From Dear John to John Deere - Linda McRae - BLOG

Blog

Summer on the West Coast

Mon, 09 Aug 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Hey folks...we've had an incredibly busy year so far.

February found us at Folk Alliance in Memphis where we had a blast hanging out with Peter Cooper, Eric Brace, Colin Linden and a whack of other terrific folks including my great friend Denise Williams of Hillbilly Haiku fame!

March took us to Texas where I played some bass gigs with the fabulous and wonderful Sally Spring and Ted Lyons. I also did my own shows during SXSW in Austin where we got to hang out with our old pals Gurf Morlix and Brende Fuller. Thanks to Gurf for sitting in with me on my Opal Divine's Pennfield show!

In April/May we toured across the Prairies with our pal Dave Lang and played a bunch of new places made new friends and hung out with some familiar pals as well. In June we headed up to NYC, thanks to Drina and Dave at Banjo Jim's...what a fun place that is. NYC is such an amazing place and it was a blast to hang out and play tourist with my husband co-writer James Whitmire as he had never been there before. We then headed up to Syracuse, Picton, Toronto, Hamilton, back down to Buffalo where I played with my friend Jim Whitford sitting in on upright bass and then off to our pals in Cleveland for a great show with the Honky Tonkin' folks there! What a blast.

We've just come back from a fabulous festival in Wells, BC, Artswells. What an incredible event that is! Thanks to Julie Fowler and Paul Crawford and all our friends in Wells for making us feel so welcome there. Thanks also to RadaR and all the wonderful friends of Tempest Grace Gale for putting on such a wonderful memorial tribute to her. Tempest was tragically killed last November on Hornby Island. She was taken from us at such a young age...only 25. She was such an inspiration to so many of us and she is missed.

I also want to thank Melissa Devost and Ken Whiteley for including me on their Sunday Gospel workshop. What fun that was and it's even more awesome that I've been invited to participate in Ken's 8th anniversary Gospel Workshop at Hugh's Room on Oct. 31st in Toronto. If you live in the area, come on out for that one! Thanks also to Artswells for that! I was asked to do another festival next year as well as a direct result of my appearance there. I was also part of Dave Soroka's "allstar" band...whew 14 people on stage at the same time! Organized chaos...well sort of! What a heapa fun!

I've also signed with a European agent recently Grapevine Music and we'll be heading to Europe in Apr/May 2011 so stay tuned for new information on that!

I've also been talking with Bob Wiseman about the possibility of putting a tour of the Maritimes together for next January 2011 so stay tuned for that one. If you live in the Maritimes and would like to have us play at your venue, give me a shout and let's set something up.

We still have another couple of weeks to go in BC. I'll be playing 2 new festivals in the next couple of weeks, Summer Daze in Spences Bridge as well as The Robson Valley Music Festival. I'll also be playing shows with the Lillooet Arts Council in Lillooet as well as Ashcroft's Creative Cow Productions. I'll also be doing a reunion show with my old band Cheerful Lonesome at the Wise Hall in Vancouver on Aug. 27th. Also on the bill will be The Tresspassers and the great Doug Andrew. Please check my tour page for all tour information.

Other good news: BC Musician is up and running again! Look for my column "This Winding Road" in next month's issue!

Cheers ya'll and happy trails!

Linda

HAPPY NEW YEAR SPECIAL OFFERS!

Wed, 06 Jan 2010 00:00:00 -0800

HAPPY NEW YEAR - Hey folks, Happy New Year and welcome to 2010! We rang in the new year in style...wow, I got to play at The Hank Williams Museum in Montgomery, AB and at Noble's on New Year's Eve. It was the most moving and memorable New Year's I've ever had! These are some of the folks that were on the bus. This was New Year's Day morning and some folks were still sleepin'! Stay tuned for more info.

NEW SHOWS ANNOUNCED - We'll be on the road a bunch again this year. I'll be playing at Smith's Olde Bar in Atlanta on Jan. 20th. I'll also be playing with the great Caroline Herring at The Crimson Moon in Dahlonega, GE on Jan. 22nd. All the dates are up on the website! Please help spread the word if you have friends in any of these places!

