Here's a little throwback to brighten up any blue Mondays...

 

Now that this topic has been honored as a Sticky, I thought this would be a good way to help you "celebrate".

Please try my recordings feature to look for all occurrences of: banjo

I'm proud to say I worked with Gene Yellin to produce 8 videos from my footage of the fantastic
Andy's Ramble concert at the Hudson Valley Bluegrass Association  http://www.hvbluegrass.org/

Check them out on their new YouTube Channel...

 Andy's Ramble - Andy Statman and Gene Yellin
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBsSR-Knuci-gh5osOVgjEg


   Ellery Marshall-Banjo   Gene Yellin-Guitar     Tim Kiah-Bass      Andy Statman-Mandolin ​

There will surely be additional videos of these gifted guys in the future, so I'd strongly
recommend you subscribe to the channel right away! I did!

 

Here's another great Hudson Valley Bluegrass Association Concert with some very gifted guys and a special guest.

                                           Joe K. Walsh, Steve Roy, John Mylander, Lincoln Meyers

Here's a real short super throwback...

BG Stars promos, Fincastle 1965, Tom King Show WBLU (Thanks to Tom)

Here's the latest installment - the Lonely Heartstring Band's fifth (!) concert for us at the Hudson Valley Bluegrass Association.
There's a reason we keep asking them back! Here's the first part of the proof...

                       Matt Witler, Patrick M'Gonigle, Charles Clements, George Clements, Gabe Hirshfeld

Stay tuned for Set 2.

And here's my outright plug for their latest project (below), which garnered a glowing review in the February 2017 Bluegrass Unlimited,
which you can read here (during this month): http://bluegrassmusic.com/content/category/reviews/

Only one minor correction to the BU review: "Songbird" is not a "playful instrumental", but a beautiful
tribute to endangered birds. You can hear it on my video.

https://www.facebook.com/LonesomeHeartstringBand/

Sorry their title song from their project is not on the above video. There was some audio interference that I could not eliminate.

But you can hear it on one of their previous visits at 3 min:53 sec...

  ...and here..

.

Well, earlier than expected, and as promised, here's more proof of why the Hudson Valley Bluegrass Association likes these guys...

                    Matt Witler, Patrick M'Gonigle, Charles Clements, George Clements, Gabe Hirshfeld

​(See Set 1 above)

https://www.facebook.com/LonesomeHeartstringBand/

http://www.hvbluegrass.org/

Here's some fun I had with the GoPro showing every one of the scores of talented kids.




Stay tuned for their big performance coming in the near future. 

Hi Folks,

I'm thrilled to finally share my recordings of some great picking with you.

A few weeks ago, George Hickman connected with me on Facebook. George is
banjoist John Hickman's brother. I'd met John and George during a 1973 week I
spent visiting Byron Berline in L.A. They'd come over to jam with Byron and a
couple other guys. It's only now after catching up with George, that I was inspired
to edit the raw recordings. So here they are...

http://frobbi.org/audio/berlinehouse73

Byron Berline - fiddle/mandolin/guitar
John Hickman - banjo
George Hickman - bass
Jim Norstad - guitar
Tim Duran - mandolin

I talked to Byron today to be sure it was OK to make these recordings public, and he told
me to "go for it". I also asked about John. He's "hanging in there" but not picking. When
I listen to these recordings and enjoy all the great music again, I think about that a lot.

On a lighter note, my good fortune in bluegrass contacts continued here: I met Tim and Jim that day.
I didn't realize that Tim would become a good friend only a few weeks later when he arrived here in
Poughkeepsie, NY, to join the Arm Bros http://frobbi.org/audio/armbros/
most of whom I'm still in contact with.

Please enjoy!
Fred

Here's a timely video with Eric, Leigh and Mike from the Grey Fox Creekside Stage last summer.
They gave us a sneak peak of their new CD which just came out.

(and I can't believe it - The moment I was writing this, my preordered autographed CD came in the mail!)

 

Here's a "new throwback" from 2015, thankfully just recommended by Tara Linhartd, the mandolinist
in this unique band. There's a lot of fun in this song, led by Abigail Washburn.


Here's more information about the project...

 https://greyfoxbluegrass.com/festival/artists/himalayan-appalachian-mountain-music/
 http://mountainmusicproject.com/
 

Another throwback: A Facebook friend just posted a video of Frank Fairfield and his comment was, "Frank, we miss you!!!!"

Having lost touch with Frank and no knowing what happened, I Googled and found this...
http://acousticguitar.com/trolling-for-trouble-the-internet-can-by-an-ugly-place-for-musicians/

I remembered I'd uploaded a 2012 Grey Fox video and thought I'd post it.
But I found it was never made public, until now...

I'm pleased to share with you the inspiring performance by these young, gifted musicians.
If there's any concern about the future of our music, this should bring us all great comfort!

On this cold NY winter day I wanted to think of something warm, so I finally put together my limited
2016 Grey Fox photos. Many are taken from my video footage, some from a little point-and-shoot, and a few
from my GoPro. I've also included links to my related videos (so far) and other photos.

At the end I happily recognized a great group - my fellow Grey Fox volunteer media crew folks. Thanks, everyone!
(Don't miss the little video!)

Great fun, great memories, great music, great friends!

http://frobbi.org/slides/greyfox2016

I always enjoy sharing the music of these good friends, The Korey Brodsky Band.
This was their latest performance with our Hudson Valley Bluegrass Association.

By the way, the last tune in Set 2 is the title number from Korey's first album...

Here we go again. This time with an, ummm,...."interesting" (?) individual at the mic.
I'll leave it to you to decide. (Poor Akira Otsuka!)
 

Here's a fun little video as the 2016 Grey Fox Volunteer Media Crew got together for our annual meeting
and portrait. before the year's adventure got into full swing. I was warming up with my GoPro while
enjoying the reunion with old friends and meeting newcomers.

Five years ago...

Here's the first of four groups from the top-shelf Berklee College of Music Showcase

Ethan Setiawan & Julian B

Here's the video I enjoyed shooting this week for longtime friend Marc Horowitz,

demonstrating his Gold Tone/Nechville OT-MH Marc Horowitz Signature Banjo...

quote:

---

Originally posted by robbif
 

Here's the video I enjoyed shooting this week for longtime friend Marc Horowitz,

demonstrating his Gold Tone/Nechville OT-MH Marc Horowitz Signature Banjo...

 

---

Great sound...

Here's another installment of my good friends The Gather Rounders from last summer...

Here's a real highlight from last July...

 

I just put together a belated memory from a wonderful festival last fall, since I remembered these guys in the 2017 Grey Fox lineup...