the new establishment. The back wall mural is there, too, as are the chessboard top tables.

Conor, Lanny, Darren, and Sandy provided musical entertainment. New Bob's is quite a bit larger than its predecessor, so there is ample room for a band in the back. It remains to be seen how the interior decor will be finished, but the trial gig last night proved the space is amenable to performance.

There was talk of a jam at Bobwundaye on September 8 when Todd Mack will be in town for Daniel Pearl Day. Stay tuned to find out more about that.

The Ramblers are ramping up for our show at Taipei Artist Village on August 27. We're all looking forward to getting together for some musical high jinx. Hope to see you there.

Hot August Night

2011-08-17T00:48:00.010+08:00

In some parts of the northern hemisphere, summer is winding down, but not here in Taipei. In the Muddy Basin, it’s as hot and sticky as ever. To celebrate the heat, the Ramblers will be performing at the Village Café at Taipei Artist Village on Saturday, August 27, 2011.

We played there last month with the dancers from Taipei Swing, and we had such a great time, we can’t stay away. If you missed the last show, here’s a video that our friend Chenbl shot and put up on TC’s YouTube channel.

Things will be a little different this time around. We asked one of Taipei’s hottest duos, The Red Cliff, to share the bill with us. They’ve been on our radar this year, and we’re looking forward to enjoying their show. From Indievox

The Red Cliff are a 2-piece acoustic band born from the loins of the Darvill and Cole dynasties. Although individually uncouth and erratic, their music comes together to form a refined and consistent sound. Influenced by American and English rock and folk artists, The Red Cliff seek to find the very opposite sound to that of being awoken by a Taoist parade at 6am.

You can sample some of The Red Cliff's tunes on YouTube.

Django Saveage

Koxinga

In Plain Clothes

About the Show

We’re expecting The Red Cliff to kick off their show at about 9 PM. The Ramblers will finish out the evening with our own brand of foot-stomping, finger-snapping, toe-tapping jazzy jug band blues. The door charge is NT$300, and that includes one drink.

We look forward to seeing you there. Bring a friend; they’re great for dancing with!

Village Cafe is at No. 7 Beiping E. Road, Taipei, Taiwan

Other News

Our old friend and Village Café lao ban (boss), Jason Su, bid farewell to the TAV and headed toward a new project. We’ll miss Jason’s special brand of hospitality, but we wish him the best of luck and look forward to seeing his latest endeavor take wing. Jason is a gold mine wherever he ends up, so all we can say is, Ah Bon! The Village Café will remain a venue for live music, so keep this gem on your list of Taipei treasures.

The whisper about town is that there will be a soft, soft opening for the new, bigger Bobwundaye, aka Bob’s, this Friday, August 19. If you know Kat on Facebook, you may have seen the notice, but if not, the address is No. 77 Heping E. Road, Sec. 3. That’s on the north side of the street, between Tunhwa S. Road and Anhe Road.

MBR Sting at the Green Hornet

2011-08-06T22:09:00.000+08:00

Peter Dearman over at The Green Hornet Cafe is reporting a rumor on Facebook that the Muddy Basin Ramblers will be tuning our instruments at his place from 730 PM onwards on Sunday, August 7, 2011.

I've never heard a rehearsal referred to that way, but there will probably be some peg turning at some point; string instruments get out of tune pretty quickly in the Muddy Basin.

Bitan is our unofficial HQ, so it's not too surprising we'll be working out at the Green Hornet. The food is tasty; the beer cold; the people are friendly.

Don't expect a polished show; this is a rehearsal. But you're more than welcome to come and share the evening with the Ramblers.

The Source

2011-07-31T23:45:00.004+08:00

If you've ever seen us and wondered "what's up with all the crazy instruments?" here's part of the answer.

Will Shade and Charlie Burse were members of the Memphis Jug Band, which were at the center of the jug band/string band craze of the 1920s and 30s.

These guys were the pioneers of jug band music, combining their virtuosity on guitar, ukuleles, and harmonicas with homemade instruments that had down-home charm: washtub bass, empty whiskey jugs and washboards.

Here's Shade playing his "gut bucket" bass, with Burse playing tenor guitar on the blues standard "Going to Kansas City."

"Jug band" music is really just a combination of the popular songs in rural America in the 20s and 30s, and it covered many styles, including blues, tin pan alley/jazz, hillbilly.

Every time we play, I think of these guys.

Time to catch up

2011-07-31T09:19:00.006+08:00

At a music festival in Hengchun, Pingtung County in August 2010

So there has been a three-year gap in blogging for the Muddy Basin Ramblers. Apologies to our fans who have been patiently waiting for the next installment. A lot has taken place over the interval, and rather than recap it all for you, I'll just cover our most recent endeavors.

The MBR were at Taipei Artist Village last weekend, on July 22, 2011. We were there accompanying our friends at Taipei Swing, the liveliest swing dancers in Taipei. We played two sets, and there were dancers on the floor in front of us for every song. It was great to have their energy to feed us as the night wore on.

Here is a 9-minute video clip of a portion of the show, featuring three songs.

We'll be back at TAV on August 27. We invited Red Cliff, an exciting young guitar duo, to share the bill with us. They'll take to the stage first, starting at 930 or so, play one set, and then the Ramblers will finish out the evening. Here's an FB link to summertime events at TAV.

One reason for the lack of updates to this blog has been the rise of Facebook. The band's page there has been the focus of most of our promotional efforts over the last couple of years. If you don't follow us on FB yet, please do so.

Beyond the show at the end of August, we don't have any firm plans for more shows. Several members will be off the island in September, but we expect to be back on the scene in October. Stay tuned for further updates on upcoming gigs.

Some of the Ramblers got together last night to bid farewell to the old Bobwundaye, one of the Ramblers' favorite bistros. The owners of Bob's are moving the old magic to a new, nearby location. The nearest MRT station will still be Liuzhangli, but the new joint will be on Heping E. Road, between Tunhua S. Road and Anhe Road. Look for Big Bob's to open in mid-August.

The Ramblers wish Bob the best, and look forward to performing there.

Thanks for stopping in, and make plans to catch us at TAV on August 27. We'd love to ramble with you.

2008 Peace Fesitval

2008-06-13T18:04:00.003+08:00

The summer music season is upon us, and the Ramblers will be appearing at one of our favorite events, Peace Festival aka Hoping for Hoping.

We'll be on stage at 4:10 P.M. on Saturday, June 14, 2008.

We look forward to seeing lots of friends.

CD Release Party

2007-10-31T16:43:00.000+08:00

The Ramblers are an old-time band, so you shouldn’t be surprised when we do things the old-fashioned way.

Our first CD is coming out, and we’re holding a party for our friends and fans. It’s not going to be at some slick disco. It’s not being simultaneously released on the Net and around the world.

We’ve rented a space at Huashan, the artist’s district located at the corner of Ba-de and Chung-hsiao E. Road, and everyone is invited to celebrate with us.

There will be food and drink, included in the price of admission, special gifts, a cash bar all evening long, and a live performance of the songs from the CD, all of them, in the order in which they occur on the CD itself.

If you like the show, the CD will be on sale. We recorded it with Max, our engineer extrordinaire, and it was produced by Dave Chen, our fearless leader. The original artwork on the CD jacket is a Dave original, and the photographs were created by TC.

The Muddy Basin Ramblers are a Taipei-based old-time blues band, and we play for our friends because we enjoy the music. Come out and party with us.

What is your dream?

2007-10-22T22:39:00.000+08:00

Mine used to be playing music from the back of a truck on the streets of Taipei. Now that the MBR’s have participated in the Dream Community’s annual parade, I need to get a new dream for myself.

We met up at Hsingan Elementary School on Renai Road at 1 P.M. on the day of the parade. The outer lane of the road was closed to traffic so the floats could be lined up to await the 3 P.M. starting time. Registration took place at a table in the sports field, and walking out of the corridor into the field was a shocking experience. The field was swarming with people costumed in an amazing variety of headdresses, masks, belly dancing outfits, aboriginal costumes, and pretty much anything you could imagine. Clearly, my dreams are on the vanilla side of the spectrum.

Since we had a float to ride on, we didn’t stay in the sports field with the other marchers. We were directed to float 69, which turned out to be a truck masquerading as a giant pig. It also turned out not to be our float. The pig would carry our friends the members of Bo Po Mo Fo. Our float, number 38, was just up the line, and it was a sight. I doubt that the designer of the float had a grand vision. Float 38 sported colorful swathes of cloth on the side, fishing net floats painted in bright colors, irregularly shaped chunks of painted Styrofoam stuck on the stakes that surrounded the bed, and banners on both sides that said something about aliens from outer space. A gasoline powered electricity generator sat in the rear of the truck bed, and it chugged along throughout the day’s long, strange trip.

Standing above the cab on a platform was a painted dancing man wearing a blue loin cloth tied at his waist. We could see that he seemed to be wearing some type of prosthetic penis, which would have been odd normally, but at the Dream Parade, it didn’t really seem that unusual. We would later understand that everyone is welcome to make their dream come true in the parade, but that Taiwanese social norms involving nudity trump individual expression. More on that.

Before the parade began, we warmed up by playing a few numbers. Since our float was right in front of the entrance to the school, we had a lot of people taking photos and digging the music. We also wandered around at took photos of the other floats and parade participants. The atmosphere was very warm and friendly, and people were happy to gawk and be gawked at. More than one Rambler mentioned how we don’t stand out so much as foreigners in Formosa when everyone was getting their freak on. Later, as our float made its way to the plaza in front of the Presidential Building, it became obvious that foreigners get only a cursory glance when there is a naked man dancing on top of a truck.

Right on time, our float joined its place in the procession. We were right behind the Cosplay group dressed as Jedi Knights and Imperial Stormtroopers. In front of them was the giant brain and eyeballs. Following us was a crew pushing a giant fish with a bubble machine mounted on it. As we walked, several juvenile stilt walkers accompanied us down the palm lined boulevard. It took several hours to travel the 3 kilometers to the Plaza. The crowd along the way wasn’t overly large, but the lines of cars at the major intersections were. The police would open the intersections to the parade for several minutes, and then stop it for a time to let the cars cross our path before the march resumed.

It didn’t take long for us to realize the dancer on the roof of the cab had removed his loin cloth. As we passed people standing on the side of street, we saw that they were not looking at us; they were staring at the naked dancing man. They stared, they laughed, the covered their mouths, they took photos, but they didn’t cover their eyes. No, especially not the youngish women. They got an eyeful. In contrast to how I would expect the American public to react to such a sight, I didn’t see any parents covering the eyes of their children. The police were also very interested. Each officer we passed looked at the dancer. And then we began to notice plainclothes officers conferring with their uniformed colleagues. Soon, a messenger instructed the dancer to replace his loin cloth, which he did. In honor of the naked guy, we changed the words of Reefer Man to Naked Man. That would be a cool bootleg recording to have.

Before long, we were passing the gate at the intersection of Renai and Chunghsiao South road and entering the plaza between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Japanese era Taipei Guest House, and the Presidential Building. Our float pulled to one side of the road across near the stage that had been erected for the festival. Groups of dancers were performing on stage, and others were congregated on its sides while waiting for their turn in the spotlight. The Ramblers took this opportunity to join those marchers who had already finished in welcoming those groups that were just arriving. I never realized how many drumming groups there were in Taipei. As the drumming groups approached the plaza, they played their instruments in a frenzy. There were adults and kids in mock African dress, aboriginal costumes, and everything in between, all playing djembes, bass drums, Brzilian drums, snare drums, hundreds of them. How do they practice? And where? From personal experience, the Ramblers know how difficult it can be to practice in public without getting complaints from neighbors and instructions from the police to move on.