SPECIAL OFFER - For a limited time we are offering CD's at $10.00 including shipping! Buy 2 and we'll throw in a third for free!!

NEW MONTHLY NEWSLETTER - I am working on a monthly newsletter for everyone who is interested in seeing what I'm up to in the coming year! I'll be including some special offers each month along with tales from the road and the comings and goings of life here in Tennessee. If you're interested in receiving the newsletter, please sign up in the box provided at the top of each page.

Thanks folks, all the best and hope to see you on the road!

Lots of Love

Linda

New Old Video from my First Solo CD!

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Here's a video I made with my friend Doug Thomson for my very first solo recording Flying Jenny. The song was Roll On Down and was the first single from the CD released in 1997 right after I left my other band Spirit of the West. This was so much fun to make. We were in the desert in BC Canada! Yes, I said desert! Merritt, BC in the desert, absolutely gorgeous country and hotter than the hubs of hell in the summer time, gorgeous! My friends Rob Thomson and Keith Rose both from The Hard Rock Miners are the skweegy, how the heck do you spell that word? in the video.

SERFA, Ozark Folk Center

Sun, 18 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

I've just gotten home from SERFA, South Eastern Regional Folk Alliance Conference and had such a wonderful time. Stay tuned for more info, photos, videos and accounts. I made many new friends and heard so much fantastic new music. I'll be posting new stuff as I get it downloaded on my computer.

Have a great week everyone!

Satisfied, satiated and sooooo inspired! Linda

WDVX, Jonesborough, the Carter Family Fold, Camping at the Nolichucky, and Bears then I'm off to Scotland

Wed, 09 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Wow, WDVX rocks! We did a show Wed. night Writer's Block with the lovely Dennis Double and host Karen Reynolds. What a blast. These two do a great show that just happens to be on WDVX, the greatest radio station in the world! The next day we got up and did a show on the Blue Plate Special with host Matt Morlock again at WDVX! You can tune in every day at noon and listen to the show, check out http://wdvx.com, it's my fave!!!

Friday night was Jonesborough Music on the Square. Jonesborough shuts down it's main street every Friday night throughout the summer for an open-air concert. It's a gorgeous place and is the oldest town in Tennessee. Also on the bill with me was multi-instrumentalist Matt Brown, incredibly gifted player and joined me for The L&N Don't Stop Here anymore and Some of My Friends, great fun.

After that we headed to the Nolichucky Gorge Campground with our friends Randy, Deb, Loren, Denise, and all our dogs. We spent a couple of nights there by the river, drank some beers, ate some great food and shared a bunch of tunes with some friends old and new, met a woman named Ritha who played dulcimer and sang some gorgeous traditional Irish songs, lovely voice!

Every Sunday night they have a potluck there and it was insanely great! Thanks to LD and Leanne for the killer meatloaf and especially to Leanne for the lovely fiddle playing later on into the wee hours of the morning. I headed back to our campsite sometime in the and was woken up to the sounds of a momma bear chomping on the stuff in our cooler only 10 feet away! She had a baby with her as well and spent about 4 hours in the camp trying to keep him up the tree. After everyone came and checked it out figuring it was ok, James and our dog Elphie went and slept in the tent, I headed for the van and had a very restless night's sleep there! Whew, a little too close for comfort!

Saturday night, Denise and James and I headed up to the Carter Family Fold and I got to play there! I did a brand new song that Dorothy Hamm (from Euless, TX) and I wrote about Maybelle Carter. I was so freakin' nervous I hardly even remember it. The place is a shrine to the Carter Family and is wonderful. There are so many photos of A.P., Sarah, Maybelle and all the Carters including June Carter Cash and Johnny of course. Johnny did his final show there. I couldn't look around until after I played otherwise I don't think I would have been able to keep it together. In the dressing room there were hand written lyrics, letters, photographs and artifacts that were staggering! It was an incredible experience and one I'll never forget! Thanks Denise for your support and for shooting the video and thanks Dorothy for great lyrics!

BC, Guitar Classes and Artswells

Mon, 03 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

We flew into Seattle and were picked up by my pal Nova Devonie at the airport. We spent the night and then boarded the Clipper for Victoria and hung out for a few days there then headed to Vancouver to spend some time with the grandkids...oh how cute they are!

