Conclusion - Byron's Song

In 1995, my cousin Byron moved to Oklahoma and opened the Double Stop Fiddle Shop in Guthrie. It was friends jamming together upstairs at the fiddle shop that came together as the Byron Berline Band. They're still together, touring the U.S. and Europe. They also have a tradition of doing two shows a month in Guthrie for the locals.

Also that year, his solo album "Fiddle & a Song" --- featuring Earl Scruggs, Bill Monroe, Vince Gill, and Mason Williams --- was nominated for a Grammy in the Best Bluegrass Album category. And a single from that album, "Sally Goodin" was nominated for Best Country & Western Instrumental Performance.

In 1997, he founded the annual Oklahoma International Bluegrass Festival, which draws top bluegrass talent from around the world.

Byron's music has appeared in many TV and motion picture soundtracks including  Star Trek, Blue Collar, Basic Instinct, Blaze, Back to the Future, Stay Hungry, and Run, Simon, Run.

Here's a link to what I call "Byron's Song" because it's a song about Byron Berline.  It's actually called "Skippin' Along the Top," and I don't know who's singing it (doesn't say on the YouTube video), but Byron fiddles and chimes in every now and then to answer questions and this song really shows the versatility of this great musician. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2Aem5j95KA&list=PLWl1C8k1ZuOiw8DmKFJBKjX02QYA8PBFv&index=4

In his long career, Byron has recorded with:

Bob Dylan

The Rolling Stones

Elton John

the Byrds

Willie Nelson

Doc Watson

John Denver

Rod Stewart

the Eagles

the Band

Gram Parsons

Emmylou Harris

Tammy Wynette

Alabama

Mary Chapin Carpenter

the Doobie Brothers

Mickey Gilley

Linda Ronstadt

and others too numerous to mention! 

Congratulations to Byron Berline, Oklahoma's Ambassador of Goodwill, for his induction into the National Fiddler's Hall of Fame last month and for all of his amazing work over a long career in music.

DANG, BYRON, 
I'M MIGHTY PROUD 
TO CALL YOU KINFOLK!

My Famous Cousin, Part 2

[This is a continuation of the story I started on Tuesday (below).]

After recording an album at age 19 with the Dillards in 1965, Byron was invited to perform at the Newport Folk Festival, where he met the "Father of Bluegrass," Bill Monroe. He was offered a job with Monroe's band, the Bluegrass Boys, but he didn't join them until 1967, after he'd finished college. It was a short relationship; about 6 months later he was drafted.

In 1969, out of the service, he joined Dillard & Clark on an album. After that, he moved to Southern California where he joined the Flying Burrito Brothers in 1971. He recorded two albums with them. Here's a sample; check this out, it's good! Byron comes in for his fiddle solo at about 1minute into the song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwPTYimAE7E&feature=share&list=PLWl1C8k1ZuOiw8DmKFJBKjX02QYA8PBFv

When that band broke up, he spent some time working with Stephen Still's band, Manassas, on their debut album.

Byron won the National Old-Time Fiddler Contest Championship in 1965, 1967, and 1970. In 1972 he formed the group Country Gazette. Four years later, he founded the group Sundance, which a young Vince Gill later joined.

In 1979, Byron had a bit part in the movie The Rose, starring Bette Midler, loosely based on the last days of Janis Joplin's life. He was one of the musicians in the trailer backstage scene, part of the Billy Ray Band, when Bette Midler's character meets her country music idol, Billy Ray, and is immediately rebuffed by him.

In 1987, he appeared briefly in one of the first season's episodes of Star Trek: the Next Generation, where he played a violin.

After forming the band Berline, Crary & Hickman (who I saw play twice), they changed their name to California.  California was named the International Bluegrass Music Association's Instrumental Group of the Year three years in a row: 1992, 1993, and 1994).

[to be concluded tomorrow]

My Most Famous Relative Inducted!

