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Notes From The Chair	Volunteer Above and Beyone	Continental Divide
I Joined a Folk Jam	House Concert Tradition	BFMS T-Shirts
2007 Kate Wolf Festival	Ragtime an American Folk Tradition	Folk Alliance
Tin-Pan Alley	Calendar

We can all be proud and thankful that Butte County has a musical environment unmatched by most communities with much greater population. Special thanks are due to the Upper Crust Bakery, Augie’s, Café Coda and Sierra Sunrise Terraces for providing jam venues.

Partially because of those jams there has been growth in the number of performers. Many neophytes have become good performers and some of Butte County’s experienced musicians, singers, and groups could hold their own in any city in the country.

The role of the Membership Chairperson has been ably filled over the past few years by Susi Gillum who has maintained the data base of Butte Folk Music Society members. Duties also included sending reminders to expiring memberships and welcome packets to new and renewing members. Susi has recently resigned the position as her life became busier. Fortunately for BFMS, Bernie and Bob LoFaso (who are also Co-Chairpersons of BFMS Board of Directors) stepped forward to fulfill the duties of Membership Chairperson (which is not a board seat). They have data base experience and the knowledge and enthusiasm to further the public exposure for your Butte Folk Music Society.

They not only attend artistic events but share the information about upcoming jams, concerts, and musicians while inviting and encouraging others to "get involved". They are also instrumental in several musicial classes offered at The Terraces (California Park) but open to the public.

If you like and/or play ragtime music, talk to Bob and Bernie -- they do too and are organizing a regular ragtime class to further explore and listen to the genre. Follow their lead. Get involved where your passion is focused. Join the Butte Folk Music Society!!

Attend the music jams currently held the first three Saturdays of each month. While the jam held at Upper Crust Bakery the first Saturday of each month is officially sponsored by BFMS, the others (held at Augie's Coffees) have spun off as additional and specialty events headed by musicians who attended and met at Upper Crust. More chances to play, more chances to listen.

Stellar bluegrass musicians, DAVID PARMLEY and CONTINENTAL DIVIDE, will set the house on fire at Grilla Bites Restaurant (196 Cohasset Rd., Ste. 150) on Thursday evening, November 15, 8:30 PM, with their fine chops and harmony vocals honed over the years of performing worldwide.

A native of southern California, David Parmley is a founding member of the internationally acclaimed, Bluegrass Cardinals. In 18 years, the Cardinals recorded fifteen separate projects, made appearances on the Grand Ole Opry, the Ralph Emory Show and performed at the White House for former President, Jimmy Carter.

In 1994 David teamed up with banjo great, Scott Vestal, to form Continental Divide. The rest is, as they say, "history".

Known for his soulful voice and driving rhythm guitar, and exceptional skills as a producer, David has notched many awards, including: International Bluegrass Music Association's "Recorded Event of the Year"1991and 1995. Continental Divide became an instant success claiming IBMA's coveted, "Emerging Artist of the Year" award in 1995.

Fellow Californian Randy Graham met and began playing music with Kentucky native Don Parmley in 1967. Together Don, David and Randy set the foundation for one of the most influential bands in bluegrass music, The Bluegrass Cardinals. Cardinals shows were characterized by David's soulful lead, Don's smooth baritone, and Randy's unmistakable high tenor voice. His added wit on stage keeps the action moving and lively. Over the years, Randy's vocal and instrumental expertise has been featured in work with Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver and BlueRidge. Over the past few years local Chicoans have also seen David and Randy as part of a band called Long Lonesome Road.

Banjoist Dale Perry hails from Wayne Co., West VA. Starting out on guitar, he later transitioned to banjo in which he found his real interest. However, his first job was as bass player for the Travelers Quartet. In 1985 Dale joined the Bluegrass Cardinals as bass player/bass singer. Dale teamed up with Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver in 1994 for several years. Now reunited with David and Randy, Dale supplies Continental Divide with rock solid banjo and vocals as only he can.

