My babys are back

Jenny (daughter), Robyn (granddaughter), and Robby (son) made it back from Germany Friday after missing a connecting flight in Atlanta Thursday and being put up overnight in a hotel. Robby made it to Gideon's show Friday evening (more below) but Robyn had been throwing up on the flight back so Jenny was taking care of her and couldn't make it. We were running Gideon around the Island yesterday morning and, late afternoon, we dropped some stuff at the Bayview Cash Store and Katie and Jenny caught up with us their. Which was good because they were heading back down to Tacoma where Katie, and now Jenny and Robyn, lives.

I hadn't seen Jenny for about 5 months and little Robyn for almost 4 months. Robyn saw me, yelled "Papa", and ran over to me and I scooped her up.

It's nice to have them back. I missed them so much.

Robyn, Jenny, Mike, and Katie. Robby was off with friends.

Mike trying to climb. He's going to be scary when he gets a little larger. Mr. Fearless

Robyn and Mike. Robyn wasn't real happy with Mike on her back. Zoe took all these great pictures.

Gideon Freudman fries minds

Gideon's show Friday was incredible. I was the promoter for the show so I was running around, before the show, obsessing about all the details and whether the musicians, or anyone else, would show up.

Gideon made it for the sound check. Derek, Steve, and Joanne (TestingTesting House Band) made it. I always feel a little better when the musicians show. Robby (son) showed up. We hadn't seen him in four months. Starting to feel better yet. Ticket buyers even showed up. Not a big a crowd (about 30) as I had wanted but big enough.

The TT House Band opened. The suprised me with a new song Joanne had written - "Gordy's Bread." I usually make bread for the TestingTesting shows in my living room. I time it so that the bread comes out of the oven just before the musicians arrive so they come into my living room to the smell of fresh bread. The song is about coming to TestingTesting and my bread. Thanks to Joanne for the song. I will be getting a recording of the song soon and will put it up.

Gideon's show was amazing. It's one of those things that can't be explained in words. You have to hear him. (You still can - see below.) He plays electric cello with live digital delays and looping. He also sings his own songs. Funny and mind boggling. I'm not sure anyone in the audience had actually heard his music. They came because TestingTesting was putting on the show. They didn't really know what to expect but, from his first piece, they were with him all the way. One of those shows where the performer and audience start feeding off each other. Whoo boy!

Robbie Cribbs did the sound. He is also a recording engineer and brought his portable recording studio with him. Gideon has been wanting to do a live CD. This may be it. We will see.

Gideon Freudman will fry more minds

There is still a chance to hear him. He will be on TestingTesting Monday night. If you read this after Monday, you will be able to hear his show on the archives. I will be baking bread.

Emusic.com fries my mind

I signed up for emusic.com last night. As I mentioned below, I had been drawn there, from Higgy's page, by John Fahey's classic music. I signed up for a 3 month commitment ($14.99 a month), downloaded RealJukebox (it allows you to download the entire album), and downloaded 673MB of musical bliss.

You need DSL or cable to do this. Do not try to attempt this on a modem. Well, you can, but each album runs around 50MB. They are all recorded a 128kbps. This isn't Napster. It's a commercial operation and money goes to the artists. I got DSL just when Napster died so I haven't done alot with MP3s. This is amazing. This is old hat to some and new to others. Downloading through RealJukebox (you can use FreeAmp too) organizes everything for your listening pleasure. Bring a *big* hard drive. RealJukebox also lets you burn CDs. It converts the MP3s to music CD format on the fly for you so that you can play them on your CD player. It's a little slow with the free RealJukebox but may be faster with the not-free RealJukebox. More about that later.

So...What did I download for my listening pleasure? I will be writing about these in more detail another time, but the links are to the emusic.com pages of the albums and you can go there and hear 30 second clips of all the songs (RealAudio and MP3.) Check them out.

The first thing was to download some John Fahey albums.

The Legend Of Blind Joe Death
Death Chants, Breakdowns and Military Waltzes
The Dance Of Death & Other Plantation Favorites

Eight more to go. Then it was Leo Kottke's first album aka the armadillo album.

6- And 12-String Guitar

This is the only Kottke album but it his first and I have wanted it since 1969 when I saw it in a record store and didn't buy it. (It has one of my favorites - Vaseline Machine Gun.) One of the things I found in reading the accompanying infromation provided by the web link to the All Music Guide through RealJukebox was that there was a third Takoma guitar virtuoso - Robbie Basho.

Bashovia

There is another Basho album to download. I am also into Brazilian music so it was off to World/Reggae and the Brazil section. I saw an album by Gilberto Gil.

O Sol De Oslo

It listed Blue Jackel Entertainment as the label with a link so I check out what other stuff they might have here. I found:

Ihu: Todos Os Sons

Ihu Todos os Sons is a collection of songs and chants from several of the Brazilian Indian nations (Tukano, Sorul, Pakaa, Novas, Nhambikwara, Yanomami, Jaboti, Juruna and Tupari). They are presented in their indigenous splendor and then tastefully woven into a tapestry involving occasional colors from another world with modern instrumentation. Joining Miranda on this release is the amazing Uakti, the legendary Gilberto Gil and others.

There is another one of these that I will be downloading. Another Blue Jackel album is:

Maferefun

Tony Martinez & The Cuban Power

"70 Minutes of the most advanced and revolutionary Afro-Cuban Jazz music that has come out this year."
--Oasis Salsero

Hmmm...jazz. Onto the jazz section and Thelonious Monk has over 30 albums including all 15 disks of "The Complete Riverside Recordings".

The Complete Riverside Recordings (Disc 1)

Only 14 to go. I also like central Europan music. I picked this one at random. The artist is Anatol Stefanet. He has another I will be downloading.

Moldavia: The Art Of Bratsch (Viola)

And...

Vocal Traditions Of Bulgaria

Robby and a couple of his friends came over and while showing them how this worked I found and downloaded these two by R. Crumb And His Cheap Suit Serenaders.

Chasin' Rainbows
Singing In The Bathtub

Keepers, all. 194 tracks. I have had RealJukebox on shuffle as I wrote this. This is great for a music junkie. There is a bunch of Bill Laswell to download...