I love playing music. It’s right up there with making love and dancing. Sometimes I think if all goes to hell in a hand basket and I have to sit on a street corner with my squeeze to make money, I’d do it. And I’d be in very good company 
Check out these stellar musicians on a cold street corner in the Hague. Spectacular playing.
Two of our tunes, “Pica Pica Polka” and “Musical Priest S” have been nominated in the Just Plain Folks Music Awards 2009.
Only 1/3 of 1% of the 560,000 submitted songs made it to nominee status. Wow! This is indeed an honor.
The tunes are from our 2nd CD, “Magdalena’s Revenge” released in 2007.
This award period was for material released before August 31st, 2008. It takes JPF some time to sort through the hundreds of thousands of entries. Thousands of judges — industry pros, peers, fans — go through the submissions.
In celebration we give to you for your listening pleasure these free mp3 downloads:
Musical Priest S – based on a traditional Celtic reel.
Pica Pica Polka – lazy border-style polka. Pica Pica is Latin for Magpie.
Enjoy!
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“Luna Marie” & “Street Dog” from “Crazed and Enthused” were nominated by JPF in 2006 in the cabaret and cajun song categories respectively.
I’m looking forward to submitting “Skull &Magpies” for next year’s JPF Awards.
Two of our tunes are competing in the Doing Dylan contest. We’d appreciate your vote and comments. Please give us a click!
High Seas Lament: vote here
Rough Music: vote here
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Big Thanks!
I’m posting this early so everyone can make plans to come.
Next week on Friday night, June 19 we join Vagabond Opera and Amber Lee and the Anomalies for a “Summer Solstice Cabaret” — a night of top-notch musical entertainment at the Mystic Theater in lovely downtown Petaluma.
If you love accordions, and who doesn’t, all three acts feature an accordionist. Yay!
Doors open 7:00PM
Show starts 8:00PM
$15
21 and over
There are dozens of good restaurants within walking distance of the theater including McNear’s right next door. Dempsey’s is the local brew pub about a block away. They are renowned for their award winning beers. If sushi is your thing, Hiro’s, located a half a block away, has an excellent menu and a large selection of fine sake.
This year’s Summer Solstice happens in the early morning on June 21st.
Legendary accordionist Clyde Forsman has passed. I was lucky enough to see him perform with TDA (Those Darn Accordions) several times and have chatted with him backstage. He was kind, funny, spunky and a super accordionist and entertainer.
He enjoyed fame late in life which included national touring, MTV and screaming female fans throwing underwear. To the delight of his adoring audiences he’d often remove his shirt to reveal his physique and flamboyant tattoos as he sang such hits as “Do You Think I’m Sexy” and “Fire”.
Tonight we’ll sing the Lament for you, Clyde. May your new adventures be as wild and crazy.
We’re joining forces with the fabulous Go Van Gogh this Thursday night June 4th, at Ashkenaz in Berkeley.
Doors open 8:00
Show starts 8:30pm – only $7!!
Wear your dancing shoes!
A céilidh (kay-lee) in modern usage is a traditional Gaelic social dance originating in Ireland and Scotland, but now common throughout the Celtic diaspora. Before discos and nightclubs, there were Céilidhs in most town and village halls on Friday or Saturday nights; they are still common today.*
Klezmer describes music of traveling Eastern European Jewish musicans who played largely dance songs for weddings and other celebrations. Originally, klezmer (plural klezmorim) referred to musical instruments, and was later extended to refer to musicians themselves. It was not until the mid-to-late 20th Century that the word was used to identify a musical genre. Early 20th Century recordings and writings most often refer to the style as "Yiddish" music, although it is also sometimes called Freilech music.*
yours in a mad, mad world,
Mags
*Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceilidh
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klezmer
http://borzykowski.users.ch/EnglMCKlezmer.htm