Old Town School – On The Road

Dispatches from the road from our wayfaring travelers.

Home again, home again, jig-a-de-jig

Hey everyone,
Maria and I are back in Chicago. It was a whirlwind trip and we have so much to share. We’ll continue posting on the blog as we unpack our cases and get back to things at the Old Town School. We have a ton of great stories, videos and recordings to share and friends we’d like you to meet over the internet.
For now, here’s a picture of me at Hadrian’s Wall. Visiting here made me think a great deal about Mr. Norgren, my 10th grade history teacher. He was a great teacher.
Cheer-i-o. Check back soon.
Jason
Jason at Hadrian's Wall

Filed under: Uncategorized by Jason | May 30, 2011 | Comments (1)

Friday, On the Road Again….

The performance we saw last night was so inspiring! It took place at the Stocksfield Institute and Community center. Several groups performed – children, teens, college students and a wonderful artist named Tim Dalling.

We had made friends with Year 3′s from Broomley school (7 and 8 year olds) earlier in the day. They created a wonderful set of songs with Tim Dalling that lifted us up! Tim is a wonderful musician and teacher and really worked very well with the students.

Here is Tim’s website

http://www.timdalling.co.uk/

After their rehearsal, we walked the students back to school playing fiddle and harmonica along the countryside, what a treat!

In the evening, the Broomley students really brought some wonderful energy, joy and spirit to their music! The Stocksfield Stompers performed as well, they’re brilliant!

Jason and I were invited to play a few tunes, we played Snake Baked a Hoecake and our friends sang along. We also played Spotted Pony!

We’re hanging out at The Sage today, we’ve jammed, seen some wonderful perfomances on the concourse (the lobby) and had a musical exchange with our friend Jenny. She shared several songs and tunes for us to bring back home…

We’re off to stay at Ridley Place tonight in Hexham and immerse ourselves in the festival.

On the road again…
Maria :)

Filed under: Uncategorized by Maria | May 27, 2011 | Comments (2)

Need to Go to Bed – A quick note

Hey everyone,
Oh my gosh! What a night. I need to go to sleep (it’s 3:30am here), but I wanted to share a quick video. It’s not my video. It’s from last years Hexham Gathering.
These are our new friends The Stocksfield Stompers. I can’t wait for the Young Stracke All-Stars to meet with them . . . Someday.
More about the group, it’s members and it’s history in a future post. Off to bed.
JMac

Filed under: England,Newcastle,Uncategorized by Jason | May 26, 2011 | Comments (0)

Follow-up: Four Men and A Dog – Day 1 – Newcastle

Hi everyone,
I just wanted to follow up with Maria’s previous post about 4 Men and a Dog.

Here is a picture of Hall 2.

Here is a picture of 4 Men and a Dog.

Here is a recording of 4 Men and a Dog playing a great song by The Band – The Shape that I’m In.

The Shape That I’m In – 4 Men and A Dog

They were great. Awesome entertainers. I really loved the percussionist.
Catch you later, everyone.
JMac

Filed under: England,Newcastle,Uncategorized by Jason | May 24, 2011 | Comments (0)

Traveling with an Old Friend

Hey everyone,

Our first moments outside of transportation stations on a blustery day in England.

JMac here. I want to take a moment and write about my travel companion, Maria McCullough. We are colleagues at Chicago’s Old Town School of Folk Music, and Maria is one of my closest friends.

We’ll be spending seven days in Newcastle Upon the Tyne in northern England; attending a music festival called The Hexham Gathering, with is produced by The Sage Gateshead, a huge organization that is home to a folk music school and three concert venues. Their web site says,

“The Hexham Gathering is perhaps the country’s leading folk festival aimed at providing performance opportunities for a host of hugely talented young singers, dancers and instrumentalists. Hundreds or performers converge on Hexham each year providing a vibrant kaleidoscope of music and spectacle throughout the town centre and at a variety of other venues across Tynedale.

