Jobs

I 'm a reporter for a community of 80k people. I've been in the million plus market and in the seven towns with 7000 people total, anbd I like the midsize market best.
I get to meet some great people, face some creepy people (child molester and two killers IN THE SAME DAY) spread the word about good ideas and bands on occasion (i freelance a bit more music work: An Honest Tune a few years ago).
The office requres a bit of appearance, so I desk bunny a couple days and spend a few days out and about when I can.

 

This is what I GET to do:

this is what we should mean by imbedded reporters! (comment to TMM list)

Reunited ThaMuseMeant sowing Silver Seeds

by Robyn Lydick
Staff writer

High lonesome sounds of old time music, gypsy jazz,
introspective song writing and some of the tightest string
instrumentation today are rolling into the area March 5 when
ThaMuseMeant plays at Swallow Hill.
With a new collection of songs recorded but not mixed, the band
is still sowing "Silver Seeds," its 2004 release on Frogville
Records.
Those sounds are rolling in on a biodiesel tour bus, too.
But wait, didn't the band play it's final show in 2001 in Aspen?
Well, yes, and no. Three members recorded what they thought
was a swan song, Grow Your Own, in a Colorado cabin.
ThaMuseMeant is a regrouping of original members Nathan
Moore, guitar; David Tiller, mandolin; and Aimee Curl, bass; who
met while Tiller and Curl were street musicians in Austin, Texas.
This time, instead of a drummer, Enion Pelta, a
classically-trained violinist who started at age 3, rounds out the
line up.
"Enion brings a lot to us," Moore said. "She provides movement
and foundation to what I hear in my head. She fills out the sound
and takes us to such soaring heights."
ThaMuseMeant is a marketer's nightmare: not bluegrass, as the
Appalachian raised-Curl will expound upon at length; not
singer-songwriter and too richly textural for Americana, the band
itself shrugs off the jam band label, although many fans came
from that scene. Perhaps the closest montage of labels would
be "post-modern string band folk."
Curl has begun songwriting duties, supplying four in use.
"Every thing Aimee writes is great. She takes her time with them
and crafts them," Moore said. "I write so many that a few good
ones slip through."
Curl also sings in a voice evocative of Nanci Griffith and Iris
DeMent with the power of Tracy Chapman, Bernice Johnson and
Melissa Etheridge. That voice is completely her own eerie,
hair-raising sound, however.
Moore bridges the rivers between Woody Guthrie, Townes Van
Zandt, John Prine, Tom Waits, Phil Ochs, Bruce Springsteen and
the army of singer-songwriters lost to memory and unknown on
the street corners of the American night.
His days of busking on the streets of Austin and Santa Fe honed
his song writing skills to biting commentary on people,
relationships and government.
Tiller is the glue in the band.
"He has always been inspiring in his dedication to his playing
and pushing us forward," Moore said.
Moore met Tiller and Curl playing as Buzzard's Breath on 6th
Street in Austin. The duo was playing in an alcove on the streets
for hat. Moore, disenchanted with the Austin scene, traded phone
numbers with Tiller.
Soon after, Tiller called, offering Moore a position, if he'd move to
New Mexico.
He did and the band won hearts and souls across the country,
playing festivals large and small, from the 1998 national HORDE
tour to Amnesty International fund-raisers in Oklahoma college
towns.
Moore still calls New Mexico home, handling studio engineer
and Web page duties at Frogville Records, a studio outside of
Santa Fe that he put together with John Treadwell in 2002.
Tiller, Pelta and Curl live in Portland, Ore.
ThaMuseMeant has a base of loyal fans across the country who
travel to see them. Moore is hoping to add to their numbers.
"I'm not going to convince anyone to like music," he said. "But if
you do like music, get off the couch because we offer a whole
world of music, real music, played real good."
ThaMuseMeant will play at 8 p.m., March 5 at Swallow Hill, 71
Yale Avenue. Tickets are $12, $15 at the door.
For more information, visit www.swallowhill.com or
www.frogvilleplanet.com

 

And this:

The Passing of a Unique Banjo Voice
Mark Vann was one of the few people I can honestly say was Good People first and foremost. He was open, caring and talented almost beyond belief. This is the obit I wrote for him last year. E-mail for reprint rights.

