Three-Legged Stool

A Music Map

2005-11-21T17:26:00.000-07:00

Here's a map that uses Amazon.com to show how closely music/band selections are to one another.

Type in "Grouchy Geezers" and do the band search. Who would have thought we'd end up right next to Madonna?

Tres Quarts de Quinze

2005-10-27T19:42:00.000-06:00

Every Sunday, in front of Barcelona's main cathedral, giant crowds gather to do the Catalan national dance, the Sardana.

In between Sardanas, performance groups demonstrate the other Catalan pastime: human pyramids.

The pyramids are also done to music. Last Sunday, Jeff and Lyn had a chance to talk to the wonderful pyramid band while they were on break. Here's a picture. Lyn's on the right.

They didn't have a CD or tapes, but Anna Latorre (the smiling pipe-and-tabor player next to Lyn), gave us a card for another band she's in, Tres Quarts de Quinze.

For folks interested in the music, Anna sends us the following info:

ok, some friends of mine had made a web with a lot of music sheet for gralla (the kind of oboe you saw) They have a lote of tradicional music and some music write modernly for those instruments.

Everything is classificate depending of the kind of music, i mean , for parades, for procesion, religios, concert... Everything is in Catalan, but i thing you will find out. here you can foud songs, in midi files.

I atach you some songs we sing during the "caramelles", a eastern celebration and here you can found pictures and videos from the last eastern. I'm there playing the flabiol (tabour and pipe) and quim, one of the guys you met last week, was there also.

ok, then that's all! Now you will have a lot of work!

see you soon,
Anna

Comment Verification

2005-10-23T17:15:00.000-06:00

Well, looks like I have to turn on comment verification. Sorry about that.
We're getting blogspammed. Let's see if this fixes it.

Frank Lee and Ryan Spearman

2005-08-27T16:07:00.000-06:00

Ryan Spearman and Frank Lee asked Jeff to play a wedding gig with them. Jeff jumped at the chance. You'd love playing with folks this nice, too.

PostScript:

Just got a call from Ryan, announcing that he and Kelly eloped. Our congratulations and best wishes.

The Geezers, Live.

2005-08-18T22:00:00.000-06:00

Mike Moorman did sound for us at the last Ft. Collins dance. At one point, he waved his digital camera at us, to let us know he was capturing embarrassing moments.

We thought he was just taking stills. Nope. Look at this.

Emily and Luke

2005-08-11T22:10:00.000-06:00

Emily is a publicist for Planet Bluegrass, with a secret life as a poet. If you run into her, and ask her about Planet Bluegrass, you're asking her about work. If you ask her about her poetry, you're asking about her passion.

A few months back, Ryan Spearman invited Jeff to play a weekend gig. He said they'd be playing with a bass player named Luke, whom Jeff hadn't met.

The Wednesday before the gig, Jeff had a jam in his house. In the middle of a tune, he turned to the smiling bass player behind him and said, "Wait. Your name is Luke? Are we playing a gig together this weekend?"

Yep.

Here, Emily and Luke show off for the camera. If you want to hang out with folks like this, show up at a jam.

Alex + Evan & Taryne

2005-08-11T22:07:00.000-06:00

Alex walked up to the stage and stared at us. Jeff asked him if he wanted to come up on stage. He nodded, and came around, up the stairs. "Want to hold the mandolin?" Another nod. Here he is. Think he's having a good time?

Of course, once he did it, his little brother, Evan, had to do it too. Evan's younger, so he needed a little support from his aunt, Taryne.

Pat, Wes, and Bob

2005-08-11T22:04:00.000-06:00

We got to play for Bob Riggs at the last Westminster Grange dance. Bob is a mainstream square-dance caller who's brave enough to call with live bands from time to time. Mainstream callers used to call to 45RPM records, but record players are few and far between these days. Bob says he now has 400 square-dance tunes on his laptop, which he brings to gigs.