My most famous relative, Byron Berline, was inducted into the National Fiddler's Hall of Fame, in Tulsa, OK last month!

This morning I found myself, for no special reason, singing John Denver's song "Thank God I'm a Country Boy," and I started wondering if what I'd always heard was true: that Byron played the fiddle on that album. (No, it was a later one: Windsong.) So I get on Google and spend several hours re-acquainting myself with the Oklahoma "cousin" I first met as a starry-eyed 12-year-old. I was so proud when I read that he'd been inducted into the Fiddler's Hall of Fame last month!

It's going to take several days to tell about this remarkable musician. So I'll start here with the early years.  

I have a wonderful photo of him playing on-stage with Crary & Hickman at a bluegrass festival in Kansas in the 70s, but who knows where it is? So here's a promo photo from the Double Stop Fiddle Shop website, which I'm sure he wouldn't mind me sharing.

To peak your interest, I'll show you Byron today, in his fiddle shop in Guthrie Oklahoma. (I tried and tried to imbed the video here, but I'm no computer wizard --- it didn't work. So here's a link to click on.)

http://youtu.be/ypP6fY3QyYU

Byron grew up in a musical family, which is why he started playing fiddle at age 5. His father, Lew (a great old-time fiddler in his own right) was my grandma's first cousin who lived in Oklahoma. His mother, Elizabeth, played piano, and two brothers and two sisters also made music.

When I met him, he was 19 and had already recorded an album with the Dillards. I was a gawky 12-year-old, sitting with other cousins on my aunt's living room floor, listening to the old folks jamming.

Here's how the story went down. Not that I remember that much. I was 12 that year. I'd never heard of blue-grass music; I was only just then hearing about the Beatles. Some out-of-town kin had dropped by, on their way to an out-of-town place... because their boy had been invited to play somewhere... because he was a really good fiddle player... because he'd learned from his daddy when he was only five... 

At first I was disappointed when they walked in. We were supposed to be meeting a new cousin, and here he was, a full-grown man of 19 or 20.

My aunt and uncle had a party at their farmhouse for the Berlines. There was good food, and I got to play with my local cousin's dolls, and there was music. We young cousins (at least five of us) sat for awhile on the floor in the living room and watched the grown-ups playing music. We'd get bored and scamper off to play, but I kept coming back, because I couldn't get enough of checking out the only young man in the room, who was sure fiddling up a storm.

I later saw Byron play at the Walnut Valley Festival in Winfield, Kansas and at a club in Champaign, Illinois, both  sometime in the 70s.

(to be continued, tomorrow or sometime in the near future)

Snow, Snow, Go Away!

Snow, snow, go away!

It's time for flowers 

to come out and play!

This snow won't last long. It's going to melt as soon as the sun comes out.

We're in the "mud" season again, and it's hard to find places for Beary to play outside where he won't get all muddy.

I'm glad we had plenty of snow this winter, and I don't remember the temp ever going below zero. So, it was another mild winter for us, although, thankfully, it was wetter. Hopefully our two year drought is over!

Happy Ides of March!

The Death of Caesar (1798) by Vincenzo Camuccini

Well, I guess it wasn't so happy for old Julius Caesar, though, was it? The Ides of March is best known as the date on which Caesar was assassinated in 44 BC, stabbed to death at a meeting of the Roman Senate.  According to Plutarch, a seer had warned that harm would come to Caesar no later than the Ides of March. On his way to the Theatre of Pompey, where he would be assassinated, Caesar passed the seer and joked, "The ides of March have come," meaning to say that the prophecy had not been fulfilled, to which the seer replied "Aye, Caesar; but not gone."

INFO & PHOTO OF PAINTING FROM WIKIPEDIA.

What to Do...What to Do...?

I've been emailing back & forth with the woman who would like me to paint four miniature fruit studies for her. 8x8. OMG!!!! I've never had such a difficult assignment!  