Was the day over? No way. We had a gig at Bliss later that evening. As we left the Plaza lugging our instruments, we made plans to grab dinner and meet up again in a few hours. Some of us went to the Italian Job, and others to the California Grill, both in the Yongkang area. TC, Will, and I met in the middle of Daan Park, near the windmill (a great place to chill in the early evening) to lie in the grass and let our energy levels build up again before heading to the gig. The Rajasthan Gypsies were performing at the amphitheater stage, but since TC and I had seen them on Friday evening, we didn’t go and catch the show again. I enjoyed the music a lot but found the circus-like performance a bit tiresome.

The gig at Bliss was a party held by our friend Chris. She is leaving Taiwan next week, so the party was basically a going-away party. The crowd was smaller than we have played to for some time; there were maybe only twenty or thirty people there. Most people were friends or acquaintances, so the vibe was good. We played two sets and finished at about 1:30. I think we were all a bit tired after the long day (more than twelve hours together as a band), but it was definitely a good ending to a surreal day.

Muddy DRAGON Basin BOAT Ramblers FESTIVAL

2007-06-12T22:05:00.000+08:00

The Dragon Boat Festival is fast approaching. Bitan, the sunny Hsintian resort that is the Ramblers' spiritual home, is moving into high gear in preparation for the races coming up. This year the street vendors are throwing a night market party to celebrate all the customers they hope to serve.

Being Bitan locals, the Ramblers were called up for the cause by the unofficial Borough Chief, Athula. We'll be making sweet street music near Athula's roti stand in the early evening on Saturday, June 16.

If you'd like to show up, take the MRT to the last station on the green line, Hsintian. Walk along the street behind to the station until you come to the night market. Athula's stand is just past the steps at the foot of the suspension bridge, across from the 7-11 (what a surprise). If you're there while we're playing, you'll have no trouble spotting us--look for the jug band. If you arrive late, order a roti or two from Athula and ask him where the Ramblers have gone. If the weather is good, we'll probably be down along the river. Don't cross the bridge. Come down to the riverside and walk upstream a few minutes. We may be on the steps near the playground.

Update: We'll be playing at 7 PM. We should play for at least an hour at Athula's before we find somewhere along the river to carry on the music-ing.

Updated Update: Check out this news from the Onion. That's what I'm talking about.

Blue Moon

2007-06-04T19:14:00.002+08:00

The Ramblers have had a busy month. The show at Sappho was great. It was our first time to perform at A-liang’s new place. We got started about 10 by playing our first song in amongst the crowd at the tables and bar. We like to bring the music to the people, and being all acoustic, we can cozy right up with the punters and warm them up to the evening’s entertainment. Then we moved to the stage and played a regulation set, and then took a break. We switched out our condenser mics for dynamic mics, and when we came back on at about midnight, the sound quality was just what we’d been hoping for.

By that time, the staff had pulled one of the modular sofas and a table off the lighted disco floor, and the dancing began. It had been a while since our last full show, and we had some energy to burn, so we kept the dancers hopping till nearly 2:30. It was probably our longest uninterrupted performance to date. The partying didn’t stop when we finished, and I think it must have been getting light already when the hardiest of the Ramblers finally called it a night.

The next Saturday evening found us on a rooftop in Shilin at the Animals Taiwan charity party. The original date had been rained out, so the Animals crew had taken every precaution against the weather. There was a good size crowd, some familiar faces and lots of new friends sharing a balmy evening for a good cause. Noise was a concern of the organizers, and before the evening got too late, the neighbors had called in the Mounties to bust up the affair. Some dance acts, a troupe of four girls doing belly/jazz dance and a couple showing off their ballroom moves, performed to recorded music under the tent before we got our thing going.

We got a couple of songs out and then Brent, formerly of the Saltwater Crocs, and a powerful singer/songwriter in his own right, performed one of his classics, Dawg Song, replete with dog howls, in honor of the event’s theme. We played one more number, I forget which, and Sean, of Animals Taiwan, handled some of the singing. By that time, the Kevlar ones had arrived to hasten the conclusion of the evening, so the Mudders packed up their gear and slipped away into the night.

We had the following weekend off, and recuperation (and laundry) was called for. Plus, we had to get our energy up for the Peacefest / Hoping for Hoping, our summer kick-off out in the mountains of Lungtan.

Unlike previous years, we had a Saturday performance slot just as the sun was going down. The crowd was bigger and livelier than we’d seen up there before. We had a quick set, by our standards, but we started off on the right note and were in lock-step for the rest of the performance. The sound crew did a great job getting our mix right in our monitors and the PA, and the whole Peacefest crew did a fantastic job putting together a great event. Big thanks to Dave, Scott, Lynn, Lisa, and Monica and everyone else for their effort. One weekend a year, they create a circle of peace that continues to widen, drawing ever more musicians and music lovers to Kun-lun Herb Gardens in Taoyuan County. They had a little more commercial support this year, but the laidback vibe continues to be strong.

We gave the audience a little bit of everything, including Walk Right In, Jug Band Quartet, Dancehall Shuffle, Nagasaki (Dave mentioned that that city’s mayor had been gunned down recently), and others, before finishing with Riverside. It’s our anti-war number, and we felt it was the most fitting song to voice our support for peace, and reach out to the audience. Once we got going, the audience was kicking up its feet in the grass in front of the stage, and there was a great sense of camaraderie among everyone present. We were enthused to have lots of help singing the chorus, “Ain’t gonna study the war no more.”

Sandy also got some help in the horn section and was joined by several other musicians who wanted to join the glad sound. I saw Kevin from Milk and maybe others punching the air with their brass as the song reached its crescendo before the eventual a capella wind-down.

We grabbed our instruments and exited the stage while the organizers got the audience to join hands for the peace circle, a fixture at Peacefest. A band of merry pranksters on hand drums, kit drum, electronic drum, didjeridoos, guitar, horns, and others provided the musical lubricant the circle needed to get twirling. The groove on the stage was infectious, and while the audience wheeled around the grass under the full (blue!) moon, more and more musicians got on stage to join in. I wasn’t timing the jam, having my hands full with a set of LP bongos, but it must have gone on for three quarters of an hour. I knew the drummers could last that long, but I had some worries about the didj players. Happy to say, no one expired in the name of peace.

There was, however, one ping-pong-related injury to a black-chap-wearing cowboy. He shared the story with us while we were warming up behind the temple during Mr. Green/Highway 9’s set (which was great). It seems the cowboy had been asleep under the ping-pong table when Peace Dave somehow upset it, causing its edge to strike cowboy’s eyebrow. It was a nasty cut, and though it wasn’t leaking blood down his face while he was telling the story, I saw him later getting more first-aid, and there was a crimson tide.

No definite words on the next MBR gig, but we’ll keep you informed. If you’ve got any pics of us playing at Peacefest, we’d love to see them. Shoot us a link if you can.

~Peace

Sappho show on May 19th

2007-05-17T07:23:00.000+08:00

NOTICE: The Muddy Basin Ramblers will be playing at Sappho late in the evening on Saturday, May 19th. The joint is located in the basement at No. 1, Lane 102, An-ho Road section 1, just north of Hsinyi. Show starts at 10:30pm, and the door charge is NT$200. There might be dancing. Check your hats and revolvers at the coat room.

A blissful St. Patrick's Day

2007-03-16T14:27:00.000+08:00

The Ramblers are emerging from the studio for an evening of music tomorrow night, March 17, at Bliss. Not only are we celebrating the green, we're welcoming a friend into the third decade of her life.

The last time on stage for us as a band was at the Stevie benefit at the Living Room. It was a busy evening that saw many acts grace the stage in support of a friend in need.

Despite some confusion over the status of this gig (it is open to the public), we're expecting friends new and old to come out and celebrate the evening with us.

We're starting at 10 P.M., and the amps will be turned off at 12, but the music will probably last longer.

See you at Bliss.

Turning the Crank

2007-01-31T20:23:00.000+08:00

Oy! Is this thing on?

It's another beautiful night here in Taipei, the tip top of Taiwan, and we're damned glad to be here tonight to entertain you, from the Muddy Basin, Taipei County.

It's been a while since we've started a show, but I believe it goes something like that.

The Ramblers are still on their hiatus from the stage while we concentrate on getting our very best sound recorded for a future album.

We're breaking the silence on the blog now to let you know that Dave and Conor are in Memphis 2007 International Blues Challenge (IBC). The Blues Society on Taiwan (BSoT) chose these lads to represent Taiwan in the duo competition.

They'll be taking Taiwan's blues back to Beale Street.

Progress on the Coming Album

2006-11-22T20:51:00.000+08:00

Many of our dear fans are asking, "When will your CD be finished?" Rest assured, friends, it will be soon. However, it might be after Christmas, so don't bank on Muddy Basin CD's for stocking stuffers. Sorry folks.

We are getting close, however. Just last Sunday we met at the Sandcastle to lay down some tracks, and with the help of Max the Soundman, we just focused on playing the music, and the recordings sounded pretty good. And this is a very important step in making our CD especially.

Our CD will take time because we are making these recordings in the old way, live with all of us playing together. Most bands go to studios and lay down single tracks, instrument by instrument, and then they mix the tracks together to make a song. Although this would speed production time and make us sound awesome, it just doesn't seem to fit what we are trying to do. So when we record, we all play together, and we've got to play as perfectly as we can.

One other difficulty that we face is that amplifying or recording the Muddy Basin Ramblers is really challenging. With so many unusual instruments, we need at least seven to ten dynamic microphones for a good sound, and fourteen is better. We can also use two or three condenser microphones, but that means feedback and a whole different slew of problems for the soundman. At one gig a while ago, the soundman just retreated from his soundboard and hid backstage on the verge of weeping. He was really new to the job so I can't blame him, but even veterans are challanged by the task of getting that sweet sound we love. (Thanks, Max and all other soundmen who have helped us out!)

Another reason for us getting our CD out so slowly is that we've been busy working on several other Muddy Basin products that we hope to have available for the holidays.

If all goes well, we'll be offering Muddy Basin Gift Certificates which can be used at all Muddy Basin Rambler Retail Stores to purchase all sorts of cool Muddy Basin Rambler gear, like: fully poseable action figures complete with hundreds of authentic Muddy Basin Ramblers hats, outfits, and of course, instruments that really work!

There will also be Muddy Basin Ramblers DVD's, comic books, video games, trading cards, bottle openers, screen savers, stickers, stationary, action figure playsets, belt buckles, seat covers, lunchboxes, furniture, bookbags, and my favorite: comfy Muddy Basin Rambler flip-flops that you only wear inside your house.

If we can't get these fine products out by the first of 2007, we'll shoot for Chinese New Year, and that'll give us another two months.

And if our cool plastic stuff isn't manufactured in time for you to buy Muddy Basin Rambler gifts for the holidays, you can always just send some money to a good charity, or spend some time doing good things.

Blues Bash 3

2006-11-15T14:48:00.000+08:00

Hsichih/Xizhi, however you want to spell it, is lucky to have the Dream Community, and so are fans of the Blues in northern Taiwan. The DC welcomed DC and his Blues Bashers on November 4 and 5, 2006.

We were scheduled for a twilight show, and we finished off our afternoon with a warm-up jam near the Dream Community dance studio/classroom. When it was time to get up on the stage, we did, and we didn’t let the lack of a sound check dampen our enthusiasm.

DC gave us a gracious introduction, and we launched into a ripping set. Actually, it sounded like something was ripping, or shorting out, once in a while. The sound system was making itself heard above our own noise. The audience was appreciative and got into the spirit of our jug band blues sound. It was good to see so many of the Taipei music community come out to support the show.

