Thanks for sharing, Tjeerd. based on the clips I wish I’d been dining there that night.
I noticed (I guess obvious) that the levels were different in each mix. I think one you reach this point then you need smebody sitting front of house to twiddle the knobs on the mixer throughout the show.
Hello Tjeerd
Nice 
, was waiting for the rest of St James Infirmary Blues 
… hopefully a long version later…have a nice weekend,
Greetings
@DavidP , @roger_holland thanks for the kind comments!
Hopefully not, we just got the mix wrong from the beginning, and as we had the separate acoustic amp (behind me on a bar stool), I toned that one down on the master volume, once I twigged that it was too loud. I also did not include the very strummy numbers we did - they really were loud. But next time, plesase drop by and twiddle the knobs for us, I would love that!
Well the long version is… kind a long. Most of the time I am being asked to shorten it, but we have tried to make it somewhat more dynamic with the harp and the vocals etc.
if only, just a heck of a commute from Johannesburg.
Did I tell you I used to be an expat in Mbabane?
I think so, rings a bell. I’ve never been to Eswatini (Swaziland as it likely was when you were there).
Hi David one lasting memory, one day, in 1984, what seemed like all of young Jo’burg and Cape Town, descended on the Somhlolo National Stadium in Manzini to see Peter Tosh! I hosted a whole delegation of young colleagues from the UN Field Office from Maputu. It was a wonderful concert.
A bit of history here. And an acknowledgement of my siblings in shaping my musical journey.
In the beginning
When I was around twelve, my father was very much into listening to music. When we moved into the new house, 2 years before, he had invested in a Bang and Olufsen Stereo Hifi set, including record player, so he could play is classifical albums. He was very much into classical symphonies. He then invested in an Akai tape recorder, so he could record Albums on high capacity tapes, what you might call a playlist, although of course listening to all the Rachmaninoff Piano Concerts on Sunday was a bit ‘heavy’. As regards more modern music, I remember all we had were two albums by the Dutch ‘supergroup’ Focus, the musical Hair, and ‘Tubular Bells’ in the original and the Orchestral versions.
At the same time my younger sister had been given a beginners Spanish Guitar (I got a bow and arrows) to make our garden unsafe. In any event, due to the exigencies of work, and as a consequence of my elder brother being a techie, the tape deck migrated to the boys room, and was replaced by an Akai cassette tape deck, alltogether more straightforward to use. My brother, by the 15 or 16, started borrowing Albums from his classmates and friends, to record them, and soon had about 10-20 hours of listening collected, including the complete Beatles Albums, most of the Led Zep, Pink Floyd, Deep Purple, a fair collection of Folk Rock and local flemish ‘kleinkunst’, which of course he played for hours on end. I kinda got indoctrinated. After some years passed, my sister had completely lost interest in her Spanish Guitar, and (after moving again) I kind of ‘saved it’, restrung it, and tried it. With what pocket money I had, I invested in a tuning fork, and bought my first guitar songbook - the Beatles Revolver Album - and spend happy hours trying to learn ‘Taxman’ and ‘I am only sleeping’ which was rather appropriate for the kind of dreamy teenager I was at the time. Not very successful attempts, mind, and definately no inkling how to sing a tune.
Folk music
Fast forward by 4 years, I am studying now. I have a great interest in Folk music, and lo and behold, in my first year in University there is the Rotterdam Folk Festival. 3 days of hearing the greats in Irish, Scottish, English and Breton Folkmusic. Then I joined a folk club called Matrix, helped out by serving at the bar, listening to the Jam’s. Worked in Rotterdam Port for three weeks in a Chemical plant, doing viscosity tests on plastic pallets, and with the resulting proceeds, went to the neighbourhood music store, and bought myself a Fender Dreadnought. I went through the pile of Teaching Books, and found myself 2 books by Russ Shipton, “Folk Guitar Styles of Today”, with tunes by Dylan, Donovan, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young and the like, definately more American then European Folk styles, but even a few Beatles Songs (Black Bird, Here there and everywhere). No accompanying record with examples, no instructional video.