"But when you finish the dance," says Bob, "it's hard to say to the dancers, 'Let's have a big hand for the computer.'"

Pat is a triple threat: She dances with the Hoofin' High Country Cloggers, is teaching calling, on-staff, at the Rocky Mountain Fiddle Camp, and plays with a variety of local bands. She'll be calling on Saturday night at the upcoming Harvest Moon Festival, and playing and dancing the rest of the time. If you've never been to a Moon Fest, come join her. Tell her you read about her here.

If you have been before, come and tell her anyway.

Pat lives up in Greeley. Her son, Wes, is living down here, now, so she came down and brought him to the dance.

Jeff, Alice, and Tom

2005-08-11T22:00:00.000-06:00

On the left you see Jeff Jarvis, nice guy and nice mandolin player. Jeff works down at Harry Tufts' Folklore Center, which is the best place around to browse through old-timey CDs and drool over instruments.

Next to Jeff are Alice Gerrard and Tom Sauber, of Tom, Brad, and Alice.

Brad & Joe

2005-08-11T21:56:00.000-06:00

Here's Joe, who comes to Jeff's jams, at a Denver Folklore Center stringband workshop, with Brad Leftwich.

Jeff went to the workshop, too, where Brad and Alice explained to him that he plays all wrong. Oh well. Good workshop, too.

Jeff thinks Brad's fiddle video is the best instructional material for old-time music he's ever run across. And Jeff doesn't play fiddle. (Either. :-)

Sunday Night Club West

2005-08-11T16:15:00.000-06:00

Jeff got a chance to call a dance with the Boulder Bogtrotters, for the Sunday Night Club West. The SNCW has asked him three years in a row, proving that you can forget anything in a year. Click on the post title to get to the SNCW's web site.

Bill, Patty, and Crystal Cummings

2005-08-06T08:36:00.000-06:00

Jeff hosts an old-timey jam that's been going for about 20 years. (Okay, maybe 25.) It happens every week at his house, whether he's there or not. After a couple of decades, people have learned that they can just show up on Wednesdays and there will be people there, playing music.

A few years ago, Bill and Patty Cummings, from Arizona, knocked on the door. "Is there a jam here?" They were on their way to the Rocky Mountain Fiddle Camp, from Flagstaff, Arizona.

They were a little early, but came up the stairs and sat down in the living room. Bill got out his fiddle, shuffled his feet a little, and asked, "Well, do you play 'Sugar Hill'?"

Jeff allowed as how he did. Without any further ado, Bill ripped off a version that sounded just like Tommy Jarrell.

Then he named another tune, played it, and sounded ... just like Tommy Jarrell. After about three more rounds of this Jeff said, "That sounds really great. Where'd you learn those versions?"

"Tommy Jarrell."

Turns out Bill had gone out to Toast, N.C., to study with Tommy while he was still alive.

Now, one Wednesday night a year, Bill and his big grin come walking up the stairs to sound just like Tommy Jarrell. It's a joy.

Patty is a fine, fine, backup guitar player; her daughter, Crystal, plays bodhran. Friday night, the three played the Denver dance. They even invited Pam Brown and Jeff sit in for a tune or two.

In the top picture, an admiring and photogenic dancer, out visiting from Florida, looks on.

Podictionary Reveals All

2005-08-02T19:12:00.000-06:00

Well, here's a podcast you need to see, uh, hear: podictionary explores the origins of our name.

Errol & Kim

2005-07-31T19:41:00.000-06:00

Errol and Kim showing us that dancers can be dippy.

Kim does house healings. If you need your house healed, come to a dance and talk to her.

Eric Curl

2005-07-31T19:38:00.000-06:00

Our caller, at the last Fort Collins dance, Eric Curl, wondering how he got in this mess.

Karen and Michael

2005-07-31T19:36:00.000-06:00

Cute couple, huh?