Conor finally found the time to run the rapids of the Red River, but all too soon, our time in the bright lights was over, and we retired to watch the rest of the performances.

At eight o’clock, the Bash’s finale Superstar Jam took place. All of the musicians who were willing to jam the stage for a final, all inclusive jam, got up and did their thing. It was a hell of a good time, with all sorts of contributions being made.

One of the guitarists on stage for the finale was Joel Blumert, and although I didn’t go to Capone’s after the show and jam with him there, as some of the Ramblers did, I got to play music with him just the same. It turns out he liked our sound and wanted to play with us again. So, we joined him Hsichih at the DC for an evening of music.

Joel is a native of New York with an interesting and odd family connection to the Blues. His playing is great, and singing extraordinary, and generally seems to be a hell of a guy. We were all a bit surprised to hear that he spoke some Chinese, but then he explained that he was a long-time Sinophile with an interest in martial arts, philosophy, and alternative healing.

After a great meal at the café, we accompanied Joel for two sets of music. He and Dave sat next to each other while the rest of stood around them. TC was missing due to filming requirements, but his tub was there, and Dave played it to back up Joel several times (or maybe once).

We recognized many of the songs that we played with him, but the verses were often different from those that we had learned. We surprised him a bit when we all launched into the backing vocals for KC Moans. DC was there as well, and I specifically remember him being called up to join Got My Mojo.

The last song we played, Death Letter by Son House, is one of my favorites, and I know I had a great time cutting loose and channeling a bit. We hung around a chatted a bit after the show, and before leaving, we all received mini loaves of sourdough bread.

Thanks to Doug and crew for the BB3, to all of the hep cats at the Dream Community, and to Joel Blumert for inviting us to share an evening of music.

Night at the Circus

2006-11-08T22:13:00.000+08:00

We showed up at the CKS plaza for our Saturday evening gig, and we learned that a quality performance was required. While waiting for our sound check with Maestro Christoph, we watched a team of ace diablistas expertly tossing their spinning, oversize yo-yos back and forth across the stage. They had raised the bar high.

At one o’clock it was our turn on the stage, and we worked through an hour-long test of the sound system that worked out all of the bugs and left us with just the right amount of monitor mix on stage and an even balance of our own microphone levels for the audience later that evening. An appreciative crowd of early-birds snapped up our juicy worms.

Then it was into the backstage area, in the bowels of the National Concert Hall, to store our instruments and grab a quick lunchbox meal courtesy of the promoters. This was followed by a warm-up session along the walkway that runs along the inside of the wall around the CKS plaza. We attracted a crowd of locals and several Spanish circus performers with our acoustic jamming. After an hour or so, we all felt that we were ready for the performance on stage.

Sandy and Conor went home to relax and get changed, while TC and Will and I found a quiet corner of the park for a picnic. Two hours later, when we made it back to the Concert Hall to get dressed and grab our instruments, the Betel Nut Brothers were on stage. We hung out to the side of stage and looked at the large audience that had assembled. They completely filled the steps in front of the stage. Dave accompanied the Brothers on their last number. And then it was our turn.

Emcees usually figure that we are ready to start performing long before we really are, and the young woman hosting this show was no exception. To keep the audience entertained for a few minutes while we got everyone plugged in and sorted out, Will began a little tap dance number on his board, and then Dave and I jumped in to play along. While we were busy at that, the emcee finally made her final announcement, and we were on.

The next hour went by in a blur, at least from my perspective now. Things were right and tight. We started off with Walk Right In (I know this because I watched this video) and we finished up with the Taiwan Song. The Betel Nut Brothers were up there with us for the finale song, and it went down in a fine style.

There were fans who wanted photographs with us (and our instruments) waiting at the rear of the stage, so we spent several minutes posing with them, and signing a few autographs. (Okay, I signed one.)

Then, we returned to the backstage area to eat another free meal and grab our stuff. We wanted to hang around the plaza because there was an after-party for the performers that we thought would be interesting. TC headed off with Jojo to a Harbin-style restaurant while Conor, Slim, Sandman, and myself had another picnic in the park. When it was time for the party, we went up to where it was being held.

Trees had laid out a buffet of sorts (I limited myself to fruit) and there was a crowd of musicians, circus performers, stage hands, and others mingling and talking. I spoke to several people, including one Belgian gentleman who manages several world music acts, including one of the MBR’s favorites, Tarif de Haidouks, a band of Roma. I also chatted with Christian, the director of the Cirque d’ Baroque and several of its performers.

After enjoying the big party for a while, Will and I took it upon our ourselves to entertain the affable Cirquists. We found the rocky shoreline of a fishpond and set up a camp of revelers under the moon. There were several runs made to a nearby convenience store for more supplies, and we passed several more hours in good spirits. By this time the square was empty and the moon was hanging low in the lightening sky.

We bid our new friends adieu, and before we knew it, a quick taxi driver had Will and I in Hsindian. Willy got out by the swimming pool, I headed up onto the mountain for a few hours of sleep.

Coming up next: Blues Bash 3

2006-11-03T02:43:00.001+08:00

I was checking out this band called Hazmat Modine that DC Rapier (founder & president of Blues Society on Taiwan; www.bsot.org) had mentioned because it's fronted by two harmonica players. Deviant, weird alchemy. "... rustic, deliriously Dionysian blend of whorehouse Blues, Reggae, Klezmer, Country and Gypsy-tinged music." www.hazmatmodine.com/home.html

Whatever whorehouse Blues is, we should do more of it. And some on-site immersion to boot.

I didn't download an album from Soulseek, and there was this great throat-singing song on it. It sounded like Paul Pena's (Genghis Blues) guitar and deep throat work so I tried to check that out. I came across this radio show page at www.wnyc.org/shows/newsounds/
episodes/2006/09/14 and there was our mate Albert Kuvezin (& Yat-Kha) doing an uncanny version of When the Levee Breaks, of all things. Dark, witching stuff. Get a much stronger sense of the misery of the flood than in the blues version, I thought, which usually makes me feel high and dry. I wondered if we'd done that song at Witches the dark night he was there...

There's a new album schlock full of similar stuff:

www.worldvillagemusic.com/
anglais/album.php?album_id=80

Hazmat Modine, Bahamut: www.amazon.com/Bahamut-Hazmat-Modine/dp/B000H0M4XY/sr=1-1/
qid=1161284365/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/104-1306186-2930356?ie=UTF8&s=music

Rambling in the Basin

2006-11-02T00:09:00.000+08:00

Here's your musical invitation to the festivities this weekend.

We had a practice last Sunday evening. It felt like we would have our act together for this weekend’s shows, and it didn’t sound too bad either. We worked on some of our standards and some we’ve only played a few times. Dave sent around a play list of 15-20 songs that we’ll select from for the shows on Saturday and Sunday.

Saturday we’ll be performing at the 2006 Open Air International Arts Festival, Taipei; Spotlight on New Circus. We won’t be under the big top, or on the big stage; a smaller stage will in the square will be our launch pad. That’s where we’ll be at 6:00 for our 50 minute set. Sound check is much earlier, so we’ll all be in the park somewhere for most of the day.

Sunday will see us out in Hsi-chi for Blues Bash 3. We’ll perform from 4:30 to 5:00 P.M. BB3 is the product of DC Rapier, a musician who doesn’t just lead a band, but leads the Blues Society on Taiwan. If you run into DC at the show, let him know you appreciate his effort. This is a free show for the benefit of blues lovers in Taiwan.

Following the harvest moon

2006-10-19T10:46:00.000+08:00

It feels like the Ramblers are awakening from hibernation.

We've got an event this weekend, but I really can't tell you much about it. It's a celebration, in Bi-tan, on Saturday night. We'll be performing. Satisfied?

Our big musical weekend is only two weeks away.

Saturday, November 4, the MBR will be at, well not "at" so much as "in front of", the National Theater at the CKS Memorial. I believe we'll have about an hour on stage. According to the latest word, we'll be on at 3 P.M. I can't track down any on-line promotional material at the moment, but we'll get something up here for you soon. I happened to be looking at the November issue of the National Theater/Concert Hall events schedule and found our name in tiny print on the page introducing the gig.

We'll be playing at the Blues Bash 3 in Hsi-chi on Sunday, November 5 at 6 P.M. We'll be on from 3:50 to 4:20. According to the Grape-Net-Vine, Conor will perform a special 30-minute version of Red River.

Make it down to one of these shows if you can. Good times are on the way.

2006-10-05T16:34:00.000+08:00

There's music in the air, ... and pom poms

Last weekend's DP Day was a smash. There was a nice, healthy, music vibe in the park at Treasure Hill. The MBR thang didn't go down due to personnel/personal issues, (the details of which were announced several times to the audience by the emcee, Bone?). Our thoughts were certainly with Dave and his family. We all regret their loss.

It was great to see JRing's two bands. Sky Burial was without their guitarist, Brian, who was off in Russia, but they had an amazing keyboardist sitting in with them. If you hadn't been watching him playing the keys, you'd be forgiven for thinking there was a guitarist on stage. I haven't seen anyone do that so well in Taiwan for a long time (ever?).

The second band John plays in, Crossroads, featured Barry, the owner of Bliss, on lead vocals. Most of the songs they played were Rolling Stones numbers, and Barry does an inspiring Mick Jagger impersonation.

Sandy and I ended up leaving before the final act came on. Our appetite for rhoti's was just too great.

Props to Sean and his crew for putting on a great event.

There's a lot to do this weekend.

Conor is having a Moon Festival BarBQ on Friday evening over at Bobwundaye's that's promising to be a rollicking good time.

The Migration Music Festival, organized by our friends at Tree's Music, is also taking place this weekend at Da-an Park. There are shows Friday, Saturday, and Sunday evenings, along with workshops during the day. The workshops on Saturday and Sunday, during the day, are being held at Huashan this year. If you get the chance, go to any of the workshops. They are much more intimate than the amphitheater, and you'll come away with an increased appreciation of the music and musicians.

Our very own Dave is performing with the Betel Nut Brothers on Sunday evening. I'm sure most of us will be up on the grassy hill at the back of the amphitheater enjoying that show.

TC, however, will not be there. Checking in over at Planet Poagao, I see he is off to the PRC for an adventure. Let's see what a warm welcome they give to this exceptional Taiwan compatriot.

By the way, the pic at the top is of a group that I happened to catch today as I walked through the NTU campus.

2006-09-28T12:12:00.000+08:00

Daniel Pearl Day of Music 2006

We haven't been on stage in a while, but we haven't been slacking off. Work on the CD is coming along, and we've got several performances coming up.

The first is the Daniel Pearl Day show at Treasure Hill in Taipei on September 30. I believe we'll be starting around 4 or 5 P.M., but come early to catch the other acts. We're at the smaller stage at the art studio/cafe.

We've taken part in the Daniel Pearl Day of Music several times now. Besides being a great chance to see live music in Taiwan, it's also a day to reflect on Daniel Pearl, a journalist and musician, who was executed in Pakistan in 2002.

Update: An email brought a copy of the flyer for this weekend's event. And here's a schedule of when the bands will be performing.

Main Stage
2pm To a God Unknown
3pm Minstral
4pm Anglers
5pm Sky Burial
6pm Sons of Pablo
7pm Crossroads
8pm Public Radio
9pm Sound Clashes

Acoustic Stage
3pm Kevin Smith
4pm Mister Green
5pm David Chen and Muddy Basin Ramblers

Lightning blues

2006-09-07T12:35:00.000+08:00

We'd been planning to do a riverside session/gig/practice down at Bitan on Sunday, but that afternoon a thunderstorm rolled in and dumped heavy rain on Xindian. I called David; he said if the rain stopped we'd still be on. At 6 or so, it stopped, so I gathered up my stuff and went down to Athula's. I ordered a couple of delicious rohti and was just chomping into them when it started to rain again, accompanied by lightning and thunder.

