PBR Megapost – We are like New Coke, different but not necessarily better.

The Paint Branch Ramblers have gone through some changes and played a little bluegrass.  So, what’s up with us now?

1) The big news is that beloved Rambler Ryan Jerving (AKA The Viper), has moved on to a world of beer, brats, and Laverne & Shirley, e.g., Milwaukee, WI.  Thus, the PBR line-up has changed somewhat.  While we are missing one of our original members, we are still playing the same fun, old-timey bluegrass music.

2) We played the 2009 University of Maryland, Entomology Department Oktoberfest for the 3rd straight year in October.  It was largely a warm-up gig to test out our new set sans The Viper.  The music was good and we once again filled up on (and were paid in) pork.  Here is the set list:

Set #1

• Soldier’s Joy
• Red Clay Halo
• Ocean of Diamonds
• Old Home Place
• Trilogy (Haste to the Wedding Quadrille, The Musical Priest, Whiskey Before Breakfast)
• If I Lose
• Two More Bottles of Wine
• Jerusalem Ridge
• Boat Like Gideon Brown
• Throw the First Stone
• Your Cheating Heart

Set #2

• Jacknife/Down Yonder
• Good Morning Irene
• Ashokan Farewell
• I’ve Just Seen a Face
• Cat-Eyed Willie Claims His Lover
• Banks of the Ohio
• Blackberry Blossom
• CC Rider
• I’ll Fly Away
• 3 Night’s Experience
• Wagon Wheel

3) The Paint Branch Ramblers’ old-time stylin’s warmed the hearts—if not the extremities—of the shoppers and vendors at the 2009 Riverdale Park Holiday Market this past December. We played a set of perennial Ramblers classics, sprinkled throughout with brand-new, kung-fu, break-through debut pieces. Also included were special songs for the season, including “Lawson Family Murder,” detailing a Christmas 1929 mass murder-suicide.

The Ramblers’ full set list was:

• Fisher’s Hornpipe
• Boat Like Gideon Brown
• Lawson Family Murder
• Old Black Rum
• If I Lose
• Blackberry Blossom
• Ocean of Diamonds
• Ashokan Farewell
• Silver Bells
• Old Home Place
• Jackknife/Down Yonder
• Throw the First Stone
• Old Brown’s Daughter
• Jerusalem Ridge
• Blue Christmas

Set list for June 6, 2009

Here’s the songs on which the Paint Branch Ramblers rambled, branched, and/or painted on June 6, 2009, at the 2nd Annual Food & Wine Festival at the National Harbor in Oxon Hill, Maryland (just across the Potomac from D.C.). The line-up included Peter Jensen on the violin, Mike Paul on guitar, Ryan Jerving on jug and cümbüş, Bob Smith on guitar, and Susan Johnson on autoharp and washtub bass.

SET #1

• First Round Polka
• Soldier’s Joy
• Red Clay Halo
• Boat like Gideon Brown
• Kentucky Waltz
• Blackberry Blossom
• Good Morning Irene
• Old Brown’s Daughter
• Haste to the Wedding/The Musical Priest/Whiskey Before Breakfast
• Two More Bottles of Wine
• If I Lose

SET #2

• Your Cheatin’ Heart
• Heyse Latke/Jerusalem Ridge
• I’ll Fly Away
• Wagon Wheel
• Jackknife/Down Yonder
• Blue Ridge Cabin Home
• Throw the First Stone
• Old Homeplace
• Three Nights Experience
• Ham Beats All Meat
• Last Call Waltz

SPECIAL IN-OFFICE PERFORMANCE
For Food & Wine Festival staff and volunteers

• Paint Branch Ramble
• Kentucky Waltz
• Wagon Wheel

June 6 show at the National Harbor

On June 6, 2009, the Paint Branch Ramblers will bring their special blend of old time, bluegrass, and jug music to the National Harbor to kick off the 2nd Annual Food & Wine Festival.

We promise you’ll get your fill of songs about eating and drinking, and songs about sailors who eat and drink. And we promise you the return of our of our prodigal rambling boy from Milwaukee, Ryan Jerving, who is currently trying to figure out the best way to bring a jug, washboard, and washtub bass through carry-on.

The National Harbor is located in Oxon Hill, Maryland, just a water taxi ride across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C. The festival runs both Saturday and Sunday, June 6 & 7, and, according to the event’s web site, “celebrates the chefs’ use of local, fresh and responsibly sourced ingredients from both land and sea, which inspire their creativity and protect the environment.”