Lots of shows during this month, up and down, over and under, back and forth across the border. We had a blast with friends in Oregon, two house concerts, one at our friends the Harris' in Applegate, OR. Thanks you guys for a great time and for putting on the show for us!

Next was Ellensburg, WA and another great house concert at our friends the Gunns! Great show, and had fun, thanks to all for helping us out there! I got to go swimming with McKenzie and Abby and spent some time with our friends Karen and Michael at their beautiful new home out in the woods.

Back up to Canada again for shows throughout BC and some time with friends Line and Arash in Lac La Hache, more swimming woohooo! Arash built a great float deck on the lake that has a motor on it. We motored out to the middle of the lake and went for a swim, it was fabulous! I'm so happy we got to do so much swimming this summer, it's one thing I really miss about leaving Canada.

Wells was next for a 4-day acoustic blues, slide guitar workshop put on by the Island Mountain Arts Summer School of the Arts. The course focused on the work of blues artists Leadbelly, Bukka White, Muddy Waters, Robert Johnson, Jesse Fuller, and Skip James as well as the work of our incredibly gifted instructor Mr. Ken Hamm.

Ken was raised in Thunder Bay and began his musical pursuits as a teenager by listening to old country and blues recordings at the local folk record store. He has become one of Canada’s foremost interpreters of traditional roots and blues music and was awarded a Juno for Best Roots & Traditional CD. He has also been nominated for Recording of the Year and nominated several times for Best Acoustic Act of the Year by the Toronto Blues Society. Hamm was also nominated three years running as Best Acoustic Blues Guitarist by North America’s "Guitar Player" magazine.

Aside from the fact that at times I felt like my left hand was about to fall off and the white cloud of moisture that formed on the front my J-45 as a result of the sweat running down my right arm (it was an unusually hot week up in Wells) the class was very enjoyable and I can’t wait to show off some of my new licks!

There were 9 students in all from all over BC and 3 of them were women, one of whom was the fabulous Melisa Devost. Luckily, the students in the class were at the same level of skill making things somewhat easier to follow along. If anyone was having trouble figuring things out, Ken would go around to each person as we were playing our “licks” and help anyone who wasn’t getting it…something that happened to each of us at one time or other during the workshop. We were all given a book of tablature as well…a huge help in remembering things upon arriving back home over a week later!

During the week we were treated to Ken’s “History of the Blues” concert in the Wells Community Hall. He has an edge to his playing that is extremely enthralling, it’s hard to sit still and not be drawn in by his energy and passion for the music. As great a performer as Ken is he is equally as great at teaching and I’d highly recommend taking one of his classes if you ever have the chance.

It’s interesting being a student as an adult. In the past 5 years I have taken classes from time to time focusing on my craft and it has been extremely rewarding. I’ve learned a great deal and am grateful to have had the opportunity to learn from such knowledgeable instructors. The rest is up to me.

Sometimes it’s difficult finding the discipline to work at one’s craft. There are always plenty of excuses and things that need to be tended to. I end up doing everything else first and then hope there’s time left for my daily practice. Lately though, I’ve started making a point of doing my practice as soon as I get up. If I miss my morning practice I try and make it up later in the day and I usually sit around with a guitar in my hands if I’m watching TV, etc.

As for songwriting, I don’t usually sit down and force myself to write. I’ve tried that and it isn’t very productive for me. I always make sure I have my trusty little notebook at hand. You never know when you’re going to overhear some pearl of wisdom while sitting at the bar or a friend’s house or be woken up in the middle of the night by a piece of brilliance that will be gone with the morning light if it’s not written down. A new exercise or scale, chord, tuning, etc. can also result in a great new melody.

Writing on a different instrument can also send creative sparks to flying. Learning the banjo has changed my life! Really and truly! The banjo has changed my style, my performances and has helped me find new-added confidence in my playing. It’s a great instrument as a solo performer as it has a built-in rhythm and easier, I have found, to play leads on. Hopefully having been a part of this guitar workshop will tip the scales on that end.