Ned and Lynne

2005-07-31T19:11:00.000-06:00

Lynne used the potluck before the dance to try out a chicken satay recipe she's thinking of using for the next Harvest Moon Festival, where she's going to be head cook.

Ned thinks it's pretty good. So did we.

text text

Rhonda, Paul, and Erica

2005-07-31T19:04:00.000-06:00

Here we have Rhonda, Paul, and Erica.

Rhonda just moved here, and is the new program director for Swallow Hill. She's going to be working on the nights that CFOOTMAD holds dances, so she'd decided to organize dances of her own on other nights, so she can go. First one's going to be October 30. Sounds like a costume party to us. Call Swallow Hill and ask her for more information.

We first met Paul four years ago, when he came here for a few weeks for work. Paul lives in Norwich (pronounced "Norridge"), in Norfolk, England, which is, of course, in the southeast. He says he does dance there, but mostly English and Scottish Country dance. The second time he came, he brought his sweetie, Helen. This time she snubbed us and stayed home. We figure, if Rhonda and Erica can make her jealous enough, we can lure her across the pond again.

Erica is a cannoneer. She hangs out with folks like Norman Hughes, and does Civil War reenactments. Since cannoneers don't grow on trees, she also gets invited to do things like the 1812 Overture. If you need your cannon fired, talk to her.

Geezers Gig in Ft. Collins

2005-07-30T11:43:00.000-06:00

A local dancer just asked me if there's a calendar of our gigs. Sure! Look over on the right of the blog for "Geezers Gigs." Tonight, we're playing in Ft. Collins. Want to know where? Look over on the right for "Locations We've Played."

Their calendar says there's going to be a potluck beforehand. Bring up something yummy. We will.

Web Progress

2005-07-30T11:14:00.000-06:00

We'll call your attention to a few upgrades to our site(s) lately:

There's now audiolinks here on Three-Legged Stool. Click on its subtitle, "Grouchy? Just listen ..." in the upper-right-hand corner of the blog, and you'll hear us. Blogger also lets you put an audiolink in the profile, so there's one, too. Thanks to Kevin Cohen, whom you've seen playing bass with the Geezers from time to time, for making us the MP3.

There's a link counter. Hugh Hewitt says it's not a blog unless there's a link counter.

And there's been progress on our home page, thanks to the Geezers' web host Jeremy Hinegardner. Keep checking back there and you'll see it as he polishes it up into the gem of the vast Geezers electronic empire.

Cincinnati, Ohio

2005-07-27T17:24:00.000-06:00

When we were in Cincinnati, Ohio, earlier this year, we were invited to a May-Day celebration -- complete with maypole -- at Turner Farm, where we got to play with some fine local musicians. One of them, Ed Strelau, just sent us these photos of the jam.

[first photo, (L to R)] Maury Mountain, Beverly Strelau, Jeff Custis, Warren Waldron, & Whitt Meade.

[second photo] Geezer Jeff, Dee Childs, Doug Mast, Tim Jamison, & Gary Roerig.

At one point, Ed picked a tune and then said he'd learned it from Colorado fiddlers Charley Martin and Vicky Bunsen. "Do you know them?" Well, certainly.

To whet Cinci's appetite for more tunes from our neck of the woods, we trotted out a couple we'd learned from Scott Mathis, and pointed Ed at a place he could buy Bayou Seco albums.

Liz Lundeen

2005-07-25T19:05:00.000-06:00

Later in the evening, the Geezers re-converged at Liz Lundeen's family reunion. This year, she and her sisters decided it'd be fun to have a contra dance, so she asked Pat Tognoni to call, and we provided most of the music. It was too hot to do as much dancing as they'd have liked, but we threw in some waltzes and swing tunes, and Pat taught one dance that they did sitting down.

Here's one of her sisters with Liz. Her sister dances in Juno, Alaska.

