Ted Lehmann's Bluegrass, Books, and Brainstorms

Josh Williams Viral Video on NBC's Today Show Tomorrw

2012-03-07T19:30:00.000-05:00

I've just been notified that the viral video I shot of Josh Williams singing "Mordecai" to a bird at the Doyle Lawson Bluegrass Festival in Denton, NC last May will be featured on NBC's Today Show at 10:20 AM tomorrow morning. Tune in to watch it. This is great news for Josh and for bluegrass music. Tune in tomorrow to the Hoda and Kathy Lee section to see this.

Going Solo by Eric Klinenberg - Review

2012-03-02T05:00:00.060-05:00

In Going Solo: The Extraordinary Rise and Surprising Appeal of Living Alone (Penguin Press, 2012, 273 pages) Eric Klinenberg explores the reasons for, lifestyle, and policy implications of a world-wide, mostly urban trend toward living alone rather than in family units. He calls people choosing or finding themselves within this condition “singletons” and emphasizes the extent to which

Top of Georgia Bluegrass Jamboree - Dillard, GA - Preview

2012-03-01T09:26:00.001-05:00

The third annual Top of Georgia Bluegrass Jamboree will take place at the Dillard House Convention Center & Resort in Dillard, Georgia on March 16 & 17, 2012. While only three years old, The Top of Georgia has already established itself as a premier late winter indoor bluegrass festival held in a lovely spot featuring some of the best, and most varied, bluegrass bands in the business. Top

Tamara Chalabi: Late for Tea at the Deer Palace - Review

2012-02-29T10:15:00.001-05:00

Tamara Chalabi, author of Late forTea at the Deer Palace: the Lost Dreams of My Iraqi Family, has written a thought-provoking and interesting cultural and poltical history of her family's ascendance to wealth and power in Iraq and their fall from influence as the winds of change swept through the middle east in the last decades of the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. I was

Dixieland Music Park Spring Festival, Waldo, FL - Review

2012-02-27T10:07:00.000-05:00

U.S. 301 is a spur road for U.S. 1 running nearly 1100 miles from Glasgow, DE to Sarasota, FL, often sharing its number with other, more local highways. With the advent of the major Interstate, limited access roads leading to Florida, it has become little used through much of its length. In north-central Florida it shoots straight through a rather charmless part of the state from Callahan to

Newell Lodge Bluegrass Festival - March 8 - 10, 2012 - Preview

2012-02-25T08:38:00.002-05:00

Nestled into a magnificent live oak grove on a small hammock in the piney woods just north of Folkston, GA, Newell Lodge has quickly developed as a destination festival offering fine bands, delightful hospitality, and a setting that has something to offer every bluegrass fan. Owner Harvin Carter and his family have taken a resort initially focused on equine events and developed it into a prime

Palatka Bluegrass Festival 2012 - Saturday & Assessment

2012-02-21T07:40:00.003-05:00

There's a rhythm to a good bluegrass festival as the event builds through its first couple of days to increased enthusiasm, participation, and excitement growing into a Saturday night climax. Despite having huge headliners on previous nights, Saturday often feels like a high time. There's also a daily rhythm. On Thursdays, people who've often waited several days for the music to start are eager

Palatka Bluegrass Festival 2012 - Friday

2012-02-19T06:57:00.002-05:00

Sign-Up for Next Year's Reserved Seating Yes...It's a Real Ranch Gil Nelson's Jamming Class Blood Donor Drive on Campus Friday dawned over-cast and threatening with the weather forecast calling for (at best) scattered thundershowers. Nevertheless, it was warm and pleasant, and the weather held all day...until around 7:00 PM, right in the middle of Darin & Brooke Aldridge's well-received second

Palatka Bluegrass Festival 2012 - Thursday

2012-02-17T10:36:00.002-05:00

Sunrise at Palatka - Wednesday When the leadership at Rodeheaver Boys Ranch decided to use a bluegrass festival as one of their prime fund raising efforts they decided to do it the right way, just as they approach running the ranch generally. They've put in over 500 water and electric camping sites, built a wonderful performance shed with an associated snack bar/shop, and laid out the ground

The Death of Brainstorming - Growing Creativity - Essay

2012-02-15T09:55:00.001-05:00

The essay below is a lightly edited version of my column that appeared yesterday on the Welcome Page of the California Bluegrass Association. As far as I know, CBA is the largest bluegrass association in the country. In a recent article in the New Yorker Jonah Lehrer discusses a well-known problem-solving strategy known as brainstorming. As a graduate student and later as a teacher, I had

The Dispatcher by Ryan David Jahn - Book Review

2012-02-14T05:00:00.000-05:00

Ian Holt is sitting behind his computer at the dispatcher's desk in the small, dusty town of Bulls Mouth, Texas playing computer solitaire when the phone rings. A voice says, “Please help me!” After questioning, the voice on the other end of the line identifies herself as Maggie Holt, the missing daughter Ian and his ex-wife had held a funeral for several months earlier after she'd been

Seminole Wind BGF - Brighton Seminole Reservation - Review

2012-02-13T17:28:00.000-05:00

The 1st Annual Seminole Wind Bluegrass Festival took place from February 10 -12 at the Fred Smith Arena in the Brighton Seminole Community on the Seminole Indian Reservation about 25 miles west of Okeechobee, FL. Booked and organized by promoters Keith and Darlene Bass for the Seminole's, the festival featured excellent bluegrass music from national and local bands as well as a music and dance

2012 Waldo Spring Festival - February 23 - 26

2012-02-09T11:58:00.000-05:00

The Spring Bluegrass Festival at Dixieland RV Park in Waldo FL begins Thursday, February 23 and runs through Sunday the 26th. Dixieland RV Park, located along U.S. Route 301 in Waldo, FL will host the festival, which will feature national and regional bands and have a strong leaning toward gospel music.All campsites have full hookups and cost $25.00/night. The Lineup The Roys, Lee and Elaine

