COMING SOON: THE MAD-COOT STREET CARNI

FEATURING

 SADDLEBAG O' MIDI TUNES

CREATIVE NOTES: Almost ready to display the restored magical instruments, check back here.

Look at this graceful oldtimer mando, 1920 Shown in it's sad cracked and neglected state, but when I am done with this, it will glow, it will beckon, it will sing. I will respect it's age and integrity. Keyword: restore! I am also working on other types of instruments. [also designing a Golden Mean dulcimer]

I am working on a project to restore antique musical instruments, an obsession really as I love the craftsmanship challenges not to mention that I adore these wonderful Elvin pieces themselves. This is also somewhat a spirit thing for me as I feel that in this world we need to come together and PLAY SOME FREAKIN FOLK TUNES. Do you consider yourself a musician? No? Too bad YOU ARE by human birthright. QUESTION: would you like to play magical music on a magical instrument? Is it possible that I could enable this for you? Would you like to see some of my magical-musical resurrection projects? With much encouragement from my wife I think I will sell some of these restored pieces for reasonable prices. THIS WAY I CAN DO more without being conked on the head with a magical-musical frying pan. Contact Kent [please put in subject: MAGICAL-MUSICAL]

PROJECT UNDERWAY:

1. Repaired cracks and reglued a broken inside brace.

2. Refinished some worn areas without altering the total antique laquer finish.

3. Added pick guard in respect to shadow on the finish of a pick guard once there.

4. Added tailpiece.

5. Refined existing bridge and restrung.

6. Still scratching head over some other minor repairs in respect to the integrity of the instrument.

BLOWN AWAY! It sounds as good as the much sought-after Gibson A. [This is a B&J Seranader mandolin, about 1920].

Picture and price forthcoming Man-o-man gonna be hard to kiss this goodbye, but alas, "let it flow through you," declare the Muses, pesky suckers! Besides there is another old-timer mando demanding attention too.

Thinking of me old Music Mateys

One night around midnight Kent on guitar, Danny on banjo, Harry and Donn on their fiddles started to pick a few old-timey tunes in a house full of lawyers.

A few refrains went by and Harry stopped, gave an intense Harry-look and said, "boys are you ready?"

Huh?

"There's enough ego-glut in this house to challenge the Galactic Empire," said Harry, "so here's the plan, let's let our own egos down and beg the music to take over."

Not an easy thing to do on command but for some reason that night it worked.

When we came back to our normal senses the sun had come up, no one had left the lawyer-bash--they were all standing around with shocked looks on their faces.

"Do you know what happened," one of the attorneys muttered (and attorneys seldom mutter).

"Huh?"

"Good GOD, don't you remember?" added the lawyer. "...it was incredible," he said, "not just the music, EVERYTHING!"

To this day, Kent, Danny, Harry and Donn don't remember a damn thing.

Back in the 70s Kenny Hall, blind fiddler, Timmy, Downs Syndrome spoon player [best spoon player in all history] and myself, street name, Dogpaw [I have a club-hand, right hand--just enough of a stub to add a thumbpick]. Anyway we used to play for tips all over Central California. We played on street corners, we played in seedy bars where we had to fend off bikers and beautiful hairy-legged hippy-chicks, heh, oops, the story just took a dogleg turn. We played for rich people, we played for poor people [did you know that poor people are more likely to toss a coin?].

Sometimes panhandling became downright risky too. Once had to fend off a Hell's Angel in Dotty's Den who brandished a 12 inch bowie knife in front of my face. I told him I was ready to die and to go ahead and stick it to me then closed my eyes expecting to meet Zeus. That ol' Hoss Biker bought me a beer instead and invited our band to play in the back of a Model-A pickup at the Clovis Parade, Rodeo Days. Almost lost my skin then too, another tale.