guitarsociety

Summer Schedule

Greetings, WAGSters,

 
A summer schedule is developing for WAGS gatherings:

 
Wednesday, June 25, 7:30 p.m., Pioneer Community Center (aka Pioneer Church), Cathlamet

Wednesday, July 2, 7:30 p.m., residence of Rob and Diane Stockhouse, 62 W Birnie Slough Rd., Puget Island

Sunday, July 27, 2 p.m., residence of Kathleen Morgaine, Twin Gables Bed and Breakfast, Skamokawa

Wednesday, Aug. 6, 7 p.m., Pioneer Community Center

A couple of impressive guitar videos

First, a contribution from a friend of Randy's -- the four handed guitar solo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4BYMvVvMg0

Then a bit of unadulterated 10 string guitar
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2BOApUvFpw&NR=1

In any event, WAGS at the Inn at Lucky Mud this Sunday afternoon!

See you there!

A great time at a great place (with great people!)

Greetings, WAGSters,

 
1. We had a great time at our latest session January 20 at the Inn at Lucky Mud. Sunrise reviewed some of the songs he played at his 1/19 concert, and we sampled leftovers from the party.

2. Next meeting Jan. 30 at Joyce Orr's, 284 Greenwood. We're going to try at least one weekend session per month and will try to get the schedule firmed up.

3. WAGS members agreed to perform a concert March 15 at the River Rat Tavern in Cathlamet. Stay tuned for more details.

4. We had a great time December 23 when Bob Nelson and company played at Lucky Mud. They requested a copy of Spanish Flang Dang, and a pdf of that piece, should anyone want to attempt, is here Download spanish_flang_dang.pdf .

 
5. Bob also talked about the Seattle Folklore Society and its website:
seafolklore.org. Check it out: You'll find information, photos, history, resources and links and so on.

WAGS at Ruthies!

Members of the Wahkiakum Acoustic Guitar Society converged at the Downtown Coffee Shop Saturday, November 24, to put on a program after Cathlamet's Holiday Lighting Festival.

Randy Williams led off with with a set of folk songs. New member Dale Costich followed with another folk and blues set. Rick Nelson threw in a rumba and some flamenco. Sunrise Fletcher led a blues jam, and novice Joyce Orr gave us a folk song. Doug Sheresh followed with some bluesy numbers, and Sunrise closed the show with four songs off a CD he has produced. We ended with a raucous version of Feliz Navidad and headed to the River Rat for dinner.

We have another convergence this Wednesday, November 28, 7 p.m. at Lucky Mud. We convene again the following Wednesday, December 5, at Joyce and Bob Orr's house on Greenwood Road.

 

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...a bit of Rumba, a bit of Hotel California

The first meeting of WAGS at the Pioneer Community Church building was focused on discrete bits of education in guitar playing. Rick first took us down the wild and woolly path of playing Rumba-style...it seems simple enough (hah!) with just a tap, upstroke with the fingertips, downstroke with the fingertips, upstroke with the thumb, and then repeat...nothing to it, right?  (hah!) Give it a go, then once you have your rhythm down, try changing between chords while maintaining the rhythm, then try doing it at a fast pace.   

But, don't take my word for it, grab Rick's instructions and try it! Download Rick's Basic Rumba Techniques.pdf

Randy took us down another path, providing the chords (& lyrics) to "Hotel California", and walking us through the chords he is using (many bar chords instead of the open chord versions). A bit challenging but fun, and once we had the chord pattern down he started demonstrating the related lead riffs to go with it.

Beyond that point we went off on various tangents (movable jazz chords with up and down sliding notes), and random bits of fingering techniques.

This next week WAGS meeting will be at Rob and Diane Stockhouse's pavilion (59 West Bernie, on Puget Island) -- (the same location as the Two Islands Farmers Market that is held every Friday afternoon, but another 100 feet further back...) Send me email  if you have questions on how to get there [Wednesday, July 25th, 7-9pm].

Alluring... enticing... a fabulous evening of guitar!

"A great night of music!"

"The best WAGS meeting ever!"

"A wonderful range of different guitar styles!"

These and many other comments were voiced by WAGS members following the meeting on May 9th (and I couldn't agree more! This was a wonderful and inspiring evening of music and guitar talent on display!).

This meeting was the largest to date, with eleven musicians in attendance, and each reflecting a bit of their own style and presentations of guitar music.

The meeting was kicked into gear by Sunrise Fletcher quiet (but efficient) aural summoning in playing Mr. Bojangles, beckoning all to join in, with a very pretty set of (8 part?) harmonies complementing Sunrise's clear resonant vocals and tight guitar accompaniment. 

