News August 23, 2010
newest news
Republic of Strings show at the Point Reyes Dance Palace Sept 4th
Darol’s Republic Of Strings performs at the beloved traditional venue in beautiful Point Reyes, California.
503 B St, Point Reyes Sta, CA 94956 415-663-1075â
www.dancepalace.org
Note: I’m temporarily suspending the Store because I am not around enough and don’t have the time to fill orders. Unfilled back orders will be refunded during the last week of July. Store will come back online when I have help or time to do this. Apologies to customers who have been waiting. People interested in the Homespun instructional DVDs (Chops & Grooves, Blues On The Fiddle) can order from the website www.homespun.com. Many apologies to customers.
A filled-to-the-breaking point summer of travel-related actvities;
High Sierra Festival, Shasta Fiddle Camp, Oregon Country Fair, Northwest String Summit, Ossippee Valley Music Festival, Augusta Heritage, Saddleback Mountain Festival.
AND the Republic Of Strings, fresh from an amazing weekend at the McCoury’s family festival, Delfest, swung down the Front Range this week:
Loveland, Denver, and the Appenzellers’ great 4 Corners Folk Festival in Pagosa Springs all in Colorado.
The all-new all-blue Republic Of Strings played great shows in Maine and went into the studio for its first recording session… results will appear soon on the web and on the future CD, tentatively titled: “Do It Yourself”. The ROS also played a fun show in Michigan with the amazing Fiddlers Restrung,and at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois with special guest Heather Masse.
I finished building my first violin under the tutelage of Luthier Jon Cooper… on the one-year anniversary of my move to Maine.
Amazing fiddle camp in Big Sur.See below!
Recorded the incredible harpist Maeve Gilchrist in Portland, Maine, for a release on Adventure Music.
Teaching at Berklee and at 317 Main Street, with presentations for 317 at the incredible, amazing Punch Brothers concert in Portland, Maine.
Celebratin’ DANNY BARNES:
Danny Barnes seems driven to show us the persistent âold weird Americaâ* which stubbornly persists, defying modern life, Disney, all the rest.
Barnes giving a voice to a great mass of nortemericanos who live with despair, conjuring the blackest humor, the wildest visions, love and death scraped and stretched like a roadkill possum skin, trying to survive. His recent recordings have something new: it sounds like Danny has brought the daily sound track of some of his charactersâ lives right into the songs. Layers of skittery relentless machine chatter break up nuggets of reality like a laser on a kidney stone. The constant is Barnesâ banjo, playing the naked pure indigent, a black pebble incongruous in the gurgling currents of discourse and what passes for discourse.
Barnes walks, looking down, picks out semiprecious stones of poetry in rubble-strewn ground. They reflect, embedded in warpy folds, the chopped-up static of every dayâs âripping impinging soundsâ, to paraphrase that famous description of Saint Earlâs banjo.
Context embedded within context, removed and re-embedded with the shreds hanging offâ¦thatâs one definition of music, and this is it. Itchy or scratchy? Thatâs your privilege to say.
-D. Anger
My Summer String Camps
I’ll be teaching this year at a nice selection of music camps, down a little from last yearâs record total of seven. I think five this year.⦠so it’s down by more than 20% I guess. Note: Due to chronic schedule clash, I’ve had to miss one of my favorite camps: Mark OâConnorâs Fiddle Conference, this year. I may get to return in 2011. We’ll see!
I’ve already had a nice week in April at the Clarridge/Forest Big Sur Fiddle Camp, a marvelous boutique camp in— you guessed it— Big Sur. And a very enjoyable one-day visit to Mandolin Camp North, near Portland, Maine.
Next on the agenda will be a brand-new camp that I’m very excited about! The Mike Block String Camp in Vero Beach, Florida. This should be a really great camp with lots of sun and surf. The teachers are really great too: Mike Block of course, Hanneke Cassel, Brittany Haas, Lauren Rioux, and the amazing Victor Lin. This should be a really special one, and not super-expensive. Contact Kathryn B. Johnston at 1962 26th Avenue, Vero Beach, FL 32960.
In July I’ll be at Tristan and Tashina Clarridges’ wild and wooly Mount Shasta Fiddle Camp, which is more like a big chaotic (in a good way) family picnic than a regular camp. Lots of nutty jamming and hanging out with the lovely musical community that has grown up around the Clarridges, including one of the most monumental concert experiences ever, in nearby Weed, CA. Invitation only, though it’s not that hard to get an invitation. Email the Clarridges over at their MySpace site.
In early August I’ll be having a more traditional experience at perhaps the original traditional music camp, the august Augusta Heritage Music Center in Elkins, West Virginia. I’ll be teaching Advanced Bluegrass Fiddle during Bluegrass/Swing week… I’m brushing up on my licks in B for that one, and Bb too, for the swing nights! Email: augusta@augustaheritage.com
Late August brings perhaps the most international, multifaceted and dionysian of all the fiddle camps, the great Alasdair Fraserâs VOM Scottish Fiddle Camp in northern California, starting with a great concert by the teachers in Berkeley and ending with another monumental blowout concert with the entire camp population in Santa Cruz. This camp is something else entirely, a personal expression of Alasdair’s philosophy of life, and has had to resort to a lottery to keep the admissions fair. There’s a very long waiting list. Many of the most influential young string players of the present day “grew up” in this camp. I’m pleased to be asked back for a rare return engagement.