One of Liz's friends, Fab, is also a musician. After Ron helped him fix a bass that was lying around ("first, go find a pair of hammers ..."), he joined us, reading charts over Ron's shoulder. Before he left, we made him play mandolin, too. Here's Fab, showing why we play music.

Richard Jones and Starry Nights Coffee House

2005-07-25T18:50:00.000-06:00

After the picnic, Jeff, Ron, and Carol wandered up to Ft. Collins.

Ron's lived in Ft. Collins for many years, where he and Eric Levine played dances until their arms fell off.

Jeff and Ron were talking about some of the folks who'd been around back then, and Richard Jones's name came up. Ron called him, and told him to duct-tape his kids and come have coffee with us. Richard brought his fiddle along; he and Ron both have Geary Baese fiddles, and so there was a lot of instrument discussion, but finally they got tired of it and Richard, Ron, and Jeff played some music. They didn't kick us out. These days, Richard's playing with Hot Club Catz.

Sandstone Historical Park Old-Timey Days

2005-07-25T18:33:00.000-06:00

Saturday afternoon, we played for an "Olde Tyme Family Picnic Celebration," at Longmont's Sandstone Ranch Historical Park. The ranch is a restored, late-18th-century farm. Volunteers dressed up in period clothes, passed out lemonade, and encouraged folks to tour the newly restored barn, complete with its life-sized, plastic cow.

Mike Moorman came along, to keep us company, and make us sound better. The building off in the background is the ranch's restored ice house. You can hear both "Ice House" and "Mike Moorman's Reel" on the Geezer's CD.

There were plenty of folks there lounging and having picnics. Some had never heard us before, and others who had, but came anyway. On the left is a local schoolteacher, who came with her son and some friends. We encouraged them to come to the dances. On the far right is Mike's girlfriend, Betty Becker, who's one of the first fiddlers Jeff ever played with in Colorado.

The Barn

2005-07-25T18:27:00.000-06:00

Mid-way through the event, our hostess, Deb, presented a plaque to the organization that restored the barn.

You can see the barn in the distance, but here's a closer view, and a picture of the inside.

Jeff's pleased with himself because Ron's just taught him how to milk the cow.

The Ice House

2005-07-25T18:21:00.000-06:00

Christine Smock

2005-07-20T15:59:00.000-06:00

Sculptress and mandolin artiste Christine Smock brings a watermelon to Jeff's jam. Goes well with her skirt, dont you think?

Penny

2005-07-10T11:24:00.000-06:00

Penny
Originally uploaded by goyishekop.

Ruth Alpert, clogger with the "Fast Peso String Band" in Santa Fe, sent us a note saying one of her good friends' sisters had gone to a contra in Colorado and gotten hooked.

Penny's also a Celtic harp player, but she's hasn't started coming to the jams. Maybe she's worried that it will be just as addictive.

The first one's free, Penny. :-)

John

2005-07-10T11:16:00.000-06:00

John
Originally uploaded by goyishekop.

John is a much better flute player than dancer. In the dance line, he's not even always headed in the right direction.

Perhaps the fact that John's blind is responsible for the discrepancy.

"A blind contra dancer?" Well, yes. Going down a contra line blind would scare me to death. Not John.

Other dancers give him rides to the dances, and there are always plenty of women who want him for a partner.

Ask John about his chickens.

Julia Hammid

2005-07-10T11:02:00.000-06:00

Julia Hammid
Originally uploaded by goyishekop.

Julia's out visiting from Baltimore.

She came out to visit her daughter, and stopped by the dance because she heard that we dance here in Colorado, too.

Turns out, we also take pictures and blog.

Julia says we should come out and play in Maryland. Jeff says he got run over in Baltimore so he's eager to go again; getting run over, like getting tattoos, is sort of addictive. Besides, the folks on staff at Johns Hopkins need dance bands, too.

Jeff's Rock and Roll Cafe

2005-07-10T09:44:00.000-06:00

Pam Brown found this cup at the Salvation Army, brought it to the dance, and gave it to Jeff.

