Sixteen Shillings will be this weekend in Braintree.
Loyal Order of Moose Lodges
175 Howard St, Braintree, MA 02184-1151
8:30 until whenever
Sixteen Shillings is myself(guitar/vocals) and Rob Dragunas(mandolin/vocals) playing a wide range of stuff
Sixteen Shillings
I’ll be playing with Sixteen Shillings at the Flat Iron Cafe this Friday Oct 21 starting at 8:00 PM.
444 Center Street
Middleboro, MA 02346
(508) 947-3358
The facebook event page is here.
Sixteen Shillings is a two piece with Rob Dragunas on mandolin/vocals and me on guitar/vocals. We’re having a lot of fun – and I’m enjoying the change from the solo gigs I’ve been doing for thelast couple of years.
Here’s a fun one – Long Black Veil. Rob and I are very free-form with the breaks, dynamics, and who is playing what lick at what time – which makes for unpredictable results but lots of fun.
Pretty decent (I think) version of Shady Grove. It’s not without warts … I don’t think I’ve ever played anything that was wart free … but still pretty decent for our second gig.
Don’t forget to check out the fun and worthy things to do this weekend.
Just because – here’s a couple of videos from the second Sixteen Shillings gig (me and Rob):
Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here With You
Old Home Place
Great song from Garcia/Grisman
Another clip from my last gig. Long May You Run by Neil Young The Stills/Young band. This was a new one for me – first time performed – though it’s a simple enough song.
Here’s the first song from the first performance of my new duet tentatively named “Sixteen Shillings” until I can convince Rob to accept the inevitability of “The Bub Juckets”. Video was taken on a Kodak Sport Video camera. The audio was removed and replaced with my soundboard recording that was done with a Tascam DR-07 Portable Digital Recorder. Video editing and audio dubbing was done with the OpenShot Video Editor – a fantastic editor for Linux.
We had a few issues with the mix and normal performance non-perfection but I think it went pretty well.
My new duo – Sixteen Shillings – had it’s first gig last night at the ol’ Flat Iron Cafe. There were, naturally, a few rough spots but all in all I’m pretty pleased with the gig and the turnout. The threat of Hurricane Irene kept a lot of people at home but we still had a very good crowd all things considered.
We’re kicking around other names for the group. I’m partial to the Bub Juckets. Rob was talking about Iron Pan.
I’ve been doing solo acoustic gigs for the last year and a half. My next gig is this Saturday – August 27th and will include another musician – Rob Dragunas on mandolin. Rob and I have been playing together for several months and are starting to gel nicely. The duo is called Sixteen Shillings and is quite a departure from my solo gigs. The extra instrument opens up possibilities that just don’t exist with a single singer and instrument. Rob is a trained and talented musician and we’re having a lot of fun.
If you have any interest in attending, please accept the Facebook event and then invite any friends that might be interested. Show starts around 8 or so
From my last Flat Iron Cafe gig. Video was recorded on a little Kodak Sport and the audio was dubbed in. Audio was recorded on a Tascam DR07.
I’ve been occupied with my column for this week’s Middleboro Gazette and don’t have time for any Middleboro-centric posts even though there is a lot going on. I can’t just write all Middleboro all the time so here’s a video from my last Flat Iron gig. A little backstory:
I don’t listen to much new rock/pop music these days – leaning towards old-time/Americana. Right now for instance, I’m listening to a live stream of the new Sarah Jarosz album – a modern take on old time/Americana. This young woman is 19 and is simply amazing.
Back to the video. I heard my kids playing this song – Hey There Delilah by the Plain White T’s – and thought it would sound good as a solo acoustic number and add something relatively current to my set list. This was my first time playing it at a gig and it came out pretty good minus a few small flubs near the end. But the reason I’m posting it is more about the video recording itself rather than the performance.
