Links, and the Making of Jeremy Moonshine

A handful of interesting links from recent Internet travels:

Pens and Pencils in Space!

A boys' guide to field notebooks (circa 1920)

A glimpse into the minds (and notebooks) of 20 famous men

Haven't done much writing this week; I've spent most of my spare time catching up on some reading and playing music. I finally have a few people to play my kinda tunes with (Scots/Irish/Contra dance tunes, mostly).

I recently got to play a part in the whole folk / tune propagation process: at a primarily bluegrass festival a few weeks ago, I was playing some Irish tunes with my new friend Anne, who plays whistles, when a young man (well...about my age) came up to us, introduced himself as Jeremy, and asked if he could play with us a little later--he played mandolin. When he joined us, he also brought a Mason jar of moonshine, which he offered to pass around. Call me chicken, but I declined.

He was a pretty good mandolinist and knew a ton of tunes, one of which he attempted to teach us quickly by ear. It's a jig called "Little Black Pig," which I haven't been able to find on-line--at least not the version he played. I attempted to recreate it when I got home, playing it over and over, and ended up with a neat little tune that I'm not sure is really a faithful recreation of the original or primarily my own. Unfortunately I didn't get Jeremy's last name or e-mail address or anything, so I have no way of double-checking. In any case, I recorded it and shared my rendition with the other people I've been playing with, and one of them dubbed it Jeremy Moonshine in honor of our one-day acquaintance. And a new tune (sorta!) is born. We're going to work it up as a set with two other jigs (Lilting Banshee and Boys of Tandragee, for the curious and Irish-musically-inclined). Fun!

And that's my cop-out of an update!