Author Archives: sixstrstories
The Source
In case you were wondering… “Art” In placid hours well-pleased we dream Of many a brave unbodied scheme. But form to lend, pulsed life create, What unlike things must meet and mate: A flame to melt — a wind to … Continue reading
Wrestling With The Angel, Chapter 2
I first heard Linda Thompson sing on the album Shoot Out The Lights, recorded and released with her then-husband, Richard Thompson in 1982. The duo had been making music together since 1974’s I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight … Continue reading
Wrestling With The Angel
The Harrow & The Harvest by Gillian Welch came out last summer, June 28 to be precise. I’d known the release date and had been looking forward to this new CD for about a month. I’ve been a fan of Gillian Welch (see my … Continue reading
Reading & Listening
I had a Barnes & Noble gift card that, as my father would have said, was “burning a hole in my pocket” and a B & N store coupon for 20%-off any one item. It was summer, I was on vacation: I just … Continue reading
The Power of Reading
A year or so ago, I started casually searching on-line for a book about the history of recording. Last June, in a spur-of-the-moment, while-I’m-in-the-neighborhood visit to Kramerbooks (1517 Connecticut Ave., NW, Washington, D.C.), I found exactly what I was looking for: Perfecting … Continue reading
This Historic Day In Music: B.B.King
Last year, I missed B.B.King’s birthday and ended up writing about it belatedly on Sept. 20, 2010. I entitled that post “One That Got Away.” This year, I vowed to not miss this very important and historic day in music. … Continue reading
Everything Changed
It had not been the best of summers. On Sunday, August 5th, 2001, my mother, Avis Louise Foss Sinclair, died. She was 87 years old. Her passing was not sudden. August 8th, my 48th birthday, had been the day of her funeral … Continue reading
Revisiting “Rising Sun Blues”
Sometimes, in my teaching, one of my guitar students will ask if I can teach him/her how to play a favorite song that he/she has recently been listening to. Sometimes that song is so new or obscure that there is no transcription available either in a songbook, … Continue reading
78s & Cylinders
One of the items on my summer to-do list was to add a couple of 78-rpm records to my collection of 45s, EPs, LPs, reel-to-reel tapes, cassette tapes, CDs and digital downloads. You can’t have too much music, I always say. Late … Continue reading
Irene
Not the hurricane, the song! The recording you just listened to – you did click on the link and listen to it, didn’t you?!? – was recorded in New York City, circa August 1943, by Moe Asch. It features Lead Belly singing and … Continue reading
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