I’ve had terrible trouble getting decent video from my gigs for numerous reasons. The biggest issue is that the audio from the video camera is loaded with crowd noise. Unfortunately the crowd noise does not consist of cheering, squealing, and other sounds of adulation. It’s mostly people talking, laughing, clinking glasses, and otherwise doing their best to dull the sound of the music. Anyway I never put that much effort into video. I usually don’t even film the gigs but do spend some effort on the audio and my recordings are generally pretty good. This video, despite it’s awkward camera angle sounds pretty good because I replaced the camera audio with the soundboard audio recording. Video was recorded with a Kodak Sport video camera. It’s small but takes pretty decent video. Audio is from my Tascam-DR07 which is fed from the record out jack of my PA. The trick was syncing the audio and video together.
I’ll be starting around 7:30.
I don’t think I’ve played a public gig since late August. Sometime in October I did a fundraiser at the Flat Iron and had to postpone a December gig. At the October gig I set up in the center of the room instead of way down the end. By all reports this set up was a lot better. It allowed the people in the front to hear the music and allowed me to keep the volume more uniform. When I setup down the far end(near the Everett Sq. entrance) I have to turn the PA up as loud as I can to get the music to the far end of the room. This created feedback problems for me because I use an actual microphone to amplify my guitar – it’s built-in and sits right behind the soundhole. Almost every acoustic guy I’ve seen uses the built-in pickup with works OK but doesn’t give a true acoustic sound.
Anyway, I’m hoping to repeat the mid-room setup. As and added benefit – even the tomato throwers in the front of the room should be able to get me.
Feb 4th - Flat Iron Cafe
This is the first time I’ve played here on a Friday so I’m not sure what to expect for turnout. I’ll be debuting a new original – keeping my tri-yearly songwriting streak intact. I’m working on a number of new covers to keep things interesting. Hope to see you there.
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Phone: 508.947.3358
Email: mail@flatironcafe.info
Web: http://www.flatironcafe.info
Address: 444 Centre Street, Middleborough, Massachusetts 02346
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=120391821367993
Bring your acoustic instruments with you to the Soule Farm Harvest Fair this weekend, Sept. 18th and 19th. in Middleboro. Mark Belanger and John Parriott will be leading an on-going open jam session up in the vendors’ area. All levels welcome. Bluegrass, Old Time, Folk, etc; Just tell us what key and we’ll get it going. Also, many local groups will be playing at the Joe Davies Folk Festival down on the “lower forty,” including Bill Mulligan, Susan Anderson, Frank Albani, and Tiffany Rozenas.
Come out and support this beautiful community farm and enjoy a great time with food, music, arts and crafts, hay rides, trick horse show, and much more. Admission is $7.00 per person (children under 6 are admitted for free.) For additional info, see http://www.soulehomestead.org.
Hope to see you there!
Playing at Flat Iron Cafe 8/21/2010
Playing at Soule Homestead 7/31/2010
I played at the Soule Homestead in Middleboro last night as part of their Summer Concert Series. Due to the EEE threat, the gig was moved indoors. I was really looking forward to playing outside and was disappointed. The room was small but held a decent amount of people – it was completely packed and overflowing into the next room where the concessions were being sold. The sound was excellent in my opinion. The onstage mix was perfect, not too loud but plenty loud enough to hear myself. The audience was very attentive and quiet while the music going on. It was very different from the bar-type gigs where people are socializing, eating, and drinking. It was a nice atmosphere to perform in and a little scary – no mistake could go unnoticed. As always when I play there plenty of small gaffs but nothing really horrible.
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Kudos to the Soule Homestead staff. They took good care of me and made it all very easy. I just had to show up with my guitar, plug in, and play. The main act was the Nashville Clippers. I really enjoyed this band which consisted of two couples. They had a very engaging “real” sound. Good harmonies, understated instrumentation and excellent sound – the mix was perfect.
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For various reasons, I only got the final five songs recorded. Normally I record from a direct feed off the soundboard. This recording was done with the built-in condenser mikes on my Tascam DR07. Nothing fancy – it was just sitting on a chair next to me that was jumbled with my stuff – harmonicas, pics, drinks, etc. For all that I think the recording is pretty decent:
I’ll be opening for the Nashville Clippers at the Soule Homestead Summer Concert Series on July 31, 2010 at 6:00 PM until the main act comes on at 7:00 PM. This is a really idyllic setting with beautiful views of fields, trees, old New England stone walls and gorgeous sunsets.
