E-mail: Editor..coffeecubby@bigpond.com.au.. Ph 9789 3306

BANKSIA BULLETIN AUGUST 2011BANKSIA BULLETIN AUGUST 2011BANKSIA BULLETIN AUGUST 2011BANKSIA BULLETIN AUGUST 2011

PENINSULA FOLK CLUBPENINSULA FOLK CLUBPENINSULA FOLK CLUBPENINSULA FOLK CLUB

LOCAL FOLK HERO AT PFC ON SEPTEMBER 4th

DANNY SPOONER To say Danny Spooner holds a special place in the popu-lar opinion of folk music lovers in Australia and overseas is like saying Phar Lap could run a bit. To many, he is the premier voice of traditional music in this country, and has been for more years than he and the rest of us care to remember. If there's a song on this planet that Danny doesn't know, that's probably because it hasn't been writ-ten yet. He has an encyclopedic knowledge of traditional music, and over the years has been unfailingly patient and generous in sharing that knowledge with anyone who asked him….And now he's branching out into re-cording music of a more contemporary nature. My field, in fact. Just what I needed, more competition. And he'll probably do it bloody well. Eric Bogle, 2007

PLUSPLUSPLUSPLUS AUSTRALIAN THEME We’re once again going to salute the

Aussie flag and say a collective “She’ll be right” to all things Aussie. There’s any number of Aussie Icons to salute.. Aussie Singers to salute..and great Aussie songs to dust off. There’s John Williamson, Slim Dusty, Kasey Chambers, Paul Kelly, the Seekers, Crowded House...just to name a few..!!

We’d love you all to enter into the spirit of OZ.. Aussie Bush gear would be great.. Certainly all performers are encouraged to do something Australian. Should be room for a number of stage acts..so, if you want to get a

“gig”, Vince is the man to call on 0418 381 668

FOR YOUR DIARY: COMING UP AT PFC SEP 4 : The legendary DANNY SPOONER

for an AUSSIE THEME NIGHT

OCT 2 : Everybody’s favourite COOLGRASS

NOV 6 : STREZLECKI STRINGBUSTERS are back!!

HOT AUGUST NIGHT No we didn’t have Neil Diamond, but Sunday 7th August was certainly a Hot August Night at PFC! Thank you everybody who came and played, and to the rest who were a marvelous audience. Alan Buckley (with side kick Peter Nelson!!) kicked of proceeding, followed by our old friend Burwyn, to be followed by our seafarer Mick Kearon Our main Feature act FAUXGRASS gave us a wonderful set of genuine Bluegrass and Bluegrass make-overs of popular songs. Dave Aumann on mandolin and Blair Webb on guitar, with old favourites Evan Webb on Bass and the incomparable (or is that incorrigible) Jim Golding on Banjo. They were missing their fiddle player, but who no-ticed. Loved their closing numbers Rawhide and that Bluegrass Classic Viva Las Vegas.

Lots of you came to see long time member Steve Carter on holidays from Queensland and you were not disappointed. Clearly a talented singer and guitarist, Steve had us eating out of his hands. Absolute high-light (sorry Keith and other) was Streets of London. Yes, it probably was overdone in past days, but what a great song. Poignant sad song, with new meaning with the riots these recent days!!!! Steve was joined by old mate John for one song, then John blew us away with a couple of great numbers. After the excitement died down, we were treated to three of the best acts to come out of PFC.. Bill Dett-mer, Clark Morgan and the zany but very talented Momma’s Mountain Jug Band . What can I say? That was three acts you would pay good money to see any day !!

THE PICTURE HERE IS A HISTORIC ONE WITH NINE PRESIDENTS OF THIS FOLK CLUB (PAST AND PRESENT) CLEARLY MANY OF THEM HAVE BEEN IN A GOOD PADDOCK!! GREAT TO HAVE YOU ALL TOGETHER FOR THE NIGHT.

