Returning from my visit with Frank and Mary and the April Gather-All

Hello everyone,

  I'm back in Chicago.  Like the dang fool I am, last night I went right from O'Hare Airport to the Thursday Night Jam where Mary, Colby and Jimmy were laying it down with everyone.  I was able to practice the new banjo strums that I learned from Frank and I was very happy to be a beginner again.  I keep thinking about what Frank said.  "In a year you're going to be a real good banjo player."  You'll be seeing me with the banjo a lot between now and next April.

  Today was a very full day.  Adult Guitar 2 Rep, this afternoon.  We've been learning to play solos in G Major today and had a great time digging into Friend of the Devil by the Grateful Dead.  If you know me, you know how important that band is to me.

  Thanks to my cohort, John Mead, who took the ball and ran with in during today's Second Half.  He choose two tunes in E blues (Folosm Prison Blues and another one which I forget) and, knowing that G major is prefect for E blues (for reasons we'll get into another time), he called on Guitar 2 Rep to take the solos on both tunes.  Thank you John!

  Then this afternoon was filled with Early Strummers and Kids Guitar 1 and 2.  A couple students visited us.  Emma visited Kids Guitar 1 and Charlotte visited Kids Guitar 2.  Both young ladies are fiddle players and it was great to work on some tunes with them.  We played Old Joe Clark, This Land is Your Land and Angeline the Baker.

]  After that it was on to First Friday.  Check this out!  The Gather-All had both a musical saw and a tenor saxophone player.  Everyone was great!  Darrell lead an awesome song called "I'm Changin" which he learned from Ella Jenkins, the young fiddlers lead some great tunes and we got up and danced for a bit during Everybody Loves Saturday Night.

 After the Gather-All I found some dinner.

  Then, it was back to First Friday.  I hit the square dance for a bit then headed off to the concert hall to catch a set by Ann-Marie Akin and then Shelley Miller.  Loved Ann-Marie's sing-a-long and loved Shelley's "blue note" guitar pickin'.

  Then a late night snack with Darrel, Maria and Sandra.

  Now off to bed so I can be ready to go in the morning.

Let's do it again!
Jason