For some of the songs I could chase them down and record onto cassette tape, but mostly I was clueless what I was attempting to play. Some of it stuck however, like The needle and the damage done because it sounds nice by itself as an instrumental and some I learned only much later, like “Don’t think twice its allright”, once I learned to sing. Obviously, many of these songs I never learned - I haven’t outgrown these books yet.
Both the Fender and the 2 Russ Shipton Books survived all these years, were constant companions. I did get myself also the Maud Karpeles songbook - with 80 songs collected in the Appalachian Mountains to keep me occupied - and a pocket book of 2 inches thick with all the Beatles songs, which I tried strumming through (lots of weird named chords in there).
What was of course disspointing is that I never found my way to all these nice weird people with violins and irish bouzouki’s, girls in long flowery dresses and bearded guys playing together and therefore never learned to lay down a Jig or a Reel, or play Matty Groves. So the irony is that as a non-singer I ended up in singer songwriter territory.
Catching up
Fast forward a few decades, and three continents later. I have landed in Germany of all places - which although of limited geographical distance, initially was a very big mental distance to clear. I haven’t really been intensely playing in the intervening years, only to get through periods of need, basically not learning any new stuff, but basically trying to keep what is there. Work and relationship issues kind of squeeze out available time and incentive.
The internet has happened in the meantime, and somehow I stumbled across Justin’s website. Moreover, my significant other is intrigued by the fact that I have this guitar, and looks for a place to learn guitar. I find her a guitar school in the place where we lived, Zobels Guitar School. The way it worked out was that after one year I joined the school, and after a failed attempt to have me play classical pieces, I went right back to my comfort zone, and brought my newly acquired Justin Guitar Songbooks, and my newly acquired Ibanez electric guitar (Full hollow body ASR-70) as a more affordable alternative to the Epiphone Casino along (Me being in John Lennon mode). I kind of liked the guitar, however it was badly set up, could not het a straight tone out of the B string without buzz. And I had no clue as regards amps etc. Moreover, my better half does have highly sensitive ears (especially as regards high pitch tones), and she developed an aversion for the Ibanez, which did not help too much. (Now its set up properly, and when played through the acoustic amp it has a very nice clean tone.) As regards music, obviously the 1990s had not passed by totally unnoticed, and the Clapton Unplugged album had been a constant companion on my travels, which also then became a more conscious entry point into the Blues.
Three major impulses
Somehow I developed an interest in doing more than accompanying nobody with the guitar, and there weren’t any singers around even closely interested in the kind of music I was into. Luckily my wife had visited with a friend of hers a concert by an all female group featuring a Jazz singer, who also provided singing courses. They kind of thought it might be a good idea 
for me to go there. Somehow that happened, and it worked out just fine. That proved important to me, because I got to record my own playing, and could bring it as a backing tape during singing lessons. One of my first strummy songs I attempted to sing was Eric Claptons ‘Let it Grow’ (471 Ocean Boulevard), and it was quite clear that I did not have the range to reach them high notes back then. Typical beginners issue of over estimating one’s ability. I learned also about transposing songs to match the vocal range, as she would often tell me to increase the pitch by 3 to 5 halftones, in order for me to sing it comfortably. That being said - the singing I did was between me, her and the four walls of my practice room. No public appearances.
The second major impulse was to allow GAS to take hold. My wife convinced me to leave the Ibanez well alone, and perhaps buy another acoustic. I went to the premier Guitar shop in Rotterdam, and they were carrying a Canadian brand, Seagull, which I researched online, and got very good reviews. These Seagulls also came with under saddle pickups and pre-amps, which became a must item for me - at some point I was going to need amplification, right? Recognising that with her very sensitive hearing, my wife had a stake in the matter, I asked her to accompany me for the final go ahead. I played the Seagull in the shop, with and without amplification, and she was not impressed. What now? The logical step was to escalate, and I picked up the then new models by Martin and Taylor, a Martin OMCPA4 and a Taylor 300 Series Guitar, and play those. Obviously, that meant exceeding my maximum budget by a factor of 2. Both passed the test, with a slight preference for the OMCPA4 in view of the clear high tones. That was a lucky choice, because it is not only a very beautifully sounding guitar, but it has proven to be a wonderful guitar on stage, as with its Orchestra body shape it is not as bulky as the dreadnought models, and good for both fingerstyle and strumming. It has deserved its name , Klara, a thousand times over.
