Jalopy

Paxton and Fairfield in the NY Times

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[Paxton and Fairfield perform “Poor Little Bennie.”]

Down Home Radio favorites and past guests on the program Jerron “Blind Boy” Paxton and Frank Fairfield have recently been featured in the New York Times, following their appearance last Tuesday at the Jalopy Theater.  CLICK HERE to read the NY Times piece by Ben Ratliff.

CLICK HERE for the Down Home Radio interview with Frank Fairfield, and HERE for the interview with Blind Boy Paxton.

Here’s some more footage I shot at the Jalopy show:

Photos From the Festival

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[Radio Jarocho at The 2010 Brooklyn Folk Festival.  Photo E. Smith]

Well, the 2010 Brooklyn Folk Festival has come and gone, and I can tell you that it was a great success!  It sold out every night, the new outdoor stage was a huge success and people had a great time!  The whole thing was professionally recorded by Don Fierro and we look forward to the release of at least one Brooklyn Folk Festival 2010  CD/LP probably over the winter on the brand new Jalopy Records label.  The music that was played at this festival was to put it plainly AMAZING.  I knew it would be good, but didn’t realize just how good.  As the organizer and MC I was very emotionally moved by the whole proceeding!  Truly.  Already planning for next year… well maybe I’ll take a break.  But I’m already excited!

Below are some photos I took at the festival.  All of my photos from the event can be seen at this link. Look out in the reasonably near future for some films from the festival shot by filmmaker Chris Low.  I’ll be posting up a bunch of those plus audio and some videos I took, etc.


[The Calamity Janes.  Photo E. Smith]


[Feral Foster.  Photo E. Smith]


[Rashad Brown performs at the outdoor stage.  Photo Susan Heske]


[Clifton Hicks (R) The Dough Rollers (L)  Photo E. Smith]


[The Tillers. Photo E. Smith]


[John Cohen.  Photo E. Smith]


[John Cohen screens his new film “Roscoe Holcomb From Daisy Kentucky.” Photo by E. Smith]


[Brotherhood of the Jug Band Blues.  Photo E. Smith]

To see all my photos from the 2010 Brooklyn Folk Festival Click Here. And check back for audio and video from the festival coming soon…

The Brooklyn Folk Festival is Here!

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Brooklyn Folk Festival Logo by you.

The Brooklyn Folk Festival has arrived again!
May 21-23rd, 2010 at the Jalopy Theater!

Down Home Radio is proud to announce the 2nd annual Brooklyn Folk Festival.  This festival will feature the best in old-time music, blues, pre-blues, jug band music, New Orleans jazz, folk style songwriting, Greek, African and Mexican folk music and dance with concerts, workshops, and a Sunday afternoon square dance.  Thirty-one musical acts over 3 days! Come down and check it out, its gonna be fun!

–See below for the complete schedule–

*This festival is brought to you by Down Home Radio, and will be MCed by Down Home Radio host Eli Smith.

Pricing:
$15 per day for the main stage evening concerts and workshops or $40 for all three evenings.
$5 per day for Saturday afternoon concerts and Sunday afternoon outdoor stage, square dance included!  What a deal!

Contact The Jalopy Theater to buy advance tickets.

The Jalopy Theater
315 Columbia Street
Brooklyn, NY 11231
(718) 395-3214
www.Jalopy.biz

Schedule:

Friday May 21st at Jalopy:
7:30pm – Hubby Jenkins – Blues and folk songs
8:15 – George Stavis – Original improvised banjo music
9pm- Salieu Suso – Gambian Kora player
9:30pm- Calamity Janes – Oldtime String band
10:15pm- The Dust Busters – Oldtime string band
11:15pm- Blind Boy Paxton – Blues guitar, stride piano, old time banjo
12am – Ernie Vega – Blues, folk and original songs

Saturday May 22nd at Jalopy:

Blind Boy Paxton on Down Home TV

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Here’s the 2nd installment of our new venture into Down Home TV.  That same night after speaking with Mamie Minch, Jerron “Blind Boy” Paxton stopped by and I was able to film a segment with him.  If you’ve heard the interview from a year and a half ago that I did with him (when he was only 19) then you know that he is a truly amazing guitarist, banjoist and stride-piano player as well as an excellent singer.  On today’s show Blind Boy plays a few guitar and banjo pieces for us on camera and talks a little bit about his background.  For more information, be sure to check out the extended audio interview with him from back in the DHR Archives.

Thanks go once again to filmmaker Chris Low and his crew for shooting and editing this footage.

Down Home TV!