Pam, who coordinates the refreshments, is everywhere at the CFOOTMAD dances, so most dancers know who she is. What most of them don't know is that Pam is also the finest banjo player you can imagine. When she was taking first at Topanga Canyon Fiddle and Banjo Contests, her contemporaries/competitors were Taj Mahal and David Lindley. If you can find a banjo, sit down with her and ask her to show you what it's really about.

Rick Smith

2005-07-10T09:35:00.000-06:00

Rick Smith, our caller last night, lets us try stuff. The easiest way not to make any mistakes is never to try anything. Last night, he asked us to try a rolling start, a la Wild Asparagus. He explained how to do it, how he'd cue it, and what it should sound like.

We blew it completely. Rick just smiled and got the dancers to the right place in the music anyway.

Doing it wrong is the first step towards doing it right. My guess is that it'll take us three more times.

Never Mind

2005-07-08T11:50:00.000-06:00

As Emily Latella would say, "Never Mind."

The Geezers are playing a dance, tomorrow night, at Community Montessori (formerly New Vista High School), at 8:00 (lessons at 7:15). It costs money.

The information in the CFOOTMAD newsletter and on the CFOOTMAD website are also wrong.

Free Geezers!

2005-07-07T21:14:00.000-06:00

This Saturday, we play an outdoor dance, next to the Boulder Teahouse.
7:00, free.

Tell 'em you're a guest of the band and you can get in for half that.

Cielito Lindo

2005-06-23T19:27:00.000-06:00

Canta y No Llores
Originally uploaded by goyishekop.

Our pal, Melody, sends us this photo from Florida. She says, "Canta y no llores."

We say, "Ay-yai-yai-yai."

An Idea We Like, Too

2005-06-19T18:54:00.000-06:00

To our surprise and delight, that dancing politician, David Aitken, mentions us here.

Nice blog, by the way. At least one Geezer reads David's libertarian blog, Life's Better Ideas, often. Like all good blogs, it's information- and link-filled, and defiantly idiosyncratic.

Dave Firestine

2005-06-15T18:46:00.000-06:00

I'm not being very good about getting pictures up on this blog, so I'm just going to do a posting orgy. Here's a picture of fine, Arizona mandolin player, Dave Firestine, at a jam at Jeff's house in mid-June. We were all delighted he came. Click on the entry title to see his site.

Chuck Roth

2005-06-12T13:21:00.000-06:00

Chuck Roth
Originally uploaded by goyishekop.

Here's Chuck Roth, our caller for the June 11, Boulder dance.

We first played a dance for Chuck a few years ago, when he came up from Austin to call one of the outdoor dances, by the Tea House.

He's come up yearly, ever since, and we've played for him each time. We keep hoping he'll invite us to Austin, so we can play for him there, too.

Chuck's sweetie, Kay

2005-06-12T13:17:00.000-06:00

Chuck's sweetie, Kay
Originally uploaded by goyishekop.

Here's Kay, from Austin. She and Chuck Roth come as matched set.

Susan Johnson puts up with having her picture taken, again.

2005-06-12T13:16:00.000-06:00

Susan Johnson puts up with having her picture taken
Originally uploaded by goyishekop.

Susan--Joel's sweetie--is "the other Dr. Johnson."

Not only is she gracious and patient, we suspect she looks far better in yellow than Samuel ever did.

Susan is a nutrition professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the C.U. Med school, so she gets a lot of media attention. She looks like she's thinking, "Yet another photo op. Yawn."

Deborah Knox

2005-06-12T13:05:00.000-06:00

Deborah Knox
Originally uploaded by goyishekop.

Deborah Knox, looking her elegant self,
at last-night's Boulder dance.

Heidi Freiburger joins us, on feet.

2005-06-12T13:03:00.000-06:00

Heidi Freiburger joins us, on feet.
Originally uploaded by goyishekop.