The third major impulse came when, on account of my health, I went away and stayed in a clinic for 2-3 months. I brought Klara along, and a stack of Justin Guitar songbooks, to have something to do in the downtime. Little did I know, but I got noticed as the guy who had brought a Martin Guitar, and soon I found myself playing with another guy who was very much in Americana songs, more specifically the kind of songs that Johnny Cash had recorded in his final years. Then there was a keyboard player singer, and then there were 2 more singers, then three, and another guitarist, and all of the sudden I found myself learning songs that I had never heard before. The idea was to ‘perform’ at Christmas, at the clinic. And then to perform on New Years Eve, which all happened. There was so much music - in the end there were 3 sets of 10 songs - way too much of course. Fortunately many of them came from the JG songbooks I had brought.
And, I did not need to rely on my singing yet - I could focus on ‘just’ accompanying, with the heavy lifting being done by the keyboarder.
[to be continued]
Love hearing peoples’ stories, Tjeerd. Thanks for sharing yours.
Hi Tjeerd, nice story to read.
That was a rather interesting history Tjeerd!
There must be more than a shuffle
So anyway, after that particular experience I found out that I really needed to play with other folk, with whatever level of guitar playing that I could achieve. Unfortunately, living in the province did not really provide much opportunity. We did manage one reunion of the crowd that we played with, playing some of the old songs together, would you guess it, at Zobel’s guitar school, but they had come from afar, so that was a one time only effort.
My stepdaughter actually had suggested earlier that there was a club where Bluesharp was being played, and that guitarists were welcome there. I had actually gone there once and at the time was cruelly disappointed between my own naive expectations and what was actually going on. Then I had no concept of the Blues, and it was clear that my attempt at playing ‘Hey Hey’ did not conform to what was asked for. I decided to give it a another go after my experiences in playing together, and after starting the singing. I got through the JG Blues rhythm course, and taught myself the various shuffle styles, and armed with St. James Infirmary Blues and Where did you stay last night, gave it another go. For the many Johnny Cash songs (did learn the boom chucka chucka strumming pattern) I had played together, only Folsom Prison Blues survived.
So, each Thursday, from 8 to 10, I went to the club and eventually joined, had my 2-3 songs, and listened to the others playing. On regular nights the format would be to sit in a circle and play songs together, making sure that there was plenty of opportunity for the harmonica players to play there solo’s in between the sung verses and choruses, mostly conforming to standard 12 and 8 bar blues. One could get by in playing the shuffle on the lower strings, once one had managed to understand the basic patterns and understand terms like ‘quick change’ and ‘turnaround’, and mastered a one four five progression. Funnily enough, my ‘set piece’ songs, that did not follow that particular 12 bar and 8 bar logic, were a bit out of the ordinary for the harp players; who therefore felt unsure, so it was easy enough not to insist, and play along with the standard playing a shuffle. I also found however, that on those evenings that I one of the few guitar players there, I could not play the shuffle and sing the blues at the same time. Singing the Blues is kind or free form, the I-IV-V really does not give that much structure, and you have to be able to hit those minor key notes on top of those major key chords. For the life of me - I could not. The other problem I found was that there were semi professionals who were members, and when they were there, they kind of dominated what and how was being played. Lots of learning opportunity, but impossible to achieve that level on the evenings when they were not there, too much of a mismatch in skill and experience. So I was playing together with other folk, but not necessarily what and how I wanted it.
Country blues
I had in the meantime gotten myself some DVD’s on solo Blues. Justin’s one, but also some that I had obtained from Stefan Grossmans website, which were song oriented. It also got me to listen more to recordings of the original Blues players. Lots of material again, and it kind of got me away from strumming the shuffle pattern. I got more of the Basics from courses from Fred Sokolow, and later the 3 DVD set from Stefan Grossman, where I kind of managed the first. That did not help me too much in playing in the Club, but it was great for practicing at home. I picked up on a simplified fingerstyle arrangement by Justin of ‘Nobody knows you when you are down and out’, which I could recycle in the club. I celebrated my 60th birthday, and we had a nice time playing and singing with my friends from the clinic and the club, and family and friends and some refugee families that my wife and I had helped integrate (it was 2016).
