Golden Bear

"Little Women"

Golden Bear Final Update

It looks like I'll be able to pick-up our tickets at 5:00 pm and have them available at dinner.
It's all valet parking at the Hilton and cost is $9.00 for this event.

Last minute info. There are still seats available at tables 9 & 10 directly behind us if there are any more takers. Contact Mary Lou http://goldenbearreunion.com/contact/
(GB Reunion) regarding additional tickets.

See you at The Old Spaghetti Factory 6:30 PM

NITTY GRITTY DIRT BAND "SPEED OF LIFE"

If you haven't heard this yet you can listen to sample tracks @ http://www.amazon.com/Speed-Life-Nitty-Gritty-Dirt/dp/B002LB6EEM

GUESS WHO'S COMMING TO DINNER?

I was able to confirm a table for 20 at The Old Spaghetti Factory 6:30 PM Sat. 9/26.
Link to map:

http://maps.google.com/maps?rls=com.microsoft:en-us&oe=UTF-8&rlz=&um=1&ie=UTF-8&cid=0,0,2737316631312592851&fb=1&split=1&gl=us&dq=Old+Spaghetti+Factory+Newport+Beach&daddr=2110+Newport+Blvd,+Newport+Beach,+CA+92663-4322&geocode=10491125004332289121,33.609230,-117.927900&ei=Aj6cSo_4KaiEnAfGs5DHBQ&sa=X&oi=local_result&ct=directions-to&resnum=1

The Old Spaghetti Factory Dinner List
Gary & Susan YES
Ralph YES
Bob & Helen YES
Hank & Connie YES
Hank Jr & guest YES
Roger & Myra YES
Randy & Jan YES
Carol YES
Chris YES
Don & Bill YES
Henry & Pam YES
Pete & Eugenia YES
Tom YES

Since this is on a busy Saturday night they will only hold the table till 6:45 PM, so please don't be late. They have a one check policy and 18% gratuity is added to the bill. That's all pretty standard for large parties. That should give us plenty of time to eat, drink, get indigestion and hangout before the show. We should be at the Water Front Hilton around 9:00 PM.


Please confirm with me if you are coming to the dinner..... Buon Appetito!

Look Who's in Look Magazine 1969!

Ted Staak Found!

John Besharian just reported that he has heard from Ted Staak's daughter. Hopefully Ted will check in here before the weekend and maybe meet up with us at some point.

Ted, are you out there?

Golden Bear Reunion

You might want to bring your camera so we can post pics on the blog for those who can't attend.

Another radio station online....

We all have our favorites I'm sure. This was my brother's station. And what a station! You never know what they'll play next. I think they broadcast live in SF now too Rik.

http://www.kpig.com/

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AUNTIE HELEN & CHRIS

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AND MANY MORE FROM THE PARADOX FAMILY

Mary Allin Travers (November 9, 1936 – September 16, 2009)

We've lost another good one. Here's a video from 1967. She had soul and power.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQmc0AyCGeM

New Tim Buckley CD

This is the same place and same year as the photo Sherry posted below. What a voice that man had.

Blind Orange Julius

I searched for Blind Orange Julious and the best I could come up with was Blind Orange Jewish!

Steve Mann

Steve Mann

These are some of Tony's photos from 2007.

Steve Mann has passed away

According to a Facebook post by Don Burnham, Steve passed away yesterday. No details, but a lot of remembrances. I imagine that Janet could use a little love about now.

To celebrate the Newport Folk Festival 50th anniversary...

I thought I'd look at this great old 1968 book I have, The Face of Folk Music - and look what I found -

The book is disintegrating around the edges -

PARADOX CAFE RADIO

Gary, I think we have another model for the Paradox revival:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/08/us/08radio.html

http://www.kxzi.com/tuner.php

WELCOME STEVE NOONAN!

Sherry Miller is working on access today as well.

Before long, the whole gang will be here....

Video of the day

This is you don't often hear a five-string tune that can be described as contemplative. This is from a Kruger Brothers show where there'd been some tension in the crowd. So Jens and the boys played this lovely bit of business and cooled the place out. Listen for the 5 second pause about halfway in. Leaving a hole that big takes some serious cojones

The Kruger brothers are Swiss-Austrian. But they've been on the bluegrass circuit long enough that their first names are well-known in the mountains of Virginia. I don't think I've ever heard a better 5-stringer than Jens.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QyQOm2i9DMs

Golden Bear ReunionTables SOLD OUT

We've decided since it's an expensive ticket we should only go to 2nd show and book a decent restaurant for our own pre-show dinner. Looks like we'll have a gang of 20 or so. We just finished locking up table 7 and table 8 for the 2nd show Sept. 26 10:00 pm
Dining arrangements still to be arranged. That gives us 24 seats at our 2 tables @ $68.50 each. I have verbal and email confirmation on 14 already. I think the rest will go fast so if your coming please re-confirm with myself or Helen. You can your send money for tickets to either of us. Any questions shoot me an email. Should be fun!

