Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Virginia's Grand Military Band Schedule Starts Saturday
All performances will be at the Kenmore Middle School Concert Hall, 200 S. Carlin Springs Road, Arlington.
Saturday Sept. 19, 8:00 p.m.
Old-Fashioned Concert in the Park
Family Favorites and Toe-Tappers.
Saturday Nov. 7, 8:00 p.m.
U. S. Army Night
Special Guests: The Herald Trumpets of "Pershing's Own,"
The United States Army Band, and the West Point Alumni Glee Club
Saturday Jan. 16, 8:00 p.m.
Col. Gabriel Conducts His Favorites
Colonel Arnald D. Gabriel, USAF ret, joins Maestro Schissel on the podium.
March/April Concert date to be announced.
Saturday May 29, 8:00 p.m.
Memorial Day - March Past
The VGMB's traditional Memorial Day tribute to our Armed Forces.
Tickets for individual concerts are $20 for adults, $10 for those under 18. Season tickets are $75 each. For information, call Ken Stegeman at (703) 281-3331 or click here.
Labels: band, concert, kenmore
Friday, March 06, 2009
John Cephas I Will Miss You
I’m a thousand miles away from home with my back up against the wall…
First time I heard John Cephas play the guitar was about five or six years ago at the annual DC Blues Fest at Carter Barron Amphitheatre in DC.
A nice act, with a woman in the lead, came on before them. The woman, whoever it was, and her band did well, but then these two guys got on stage, one with the guitar, and the other in a wide-brimmed hat, pulled low over his face, a harmonica to his lips.
They played in a different league. John Cephas on acoustic guitar, Phil Wiggins on the harp. It’s the Piedmont blues, a finger-picking style that plays the chord rather than the single string like you might hear in the Delta.
I turned to the sales table I happened to be near and bought their CD. Mr. Cephas died of pulmonary embolism, the Washington Post reported, March 4; he was 78.
As good as that concert was (I write “concert” but given the meltdown the kids were having, I could only stay for two or three songs), I was glad two years ago to catch Cephas and Wiggins at the Montgomery CollegeTakoma Park campus’ black box theatre. With first come, first serve seating, my wife and I found ourselves in the front row of a theatre that held maybe 100 people.
It wasn’t a concert as much as a conjuring. Something palpable grew from that stage, rose up between them, slunk out into audience. I could have stood up and walked over to them on whatever it was without touching ground. I don’t have words for the experience of hearing their harmonica and guitar that night, but every fiber of my body vibrated under their power. I have never felt so much like the music was in me as I did that night. Spellbinding.
He will be missed. Here’s a youtube clip:
Related stories…
Monday, June 25, 2007
Pedestrian Meeting, Concerts and Music
Another meeting addressing the quality of life in Buckingham will take place this week on Friday. Addressing pedestrian safety at the corner of N. Carlin Springs Road and N. Glebe Road, the meeting will bring together the public with Assistant County Manager Shannon Flanagan-Watson. Ms. Flanagan-Watson has as yet to prepare for the meeting, she said in an interview today, but is planning to meet with staff before Friday. The intersection boasts 15 lanes of traffic including turn lanes and exit lanes from the Ballston Commons Mall, and it is a high-use pedestrian and vehicle commuter area. Residents, especially the elderly and disabled, have long complained about the intersection. And the county has reported and fretted over the corner. Some improvements have been made.
Pedestrians walk across seven lanes of traffic while cars pass through the crosswalk at N. Glebe Road and N. Carlin Springs Road.
Pat Hope, the president of the Buckingham Community Civic Association, wrote in an email to the BCCA that he wants to put together a small workgroup “following this meeting to make sure all areas of concern are being appropriately addressed.”
The public is invited Friday, June 29, at 3 p.m. at the Carlin (4300 N. Carlin Springs Rd.). Mr. Hope has asked for people to email him if they wish to help.
The first meeting scheduled for this week is by invitation only (or primarily) scheduled for Wednesday at 3p.m. It concerns loitering and public drunkenness in the neighborhood. Scroll down to the June 20 post for more on this meeting.
