Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Talent . . .

 . . . humor and heart. . .

If you missed his performance at the the Brewer's Alley Songwriter Showcase Monday evening, I suggest you see this artist in the near future - T. Edwin Doss.

(from http://www.tedwindoss.com/)
Born in a small town in Alabama, T. Edwin Doss grew up in a family that enjoyed music. By the time he was six years old, he was copying his sister’s piano lessons without taking formal lessons. He managed to acquire a right-handed guitar from a friend and learned chords “up-side down”. After three years, someone suggested that he switch the strings around, and after doing so T. Edwin began learning more, playing along with folk music, country, and blues. His early influences were Peter, Paul and Mary, The Kingston Trio, Hank Williams, Patsy Cline, Pat Boone, Perry Como and various Motown acts.

In high school, he wrote jingle-type advertisements for those running for class office, cheerleading, etc. The halls were filled with his rhymes on poster board. During those days and in college, he continued with poetry and prose, developing technique in meter and rhyming. He also began learning the Travis picking style and other finger picking styles, and incorporated these into his first original tunes.

He released a 45rpm record in 1975, receiving favorable reviews and substantial air-play. T. Edwin was booked in many venues including a few warm-ups for Hank, Jr., Townes Van Zandt, Johnny Paycheck and others. After moving to the Washington, D.C. area, he worked clubs in Georgetown, Bethesda, Chevy Chase and Rockville and many universities and colleges, warming up Livingston Taylor, The Roselyn Mountain Boys, and various blue grass acts. During this period T. Edwin penned more than one hundred songs transitioning into performing only tunes he had written.

T. Edwin’s guitar styles are perfectly matched for his performing, using finger picking and flat picking styles. He will surprise you with musical hooks to lure you further into the enchantment of his tunes, taking one into the warmth of a distant memory or perhaps the sadness of a lost love, returning one to the laughter of tunes from….a run-away bull to perhaps a parody of Merle Haggard’s “Mama Tried”, appropriately titled….”Mama Lied”. T. Edwin is absolutely “off-the-wall” with songs titled, “If I’d shot ‘ya long before I did, I’d be out of prison by now”…..”She’s a Real Good 4 ½!”….”Martian Manure” and “One Foot in the Grave”.

He is a treasure and a triumph to the singer-songwriter world. Check out house concerts on-line, find where he performing, and go enjoy one of America’s creative secrets, a genuine artist with wit, depth and sensitive introspect on life, love and libation. You will come away with a new twist to songwriting and dead-on lyrics that remain in your heart.




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Monday, August 20, 2012

Mr. Deacey. . .

 . . . speaks . . .

At Brewer’s Alley Songwriters’ Showcase this Monday, August 20, we are pleased to bring back as the featured singer-songwriter T. EDWIN DOSS! T helped out Jeff Talmadge last week on a couple of songs, but this week he gets to sing a bunch of his own country-tinged Americana creations, including a couple of new ones that will knock your socks off! T often plays with a hot trio, but I prefer to hear him solo – just his warm, lived-in voice, excellent guitar and terrific songs! Of course, he does play the guitar the wrong way round, so it’s hard to tell which chords he’s playing – but he sounds great anyway…

For the prelude this week, ROCKIN’ RAY JOZWIAK is back with his gonzo piano, boldly taking us to places no-one has gone before, not even him! As usual, come early to find good seats for the evening and to catch the entire prelude. You can come upstairs at 7:15 pm (maybe 5 minutes or so earlier than that if Rob is ready; performers can come up when they arrive).

For three-song cameo performers this week, we have a slightly extended line-up –TOM McBRIDE, a Boston native who now lives in DC, MARY GORDON HALL, who recently moved to Hyattsville from the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, MARY SUE TWOHY, best known recently for her radio program and her job as program director for Sirius XM Radio, and Todd’s Pick – MIKE HOLLAND (Todd says we’ll love him!). As time permits, we will be also hearing from the usual crew; poet JOHN HOLLY reciting his poems between other performers, and TODD C. WALKER himself, who also takes photos, helps emcee and helps run sound. TOMY WRIGHT is away this week.