On the fiddle and having learned and perfected his technique by listening to the diverse fiddling of old time player Clark Kessinger, the western swing of Bob Wills, and bluegrass greats Kenny Baker and Bobby HIcks, is Virginian Billy Hurt, Jr.

Besides winning first place in the "bluegrass fiddle" category at the 1994 Old Fiddler's Convention in Galax, VA, his professional credentials include stage time with the legendary Jim Eanes and the popular Bluegrass Brothers. He provides soulful backup, oldtime fiddle interludes, or up in your face bluegrass breakdown fiddling with Continental Divide.

Jimmy Cameron who now plays bass with the band started out learning his fine chops on mandolin and perfecting his vocals. Cameron was asked by David Parmley if he could play bass and his wuick answer ... "No, but I'll learn."

After a short time of near non-stop practice and the determination of a killer bee, Jimmy auditioned with Continental Divide and landed the job. Funny and willing to take more than his share of barbs, on and off-stage, Cameron adds another dimension to Continental Divide's near endless vocal combinations.

The band has just released a new cd, "Church House Hymns" which received a nomination on the first round of balloting for the International Bluegrass Music Association awards contest. It contains 12 powerful songs of faith which will be showcased in the band's November 5 gospel concert at the Orland Evangelical Free Church concert.

The Chico concert will focus on the straight ahead traditional 'grass. Save the date on your calendar to see this dynamic band and buy advance tickets, available by October 1 at Lyon Books (downtown Chico) or by calling the Butte Folk Music Society at 530-895-1952. Tickets are $15 with a $2 discount for BFMS members

Imagine a room full of musicians playing all sorts of old-timey, bluegrass and folk melodies. Yet amidst the expected mass of mandolins, gaggle of guitars, bunch of banjos and fistful of fiddles there are—not one, but—two ukuleles! Yep, I was invited to an informal folk jam session frequented by local players at Augie’s Coffee down in Chico. Michael (whom I’d bought my fiddle from) told me about the monthly gathering on Friday afternoon and I decided to give it a try [on Saturday].

I’d read from others on various forums that some folk musicians are open to ukuleles—and some aren’t. Thankfully this group was of the welcoming type! I arrived with my little soprano LoPrinzi and within 30 minutes was sandwiched between mandolins, with a stand-up bass behind me. Mark came along—he spent the time working on his computer, taking some photos for me and enjoying the music with the other patrons at the shop.

We played a range of songs which I’d never heard of (that’s just not been my repertoire—at least up until now!); most were in the keys Of D, A and even E. (arrgh!I hate the E chord in first position; I ended up doing the 4-4-4-7 version) but there were a few tunes in G and even C. No chord charts, for the most part (although Bernie, from the Butte Folk Music Society, who played mandolin beside me, was generous in sharing those songs that had them).

I discovered that my ability to “hear” chord changes and anticipate the chord progressions improved almost magically as the afternoon went on. Bill, who’s a longtime musician and a member of Ukuleles of Paradise, was there with his Fluke and even took a bit of a solo on one song (the other players noticeably “lightened” their volume as we all played background so the Fluke could be heard) and I was invited to do the same but declined, at least this time. Perhaps I’ll bring a Hawaiian song to share next time! Any suggestions as to what songs I should select from?

We in the Butte Folk Society have held many wonderful concerts during the 30 plus years we have been serving the Chico area. It is great to bring in more than 100 listeners to fill larger venues such as the Women's Club, (where many of our concerts have been held, including Joe Craven, Rob Ickes, John McCutcheon and Bryan Bowers as well as many others) and the Congregational Church, where U. Utah Phillips shared his particular style of entertainment and education with over 300 of us.

Other places we have held concerts are at local bed and breakfast with performers Margaret Christl and Eileen McGann. We hosted an evening with Greg Brown at a local union hall. Many of our events have been held at Moxies, where Robin and Linda Williams, Mary McCaslin, Harvey Reid, John Reishman and the Jaybirds. We also helped bring music to many hundreds of people through our shows and sessions at the Bean Scene and other venues around Chico.

