The Way to Go

Linder, B. (2024, Jan. 21). Grammy winning country music star ‘died on stage after a successful encore’. Penn Live, online.

Jo-El Sonnier joins the list of musicians I admire who died on stage performing, or immediately after. I was a fiddler in Carbondale, Illinois, when an older fiddler who I didn't really know well passed away while performing Ashokan Farewell. Those that knew him were grief-stricken and set back, but, because I didn't know him, my main reaction was that that was a great way to go. I later found out that Miriam Makeba and a number of others died on stage as well. If you're still up there performing when your time has come, you have succeeded in a very special way.

I doubt this will happen for me, though you never know. I am due to get a cochlear implant pretty soon here, but even that will not restore the ability to hear well enough to actually perform. I sometimes fantasize that if I could get someone to tune the banjo for me, I could still attack it with the vigor stored up over the six or seven years now that I've been unable to hear well. If this were possible, maybe I could join this club and die on stage somewhere.

As it is, I've more or less let this site go defunct, and will probably die in silence. It's fifteen below, and I'm not even watching television. I am, however, trying to write about my musical experiences. I may be able to put more of that on this weblog. Cheers!

My autobiography & more

http://tlevspress.blogspot.com/2021/09/just-passing-through.html

Here's an interesting story. Those who follow this page know that I have a dream, or possibly a plan, or maybe just a pipe dream, to write a biography of Bela Fleck and Abigail Washburn. I feel they have made an important contribution to our understanding of the banjo and to the world of music, and I want to document it.

But I did a practice run. Biography is not easy, and it involves getting inside someone's head and sometimes making assumptions about their feelings. I wrote a biography of my first cousin three times removed - Frank Leverett (1859-1943)(see post above). He was a famous geologist but also a family hero. He was worth paying tribute to because in short, whatever we know about the family we know because of him.

The biography wasn't easy and made me question whether I want to stay in the biography business. It didn't sell a whole bunch right off the bat either, though that may be typical for biography. There are good things about biography and bad, obviously, but I am limited in a couple obvious ways too.

First, it would have helped with Frank, if I went to Denver or East Lansing, to just look at all the papers. It seems like an obvious thing, but I said right from the start, I'm not going to do this. I just can't leave home. I've got four teenagers and a delicate balance relies on me.

Second, most authors invest in their project. Like I'm talking, buy a few dozen books, haul in the facts. In the case of Mr. Fleck and Ms. Washburn a minimum investment would be a trip to someplace where his tour lands, and an interview, probably a motel room and a dozen meals on the road. I figured I could do this, or set up a zoom interview, but I'm not even sure about that. I so far have not invested big money into any of my books. I'm not sure if I'm willing, much less able, to do that here. Willing, yes, I'd love to meet him. But you look at a tenuous household budget with teenagers, going to college, and it may not stay that way.

Anyway, thought I'd let you know how the mulling is going. I love music - I'm still not hearing it well - and want to stay involved in it some way or another. When I get computers in my ears it will be a whole new ball game. For now, it's trying to stay on my feet, not get dizzy, keep a good perspective.

tall corn state - now on ACX

That's right. It's narrated by Donald Davenport.
HERE
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e pluribus haiku anthology: 3487 haiku

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This volume combines all the haiku from e pluribus haiku 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, and the original, e pluribus haiku (2011). The 3487 refers to number of haiku, not kind, as they are all 5-7-5, given a somewhat unique style. This single volume will ultimately replace the others, as it contains everything that is in each of them, with an updated style.

O'Dowd, P. & McMahon, S. (2021, Jan. 25). Bela Fleck's Journey to Find Truth in Origins of the Banjo. WBUR. Listen Live.

To me this is one of the few kinds of good news that we've had in the past year, outside of the election of Biden, which is only good in a negative kind of way. What's good here, about this, is that someone who has enough money to pull it off can actually go to Africa, meet important people, have serious cross-cultural integration of musical styles, and come out with a lasting bond.

It's so good that I'm going to have to sit on it until I get my hearing back, and listen to every note.

Throw Down Your Heart (2008)

This was Bela Fleck's movie about his trip to Africa. He was looking for the origin of the banjo; he found lots of things, but didn't find the origin of the banjo, really.

My first problem is that as a banjo picker and African movie fan, I would love to sit and watch this whole movie several times. But as a person who has lost some hearing to an allergic condition, I find it difficult to listen to. It's partly because I know what I'm hearing but am not quite able to hear it. It's very frustrating.

But I'm also considering writing about Bela Fleck, and if I do, this movie brings up a number of questions.

First, is it possible to put into writing what is happening here? I can understand the movie producers choosing to let the music do the talking. They went to a lot of trouble to get various Africans to agree to be filmed, standing around and appreciating his music, when for example some local musicians come up and play music with him. It's the kind of thing I can appreciate, having traveled extensively with a banjo and having had some of those experiences, although my venues were the London tubes, Winnipeg Manitoba, and Banff. But the movie producers don't have to answer questions that I would want to know: did the banjo evolve into the instruments these Africans are playing? Can people communicate across cultures when even musically they have different kinds of languages?

It's the kind of movie I want to study, and I will. I'm curious if he sees it as a kind of culmination of his career, a peak of what he's done for the banjo, or what: how does he himself see the trip? I think he obviously had the kind of profesional filmmaking expertise to take with him, and made a good film out of it, and I'm curious if this film has changed people's view of the banjo at all, or even, of him. I believe it was a highly acclaimed film. And, successful, for its limited genre. Some of these are actually questions; by now I don't know what I'm talking about. All this is to learn. Comments please.