Happy Hanukkah from the Paint Branch Ramblers

As this post is being typed, the sun is just setting on Riverdale, Maryland — the last Maryland sundown that Rambler juggist, banjo ukulelist, and cümbüşcü Ryan Jerving will see before getting on that old turnpike tomorrow for a drive to Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

It’s also the the sundown that brings in Hanukkah. And what better way to bring in Hanukkah than with the Ramblers’ own “Heyse Latke Kalte Latke / Jerusalem Ridge,” as recorded live at our show this past December 6, 2008 at the Home Grown Coffee House in Accokeek, Maryland. So here it is, and mazel tov, whether the constellation under which you stand is in Maryland or Milwaukee:

download the mp3

As you listen, you’ll hear Ryan on the cümbüş, Mike Paul and Bob Smith on the guitar, Peter Jensen on the violin, and Susan Johnson switching from autoharp on “Heyse Latke” to washboard on “Jerusalem Ridge” (even her wastub bass makes a guest appearance — listen for the sound of the broomstick neck clattering to the floor in the background on “Heyse Latke” in the section after the vocal). Incidentally, you can hear the collection of recordings for the whole 2 set show at the post that immediately precedes this one.

And if you just can’t get enough of “Heyse Latke,” check out the blog of the Viper over at http://viperblog.wordpress.com/, where Ryan has posted the first of 8 straight entries he’ll be posting over the holiday, featuring the lead sheet, the cheat sheet, and rare scratch track and rehearsal recordings of the song.

Set list for December 6, 2008

Here’s what we played on Saturday, December 6, 2008 at the Home Grown Coffee House in Accokeek, Maryland. We had a great time playing, though our voices were all a little raw after a long day that included trying to get an extra practice in earlier in the day to make sure our epic and rather pointlessly elaborate (but fun!) arrangement of “Tribute” worked out. But thanks to all the volunteers there who always make the Coffee House a fantastic experience for the musicians who play there, with a special shout out to Ryan Jerving’s kinfolk: Joe, Michelle, and Colin Buckingham.

And thanks in particular to Alex Naar who should get some kind of medal for his work in doing the sound for a band that requires mic’ing various combinations of washtub bass, fiddle, washboard, two guitars, two ukuleles, autoharp, jug, and a strange Turkish banjo-mandolin-bedpan thing.

Songs marked as links will take you to an mp3 recording from the performance.

SET #1

• First Round Polka
• Red Clay Halo
• In the Pines
• Heyse Latke Kalte Latke / Jerusalem Ridge
• Good Morning Irene
• Jackknife / Down Yonder
• Throw the First Stone
• Will It Go ‘Round
• Ocean of Diamonds
• Tear It Down
• Tribute (“One”)
• If I Lose

SET #2

• Fillmore and Buchanan March
• Milwaukee Here I Come
• Crazy Train / M.T.A.
• Maggie Mae
• Haste to the Wedding / The Musical Priest / Whiskey Before Breakfast
• When I’d Yoo-Hoo in the Valley
• Paint Branch Ramble
• Soldier’s Joy
• Tell It To Me
• I’ll Fly Away
• Last Call Waltz

ENCORE

• Blue Ridge Cabin Home
• Wagon Wheel

December 6 show at Homegrown Coffeehouse

On Saturday, December 6, the Paint Branch Ramblers will be playing at the Homegrown Coffeehouse on the grounds of the National Colonial Farm in Piscataway Park in Accokeek, Maryland. (See here for directions.) Doors open at 6:00 p.m. and the Ramblers will play two sets starting at 7:00 p.m.

The Homegrown Coffeehouse is a great Accokeek institution that gets put on 6 or so times a year, entirely booked, staffed, and run by neighborhood volunteers who also cook the soup, desserts, and coffee that will be available for sale. Drinks are B.Y.O.B.

This will be the last public Ramblers show to feature the Milwaukee-bound ukulelist and cümbüş player  Ryan Jerving, who will also play a special between-set set as The Viper.

Bob Smith puts the pedal to the metal

The title of this post says it all — this is Bob Smith testing out the new Line6 TonePort UX2 hardware and GearBox software we used to record our practice on November 20, 2008. The acoustic guitar run through a direct line, most likely run through the “Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love” setting under the “Heavy Guitar” menu.

download “Bob Smith Puts the Pedal to the Metal”

As a bonus, here’s the vocal intro that we usually use to go into “Down Yonder,” the Jeffrey Frederick song “Jackknife” from the Have Moicy! album he did with Michael Hurley, Peter Stampfel, etc.

download “Jackknife”