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[Click on any image to enlarge] Well, we closed M.O.C.S. yesterday at the Barter Theatre. We were fortunate enough to play to packed houses, we were sold out a couple weeks in advance, so they've decided to bring the show back to the Barter, on the main stage, next year.  On Monday we're jumping in the van & heading up to Roanoke to do the play for 2 weeks at the Mill Mountain Theatre. It's been a great run so far, I'm going to be sad when it winds to a close at the end of October, but I'm looking forward to the road dates we have between now & then.Speaking of Mill Mountain, just found out that they're doing a fun promotion for M.O.C.S. From their website, "On October 11, 2005 from 6-7:30 pm, Mill Mountain Theatre invites anyone who loves to play the banjo to come downtown for a jam session. Bring your banjo and any songs you love to the Center in the Square Atrium and play with other blue grass music lovers before you settle into your seats for Man of Constant Sorrow at 7:30pm. Anyone who decides to come jam beforehand gets to see that nightís showing of Man of Constant Sorrow for FREE!"  Did you know they have us wearing body mics on this show? Similar to what anchor-persons wear on news broadcasts, they look like this. ...they strap 'em to us under our clothes. ...with a wire that runs up behind our backs & attaches to an ear-clip mic.
 Kim Mays, who plays Lucy Stanley, has hers attached to the back of her head under her wig.And here's a view from backstage, the prop table: 
Got myself a copy of Tim Stafford's great new solo CD, "Endless Line." Make sure you get a copy for yourself. Tim is the founding member of Blue Highway, who also have a new CD out, called Marbletown, which I haven't heard yet...hope to pick that up in Roanoke. Tim's one of the nicest cats out there, & Blue Highway is probably my favorite bluegrass band out there right now...great songwriting, great vocals, what more could you want? Now I have a beef...I left my turtle guitar picks back in NY for fear of losing them. Decades ago guitar picks used to be made from the carapace of the Atlantic Hawksbill turtle, so you have to find vintage picks, which can run you about $50 or $60 a piece. HELLO! Let me start by saying that if you don't use tortoise picks now, I wouldn't recommend getting used to them. Many tortoise & turtle species (including the hawksbill, long harvested for tortoiseshell) are on US endangered & threatened species lists, & more than a dozen are banned from trade by CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna & Flora). Needless to say, they shouldn't be slaughtered & harvested for guitar picks. That said, tortoiseshell has a certain hardness that helps create a crisp, clear tone, & since it is so hard, a slightly thinner tortoise pick will have the same response as a thicker plastic one. Shell picks also create a nice click that defines a note on recordings. If you must get ahold of a tortoiseshell pick, you can legally recycle the material used on jewelry & knickknacks in days gone by. I have picks fashioned from pieces of shell found on vintage makeup cases & brushes. If you decide it's worth destroying a collectible to make a guitar pick or two, you'll need such tools as a fine-tooth coping saw, files, sandpaper, & a vise to achieve the desired shape, thickness, & flatness...or be prepared to pay a premium for someone else to do it for you. But once you go shell, you'll never go back, so be forewarned! I have been using Fender extra heavy picks on the road for years, the 346 "rounded triangle" shape, which were acceptable. I bought a few new ones at the local Abingdon music store, Matt Smith Music (great folks, I recommend them highly) & it appears that Fender has changed the celluloid material they're using on the picks to some inferior type of plastic. They feel "rubbery" & don't slide off the strings in the same way. Big disappointment...National did this a decade ago with their thumbpicks, the filthy swine. So the search was on for a replacement. I haven't found any other plastic pick, other than the Fenders, that I was remotely comfortable with, & that left me in something of a quandry, until someone hepped me to Tortis faux tortoiseshell picks , originated by luthier John Greven, now made by Red Bear Trading Company. They're made from a polymerized animal protein, a byproduct of the dairy industry, that is very close chemically to real turtle shell. You could look at it as cultured turtle-shell, are supposed to be the closest thing to turtle shell that you can find, in fact they claim that people can't tell them apart from the real thing in blindfold tests. Well I'm here to tell you that they live up to the hype. Dave Skowron at Red Bear was kind enough to Priority Mail me a couple picks, with the "speed bevel" edge that mimics a broken-in feel, & I've been using them on stage the last week, & they are fabulous! Virtually indistinguishable from turtle shell, better than bull horn or anything else I've used. I recommend them highly, especially if you don't want to take your real turtle picks out of the house for fear of losing them. Buddy says check it out. | |||
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