Meanwhile, I had entered the last 4 years of my professional life, and with it the prospect of no longer going on business travels, and having to plan for retirement. All the more reason to start being serious about learning the kind of music I liked, and that meant getting into a whole lot of teaching DVD’s on Country Blues, and starting to participate in Workshops that were focussed on playing together acoustically with Harmonica players. Said offerings by Stefan Grossmans Guitar Workshop, the 3 DVD course by Stefan Grossman himself (covering a broad spectrum), the how to play like Big Bill Broonzy [Before I was really ready for him]), Mississippi John Hurt, Robert Johnsson and Leadbelly, and Brownie McGhee. Much of it is still gathering digital dust, either because it is still beyond my ability, or because I still have to acquire a taste for the particular style. And definitely, because it does require a level of commitment to stay with a tune like that. It simply goes beyond a simple strumming pattern, because most of it is fingerstyle, with separate bass and melody lines. It is less of a challenge to do a folk fingerstyle accompaniment, once you lock in the pattern and memorize the chords, you are on your way. So I kind of took a shine to Mississippi John Hurt, which are somehow a halfway house between the fingerstyle folk tradition, and players like Big Bill Broonzy and Rev.d Gary Hart. The music is so sympathetic, and unassuming, and you can play it for yourself without singing, and people around you will not mind, and they may just notice how nice it is.
So the score on Mississippi John Hurt songs that I have played (the (#) stands for being able to sing and play, and ## stands for having performed for more than 2 audience) is
Hey Honey, right away (##)
Spike Driver Blues
It ain’t nobody’s dirty business (##)
I am satisfied (##)
Monday Morning Blues
My Creole Belle
Beulah Land (##)
You Gotta walk that Lonesome Valley (##)
Richland Women Blues (*)
Avalon Blues
Make me a pallet on your floor
Pay Day
Which leaves still the very much more interesting See See Rider, Candyman, Frankie, Louise Collins and many more. to explore.
Obviously also, there are other Bluesplayers that I have explored. I have some relative success with songs by Rev’d Gary Davis, like
I heard the Angels Singing (##), adapted and simplified from Eric Bibb’s version
Cocaine Blues
Hesitation Blues (Simplified)
Keep your lights trimmed and burning (## )
There are some really powerful songs by the reverend here still to learn, like ‘Death don’t have no mercy in this land’
And a really simplified version of Robert Johnson’s
Kindhearted Women Blues
And a generic version of
Key to the Highway (Big Bill Broonzy/ Brownie McGhee)
Talking about Brownie McGhee, he spent a considerable period of his life playing together with Sonny Terry, a wonderful Harmonica player, and there are some really wonderful songs they performed together. Brownie’s style is so very rhythmic, and I have been meaning to get into it, but haven’t quite got there. It has been on my bucket list to get into his style for ages, as much as Big Bill Broonzy has. My aim in life, as far as I can see right now, can be defined I guess by one song of Big Bill, which is his rendition of Glory of Love, and a competent rendering of ‘Walk On’ by Brownie McGhee. Both songs I have been having a go at for the past several years, and I really haven’t managed either of them yet, and I am not sure whether I ever will.
And then of course, are these other Blues styles, as well as this whole story about bottleneck / slide guitar etc.
Anyway, I retired in 2020, and at my retirement party I played ‘I am satisfied’ (tongue in cheek), we moved into the country side, and I spent a lot of time practicing during corona times - working on Mississippi John Hurt repertoire. The big challenge is to learn how to play and sing at the same time, which works for some but not all of the songs.
[to be continued]
Me neither, despite being a grade 1 in both theory and practice and only 1 month into my journey.
Some of the stuff I look at in theory is grade 4.3 and fairly advanced.
