I got stuck with a window seat on my flight yesterday, but it was a clear sunny day and I was on the right side of the plane so I got some great photos of Brooklyn as we left. The Verrazano is almost exactly the same age as me (I'm slightly younger). Next month I get to ride my bike over it as part of the Five Boro Bike Tour.

Tags: photos, travel

And a lot of special guests. Bob Jones and Boo Reiners, otherwise known as the Plunk Brothers, had a CD release party at Jalopy last night. Their first set consisted entirely of songs from their brand new CD, Two Guitarists and a Microphone, which is not available online yet but hopefully will be soon. It's 40 minutes of wonderful guitar duets and harmony singing. Their live shows are a joy to watch and that spirit comes through on the recording.

In the second set they invited a series of guest stars up to play with them, including singer Jen Larson who frequently shares a stage with them, and also Trip Henderson, Ben Fraker, Elena Skye, the Sheriff of Good Times, and me. It was great fun and a great honor to play with them and a wonderful night overall.

Boo is a well-known country guitarist who's played with Opry stars and won Grammies, and along with his partner Elena Skye runs the Demolition String Band, a great NYC roots outfit. Bob was a founding member of the Wretched Refuse String Band and an original member of the Andy Statman Klezmer Orchestra, and repairs/restores guitars for most of the East Coast's bluegrass/old-time musicians.

They play fairly often in Brooklyn, so keep an eye out for them.

Tags: music, photos

I have been stalking lessons from mary_wroth, it would seem. Last night I went to the Good Coffeehouse in Brooklyn to see my second Del Rey show this week. Del is not nearly as famous as she should be. You could pile every living blues guitarist you've ever heard of on one side of a balance scale, and put her on the other, and they'd all have to be scraped off the ceiling.

She's a complete master of traditional fingerstyle guitar, but takes it to all sorts of places that the originators of that style -- Blind Blake, Gary Davis, etc -- never dreamed of. Last night, along with clarinetist Craig Flury, she played hot 20s jazz, two calypso numbers, several mind-bending original tunes, and old tunes for which she wrote new lyrics because she thought the original words were stupid.

She's a virtuoso player, playing sophisticated jazz fingerings with all sorts of counterrhythms and moving bass lines, all at lightning speed, relaxed and smiling the whole time, or raising an eyebrow at her guitar as if it had considered talking back to her. Her lead playing is mostly beyond my comprehension; if I could play rhythm backing the way she does I'd be happy. Very happy.

Here she is doing a classic blues, and here she is doing a duet with Steve James, a ragtime tribute to many great guitarists including her hero Memphis Minnie.

She doesn't come out east that often, but if you live in the Northwest, she lives in Seattle and plays around that area frequently. I guarantee you'd enjoy the evening.

Tags: music, photos

I spent Tuesday in Texas. We had crossed the state line from Louisiana the night before, stopped at San Antonio early in the morning, and by breakfast time we were in Del Rio, the "queen city of the Rio Grande." We spent the rest of the day rolling across ranch country, cactus flats and through small faded towns like Langtry, Sanderson, and Alpine.



It seemed like a minor-key kinda day. The vastness of the state is overwhelming; it's harsh and beautiful and unforgiving. Whatever you think of Texas politics and Texas culture, you cannot deny the power and the history of the state and the incredible fortitude of the people who created it. It has a bloody and brutal history, but so does this entire country; as always, Texas did it bigger and badder, but there's a little Texas in all of us.

Today's song is "Texas (Sun to Sun)." Before the advent of the eight-hour workday, agricultural workers who worked from sunrise to sunset were often said to work "sun to sun." The sun rose and set on the train today without us ever leaving the state.

( Texas (Sun to Sun) )

Tags: photos, songs, travel

I'll be leaving New Orleans on the Sunset Limited in a few hours, after a one-night stopover here. I haven't been here since 2005 and I have to say, it's pretty sad. I have always had mixed feelings about this town: As a musician I feel compelled to like it, but the loutish tourism, horrifying poverty and racism, and terrible crime rates aren't exactly attractive. Katrina seems to have destroyed a lot of small businesses that have been replaced by corporate chains and businesses desperate for tourist cash. Kinda like Ghouliani did to Times Square.