This WAGS meeting was graced by the attendance a new member (Mike McAvoy) and a couple of out-of-town folks, namely the renowned Maggie Savage (a legend in Pacific NW folk music since the 1950s) and Alex Docker's son Alex who lives in England but flew in and enchanted all of us with renditions of Celtic classical guitar that were ethereal, beautiful, and left us wanting more (and more, and more...). In fact, later in the evening, even after Alex had put away his guitar, we managed to convince him to pull it out and play a bit more. (p.s. Alex said he was open to us having WAGS meetings at his place in England--now all we have to do is figure out the commute!).

Alex Docker (the elder, living in Cathlamet) who also plays facinating Celtic melodies in non-standard tunings (such as DADGAD) with such reasonant Celtic tonalities that they impart a sense of the magical--you can almost see the leprechauns chasing the faeries, nixies, pixeies, and sprites. Alex's multiplicity of tunings (he talked about 2 or 3 others in addition to DADGAD) provided an meliflous enticement for us all to stray into alternative tunings (Hey Alex, perhaps we can get you to do a short workshop on such alternative tunings and how you play in them?)

Andrew Emlen, drawing upon his experiences in Mexico, where his guitar repertoire was internationally enhanced and expanded, expertly played and sang an endearing Mexican song in Spanish to the crowd's demonstrative appreciation.

As members of Willapa Hills in attendance, Sunrise, Andrew, and Kerrie consented to combine their oh-so-melodious harmonies with their dexterous fingerwork in chording and companion lead riffs in performing one of the sweetest songs on their CD (and one of my favorites) "All My Trials". (p.s. The Willapa Hills CD is available for sale at the Inn at Lucky Mud, or directly from Andrew Emlen or Kerrie McNally).

Rising to the inspiration, Jerry Ledke's fingers flew in an impressive fusion of Dylan-esque folk and Cajun Blues, a down-home creation that would make any student of American blues styles proud. (Jerry, you've got to show me how to play that!).

Contributing to the diversity as well as our appreciation of the deep art of flamenco, Rick Nelson intrigued, charmed, and baffled us with several tight and exceptionally pretty flamenco songs that I can neither name nor play (yet--but someday I hope to!)

Randy Williams both entertained and amazed us with several songs from the American popular music scene in the last few decades (though I suppose it isn't exactly correct to label the Beatles as 'American', even though their music seriously pervaded our musical and cultural consciousness--however we can lay claim to Eric Clapton and others). Irrespective of country of origin, Randy's impeccable fretboard work and precise delivery brings home the stylings of the original artist, and ensorceled us into a musical reverie where we all found ourselves singing along.

After such a amazing demonstration of style(s) and skill, and with such an international flavor (Andalusian flamenco, Celtic classical, and Mexican folk), it was a challenge to come up with what to play next. When Maggie asked me what my favorite song was, Paul Simon's American Tune came to mind--I hope that I did it justice! 

The next meeting of WAGS (May 30th, Wednesday 7pm) will be held at the Inn at Lucky Mud.

Hope to see you there!

...new members, new styles, new sounds, more joy in the art

In the last week of April, the Wahkiakum Acoustic Guitar Society meeting was treated to a featured performance by one of our newer members, and our ranks grew a bit with the addition of another local guitarist bringing a bit of a European flair.

Our newest member, Alex Docker, played a number of oh-so-sweet Irish melodies utilizing an alternative tuning that gave the musical pieces a touch of Gaelic feel to the sound (Alex, care to post the tuning you were using here?)

Before we started the featured performance of the evening, each guitarist in attendance took a turn to play a song or so, demonstrating once again the impressive overall range and scope of guitar styles wielded by WAGS members.

As is our way here at WAGS, we regularly ask one of our members to do a featured performance, taking 30-45 minutes to do a set -- sometimes with a bit of description as to the history and styles, sometimes with more music and less talk, playing a only lightly interrupted sequence of songs. Tonight's featured performer was Glen Bristow (nephew of Rick, guitarist in his own right), whose writing, progressions, and fingerings amply demonstrated his own enticingly eclectic and innovative approach.

Glen's engaging performance highlighted his diverse exposure to musical genres, leveraging licks and chord patterns from multiple styles, blending classical and jazz influences that melded into some serious rock with an intense underlying drive to it.

Songs varied from some instrumental expositions, a country style song (complete with lost love angst), to expressive rock-styled constructions whose complexity was complemented by Glen's dexterity with the fingerings and chord patterns.

