Honk!Tx 2024...

Yes there were tubas. Lots of them as well as all other kind of instruments at the Austin Honk!Tx street band festival this past weekend.  It was our second year to attend and I love every minute. Though I do get plenty of opportunities to play music with good people all the time I do wish there was something like this in my home town with wacky dress up sensibilities which in many cases with these groups also combine with community purposes to make the world a better place. 

Here's the Honk!Tx Mission statement:

HONK!TX is a nonprofit, community-driven festival that brings street and brass bands from around the country to perform for free in the public spaces of Austin, Texas. Mobile and unamplified, HONK! bands transform everyday locations into spontaneous stages, dissolving the line between crowd and performers and inviting everyone to celebrate the joys of music and community. A range of genres will be represented: New Orleans second-line brass, European Klezmer and Balkan, Brazilian, West African and more. HONK! is a celebration of community, collaboration and creative expression. Join the revelry!

Above is pictured and you may guess their name, The Neon Brass Party from the clothing style. They come to the festival from Seattle, Wa. The traveling bands are put up in the homes of volunteers, preferably located on public transit or bike lanes. Food sponsors, Restaurants, Caterers and individuals feed everyone. 

9th Avenue Brass from Pensacola, Fl. One of my favorites. 

Bramaya West African Music and Dance from Austin.

Generally not real crowded for a free festival but I could not get real close to the Minor Mishap Marching Band. 

Black Sheep Ensemble from Atlanta.  

Greenbelt Honk! Situation from Greenbelt, Maryland. 

Cimarrona La Original from Santo Domingo Costa Rica. Great group, good drums and tuba. 

The Human Band from New Orleans. Not your typical New Orleans thing but a bit of Balkan and other stuff thrown in. 

I think a lot of Honk groups, many cities have Honk Festivals, meet in the park or other public space on a weekend afternoon, rehearse an hour and then perform an hour. I'd love to do something like that. Maybe I'm not too old to have this much energy I just wish I had the arranging skills to put it together. I'd certainty hold down the tuba line.  

 

Drum and Tuba Christmas at Posadas...

Mary worked last night. She's a night shift labor and delivery nurse for those of you thinking that Drum and Tuba Christmas is her day job. I had to find a sub and fortunately I did not look very far as her brother Morgan filled in on the drum chair to play the Posada celebration at St. Patrick's Catholic Church. Old Pop-Pop appreciates that he has two children to step up and back up his musical efforts. Actually have two more children and I'd liove to see what they could do backing me up but be ready for mixed results if it's on drums.    

If you aren't familiar with the 400 year old tradition of Posadas take some Aztec Winter Solstice celebrations, combine it with a dramatization and procession of Mary and Joseph's search of a place at the inn, prayer, songs, food, and a Piñata and you have Posadas. Since the seven points of the Pinata represent the seven deadly sins of lust, greed, gluttony, sloth, envy, pride, and wrath the blindfold represents faith and the stick is virtue to overcome sin and the goodies inside the Piñata are the riches of heaven one will receive when they overcome I think it's only that it's only natural we insert some Drum ad Tuba in there somewhere. 

Only problem was that when they served pizza and the piñata began I lost half the band. Fortunately we jammed a bit before it all started.             

This was our third drum and tuba show of the 2023 Christmas season. I'll probably have to send that suit to the cleaners.  

As long as you want the dynamics loud me and Parker are good at it. 

A video of us popped up on a Facebook page called Here I Am Lord to Do Your Will. That seems appropriate.  

Looks like a good time was had by all. 

Remember, there are 12 days of Christmas and when that finishes it's legal to eat King Cake and the Mardi Gras Season starts. Any part of that you can use a tuba, some drum, a piñata and pizza.   

 

Resonator Guitars, Tubas, Weddings, Christmas Concerts and More...

 Here's a photo of the stage set up from the recent Brazos River Rats show. That's my metal bodied resonator guitar. People always ask me about that guitar, complement it, say they have never seen such and that it sounds great. Actually it's an Asian import, Chris Edward's big Gibson sitting on stage next to it probably cost three times as much, the first resonator guitars like this were made in 1928 and I've been playing this one for about 25 years. Those that never seen such I'm sorry you are just now making it to one of my gigs and I guess that's also a sign that I am always finding new audiences to hogwash.    