Since we were all there, (except for Conor, of course), we decided to go down and find a dry place to play. We walked carefully through the lightning and thunder, carrying as we were such lightning-friendly things as a long wooden pole and a metal guitar. We ended up under the highway bridge, a massive concrete X-shaped structure looming over the river where, not too long ago, the Karaoke Bastards ruined many a night's tranquility in the area. We were about to do the same, but with better music. David had brought me a Muddy Basin Ramblers T-shirt to replace the one I misplaced at Zoe's house.

As we began to play, the rain increased in volume and strength; rivers of water streamed down the bank where we were playing. We moved our stuff around trying to find someplace dry. Amazingly, several friends showed up, despite the weather, to hear us. The sound echoed under the bridge, and I was sure everyone across the river could hear us. Occasionally a scooter or vendor would trudge by, sometimes stopping to listen. I'd brought my pocket trumpet and for some reason, possibly the weather, the valves were sticking like crazy. I managed somehow anyway, playing very deliberately. At least the tub isn't affected by the rain. It even makes a nice umbrella if need be.

We played until about 11:30, making it an early night due to the fact that everyone had work the next day. The rain turned to drizzle as I walked back home across the bridge. It was a good time. We should go down there more often.

Muddy Basin Ramblers

2006-08-21T13:00:00.000+08:00

Down at Athula's last night talking to a bloke from up in New Garden City. He was asking about the tshirt I had on -- an MBR one -- and asked if we'd ever played at Xijhr, to which I answered "yes" because we have indeed played there.
"I have to show you something," he then said. With that, he whipped out his cellphone and showed me the screensaver. It was a colour photo of us playing the Xijhr gig, which I thought was pretty damned cool.

2006-07-19T12:47:00.000+08:00

Desktop Blues

If you're Jonesing for some blues during the MBR's mid-summer hiatus. Here's a link you'll have fun with.

2006-07-06T18:47:00.000+08:00

North American Music Weekend

If we’d been thinking ahead, the MBR experience for 2006 would have included a show to celebrate Cinco de Mayo and completed the trifecta of North American patriotic holidays.

Coming on the heels of the IFfestival/Hoping for Hoping weekend, our performances at Canada Deh and the 2nd of July at the American Club of China made for a busy fortnight of gigs.

It was great to be back at Da An Park for another free show open to the public; we were a younger, smaller band the first time around, at the 2003 Migration Music Festival.

Unchanged was the oddly inspiring mix of local and foreign music fans that congregated in the amphitheater and on the grassy slopes.

A backstage highlight was the air conditioning, which went some ways toward increasing the camaraderie of the performers, as did the mojitos (eh, TC?).

We had a grueling sound check in the afternoon, not so much from the length, but because of the searing heat on stage. The sound crew were on the ball and did a good job of accommodating our wall of sound, although I think I heard someone say that they wouldn’t mic Slim’s tapping because it “wouldn’t sound good.” Little do they know.

Not having a mic for his feet might have been the reason that Slim spent so much time dancing with the crowd (okay, it was a crowd of two--Scott Cook and a two-year-old lad).

I thought our set sounded great. Unlike the rest of the bands, we even had our own sound guy, Max, sit at the board during our performance and monitor our sound.

Milk, on the other hand, didn’t come for a sound check, had no one at the mixing table, but knew how to make the party rock. The smoke machine that anemically belched a few poorly timed blasts of violet-scented fog during our set was working overtime for Milk.

I knew we were in for a good show when Kevin opened the first set up with the slightly teetering piano theme from my favorite Canadian television phenomenon, the Trailer Park Boys.

As always, Milk was curiously costumed, with masks featuring prominently. The lead singer and the female go-go dancer wore demonic leather masks; the male dancer had on a mask that might have come from lacrosse; and the bassist had a hockey goalie mask.

Not content to let the night end when the music stopped, Conor, Slim, and I headed over to JB’s for the England v. Portugal match. In the taxi, Conor predicted, accurately, it turned out, that no goals would be scored during the two halves or the overtime periods, and that the game would be decided by penalty kicks.

He did not predict that England would end up losing. Honestly, though, the crowd at JB’s, with a few notable exceptions, did not seem particularly surprised at the game’s outcome. England did not put on a good performance, in my opinion. But, hey, I'm American. What could I possibly know about footie?

Feeling sporty after the game, Slim and I got into a 3 A.M. broad jump competition in a pocket park just behind the Buxiban pub. That boy has got some legs on him.

If you’ve already read TC’s account, you know that I was absent from Sunday’s performance at the ACC, so I can’t say what happened at that gig. I will venture that the music was excellent, and the people were unprepared for the audio onslaught that the MBR foisted upon them.

Maybe one of the other Ramblers could post a lowdown on the hoedown. (Edit: To avert a showdown, the lowdown on the hoedown will not go down.)

2006-06-30T18:12:00.000+08:00

Just a quick note/rave on a song that I've been trying to learn for years – "Mississippi Blues" by William Brown. Ordinary title, ordinary name, but extraordinary song. As I understand it, William Brown is not the "Willie Brown" that sang the M&O blues or the one Robert Johnson mentions in one of his recordings of "Crossroads".

So I guess William Brown is a bit of a mystery, but you can catch a bit of him speaking and the two songs he recorded for Alan Lomax, which is available on a CD called Deep River of Song: Mississippi - The Blues Lineage. (You can find and listen to it at Amazon.com) The other song he recorded for Lomax, "Ragged and Dirty" has been recorded many times by many musicians since, including good 'ol bob dylan.

The song itself is a wonderful piece to study on the guitar --- I think he plays it the key of C, A position (capoed at third fret). Brown plays with a technique that has inspired so many fingerstyle guitarists today, picking the bass lines and the melody at the same time, as if the guitar were a piano.

Although the song has a typical blues structure, Brown plays an unusual melody against the bass that sounds almost like it's a ballad. It gives the entire song a gentle, lilting feel.

I'll have to go back and re-read the liner notes, but I think the song was recorded in the early morning before daybreak, at least that's what a picture in my head when I listen to it. It's just a sublime recording, and it's a song I'll be learning for the rest of my life.

Hope to see you at Canada Day, eh?

2006-06-28T02:18:00.000+08:00

From Peace to Patriotism

After a blast of two days of awesome music and fun at the first ever IF Festival and then the Hoping for Peace Festival, the Ramblers head into another two-day blast of music and fun at the Canada Day Celebration, in Da-An Park, and then the American Fourth of July Celebration, at the American Club.

Celebrating patriotism is always dangerous because patriotism breeds that "us and them" feeling. However, with that cool peace feeling that the Ramblers got from last weekend, we can try to bring out the best of patriotism: a sense of pride in who you are, where you came from, and what drives your gears to make the world a better place.

It's all good fun...

2006-06-21T13:21:00.000+08:00

Mud Bloods, each and every one

Last year at this time, we were fully engaged in the Mud and Water Tour of Taipei’s live houses. This year, we are keeping busy with outdoor events.

This last weekend we took part in a combined birthday party for Athula and Dave. Dave only mentioned it was his birthday once we were at the party. Athula, on the other hand, has been talking up this party for over a month. I believe that most of the people at Chris’s place were Athula’s customers/friends from the ‘Tan, the way he wanted.

Athula catered the event with his delicious Sri Lankan food: two varieties of rice, chick peas, several meat curry dishes, a potato curry. Even Slim had two plates. That is saying something. I was fortunate to have another plate of food the next evening at the Sandcastle. S and J took a bunch of the chicken curry and rice home from the party at Athula’s urging.

The weather cooperated, at least in the sense that it didn’t rain. It was warm and humid, but that is a given when it should rain but doesn’t. Some people told me the atmosphere on the balcony was so close that they had to go to the bridge in order to breathe some fresh air. I was sporting the oh-so-fashionable dish towel around my neck so I could wipe my sweaty face

There were lots of great people there. I especially enjoyed talking with one Bi-tan gent about his past life working for the Canadian forestry department, his thoughts on forest maintenance, and the sorry state of low-land forests in Taiwan. Interestingly, his adult son is also in Taiwan, teaching English in I-lan, I believe. Two-generation ex-pat families are the next big thing.

This coming weekend, we are performing at two separate events. The first, on Saturday, June 24, is the IF Festival at Hua-shan. Sunday the 25th, we’ll be at Hoping for Hoping in Lungtan at the Kun-lun Herb Garden. We’re on during the heat of the afternoon. I think we’ll be trading in our blues-suits for something more relaxed, probably tropical wear.

The next weekend, we’ll be playing July 1 at Da-An Park in celebration of Canada Day and then at the American Club for the Am Cham 4th of July celebration on July 2.

2006-06-09T15:41:00.000+08:00

And when it pours...

Hoping for Hoping has been postponed due to the heavy rain that has been pounding northern Taiwan. The new dates are June 23 to June 25. I believe we'll be performing on Sunday the 25th.

On the 24th, we'll be at Huashan in Taipei. I haven't got the name of the event we're performing at, but it was sold to us as a wedding celebration for two of Slim's former colleagues. Judging from the proposal that we were shown, it will be quite a shindig. More on that later.

2006-06-06T11:48:00.000+08:00

When it rains, it pours.

I mean this in the best possible sense. As mentioned previously, this weekend is Hoping for Hoping. We play Saturday afternoon, June 10. That’s the “rain.” It’s a gig. Gigs are good. Two gigs at the same time is when it “pours.”

On Saturday, June 10, the San Francisco Guitar Quartet is performing two shows at Taipei’s National Theater. This is the group’s first international tour; last year’s performances in Guam don’t count as international for these Americanos.

According to the band’s website, they play music from “traditions including classical, world and ethnic traditions, and improvisation.” Tickets are available from www.ticket.com.tw

My connection to this band is that Christoper Hanford, one of the founding members, was my high school classmate back in California. He and I got together yesterday evening to reminisce about the old days and catch each other up with what we’ve been doing in the intervening 23 years.

2006-06-05T00:08:00.000+08:00

Greetings from Dobrofest in Trnava, Slovakia...first moment i've had all week to get to an internet cafe. Been a fun week, as you might imagine. Where do I start? unseasonably cold weather (think rainy day during Chinese new year in taipei) I've heard a lot of good music, been jamming a lot, meeting and playing with great musicians from all over the world, mostly the US and Europe. Bluegrass has an enormous following in the region, more than half the bands at the fest have either come from Slovakia or Czech republic. Also a few great groups that are not bluegrass or blues...Lots of singing of the semi-offical "Dobro" anthem (dobro...dobro!!...DOBRO...DOBRO!!!) and drinking a local gin-type licqor called bobrovinca (sp?) affectionally renamed "dobrovinca!" Makes a hell of a martini.

Taken lots of pictures, you can expect a fuller report with video and photos when I get back to taipei -- I gave two performances -- one at a house-turned-museum that Beethoven used to visit in the countryside. Apparently he would visit there because he was sweet on some Count's niece. Another performance on the main stage, which went all right. I also had the pleasure of playing for representatives from Taiwan's official representative office in slovakia, whom Peter invited to attend the festival.

And Peter "Bonzo" Radyvani is as crazy as ever -- and did a great job in organizing this festival, now in its 15th year. at in on a few songs for his set last night, which turned into a late night/early morning jam.

Heading back to Taipei tomorrow night after a day in Vienna. See you soon.

2006-05-30T18:40:00.000+08:00

Chuffed Squirrel ...

