Hello to all
The Riverside Jam, an annual gathering of musicians and friends, was held this past weekend in and around Great Barrington, Massachusetts. This event has been going on since 2000, when Dan ("Laz") and Laura ("babydoclaz") hosted it in Westport, Connecticut. Since then, it's been in Chicago (2001, 2003), New Brunswick, New Jersey (2002), Elkhart, Indiana (2005) and Minneapolis (2006). This was the second time the event took place in the Berkshires, the first time being in 2004.
It's pretty close to impossible to list every single thing that happened, so I'll try to give you the overall schedule and some of the things that are rattling around in what passes for my short term memory.
Thursday night was a small concert, highlighting the songwriters of the group. We had small sets by Nick Torres, Kathy Reichert, John "the Celt" Roche and Aaron Eppy, Karen Barry, Jeff Brownstein as well as local songwriters Todd Mack and Joel Schick. Each writer was accompanied by various members of the Riverside Jam touring troupe. You can read more about this event here:
https://www.guitarnoise.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=34638
and also John's wife Karen videotaped the whole thing for posterity. He's posted a couple of the rough videos already.
Friday was an "off day," during which we played and practiced pieces we hoped to do on Saturday. It was very informal and a lot of great music came out of it. I'm particularly impressed with the version of Hurt that we came up with later in the evening.
Saturday saw two different events. First was an acoustic sing along at the Great Barrington Farmers' Market, in which a number of students from my classes at the Berkshire Community College took part. That lasted about two hours and then we moved everyone over the train tracks to the gazebo / bandstand behind town hall for a free public concert that lasted five hours. A few local musicians joined us (most notably Guitar Noise moderator Wes Inman and his piano playing friend Dimitri) and we rotated musicians in and out of the line up from two-thirty until seven-thirty. This particular even was also used to raise funds for the PR Kellerman Foundation, a local non-profit organization that provides money for music lessons to needy children in Berkshire County. Check the News Forum for how well that went.
Sunday we slowed the pace down, having a "song circle" session at the American Institute for Economic Research, a huge mansion with gorgeous views of the surrounding hills. At one point I think Karen counted close to thirty people, but I'm not really sure about that. Anyway, we sat in a circle and took turns choosing songs that the entire group played on.
We played from about noon until six, with a break for lunch.
We just saw ouir last guests off yesterday, so I'm still a little wired and worn out and not the best person to do things like post song lists or personnel line ups and such. I'll try to flesh this post out later in the week, but in the meantime I'm hoping that the participants fill in some of the gaps for me. This would also be the post to put up photos or links to photos and other such doodads.
I can't thank everyone enough for making the whole week such a fun time. And for their generous spirits. Can't wait to do it again.
Peace
pics in this thread:
Too cool!! 8)
Bish
"I play live as playing dead is harder than it sounds!"
Ok, I'm going to attempt to post the links to the pics John took. These are some big files, so if you have iffy online service (you know who you are David) , I wouldn't even attempt it. I've broken it Down into 5 albums;
Uncommon Grounds, Friday at Andante, Farmers market, Gazebo, and Sunday. There aren't that many pics of Friday, because much to my delight, the photographer was busy playing bass; and it's probably not a good idea to have photographic evidence of Friday night's festivities in any case. Lets just say there was tequila involved..... :shock:
All pictures are property of John Reichert.all rights reserved.
http://s87.photobucket.com/albums/k128/katreich/RSJ%2007%20%20UNCOMMON%20GROUNDS/
http://s87.photobucket.com/albums/k128/katreich/FRIDAY%20ANDANTE/
Falling in love is like learning to play the guitar; first you learn to follow the rules, then you learn to play with your heart.
Brilliant pics there. Your husband does a great job shooting them.
I am going to take a look at 'em tomorrow. Right now your Taylor 12 string looks 'very' pretty...:twisted:
By the way, if you notice that we all look a bit shiny at the coffeehouse gig, it's because it was about 95% humidity and no air conditioning. Not only were we all sweating like pigs, it was a bear trying to keep the guitars in tune. At one point I was watching the sweat roll down John "the Celt's" arm, off his and and onto a puddle on the floor. Most of us were running outside every few minutes to see if we could catch a breeze! But, being the pros we are 8) we managed to pull off a great evening of entertainment.
Actually, we didn't have the luxury of AC all weekend, with these outdoor gigs. It wasn't bad as long as the air was moving a little.
Falling in love is like learning to play the guitar; first you learn to follow the rules, then you learn to play with your heart.
Convey our thanks to John, Kathy. As usual, he did a bang up job of getting the pix.
... and it was goooood tequila!
-=tension & release=-
It was good tequila, you can tell by my happy go lucky smile in any picture taken Saturday.
I just hope nobody has a recording of the inna gadda da vida version of Lido that was done while partaking of said Tequila.
Excellent pictures Kathy, tell John I said so.
... and it was goooood tequila!
This coming from someone who gave away his car... :wink:
I'm not even sure how you could remember that it was good tequila, but I'll take your word for it.
Thank John for the photos for us, Kathy. I'll email Paul about the links. Hopefully, we'll be able to see them sometime next week. Karen said she was calling the Internet connection folks yesterday, which means she'll do it Monday. :wink:
Peace
From my cellphone cam:
Nick shares his mojo at Riverside Jam 2007....
***************************** 
*****************************
------------------------------------------------------------------------ Nick ------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------ David ---------------------------------------------- Karen ------------------------------------------- BabyDoc ----------
------------------ Laz --------------------------------------------------- Jacq ------------------------------------------- Marilyn ------------
----------------- Kathy ------------------------------------------------ John --------------------------------------------- Mike --------------
----------------- Jeff -------------------------------------------------- Annie ------------------------------------------- Glenn --------------
---------------- Chuck ------------------------------------------------ Kyle --------------------------------------------- Wes ---------------
---------------- Jane ------------------------------------------------ Helena ------------------------------------------- Greg --------------
--------------------
--------------------------------------- Paul -------------------------------------------------- Jim ----------------------
-=tension & release=-
Wow, sounds - and looks - like you guys had a real blast!
One of these days maybe us Brits will get organised enough to have our own Riverside jam........anyone want to step up and take responsibility? We've talked about it before but nothing ever happened.....
:D :D :D
Vic
"Sometimes the beauty of music can help us all find strength to deal with all the curves life can throw us." (D. Hodge.)
Great Pics,
I must say I particularly like the one of Wes playing at
the Gazebo. That's a super shot.
I've been working on the videos and will post more soon.
John
:lol: :lol: :lol:
Well I must say I was all good when viewing Kathy's pictures.
But then....I saw the HAT ones....
ROFL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Bish
"I play live as playing dead is harder than it sounds!"
I love the hat pictures
By the way, if you notice that we all look a bit shiny at the coffeehouse gig, it's because it was about 95% humidity and no air conditioning. Not only were we all sweating like pigs, it was a bear trying to keep the guitars in tune. At one point I was watching the sweat roll down John "the Celt's" arm, off his and and onto a puddle on the floor. Most of us were running outside every few minutes to see if we could catch a breeze! But, being the pros we are 8) we managed to pull off a great evening of entertainment.
Actually, we didn't have the luxury of AC all weekend, with these outdoor gigs. It wasn't bad as long as the air was moving a little.
Hmmm, I don't think I could have survived the weekend without A/C! :shock: Just looked at every picture. Very nice! :D
"Nothing...can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts."