Some of the most memorable events are the more intimate gatherings held in the comfort of each other's homes. A duo from the Northwest, Pint and Dale have played in a Chico back yard. An intimate gathering was organized last fall at a member’s house where we were able to enjoy Tom Paley, one of the original members Of the New Lost City Ramblers, who helped to popularized old timey music several decades ago.

Quite a few performances took place in the house of our former board of director's president, at the Acoustic Greenhouse. These opportunities to hear and see musicians “up close and personal” are one of the special ways that Butte Folk Music Society helps to bring music to the north valley.

Butte Folk Music Society now has t-shirts for sale at $15 in sizes L and XL, natural color (light beige) with a colorful logo. Get yours now. More info at 895-1952 by leaving message or email MissSchico@sbcglobal.net

Friday: Open mic: The Rev. Junkyard Moondog warmed 'em up with the old standby "Haiku Griot" and then busted out with the world premiere of "Girl with Stigmata" which is kind of a samba/Los Lobos mash up which was delivered to me whole while I was driving to the coast and I just pulled over and wrote it down.

I have absolutely no idea what inspired this. Really. None. Standing ovation! I may rejoin the Catholic Church just to get excommunicated, heh, heh, heh... Lowen and Navarro. Lowen is crippled by ALS now, but damn he can still sing, as can Navarro, and what great songs such as "We Belong." Guy Davis: fine acoustic bloozeman. Kind of like Eric Bibb. Eliza Gilkyson with Nina Gerber. Another magic combo, and Nina played electric the whole set. She and/or Joe Craven did several guest spots with other artists.

Dougie MacLean Band. This guy is the Scottish James Taylor. What a warm voice and great songs. Gets the audience singing along with the fiddle parts. Fun! Marcia Ball Band. Laissez les bon temps rouler! Saturday: Coming out of the shower around ten I heard a wondrous sound and wandered over to discover the Love Choir from Sebastopol. Around ten musicians and forty singers and every "audience" member was a Love Choir member simply by singing along on the choruses. A mix of up-tempo positive secular tunes, some gospel (but also "Imagine" and "What if God Were One of Us?") and some of those tunes that could be classified either way like "Your Love Keeps Lifting Me Higher." Sang along from 10-12 Saturday morning and 11 p.m.-1 a.m.

Saturday night and a revival meeting 9-11 Sunday morning. Six hours of choral singing with over 100 people, an incredible high that I'm still riding. We need to get one of these going here in Chico! Yes, it's a bunch of old hippies, but as their leader Mr. Music says "What other kind is there?" Tom Russell -- fine picker and singer, again with great songs such as "Who'll Build Your Wall?" Robin and Linda Williams and their Fine Group: A little bit of Prairie Home Companion. "Shotgun Shells on the Christmas Tree" is one of my instant favorite Christmas songs.

Hot Tuna Acoustic: with a guy named Jack Mittendorf (I think) on mandolin and guitar sounding like he'd been playing with Jorma and Jack forever. I called for "Water Song", my favorite Hot Tuna, for the encore. Jorma and Jack looked at each other, smiled, nodded their heads and played it, oh yes they did! Laura Love acoustic quartet. She and Jen Todd were in particularly fine musical and comedic form.

Sunday: The Mammals and the Be Good Tanyas. Along with the Bills, we were Canajan, eh? All very talented and big fun. Maybe after I move north with global warming... Trivia: one member of the Mammals is Pete Seeger's grandson. Dave Alvin: Ideally I would have liked him electric with Mike Watt on bass and a drummer, or a Blasters show, but also more than fine as an acoustic quartet. Especially wonderful were the duet vocals with I think her name was Christy MacWilliams. David Bromberg and the Angel Band. I've always had mixed feelings about Bromberg: great instrumentalist and bandleader, but somewhat limited vocally.

When he sings the slow ones like “Mister Blue it’s time to go get a beer. Instead we got a one hour set by a wonderful female vocal trio backed up by Bromberg and three other musicians. David didn't say a peep, but then he came back and closed the festival with a one-hour encore and he only sang one kiss of death song, "Our Last Date." Otherwise he was mostly instrumental and just wonderful and he growled out some fine blues.