As wet as the weather is now, you might not believe that the Muddy Basin Ramblers are planning to keep busy over the next month performing at outdoor music festivals. To get the season started, we turned a rain-cancelled hiking trip into an excuse to get together in the Hsintian hinterlands and do some improvisational jamming.

Probably we had all thought it would have been more like a Muddy Basin practice, but it turned into an evening more similar to the Big Drum sessions of old. We were on the porch, just winding the weekend down to its natural conclusion, passing the instruments around.

“Open the Gate!” Mother was licking the floor, a squirrel (NSFW) was hanging upside-down rocking to the brass, and the neighboring dog was answering the trombone. On the bed, under the canopy, the doctor inserted needles, but no water flowed. Just the rain, always the rain.

The smell of travel was in the air. Fingers was in town, on his way from South Central to South China. And Dave was packed and ready to roll off to the DobroFest in Trnava, Slovakia.

Trnava’s bluesiest booster, Bonzo, annually hosts a global gathering of guitar gypsies who celebrate the music of resonant guitars in the hometown of John Dopyera, the “Do” behind Dobro.

We met Bonzo when we shared the bill with him at the first BSOT Blues Bash in Taichung last spring. A few days later, we attended his show at the LR (hearing the same jokes) and then joined him on stage for a set, climaxing in a stirring rendition of G-L-O-R-I-A in front of a mystified audience.

That was then, and this is now. And right now, this very minute, the world’s best resonant guitar players, Dave included, are making their way toward a small town in Slovakia. Dave will perform from 12:50 to 1:20 P.M. on Saturday, June 3, on the main stage at the Museum’s Garden in Trnava.

... Fancy Goat

You have to seriously love the Blues to travel halfway around the world to perform for half an hour. According to the notes for the 2005 DobroFest, the informal jamming lasts late into the evening, so I don’t imagine those thirty minutes will be the extent of the guitar slinging for ol’ Dave.

Dave might even drop us a post if he’s able to leave the music long enough to spend a few minutes in a cyber café.

Keep the weekend of June 9-11 free. Hoping for Hoping is just around the corner. We’re on Saturday in the late afternoon.

2006-05-26T22:09:00.000+08:00

I was listening to Fleetwood Mac's "Tusk" today, and the marching band riffs reminded me of that part of my past. Also, I dreamt last night that I was wandering around my brother's old high school, Clear Lake High in Texas (home of the Falcons). I hadn't gone back in time, it was still present day, but I was just walking around the hallways and ended up outside as a tornado approached. "Do you think it's dangerous?" a sandy-haired student asked me.

"Are you kidding, look at those explosions!" I said, pointing at the blasts coming from the now towering school. It had only been one floor before. Then I woke up.

I started playing trumpet at 11, in sixth grade. I'd lost interest in both violin and piano after years of lessons, and I looked up to my older brother Kevin's exhalted status as a band member (he plays the flute). So when we went to Seabrook Intermediate School to the band room filled with tables and instruments, all seeming quite shiny and complicated -there were so many buttons and valves!- I picked the trumpet after falling in love with the sound and the versatility of the instrument (and the fact that it only had three buttons and didn't mind getting wet). My parents, wary of yet another loss of interest, took me to a pawn shop, where they rummaged around the back and fit together a patchwork cornet, with silver and gold pieces that clashed underneath thick tarnish. It would do, and did. I started playing in the marching band after we moved to Florida at Maitland Junior High School the next year. I picked the instrument up at an average rate, perhaps a bit faster than others, but my range and power were both abysmal. Still, I loved playing and saved up for a silver-plated Bach Stradivarius, the instrument I still play today. It had a beautiful tone and facilitated fast, complicated riffs and sonorous melodic soloes, but of course in marching season, none of that mattered. What mattered on the field was projection, mainly. "We got the beat" wasn't exactly Hummel.

It was fun hanging out with friends from band, and making interesting patterns on various football fields, even dancing about out there, but I didn't have enough pure volume to be effective on the field back when the law of the band was the higher you could play, the better you were. It was really just that simple. I recall in one practice session, for regular band and not even marching band, another trumpet player, disgruntled because he had a lower chair, interrupted me, yelling, "Just play a high C! Just try to play it!" to somehow prove his point that I shouldn't be talking about trumpet playing. It was indeed a rare day I could easily hit that note.

"Just play anything well!" I shot back, but his point was made. I could play many things better than anyone there, but for pure power and Chuck Mangione-type screaming high notes, I was complete crap. A friend of mine who many considered my arch-rival, Jim Engle, had me every time when it came to range, though I did learn to play loud when the music called for it. Sometimes, anyway. I nearly ruined Romeo and Juliet squeaking through a high loud bit, but for the big garbonzo closing of Samson and Delilah I was the loudest damn thing in the orchestra. Jim and I traded off on solos and seats; he was typically first chair for marching season, while I'd take over for concert season.

Back then, I was quite defensive about it and tried to compensate with a certain amount of arrogance about my playing. "Good luck next year, TC, and try not to be such a jerk about your trumpet" was an oft-repeated reminder in my yearbooks. Really adolescent, when I think about it now.

So I looked on in envy as Jim and other trumpeters marched up to the front of the stands during shows and play solos into the cheering crowds. I knew that I'd make first chair again after marching season for concerts and things, but it still seemed like a defeat.

When I was 13 I got braces, not the thin wire type, but the whole-tooth-encompassing type, which I thought was the end of my trumpet playing career. After building up enough caluses inside my upper lip, however, I found that I could still play reasonably well. When they came off four years later, not much changed. I could still play, just about as well as before.

In high school, wearing the thick black wool uniforms of the Winter Park Wildcats in the hot Florida weather didn't help my growing dissatisfaction with marching band. I did the usual low-chair marching season/high chair for concert season shuffle for a couple of years. In the end I dropped band completely my senior year, electing to play instead with the Florida Symphony Youth Orchestra. The school band conductor, Ken Williams, went to the symphony board to try to get me kicked out of the FSYO based on my reluctance to be in the school band, but he failed when my dad showed up at the meeting and challenged him to give a good reason why I couldn't play in the orchestra, except pure spite.

I continued to play in college, both at Washington & Lee and at Tunghai University. Both had orchestras, but neither had a marching band, much less a group as impressive as the marching band my brother ended up playing in , Texas A&M's world-famous Corps of Cadets. I'd pretty much plateaued, in any case. Further playing hadn't helped my range an iota. Once, at a gig in the Bahamas, I just ran out of steam and had to drop part of a mariachi solo down an octave, which was so embarrassing I got sympathy pats afterwards. I did, however, get my first taste of jazz and blues playing with my pal Boogie in a little jazz trio at a local sandwich shop, which was fun while it lasted.

The next marching experience I'd have would be in the army, and the only music involved there was singing army marching songs. I put the trumpet aside, and years passed. I didn't pick it up again until I got invited to play with the Muddy Basin Ramblers a couple of years ago.

Finally, I thought when I first sat in with the group, finally, I've found a place where I can play pretty much what I like for the crowd out there, Chuck Mangione be damned.

2006-05-24T01:26:00.000+08:00

"...we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth."

And so the Ramblers took the lift to the top of the 101, or as high up as they let us. It was only the 84th floor, but that was plenty high. (Check out this shot from Paogao's photos!)

Giddy and surreal are the best two words I can use to describe the whole thing. As we arrived at the top, thanks to those super fast lifts, we all noticed that all the climbers who had made the climb had wonderfully smug looks on their faces, which to be honest were well deserved because their efforts raised a bunch of cash for some really good causes. However, when reports came in that the climb could be made in thirty minutes or less, I felt a little bad that I didn't try to do it myself. So that made me want to try to play a little better, put a little more effort into being tight on the beat, and so on.

Unfortunately, due to the surreality of the height, the early hours, and the plentiful wine and Taiwan Beer (Thanks, Matthew Lien!), finding the perfect groove in the music was daunting. Not only that, but the Muddy Basin Ramblers had to face their worst nemesis--the inability to hear one another.

Hearing the whole picture was difficult. Dave set himself up on the right side of the stage close to Thumper, and this definitely helped tighten up the whole beat-tone kind of thing. But it was rough for me on stage left. I could hear it, but it was a half-step too late.

All in all, the whole shenanigan was a success. We moved around the stage while playing to create the best sound, and in the end, it worked well, and we are getting better and better at using those tricky condenser microphones. (Thanks go out to Dave for his ever increasing knowlege of microphone technology and technique!)

But the real reason it was so much fun was that lots of money became the lubricant to help things get better instead of becoming the root of evil. Plus, fun was had by all.

Thanks to everyone who does things like organizing these things to help the world become a better place. It makes it easy for lazy and confused folks (like me) to help out. The world thanks you.

Though we are scattered, we can find common ground, and a common groove, even at the top of super-tall structures.

2006-05-20T22:12:00.000+08:00

Trolling For The Blues

This is Trainreck, a two-piece blues band. That's K.M. Williams on guitar and Washboard Jackson on percussion. I stumbled across this video of them performing on YouTube. You've got to see Washboard Jackson play. He plays the washboard and kit at the same time: no sticks, just hands and feet.

Here's their myspace website with mp3s of some of their music.

And one more site they claim.

The picture is of them on "stage" at the Juke Joint Festival 2005 in Clarksdale, Mississippi.

They're going to be playing at the Frogg Blues Festival in Elmo, Texas in August. (I know that sounds a lot like "emo," but don't hold it against them, Slim.)

2006-05-20T03:08:00.000+08:00

"Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens,..."

And so, the Muddy Basin Ramblers are set to climb the Taipei 101, with or without the aid of electric lifts or elevators. This is one tall building. It's the tallest in the world for now, and I challange anyone to find another incident in history of a jug band, blues band, or "whatever we play" band playing on the top of the the tallest building in the world. God give us strength. Not only will we be towering over the world, we will be towering over the Muddy Basin, which we all hold so dear. It should be fun, and interesting as always.

This gig, at the true tip-top of Tiptown, Taiwan, will also be full of good people who have not used the lifts, but have taken the stairs for a good cause, the Garden of Hope, with thanks to the L’Association des Canadiens. (You've just gotta like the idea of helpin' the xiao pengyous have a good life.) So it will be even more fun.

Tomorrow is the soundcheck, so we shall see what the day brings.

2006-05-11T00:13:00.000+08:00

Adventures of a Jug Band

As many of those far-flung Ramblers followers may have noticed, the website has been renovated, and in the parlor, stories of the "adventures of a jug band" have been promised. Actually, stories of the Ramblers have been around for sometime.

In dark corners of the Internet, often through underground counter-revolutionary servers in the mainland, which can only be accessed by having counter-revolutionary software that is unavailable in most of the world, a lot of Muddy Basin Ramblers fan-fic can be found. I can't post the links here for two reasons. One, it would be counter-revolutionary and two, we are now involved in high-powered legal battles trying to get the rights to all of the stories. (That way, when our movie deal comes through, we won't have to worry about continuity problems that may arise in the sequels or prequels).

However, dear readers, I can provide a few snippets from some of them. But you should note, these are not official Muddy Basin Rambler products and they may not be safe for children or pets. Use at your own discretion:

"Peering over the tumbler of whiskey, Slim knew that he had to figure out where Thumper and Steamboat were, but the Captain hadn't called in for a long time, and the ice in the cooler was melting faster and faster...."

"Fog settled in as the Ramblers started to sing. Their voices only brought in more of that obscuring fog, but the harmonica cut clean, and the fog began to clear...."

"Dr. Huguley smiled as he listened to the recordings. It wasn't what he had expected, but it would do well enough for the plan at hand...."