I am thrilled to have this chance to travel to the Hexham Gathing with Maria. We became friends in 2002 when we were both teaching for an organization called Music House. It was my first teaching gig. We taught before-school violin and guitar classes to first through fifth graders at Decatur Elementary. Those where some early, cold mornings waiting for two buses to get to the school by 7:00am. We learned a lot together and I am very thankful that my first teaching experience was so positive.

We became fast friends and we were both soon teaching at The Old Town School of Folk Music. We schemed to get our guitar and fiddle classes to play together and I remember, in particular, one conversation very early in our tenure at OTSFM. We were sitting in the cafe at The Book Cellar, discussing our classes, until we realized the power that the song Pay Me My Money Down, could have in bringing musicians and singers of all abilities together.

That was a moment that lead, several years later, to The Gather-All and the Young Stracke All-Stars. Now, young musicians are learning to play together in several Kids Ensemble class and our teaching weeks are capped by an incredible full Saturday of teaching and jamming at the Armitage Building of the Old Town School of Folk Music. Our community has grown with us and we were able ask our community for help to make this trip possible. You can see the awesome pictures our our super-fun fundraising party here.

We’ve grown and found ourselves in the thick of the wonderful community of teaching-artists and students at The School. As we’ve grown, we’ve done stints in Paul Tyler’s Fantastic Toe-Tripper Orchestra, seen hundreds of concerts at The Old Town School of Folk Music, have met music legends like Roger McGuinn, and traveled north the play with Chirps Smith, south to visit with Old Town School of Folk Music founder Frank Hamilton and found a way to meet up in Cuernavaca, México to play with the wonderful Chucho Peredo Flores.

Jamming with Chucho Flores Cuernavaca, México, 2008.

In addition, Maria has been to The Sage Gateshead before. You can read and watch some videos about her previous adventure, here.

Maria is now Chair of the Kids’ Fiddle Program at The School and I and so proud of the work she has done to grow the program. Her patience, dedication and enthusiasm are one-of-a-kind.

Recently, Maria was also incredibly supportive in helping me and the Old Town School Community produce the School’s inaugural Family Barn Dance where dozens of young musicians provided the music as their families do-se-doed and shashayed to the kids’ wonderful melodies. Her work, her musicianship and her friendship have been the inspiration for so much and I am very glad to know that we’ll keep playing and teaching and growing our musical friendship for many, many years to come.

To me this trip feels like a “next step” in our journey. We’re visiting The Sage Gateshead at the invitation of Chris Pentney, who programs many of the concerts at The Sage Gateshead, hoping to glean some tunes, some teaching styles and some of Northumberland’s great folk music energy. I’m very glad to be sharing this experience with Maria.

As Maria often says, “That’s all.”

Filed under: England,Newcastle,Notes from Jason,Uncategorized by Jason | May 24, 2011 | Comments (3)

Jason and Maria are Going to England

Drawing by Kelsi - age 7

Hello everyone,
This is the first in what I hope will be a series of posts about our trip to England. My very good friend Maria McCullough (kids’ and adult fiddle and ensemble) and I (kids’ and adult guitar and ensemble) have been invited by Folkworks, a folk music school in Newcastle, England, to attend The Hexham Gathering. We’ll be in Newcastle from May 23 to May 30.

Here’s a brief description of The Hexham Gathering.

The Hexham Gathering is perhaps the country’s leading folk festival aimed at providing performance opportunities for a host of hugely talented young singers, dancers and instrumentalists. Hundreds or performers converge on Hexham each year providing a vibrant kaleidoscope of music and spectacle throughout the town centre and at a variety of other venues across Tynedale.

Maria and I are very excited. This is going to be quite an event and we hope to bring back lots of songs and stories to share with you all. Please come back to this page starting on Monday, May 23 to follow our adventure.

Also, please mark your calendars for Friday, June 3 (6:00 to 7:00) and Saturday, June 4 (Noon to 1:00). Those the first First Friday celebration and first Saturday Open Jam after our return, and we plan on using those spaces to share stories, pictures and songs from our trip. Hope to see you there, if not before.

