Here’s to Professor Jennifer Jenkins of the Duke University Law School. We met her at the Pinhook show and got to talking. Sure you can buy us a round of drinks. How ’bout we play at your class tomorrow? And then, there we were, not even a day later: standing in a Duke lecture hall playing a few tunes and answering questions for 45 minutes. The theme of the day was genre and the elements of genre. The legal issue is whether an idiomatic element of a composition is copyright-able. So we played the Georgia Grind to get the conversation started. All the core elements of the genre are in: 12 bar format, call and response vocals, breaks, shout chorus, back bends during the sax solo, “bar” walking, and making up topical lyrics related to the people in the audience.
The Q&A was pretty fun. Many questions were coming from James Boyle an we got to hang out with him a bit after the lecture. His main work is all about theft and what it is. Jenkins and Boyle are soon to complete a comic book on the history of musical theft. They gave us a copy and Stefan was cracking up for a good long while checking it out. We might wind up doing the soundtrack for the accompanying CD. We were thinking that it would be one song done in a variety of historical styles. Boyle was hanging out with Hank Shocklee (Public Enemy and Bomb Squad fame) on NPR talking about sampling. What if we couldn’t quote anyone with out having to by the rights to do so? That would pretty much crush humor and context in music. Where is the line, though?
Moving on. In the afternoon we went around to all of the local pawn shops to see what was available. I’ve been playing on Stefan’s clarinet for edification and amusement and I figured if I get one for myself I wouldn’t have to be borrowing his all the time. The first one I saw turned out to be the best of about seven that I tried. I went back and haggled. It was quite simple really: “Why is this marked at $89.99?” “Uhm… I’ll give you a 10% discount.” Cash, no tax and I walked away after handing over 4 twenties. It plays pretty good. It’s a Jupiter. Stefan found a pretty good alto sax that he could have made about a grand on but he passed it up. We’re going to a 5 star music store this afternoon. I’ll let you know what we find.
Night time. We go out to the gig and we start having some serious concerns about the venue. For starters, we can’t find it. It may or not be in a huge shopping center that features a “SUPER Target” store. We do find it. It’s directly, immediately beneath an enormous, full size, brightly-lit, vivid red billboard. The blue note grill is in a tiny strip mall subsection of a huge mall shopping center complex. It’s next to a tattoo parlor. We thought it would be empty. Nope. Totally packed. Every table was taken. The Duke Street Dawgs were throwing down some killer bluegrass and old-time country swing. It was happening. Bill, the owner was super friendly. The food was great. We met Bill’s wife later on, Andrea. She was the cook as well. She’s the one responsible for that great Carolina Vinegar BBQ sauce. At the end of the gig she was all hugs and brought us all some bread pudding that she described as: “Be careful. It’s kind of like crack.” That was the best bread pudding I’ve ever had. Sorry Grandma.
The show itself was super fun. We segued from old time vibe into our core wheelhouse of repertoire and made the night happen real good. A dancer friend I’d met in Rochester, Angela, brought all her dancer friends out to the show and besides the regulars, we held the crowd late into the night. Baby Hands played great. We only had a few mics so we had to share a mic on all the spots where he needs to sing back-ups. I had to walk the mic-stand over to him and lean in. We were basically singing right in each others faces. It was kinda fun actually. I had no idea he was singing so loud! Right on, Baby Hands! While we are on the subject: Baby Hands fun fact for day #2. Did you know the names of Baby Hands’s revolutionary war ancestors? I promise that I will not invent any of these facts. This is for realz. There names were: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. And yes, they were triplets! Very rare at that time I’d imagine.
Last stop: after party. Before the show even started, an interesting old-timer who fully looked like a back hills moonshiner came up to our table in the back. He started speaking with a charming and surprising Welsh accent. “Are you the band? Won’t you please come to my home later. We are having a musician’s party.” He home brews beer and mead. He had a fire in the back. He rocks out on the harmonica. Him and his wife sing and shriek at the top of their lungs. They own gongs. Many of the folks from the Duke Street Dawgs were there with guitars and a mandola. Almost 20 musicians with guitars and fiddles. It was a song circle in the living room. Wood burning stove. We may have a video of Clifton playing the alpine horn… stay tuned.
Today – music store in the afternoon and then the Triangle Swing Dance Society tonight.