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Down Home Radio has stormed the citadel of visual representation, thanks to the great work of filmmaker Chris Low.  On this first installment I talk with the wonderful blues guitarist, singer and songwriter Mamie Minch.  We sat down in the room above the Jalopy Theater just before she took the stage at the Brooklyn Folk Festival Preview and Benefit show a couple of weeks ago.  Mamie speaks about some of her influences and plays some tunes, live on Down Home Radio (TV)!  Many thanks go to Chris for making this possible.

Brooklyn Folk Festival Preview Concert and Benefit

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Hey everybody, just wanted to let you know about a great show I organized for this coming Saturday at Jalopy:

Please support the production of the 2010 festival by attending –The Brooklyn Folk Festival Preview Concert and Benefit on Saturday March 13th at the Jalopy Theater.

This fabulous show will give you a taste of what is to come at this years festival and will also serve as a benefit to get vital funds necessary to make the Folk Fest possible.  I need to fill Jalopy on Saturday night to get enough money to rent a big tent for the outdoor stage, get the festival promoted around town and hire some folks to help me run it, plus incidental expenses.  Below is the info.  Can’t wait to make this years festival a reality.

Hope to see you there! – Eli (the organizer).

Sat. March 13th 9pm till midnight or whenever it ends!
The Jalopy Theater
315 Columbia Street
Brooklyn, NY 11231
(718) 395-3214
www.Jalopy.biz
$10 Cover

p.s. There’s gonna be a raffle with awesome prizes!  Plus I’ll have Down Home Radio T-shirts and stickers, as well as Brooklyn Folk Fest 2009 CDs for sale.

Banjo Workshop with John Cohen

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Banjo Tunings and Styles Workshop with John Cohen

Here’s the first bit of audio I’m posting from the Brooklyn Folk Festival – John Cohen of the New Lost City Ramblers leads a banjo workshop focusing on different tunings and styles used by a number of banjo players he has learned from either directly or studied through their old recordings.  Banjo player Wade Ward describes tunings as “different atmospheres.”  Each banjo tuning carries its own set of possibilities and its own feeling.  In 1965 John Cohen encountered Ward and many other banjo players as he journeyed through the South finding musicians, making field recordings, discovering banjo tunings and lots more along the way.  Many of these field recordings were released on his wonderful album “High Atmosphere”. John discusses and demonstrates these many styles, sounds and techniques in this workshop from May, 17th, 2009.

The first play button plays a banjo music mix tape of all the original recordings of songs John covers in this workshop.  The second play button plays the audio of the workshop itself.  This is for banjo players only! (Unless you’re really interested)


John begins with a bit of Pete Seeger up picking, then a bit of frailing and thumb lead 2-finger picking, then more up picking (the same rhythm as clawhammer but picking up instead of hitting down on the string), Charlie Poole style finger picking banjo, Bascom Lamar Lunsford / George Landers style up picking (the workshop focuses a lot on this style, where in the first finger picks the melody and also then brushes up over the strings and the thumb picks the fifth string and drops down to some of the other strings.  There are no downward motions in this style.)  Sydna Myers style clawhammer, Dock Boggs finger picking and finally Pete Steele finger picking

Links:
Film about John Cohen on FolkStreams.net: Remembering the High Lonesome
Down Home Radio Rufus Crisp Feature Episode – playing recordings of Crisp, a banjo player very influential to John Cohen and the early folk music scene in New York.

Tunes included in the workshop:

The Brooklyn Folk Festival: May 15th-17th

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Thanks to everybody who made the festival such a big success.  See ya next year!

(Look out for audio, pictures and video from the festival coming up real soon here on DHR)

Brooklyn Folk Festival Logo by you.

Friday, May 15th thru Sunday, May 17th at the Jalopy Theater.

Down Home Radio is proud to announce the 1st annual Brooklyn Folk Festival.  This festival will feature the best in old-time music, blues, pre-blues, jug band music, New Orleans jazz, folk style songwriting, African folk music and Mexican folk music and dance.  Come down and check it out, its gonna be fun!

*This festival is brought to you by Down Home Radio, and will be MCed by Down Home Radio host Eli Smith.

$10 Per Day or $25 for 3 days – Afternoon Workshop Included!

Interview with John Houx

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John Houx

On today’s show I speak with New York song writer John Houx. Originally from northern California, Houx has been in NYC for less than two years, but in that time has written a slew of excellent songs. In my view, John has developed a lyrical style and musical sense that allows him to deal directly and plainly with specific personal, social and political issues that he encounters, while maintaining in his songs a broader, general perspective. John plays live on the air, talks about his background and influences and plays some records that he likes.

John Houx – Live at Banjo Jim’s May 24th, 2008 – which I recorded at my “Down Home Live” show that I host at Banjo Jim’s in Manhattan.

John Houx myspace page

Phoning It In with John Houx

John Houx on Last.fm

See below for track information from the show: