Kibbee at Cullowhee Falls
On Sunday mornings we drive up the mountain to Cashiers, NC, a small town at the southern end of Jackson County, where we live. The drive up the mountain is treacherous under the best conditions, involving a steep and winding road and an ascent of almost 1500 feet in less than thirty miles.
When I first took on the organist/choir director position at Church of the Good Shepherd in Cashiers, the drive was the only thing we weren't sure about. Would it feel like too much? Would it be too taxing? The drive has turned out to be one of the many good things about this still relatively new job. The mountain scenery is beautiful and relaxing, especially now that we are accustomed to the turns and twists in the road. And the time in the car, forty minutes each way, has become a special time we have together each week to visit with no distractions. Even radio reception fades out once we start climbing, and we're able to enjoy what we now consider one of the best parts of the weekend.
Jimmie Rodgers.
If you're serious fan of old-time country music (back when it was known as "hillbilly music"), you know all about him.
Those of us in western North Carolina can brag that Rodgers got his
start in Asheville; early on in his career, he and Otis Kuykendall
sang for the first time on WWNC, Asheville's first radio station.
Students in my MUS300 Country Music class at Western Carolina
University are especially fond of one of his tunes, "In the
Jailhouse Now." Here are two different renditions of the tune, one
by Rodgers from 1928, and another by Webb Pierce from 1956. I'm also
including Brad Paisley's "Mr. Policeman;" Paisley's song
incorporates "In the Jailhouse" towards the end.
Jimmie Rodgers, "In the Jailhouse Now"
Webb Pierce, "In the Jailhouse Now"
Brad Paisley, "Mr. Policeman"
William James "Count" Basie was born on August 21, 1904. I remember seeing the Count Basie orchestra at Bethune-Cookman College when I was about fifteen years old. I sat in the front row, and the Count himself was just a few feet from me. Amazing!
Count Basie Orchestra, "Jumpin' at the Woodside"
Last week we found time to can some tomatoes just before school started. We got a large box of tomatoes from the farmer's market in Sylva, and they yielded twelve quarts that we'll enjoy in chili and vegetable soup during the winter.
Today I had a rehearsal on a piece I've been practicing for a while; the piece, Gradient, is for alto sax and piano and was written by Baljinder Sekhon, a composer in Tampa. The piano part involves placing books and sheets of paper inside the piano to create a "buzzy" sound that matches, more or less, the sound of the slap tonguing in the saxophone.
In our rehearsal, we soon found that choreography will be a major issue in this piece! Within a fairly short time, I need to remove three books from the inside of the piano and replace them with two large sheets of corrugated paper. The books must be placed so they cover all the strings in the piano's lower register; I'm still working on finding a way to side the paper in that doesn't make any distracting sounds, since the saxophone is playing. Fortunately, we have a video of the piece to refer to; I've been studying this performance on YouTube to see how this pianist manages the logistics of the piece. The differences in my performance will be that I will have a page turner (I'm not sure how this guy manages to turn his own pages in this particular piece!); the music desk on the piano I'll be playing doesn't lie flat like the one in this video; and since the pianist here seems to be rather tall, it's a bit easier for him to reach into the piano to place the books (I will probably be walking around to the side of the piano).
We have a few more rehearsals before the performance, and we need to get all the logistics ironed out, in addition to the music, which is quite challenging! It's a great piece, and completely worth the work we're putting into it.
Ugh. Not too much to say about this article on sexist dress codes in high schools. My hope is that girls heading back to school this year are able to dress comfortably, and that their male classmates are held accountable when it comes to self control.
One of the things I miss about living in Black Mountain, NC, is the regular visits I would make to see my friend Leslie at Nice Threads Fiber Studio. Leslie, an accomplished artist with an MFA from Rhode Island School of Design, creates all kinds of pieces to sell at festivals, and she also teaches classes and lessons on everything from felting to dyeing to hand carding. In Leslie's studio I learned different techniques for dyeing wool, and learned how to comb and card wool. It was a real treat to be able to work with someone who has so much experience!