Since coming to work this year for the regional gem 317 Main Street in Maine and for the prestigious Berklee College Of Music, teaching has become a bigger and better part of my life. I find I am learning so much about music and life not only from other teachers, but from my students. I look forward to an enlightening summer!
Darol Anger
Amazing shows in Berkley, CA and at the newly revivified Wintergrass festival with Mike Marshall and Vasen!
The Republic Of Strings appeared at Celtic Connections Festival in Glasgow, Scotland; a huge city-wide festival of music from all over the world. The ROS played to an enthusiastic, friendly crowd, with special guests Mike Marshall, Brttany Haas, and Vasen guitarist Roger Tallroth: great times.
ROS with guest Mike Marshall, photo: Brenton Rioux.
What a year 2009 was! Some fun and hairy shows playing Christmas Music with the Republic Of Strings and others in New England and the Pacific Northwest. From YouTube:
The brand new Republic Of Strings: big shows coming up this spring. Summer festers, and a new recording in the works. Photo: Amanda Kowalski.
Darol Anger Named Associate Professor at Berklee School of Music
Darol has been named Associate Professor for the Berklee School of Music, Boston MA, according to an announcement by Matt Glaser, Artistic Director of the American Roots Music Program. Anger will teach improvisation and vernacular music styles to students of the worldâs largest private music college.
With a student population of over 4,000, Berklee College of Music prepares students for music careers through the study and practice of contemporary music. Eighty percent of the school’s graduates go on to careers in the music industry. For more than half a century, the college has reflected the state of the art of music and the music business. With more than a dozen performance and nonperformance majors, its diverse and talented student body represents more than 70 countries, and a music industry “who’s who” of alumni.
I’m also teaching and working regularly at 317 Main St in Yarmouth, Maine: a wonderful community music school with lots of great potential.
Bruce Molsky & I had some amazing duet shows in New England. Some videos and photos at my facebook site.
giftfor the fiddler in your life.
Fall touring:
3 great shows in the southwest with this supergroup; first time playing with Tao Rodriguez-Seeger… yeah! Scott law, and Bil Nershi. Fun!!!!
Also, preparing for a couple of recording projects: a 3rd Republic Of Strings recording and a couple of amazing solo projects, including the phenomenal harpist Maeve Gilchrist and the wonderful mandolinist Joe Walsh.
Plus continued work on learning to build violins at Jonathan Cooper’s shop in Portland, Maine, and the beginning of a what I hope will be a very fruitful association with the Maine community music school, 317 Main.
This Aura thing: I got the “images”; and I downloaded them into the unit and used it on the recent run of Yonder Mt shows we did in the midwest. Big halls, sold-out houses, LOUD shows, but acoustic string instruments. Had to use a pickup. But it was amazing. The buzzy flat pickup sound completely went away and was replaced by this rich and bright yet dark and huge tone, the tone of the fiddle, up close and VERY personal. I couldn’t believe it. I’ll have to hear a recording of the show to truly believe my ears, but just listening to it in the monitor headphones was incredible. I Don’t have too much else to say about it, except if you wind up using a pickup, and if you can get through the hassle and expense of getting your images recorded, made & processed & sent out & & & downloaded, it pretty much seems like The Solution. Totally amazing.
Thanks to Bil Vorndick and Joe Barbieri for making this happen.
http://www.fishmanaura.com
Recent highlights:
I was honored to perform at the Grand Opening night of the new Freight And Salvage Concert Hall in Berkeley, the legendary west coast acoustic music venue in which I have regularly performed since 1976. A historic and extremely emotional moment, which also featured a musical reunion with pianist Barbara Higbie. Here I am on stage with the great Alasdair Fraser, and members of my Monster Quartet: Lauren Rioux, Natalie and Brittany Haas.
Recent photos from my tenure at Acoustic Artisans, Jonathan Cooper’s violin shop. the first photo is of a new violin which I helped build.
My Year Of The Fiddle Camps:; 6 camps last year! I’m a bit “camped out” by now, but these camps have included some of the most spectacular musical experiences of my life so far.
the wildest, most fun fiddle camp ever: Alasdair Fraser’s legendary V.O.M.
Big Wonderful gestures by good friends close and distant made a year (2008-2009) of huge changes more bearable. A heartfelt thank-you to all you wonderful people and deepest apologies to those folks who know who they are.
Check out those CDs from the catalog!
Crosstime A new release! Darol with the amazing pianist Philip Aaberg. Darol & Phil worked together in Newgrange, and were labelmates at Windham Hill. This one features some radical reconstruction of some classical classics by Gershwin and Ravel,, and some of Darol’s most evocative compositions. And for those cozy winter evenings, don’t forget the Heritage recording…