Unlike the other times I've been here -- my first trip was in 1988 with some college friends -- I couldn't even find any decent music in the French Quarter. Walter "Wolfman" Washington was playing out at the Maple Leaf, but with no car and not a lot of time (and 35-degree weather) I wasn't in the mood for that trip. I walked up and down Bourbon and Royal Streets and heard almost nothing but disco and club music, or dreadful rock-blues cover bands playing way too loud. There weren't even any street musicians, but perhaps it was too cold for them.

I finally happened on a Bourbon Street bar called Huge Ass Beers (I give them credit for at least not trying to be falsely authentic) with a couple of guys playing blues in the back. Nothing to write home about, and I didn't get their names, but they were having a good time and so were the other folks in the bar, mostly a hardcore band from San Diego and their girlfriends.

This morning I had coffee and beignets at Cafe du Monde, which is at least still there and intact, and walked around a little more. Even in the heart of the French Quarter there are a lot of boarded-up storefronts and for-rent signs. I'll be glad to get back on the train.

Tags: photos, travel

The old South Ferry station on the IRT is about to be replaced with a new, larger station, so yesterday I roped mary_wroth into a brief photo expedition to the old station.

I grew up in the public-transit wastelands of Staten Island, which even though it's part of New York City is the only county in a 50-mile radius without a direct rail link to Manhattan. So, South Ferry was the closest thing I had to a subway stop; after a bus ride of anywhere from 30 to 90 minutes, and a half-hour ferry ride, I could head down the stairs to the cramped, curved platform, only big enough to fit the front half of a subway train, and take the the Seventh Avenue Local (that's what my dad and grandfather called it; when I first started riding the trains the standardized color scheme didn't exist yet and the number/letter system was used inconsistently) to magical places worlds away from my semi-suburban neighborhood.

It took me to 14th Street, where Baird Searles' Science Fiction Shop was located, and the main branch of Barnes and Noble (a bookstore heaven to a kid who only knew the Paperback Booksmith and Waldenbooks in the mall; this was several decades before the advent of the superstores) was just a short walk away. To 33rd Street, to go to the wargame/D&D heaven of the Compleat Strategist. To Christopher Street, for an afternoon rummaging through the bins at Second Coming and the Record Runner and other stores long gone and forgotten even by me. (And no, Bleecker Bob's, while still open, was never on the list -- it was an infamous clip joint where $3.99 albums sold for $25 and the staff was rude.)

The unusual aspects of the station -- the moving grates that covered the gap between the curved platform and the car door, the horrendous screech of the wheels as the train came into the curve -- were all things I associated firmly with The Subway. I learned to walk between cars very early so that I could walk up to the first five cars if I got on at the back of the train. None of this was strange to me, although most subway riders have probably never experienced them. The only other station with the moving grates and the curves is Union Square and I don't think any other platform in the system is too short for a full train. And there's really no reason to use the South Ferry station if you're not going to take the ferry.

It will be gone soon, replaced with a new station that's bigger and brighter and can fit a full train, and has a connection to the Whitehall Street BMT station. Anyone who uses the station regularly will be much happier with the new one, but I'll always be nostalgic for the old one. And oh so very glad that I don't have to use it anymore.

Tags: photos, subways

Thanks to the recent theft of my backpack, I needed to replace my point&shoot camera before my Arizona trip that starts this weekend. After doing a lot of research, I decided to go with an upgraded version of the camera that was stolen, which was a Canon PowerShot SD550. So I now own an SD880, which so far I'm very happy with.

( Pictures (of course) )

Tags: photos

We had a particularly good time at the Greenwich Village Bistro tonight, not least thanks to a bunch of tourists who stopped in, stayed for all three sets, danced and (I swear) did the wave. It was quite a contrast to Friday night, but both were great times. Saboteur Tiger (tonight's band) plays next on January 11, and I'm hoping Kate will do another gig just before Christmas.

Tags: gigs, photos

I did another ride out to the Rockaways, out across Jamaica Bay on Cross Bay Boulevard, with a two-stop detour on the A train since the last bridge to the Rockaways is still closed. I had planned to go further east and back around JFK but it started looking like rain so I headed back to Flatbush Avenue and home -- a total of 38 miles.

