Playing old time music down on the corner

Ben, Neal, and I, pick up our instruments and have a spontaneous music jam on the streets of Kensington. They call it instant fellowship and enjoyment- though we look a little stoic.



Ben and I have been playing music together, on and off, for many years- since we were back in college. But then, about 28 years ago (can't believe it's been that long ago), I saw a movie that probably changed my life. It was called "Deliverance". Most people know it was about a foursome of city slickers who took a weekend canoe trip in the back country of the Appalachian foothills on the border of South Carolina and Georgia. But what changed my life was the adventure, wild scenery, white water canoeing, and the music in that movie. The hair on my neck still stands up when I hear "Dueling Banjos". In the next week after I saw the movie, I had bought a canoe and a banjo and started taking banjo lessons in Blacksburg, VA. Kinda crazy, but that's just how it started. And I continued to play old time music and banjo on just about every weekend during the summer at old time fiddler's conventions all over southwestern Virginia- at least for another 5 years. Looking back I guess I was going through what some people were then calling a mid-life crisis. Maybe so, but now, in a crisis, I can take a deep breath, sit down, and strum the ol' banjo until the crisis is over.

Technical Note. I joined YouTube.com today. I had a passer-by take this video of our little trio with my Canon digital camera. The setting was in Standard, 640 x 480 pixel mode. The saved file was in avi format, 112 MB. I uploaded the file to YouTube using their downloadable "Uploader" for files over 100 MB and multiple video uploades. It took 45 minutes to upload the file! I then uploaded an 18.8 MB file in mpg format which I created with my old Olympus digital camera. It took only 8 minutes. Finally, I copied and pasted the HTML code into this blog. I know nothing about HTML editing, but it works. Gotta lot to learn about videos.

Rather than embed my second video into this blog, I think I will just post a link to my "flat footing" video here.