Music festivals, jams, open mic’s, shows, camp sessions, etc.
Get Your Kicks on Route 66 is the classic 1946 R&B tune about motoring west from Chicago to LA, written by Bobby Troup and first recorded by Nat King Cole. Most of Route 66 has been replaced by the interstate system, although some original segments of the road remain, in varying conditions of drivability. The towns along the old route 66 are proud of their heritage and vestiges of earlier times – gas stations, motels, diners – remain alongside the interstate.
Continue reading “Get Your Kicks…”
That unanticipated schedule change that resulted in our visit to Palo Duro Canyon SP on our way to the blues jam in Albuquerque also changed our route. Getting to the park in TX took us straight across OK, instead of heading north to Colorado as we’d planned. Now, my jamming partner Gary and I had been exchanging emails and we had a few phone conversations to decide on a list of songs to do at the jam, but we’d never met and we’d never played together. Well, Gary lives in Weatherford OK and it turned out that we’d be driving through there on I-40, so I asked him if we might stop by (for a few hours at least) so we could run through the songs we’d talked about. He said sure, and his wife Gayle suggested we stay for dinner to have more time to play. I asked if there was room to park the motorhome, which there was, and it was a done deal.
Continue reading “BGU/ABQ, The Prequel: Weatherford, OK”
The subject of this post is the seminal event around which our whole trip was planned. I’ve been an active member of Griff Hamlin’s Blues Guitar Unleashed for a baker’s dozen of years, and much or most of what I can now do with a guitar is a result of that. Our blog has a bunch of posts about visits with friends from the BGU forum and we’ve previously documented a couple of these Blues Guitar Unleashed student blues jams (here and here). A year ago, BGUer Larry H. announced his intention to host a jam in his hometown of Albuquerque the following fall (i.e., now). I was interested. Sue and I agreed that a fall-to-early-winter tour of the southwest would satisfy several of our needs, so I upgraded my response to officially ‘very interested’ and when the ‘who’s coming?’ poll opened I was the first one in.
Continue reading “BGU/ABQ: Jamming in Albuquerque”
We had a couple of free days between St Louis and our next destination in Colorado. We were trying to decide between a couple rest days – just hang, read, play piano/guitar – or swing through Tulsa, OK to visit the Bob Dylan Center we’d read about. When Suzy told us that the Woodie Guthrie Center is adjacent to the BDC and those rest days evaporated!
Continue reading “Tulsa, part 1 – music appreciation”
We had so much fun at the last Drumeo live meetup we attended in 2022 in Toronto, we knew we’d be back for another. We were disappointed to miss last year’s in Tennessee. This year’s meetup was held in Hamilton, ON, not far from Toronto. We were glad to see so many familiar faces – half the group attended the meetup in 2022 – and meet new Drumeo friends live. There’s something about all getting together in one place that strengthens those relationships we form online and heightens the sense of the Musora community.
Continue reading “Hamilton, ON – Drumeo live meetup”
We were on our way to Hamilton, ON which is about an hour from Toronto. And whenever we’re near Toronto, we check in with Iris about getting together to jam.
Continue reading “Toronto – III”
Rick and Doug were work colleagues at the Sugarbush Ski School in the early aughts. I joined them on a chairlift ride one day back then and Doug introduced us. When I mentioned that I had grown up in Berlin, NH, Rick’s eyes lit up. He had been a competitive Nordic skier (cross country and ski jumping) and had competed at the legendary and historic Nansen Ski Jump in Berlin. I thought I was riding the lift with royalty…
Continue reading “Rangeley, ME”
We’ve known Mark and Linda for over 30 years. They’re master gardeners, dancing chefs and fun conversationalists. They’re fellow RV’ers with lots of travel tales to tell and TWO campsites at their home – the garden site and the treehouse site. They’re also crafty instigators, having planted the irresistible kernel that caused our exploration of Maine to include this stop in Simsbury, Connecticut.
First, the back story…
Continue reading “Simsbury picnic jam”
I’ve been taking drum lessons from Drumeo, an online music education program, since 2018. Students share videos with each other providing encouragement, trading tips and generally enjoying the camaraderie of the community. Dave has been a member since 2013. During the past winter, he posted a video of himself drumming with a band, and I saw ‘Maine Academy of Modern Music’ on a banner in the background. Hmmm… Me: Hey Dave, are you from Maine? Dave: I live near Portland. New England states aren’t very large. On a global scale, we’re next-door neighbors…
As we were planning this trip, I sent him my usual email. Me: We’re going to be in Maine and we’ll be near Portland, wanna jam? Dave: Yes. (I’m paraphrasing, here.)
Continue reading “Near Portland”
We had plans to meet up with friends in Rockland and Islesboro, leaving us with a little free time to explore this bit of Maine on our own. I had never been to the Penobscot Bay area, and Doug hadn’t visited since his college days at Bates (in Lewiston, Maine). Researching places to hike, we found that the Camden/Rockland area on Penobscot Bay featured the kinds of hikes we most like – moderate climbs to higher elevation places with great views. We identified 3 hikes to do and found a nice, small campground convenient to all of them. And Penobscot Bay was quite convenient for meeting up with our friends.
Continue reading “Penobscot Bay”