Our sometime percussionist, Heidi Freiburger. We met Heidi a year or so ago, when she showed up at a dance, right after she moved here from Iowa.

You'll often see Heidi and her stepatune on stage, at Geezers' gigs, helping Ron lock us into the beat.

Her daughter Zali will be the one sound asleep, in between the monitor speakers.

Richard Lungstrom smiles.

2005-06-12T12:57:00.000-06:00

Richard Lungstrom smiles.
Originally uploaded by goyishekop.

Richard, at the jam after the dance.
He later remarks that if anyone else sees this, they'll discover he knows how to smile.

CDs

2005-06-11T16:48:00.000-06:00

Joel's bringing Geezers CDs to the dance!

Ruby with Eyes that Sparkle

2005-06-10T18:02:00.000-06:00

While our sound man was setting up the equipment for the second night of a recent, dance double header in Louisville, KY, Jeff and one of the local dancers walked down to the corner to grab a quick cup of coffee.

"I think that CD of yours is real nice," the local said.

"You have one?" Jeff asked, surprised.

"Oh yes," he said. "I bought one last night."

"And you already listened to it?"

"I listened to it all day in the car. And I really like that 'Pig's Foot' tune. But you know, I'm pretty sure it has words. When we were growing up, it was called 'Ruby with Eyes that Sparkle.' Of course,
we sang it as 'Jeannie with Eyes that Sparkle' because my sister's name was Jeannie. My uncle, who was a fiddler, used to play it."

"Was your uncle a well-known fiddler?"

"Oh yes. Pretty well known. At least around those parts. That was before World War II, and the roads weren't very good, so there wasn't much contact outside your own valley."

You can't buy information that interesting.

(You can, however, buy our CD.)

Late-night jam this Saturday night, too.

2005-06-09T22:03:00.000-06:00

Guitar wizard and Swedish dance maven Richard Lungstrom just phoned from Lawrence to say he's driving out to come to the Saturday dance.

Sounds like this means a jam at Jeff's house afterwards. Jeff wonders, briefly, whether he has enough home-made beer and wine for the occasion, and decides he does.

Boulder Dance, this Saturday

2005-06-09T10:51:00.000-06:00

Head on over to the Boulder contradance this Saturday night to hear the Geezers play! Chuck Roth, from Austin, will be calling.

If you play, and you're in Boulder on Friday night, a bunch of folks, including Jeff, will be jamming in front of the courthouse, on the Pearl Street Mall, at 7:00 PM.

A bunch of us are meeting for dinner at Falafel King, across from the courthouse, at 6:30.

del.icio.us tag "grouchygeezers"

2005-06-09T09:15:00.000-06:00

Del.icio.us is a popular social-bookmarking tool.

When you register at http://del.icio.us (it's all free), you can bookmark and tag pages, and they keep track of your tags for you.

What makes it social? You can see everyone else's tags, too.

For example, I've bookmarked a bunch of pages with the tag grouchygeezers. Not only can you see a list of the pages I've tagged, but if you see a geezers page and tag it grouchygeezers, then whenever anyone asks for a list of all grouchygeezers pages, they get the ones we both tagged.

If you're starting to ask, "So, what if ...?" go over to http://del.icio.us and look around.

Pike's Peak Traditional Dance Website is Up

2005-06-05T10:06:00.000-06:00

Adele Beard sent us a link to the new PPTD page!

We've played there many times, and their dance community seems to be slowly growing. (We like to pretend that's cause and effect.)

Adele says four new volunteers appeared at the last board meeting.

Unfortunately their site's been down for a while, and all the links to it, scattered around the web, lead to dead ends. We're pleased to be able to put a link to the new site over on the side, in the growing list of dance sites who've invited us to play.

Geezermania!

2005-05-23T16:51:00.000-06:00

Well, now the Geezers have a blog.

You can also find our gig schedule, on-line, hereand a Grouchy Geezers Google Group (say that three times fast), here.