She's very specific about what she wants in the way of color coordination with her kitchen & living room, thick brush strokes, lots of color (but not primary colors) and rich texture, etc. 

She's shown me some samples she found on Etsy.  It's not the way I paint. I love a challenge, but I don't like to be pinned down so much with someone else's ideas and details.

I told her last night I'd do one sample (since they're so small), no obligation. Now, I'm not so sure... is this going to be a good experience or a pain in the ass? I'm half-tempted to tell her I don't think I can do it the way she wants it. But... the tin box with the red roses on top turned out okay and the people liked it. I was dismayed by that project as well, not having the artistic freedom to do what I wanted. But it turned out okay.

Oh, and I did manage to work out a price list, and she was okay with it. 

What to do? What to do?

On TV!

My tomato painting was on the TV news yesterday morning!!!

Apparently they'd had some city-type committee meeting at the gallery I belong to.  Why they would have it there, a bunch of people standing around in their coats in a small, storefront room with art on the wall, is a mystery to me. Typically for me, I was so excited to see my painting on TV that I didn't pay a bit of attention to what the meeting was about...

But there was my tomato painting, big and juicy as you please (all 12x12 inches of it), for all of central Illinois to see. It may be small, but that cadmium red really popped on the wall!  The TV station is based in Springfield, the capitol city, which is where all the big money and art buyers in this area are. Maybe somebody fell in love with it and wants to buy it! 

Hey, a girl can dream, can't she?

But, no, most people would've been scanning the faces to see if they recognized anyone. I saw my artist friend Kathy, Bob from the gallery, and another lady who I know only collects Hispanic art.  The rest of the crowd were "Rank Strangers to Me."

Anyway, it was such a thrill to see my painting on the news.

In other news: the gallery gave my phone number and email to a woman who is looking for someone to paint her a set of four fruit pictures for her kitchen.

Too bad these are sold...

So far I haven't heard from her. Gives me time to worry about what I should charge. I assume they would be small (not larger than 11x14 or 12x12). 

I HATE putting prices on my work. I believe art should be affordable for everyone. My art professors disagreed and said that low prices on amateur art drive down the 4- or 5- figure prices they charge for their art. (I'm hoping they weren't con- demning my art to the amateur ranks!)

My opinion doesn't hold water anyway. People that can't afford original art are not going to buy it even at "give-away" prices, not if they can get something cheaper at Wally-World (mass produced in Mexico or China or Vietnam, etc., by child labor) to hang on their walls. 

But I don't think my profs' opinion is any truer, for that matter. People who buy art, who collect art, have the money --- and they seem to think that the higher the price, the better the art.  So, excuse me, dear former professors of mine, but I don't think the price of even the best of "amateur" art is going to affect your market.  Just my opinion. But it still doesn't make pricing my own art any easier.

And that's my irritating editorial for today.

Thanks, Vicki

I've been away from the blogs for too long. 
I only posted twice in February, 
so it's been a couple weeks since I checked in. 
I wouldn't have, maybe, 
but a friend sent me an e-mail asking where I'd been. Thanks, Vicki!

HEY!
But it's a brand new month!

Hug a Horse

Wisconsin Concrete Park, Phillips, Wisconsin

Today is

NATIONAL HORSE PROTECTION DAY!

so

GO HUG A HORSE!

I just wish I could! Sometimes I miss my horses so much.  Sure, I didn't ride them --- I was afraid somebody might get hurt! But I loved spending hours with them: brushing them and petting them and watching them (I loved to see them run!)... heck I even liked the way they smelled.

I was lucky. Early in our marriage, my husband and I had a couple of broodmares and raised several Arabian foals. But we didn't want to be backyard breeders, and getting into the horse show circuit just cost too much. So we eventually phased out the horses, and their stalls were turned into a bike shop for our son (from ages 12-21) and their beautiful pasture was all tore up to make a motocross practice track.  Another money-pit of a hobby!