Category: music
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Back in February I had the one of the world’s greatest harmonica players over to my studio, Artland, here in Nashville to do some recording. Mickey Raphael, born and raised in Dallas, Texas, has been performing and recording with Willie Nelson for over four decades.
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Welcome to my blog. I am excited to announce that I’m working on a new solo recording project that will be released in the summer 2017. The working title of the project is Heart and Home. The album will feature new songs and tunes that include stories of the heart and tales from Baltimore. Sign…
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Earlier this year in June I was in the UK touring with Jeni & Billy. On June 16 I read the news about the passing of Don Young. Don was the co-founder of the National Resophonic Guitar Company which started making guitars in 1989. Jeni and I got to meet Don in 2010 in San…
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Edgar Cayce said that if you eat three almonds a day your health will be better. Earl Scruggs popularized the banjo with a three finger picking style. And the Golden Biscuit Hour is hosted by three music purveyors. The list could go on. But I want to write about something I heard and observed on…
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I am a fan of recording devices, musical instruments, musicians, singers, songs, and new music. I became a fan of these things from the first time I saw or heard them. For example, my paternal grandfather was an attorney who practiced law from the 1930s until the 1970s. Early in his practice he used a…
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The year was nineteen seventy-one. A former mailman from Illinois released an album on Atlantic records, self-titled, John Prine. The songs were narrative — filled with empathy for his characters. Sam Stone, the drug addicted veteran; Hello In There, a song about aging; and Paradise, the town that was taken away by the coal company.…
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I read on my Baltimore Sun app this morning that Al “Madman” Baitch died on March 24th at the age of 89. He was one of the great Baltimore club and concert musicians who played for nearly seventy years. His instrument was the saxophone. I had to call my Dad to let him know because…
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Last Saturday night, Jeni Hankins and I played in San Antonio, Florida, at a house concert series called the Garage Mahal. The hosts, Rochelle and Norman, were just the greatest. Rochelle is a yoga instructor and told me a story about a woman who did not hear so well. At the end of her yoga…
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Last week brought the Americana Music Festival and Conference to Nashville and Jeni and I got to go to a couple of spectacular events at the Country Music Hall of Fame & Museum. On Thursday in the Ford Theater, Robert Gordon interviewed the legendary Booker T Jones – musician, composer, producer from Memphis, Tennessee. Mr.…
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This was the result of the first recording session at Artland in Nashville using a vintage analog tape recorder, the Tascam Series 70 1/2 inch eight track. It actually is a six track recorder now because the heads are worn on tracks 1 and 8.
Billy Kemp 