It was a nice ride, through the neighborhood of Broad Channel, which is almost a small town, halfway out on Jamaica Bay -- almost everyone has a boat in their backyard. And the train ride is pretty spectacular, riding across the bay with the seagulls flying alongside.

I think this is the last long ride I'll be doing before the Bike MS ride. If you haven't already (and thank you to everyone who did) there is still time to donate.

Lots of pictures on Flickr.

Tags: bike, photos

I tried the Bayonne bike ride again, and this time made it with no flats. I took the ferry over to Jersey City, rode down through Jersey City and Bayonne, over the Bayonne Bridge, through Staten Island to the ferry, with a stop for lunch with Mom and Dad, and then back home. The route map overstates the mileage (because there's no way to put a break in the route for the two ferry trips) on the one hand, but understates it on the other because I didn't put it all the backtracking (finding the entrance to the bridge was a challenge) and photo detours. Actual riding distance was 32.5 miles over three hours.

New Jersey is much maligned, in part, because the parts you see from New York City are marshes and industrial wasteland; driving into Elizabeth over the Goethals Bridge always reminded me of the Descent Into Mordor. But it's also beautiful -- the Kill Van Kull, the marshes, and an uncommon view of the Statue Of Liberty. Bayonne is also a nice old town with a real downtown and some charming old storefronts. And a Times Square completely free of tourists and chain stores.

And the Bayonne Bridge itself is beautiful, a very distinctive arch that has graced the covers of many Port Richmond High School yearbooks -- my high school is almost underneath the bridge -- with a separate walkway. I took a few nostalgia shots in Staten Island -- PRHS, Ralph's Ices, my old neighborhood park -- and then sat on the Brooklyn side of the Staten Island Ferry going home.

Tags: bike, photos

The gig yesterday at the Woodsmen's Festival was great fun. The day started off with a vicious thunderstorm and torrential rain, but cleared into a near-perfect day by the time we did the sound check at 9:30. I played with the Belles Trio, who were alternating sets with two other bands including some other friends of ours from the Philadelphia area, and it was just a great day of listening to and playing music outdoors in a pretty spot.

We had a decent-sized crowd, but nothing like the chock-full bleachers around the field where the competitions were happening. The chainsaw races were loud, but the timber-felling was truly impressive. Not only do these guys bring down a sizeable tree (actually a log stood on end) with frightening dispatch, most of them land it on a small peg -- it's not just about speed, but also about accuracy.

This area of Pennsylvania (we were in Potter County) once had the largest sawmill in the country, and almost all the trees in the area are less than a hundred years old since just about every tree was cut down back in the 19th century. There are tours to go see the very few old-growth trees left. Apparently one of the reasons old trees were preserved, in small groves of a dozen or so, was in case of fire. You needed to save enough logs to rebuild your house if it burned down.

I spent today driving down through Pennsylvania and Maryland to West Virginia, for Old-Time Week at the Augusta Heritage Festival. In other words, I'll be surrounded by fiddles and banjos for a week. Luckily, there's at least one other harmonica player here.

Time and connectivity allowing, I'm posting photos to Flickr.

Tags: gigs, photos, travel

Philipsburg was the western edge of our coverage area when I worked for the Centre Daily Times in State College. (I started that job almost exactly 20 years ago.) It's got a pretty, but faded, downtown, where I'm eating at The Little Restaurant.

I'm on my way to the Appalachian Thruway (which is now apparently an interstate, 99) which will take me down into West Virginia.

This is the first time I've had cell service since Friday evening.

Tags: photos, travel

I was completely charmed by this sign in the window of a former cell-phone store on Flatbush Avenue. (So nice for once to see one of those go away, rather than the good local bar and independent video store that have left or are soon to leave the same block.) The elaborate lettering, the wildly creative spelling, and the fact that he did the whole thing in black and red EXCEPT for the contact information, written in red only, and now faded almost to illegibility.

