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At Grey Fox 2014 – Yesterday


This picture was taken moments before I played on the main stage at Grey Fox for the first time.
More to come. And we’re playing again tonight at 10:15 at the dance tent.

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Fan Pics from Brinkley’s

You may remember from my recent post that I’ve been playing some weekends at Brinkley’s on Broome Street. I’ll be playing again next Saturday, June 14th, from 2-5 pm, so stop by if you’re in the area!

And if you do come out, tag your photos with #brinkleys on Twitter or Instagram, like these fine folks:

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How To Be A Superhero

I spent the weekend of May the 4th in full observation of Star Wars Day, the holiday of nerd culture.
On Friday, I saw Captain America: The Winter Soldier;
on Saturday I visited my friend’s comic store, Carmine Street Comics, in celebration of Free Comic Book Day;
and on Sunday I saw The Amazing Spider-Man 2.
Naturally, it got me thinking about superheroes.
But here’s the fun bit: on Sunday I also visited a local brewery, Carton, in Atlantic Highlands NJ. Now, I’m a fan of beer, which is maybe putting it lightly. I’ve been known to brew my own from time to time. Being on the road with Gangstagrass, I’ve been in a most opportune situation in which to sample local beers from all over the country and around the world. In fact, right before I visited the brewery, I stopped in a bookstore and went straight to the Wines and Spirits section. (Come on, guys – no mention of beer in the title?) I was quickly alerted to the existence of movements like the Campaign for Real Ale, or CAMRA, and organizations for adjudication of professional and home brews, such as the Beer Judge Certification Program, or BJCP.
So here’s me, getting excited about becoming a refined palate of potables, and watching a bunch of superhero movies. (Okay, only 2, but 2 in one weekend – in theaters – feels like a bunch.)
And it all comes together in my head this morning. How is being a really good beer taster – or a really good anything else – like being a superhero? It might have something to do with being superlatively good at something, or being hyper-aware or sensitive, or just caring a lot and having the drive to excel at it.
And I realized that, not only do I want to become a beer judge, I have this same desire in many things that I do day-to-day. I want to become an excellent chef. I want to become an excellent musician. I want to become an excellent listener and counselor. Gardener, carpenter, the list of things I could potentially become great at is as endless as the things you do in a day.

So, stemming from this train of thought, here’s my step-by-step guide to:

How To Become A Superhero

1) Be a Good Person
This is really the most important thing! You’d think Step 1) Get Superpowers! But in fact this is the last step, and totally optional. (Batman, among many, many others.)
You must be a good person, otherwise you will certainly not be a hero. If you stray from this first step, and follow all the others, you can become a Supervillain, or just a Villain. If, however, you are a Good Person, well, that’s really something that everyone should aspire to.
Suggested for: Everyone! Everyone should do this.

2) Be a Strong Person
Your strength comes from within yourself, not from Equipment, which includes weapons. You have to have strength of character and strength of body if you want to be a Superhero.
If you are a Good Person and a Strong Person, you are a Hero! You don’t have Superpowers, but you don’t need them! Many of us should try to become stronger than we already are, because although there is strength in numbers, it helps if the numbers are Strong People and not Weak People. However, it is the duty of the Strong to protect the Weak, so obviously there will always be Weak People. That’s not a problem so long as there are Strong People. And those people are Good People.
If you are Strong, but not Good, you may be a Villain! Not a Supervillain, again, no Superpowers, but you are Strong and Evil, and that’s really bad. I hope some Strong Good Person stands up to you.
If you are Strong, but are not sure whether you are Good or Evil, you may be a Soldier, or just a Goon, and you should really prioritize being Good over being Strong. Remember, it’s Step 1!
Suggested for: Many People, so that we have lots of Heroes!

Here I should mention that being a Smart Person is of course important, but it’s sort of a corollary to both Step 1 and Step 2. You need to be Smart IN ORDER TO be both Good and Strong. If you are Strong but not Smart, you will not know how to be Good, and you may end up killing the wrong people, like Hercules. If you are Good but not Smart, you will not know how to apply your strength, and you will lose many battles due to poor strategy.

3) Have The Right Equipment/Uniform
This is pretty specialized actually. You probably shouldn’t have, among other things, a big gun, a cool Japanese sword, a magic extending staff, a grappling hook, smoke grenades, or any kind of plane or suped-up motorcycle. If you do have any of these, and you really know how to use them, and you are Strong, and most importantly Good, you are doing quite well, and in fact you may find that you are a Superhero! Congratulations, you did it!
But wait, you say! I’m a Navy SEAL!
Well, yeah, you’re basically Batman. So that does count, IF you are a Good Person!
A better comparison than Batman would be Captain America. The guy is a soldier, he serves the Armed Forces of specifically this country, although he knows how to execute missions in ways that are broadly Good for lots of people. He gets a gut feeling if the mission looks shady, but follows his orders right up until his comrades start shooting at him.
He’s a pretty good example of a Soldier who is a Superhero, except that he’s not real and can’t really be real because of his Superpowers.
Suggested for: Elite Soldiers, highly trained civilians, pretty much nobody else

4) Get Superpowers Somehow
Now I am including this in the list not because I think you can find a radioactive spider, get bitten by it, survive that, AND somehow benefit from the whole experience. None of that seems likely.
I am including it because there are lots of ways that humans, today and in the near future, can augment their Strength or other abilities.
Mostly this is through Science but you might as well pray since it can’t hurt you. Don’t go standing in thunderstorms holding lightning rods though.
Spiderman’s nemesis, the Green Goblin, is a Supervillain because of a serum he uses to save his life. Interestingly, it’s the same as, or very similar to, the stuff that gave Peter Parker his Superpowers. So the Superpowers really don’t make the Superhero, do they? Captain America also has an enemy, the Red Skull, who is created using the same Super-Soldier Serum used to create Captain America! Your Results May Vary, indeed!
Sometimes, a piece of Equipment can be used to give someone Superpowers. Anyone who goes by Green Lantern is really just using a super-powerful piece of gear. Batman is virtually unrecognizable without his costume and weapon things. You can be a Superhero if you are really good at using something.
Sometimes, a Hero becomes Super in the right context. Superman is Superman because of context. If he were on his home world, he would just be Man! So if you ever end up in a place where you have an ability no one else has, you are a Superhero! But make sure to use it for Good.
And lastly, sometimes people do augment themselves with serums like Spiderman or Captain America. Or the Green Goblin, or the Red Skull, or the Lizard… see what I’m getting at? Captain America willfully underwent a risky procedure in order to become more powerful. So did Wolverine, although he already had more going for him at the time – he was already a superhuman healer. But Spiderman got bitten by accident. Daredevil was hit in the face by accident. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles had mutagen dumped on them by accident.
The point is, don’t go searching for Superpowers. They may fortuitously come to you, but if you play with the fires of Science, you will get burned more often than tempered.
And hey, if you’ve already checked off 1 through 3, you’re already a Superhero on the level of several of the most well-known and liked!
If you’ve checked off just 1 and 2, consider it a job well done. You’re ready to take on special Equipment if the need ever arises.
And even if you do nothing else, just remember Step 1) Be a Good Person.

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Classical Banjo & Composition


Here’s the trailer for Béla Fleck’s new documentary, How to Write a Banjo Concerto, which debuted recently at the Nashville Film Festival.
Near the end, it gives me the ominous, familiar sense that the director wants the audience to question Béla’s decision to compose for banjo and orchestra, as though it is something a little strange or dissonant. I’m used to the banjo being the butt of many jokes, but this is not that.
And, although I haven’t seen the documentary yet, I’m sure there are elements of the story that could be spun as questionable. Part of it could be an analysis of Fleck as someone with little formal classical training, and part of it could be a critique of banjo in orchestra in a broader sense.

I have played banjo with the orchestra for productions of Porgy & Bess and Ragtime, and I think that it would be a mistake for anyone to write off banjo as an instrument ill-suited for orchestral compositions without considering its capability of producing a variety of sounds and styles that can bring a lively voice to a piece. For me, as somebody interested in the task of composing for banjo–and who feels as though I might even have a unique perspective because of my classical training–I appreciate seeing my fellow musicians take on the task of creating new pieces and covering classical tunes.

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Gangstagrass at Johnny D’s

Photos by Aidan McCarthy.

Post by Dan Whitener.

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Bluegrass Brunch at Brinkley’s

Brinkley’s, serving delicious food and a variety of beers on tap, has welcomed the bluegrass sound to add atmosphere to your weekend brunch plans. I’ve played a number of weekends so far this year with members of my band Blue Plate Special (and other talented musicians like Bennett Sullivan, pictured above) and hope to play several more.

You can catch some of the other members of Blue Plate Special play this upcoming Easter Sunday, and hopefully I’ll be playing at Brinkley’s again soon as well. Check the sidebar to the right for these and other upcoming shows!

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Monday Video: Abigail Washburn’s TED Talk

Turns out you get some pretty interesting results when you search the TED talks for “banjo”. Here’s a talk given by Abigail Washburn, known for combining American traditional banjo music with Chinese lyrics in projects like the Sparrow Quartet, which also included Abigail’s now-husband Bela Fleck.

On the surface, it’s easy to say why I would be interested in this woman and her work, especially given that she plays banjo with one of the best banjo pickers alive today. But looking deeper, there’s a lot about what she does that resonates with me. The crucial element in her music is the combination of traditions and cultures. Often she plays an American rhythm on the banjo while singing in Chinese. There’s a common tonality, though, and the melody or the accompaniment could sound perfectly in place in either musical background. Metaphorically, too, she talks in this video about finding this connection between different people through music. Funny story – she originally intended to become a lawyer to improve US-China relations. Now, with the banjo, she seems to be doing quite well at that. No joke. Her group the Sparrow Quartet was the first American band to officially tour Tibet on a “government-sponsored cultural mission”.

But there’s an even more particular relevance to my current fusion project, Gangstagrass, which combines bluegrass with hip-hop. I play banjo while MCs rock the mic, delivering a heavy flow of intricate lyricism. The parallel here with Abigail Washburn is more than cross-genre or cross-culture. Specifically, our band blends the instrumentals of one kind of music with the lyrics – and language – of another kind that fans of the first might have a hard time understanding. The language of rap is partially about accent, partially about dialect, but very much about packing a lot of meaning into a neat rhythmic package. The rhymes can be delivered fast or slow, but they can be so dense that even though these rappers are speaking English, it can sound like another language. But, as founder Rench has so often explained, these two styles of music are mostly saying the same things, which is what makes the fusion work so well.

So the idea that Abigail expresses near the beginning of this talk is fundamentally important to me. Her story of how she found the banjo – she was at a party and someone put on a Doc Watson record – points to a key concept in traditional, or “folk” music: legitimacy. She said:
“after being totally and completely obsessed with the mammoth richness and history of Chinese culture, it was like this total relief to hear something so truly American and so truly awesome.”

I think that’s something that a lot of people deal with, not just musicians. In an increasingly multicultural world, we all want to feel like we come from somewhere real and important. I was at the library earlier today, in fact, looking through Alan Lomax’s book on American folk traditional music. I was grappling with these same feelings – the same feelings, probably, that Lomax dealt with when he went out to find this “real” music. But as much as it helps to research and fully understand the background and context of the music, the truest revelation you find is that people are all the same, and they’re all just trying to get through their day. That’s the last sentiment Abigail leaves us with at the end of the talk, and that’s what I want to end with here. Watch the video, it’s short and sweet. (Like Abigail.)

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Two Folk Alliance Articles

Post by Dan Whitener.

Post by Dan Whitener.