That’s it for now. Don’t forget to visit this page and please leave us a note!
Jason (and Maria)

Filed under: England,Newcastle,Uncategorized by Jason | May 19, 2011 | Comments (6)

Jason’s Visit with Frank and Mary Hamilton

Hello friends,
Maybe you already know, but I’m down in Georgia visiting with Frank and Mary Hamilton. I’ve been down here since Sunday and I go back tomorrow. It’s been an incredible visit.

Jason and Frank in the front yard

I’d post some stuff here, but I’m using my personal blog for now. If you’re interested I have some pictures, a couple of videos and a recording or two. You can see them at jasonplaystunes.blogspot.com. Look for titles that include the phrase “My Visit with Frank and Mary Hamilton.

Filed under: A visit to Frank Hamilton,Notes from Jason,Uncategorized by Jason | April 1, 2010 | Comments (0)

Rock Camp Day Six

We spent the morning preparing for our set tonight at the Key Club, then headed to the hotel for a few hours of R & R. The energy at the Key Club was peaking as camp bands ruled the stage one by one. Literally every band had performed with intensity and precision, and every camper’s faced expressed the same sentiment: It’s great to be alive! Our band was scheduled to perform last, and we scorched through “Rainbow in the Dark” (Ronnie James Dio), our original song, and “My Hero” (Foo Fighters) in honor of Rami for making our camp experience so positive and productive. Fellow campers and counselors said their goodbyes as we prepared to head back into reality. From the moment we arrived until the moment we left, the entire Rock Camp staff accommodated to the campers’ every eccentric need. Most remarkably, they did it all with smiles on their faces and rock –n- roll in their hearts. I truly hope I get the opportunity to reunite with my band mates again someday, but I know they will keep music going in their lives and do it with a little more edge now that we’ve tasted the rock –n- roll fantasy.

Filed under: Domestic,Notes from Eric,Uncategorized by Eric | March 2, 2010 | Comments (0)

Rock Camp Day Five

Rehearsals resumed all morning for our recording session later in the evening. Rami then treated us to an amazing sushi lunch, followed by a tour of his amazing studio. After dinner, the band loaded onto the Gibson tour bus and headed to EASTWEST Studios for our original song recording. EASTWEST is the home of incredible legendary recordings from rock and pop superstars over the last 50 years. There to greet us in the booth was the notable producer, engineer and camp counselor, Ron Nevison. Ron has worked with the likes of The Who, Jefferson Airplane, Bad Company, Chicago, and Led Zeppelin, so I knew we were in good hands. The session was over before we knew it and the rough mixing process began. I’m looking forward to getting the final mix in a couple of weeks. Hopefully it will catch the great mood we all were in after collaborating so well together.

Filed under: Domestic,Notes from Eric,Uncategorized by Eric | March 2, 2010 | Comments (0)

Rock Camp, Day Four

We spent the day at AMP Studios rehearsing our original song for the recording session tomorrow and jamming to various songs so we can fill out our set at the Key Club. We got a chance to jam with Ace Frehley from KISS, and I sat in on a Q & A drum session with Charles “Keep a Knockin” Connor (original drummer for Little Richard) and Slim Jim Phantom (Stray Cats). Connor created that unique, choo choo train sound with nonstop 1/8th notes that American and British drummers in the 50′s and 60′s copied over and over in the 1950′s and 1960′s. As a left-handed drummer, I am always navigating in a right handed world by constantly switching the drum set when I share gear with other drummers. Performances become logistically bothersome when the drums and mics have to be changed quickly. Both Charles and Slim Jim are lefties, and Charles even told us that he was discouraged by others at an early age not play drums because he was left-handed. It turns out that there are many left-handed drummers but are often pressured in their youth to conform to a right-handed kit, like Ringo Starr. The rock stars have all been generous in sharing stories about the road and the many musicians they have known over the years, and I’m stretching out as a drummer by playing a variety of rock styles. Ace and Me

Filed under: Domestic,Notes from Eric,Uncategorized by Eric | February 27, 2010 | Comments (0)


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