"If you could have seen him, you would have thought he was sleeping or dead, but no one noticed him. No one could have. He had blended into the plush red sofa in the far corner of the room. Some may have seen the slight, sharp movement of the head--up maybe a centimeter, and then a glint in the eye as it looked out under the brim of the hat. In one movement, the trumpet case was open..."

"'We may look like gentleman [sic] but...'"

"Captain Dave looked around the stadium shaking his head. The lear jet had done much more damage than he had expected."

"The Sandman whipped out his sax. The beams of the laser sights lit up the floor around his feet with an eerie glow. He knew he needed to do something or a rain of teflon coated lead would fall on the stage...."

"With only ten minutes to go, the city was arriving too quickly. The Ramblers knew things were going way to fast. In one motion, they all started to chuck all of the instruments into the back of the bus. All the while, the interior of the vehicle began to shrink slowly...."

"The tap shoes were starting to heat up and the sparks began to fly. Then the roar of the washboard erupted forward and the Ramblers all stepped up...."

"The Basin filled up with joy and happiness...."

Well, that's all we can give you now, but keep your eyes open for more. The adventures are always just around the corner...when you're in the Muddy Basin!

2006-05-09T10:14:00.000+08:00

Spy Ware

This title has nothing to do with our last performance. Instead, it refers to the site tracker embedded in this page's html code. Besides indicating how many times the page has been loaded, it reveals information about where visitors are coming from, known as referring links, and also indicates a visitor's host ISP, location, time spent on the page, the type of browser used, and other technical information. I wasn't aware exactly what a site tracker program did when I installed it on the page; I just wanted to see some indication of how few people were actually visiting this site.

What has become the most interesting part about having this program on the page is that I can try to guess who is actually stopping by. I'll give you an example. Today, May 9, 2006, the page was loaded 6 times (so far) by someone in Omaha, Nebraska. This just happens to be Slim's hometown. I figure this is one of his friends. I've met several of them when they've visited Taipei.

Other visits have come from people conducting Google searches. I've mentioned these visitors before, in connection with my fixation on Shar-peis, and they keep coming. Sandy's post about Don Mo's ukuleles attracted a fair amount of attention when that post was more current, but recently Slim's article on whiskey jugs has been pulling in the hits also. Just today we recieved one visitor who performed a Google search on the phrase "how to play a whiskey jug." Most of our visitors are not visitors at all, but members of the MBRs. More than 90% of the site's visits are from fewer than ten ISPs located in Taiwan. No surprise there.

The surprising visitor of today is more mysterious. This visitor is reading this blog from an ISP (internet service provider) located in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. That in itself is not so unusual. Blogger has that "next blog" button up at the top right that takes visitors on a tour of random blogs. Visitors can and do come from all over, even central Asia. What is unusual is that this person has accessed the Muddy Basin Ramblers blog over two dozen times. I believe that makes you an honorary Rambler. If this is you, please drop us a comment and let us know who you are so we can send you your membership card and kazoo. For those of you who want to know the context to the photo at left, check this link.

I apologize to any of you who feel your privacy is being violated. It probably won't come as a surprise to most of you to know that your Interent activity is being monitored. If you want to sneak around on the Net, try something like this.

Edit:
The Onion for May 10 carries a picture of a (different) band and the following headline:

Local Band Attempts to Track Down

Mysterious Visitor To Its Website

2006-05-05T02:24:00.000+08:00

There are no bars on the windows!

Leave it to TC to spot the detail that ties the whole gig together. There were no bars. There were policemen just down the way, and they were protecting us, and the masters of reality, and their teen age children, from the commoners.

Question: Who were those people that cleaned up the tables, chairs, tents, empty bottles, and mosquito corpses? They were like fairies that flitted about, hauling heavy equipment, extinguishing the mega-barbecue, returning calm and order to the leafy suburban cul-de-sac. They looked like a bunch of middle-aged Chinese women, but that must have been a disguise.

How about the microphone that broadcast our catty asides? Every once in a while, when we realized what we were saying, and that the microphone was probably picking it up, we’d slyly look out at the assembled to see if they were reacting. But if they heard us, they never let on.

The music was spirited, and we were full of spirits. An open bar is a great way to celebrate the coming of evening. I remember Connor saying, “Play another fast one,” a couple of times during the second set. And we did, until we switched gears and gave them a little gospel with Ain’t Gonna Study the War No More, and then a little later, Taiwan Song, which seemed relevant, almost, to a leaving Taiwan party.

Technically, it was a pretty simple set up. We used one condenser microphone, and ran that into a combined amp/PA unit that they had handy. It was quite a tool. All of the mixing controls were one the back, and it included a CD player and tape recorder. A good toy to have, or at least play with.

We had a lot of room in which to work, and we were able to array ourselves around the microphone without much difficulty. TC mentioned that we didn’t mic his bass because it sounded loud enough in sound check, but I couldn’t hear it much myself. Conor played into his amp as normal and layered his sound on top.

Speaking of Conor, he busted out Red River, the song where he does a nice solo intro. We’ve given him a good-humored hard time about the length of the solo in the past, and he kept it pretty short this time. Too bad. It’s a ripping tune. I think he just wanted to get the big band sound underneath his harp again.

Jump forward to the end of the night, after the jam in the house (what was his name?), the brass section and violinist headed off in a taxi, and the rest of us were ferried out to the main road in a car.

Not quite ready to head down the mountain, we grabbed further liquids and retired to a nearby street for our post-gig debriefing. I remember getting pretty comfy on Slim’s beer-logo groundcover.

Eventually, we got a taxi, after I vainly tried to flag down numerous private vehicles. Taxis are not easy to come by on Yangmingshan at 3 A.M. on a Sunday morning.

We jammed into the first taxi that came along, agreed to pay a NT$100 surcharge, and started down the mountain. We switched to a more comfortable ride near the old Shi-lin night market, and sped into Taipei by way of the Chien-kuo Expressway. Conor and Dave got out at Hsin-hai and Roosevelt and caught their third taxi of the night. Will, I let out at a Yoshinoya in Hsintian somewhere, and I took the taxi all the way to my hilltop. Now I know that my house is just a one hour, NT$700 taxi ride away from Yangmingshan.

2006-04-25T10:30:00.000+08:00

Dream Community Show

As always, I had fun playing, and our set culminated with one of the band's favorite numbers, Nagasaki, with Tim, Will, and Sandy bustin' moves downstage with the crowd. It was a great having Wayne there to help out with our live sound -- it took a lot of stress off the band as far as set-up was concerned, since we were using two large condenser mics for our sound, which can be tricky, especially in larger outdoor spaces. But I think we pulled it off all right -- after the soundcheck earlier in the afternoon, one of the soundcrew told Wayne, "This is how all bands should do it!" With Wayne, it was nice to have a "third" ear as well, a different/critical perspective to keep us honest.

According to the organizers, a good number of people there had never heard of us and were asking a lot of questions. People also asked if we had a CD out -- we're working on that one (see the post below).

Also, saw plenty of familiar faces, lots of Taipei friends, and also Ian from Hsinchu, and another very nice guy also from Hsinchu who saw us at Janis R's Earth Day jam last year. The nice guy (sorry I forgot your name) apologized to me because at the Earth Day show, he went up to my mom (who was visiting Taiwan and watching me perform for the first time ever) and said to her in a drunken glee, "your son's band FUCKIN rocks!", or something to that effect. He seemed a bit sheepish recounting the story to me on Saturday. So, to my Hsinchu friend -- it's all right, dude. It's pretty hard to rile up my mom -- I think she had a fun time at that show. (And thanks for the compliment!)

It was a great day with performances from the artists-in-residence -- three multi-talented circus performers who were just amazing and Gary the samba teacher from San Franscisco, and his students.

The Anglers and the Soundclashes both put on great shows -- the Anglers laid down nice, soothing reggae grooves and the Soundclashes were just the right kind of frantic. Fireflower played before us, and I'm sorry to say that we missed a lot of their set because we were getting ready, but later in the evening, I took part in a great jam with Fireflower's lead singer/guitarist Douglas, Zoe, a banjo player named Charlie, Wesley from the S-clashes and Conor, who was as ebullient as ever. I had completely lost track of time by then.

Thanks to Dory, Yingqi (Inchi), Gordon Tsai and the Dream Community for a nice party.

2006-04-24T17:14:00.000+08:00

Recording the Muddy Basin

After almost 4 years and plenty of material in our repetoire, I feel we're ready to put out a CD/album.

I started researching in earnest a few months back about our options for recording -- the obvious, traditional studio route isn't attractive -- there's the pressure of time and cost, and the idea of a padded, airtight room and ultra-clean production techniques doesn't appeal to me, at least for the MBRs.

To me, the essence of our sound is a down-home jam. Be it at my small but cozy apartment on Xinhai Road, the Sandcastle, outdoors in the hills, by the Bitan River, or at an athletic field at a certain university-- our music is made best when we're simply hanging out, relaxed, among friends, and engaging in lots of silly and hilarious banter.

From a technical standpoint, we're not the easiest band in the world to amplify on stage or in the studio, since we use instruments with a wide variety of dynamic ranges (everything from loud brass to the quiet ukulele), and we change instruments for different songs. And, physical presence is an important element-- we're used to hearing each other and playing in a circle, either standing up or sitting down.

What we're aiming for is an 'ambient' recording that balances our overall sound with the right amount of detail.

So, instead of micing each instrument, I decided that we should try some of the standard techniques for recording classical music, which is commonly referred to as stereo recording. Many classical recordings are recorded with a matched stereo pair of microphones that capture the overall sound in a concert hall. With this set-up, ideally, the listener hears what the audience hears with the instruments arranged spatially in a stereo spread..

This approach makes it both easier and more difficult -- easier in the sense that you may have just one pair or several pairs of mics to set up. The hard part is tweaking the position of the mics and musicians so you have a balance of the right "spatial" feel and the right amount of detail. This is where a lot of discussion, debate, and technical theories starts among recording engineers, musicians, etc.

This technique and a portable recording rig (see below) also allows us to record in some ununusal spots -- we've scoped out a few outdoor spaces near Sandy and TC's, and there's a nice wooden pavilion on the Xianji Hiking Trail that I've always wanted to try out as an acoustic space.

So the goal for now is, at the end, for listeners to "hear" the fun we have playing jug band music and feel like they're sitting there with us...

Recording -- Technical stuff

Been reading a lot, filling my head till I'm dizzy with information. For recording techniques, there's a lot on the internet, but I've learned the most by reading articles on stereo microphone and recording techniques by Bruce Bartlett. On the microphone front, we've been using two Rode NT1As, which we often use for stage performances. I've built up a small microphone collection, which includes a pair of Electrovoice 635a mics, commonly used by television reporters in the field with a "nice radio announcer type" sound, which you can hear at this site on broadcast mics; a stereo pair of superlux small diaphragm condensers (living in Taiwan, gotta use something relatively local!); and a cheap ribbon microphone made in China by Apex, which has a nice sound and will be interesting to experiment with.

We're recording to hard disk using an 867mhz 12" Powerbook G4 (which I bought from TC) and a MOTU Traveler firewire interface. So far it's proven to be stable and relatively easy to use. I chose the MOTU Traveler for its portability and solid functionality -- we want to do some recording in outdoor spaces (in the wilderness and perhaps an abandoned temple), and the fact that it was designed for use in the field with a portable battery makes it very appealing. It also has 4 high-quality mic preamps and plenty of inputs which gives us some flexibility. We're using MOTU's bundled software, Audiodesk, a run-of-the-mill DAW more than sufficient for our purposes. To power the MOTU unit and firewire hard drive, I bought a 12v battery used for photography lighting -- it fits in a small shoulder bag and weighs about 4 pounds. I'm looking forward to testing this out.

