John’s Blog

I really hate spammers.  First I had to take down my guestbook, which several cool people signed due to the pages and pages of spam a day it was getting.  Now I had to not allow people to register to post on this blog.  I’m getting 2-6 spam comments a day, all of which I get an email about and have to mark to delete.  Since spammers are the only ones posting I removed the ability to register.  If you do feel like posting a comment send me an email and I’ll give you an account.

Well it has been a while so I have a lot to catch up on.  I went to the Midwest Banjo Camp again this year.  I had a great roommate named Adam who was really good.  He is in a band called The Mill City Grinders.  They are great, check out their music on that link and buy their CD.  The camp was a lot of fun.  See if you can find me in this group pic.

Then I went to my first ever festival and had a great time!  I can’t believe I haven’t been going to these for years.  It was Battle Ground in Indiana.  Adam was there too, which his whole band.  They were great to play with and treated me real nice.  Even though I’m not half as good as they are they let me play with them the whole time.

Finally I’ve being playing with The All Volunteer String Band and taking a fiddle song class at the Jones Family School of Music.  I’ve learned a lot of songs and still have a lot to go to learn all the ones they play.  I’ve played exactly one dance so far.  I’m looking forward to more.

If you are reading this, feel free to drop me an email at zenbanjoman@gmail.com.  I don’t think many people are on there and I would love to hear from you.

Until next time…

-John

Thanks to Gus Friedlander I learned about the shows at the Two Way Street Coffee House. By going to the shows I learned about the regular jam sessions held there. They are on Saturdays from 2-4. The 1^st and 3^rd Saturday they call a Singalong and it is a folkie jam sessions mostly with guitars doing a lot of folk standards, John Prine tunes, etc. Not exactly my thing but it is good chord and ear training practice and the people are nice. The 4^th Saturday is a bluegrass jam. Upon talking to them I learned it was OK if I show up and play clawhammer so I did. That was closer to my type of jam, I knew more of the songs anyway. Then I learned that these were put on by the Plank Road Folk Music Society (PRFMS) and on the 2^nd Saturday of every month (except Summer months) they have a All Volunteer String Band practice at Jones Family Music School. So I just made it to that yesterday and it was exactly my thing. Old time fiddle tunes! Great group of people too. I’m lucky I made it to the last one before the break, they start up again in September. They also offer a class on working out fiddle tunes which starts up in September. This is a great find and I’m excited about it. And all because my friend and teacher Gus told me about the Two Way Street Coffee House when I told him I was moving to Downers Grove. I love how that works.

Now I have a list of fiddle tunes to work on before September. My next post will probably be about the Midwest Banjo Camp coming up in a few weeks. I’m excited about that too. Last year was a blast.

Here is my first ever Blog post. I plan on writing about local music, weekend music trips, music camps and such. Check back later.