Coming September 22

Recorded in Nashville's Blackbird Studio and produced by legendary recording guru George Massenburg and GRAMMY award winning singer/songwriter Jon Randall Stewart, 'Speed of Life' kicks off with Jimmie Fadden's blistering harmonica on the opening track "Tulsa Sounds Like Trouble to Me," setting the tone for an album that spans the gamut from the wistful and flawless vocal harmony of "Resurrection" to "Lost In The Pines," John McEuen's evocative banjo showpiece. 'Speed of Life' features 13 tracks, including new tunes penned by the band (with help from a handful of friends) and two covers: the Woodstock classic "Going Up The Country" and "Stuck In The Middle." Not to mention a blazing two-step throwback nod to bluegrass progenitor Jimmy Martin, on the aptly named "Jimmy Martin."

Or Maybe This

And this was her guitar

Vishnu, Garuda, Gajendra, Makara

I'll see you, raise you this one.

We're Leavin' The band that wasn't

Thought I'd post the un-album cover for We're Leavin

Arthur McBride

Paul Brady


Thought you might enjoy this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBGkhPx529g&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Emartindardis%2Ecom%2Farthur%5Fmc%5Fbride%5Flyrics%5Fchords%2Ehtml&feature=player_embedded

And now for something entirely different (from Sherry Miller)

Blind Lemon Barr

Time The Conqueror

Ralph and I drove up to Santa Barbara Sunday and caught Jackson at the Santa Barbara Bowl.

It's always great to see artist's on their home turf.

Jackson and Band cranked out a fine show. The band was extremely tight and Jackson and the bu singers were in great voice. If you saw the show in Ojai it was pretty similar, but way more refined. First time for us at the Bowl and it's a beautiful place to catch a show. Seats were behind the mix position and sound and light were pretty much spot on.

Life is good!

Went back stage after the show, but it was a total zoo so didn't get to talk with Jackson. We did spend some time talking with Buddha and mentioned maybe doing a Paradox Reunion Concert. He seemed to think time permitting for Jackson, that it could happen.

He said Jackson is well aware of his roots and where he came from. I thought that was encouraging and pretty cool.

More Reunion Pics

Hank Jr. Reunion Pics

I think it all started here:

The Nitty Gritty Tractor Band......

My favorite band on Planet Earth

About eight years ago I found a record in the bargain bin at Amoeba Records on Haight St. It was called "Music Cheaper Than Food" and was a $2.95 sampler of acts on Northside Records, which imports Scandinavian pop-folk acts into the US. The entire album was an ear-opener, but one act, a Swedish band called Väsen (VEH-sin) was heads and shoulders above the rest. So much so that when I heard that they were playing in Medford, OR, almost 400 miles away, I packed the car and took a road trip up. Norma, good sport that she is, came along, having no idea why.

Väsen was far better live than on record. I'd never heard anything like them. They played viola, lightly amplified 12-string, and an amazing kludge called a nyckelharpa, which is a cross between a Hurdy-gurdy and a string section. They had begun life 25 years ago as a dance band that played Swedish traditional music (sort of a Viking New Lost City Ramblers), but have become superb composers in their own right, and the music has become something unclassifiable and all their own. Some of it rocks, and some of it is achingly lovely.

In the last eight years we've become like Deadheads about these guys, sitting in the Freight and Salvage ticket line for an hour and a half so that we can sit in the first row. Driving to Felton to see them at a Mexican restaurant, and to Santa Cruz to catch an amazing show they did in the sanctuary of a Catholic church. We've seen them ten times and they've only been good once. The other nine times they were transcendentally great.

Here's a taste of the contemplative side of Väsen. Itäs a road tune, written in an hour by the guitarist and the viola player, while they waited for the nyckelharpa player to come back from an errand. It's an AABB traditional folk form, but with a C section added so that they can regroup.
The nyckelharpa plays the melody for most of it while the viola player dances around him. The guitarist, who is the key to their sound for me, reharmonizes the tune on each pass, so his stuff is what builds the tune emotionally. Listen all the way through and listen on good speakers, and pay attention to Roger Tallroth, the 12-stringer who will play rhythm, harmony, and will add a bassline that continually changes as the tune progresses. Olov Johannson, the nyckelharpa player anchors the melody while Tallroth and Michael Marin, the viola player improvise. I can't get enough of this stuff.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsFhRtmOow8

This just in from Sherry Miller

Black Fly Song

Thought I'd throw up this link for those that haven't seen this. The National Film Board Of Canada made youtube take it down.

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=28173986