Monday, January 26, 2009

Fun Times at the Junction Jam

Sure, it's an acoustic open mic/jam every Sunday, but it was an "electric" evening last night at the Junction Roadhouse in Port Angeles. Kim and Jason from Deadwood Revival made a long overdue appearance along with "Strider" and Kelly Hoch. Several members of "Thin Ice" also played for the large crowd of dancers and "singers along." Now that's the way to spend a winter's Sunday evening!

Sad news about the untimely death of long time local musician Forrest Rossaire brought forth song dedications and many well wishes for his family.

Guitar Instruction Tip #??: Get your left arm elbow off your leg when practicing sitting down, and sit in the correct position. Force your knees together if you have to, but avoid that lazy posture as it will cripple your playing progress. So many things to remember, but with practice, they eventually become automatic.

1 comment:

Snave said...

Barry, fun times indeed!

This is John Evans of Fleshmen fame and notoriety. I was wondering what you were up to, and figured if I used Google I might find that you were doing something with music! Excellent! I would love to hear you play sometime!

How have things been going for you? Still teaching? What's going on with your family?

I still do speech-language stuff. I work at three schools in Union County in NE Oregon, and Kit and I still live in La Grande. Kelly and Katie (now 21 and 20) are in Portland going to school and having fun. I'm not sure if they are majoring in studies or in having fun... Maybe they will get out of college someday. 8-)

I'm in a band down here in La Grande. We call ourselves Standard Deviation...! We do covers of "classic rock" stuff. I play a Yamaha S-90 keyboard and do all the lead vocals. At age 51 I'm the youngest guy in the group, so getting the rest of the guys interested in newer music is like pulling teeth.

Re. the band name, our drummer is a school diagnostician, and our bassist is a school principal. Our guitarist is married to a diagnostician, so I guess that counts him in with our "theme"... heh!

We have had a hard time keeping guitarists. I guess that puts us in good company, i.e. The Stones, eh! We were originally a five-piece with two guitarists, but one guitarist passed away. His replacement, along with the other original guitarist, left the band a couple of years ago. We replaced them with one guy, a local expert player I've known for more than 20 years. He played with us for a year until family obligations pulled him away. Our newest player, Jon, moved here from Portland to be with his girlfriend and to try and work from his home doing technical writing... but he hasn't gotten any contracts and is breaking up with his girlfriend, so... he will be moving back to Portland. Oh well. Maybe the other three of us have bad breath or something.

Tonight is our first and possibly last gig with Jon in the band. I will try and get some pictures and post them on my weblog.

My blog is mostly about politics. I'm one of those mouth-breathing knuckle-dragging left-wing socialist types I hear so much about down here in NE Oregon...! I tend to blog about that sort of thing, but sometimes I blog about other things such as music, cats, scenery, and scatological matters. Kind of a jarring mix, but oh well, that's me, just like always!

I haven't done a lot of music at home during the last ten years. I've been battling some depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder, but I manage to survive it all, and life is good. Playing with the band helps lots. I get musical ideas here and there, and I have a decent 8-channel digital recorder. I have a nice little Ibanez acoustic-electric that has great action and allows me to play dreaded barre chords with ease, so it's good for writing songs on. I just need to take the time to really learn the recorder well. I'm getting an urge to do that again lately, and when I get there I'll send you something to listen to!

I still tend to listen to college/indie/alternative stuff, but I like most music. A couple of recent albums I have enjoyed are the new one "Roll On" by JJ Cale, and "Boxer" by The National. I'll be going to the Sasquatch Festival at The Gorge in May, for the third year in a row. Have you heard Sun Kil Moon? Let me know if you haven't and send me an e-mail with your current address. I will send you some stuff!

my e-mail is

j.evans91@verizon.net

Also, I see you have Tom Harper's "Port Angeles Online" linked! I have known Tom for the last few years now via our weblogs. (He knows me as "Snave"!)

I see Tom as a kindred spirit when it comes to our political views. I look at "P.A. Online" now and then, but I am usually at his "Who Hijacked Our Country?" blog. I have never met Tom in person, but I would love to meet him one of these days.

Sorry to take up so much space on your weblog!! But I have definitely been wondering what you have been doing for some time now. It would be good to see you and play music with you again! Take care, and keep on playin'!!!