[mplpost] 'live' interviews

[Mike McKee]

Hi Foks
I just joined this list serv in a fit of homesick notstalgia.  I spent a lot
of time in the Ottawa area in the late 60's through the 70's.  Le Hibou,
Roosters, etc were my favorite places.

The dreaded need to earn a living sent me to the US.  Oh well.

I've been "listening" here for a few days.  What prompts me to finally write
was Bill Usher's reminicence.  I remember the show he did for the CBC radio
and one of my favorite episodes was on Eric and Marty Nagler (Old, Not for
the Sake of Being Old ...).  Thanks Bill, I always loved your work.

We don't get much folk music here in the desert southwest but I did catch
Norman Blake here (Albuquerque)this past July.  I had not seen him live
since Mariposa in '71 (with Hartford, Taylor, and Clements).

Take care.

Mike McKee

---- Original Message -----
From: Bill Usher <billusher@sympatico.ca>
To: maplepost icomm.ca <maplepost@icomm.ca>
Sent: Friday, November 16, 2001 3:44 PM
Subject: Re: [mplpost] 'live' interviews


> > From: "David grierson" <davidgrierson@hotmail.com>
> > Reply-To: maplepost@icomm.ca
> > Date: Fri, 16 Nov 2001 11:08:38 -0800
> > To: maplepost@icomm.ca
> > Subject: RE: [mplpost] 'live' interviews
> >
>
>
> Hi all,
>
> David's post sent me back thinking of a few years of traveling and
> interviewing that I did for a few dozen CBC shows back in the 70's. Anne's
> post sort of says I can reminisce.... Ok?
>
> Paul Mills had just launched Touch The Earth and gave me a push out the
door
> with my little Uher tape recorder. Over a few years, I hung out with and
> interviewed folks like Elizabeth Cotton, Bruce Phillips, Sarah Ogan
Gunning,
> Pete Seeger, Janette Carter, a relatively unknown John McCutcheon, Taj
Mahal
> and dozens more.
>
> I remember a couple of trips through Louisiana. Mardi Gras '76, I was down
> playing on Zachary Richard's first album in Bogalusa. One of our side
trips
> was to visit the wonderful Cajun accordionist Marc Savoy. Marc had
promised
> Philippe Bruneau back at a Mariposa festival (thanks Estelle) that if
> Philippe would ever would come to Eunice, Marc would make him a Cajun
> accordion.
>
> Linda Page and I were there (and the tape was running) when Marc took this
> beautiful red button accordion out of the cupboard of his workshop and
> handed it to him. Philippe was a bit of a cantankerous character but he
> positively melted when he started to play all these Quebecois riffs on
this
> Cajun accordion.
>
> Another night, Marc took us out to visit D. L. Menard at his farm and we
> went back to the summer kitchen (surrounded by rice paddies) and Philippe
> would quite purposefully throw off all the Cajun players by sticking in a
> few extra passing chords to the two that were needed. Bill Russell was
there
> that night too. When Philippe would launch into a Quebecois tune the Cajun
> players would just put their instruments down and wonder in awe.
>
> Our travels that spring took us out to Berkeley, where we stayed with
> Malvina Reynolds for a few days and she told a bunch of stories while the
> tape was running. We called Malvina "Captain". She lived the songs she
> wrote.
>
> We came back to New Orleans for the festival in May and I remember walking
> with a very old Sam Chatmon back to the horse barns off the fair grounds
> trying to find a quieter place to record. A very young teenager name of
> Colin Linden was there with his traveling partner Jim (???) hanging on
every
> riff and word that Sam uttered. Sam chastised me on tape because, with his
> accent, I couldn't understand that 'turn up' greens was 'turnip' greens.
>
> One last story was a Christmas trip through the UK gathering stories for a
> bunch of radio shows with Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger, Frankie
Armstrong,
> Martin Carthy and Norma Waterson, and Archie Fisher.
>
> Skye Morrison was my tour guide this time around and we had this lovely
chat
> and sing round in Martin and Norma's snow bound farm house before we
headed
> over the moors to this modest 'castle' on the Scots border where Archie
> Fisher was living. I dimly remember a small child playing around our feet.
> Was that Eliza?
>
> Archie's place was as cold and drafty as a castle should be despite the
> blazing fire. He took us down to the local pub that night to hear another
> wonderful British concertina player that I had met earlier at Mariposa. I
> want to say last name 'Anderson'.... Estelle?
>
> I loved sitting there listening to the stories. Thinking to ask the next
> question that would properly lead into the next yarn.
>
> Given the thread on festival interviews, certainly, as an artist being
> interviewed, there's nothing more wonderful than to have someone who's not
> only knowledgeable and curious about your work but also willing to listen
> hard and say out loud the question that the audience wants asked and that
> you feel you can take the effort and time to answer.
>
> Bill
>
>
>
> -
> To unsubscribe: mail majordomo@icomm.ca with
> "unsubscribe maplepost" in the body (not the subject line)
> Need help? mail owner-maplepost@icomm.ca

-
To unsubscribe: mail majordomo@icomm.ca with
"unsubscribe maplepost" in the body (not the subject line)
Need help? mail owner-maplepost@icomm.ca