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PASSINGS
TONY YOUNG
Tony Young grew up in
central Scotland, went to
sea as a young man, and ended up in Los
Angeles. Somewhere along the way, he learned to play
the spoons like no one you've ever heard before or since. It wasn't just that he
was the most technically gifted player; it was the absolute joy that he got
from playing and sharing his music. He sat in with just about every Irish or
Scottish band in California
at one time or another, and was a fixture at the local festivals. Lots of folks
never even knew his name... they just called him "Spoonman."
Tony
wasn't able to play his spoons for the last few years of his life, but we bet
he's playing them somewhere now.
A memorial service took place this past Saturday at Maggie's Pub in Santa Fe Springs. A gathering of his friends, neighbors and fellow musicians celebrated his life. His brother Ron shared stories and fond memories.
Celtic trio Banshee in the Kitchen came out from their
homebase in Bakersfield to kick offthis
summer's series of free concerts at the Peter Strauss Ranch. Sponsored by the
Topanga Banjo Fiddle contest, these concerts are family events, great fun for
grown-ups and kids alike. So this review is brought to you by one grown-up and
one kid.
A GROWN-UP PERPECTIVE (by Kathy)
There are only three Banshees: Jill Egland, Brenda Hunter
and Mary Tulin. It seems like there should be more of them, though, from the
number of instruments you see on stage. Between them, the Banshees play hammer
dulcimer (Brenda), fiddle (Brenda), piano accordion (Jill), flute (Jill),
bodhran (Jill), bouzouki (Mary) and guitars of various types and tunings
(Mary). They all sing, too.
Having a famous dad can be more of a curse than a blessing.
For every Barry Bonds or Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, both of whom overtook their
fathers in the family business, there are thousands of sons who follow their
dads with little success. (Franz Xaver Mozart, anyone?) But Vieux Farka Touré,
the son of the great Malian guitarist Ali Farka Touré, has already stepped out
from his late father's shadow. Ali Farka Touré proved - in case anyone ever
doubted it - that the soul of the blues could be found in West
Africa. His son Vieux is turning heads with a more radical idea:
that those western Saharan roots can be heard in everything from the jam band
scene to Jamaican dub.
Fondo, Vieux's
newest effort and his Six Degrees
debut, is more than a stirring mix of traditional
2008 is a landmark year for Joan Baez, marking 50 years
since she began her legendary residency at Boston's famed Club 47. She remains a musical
force of nature whose influence is incalculable - marching on the front line of
the civil rights movement with Martin Luther King Jr., inspiring Vaclav Havel
in his fight for a Czech Republic, singing on the first Amnesty International
tour and just this year, standing alongside Nelson Mandela when the world
celebrated his 90th birthday in London's Hyde Park. She brought the Free Speech
Movement into the spotlight, took to the fields with Cesar Chavez, organized
resistance to the war in Southeast Asia, then forty years later saluted the
Dixie Chicks for their courage to protest war. Her earliest recordings fed a
host of traditional ballads into the rock vernacular, before she
unselfconsciously introduced Bob Dylan to the world in 1963 and focused
awareness on songwriters ranging from Woody Guthrie, Dylan, Phil Ochs, Richard
Farina, and Tim Hardin, to Kris Kristofferson and Mickey Newbury, to Dar
Williams, Richard Shindell, Steve Earle and many more.
I do not recall exactly when I first heard Delaney Bramlett
perform, but I do know exactly where: a gawd awful/wonderful all day Sunday
television program entitled Cal’s Corral. This glorious approximation of a
country hoe down/used and new car lot jamboree featured almost every country
related performer in Southern California, and
was the brainchild of Cal Worthington. Yes, that same 163 year old gentleman in
the ill fitting cowboy hat whose TV commercials still entreat you to come on
down and buy a car. Cal
liked country music, and he knew that a lot of good folks liked country music
too, so why not somehow tie that to the sales of his low down, easy payment
merchandise. Hence, Cal’s
Corral.
The state of contemporary Bluegrass
is in an interesting position: the genre has become a new melting pot, an
amalgam of styles and sounds encompassing Old Time, Folk, Blues, Country, Jazz,
Pop and, of course (hopefully!) Bluegrass -
the original sounds of Bill Monroe and his Bluegrass Boys. Why this is
interesting is because Bluegrass at its creation was a monumental evolution of
gathered sounds, from Tin Pan Alley, Blues, Black Gospel, Appalachian ballads,
Irish dance music, set to a blindingly fast pace, with high lead vocals and
group harmonies tighter than a drum. So now, it's gratifying to watch it
growing again and changing with this new generation, called "a Bluegrass youth
revolution" by some, all the while reaching back to grab, with love and
reverence, the old sounds of driving Bluegrass, George Jones-type country
music, Western Swing and mountain fiddle, melding with pop-flavored
contemporary sounds.