The highlight was at the very end when all of a sudden there was a spotlight in the middle of the audience and the Angel Band joined in on harmonies on remote mics. Sacred Scheiss, Batman! Seriously, it was one of those magical moments that only happens at a festival.

Ragtime is a truly American musical genre which enjoyed its peak popularity from the turn of the century to World War I. Its most defining characteristic is “syncopation”, that is, a melody played with occasional melodic accents occurring between metrical beats, resulting in a melody that seems to be avoiding some beats by emphasizing notes that either anticipate or follow the beat.

Ragtime began as a performance medium, in Mississippi Valley towns, with individual players improvising, often looping together various strains of music they had heard, in new and different ways. In time these performances began to be written down as sheet music. However, in the 1890s early Ragtime pieces were sometimes misnamed as marches, jigs, or cakewalks.

When ragtime was featured in publisher’s booths at the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair, it’s popularity exploded. Soon ragtime was being sold at a furious pace as sheet music and being played in many homes, as well as vaudeville theaters and bordellos. Piano rolls, phonograph records and ragtime piano playing contests soon followed. That popularity even extended to Europe where audiences had first become aware of the Ragtime sound as a result of the 1900 tour of John Phillip Sousa’s band.

As ragtime matured it demonstrated more depth and sophistication than its immediate predecessor, the Cakewalk. In addition, Ragtime’s syncopation influenced the development of jazz. Ragtime is now enjoying an international rebirth of popularity among audiences, with many contemporary composers writing beautiful new ragtime pieces including some in a ragtime-influenced fusion style called "Terre Verde".

Ragtime has left a permanent mark on American music and we look forward to its future.

There is an international organization which serves to promote folk music and dance. they provide an extensive network thru which folk music and dance presenters, performers, producers and supporters can interact and connect.

There are numerous panels, seminars, showcases and awards featured at F.A. conferences. Their main web site is www.folk.org or http://www.folkalliance.org/. There are several regional divisions, among them is ours, the FAR West, or Folk Alliance Regional Western Division. There are two major conferences coming up soon. The Regional gathering is in November and the National gathering in February.

This year's FAR-West Annual Conference will be held November 2-4, 2007 at the Hilton Vancouver Washington near Portland. http://far-west.org/conference.html. The 2008 International Folk Alliance Conference will be held February 20-24, 2008 at the Marriott Hotel in Memphis, Tennessee.

I hope the Butte Folk Music Society can participate with this organization in order to further our goals, which are parallel to theirs: producing, promoting And preserving folk music and dance.

Tin Pan Alley originally referred to the collection of New York City music publishers and songwriters who dominated American popular music from the late 1800's well into the 20^th Century. The start of Tin Pan Alley is usually dated to about 1885. However, the end of Tin Pan Alley is less clear. Some date it to the start of the Great Depression in the 1930’s when the phonograph and radio supplanted sheet music. Others consider it to have continued into the 1950’s when earlier styles of American popular music were upstaged by the rise of rock & roll.

The origins of the name "Tin Pan Alley" are unclear. The most popular account is that it was a derogatory reference to the area along New York’s West 58^th Street where many sheet music salesmen, all playing different tunes, produced a mixture of sound supposedly comparable to banging on tin pans. Years later this nickname was popularly embraced and came to describe the US music industry in general.

Initially Tin Pan Alley specialized in ballads and comic novelty songs, but it embraced the newly popular styles of cakewalk and ragtime. When vaudeville performers played New York City, they would often visit various Tin Pan Alley firms to find new songs for their acts. Later jazz and blues were incorporated. However, it was oriented towards producing songs that amateur singers or small town bands could perform from printed music.

Because improvisation, blue notes and other characteristics of jazz and blues could not be captured in conventional printed notation, Tin Pan Alley produced jazzy and bluesy pop songs but not true blues.

Tin Pan Alley was the song writing melting pot that formed the center of American Popular Music. Later jazz and blues were incorporated. However, it was oriented towards producing songs that amateur singers or small town bands could perform from printed music.

