Home again

I use "home" loosely, having lived six places in the past 13 months- anyway- I've returned from the amazingly well-kept secret of the Steve Kaufman acoustic camp in Maryville, TN. I spent the week taking classes, sharing meals, picking and hanging out with some amazing flatpickers and teachers- the likes of Rolly Brown, Mark Cosgrove, Steve Kaufman, the unbelievably smooth Scott Nygaard, Jeff Jenkins, Mike Maddux, and the illustrious Dan Crary. What a time.

Reality strikes again as that blissful experience has drawn to a close and there is again money to be made, floors to be swept, dishes to be washed, meals to be cooked, etc. I have much more impetus to get a lot more flatpicking in my life now and seek out all the good acoustic music that I know is in this area. Just have to find it.

Looking forward to my coffeehouse show this Sunday (Cafe Roche on Hawthorne in Winston-Salem, 12-3).

gone a'pickin' and a'grinnin'

Reporting from Knoxville on the eve of my long-awaited week at Steve Kaufman's acoustic camp at Maryville College, Maryville, TN (http://www.acoustic-kamp.com/). Thanks to the scholarship I received for this occasion, I'll spend the next week developing my flatpicking skills and repertoire with the aid of some of old time & bluegrass music's finest teachers. Perhaps most exciting of all is the promise of three meals a day in Pearsons, the Maryville College cafeteria. There was a time in my not-so-distant past when that last sentence would've been a joke- no more!

Life goes on as I've now lived two lightning-speed weeks in Winston-Salem, capped by Friday night's show at Honduras Coffee Company (http://www.hondurascoffeecompany.com/) in Stuart, Virginia. It was intimate (to say the least), certainly a case of quality over quantity in terms of listening. Folk there were friendly and laid back, enjoying the wonderful atmosphere and listening in a way performers don't often enjoy. A major technical snafu on my part (the essential missing component of the PA was of course inside one of the speakers) made for a true acoustic show. Many thanks to my folks for lending the PA, again, while I wait for that fine day when I can get my own.

Now it's off to camp, with lots of excitement for the people I will meet, the tunes I will learn, and for any life nudges, major or minor, that will inevitably come out of such a gathering.

Happy trails~

URL Changed

To my myriad followers (unmanifested though you may be):

I changed my url to be hopefully more memorable:

www.gauchosilvertone.blogspot.com

Blogosphere, Ho!

I have arrived fashionably late to this big rectangular party, as it was once called by a friend of mine.

My humble obeisances to the masters of yacht rock, Steely Dan, for lending the "Gaucho" half of my blog title. Great appreciation to my brothers Ben, who introduced me to the world of amplifiers and tone, and Matt, who brought a 1964 Sears Silvertone amplifier (which looks like a suitcase) into our home. It now lends a wonderful air to my new room in Winston-Salem, whether or not it's turned on.

For those reading with music in mind, I have a show coming up this Friday, June 12 at Honduras Coffee Company in downtown Stuart, VA. It's a great place supporting sustainable growing and sustainable living in Honduras via directly traded coffee. I'll be playing music from my album Plateau (evolving as always), along with new acoustic songs and some of my loop-based electric work, which I'm hoping to integrate more fully into my performances and art in general.

Thanks to all who appeared at the Uselton household last Friday. For those absent, we had a wonderful night. At first I would've said it was great in spite of the rain, though with time we all saw that the downpour only added to the magic.

Stay classy, blogosphere.