Someone at this show asked me if it was a National, which is the top of the line for this kind of thing. It does sound pretty good and for an import it's top of the line. I can't imagine myself sounding any different if I had a better guitar. All my instruments are mid level journey man type gear. They look nice, get me through the gigs and if a drunk wanders by and sits down where I laid it it probably won't even break like something more expensive might.    

Speaking of gigs even though we have pretty much retired from playing weekly Masses in favor of weddings, funerals, and Quinceaneras we have been asked to substitute for two Masses on Sunday. In between we provide music for the RCIA class. On Saturday we play a wedding of one of our group who began playing with us since she was a teen. Today we will be in a get some music together mode.  

On Dec. 3rd at 2:30 in Temple Theater you can also catch me playing tuba with the Angelina Civic Band for our Christmas Concert. Also in December I'll try to squeeze in a couple of tuba Christmas in the park days. 

    Here's clip of resonator great Bukka White showing how it's done. 

Brave Combo at the Museum of East Texas...

 I think I saw Brave Combo the first time about 40 years ago at the old Crossroads bar in Nacogdoches, Tx. I last saw them at Octoberfest in Crockett, Tx in 2021. I saw them again yesterday at the Museum of East Texas as the last show of the season in their Sights and Sounds Series that has brought free family oriented entertainment including chamber ensembles, gypsy jazz and now a show of what Brave Combo calls Nuclear Polka.

I thought the group, which had been scheduled to play on the plaza outside but was moved inside due to the rain sound great with the acoustics of the Museum's chapel. 

Nuclear Polka is when you start out playing polka but then suddenly everything from jazz to salsa to rock to cumbia to movie music and more becomes twisted into one great big polka dance old party. How good is a Brave Combo Party? They have won Grammy awards, they were the band that David Byrne of the Talking Heads hired to play his wedding and the music has appeared on TV shows and movies. Not too bad for the best little polka band out of Denton, Tx that even managed to get half the crowd of 25-30 people that attend on a rainy Sunday Mother's Day afternoon up and dancing. It was obvious who in the audience knew what the band was about.  

The Sights and Sounds Series of Museum was new this year. It's made possible by the Angelina Arts Alliance in partnership with The TLL Temple Foundation, National Endowment of the Arts, Texas Commission on the Arts, Angelina College, and the City of Lufkin as well as this seasons corporate sponsors Georgia Pacific and Brookshire Brothers. When I visit my daughter's family in Chicago I can't tell you how many shows I have seen in Museums, parks and sometimes in clubs that were free shows sposered like this for the education and betterment of the citizens of the city. It makes me proud that my little home town can offer something like this. 

Reportedly next season there will be local talent included in this program. I left them with my name and number.   

I own a Brave Combo Cd, Polkas for a Gloomy World and after the show, which was free although I'm sure the series paid the band I decided I'd add a little gravy to the pay check by purchasing another. I was surprised to find them only charging $5. The merch girl said, Oh, we have thousands of these." Try to get out of an Eagles or Rolling Stones show where you only spent $5. I went ahead and bought a t-shirt to go with the CD because polka is timeless. I collect lots of old polka records from Chicago thrift stores by the local bands there that had TV shows in the late 50s and early 60s and when I put the record on I never have to say, "here's some old old music from way way back."  Polka is a timeless thing. 

Keep an eye out for next year's schedule.   

  

    

Band Back Stories...

 One time I sat down with the guys to name that band. I thought of the name "The Raguet Street Ramblers." Raguet Street is in my home town of Lufkin, Tx. I have a history book on Lufkin Street names but I can't lay my hand on it to find who it's named for but the street runs roughly north/south through residential, industrial, and commercial prosperities. The people living along this street represent several ethnic, cultural and socioeconomic groups. I could imagine a back story of a band adding to all this history and reality and whose music is played to celebrate all these aspects of Raguet St. which are the history of our town. 

For various reasons no one else liked this and we named the band something more direct that from which you could tell where we were from and what we were going to do. Probably has not made any difference and my historical backstory delusions of the Raguet Street Ramblers are not the biggest band name fail I have had.