I remember Jenn Patches use to have stickers that read “Go Home and Practice!” Good advice for everyone, no matter how good or bad you might think you are.

In my humble opinion, too much knowledge of theory can be hazardous to your songwriting and can keep you from trying things because “What are you nuts? You can’t fit that note over that chord.” If you subscribed to that avenue of thought you’d never try to fit that square chord into that round hole! If it sounds right to your ear go for it! (Don’t you hate that expression?) It’s like “you go girl”, ugh!

Wells is an incredible place and we had such a great time...we were there for almost a week finishing it off with the festival of all things art! Great festival, lots of fabulous music and folks and art and too much fun! We spent some time at a gorgeous cabin our friend Pete let us use. More swimming and too much fun, pooped, time to go home!

See you next time.

Springfield, Janesville, Forget and Alberta

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

I'm been one poor correspondent. We've been busy...t's been awhile since my last confession!

In April James and I got in the car and headed north. Our first stop, great singer/songwriter Ben Benford's house in Springfield, IL. Ben is fabulous, you should check out his music at http://benbenford.com . Congrats to Ben and Kari who are getting married this weekend! We're hoping to do some shows together this coming November in his area...stay tuned for news about that!

Next stop was Janesville, WI and our Porchboard patrons, Nadene, Dean and Bill. Nadene contacted me awhile ago asking me if I would endorse the Porchboard for her company Enroute Music and I'm so glad she did. It's a beautiful thing! This was my first tour using it and it's been great watching the reaction of people in audience wondering where that sound is coming from! Come to a show and check it out! We had a great dinner there and a fun jam later that night. We're also hoping to had there in November to do some shows in Janesville, can't wait for that one...thanks Nadene et al for the opportunity to play the Porchboard.

The next night we spent in Fargo, ND. Pretty uneventful really...rest and relaxation in time for a fabulous time in Forget, SK at the Happy Nun...this place rocks! The folks are fantastic, the food is better than top notch and the sound is impeccable! We had a great night, the place was packed and a good time was had by all! Can't wait to see ya'll again!

The next day we headed for Alberta and our 2 week Home Routes House Concert tour. Mitch Podolak and company have put together the tour of the century! We had such an amazing time, 12 shows in 14 days and every show was stellar, all the hosts were unbelievably great and we had a blast.

We left Alberta 2 weeks later and headed to the coast. Our car conked out in Hope!!! We managed to slink into Maple Ridge and later got the car to my step dad in Victoria and he was able to fix it for us. It was a white-knuckle drive but we made it...whew!

We left the car in Vancouver and flew home! Whew, it was a whirlwind and it's good to be back home!

See you again soon!

A New Discovery, Buddy Tabor, he's great!

Tue, 07 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

My great friend Denise Williams from Hillbilly Haiku tells the story so well....here it is in her own words!"

I STRUCK GOLD....with the help of James and Linda, that is!

Oh, I know, I go off on some singer songwriter about every other week, falling hard then just as quickly moving on, fickle to the core. But then there are some that stand the test of time. My musician friends here, for exhibit number one. Well, I have found another. Another that is so good, I believe I'll be speaking the name Buddy Tabor as long as I am able to speak about music.

When James and Linda were in Indiana recently, a friend there Joe Peters, (he has a great radio show called Acoustic Blend on Purdue University's Public Radio Station, WBAA, AM 920 or streaming on the web at www.wbaa.org) gave them a copy of Buddy's CD. They enjoyed it and passed a copy to me. I put it in the player on the way home from work one day last week, and was in love by the time I hit Mt. Juliet. I got back to Linda and James, wondering WHO IS THIS GUY??? I searched on line and found a myspace page, which hadn't been accessed since January, and had just a couple comments on it from 2006 if I remember right. Nothing on Amazon, nothing on CD Baby, nothing on Village Records, a few articles but no links to purchase his music. By now, I'm having flashbacks to when I went searching on line for Doug's music! :-))

http://www.juneauempire.com/folkfestival/stories/buddytabor.shtml

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1197/is_1_50/ai_n16108375/

Linda emailed Joe who had given her the CD and he had this to say:

Good story behind that one...