Glen's integration of familiar blues, jazz, rock, and folk riffs with his original compositions brought a fresh appeal with complexity and innovation.  It seems with each new member of WAGS we add dimension and scope to the styles of guitar being played at our meetings, and Glen was a wonderful example of this -- interesting, exciting, and refreshingly divergent!  If you haven't heard Glen play yet, you will just have to come to wAGS to hear him play...I guarantee that you won't be bored!

The next WAGS meeting has been moved to May 9th (instead of the traditional 1st Wednesday May 2nd) to make the logistics work a bit better for all involved.

See you there!

...just another evening of heavenly strings...

The meeting of the Wahkiakum Acoustic Guitar Society was another open (read "unstructured") evening on April 4th.

We met, we played, we romped, we frolicked, we had a good time.

Ok, ok, so there was a lot more to it than that--we are graced by such an abundance of talent, it sometimes gets hard to come up with adequate descriptions without being totally redundant with previous posts.

As a partial reflection on this scrumptious smorgasbord of musical skill and experience, I would mention Rick with his range of expertise and repertoire of flamenco and jazz progressions, Sunrise with his extensive scope from years of professional performances playing rhythm and lead guitar and singing his expressive vocals, Randy playing impeccable classical melodies (with bits of Clapton et. al. thrown in), Jerry doing some fine picking of contemporary and folk songs, Andrew's exhaustive knowledge of traditional music, multi-instrument skills, and pristine vocal stylin's, Kerrie's sweet melodious renditions (of everything she sings), etc. etc. etc. I could go on and on (and sometimes do) but you probably get the idea.

If you haven't been at WAGS listening and or playing, you have indeed been missing out... *grin*

...random bits leading to blues...

Once again the Wahkiakum Acoustic Guitar Society was fortuned to be hosted by the wonderful folks at the Inn at Lucky Mud, relaxing in the warm, comfortable, and acoustically bright main room right off the foyer. Pluck a string, play a riff, unfetter your fingers a bit, and you can hear every tone clearly.

As the first to arrive this evening, I had a chance to talk with a resident musical savant (and one of the professional musicians in the group) Sunrise Fletcher, babbling and bantering a bit about styles, scales,  and other scintillating subjects of a musical sort.

Our scheduled featured performance was delayed due to life's logistical  liquidity (ok, ok, so I'm stretching my alliterations a bit here),  but we hope to see the much anticipated Glen Bristow debut in the near future.

The songs rather rotated around, providing each of us an excuse to trot out any tried-and-true or even transitory demonstration of digital dexterity. The manual manipulation of melodious mastery was interspersed with technical discussions of the relationships between chord changes and scalar structures--bits of which went over my head (but in a good way, in that it helps my understanding of the underlying music/guitar theory grow to encompass new dimensions of jazz, flamenco, and classical). At any rate, it was yet another wonderful evening of guitar, music, theory, and bits O' frivolity.

Our duly (s)elected president (perhaps "drafted" would be more accurate) Rick Nelson came up with a *theme* (blues) for this upcoming meeting on Wednesday the 4th of April (at 7pm, the usual time, at the Inn at Lucky Mud). For Wednesday night's gathering, everyone should bring a blues tune or three.   

Hope to see you there!

...gratifying guitar glimmerings...

This first WAGS meeting of March blew in blustery, like the weather outside--squalls of classical, gusts of flamenco, a drizzle of blues, and followed by rhythmic downpours of innovative guitar from all around the room.

The evening was a bit relaxed and informal--a warm and inviting environment with friendly folks and a meandering cat (Lily) taking up residence on perfectly good laps that weren't doing anything else...

...this evening, the responsibility for guitar recital rotated, circuitously cycling through the circle of  genuinely grand guitarists, gratifying the entire audience with ambient artistry--a seriously sumptuous set of auditory sensations...

Ok, ok, so we really had a bit of fun, each guitarist taking a turn or two, some singing songs familiar enough that many joined in, some playing fascinating instrumental arrangements, as well as some tidbits from singer/songwriters in the group demonstrating personally developed instrumentals and vocals.

This was yet another marvelous meeting at the wonderfully warm and welcoming environment of the Inn at Lucky Mud, and many thanks to our hosts Sunrise and Jessica Fletcher for supporting our musical madness and minor mayhem!

The upcoming featured performer for the March 28th meeting is Glen Bristow. While he cites his uncle Rick as one of his sources of inspiration, his guitar style exudes an eclectic energy derived from a wide range  of musical styles and artists. For those who have been fortunate enough to be at the last couple of meetings, we've been treated to a number of exciting examples of Glen's enticing guitar work, and thus know that this upcoming performance is one not to be missed!

See you there!