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This weekend at Lubber Run Amphitheatre:
Friday, June 29:
8:15 p.m. The Art of Belly Dancing: Demo & Lesson
8:30 p.m. Film: Casablanca (1942)
Saturday, June 30
Mary Ann Redmond Band: Kick Butt Blues (From the “What’s Up Arlington” Newsletter: “Mary Ann Redmond presents an evening of her "Kick Butt Blues" at Arlington's outdoor amphitheatre. A Washington, DC native, she has won a staggering 14 WAMMIE Awards for best female jazz singer, best rock-pop vocalist, best roots rock/tradional R & B, and best female blues vocalist.”)
Sunday, July 1
Slavic Male Chorus: Hi-Energy Folk Music (From the The Slavic Male Chorus Web Site: “The Slavic Male Chorus of Washington DC has thrilled audiences with heartfelt interpretations of the folk songs and sacred hymns of Russia and many Slavic lands.”)
To keep up with the Amphitheatre’s summer schedule, look to the right hand column, and click the Arts al Fresco link under “County Gov’t Sites.”
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A Little More About Music
Ever since the Steve Songs Concert a couple weekends ago (see the June 7 post), friends and I have been talking about great kids music (hey, it’s what we do).
Anyway, I thought I’d add a few names and titles for those people interested. Feel free to email me with more, or simply add ideas to “comments” below…
Eddie Spaghetti—He’s an aging rocker, from the looks of his photos, and his “Greatest Hits” album is really good. My fave: “Rainy, Rainy Day Blues.” With lines like “Don’t let the clouds down in my shoes/Don’t want no rainy, rainy day blues…” it’s like something out of a 70s sitcom (I’m thinking “Love, American Style,” or maybe “The Monkeys”). Click the link and you can download the songs—he also has a link to order CDs.
Jessica Harper—She’s got a good band behind her, especially her pianist. Her voice is nice, her songs are fun. (Her web site is interesting because it’s very focused on her kids books—I didn’t even know she had any.) I like “Inside/Out” though, for albums. “Little Brown Dog Named Joe” is my fave, a bluesy tune about a dog that has eaten all her shoes (“…then you ate my cowboy boots/and now you ride the range/hey, you little brown dog-named-joe…”).
They Might Be Giants—I remember from a Washington Post story when their album “NO!” came out that they would get on stage and yell, “We’re Number 1 on the children’s music charts!” during their adult concerts. (I couldn’t find a link to the Washington Post story, sorry.) Frankly, their kid’s music isn’t a whole lot different than their adult stuff. My favorite tune on “No!” is “The Edison Museum”: “The OLDest, LARgest AND most FAmous MAUsoleum in New JERsey.”
Finally, Brent Holmes—He sings about cows, bears, whales, walruses, and moose. Many of these animals help him out on the songs (Marty the Moose and Bernie the Bear take time out of their concert schedules to accompany Mr. Holmes.) A lot of them are simple addition or multiplication songs. He does a great job with the voices, especially on the song “Peanut Butter” where sticky-mouthed bears are eating their beloved food.
But the one I have pretty much committed to memory is “The Backpack Tree.” If you don’t know what that is, it’s the tree backpackers use to keep their food from bears. You find a tree, throw a rope over a whimpy branch that couldn’t hold a bear, and hoist your pack off the ground to a height taller than a bear and a distance as far from the trunk as you can get. This is all for naught, the song suggests (sing it with a goofy, bear-like sound, and you get the idea): “The backpack tree, the backpack tree, I love it when I run into a backpack tree/When I’m bouncin’ down the trail/my favorite thing to see/is backpacks hanging in a backpack tree/backpacks are my favorite food/they put me in a wonderful mood/it’s never very hard to get them down/I climb up the tree and I knock them to the ground.” After he eats the food, he buries the backpacks in order to grow more backpack trees. Classic.
Labels: amphitheatre, concert, kids music, lubber run amphitheatre, meeting, pedestrian