The practice the same. Already looking and taking up things that is for intermediate or even more advanced.
The reason I follow the program fairly strict, is that it’s made in steps. “I can’t get to second floor, unless I have made a foundation and first set of stairs”. It’s like stepping stones.
So even jumping around and cherry picking, even very advanced stuff, I still have focus on the basics, as if I don’t get these right from start, it will just mess things up further on the way, even to an extent where I might give up. So I am very conscious about that. The basics is the boat that carry me across the ocean.
I don’t think I will ever get much into strumming, there are still some basic elements that I can use in what ever style or stuff I get into later. Certain things I don’t spend much time on now, but I still try them out. Who knows, maybe it could be a thing for me or come in handy later.
Some of the things I might rush through, but still notice and tried just a little, so I can always go back and pick it up fairly easy, if I later should find out, that I need it or want to get further into it. But basics like rhythm, clean chords, some theory etc is for me just a most. Else I will get nowhere.
I am also into Blues, but also funk, jazz, fusion… What a world that opens, when diving into that area.
Wishing you a most enjoyable and wonderful guitar journey. 
Dang, what happenned the last two months - I guess I got sidetracked by a lot.
Now we have May, and I am in the middle of several other projects, but did not finish the three that I intended for March, not even in April!
So what are the excuses - basically its lack of discipline. First of I blame our practice group. The guys told me we have to many slow, ponderous songs, and when we play we should have some more up tempo songs. Needed to look at that.
We also needed to have more Harmonica songs, so there was a need to look at Brownie McGhee and Sonny Terry.
We needed to have songs that I am already familiar with, a little outside the Blues territory;
One of the guys told me he liked Deep River Blues by Doc Watson - which was a long time already on my bucket list. Good luck to me, because iots a complicated one to play - fortunately he would do the singing to that one.
So where do we stand : with the ambitions:
Factory Girl : Rolling Stones
Parachute Woman : Rolling Stones
Lay Lady Lay : Rhythm (Not the slide part yet) Bob Dylan
Hey Hey,
San Francisco Bay : Clapton unplugged
Make me a Pallet, Richland Women Blues : get the singing right (Mississippi John Hurt)
Walk on, I got a Woman : Brownie McGhee and Sonny Terry
Meanwhile, my singing coach and I went on a different trajectory. Normally I sing to my own accompaniment, but she thought that was somehow limiting, so we changed tack, and she encouraged me to do ‘Your Song’ to a backing tape, and later ‘If you could read my mind’.
So yes I have been busy - too busy to interact a lot in the community I am sorry to say - but somehow the fruits have not been picked yet.
So there you have it, total distraction. I will get back to y’all when I have done any part of this!
So promises, promises. I haven’t been sharing a lot lately, sorry about that! I am happy to participate in teh Community Jam next week though. First though, this week my music club have their 10 years Jubilee, and I have been called upon to perform a little, today and tomorrow. As it is only 2 weeks since I got discharged from the Hospital, we’ll se how it goes.
We’ll do
And I’ll have a Bass-player accompanying, as well as a Harmonicaplayer for fills and solo. The place wil be filled up to capacity.
Then, the next week will be the weekly JAM, and there are more songs to prepare with the guys, what is currently on the list of things to work on:
On 6/7 there is again a public Jam on, and I have to see what to play, as our fixed constellation has somehow been plagued by medical issues the last month. As said after that we have the Community Jam. Busy Days…
Continuing the Log.
I have finally managed to keep 2 promises to self, playing Hurt and Call the Doctor, in both the monthly Jam and in the Community Open Stage # 17. Actually memorised to a 90% degree the lyrics of both songs, which helps. Also I finally convinced a Harmonicaplayer to do the Trumpet part in Call the Doctor, which sounds terrific, and my Ukelele playing friend has embraced playing the bass accompaniment on Call the Doctor. When we get this together, it will be a blast. The other stuff is still under development, but getting there.
I’ll have to investigate some bluesy songs for a female lead vocalist next. We have done
At the Jam in a rather simple way.
On the reserve list there are a few 60’s songs that might work out.