MISTER RON GOAD will be flying solo on percussive things this week, fresh from backing the wonderful Dulcie Taylor at the Kennedy Center today… Incidentally, we are losing Dulcie shortly, as she is going back to California in September… We hope she will sneak into Brewer’s for a three-song set before she leaves the area. I'll continue the Goad Chronicles next week, so you can learn what our hero has been up to...




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Sunday, August 19, 2012

Worth. . .

. . . measured by money
Annual Salaries of selected 'celebrities'
-----------------------------------------------
Justin Bieber       $55 million
Jennifer Lopez    $12 million
Alex Rodriguez  27.5 million
Ryan Seacrest     $15 million
Johan Santana    $24 million
Oprah Winfrey  $325 million
Peyton Manning   $24 million
Judge Judy          $45 million
David Letterman $28 million
Katie Couric        $15 million
Tom Brady          $18 million

Complain if you want and you'll only receive agreement from me, but our  'celebrities' are  grossly overpaid.  Whether or not they are underworked will be a topic for another time.  These amounts of money, while indicative of a tremendous amount of public support (i.e., fans), is, on a pragmatic level, uncomprehendingly unnecessary for one person to thrive.

But complaining alone accomplishes nothing and saps valuable time from a life better lived.
Yet if you feel strongly about it, there IS something that you can do.

DO NOT SUPPORT THEM.

Do not buy products by them or by the merchants that sponsor them.  Do not pay for a ticket to one of their concerts, CDs, DVDs or games.  This and this alone removes your contribution to their hefty salaries and thus from the equation completely.

Can't do THAT!, you say?

Then don't complain.



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Saturday, August 18, 2012

I prefer. . .

 . . . to give benefit of the doubt whenever possible. . .

. . . but I don't believe any benefit remains for one who continues to say such things as. . .

(from http://santorumexposed.com/wp/?page_id=22)
    “I don’t believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute. The idea that the church can have no influence or no involvement in the operation of the state is absolutely antithetical to the objectives and vision of our country” on the absolute separation of church and state, 2/26/2012

    “…everything I’ve read shows that we would not have gotten this information as to who this man was if it had not been gotten information from people who were subject to enhanced interrogation. And so this idea that we didn’t ask that question while Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was being waterboarded, he [John McCain] doesn’t understand how enhanced interrogation works. I mean, you break somebody, and after they’re broken, they become cooperative. And that’s when we got this information. And one thing led to another, and led to another, and that’s how we ended up with bin Laden.”  on John McCain, who was tortured as a prisoner of war, doesn’t understand “enhanced interrogation”, 5/17/11

    “A lesbian woman came up to me and said, ‘why are you denying me my right?’ I said, ‘well, because it’s not a right.’ It’s a privilege that society recognizes because society sees intrinsic value to that relationship over any other relationship.”  on gay adoption, 5/3/11

    “The reason Social Security is in big trouble is we don’t have enough workers to support the retirees. A third of all the young people in America are not in America today because of abortion, because one in three pregnancies end in abortion."  on how abortion is responsible for Social Security’s problems, 3/29/11

    “I find it almost remarkable for a black man to say ‘now we are going to decide who are people and who are not people’.”  on President Obama’s race and pro-choice beliefs, 1/19/2011

    “But is there such thing as a sincere liberal Christian, which says that we basically take this document and re-write it ourselves? Is that really Christian? That’s a bigger question for me. And the answer is, no, it’s not. I don’t think there is such a thing. To take what is plainly written and say that I don’t agree with that, therefore, I don’t have to pay attention to it, means you’re not what you say you are. You’re a liberal something, but you’re not a Christian. That’s sort of how I look at it.