My family was taking a cruise from Seward, AK down the inside passage in 2000, and we stopped in Juneau. I was pushing my father through a used bookstore in a wheel chair, and I heard this song come on that sounded like John Prine (but wasn't, I could tell), and a line about "China and Vietnam" came on, and since that's where I was living at the time, I took notice. I asked the clerk and she said, "Why that's Buddy Tabor, and you can buy his CD right there, which I did, and promptly learned 4 or 5 songs from the album, which I still play in solo sets.

Over the years, I have searched and found very little about Buddy, and certainly no website for him. Very sparse internet presence. Surprising, since everybody likes this CD. So, that's all I know. I know that he was living in Juneau at the time, but have no idea since then. Sorry...let me knw if Denise discovers anything more.

The address on the CD (copyright 1998) is:

P.O. Box 021273, Juneau,Alaska 99802.

Phone: 907-780-4492

The album was recorded in Juneau, and mastered in Whitehorse.

This prompted Linda to email Kim Beggs in Whitehorse to see if she knew of Buddy. Bullseye!

Hi Linda and Denise,
I know Buddy. yes he lives in Juneau. Actually you can hear him on the internet during the Juneau Folkfest (April 13-19) which is streamed live on the internet. He plays Wednesday, April 15 at 10 pm. for fifteen minutes only. The schedule can change some times though so check back. By the way folks, Kim Beggs is also scheduled to play on the Thursday at 9pm so you should definitely check her out too, she's great! You can check the schedule for other acts as well. Also check out Art Johns. He is a magical Indian Cowboy in his seventies. Fri at 8:45pm.

http://akfolkfest.org/35/35concerts.php

I also messaged one of the friends on his myspace page and got a reply, offering to pass my phone number to Buddy. I think I'll pass him Linda's instead, she speaks better "northern". lol

As to Buddy's music, add one more pound of grit to his voice and to my ears he's a dead ringer for a younger Guy Clark. And not just his voice, I would believe willingly that Guy wrote these songs. They are just really good stuff! And he writes many from a political viewpoint as well. You know I'm a sucker for music that matters. Dig this:

Natalee Holloway
Words & music by Buddy Tabor Â©2006

We couldn’t find you in Aruba with all the tears that we wept
But it kept our minds away from the war and a trillion dollar debt
You were just a lonely high school girl about to spread her wings
When the facts aren’t fair and balanced the truth don’t mean a thing

The day you came up missing they sent the crews without delay
But they never mentioned Abramoff or the fall of Tom DeLay
Or how Jack went to the White House over 200 times
And all the bribes and money that went down, it’s bound to boggle up your mind

When the news has turned to Newspeak like in “1984”
When you wake up in this nightmare with George Orwell at your door
When the facts are all distorted and the truth becomes a lie
And the tears fall down like napalm from freedom’s bloodshot eyes

Dearest darling Natalee Holloway, I wonder if you have seen
All those flag-draped soldiers’ coffins coming from that nightmare dream
Or the tears falling down on a mother’s distressed face
Or the hole in her heart from the son she can’t replace

I wonder if your parents mind that your tragic death was used
To cover up the truth and never broadcast the real news
Stick the lies into your face, that’s bound to blind both of your eyes
While over in the war zone 50,000 souls have died

gone, i tell ya!

deeeeLOVESmusic

-- Well Dee, I think I should have you write a column here ever week to keep everyone up to speed on all the good stuff! You sure know it!

Have a great week everyone!

Linda

I Got My Porchboard!

Tue, 31 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Hey folks: Can you believe it. I got my Porchboard from Nadene Isackson a couple of weeks ago. We finally got to meet at SXSW and she and Bill and Dean are awesome folks! My friend Kim Beggs bought one on the spot.

If you're a solo or duo or even in a "band I would highly recommend trying one out. It's definitely "cheaper than a side person" as Kim so wisely said when she tried it out. It's really cool and I'm getting the hang of it pretty quickly. Can't wait until I can get those polyrhythms going.

Thanks again to EnRoute Music and the Porchboard folks. Here's a video you can check out! There's also an article in this month's issue of Acoustic Guitar Magazine at
Acoustic Guitar Central: Three Rhythm Stompboxes Reviewed