Wednesdays: Aaron Jaqua - Café Flo 7:00 - 8:45 365 E. 6 th. 892-0356
Magalia Hillbillies - Lynn’s Optimo (Paradise) 9225 Skyway 877-8428 8:00

Thursdays:               Open Mikefull - Has Beans 501 Main 894-3033 8:00-11:00 6:30 signup.
                                  Good Old Boys - Cassidy’s (Oroville) 491 Oroville Dam Blvd. 533-7565 5:00
                                  Shasta Blues Society Jam - Lulu’s (Redding) Pine & Cypress 6:30 - 10:00
                                  Blues Jam - Lynn’s Optimo (Paradise) 9225 Skyway 877-8428 8:00
Non 1st. Fridays:      International Folkdance to CD’s - Chico Creek Dance Center, 1144 West 1st St. 345-887 8:00 P.M.

Fridays:                     Dave Houser & Flow Masters - Shakey’s Pizza 2890 Olive Hwy. Oroville 534-8844 7:30 -10:00 P.M.
3 rd Friday:               Educational Jam/Showcase - 2750 Sierra Sunrise Terrace 10:30 - 12:00
4 th Friday:               Ragtime and Tin Pan Alley - 2750 Sierra Sunrise Terrace 6:30
                                  Pub Scouts -Duffy’s Tavern 337 Main St. 343-7718 4:00 - 7:00 P.M.

1 st Saturdays:          BFMS Acoustic Jam - Upper Crust Bakery 130 Main St. 2:00 - 5:00
2 nd Saturdays:         Music Circle Augie’s 230 Salem St., 894-3764 2:00 - 5:00
3 rd Saturdays:          Old Time Music Jam - Augie’s 230 Salem St., 894-3764 2:00 - 4:00
1 st Sundays:             Northern California Harp Ring - Various locations. Janice at 530-893-8026
2 nd Sundays:            Contra Dance - Chico Women’s Club corner of 3rd St. & Pine 5:30 - 9:00 345-1887
4 th Sunday:              Old Time Fiddlers Jam - Thermolito Grange, Oroville 12:00-5:00 P.M.

September
15                             Erin Lizardo & Oki Doki String Band - Oaks Estates 9345 Stanford Lane, Durham 343-7711
16                             Strunz & Farah - Sierra Nevada Big Room 1075 E. 20th 345-2739
21                             San Francisco Mime Troop - Manzanita Place 5:00
21 - 23                      CSU Chico - World Music Festival

21                             Steve Johnson - 5 th St. Steakhouse 345 West Fifth St. 891-6328
21                             Harry Manx - Chico Women’s Club 592 E 3rd corner of 3rd St. & Pine 345-1887
23                             Sons of Champlin - Sierra Nevada Big Room 1075 E. 20th 345-2739
24                             Old Blind Dogs - Lost on Main 319 Main St. 892-2445 8:00
28 - 30                     KVMR Celtic Festival
29                             Borderline Bluegrass Band - Grilla Bites (196 Cohasset Rd., Chico
30                             Iris Dement - Sierra Nevada Big Room 1075 E. 20th 345-2739

4                               Marley’s Ghost - Bernie’s Guitar/Oak Run (Redding) 223-2040
8 - 9                          Tommy Emmanual, Bluehouse- Sierra Nevada Big Room 1075 E. 20th 345-2739
18                             Harry Manx - Bernie’s Guitar/Oak Run (Redding) 223-2040
19 - 21                      CBA Fall Campout - Colusa County Fairgrounds
23                              The Greencards - Sierra Nevada Big Room 1075 E. 20th 345-2739
30                              Tommy Castro - Sierra Nevada Big Room 1075 E. 20th 345-2739

8 Juni Fisher - Bernie’s Guitar/Oak Run (Redding) 223-2040
15 Continental Divide - Grilla Bites 196 Cohasset Rd 343-4876

2007 Kate Wolf Festival

Ragtime an American Folk Tradition