Leftover Salmon banjo player dead at 39

LONGMONT, Colo. — Mark Vann, 39, banjo player with the Colorado-based bluegrass/jam band Leftover Salmon, died at his home March 4, 2002. He died after a six-month battle with the skin cancer melanoma. He was born Dec. 28, 1962 in Rockville, Md.

Vann first became interested in playing the banjo at age 9, after hearing Carl Patger at the Festival of American Folklife. He formed a band with brother Mike on mandolin, father Bryant on guitar, and mother Ricki on upright bass.

After two years of college, Vann retreated to the pines of northern Virginia where he built himself a one-room cabin and played the banjo all day for two years.

Vann met Jennifer Loud while on a trip to upstate New York. They married and started a carpentry business building decks.

Vann won the banjo contest at the Telluride Bluegrass festival in 1989, where he met mandolinist Drew Emmitt and guitarist Vince Herman, who convinced him he needed to play banjo for a living. Soon he and Jennifer loaded up the truck and headed for Longmont to join the Left-Hand String Band. Shortly afterwards, Leftover Salmon was born.

For the next twelve years, Vann brought the banjo to whole new audiences and genres of music. He quickly became one of the most respected players in his field.

He has played with musicians such as Bela Fleck, Victor Wooten, Earl Scruggs, Sally Van Meter, Taj Mahal, Del McCoury, Lucinda Williams, members of Widespread Panic, Blues Traveller, and Sam Bush and John Cowan, of Newgrass Revival fame.

“If Earl Scruggs invented the bluegrass banjo and Bela Fleck invented jazz banjo, then Mark was the guy who put then together,” said Chuck Morris, who managed Leftover Salmon for six years.

Vann was an energetic force, even during his illness. “Mark lived life to its fullest and he would insist that we do so as well,” said Herman. “He will be greatly missed and will continue to be an inspiration to many to go big.”

Scores of fans left messages on e-mail lists, mourning Vann’s passing.

One said: “I haven’t been this sad since Jerry (Garcia, guitarist for the Grateful Dead) died.” Another fan remembered how Vann would always stop and talk with him at concerts. Many noted Vann’s influence on their own banjo playing.

Leftover Salmon influenced many bands in the Denver-Boulder area, most notably The String Cheese Incident and Yonder Mountain String Band.

Dave Johnson, banjo player for Yonder Mountain, credits Vann and Leftover Salmon with a large measure of his own band’s success.
“They always extended their arms and said ‘come along,’” he said. They would tell promoters about us and helped us get a large chunk of the journey faster. They were supportive older brothers.”

Vann wasn’t given the credit he was due, Johnson said.
“I always thought Mark was under-rated. I like to try and model myself not so much after his playing, but how he was a team player. He was a huge part of the band, and made these three guys (Emmitt, Herman and Vann) become this musical entity. He was the glue that held them together,” Johnson said.

Jeff Austin, mandolinist for Yonder Mountain remembers Vann as a risk taker.
“He was the guy who would stick his neck out and take risks, he would always say pick it, play it and don’t (mess) around,” Austin said.

Mark was a dedicated musician, not just to being a banjo player but the music as a whole. Vann was in love with the fact that Leftover Salmon was making this music with the vibe of bluegrass or rock but also doing something completely different.

“You know we have a million guitarists who sound like Jerry Garcia or Trey Anastazio or Duane Allman. In a world where everyone sounds like somebody else, Mark Vann sounded like Mark Vann,” Austin said. “When he would play the Stump (a banjo he and another instrument maker built, literally, out of a tree stump) he had this amazing tone, and I could say, ‘yeah, that is Mark Vann.’”

A fund has been set up to offset medical costs. Donations, cards, or letters can be sent to: Mark and Jennifer Vann Fund, P.O. Box 393, Nederland,Colo., 80466.
All content copyright 3rd Eye Candy Productions, Inc. All rights reserved.

 

th efood/sample gig isn't bad. I do one a month or so. reporting pays badly in CO.

 

what're flag hours? new term to me.

 

got it. Thanks for adding to my stash of knowledge.