Tags: photos

I rode over the Brooklyn Bridge and met mary_wroth, her friend Jon, and his cousin, to see David Byrne's installation, Playing The Building, down at the old Battery Maritime Building. This is the beautiful old ferry terminal, just north of the Staten Island Ferry Terminal, that was abandoned for decades and is now finally being restored. The new Governor's Island ferry (which allows BIKES!) now runs from there.

Byrne's installation is a lone organ sitting in the midst of a huge room, with wires running from the organ to every corner of the room. As you play keys on the organ, hammers hit pillars, air rushes through pipes, and motors vibrate the structure, and you are literally "playing the building."

I didn't actually play, since the line was long and it was more fun to wander around the room and be surrounded by the noises. Even on a sunny Friday afternoon, it's thoroughly spooky, especially since you enter and leave through the deserted entrance hall to one of the ferry slps.

It's a fascinating installation in a wonderful old building and I think I'll be going back.

More photos

Tags: nyc, photos

I rode down to Fulton Ferry this afternoon to check out the Telectroscope, a truly inspired art project with a whole Victorian-era steampunk back story: a long-lost tunnel to London, started in the 19th century, has finally been completed, and a viewing device installed so you can look through it and see people on the other side, under Tower Bridge alongside the Thames.

Perhaps it sounds silly; an overblown conceit surrounding something you could do with a couple of webcams. But it's not; there's something magical about the story, about the fixed location, about it being public, about looking into the "tunnel" and seeing strangers five thousand miles waving back at you. People make appointments to meet up, or use the handy whiteboards to write messages to each other.

On a Sunday afternoon, the line was too long to wait on, but perhaps I'll stop by on my next morning ride into Manhattan and see what the lunchtime crowds in London look like. (More photos below the cut.)

( Hello, London! )

Tags: brooklyn, photos

Even the streets are reborn in springtime. My street has just been repaved,and hasn't yet been opened to traffic. The shiny black surface is so far the exclusive domain of kids coming home from school, discovering the newly smooth surface, and frolicking in the asphalt-scented spring sunshine. Although I'm sure they'd really hate to hear it called "frolicking."

Tags: photos

I forgot to post this, but Hazmat Modine is one of the strangest and most interesting bands I know. I mean, two harmonicas, no waiting, do I need to say more? But there's no bass, just a tuba (just???), and a rotating collection of unbelievable guest stars. Wade Schuman plays old blues harp, old jazz guitar, and the weirdest world-music flavored blues you've ever heard -- the Crossroads he went down to was somewhere in Romania.

They played last weekend at Drom, in the East Village, a really nice room that they filled up and then rocked. See the rest of the photos.

Tags: photos

Finally, a real spring day -- high 60s and sunny. I took the bike on the first real ride of the season (errands and laps around the park don't really count), to Madison Square Park to meet rosefox for lunch on a bench in the sun. It was a pretty leisurely ride (just under 14 miles in about 80 minutes of riding; average speed 10mph) but it felt great. The photo is the East River looking north from the Manhattan Bridge.

Tags: bike, photos

Driving down to Red Hook yesterday (for a workshop on fingerpicked blues with Mamie Minch of the Roulette Sisters, at the fabulous Jalopy Theater And School Of Music) I stopped to take some photos of a strange mural on a construction wall along Third Street in Gowanus. Entitled "The Horse's Mouth," it depicts ghosts on horseback, the ghosts of the men who fought battles of the Revolutionary War pretty much right on that spot.

The artist's web site, www.pasqualinaazzarello.com, doesn't give much information about it, and I'm not linking directly to it because it's a somewhat hostile browser-resizing flash site, but she's done another construction-wall mural at an NYU construction site in the Village, as well as work in Brooklyn restaurants and other public spaces.


( More photos )

Tags: brooklyn, photos

Over the weekend I played a show at the Barrington Coffee House, in Barrington, NJ, about a half-hour east of Philadelphia. I was appearing with the Belles Trio, a vocal group including Caroline Cutroneo, a Staten Island songwriter, Mara Levine, a gifted singer from New Jersey, and Marie Elena, a songwriter and folk singer. I played harmonica on some of their songs and did a solo set as well.


( More photos below )

Tags: gigs, photos