MENTORING Your Committee is keen to see more mentoring in the Club. It to be encouraged as part of our charter ….Our Constitution says in part, we are :-

To help promote music and folk arts in the community. To enable performers to meet on a regular basis and exchange ideas and

skills related to folk and other music genres. With this in mind, the concept is to pro-moted, to encourage “beginners” to link up with more experienced players. If you think you would like to be mentored by of of the more experienced players, why not just go up and ask the… you might be pleasantly surprised!! If you have difficulty just bowling up to someone like that, have a word wioth Max or Vince and they will see what they can do. AS well, we would encourage performers to link up with other performers to form duets, trios etc,, Philippa is one who

should be commended for linking up with different performers,

WORKSHOPSWORKSHOPSWORKSHOPSWORKSHOPS The workshops we ran at he last Club night were really appreciated by the partici-pants. Again our Constitution says we are :

“To provide workshops on styles and techniques used in playing instruments from the folk and other music genres.”

So we will be running more in future, possibly every second month… so WATCH THIS SPACE

GIRGARE JAMMING SATURDAY 22nd OCTOBER Jan Smith from Girgarre has invited Peninsula Folk Club members and friends to come and share their monthly Girgarre Jamming Session on Saturday 22nd October It is their way of saying “thank you” for the support that PFC has been to this small country Community over the past few years Plan is for their regular Jam Session 1.30 to 4 followed by stage acts and a meal Further jamming after the meal and on Sunday Morning. They are able to put up a limited number overnight, so if you are interested, we need to know so we can let them know how many are coming..

MONEY MATTERS…. PFC MEMBERSHIP for 2011-12 IS NOW DUE It is still $15 single or $20 Family.

Folk Heroes’ Kin Keep Legacy but Carve Own Path WHEN Tao Seeger took the stage at the Tarrytown Music Hall in April at a benefit for the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater environmental organization, he quipped that he hoped his grandfather wouldn’t come after him with an ax. He then began a free-form banjo performance whose electronic effects owed more to Jimi Hendrix than to the folk-singing legend Pete Seeger. The younger Seeger was alluding to a famous incident at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival in which his grandfather reportedly balked at the Bob Dylan band’s use of the electric guitar — a radical de-parture for folk music — and threatened to cut the sound system with an ax. The incident, Tao See-ger said in a recent interview, had been misreported: no ax had been present, and his grandfather had simply objected to the way elec-tronic distortion drowned out the lyr-ics. But the point had been made: the next generation of folkies were going to do it their way. That point is likely to be reinforced at this year’s Great Hudson River Revival, where, on June 18 and 19, more than 100 acts — comprising at least 450 individual performers — will fill seven stages at Croton Point Park in Croton-on-Hudson. The event, which has existed in some form since the 1960s and is commonly known as the Clearwater Festival, will feature a long list of folk-movement icons and their performing kin, appearing both with their own groups and in multigenerational assemblages. Speaking from New Orleans, where he is building relationships with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band and other musicians outside the folk mainstream, Tao Seeger said his songwriting shared little tech-nically with that of his grandfather, whose classics — “Turn! Turn! Turn!” “If I Had a Hammer” and “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?” — are lyrically more universal and musically less raucous than his grandson’s songs. “I’m just not wired like that,” Tao Seeger said. At the festival, he will appear on June 19 on the Hud-son Stage with the Tao Seeger Band: Laura Cortese on violin and vocals, Jacob Silver on bass and Robin MacMillan on drums. The band will venture into rock ’n’ roll and other territory that an earlier generation of folk musicians largely avoided. Bethany Yarrow, the daughter of another folk-singing legend, Peter Yarrow, also draws distinctions between the music she produces for her group, the Bethany and Rufus Roots Quartet, and that of her father, who wrote “Puff, the Magic Dragon” and helped introduce Pete Seeger songs to a mass audience as a member of Peter, Paul and Mary. Ms. Yarrow said she and her father had performed his song “No Easy Walk to Freedom” at Tarry-town on his terms, but “when we do the Roots Quartet stuff, it’s not on his terms anymore.” The quartet — Rufus Cappadocia on cello, Yacouba Moumouni on flute and vocals, Gaston Jean-Baptiste on percussion and Ms. Yarrow on vocals and guitar — draws on African and Caribbean tra-ditions that predate American folk. The group will appear on June 19 on the World Dance Stage. Whatever their styles, the different generations of folk performers can usually find common ground. Ms. Yarrow occasionally adapts material from the Peter, Paul and Mary songbook. And Tao Seeger has crafted a set of Spanish lyrics for Pete Seeger’s “Well May the World Go” that some listeners find more potent than the original English version. He said he may sing the tune at the festival. The points of agreement between generations will be highlighted when the clans gather after each day’s performances. In addition to the Seegers and the Yarrows, these meetings will involve, among others, Arlo Guthrie, David Amram, Tom Chapin and their families — all of whom, Tao Seeger said, will join in on some Pete Seeger favorites. Despite their differences musically, Tao Seeger said his grandfather had instilled in him a desire to use music to advance social justice. “I’m an activist,” he said. “I can’t help it. It’s the way I was raised.