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Admission is $7 and $5.00 for seniors and students with children under 12 free. The Soule Homestead is located at 46 Soule Street Middleborough MA 02346.
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The series runs every Saturday until 8/21. Please support the series as much as possible but especially on the night I’m playing to feed my already considerable ego. Here are some mp3′s from my last gig and here is the Facebook event page.
I had a great time at the Flat Iron last night – and extra thanks to everyone who took time out of their busy lives to attend. This was my third solo acoustic gig. I’m pretty happy with the way things are going and think that each show has been an improvement on the last one. That is most certainly not to imply that the performances are perfect. There is no lack of mistakes.
I had help from guests Marese Barry – aka Mary Barry Massage Therapy on Closer To Fine and Matt Bargoot. Matt is a former colleague that I haven’t seen for a couple of years. We played together a couple of times a number of years ago and whipped out an unrehearsed version of The Boxer that wasn’t too shabby. Matt also provided harmonies on Norwegian Wood. The gig marked my first public performance on the 5 string banjo – an instrument I’ve been playing for less than a month. That was on Goin’ ‘Cross The Mountain. Sadly it’s slightly out of tune but still not bad for a first effort.
Here are all the recordings I have from the 3/27/2010 gig at the Flat Iron Cafe. A number of songs didn’t get recorded due to operator error. The turnout was good but not as good as my first gig – which I was sort of expecting but still a little disappointed about.
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I’d say my performance was a little better, or at least sounded a little better. At the first gig I had a lot of trouble with feedback – which made the volume a little low. I also didn’t have any on-stage monitoring which adversely affected my singing a little bit. This time I set the main speakers well in front of me and plugged ear bud headphones into the line out from my recording deck. I used just one of the ear pieces – it gave me perfect monitoring of the mix.
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I played every song except one without a pick and was generally pleased with the results. One thing about my hybrid clawhammer technique is that it causes me to vary speed quite a bit – just something I have to work on. When you really get the percussive groove going right the tempo tends to run away a bit.
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I think my favorite songs of the night were I’ve Been All Around This World, Buckets Of Rain, Tomorrow Is A Long Time, The Foggy Dew, Every day I Write The Book, Walkin’ Boss, Shady Grove, Pretty Fair Maid In The Garden, and Dress of Satin. Most of the stuff came out OK but as usual there are a few duds here and there. Yet somehow life will go on.
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We also had an encore that featured Marese(Mary) Barry. She’s been under the weather lately and we haven’t sung together since the last gig on Nov. 21 – but the fans would not be denied. Marese did an exceptional rendition of Closer To Fine – much better than her first fear conquering attempt at the last gig. Unfortunately, I messed up and didn’t record it.
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Well .. enough of my yapping – here are the recordings which are served up with a new in-line mp3 player plugin.
Here’s one of the new songs I’ll be doing this weekend at the Flat Iron Cafe = Saturday March 27, 2010 7:30 – 10:30 PM
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The song Buckets of Rain is from one my favorite Dylan albums – Blood On The Tracks. This version is a one-take quicky recording so don’t expect anything resembling perfection. It’s a cross between Dylan’s version with some of the percussive clawhammer-ish style I’ve been playing around with. Here is the direct link to the mp3.
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I really *must* change the mustache graphic to a neatly-trimmed goatee graphic but no time now. Enjoy and please come to the Flat Iron this Saturday.
Arty photo that makes me look trendy and cool
Laughing Grass' first gig 7/31/2004
Here’s a video of “Little Bird Of Heaven” a song by the Reeltime Travelers from my recent gig at the Flat Iron Cafe. I have no idea what the heck this song is about but it has that old time/roots sound that really appeals to me these days. My version is slower, more subdued and I think works well given that I don’t have a clawhammer banjo or any other accompaniment. Unfortunately there’s a lot of crow noise but I still like it.
Here is a recording from the Flat Iron Cafe – it’s an old Monkee’s song. There is a bit of crowd noise but not a bad version. It was taken by my friend Katie – who toughed it out all the way to the end.
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