RUBEN YOU CAN PLAY YOUR BANJO
This video of Ruben You Can Play Your Banjo was shot the morning of July 12, 2007 on the historic Ripson Bridge in Sorento, near Greenville, IL. Video Bob planned, shot, produced and edited the video seen here for Archival Productions' collection of Illinois folk musicians. Am honored to now be a part of the collection. Also present at the shoot was Swamp Weiss a great musician and Craig "Bozo" Baumberger a fine banjo picker. It's too bad Video Bob didn't put our jam session into his collection, because it was a good'n.Many friendly and talented folks make up the music scene in that part of the world and I am glad to have met them. There's Craig and Swamp, who I mentioned above, and there's Erin O'Toole, a powerful singer who runs a couple of open stages. There's all the good people from Goose's Tavern in Panama, who put on a fantastic feed and a very excellent night of music featuring all the local talent.Each October the Ripson Bridge Fall Festival is held by these folks and many others. There's lots of music and a crafts fair and food. Maybe I will see you there.I've been singing Ruben You Can Play Your Banjo since around 1989 when I learned it from Lee Ruth of Columbia, MO. The song was written by Bartholomew Bean, now also of Columbia. If anyone is in contact with either of these fellows, please put me in touch. Enjoy.
.. START FreeVideoCoding.com --
FreeVideoCoding.com
.. END FreeVideoCoding.com --
EL-A-NOY
The Old Town School of Folk Music has released an epic collection - 4 cds in all - documenting the songs and the musical community in this, the school's 50 th anniversary year. For volume 4, co-producer John Abbey asked if I would like to sing along with Win Stracke on one of his signature pieces, "El-a-noy." Win learned the song from a great book, "The American Songbag," by poet Carl Sandburg, and recorded it on an historic record, "Songs of Old Town" in 1968.The session was video taped and edited together with a montage of lovely images of a lovely man; a true pioneer and visionary. I wish that session went as easily as it looks in the clip.
SUMMERTIME
In October 2007 I was honored to be invited to perform as part of an arts-in-education residency in the greater Cincinnati, OH area. One of my assignments was to address two different groups at Northern Kentucky University in Covington, KY. Towards the end of the program someone in the audience asked if I knew the song "Summertime," from Porgy and Bess. I allowed that it had been years since I tried it and wasn't sure I could get through it. A woman in the crowd raised her hand and said, "I know it." I invited her down to sing it and the result is captured here. She is Tara Sturgill and is a wonderful singer. The gentleman in the foreground who turns smiling towards the camera is Mr. Robert Dinerman of Cincinnati, OH. Robert is a good friend and a generous sponsor of many folk music events in the area. Enjoy.
WHAT A WONDERFUL WORLD
These beautiful chalk drawings were made by Peggy Lipschutz of Evanston, IL. I use them often to close family shows and arts-in-education performances. I have been singing "What a Wonderful World" since I don't know when, and it is now the title track of my latest CD, "What a Wonderful World: A Family Folk Sampler," due out on Waterbug this summer.The disc includes 22 family friendly tracks, 18 of which are from past, now out of print CDs. I was fortunate to be able to record 4 new songs to add to the collection with my friends Sue Demel, Deb Lader and Bruce Roper from The Sons of The Never Wrong. They're wonderful and I hope you'll stay in touch and order a copy. Check in with www.waterbug.com, or my homepage www.markdvorak.com, or this space.