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ALL YOU EVER WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT THE DOUBLE BASS The double bass, also called the string bass, upright bass, standup bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra, with strings usually tuned to E1, A1, D2 and G2 (see standard tuning). The double bass is a stan-dard member of the string section of the symphony orchestra[1] and smaller string ensembles[2] in Western classical music. In addition, it is used in other genres such as jazz, 1950s-style blues and rock and roll, rockabilly/psychobilly, traditional country music, bluegrass, tango and many types of folk music. A person who plays the double bass is usually referred to as a bass-ist.

Use in bluegrass and related genres The string bass is the most commonly used bass instrument in bluegrass music and is almost always plucked, though some modern bluegrass bassists have also used a bow. The bluegrass bassist is part of the rhythm section, and is responsible for keeping a steady beat, whether fast, slow, in 4/4 time, 2/4 or 3/4 time. The Engelhardt-Link (formerly Kay) brands of laminate basses have long been popular choices for bluegrass bassists. Most bluegrass bassists use the 3/4 size bass, but the full-size and 5/8 size basses are also used. Upright bass used by a bluegrass group; the cable for a piezoelectric pickup can be seen ex-tending from the bridge. Early pre-bluegrass traditional music was often accompanied by the cello. The cellist Natalie Haas points out that in the US, you can find "... old photographs, and even old recordings, of

American string bands with cello." However, "the cello dropped out of sight in folk music and became associated with the orchestra".[29] The cello did not reappear in bluegrass until the 1990s and first decade of the 21st century. Some contemporary bluegrass bands favor the electric bass, because it is easier to transport than the large and somewhat fragile upright bass. However, the bass guitar has a different musical sound. Many musicians feel the slower attack and percussive, woody tone of the up-right bass gives it a more "earthy" or "natural" sound than an electric bass, particularly when gut strings are used. Common rhythms in blue-grass bass play-ing involve (with some excep-tions) plucking on beats 1 and 3 in 4/4 time; beats 1 and 2 in 2/4 time, and on the downbeat in

3/4 time (waltz time). Bluegrass bass lines are usually simple, typically staying on the root and fifth of each chord throughout most of a song. There are two main exceptions to this "rule". Bluegrass bassists often do a dia-tonic "walkup" or "walkdown" in which they play every beat of a bar for one or two bars, typi-cally when there is a chord change. In addition, if a bass player is given a solo, they may play a walking bass line with a note on every beat or play a pentatonic scale-influenced bassline.

