Pete's Bluegrass Weblog - or Blog

Subjects: bluegrass, old time music, and vaguely related items. You are invited to join in, as you wish. Email them to us and we'll add your comments, which are very welcome.

The weather has been so gorgeous that I haven't felt like sitting in front of a computer monitor, writing BLOGs. However, I feel guilty enough now to try to do some catching up.
In cooperation with the Goleta Valley Historical Society, I had a chance to present some thoughts on the development of bluegrass music at a good sized conference room in the Goleta Library. I brought a bunch of early records, prepared to sit down and talk with perhaps a dozen people or so. Well, we had standing room only ... it seems there's a lot more interest in bluegrass than say 10 years ago! We'll have to arrange another evening soon, because I haven't run out of records yet.

Happy fifth of July to everyone! The VLB played at a great 4th of July party at the Stow House in Goleta. It's a farm house built aroiund 1880, with wonderful grounds shaded by trees planted way back when. Here's a photo taken by Jim Griffith during one of our sets. We shared the stage with a great string band, "The Lemon Pickers" and blues greats Tom Ball and Kenny Sultan.
L-R: Tony Recupido, Peter, Tommy Marton, Tom Lee, and David West with bluegrass under the palms.

Had a visit 3 weeks ago from my friend Gilles Apap during a brief interlude between his wolrd touring & travels. Musically, his timing is great, but politically, perhaps not so good. At any rate, he found himself in Tel Aviv for a concert on the same night that the Iraqi war began - everyone was expecting scud missles instead of concert programs. Even Gilles' cab driver turned around and said to him: "Gee, you're pretty brave to be doing a show here tonight!" Of course, traveling under a French passport didn't help either! However, he did attempt to save the day by wearing a "God Bless America" baseball cap with an American flag design ... Gilles showed me the lable inside: "Made in Viet Nam".

Here are two photos of Gilles and Erhu player Xiaoli: (point your cursor to the photo to see the next pic).

And, a closeup of his great shirt!

The first week in May is traditionally the week of the Rancheros Visitaderos trail ride. The RV are a group of about 550 riders, with as many again as guests, who ride through the Santa Ynez Valley for a week every year. Musically, it's of interest since the large group is broken up into more than a dozen camps, each of which hire musicians from around the USA and Europe to perform. I may be biased, but I think it's the musicians that have the most fun: good food, anything one wants to drink, beautiful conutryside, and lots of fine musicians to jam with.

Here's a typical Rancheros musical gathering, clockwise from bottom right: Steve Smith, Bruce Johnson, Mark Dollar, David Jackson, Ronnie Glover, and Steve Spurgin.

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