One of the workshops I attend at the Old Settlers Festival was by the band Goodnight, Texas. The two main guys, Pat and Avi are from opposite sides of the country. The town of Goodnight, Tx represents the exact midpoint between them. The workshop I attended was called "Finding Middle Ground" and how they incorporated their lives into the music especially being from different places. One mentioned that he had an ancestor, a civil war army doctor to whom the task fell to give a great and inspiring speech to troops after President Lincoln's assassination. The text of the speech survives in the family today. The other partner had in his family mementos old tintype photos of ancestors. To write their songs they pulled from the lives, times and feel of these days gone by.   

I regret I did not catch their set which was a late night jam delayed even longer by thunderstorms that rolled through that evening. Looks like they have updated their sound with instruments such as baritone guitar and steel guitar which is a sound I like so I'm going to follow this music. They did get the song "Railroad" on the show Tiger King which I know since that show shattered streaming records when it came out you have heard Goodnight, Texas. 

  

Another good intelligent set of music was by Nigel Wearne. He's from Australia and his day job was as a teacher so these songs were well written bringing to life the history of that country in a folk blues Americana kind of way with good between song details that filled in the back story for the people not familiar with the history lived a world away. 

I think the backstory is important. What story does your life tell? If you can't tell it let me name your band.  

 

It Must Be Deep Gras or How I Bought a New Tuba...

 You may not have heard the phrase "Deep Gras" before because it's pretty new. It was first used by New Orleans song writer and personality Dominique Lejeune in 2020 and it refers to the period of Wednesday to Fat Tuesday or the last week of Mardi Gras. It means that every action you take is influenced by Mardi Gras.  

I guess I warmed up that path by taking the kids to Mardi Gras parades in Shreveport last weekend because what with preparations for a Fat Tuesday dinner at church, the making of a Mardi Gras mix tape, playing nothing but Mardi Gras songs on tenor banjo and tuba, plans for the Old Town Brass Band gig today, I also then bought a new tuba. I'd say that's under the influence of deep Gras.

The tuba I bought is a King (like my old horn) 1135. It's a 3/4 size student model horn previously owned by the Lufkin School District. They culled out their horns, I guess with the building of new facilities at the middle school and carted them down to Hicks Antiques in downtown Lufkin last summer. My friend, Susan alerted me of this and I headed down there to check them out. In addition to tubas there were bari saxes, trombones, baritones, and a ton of drums. I was ready to buy that day but Hicks was not ready to sell so things rocked on till this week (Deep Gras) they offered up a sale which I took advantage of to purchase this horn for $100. The sale continues today.   

The serial number dates the horn as made from 1975-80. This makes it quite a bit newer than my old King 1240 recording bell tuba which was made in 1936. The guys in the Lufkin Brass came down and listened to me try out the 7 tubas on hand, gave their sound input and everyone around the house thinks it has great tone but I do feel a little bit sad because of my old horn sitting lonely in the corner on it's stand. One reason I was interested in this 3/4 size horn was as I age it might be a bit easier to carry around than the big horn and it does have a case. 

The upright bell should come in handy and might keep me from getting fired out of smaller groups that don't require a straight out focused recording bell sound. There might be an alto sax player that usually sits in front of me at civic band that is glad I now have an upright bell but I have also heard the statement, "that old horn is so you" so we will see what applications we find. 

I never thought I would own two tubas and I now have exactly $175 tied up in tuba. I think that's a pretty good investment. Matt also bought a bari sax and today I go with Morgan to look at the drums a bit closer.

I am itching for a gig. How are you spending your Deep Gras?    

Forest Festival, Lufkin Brass, Multicultural Fiesta, Did I Miss Anything...

It was a busy weekend. On Sunday our band The Lufkin Brass played the Texas State Forest Festival for the second year in a row. Our Bilingual choir played the music for Mass for St. Patrick's Catholic Church Multicultural Festival. Me, Cathy and her brother Matt worked booths, helped set up and take down and Cathy assisted with the money counting duties. Proceeds from the Festival will fund a renovation of the old church building, now called LaSalette Hall. It's where me and Cathy were married when it was the old church and word on the street is that more than enough was raised.    