The Silent Oligarch by Chris Morgan Jones - Book Review

2012-02-08T16:43:00.001-05:00

Now that the cold war has been over for more than two decades and Islamo-fascism has become the boogie man for right wing conspiracy theorists, the world domination business thriller has come to the fore. Chris Morgan Jones's engaging TheSilent Oligarch provides a superior view into this world within a fast-paced page turner taking the reader into the world of big oil, tax sheltered Caribbean

Seminole Wind Bluegrass Festival - Okeechobee, FL - Feb. 10 - 12

2012-02-07T11:51:00.004-05:00

Brulé Grasstowne The first annual Seminole Wind Bluegrass Festival will be presented by KD Bass Productions and the Seminole Tribe of Florida at the Fred Smith Arena in Okeechobee, FL from Friday, February 10 - Sunday February 12th. Weekend tickets at the gate are $60. For information about tickets and camping, which has already opened, call the rervation at 863-467-6039. National bluegrass

Joe Val Bluegrass Festival - February 17 - 19 - Framingham, MA

2012-02-06T08:15:00.001-05:00

The Joe Val Festival, New England's premier winter event and 2006 IBMA Event of the Year, opens for its 27th season at the Sheraton Hotel in Framingham, MA (suburban Boston) on Friday, February 17th and runs for three days. Sponsored by the Boston Bluegrass Union, Joe Val is one of the most ambitious bluegrass festivals we attend, combining first rate national and regional bands with a plethora

Palatka Bluegrass Festival - Preview

2012-02-02T07:12:00.001-05:00

The Palatka Bluegrass Festival will open for its eighth annual show on Thursday, February 16 and run through Saturday, February 18th at the Rodeheaver Boys Ranch a few miles south of Palatka, FL. This festival, begun eight years ago as a fund raiser for the Ranch, which provides a home and framework for living to about fifty boys from difficult circumstances has become a must attend of the

Peace River Seafood & Joshua Citrus

2012-02-01T05:35:00.001-05:00

Serendipity often plays a huge part in providing wonderful new travel experiences as well as in finding good food. As soon as we get even a little bit away from the chain stores and boring sameness of the large food chains, we know we're taking a risk that can be rewarding or punishing. On Tuesday we had two marvelous rewards as we returned to Highlands Hammock State Park in Sebring from our

YeeHaw Junction BGF - Saturday and Wrap-Up

2012-01-30T16:50:00.000-05:00

Saturday at YeeHaw Junction was warm and nearly cloudless with just enough breeze to keep it from feeling hot. All this helped draw the largest day crowd we've ever seen come to this relatively isolated but centrally located cow pasture in east-central Florida. Many came to see headline attraction Rhonda Vincent & the Rage, but there was plenty more to keep people listening and enjoying

YeeHaw Junction Bluegrass Festival - Thurs & Friday - Review

2012-01-28T10:46:00.001-05:00

YeeHaw Junction fits a traditional bluegrass fan like an old glove. You know, when you attend this Keith and Darlene Bass production that you'll hear familiar music played, mostly, by bands you've heard before or by bands you may not have heard but who will play music with which you're deeply familiar. Names like Bill Monroe, Flatt & Scruggs, The Osborne Brothers, Carter & Ralph Stanley, and

Guitar Zero by Gary Marcus - Book Review

2012-01-26T04:00:00.016-05:00

Gary Marcus, a psychologist who teaches at New York University, opens his wonderful new book Guitar Zero: The New Musician and the Science of Learning with a simple question: “Are musicians born or made?” Of course simple questions don't have simple answers. In seeking to answer his question, Marcus took more than a year to engage in extensive practice and research, including attending

The Western Lit Survival Kit by Sandra Newman - Book Review

2012-01-23T07:48:00.001-05:00

The Western Lit Survival Kit: An Irreverant Guide to the Classics from Homer to Faulkner by Sandra Newman shows its cards in its sub-title. This is supposed to be a funny book about literary classics, and, in many ways it succeeds. The book often brought a smile to my face and sometimes proved itself to be laugh out loud funny. The introduction claims to help readers get past using books

Nu-Blu & Morris Brothers at Rivertown Bluegrass Society - Conway, SC

2012-01-22T17:05:00.000-05:00

It's always fun for us to return for a Saturday night show at the Rivertown Bluegrass Society in Conway, SC. Rivertown provided us with first bluegrass experience back 2000 or 2001 while we were spending a winter in our fifth wheel at Myrtle Beach Travel Park. In those days the monthly third Saturday show was held at Coastal Carolina University. One of the featured bands was Blueridge

Josh Williams "Mordecai" Goes Viral

2012-01-22T13:08:00.002-05:00

It's been an exciting day here at the blog. It appears that while I wasn't looking, my video of Josh Williams singing "Mordecai," a story of a wandering Jewish peddler, to a bird perched on his guitar has gone viral. As of a few minutes ago, it had suddenly received over 150,000 hits and been identified by a couple of YouTube channels specializing in such things as worth watching. I thought I'd

Larry Stephenson, Local Scene at Berryville Bluegrass, VA

2012-01-18T14:42:00.001-05:00

Frank & Cyndy JurneyFor the past ten years promoter Frank Jurney and his wife Cyndy have been promoting a winter bluegrass series for the benefit for the Clarke County Athletic Association in the 550 seat auditorium at Johnson-Williams Middle School in Berryville, Virginia. During that time, in addition to offering superior bluegrass programming monthly through the winter, the program has donated