While I've written about the technical side, it's just one half of the story. We have a bit of work to do musically as far cleaning up and improving our arrangements, but taking on the challenges ahead will also be rewarding and fun.

2006-04-20T00:51:00.000+08:00

Global Rhythm Festival 2006

This Saturday, April 22

Here's a map, courtesy of FearsomOrange on Forumosa.

And directions for taking the bus.

Take the MRT to KunYang, then hop the blue 817 or 36 and tell them you want to get off at Hu Qian Jie. Then walk a quick half a block to the community. There is a pay parking lot there if you're driving.

The Muddy Basin Ramblers will be on at approximately 5:45 PM.

2006-04-17T21:59:00.000+08:00

When will my Chinese shar-pei lose his first set of teeth?

I can't believe the search items that people feed into google. Even more surprising is that this blog would be listed as a site where you might learn the answer to the question.

The Ramblers had a productive practice at the Sand Castle this last Saturday. I think I remember Dave saying we had sixteen songs recorded on his amazing portable recording rig.

At the back of the studio (S and J's living room), Dave placed a couple of condensor microphones on stands about six feet high. In the middle, he had two "broadcast journalist" microphones--you know, the kind roving reporters stick in the face of some World Bank witchdoctor for a soundbite, but without the fuzzy cap on the end.

The cables from these four microphones, including one we had Zoe pick up on her way down to Bitan, ran into some type of mixer/pre-amp device, and then by firewire into his Apple laptop. If Dave feels like it, maybe he could post one day on what sort of hardware he is working with.

I listened to one song while everyone else was practicing the next song we recorded. The sound was lush, unlike any recording of ours that I have heard in the past. I'm eager to hear what the rest of the night sounded like, and if you are to, check out the basement. If it seems a bit dark, scroll down to find an archive of Muddy Basin Ramblers mp3s.

The talk between songs at the Sand Castle this weekend was varied. Here's a sampling of topics I remember:

the rearranged furniture: more like an antique store
the need for coasters: you put a ring on it, you buy it
where to stand for optimum sound: by the antique cabinet (U break, U buy)
our upcoming gig: in Hsichi, at the Dream Community
whether we'd be playing at the top of 101: we'd like to
how much Sandy reminded me of Freddy Mercury: a lot (I think it was the lean torso and muscle shirt)
what color TC's new recumbent bike would be: red
how cold my feet got while I was standing in stocking feet by the door: very cold, till Sandy sacrificed his own luxury sandals (yeah, Freddy)
who would go to Chris's for late night pasta: everybody but me and Dave?
how much our singing on one song sounded like a rope that was fraying at the end: not that much, but it was an interesting image
how patient the orange tabby was: very, until Sandy tormented it past normal bounds and it turned into a spitting, hissing feline terror
the advantages of being a house band: undecided (What place is cool enough for us to want to play there every month?)

If you're a careful reader, you noticed #4. We're playing this Saturday at the Global Rhythm Fest 2006 at the Dream Community in Hsichi. Ther doesn't seem to be much on that website that has anything to do with this weekend's activity, but I came across this on Forumosa that explains what to expect. I don't know if any of us have been there before, Zoe?, but I reckon we'll find it just the same on Saturday.

As for #5, wouldn't that be fine? I don't know how likely it is, but we are pretty tight with the organizers of the Taipei 101 Climbathon, so I suppose we have a chance. If it comes off, we might be able to claim a record of sorts: the only jug band to have played at the top of the tallest building in the world. I heard on the radio this morning that Jacques and Rick Monday have already climbed it a couple of times in the last week. Rick credited his stairmaster sessions at the local gym to his fine form; I'm not sure to what Jacques ascribes his stamina, probably clean living.

If you haven't seen the video I mentioned in a previous post, here it is. The climb is on May 21st. (Why do I think I have to work that day?) Uh oh.

2006-04-12T10:29:00.000+08:00

London Calling

Check out this article from the Daily Mail:
"A mobile phone salesman was hauled off a plane and questioned for three hours as a terror suspect - because he listened to songs by The Clash and Led Zeppelin."

We used to cover "jimmy jazz" in the early days of the MBR -- maybe we should bring it back!

2006-04-05T21:27:00.000+08:00

105 Now, 106 Now

The Ramblers gave an unusual performance this past Sunday afternoon.

We found ourselves on the pedestrian overpass at Keelung and Xinyi Roads to film a segment for a promotional video to publicize a charity event sponsored by the Canadian Society in Taiwan.

Dressed in Rambling Wear, we played, posed, and perambulated for the thousands of vehicles passing through this busy eastern Taipei interchange.

Above us soared Taipei 101 in all of its "dildo-like concrete ribbed" glory.

The day started in a local eatery, where a rugby match sparred with the Australian Grand Prix, whilst the sound of silverware scraping buffet plates added to the din. Toastmaster/Bandleader DC and Director Robyn treated the Ramblers to a proper pub brunch prior to our debut on the street.

TC, apparently feeling that only two cameras were not enough, was shadowed by a camera team from Taiwan’s public television station on a mission to document what mischief “typical” foreign residents of Taipei get up to on Sunday.

2006-03-20T22:35:00.000+08:00

Saturday Night French Fry

After several years of playing, it’s hard to remember all of the shows clearly. Hell, it’s sometimes hard to remember the last night’s show. For me, the outdoor shows are my favorite, and it’s when we do it for ourselves that it is the most meaningful. I admit, getting on stage in front of a big crowd is cool, but jamming on a patio under the trees and the stars surrounded by friends new and old is the best. No worries about microphones (except for Conor, whose got a great mobile sound rig) or PAs, upstairs neighbors, or how many friends we can invite to see us play.

The music was great, I think, and I had a blast. Any disagreement from the rest of you? Sandy wasn’t in good health and didn’t have much energy, but he still blew fine brass. We stood in a circle like we do when we practice and the sound environment was great for me. Hearing everyone naturally and directly is the best way to craft a whole sound. It was fun singing without microphones. I found it easier to listen to the sound inside my head and modulate it more precisely. True, not everyone there heard our singing as clearly as they would if we were in a pub, but I think the product was quality. Such pride, eh? I’m just trying to work on singing while keeping the rhythm going.

TC’s got a description of the party where we performed, and you should definitely check that out if you haven’t already. I’ll just say that I’m glad he didn’t tell us that Mathew Lien might show up. The tension of waiting for him to arrive would have been too much. I can’t say that I’ve ever met Lien Xiansheng, but I have a copy of the first CD of his that was released here. A Taiwanese friend, who got me back into playing percussion, by the way, gave me a copy of Lien’s album. I can appreciate all music, but I have to say it wasn’t something that grabbed a hold of me. To each his own. What is more interesting about Mathew is how he ended up being a pop star in Taiwan. (Apparently he doesn't like tellin that story all the time. I seem to remember someone at a music industry conference mistook his family name for Chinese, and the rest, as they say, is history.)

I was waiting for Will in the Taipei Main MRT station last week and realized that I was standing next to a giant poster of M. Lien advertising Taiwan Beer. I moved so that I was standing right next to it, and tried to pay attention to see whether any passers-by did a double take – Me and M. Lien do bearing a passing resemblance. He, of course, is known for his wolf chic. I, if I say so myself, and more of a Shar-pei shui ge. Dogs one and all.

Oh yeah. Or P.S. We were not the only act at the party, as TC mentions, Jason, formerly of the Incriminators duo performed as well as our good friends the Saltwater Crocs, or what is left of them. Josh and Brent came down after their time in the studio (a.k.a. Brent’s office/den). They’ve been busy on a project to record some of their original songs from the Salpwalper Crocs (inside joke) era. They graced us all with three numbers from their repertoire. Josh’s Fat Girls testimonial/tribute caught the place on fire, Bob Dylan’s something or another stoked the blaze, and then Brent’s Mesopotamia burned the place to the ground. I heard two girls raving about the beat singer and bitching song. According to one correspondent on the suspension bridge during Mesopotamia, the 30 backup singers on the chorus made one hell of a racket. I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that Rodney the baby father, drummer for the Crocs, had enjoyed the show from his balcony just across the river.

It looks like I may be building a new instrument. Someone turned me on to a new instrument – the rhythmstick. It was apparently invented by Dizzy Gillespie. I’ll do some research and see how the fun/work ratio looks.

No information on upcoming shows. There are some dates and venues being talked about, but nothing we can say with any certainty. For the Ramblers, it’s back to the woodshed.

2006-03-06T16:01:00.000+08:00

The show at Witches was a whiz-bang.

We started early and finished early. I think the Ramblers had all cleared out by the time the police showed up after 11 sometime. I know most of us were already across the way in the bleachers when the black-and-white finally made an appearance. In my opinion, one of the best things about playing at Witches is that it is just across the street from a great place to hold a discrete after-concert party.

We played to a smaller crowd than we had in a long time. The only audience with fewer members was at the Chung Li-he museum in Meinung last December. One advantage of the smaller turnout was that we had room to move, and the audience had free access to the bar and WCs. Happily, Slim also had lots of floor on which to tippy-tappy. Toward the end of the show, when we unleashed an unholy Work Song, we made good use of the floor by giving in to the energy of the moment and dancing around maniacally.

In contrast to many of our recent shows, this time around Dave had us use the two condensor microphones. Setting up dynamic mics for each of the musicians and their instruments is a headache that does not always result in a better sound. So, like we do when we rehearse at the Sand Castle, we arrayed ourselves around the two microphones and tried to affect the mix of sounds by stepping towards or away from them. I think it worked pretty well, although we don't really have the chance to sample the audience's sound while we're playing. Our soundman for the evening was Wayne, an old friend from a one off show that I collaborated on several years ago. I didn't recognize him at first. I thought it was the haircut, but then he told me that he was married and had a one-year-old son. That can definitely change a man. So can trying to mix the sound for the Ramblers, and he did an excellent job.

Speaking of microphones, here is a link to a site that features an interesting collection of old mics. We've been hearing Dave talk about ribbon mics for some time now, and this site gives some fairly simple yet informative descriptions of some of the older microphone technologies. If you want to know a lot more about mics, check out his link.

Aside from working with Wayne again, another old school feature of this last show was the presence of an old friend currently living in Hong Kong. He was one of our earliest, most vocal fans, and it was great to have him in the audience again. He danced throughout the entire show and made his appreciation heard loud and clear.

As I said, after the show we adjourned to the bleachers for more merriment. Under the crescent moon we continued jamming until quite late, passing around instruments, kicking a soccer ball, and toasting our good fortune to be spending the evening together. We also made the acquaintance of a fan of ours, whom none of us remember ever having seen at an earlier gig. She hung out with TC, me, Slim and another friend until almost 5:30 in the morning.

For me, the evening ended not as I would have chosen. While running an early morning 50-meter dash on the rubber track, I strained/tore a muscle in my calf and effectively hobbled myself for the next week or so. My regret is that I did not have myself timed, because I think I may have set a record for a 40-year-old percussionist running the 50-meter dash barefoot.

2006-03-04T01:13:00.000+08:00

Comings and Goings
of a K-9 Persuasion

Wild Dogs at Hua Shan

Last week the Muddy Basin Ramblers played at a music festival at Hua-shan. If you want to read an interesting account of what went down, check out TC's journal over at Planet Poagao. I'm glad I got around to reading his report before I finished the one I was working on. He always does a great job with concert recaps. I prefer to spend hours looking at dog images on google.

Publicity Hounds

We're in the Post this weekend again thanks to Carmen. He certainly gives us a lot of press, all of it glowing. The Post doesn't post his article on their website, and I can't be bothered to scan it in, but it is worth reading, for the humor. This time we are a ten-piece band, and Zoe plays something between a fiddle and violin. The article he wrote about us two weeks ago included his coincidental meeting with us at Athula's roti stand in Bitan the week before the show.