The Lufkin Brass gig went well. Morgan sat in on drums. Two funny things happened in the course of this gig. While setting up for the church festival Saturday evening a young curly headed fellow with a fade hair cut answered a call for set up volunteers and after a bit he said, "ok I have to go because I'm going to the Forest Festival with my grandma." I said , "great, thanks for the help and if you are at the festival tomorrow catch my band the Lufkin Brass." He looked at me and his eyes widened as he said, "yeehaw, That's you?" I affirmed it was. 

The next day right before the Brass began to play another young man comes up and says, "how are you, good to see you!" I don't recognize him but as I'm a local personality I chat him up and he says, "I'm still playing that cigar box guitar you made me." I've made and sold close to 100 cigar box guitars but probably not made one in about 3 years. I asked so its holding together and playing well? He said, "still plays great!" That's good feed back to hear.       

The church festival was great with food musical entertainment, dance groups, games and people many countries represented and working together for fun, fellowship and purpose. 

This is a Salvadorian Dance group. 

Mexican Folkloric Dancers. 

Plenty of good food at the festival. Mexican, Sri Lanka, El Salvador, and the Philippines and if there were others I hope to try them next year.  

Here's the judge and High Sheriff working the jail booth. For some reason no one wanted this job. The way it works is you pay the judge $5 and you point out the person you want arrested to the HS. He locks them up for 15 minutes. All the prisoner's friends make pictures. Someone can bail you out for $5 or you can buy a get out of jail card for $10. That's what I did since I worked the voter registration booth and had the forest festival gig. No time to get locked up.  

Another word on the street is that this festival will be on a date next year not to conflict with the Forest festival or the Diboll church, Our Lady of Guadalupe which had a Fiestas Patrias Celebration yesterday.   

Next gig for the Brass is The Stonewall Jam Fest and M.D. Anderson Cancer Benefit on Oct. 15th. 

My grandson Cullen gives Ross a few pointers on the ins and outs of drumming while we set up for the gig. Only problem was when we started playing he was out on drums and his dad was in. He was disappointed but he will be big enough to sit in before you know it. 

  

 

The Music Report...

 Someone, an old friend told me the other day, "come over I want to record you. Bring tuba, cigar box guitar and your resonator and let's capture what makes mudbelly mudbelly." I was honored and flattered at this idea thinking, wow my stichk must really be good or either he's thinking my music is like a painting by the early peoples of the desert that you might find hidden in a West Texas canyon. It's worth noting, seeing and documenting because one day old mudbelly will join them peoples to dance around a fire in the many rooms of the afterlife and while we won't want his sun baked cave paintings to hang in our living rooms it will be good to know they existed. 

Music has been picking up for Cathy and I. I think it has for all musicians with the easing of covid and vaccinations and I am seeing many friends busy also. All this spittle spraying from tuba blowing and yelling into microphones has not given me covid or made anyone else sick. 

Depending on where you see us playing you might see anything going on and with this blog entry I thought I might try to cover the range of musical activity that has been underway for the last few months. It might not all be rock and roll but as a musician I think you let your talent guide you and most of all you put music in places where it might not be. 

Of course there is the tuba playing that has been an ongoing cross to bear since 1969. Our Lufkin Brass Quintet has not been much active this year but we are going to begin again after Easter. In the meantime the Angelina Civic Band has been busy with rehearsals each week and a concert is scheduled May 1st at 2pm in Temple Theater. Here is a video of Leonard Bernstein's Danzon by our band from the last concert.

I also had a chance to jam with the Stone Wall Rockers and the Brazos River Rats and Bluegrass Orchestra to make a big racket to celebrate the re-election of Judge Travis Kitchens to District 258. There's a lot of rules in these jams like this. You can't use music, I think they make you sing a song you don't know or at least have never performed (that's what they do to me) and then you go back and see the rule about no music. I don't know if this politician we honored with all this chaos is a Republican or a Democrat and I've known him for 30 years and it's never come up but there certainly seems to be a spirit of all men are equal as long as they have an electric guitar in their hands which sounds like something the Founding Father probably would not say.

That's Chris Edwards in the background on the Stonewall Studio stage. I'm reading his book "Nobody Come to Visit Anymore" and you should also. 