    “When you go so far afield of that and take what is a salvation story and turn it into a liberation theology story, which is done in the Catholic world as well as in the evangelical world, you have abandoned Christendom, in my opinion. And you don’t have a right to claim it.”  on “Is Obama a sincere, liberal Christian?”, 10/200

    “Is anyone saying same-sex couples can’t love each other? I love my children. I love my friends, my brother. Heck, I even love my mother-in-law. Should we call these relationships marriage, too?”
on love that same-sex couples share, 5/22/2008

. . . but having depleted all the magnanimity and tolerance that I can possibly muster, I must now paraphrase one of the most opinionated yet talented artists of our time,  "Rickie's such an asshole."




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Friday, August 17, 2012

Metaphysical. . .

. . . moments. . .



He:  "Ever feel a strange but content calmness come over you for no apparent reason?

Happens to me sometimes.

Just did.

(Think an angel just got his wings or am I full of snot?)"


She:  You didn't wet your pants did you?


 




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Thursday, August 16, 2012

No pressure. . .

. . . just some options. . . 

Saturday, August 18, 2012 @ 6:00PM
Bread & Circuses Bistro
27 E. Chesapeake Avenue,  Towson, MD  21286
410-337-5282
http://bandcbistro.com/

AND/OR

Monday,  August 20, 2012 @ 7:30PM
Brewer's Alley Restaurant & Brewery (Songwriters Showcase-Upstairs)
124 North Market Street Frederick, MD 21701
Telephone: 301-631-0089 Fax: 301-631-1874
http://www.brewers-alley.com/


(For Ray's complete schedule, see http://www.rayjozwiak.com)
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Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Cannonball. . .



(from wikipedia.com)
Julian Edwin "Cannonball" Adderley (September 15, 1928 – August 8, 1975) was a jazz alto saxophonist of the hard bop era of the 1950s and 1960s. Originally from Tampa, Florida, Adderley moved to New York in the mid-1950s. His nickname derived originally from "cannibal," an honorific title imposed on him by high school colleagues as a tribute to his fast eating capacity.

His educational career was long established prior to teaching applied instrumental music classes at Dillard High School in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Cannonball moved to Tallahassee, Florida when his parents obtained teaching positions at Florida A&M University. Both Cannonball and brother Nat played with Ray Charles when Charles lived in Tallahassee during the early 1940s.[ Cannonball was a local legend in Florida until he moved to New York City in 1955, where he lived in Corona, Queens.

By the end of 1960s, Adderley's playing began to reflect the influence of the electric jazz avant-garde, and Miles Davis' experiments on the album Bitches Brew. On his albums from this period, such as Accent on Africa (1968) and The Price You Got to Pay to Be Free (1970), he began doubling on soprano saxophone, showing the influence of John Coltrane and Wayne Shorter.[citation needed] In that same year, his quintet appeared at the Monterey Jazz Festival in California, and a brief scene of that performance was featured in the 1971 psychological thriller Play Misty for Me, starring Clint Eastwood.[citation needed] In 1975 he also appeared (in an acting role alongside Jose Feliciano and David Carradine) in the episode "Battle Hymn" in the third season of the TV series Kung Fu.

Joe Zawinul's composition "Cannon Ball" (recorded on Weather Report's album Black Market) is a tribute to his former leader.[3] Pepper Adams and George Mraz dedicated the composition "Julian" on the 1975 Pepper Adams album (also called "Julian") days after Cannonball's death.

Songs made famous by Adderley and his bands include "This Here" (written by Bobby Timmons), "The Jive Samba," "Work Song" (written by Nat Adderley), "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy" (written by Joe Zawinul) and "Walk Tall" (written by Zawinul, Marrow and Rein). A cover version of Pops Staples' "Why (Am I Treated So Bad)?" also entered the charts.

Adderley was initiated as an honorary member of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia fraternity (Gamma Theta chapter, University of North Texas, '60, & Xi Omega chapter, Frostburg State University, '70) and Alpha Phi Alpha (Beta Nu chapter, Florida A&M University).

Adderley died of a stroke in 1975. He was buried in the Southside Cemetery, Tallahassee, Florida. Later that year he was inducted into the Down Beat Jazz Hall of Fame. . ."





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