Bitan Strays

In fact, I was at Athula's this evening and he was complaining about the cold weather. He said he took five days off recently because there were no customers down at the bridge. He reminded me that there is a roof-top party at a friend's house in Bitan next weekend. The last time we partied there, we did a rag-tag MBR mini show. I think a similar show may be planned for next weekend's party. Athula said he probably wouldn't come, especially if the weather is nice; he needs to make some money. I bet that he will come later, if the party is still going on, but he won't bring another 5 liter bottle of Famous Grouse.

Poker Wolf (in sheeps clothing)

Speaking of betting, I talked to Jacques at the Hua-shan show, and he was all about on-line hold'em poker. You must have heard about the poker fad that is sweeping the world. I took a look at one on-line hold'em site and created a free account there to gamble with play money. It takes strategy, luck, unpredicability, and time to win more than a few hands. During play, some of the players type short text messages to the others at the table. "nh" means "nice hand." "wp" is "well-played.

I don't chat to the other players. I don't want them to be able to predict what I will do. In fact, I always choose the old woman character at the table (there are ten different characters to choose from). She looks so sweet, with her hair in a bun, and clutching her purse. She is the perfect counter point to my style of play. Lots of bluff, timely folds, and pretending to have nothing until the others feel safe enough to bet that their weak hands might take the pot, and then getting the pot really high, just in case it's going to me.

I'm reminded of the old Kenny Rogers song. "You've got to know when to hold them, know when to fold'em, know when to walk away, know when to run, you never count your chips, when you're sitting at the table, they'll be time enough for counting, when the dealing's done." It's frightening that I know so much of that song. Even worse is that I know most of the words to Barry Manilow's Copacabana. "His name was Rico..."

Witches Wiener Dog

The Muddy Basin Mind Circus is going to be at Witches Pub tomorrow evening from 9 to 11. Come early to get a good seat. Be ready to have your ID to show to the boys in blue when they show up at 11.

2006-02-17T23:13:00.000+08:00

Harmonica - A shaggy dog story

In keeping with my standing as one of the more punctual members of MBR, and the only Rambler not to have written anything for the blog, I thought I should claim some space for the harmonica before we get blogged down with all sorts of other blues & MBR related ramblings.

I'm not sure how much of an introduction is needed though. The harmonica is a pretty well known musical instrument. Incredibly well known actually. Perhaps the most widely known musical instrument of all. So maybe some inconsequential, incoherent cock & bull Walter Shandy type of ramble would do. The harmonica doesn't need much of an introduction, certainly not as much as the jug or the washboard or the tub, which escaped a life of certain drudgery in miraculous ways.

Harmonica - most people have tried one. Kids can play them. Most homes have one. You don't even have to buy them cause there's always one around, like umbrellas in Tom Waits songs. Usually kicking around forgotten parts of the house, and usually a tremolo, old, rusty and full of unspeakable gunk, in the key of C and belonging to no one. Or a forgotten relative. Harmonicas are often abandoned, like Christmas puppies. Or people have them because they were given them. They get passed around a lot. They're as cheap as chips and last for ages. No musical instrument gets around like a harmonica, none as well traveled. Across borders and class lines. Hoboing in pockets of bums, sailors' haversacks, tuxedos of orchestral musicians. An orchestra could tune to the pitch of a harmonica borrowed from a chain gang of singing slaves. Not something you're likely to see though. And they're easy to play, relatively. So since they're so well known already I'll keep this ramble as short as possible.

It all begins way back in 1452, when the Chinese discovered America. Some of the more interesting sailors carried a type of open reed instrument called a ger tsui she wang ni, which had 1,002 reeds and an ingenious device for.... . . but to cut a long story short, had evolved into one I picked up in 1982 or something. I was 12 and into ska. A band called Madness had a hit called Baggy Trousers and there was this harp solo in it that I really wanted to play. Don't know why, I was really into sax at the time, staring longingly at them through music store windows . . . but my parents weren't buying it, so to speak. So, as there was a rusty old tremolo harp, key of C, kicking around the house, full of unmentionable gunk, I picked it up and tried it and, hey presto, got nowhere. Whatsoever. I knew nothing about harmonicas and had no idea a different model like a diatonic might help, or a different key. Tremolos are hard to play. I was just left with a bad taste (of rust) in my mouth and don't think I picked up a harmonica again till I was 20 or something when I needed a way into this weird & wonderful music I had just stumbled across called blues. I'd been tapping out blues solos on my teeth with a pencil, and couldn't be satisfied.

This time around I had a better idea where to go, and using the right kind of harp listened to the masters and tried to copy them. Most of the great early harmonica players were never widely known I suppose, let alone recorded, but among those with names and legacies I listened to Sonny Terry, the original Sonny Boy Williamson, the other original Sonny Boy Williamson, a great blues poet & composer, but mostly I listened to everybody that ever played with Muddy Waters after he went forth to the north and plugged in. Plus loads of others I can't even name like Juke Boy Bonner and Jimmy Reed.

Live blues bands were an inspiration too. Luckily there were good ones playing around Leeds inn the north of England where I was a student, often with a harp player. I was amazed at the intensity and earthiness of the sound they could get from this thing that only squeaked in my hands, and these perverse bends that trembled on the edge of the wrong note, half right note, half wrong note. And they were belted out forthrightly in sudden bursts. You can't even see the instrument that's making the sound. It's hidden behind an air-tight seal of clasped hands, a hat, goatee and shades. An arcane little gadget full of thunder.

Brits make pretty good harp players, like the Japanese. It's something to do with being a small island nation off the coast of a vast continental landmass full of marauding barbarians. When you think about it, they're at either edge of the planet's biggest landmass. Anyway, there's a strong link with that blues thread that courses around the world and passes through the most unlikely places. I spent a lot of time listening to blues at university, and drinking whisky. The two proved inseparable.

Fellow sot Andy Lee, hailing from what is officially the grimmest place in the UK, Holyhead, a place I have passed through many times on my way to Ireland, and I can vouch for it it's a good place to pass through, was wound up in the same golden thread of whiskey & blues. We'd catch most blues happenings in and around Leeds.

Muddy: "All the boys in my band is bad"

Amplified harp in the Chicago style from the 50s on is probably what I've listened to most. That means Little Walter and variations on his style. He defined the Muddy Waters harp sound. It was so ingrained that players that came after Little Walter had to play the same riffs and sometimes the same solos he had played. Junior Wells, Big Walter Horton, George Smith, a great tone player, James Cotton, Mojo Buford, Carey Bell, Jerry Portnoy. The greatest player? Little Walter. He was the most revolutionary, innovative and influential. He also has the best quote. When asked what he did when he played, he said "I fill the harmonica with air, and navigate".

Big Walter comes a close second for sheer musicianship. Strange coincidence with the names when you think about it. A pulsing thread runs through it. The bigger of the Walters was the master, bar none, of tone.

Other great players I borrow from include Paul Lamb, Paul Butterfield, RickEstrin (Little Charlie & the Nightcats), Paul Oscher, Sugar Blue, Little George Sureuf (Big Joe Louis & His Blueskings), Kim Wilson (Fabulous Thunderbirds), Phil Wiggins, Annie Raines, Magic Dick, all and sundry.

So onward into history. Jug band music. I'd never heard any till Dave Chen had built up our humble ensemble into what it is today, or what it'll be tomorrow. Whatever that may be I don't think anybody's sure or want to be sure. That's the attraction of the MBR. Anyway jug band is the best description. It's a brand new sound from the early 1900s. The same goes for the band itself. There's more than a hint we're playing music we're not old hands at, that it's fairly new to us and we're learning as we go along. That's another attraction of the MBR. We're in the same boat as the audience, playing what the hell kind of music we're not always sure either. We're just up there having a banging good time. But sometimes it feels like we're grappling, trying to resuscitate some thing that has gone over to the other side a long time ago and wouldn't mind staying there - just two miles from Glory.

So onward deep into the old country from the bright lights of the cities up north. The playing style of the jug band harpists, stretching back to before the twentieth century even started, is a lesson in sophistication and sheer, outlandish virtuosity. It's shocking to hear them at first. For a style of music that's been said to be the birth of the blues the harmonica style of the jug bands is off the wall. They play in an unfamiliar position - straight, first position - so they use the same key harp as the band is playing in. You've got nowhere to hide in this position. You're exposed in the high end of the instrument, a place best avoided as most harmonica players will tell you, especially when you a city boy and been cultivating a gritty, distorted low end sound. But these jug band guys are at home up there, and they play these fluid, sinewy single note runs in the highest register possible. Cross position (second position, Chicago style) was definitely known then but you wouldn't have been heard at a medicine show or whatever without amplification. Cross relies on amps to boost the lower and mid range and all the tension that can be gotten in bending. Jug band harp is rawer - wailing siren, howling beast and piercing bend. Tempered with vibrato and intricate major key runs to bring us all back down to earth. It's uncanny stuff. Some of it just sounds implausible.

Next installment - an account of my brief visit to Tutwiler, Mississippi, burial place of Sonny Boy Williamson II and nearly my own burial place as it turned out, and also the place where the blues was 'discovered' by WC Handy in 1903, a blogworthy debate in itself - will be another punctual submission at some unspecified later date.

Wrap up with a couple of nice quotes from DeFord Bailey (1899-1982) and a link to this master's voice.

"I add time to vacant space"

"I worked on that train for years, getting that train down right. I caught that train down just like I wanted in a matter of time. I got the engine part. Then I had to make the whistle. It was about, I expect, seventeen years to get that whistle. It takes time to get this stuff I'm talking about, original. You don't get any original stuff like this in a day or two. It takes years to get it down piece by piece."

Listen to DeFord Bailey

2006-02-09T14:49:00.000+08:00

Whistle up the Blues

If you've been jonesing for some jug band music, we've got just what the doctor ordered.

Dave discovered a great video of a vintage jug band on the Internet. And, no, it's not Duke Ellington, but you will note the awesome top hat.

Never fear. We've got a gig coming up next week at Hua Shan.

2006-01-23T21:32:00.000+08:00

Make yourself at home

We all imagine it would be difficult to run a club in Taipei. The police and gangsters all want their cut, the neighbors are complaining, and the ventilator system isn't cleaning the smoke out of the air.

If you want to know how bad it really is, you've got to read this post from another Taipei blog.

And if you can find meaning in that story, perhaps this one will strike your fancy as well.

Give me an outdoor venue, where people can dress they way they want and bring their dogs along to the show.

2006-01-14T02:41:00.000+08:00

And now for something completely different

I wanted to add this strange story, but it didn't seem to fit in with the other posting, as wide ranging as it turned to out to be.

At the Sacramento Internation Airport (Mexico and Canada are the only foreign destinations served) I ran into a fighting cock handler. Before you get the wrong idea, he does not work in the adult enteratainment industry. He holds fighting chickens, before they go to their death in the ring. He was quite proud of his accomplishments, and happened to be chatting up a Guamanian woman when I started paying attention to him in line at the gate. It turns out her recently deceased husband, leaving her a widow with two young children, had been an inveterate cockfighting gambler, who apparently never worked a day in life. Mr. Cock Handler goes on about the glamorous world of cockfighting and hobnobbing with important people in the cock pits of the developing world while we wait for our Alaskan Airways flight to Seattle. It turns out Cock guy is attending a lavish wedding reception in Seattle that is being held by an important Philipino family. I asked where the wedding was being held, and whether there would be cock fighting.

Is this pushing the bounds of a blog about a band?

I might remind you of the importance of the chicken to the blues.