An early bluegrass bassist to rise to prominence was Howard Watts (also known as Cedric Rainwater), who played with Bill Monroe's Blue Grass Boys beginning in 1944.[30] The classical bassist Edgar Meyer has frequently branched out into newgrass, old-time, jazz, and other gen-res. "My all-time favorite is Todd Phillips", proclaimed Union Station bassist Barry Bales in April

2005. "He brought a completely different way of thinking about and playing bluegrass. An upright bass was the standard bass instrument in traditional country western music. While the upright bass is still occasionally used in country music, the electric bass has largely replaced its bigger cousin in country music, especially in the more pop-infused country styles of the 1990s and 2000s, such as new country.

Slap-style bass Slap-style bass is sometimes used in bluegrass bass playing. When bluegrass bass players slap the string by pulling it until it hits the fingerboard or hit the strings against the fingerboard, it adds the high-pitched percussive "clack" or "slap" sound to the low-pitched bass notes, sounding much like the clacks of a tap dancer. Slapping is a subject of minor controversy in the bluegrass scene. Even slapping experts such as Mike Bub say, "...don't slap on every gig" or in songs where it is "not appropriate." As well, bluegrass bassists who play slap-style on live shows often slap less on records. Bub and his mentor Jerry McCoury rarely do slap bass on recordings. While bassists such as Jack Cook slap bass "...on the occasional faster Clinch Mountain boys song", bassists such as "...Gene Libbea, Missy Raines, Jenny Keel, or Barry Bales [rarely] slap bass."[31] Bluegrass bassist Mark Schatz, who teaches slap bass in his Intermediate Bluegrass Bass DVD acknowledges that slap bass "...has not been stylistically very predominant in the music I have recorded." He notes that "Even in traditional bluegrass slap bass only ap-pears sporadically and most of what I've done has been on the more con-temporary side of that (Tony Rice, Tim O'Brien)." Schatz states that he would be "... more likely to use it [slap] in a live situa-tion than on a re-cording – for a solo or to punctuate a particular place in a song or tune where I wouldn't be obliterating someone's solo.".[32] Another bluegrass method, Learn to Play Blue-grass Bass, by Earl Gately, also teaches bluegrass slap bass technique.

RANGES BURRINJA FOLK CLUB 351 Glenfern Rd, Upwey

Friday AUG 26 DAVE DIPROSE plus ALANNA & ALICIA EGAN Dave Diprose is a consumate performer who plays blues the old way. His sensational slide guitar

performed on resophonic instruments recreates the sound and energy of the Mississippi Juke

Joints like it was when the blues began.

Alanna & Alicia Egan are identical twin sister singer songwriters who have a natural rapport

BERWICK & DISTRICT FOLK CLUB

3rd Friday each month at The Berwick Old Cheese Factory from 7.30pm. .# Edward Nass, 0418 535264 Guests $10/ Members & Spot acts $7.00

16th September Peter Denahy is one of those blokes who was always around the pub, the session, the concert or the buffet with his fiddle in his hand, ready with a joke or a twisted one-liner." (Mike Ruggles- Maldon Folk Festival) His mother is Japa-nese and his father is a fourth generation, Irish Australian. He spent his early childhood in Japan and gained an appreciation of music from his Japanese grandfather who was a conductor, composer and cello player. At twenty-two he joined a band called the "Ploughboys" playing the fiddle and guitar and he played pubs around Melbourne, six nights out of seven, which was a great experience . Playing with the Ploughboys took him to one of his favourite fes-tivals, Maldon Folk Festival and then to the bigger ones, Port Fairy and the National at Canberra