After a couple of years of slowed activity playing at church retirement has helped us pick it up. Cathy is the musical director in this and the music is bilingual English and Spanish. We don't play a regular Mass but play anytime bilingual music is required. I just stand behind her and if her foot comes down and I'm not playing I start, if I'm playing when the foot comes down I stop.   

We've played music for a lot of funerals during covid, I wish I would have counted but thankfully we are seeing more weddings these days. The last two weddings have had good parties afterwards. We play real good for our supper and the food was excellent at both of these.  

With the Lenten Season coming to an end we furnished music for a couple of retreats. I think the fact that we both chose yellow shirts was as impactful as the music this day. It does not matter if it's church or a sweaty VFW stage somewhere this just reinforces my rule that you should always dress like you are with the band. 

Mary sings with us here and has shown a real talent for organizing retreats. 

This is a youth retreat group. I messed up and did not wear the yellow shirt fut the music was fun and the kids sang well. . 

Youth retreat group. 

Cathy and the other adults Mary, Maria, and Jose lead the kids. I worked the sound board.

Speaking of soundboard we have a new one, it's sounding good and also a camera to improve the livestreaming of services. Live had been done from a phone in the past and it's all been some new things to learn but I can compare it to my instruments. You have to put in the practice. 

We will be doing Easter music on Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Vigil. Cathy blew her voice last week and between singing and yelling at grandkids she has had laryngitis but reports this morning, "better." 

Hopefully she is back to full strength by Thursday. I will sing and actually my Spanish is getting better but it will sound nicer if my cave paintings are not hanging out front in the living room.     

         

     

     

The Old Town Brass Band...

We caught the Old Town Brass Band playing at the Fredonia Brewery on a brilliant sunny Saturday afternoon. This is a great venue to see a band, outside seating, room for kids to run and tasty food trucks. I suppose the beer is good but I don't drink so I can't speak to that but the Old Town Brass were great, playing a combination of traditional Dixieland, Mardi Gras, swing and funk tunes to a good sized afternoon crowd.   

I must admit here and declare a disclaimer as we do have a horse in this race. Our son Morgan plays drums in the group. It's something he's been doing a short time(the band, not the drums) and from the looks of this here he is enjoying it. The rest of the group is made up of a local music educator and students from The Stephen F. Austin State University music department.

I think Morgan told me that of the original eight members at the first rehearsal he attended there were only three of those at this gig. Pretty tight sound considering most people had only had their music for two weeks. The rotating crew thing is about par for the course when it comes to wind player bands. I know the quintet I play in, The Lufkin Brass has used several different trumpet players and had other members switching instruments to fill parts as necessary.      

Of course there were secondliners! 

Guitar, drums and tuba. Note on the music stands. Everyone had the tunes on an ipad. I guess time has passed me by cause for horn gigs I'm still toting around a satchel full of thrift store ring binders with my music stuffed in clear plastic sheets to keep my grimy fingers from soiling the clean white pages. I admire this modern approach because I could imagine all those old guy fears a gig with one of these. Notes too small on the screen, screen too dark, too bright and other tech failures that would foul up the dude in the band with the least amount of hair, at least on his head. 

Heck I usually carry around a battery powered stand light in case I need to squint at a bunch of squiggles on a page but I usually end up using it to find the car keys I dropped in the parking lot.   

The keyboard player, also lead vocals won best band costume. I almost wore a very similar thrift store shirt of great traditional Mardi Gras colors, maybe the same one. It's America and there are millions of those things hanging on the racks at Walmart and going to the second hand store graveyards. Lucky for us there are a million other Karnival costumes to choose from.   

Great guitar player but a weird looking instrument. I'm an old guy, my tuba is 86 years old and I have a 1924 banjo so what do I know about modern looking stuff? 

Morgan told me the tuba player's main instrument is bass trombone and he also played that but he was an excellent tuba guy and really hit a good vibe on the funk tunes.   

Next Old Town Brass gig I know of is at a downtown food truck Friday the City of Nacogdoches puts on on March 25th. I think swing dancing will also be featured. 

That's our old Mardi Gras flag behind Morgan. It has a long and colorful family history often hoisted in New Orleans, at fish fries and now at a brass band gig.