The Publyck House, Historic Route 7A, Harwood Hill, Bennington, VT
My band NATURAL HISTORY on the World Fusion Show
In the summer of 2017, NATURAL HISTORY filmed a half-hour tv episode for Derrik Jordans's World Fusion Show. We play some sweet music, filmed live, but the highlight of the show might be the interview. I give a good short description of my philosophy regarding music therapy, and we share a lot of laughs about our 44 years playing music together.
This is a link to lots more of my recordings. The most recent are in the set "Live at Harvest Brewing 9-23-17." There are also a lot of other recordings on my Soundcloud page that are not here on my website. Some are my own productions, others are studio work I've done for other musicians. Modal improvs, reggae, blues, techno with pedal steel, ballads, ragas, all kinds of different stuff.
A Ten-Minute Video of me talking about Shirley Jackson
This was shot by Seven Days, a Burlington, VT newsmagazine, to promote Shirley Jackson Day 2019. I lead a tour of the house I grew up in, where my mother wrote all of her best novels.
Watch this three-minute video of one of the country bands I play in, from summer 2019. John Davis Jr., vocals and rhythm guitar; Ray Evans, bass; Brad Tyler, drums; and me wailing on the pedal steel.
The Two-Bit Cowboys (my duo with country singer Aaron Hahn) played the Brunswick Barbecue in March 2019 with a guest female vocalist. A student of mine captured this pedal steel solo.
Video from the 2015 ZUELA Reunion
On 9/5/15 the original members of ZUELA -- Lyle Somers, Lucas Sconzo, and I -- joined with our old bass player Jared Carrozza to play a short set for the Cabaret at Maple Ridge in Coila, NY. Here's one of the tunes, Havana 1938.
The Hill Hollow Band was in a Fourth of July parade in rural Berlin, NY. Master builder Daniel Minbiole made us an incredible post-and-beam float. Margaret Weinland shot about seventy seconds of video just as my pedal steel guitar solo started. Great views of the float, the solo, the banjo solo that followed, and some delightful audience reactions at the end.
The Folk Life Center in Glens Falls, NY made a video about the craft of chair caning and used my instrumental version of "The Little Beggarman" as the soundtrack.
In January 2014 I played solo guitar at an art opening featuring work by Betty LaDuke. After the opening, while the show was still hanging, the curators of the show made a short video about it and used cuts from my cd "More Than Halfway Home" for the soundtrack. Here's a link to the video.
Some old recordings of mine have come back to life in a nice way. The Preservation Trust of Vermont made a video about the results of the grants they have given to preserve buildings in Vermont, including the Vermont Arts Exchange in North Bennington, my old hometown. The videographer, Meg Campbell, used music by me as the soundtrack. She included parts of two bluegrass instrumentals from my 1995 cd Hill Country Witch Doctor, followed by segments of two cuts from my 2005 cd More Than Halfway Home. One of the great joys of creating instrumental recordings is when they become soundtracks for movies or videos. The old tunes come back to life!!!
My first homemade music video.
This is a video of me playing the surbahar (bass sitar). The tone of this instrument is amazing! Listen through some good speakers...
Another home video of solo guitar...
Here's a link to a Youtube slideshow that features my instrumental Green And Leafy. The Agricultural Stewardship Association, an organization involved in preserving farmland near where I live, put together some still photographs of their highlights for 2011 and asked me to come up with the music. Farms forever! (As long as they grow organic vegetables and don't abuse animals!)
I played a few gigs with Holly and Evan in 2011-12. They are a blues duo from the NY Capital Region. Here's a medley of four tunes that were videotaped and put up on Youtube by my old friend Joel Patterson.
Solo surbahar. Unaccompanied, unplugged, no studio tricks, totally acoustic, no effects, not even reverb. Just pure magic. Recorded 1/29/13. Peace and love turned directly into sound! Turn it up loud, dance, and enjoy...
Cindy Legge and I were performing at the Eagle Bridge Inn, a club near here. I was asked to sing my 40 year-old song Face Down In The Parking Lot. The rest is history...
Another slice of a complicated life...
This is a website designed to preserve the memory of the life and writings of my late mother, Shirley Jackson. It has a list of her publications, a biography, reviews, photos, and more.
Derrik has been my friend since 1973. He is the best all-around musician I know. He is my bandmate in NATURAL HISTORY, he composed, performed, and produced the music on my KING HAPPY cd "In My Country," he plays on my cd "More Than Halfway Home," and I played on the first of his "Super String Theory" cds.
Jared is the third member of NATURAL HISTORY, along with Derrik Jordan and myself. I have known him since childhood and he is one of my very best friends. He is also a true musical genius, one of the most inspired players on the planet. He plays cello and other instruments in NATURAL HISTORY, and he played electric bass on my "More Than Halfway Home" and "The Spice of Life" cds.
Here's the link to the Hill Hollow Band's Facebook page. Hill Hollow is the happiest, most exciting, and most beloved band I have ever played with. After forty-five years in the music business, I have finally found a band that I want to keep playing with for the next forty-five years! We play bluegrass, outlaw country, acoustic rock, cajun, gospel, and more. Fiddle, pedal steel, banjo, sax, mandolin, electric guitar, accordion, dobro, acoustic guitar, flute, harmonica, percussion, and bass. Come to one of our gigs and you will see what I mean!
This is the website of my old friend Jed Turner, who passed away in January, 2013. We played in a band together in high school (after having been friends since second grade) and then he became a radio disc jockey and after that a recording engineer. So when I had a little money back in '83 he advised me what recording equipment to buy and how to get started, and then he kept giving me good music business advice for the next thirty years. That's how my independent label got its name -- he was known as Sweetime and I'm King Happy, so I called the business Sweet and Happy. Later he became a librarian who wrote and recorded songs in his spare time; check out his site...
This gives you a pretty good description of my old teacher and mentor, Professor Graves.