New Mountain Pickers Association in Victoria 9 August, 11 By Greg McGrath Victorian audiences and pickers have an opportunity to partake in a new musi-cal event in the Dandenong Ranges area. The Mountain Pickers Association is a recently formed organisation which is currently attracting strong audiences to its monthly bluegrass meetings on the eastern side of Melbourne. The association was formed by a team of pickers, led by Jim Golding, as a means of linking the new Great Alpine Pick – a new festival event in Victoria’s alpine region – to an ongoing association. The natural progression from that point was to have a regu-lar monthly event, “The First Tuesday Club Night” for musicians to play and audiences to listen to bluegrass music. Burrinja, a theatre and arts space in the Yarra Range’s town of Upwey, was chosen as a destination and the association held it’s first event in March 2011. The event attracted over 60 people and attendances at the following two events have not diminished in number. Indeed the last concert attracted an audience of 100 people. The structure of the evening is a blackboard concert with a paid feature band on the night. Entry to the evening costs $12.00/$10.00 and members of the newly formed Mountain Pickers Association are charged $8.00. Membership of the association is $20.00 and this provides email notification of upcomming events and discounted entry to the monthly Burrinja concerts. The association already boasts over 100 financial members and continues to grow. The future of the event looks bright as the Burrinja Arts Centre is un-dergoing a building program which will provide the emerging Mountain Pickers Association with addi-tional venues for jam sessions and concert attractions. Preparations for the second Great Alpine Pick continue with plans for additional concerts and jam ses-sions, similar to last year and much further involvement from the wider Harrietville community

GIG GUIDE GIG GUIDE

FOR YOUR MUSIC NEEDS, PFC MEMBERSHIP GETS YOU A

DISCOUNT AT THESE LOCAL BUSINESSES Bay City Music..10 Wells St. Frankston. Ph 9781 3022 Disc. to be negotiated Cranbourne Music Centre..130 High St, Cranbourne Ph 5996 6955 10% Disc. Nepean Music Centre...U4/1 Morn-Tyabb Rd. M’ngton. Ph: 5975 0293 10% Disc Guitars & Things 3e 415-417 Nepean Hwy (cnr Ross Smith Av F’ton Ph 9770 1765 15% Disc

Fathers in the Chapel presents a strictly acoustic concert with open stage format at St John's Anglican Church, Childers Street, Cranbourne. Held on a monthly basis, the evening's entertainment is open to all perform-ers and all types of music with each performance allotted ten minutes. Singers, musicians, and poets are all welcome. Admission is $7 for patrons and $2 for performers. 2nd Friday of each month commencing at 7.30 Contact Chris Newman (AH): 5996 9544 or (BH): 0410 422238

Peninsula Country Music Club Meet at the Rye Civic hall Napier St Rye on the SECOND

Sunday of the Month starting at 1pm also Verandah Music on the 3rd Sat from 1-4 at

Dromana Community Hall Dromana for Country, Bluegrass and Folk Music Contact Jack Kirby 5983 5922 re both these venues

SELBY FOLK CLUB meets on the 1st Friday of every month, at the

Selby Community House,, Wombalana Road, Selby. (Melway 75 K11)

Note: Enter Wombalana Road from Charles street, (Doors open 7.30pm, Music starts 8.00pm.. Adults $10, Con.$8

September 2nd A'capella Festival

Ringwood Folk: Guest Artist Night is the 2nd Tuesday of each month at 8:00 pm at East Ringwood Community Hall (enter from Knaith Road, off Dublin Road), Melway 50 B8. .Entry is $10.00 (Spot Act per-formers $5.00). # Maree Buttler 9733-0802

Ringwood Colonial Bush Dances First Saturday of every month (except January), 8:00 pm - 11:00 pm at East Ringwood Elderly Citizens Club Hall, Laurence Grove, Ringwood East (Melway 50 B8). September 3rd BLACKBERRY JAM

.

If Undelivered return to: Peninsula Folk Club C/o P.O. Box 1398 Frankston Vic 3199

Dates to Remember Peninsula Folk Club:-

CLUB NIGHTS... SEP 4, OCT 2, NOV 6

First Sunday each Month 5.45 - 9.30pm @ Frankston Bowling Clubrooms, Cnr Yuille & William Sts Frankston Informal Jam Session 5,45 – 6:30pm, then “Concert” 6.30– 9.30pm

Members $4.00 Visitors $6.00 Drinks & Meals available.