We are looking at September/October…
This week we practiced with the Ukelele Guy
And listened to a bunch of songs that we might add, such as the Johnny Cash versions of
I have done strummy versions of these songs, it will be worth to look into some detailed Tabs to see if it can be a little more refined.
And some more country blues stuff:
And some Chicago Blues:
And some more JJ Cale / Clapton
So this is all way to much stuff, unless we would be taking shortcuts. The advantage is that most of these songs do not have hour long solo’s, and tens of verses. I.e. they can be learned… The challenge is to do these ensemble style, different instruments, and different or alternating lead singers. It’ll keep us busy till Christmas for sure!
Finally, deep down in some dusty drawer I found my original first guitar songbook with chords and melody lines.
It is titled
“Golden Beatles Series, Twenty Easy Play Hits book 4”
Published by Northern Songs Limited in 1967. Its the book I tried to play songs from with the Spanish guitar I pinched from my sister, must have bought it around 1971-1972.
The emphasis is on easy. Just have a look at the very first song “And I love her”, and the chord diagrams. EASY? The thing is full with abbreviated (4 string) Barre chords. Cm, Fm, Ab, Bb7, Eb, Gm. And the fingering of that Cm chord! Just horrible!
It would have looked already totally different when the book would have suggested putting a capo on the first fret (the fingering would have been : Bm, Em, G, A, D). Suffise to say, that was not a song that I attempted (had no clue about transposition and capodastro’s at the time, and barre chord on a Spanish Guitar, even if only on the high 4 strings…
All good advice that Justin is giving in his courses…
Well here we are, its the end of the year, and what progress have I made?
Obviously, we have been having a lot of fun. This year we have started regularly practicing together, starting out as a three man group, with a little eclectic composition. 2 Voices, a guitar, a ukelele and a harmonica. Then we played every month in front of a small audience (20-40 persons) many of whom are also amateur players. Then a 2nd Harmonica joined the group, and the song choices became ever more multifaceted. It kind of continued, when I met a female vocalist at a choir workshop, who was interested in singing the Blues. Then we planned a concert for ‘friends and family’, found a nice location and invited everybody over. The ukelele player invited another female singer, and I managed to convince a bass player at the last moment to help us out with some of the songs in need of more ‘body’. We managed to get a 20 Song setlist
together and perform it. It was a wonderful experience, because many present hadn’t heard us play before, and were genuinely surprised.
It was a big learning opportunity, playing together, working on quite a number of new songs, outside the usual Blues background, some more Jazzy, some more Folky. Also, setting up the stage and using a PA system and mixing board, trying to get the sound balance organized. Trying to make sense of the set list, and establishing some logic in the sequence. And finally, even though these were friends and family, to establish contact with the audience and try and entertain them during and in between the various songs.
Some of the stuff I described as being work in progress in my earlier posts we managed, and got incorporated in the set (For instance Hey Hey, and Call me a Doctor with the Harmonica). Three particular challenges remained, and had to be tackled in the last month:
Moondance : Van Morrison
Chan Chan : Charlie Musselwhite
These were particular desires/challenges from the Harmonicaplayers, and
At Last : Etta James, which was a challenge I put to myself and the female vocalist.
All of these songs were rhytmically challenging, full of 16th notes, and in part requiring intro’s, little runs etcetera.
I will edit this post later and provide a few links to a few video segments, to give you a sample feeling of how it actually went… Unfortunately the video’s do not cover entire songs, but you’ll get the gist…
Hi Tjeerd,
That sounds like a great year with a lot of musical fun
I am happy for you and may the coming year bring much more of the same good for you
Groeten uit een nat 12c 
en grijs Nederland
But with a guitar inside it’s a nice place to be 
As promised above some excerpts from our gig
Getting started with Green Onions…
Doing a Duet : Summerwine
Gallows Pole
That was really cool, Tjeerd! 
I bet you had also lots of fun that night and the audience must have been pleased as well. 
I liked all three, but Gallow’s Pole caught me most. Nice and moody, great playing and singing. Harmonicas sounded real good as well. Thanks for sharing these with us!
