Rennie Neubecker: News & Updates

Ok. Well then. just got back from the big Green Acres Campground gig. And what a gig at beautiful Lake Milton Oh.

This thing just gets better every year. The crowds get bigger, the food gets bigger & the music gets bigger. Not to mention its a Family Reunion as well. It's great to see my family & friends, that I don't get to see to often, so you might say its a Jamily Reunion.

Its a 6 hour drive each way, but that's why I make a 4 day affair out of it. Also, This is a chance to get to jam with Kent Eric Gardener (herein after referred to as CUZ). Our 5:30 to 7:00 pm slot at the main pavilion always goes by too fast, but that's why we do it all again at my brothers campsite. We will get started back up around 9:00, then go to the wee hours of the morning. We have been known to have 30 or 40 people hang out for that "aftergig" as well. I finally went to bed at 5:20 Sunday morning.

Cuz & I both had new material to grace the crowd with, along with a lot of other stuff. Cuz showcased a good portion of his new CD Shame On You & I broke out some of my new songs that I plan on releasing on my new CD around Halloween. It was awesome to hang out with all the good folks like Bobby Ault, Bobby Hay, Brenda & Stein, Booter, Johnny, Kaleb Gardener, Devonte' My cousins, nieces' & nephews' & a Host of people whose names I cant remember or didn't get a chance to meet. Thanks for all your kind words & support of my music.

Now the next morning was interesting, in the fact that being up til 5:20am I would have liked to sleep in but as I was in formed the day earlier, "Hey Ren, summer just got here the day before yesterday". What that means is that even though our tent is big, airy, & we have the best queen air mattress you can get, the sun had the interior of the tent @110° by 10:00am & I am not exaggerating. Really it was that hot. Normally the days are in the upper 70s in N.E. Ohio. So much for sleeping in.

Sunday was a day of schlepping around, trying to sneak in a nap or two before the evening's festivities. Now I know your asking REN! didn't you get enough last night? Heck no! I was on a four day vacation. Just cause' it,s a gig doesn't mean I don't treat it like a vacation. So Sunday evening's festivities were that we were invited to dinner & a sundown cruise at Bobby Hay's beach house. Bobby Hays & Bobby Ault are huge fans of my music (Thanks guys) & cooked some mean London broil & brats on the grill. Wifey & sis-in-law, made up a BIG salad from stuff left from the day before, including the banana Peppers & tomatoes from my garden. So a second day of feasting. After that we went down to the dock & swam in Lake Milton & had cocktails on the dock. After Bobby & Bobby straightened up up at the beach house, they came down & we boarded Cap'n Hays' pontoon boat.
The sun was setting, the temperature was perfect & the 6 of us were off. The good Cap'n Hays, cranked up the jams & we motored along til well after dark with a cool libation in hand. It was good to get to talk to him & bobby Ault & get to know these guys better. My bro & sis-in-law have known them for years but I didn't get a chance to meet them til last year & well our conversations of last year are a lil fuzzy. Truly some of the finest friends a person could ask for. Thanks for the great evening gentlemen. I guess we arrive back at the campground around 11:30. The girls were beat so they went to bed & bro & I sat up by the fire, shared a great cigar & talked (with beer in hand) til about 2:00am. Yes another late night.

Up in the morning Baked by the sun Sweat running in your eyes Sure ain't no fun Uh, just sing that to John Prines, Big Ol Goofy World.

So, yup, once again "Ol Sol" prevents my sleeping in, except that Monday was to be the hottest day yet and I we were ran out of the tent by 9:00. This was travel day so I had to tear everything down & completely repack the Explorer.all our camping gear, clothes & oh yeah. Pa system & all the stuff that goes with it. This is how it went foe 2 1/2 hours: Teardown & pack for 10min. Run into bro's camper lay down & cool off for 10 min, teardown & pack for 10min. Run into bro's camper lay down & cool off for 10 min, teardo... You get the drift. Man when we got on the road @ 1:00pm I cranked the A/C for the next 6 hours. It was 92° by 11:00am. I don't think I got cooled down til Wednesday. Really.

Oh. I forgot to mention that In addition to the music & setup & teardown of the PA system for the Jamily Reunion part of the weekend, I even contributed to the food service by 1. Helping Ed, Booter, Stien & Cuz with the deep frying & grilling of 6 turkeys, 80 hot dogs & 60 hamburgers & 2.Battering & deep frying a ton of banana peppers, from my own garden thank you very much. I wanna thank everyone for raving about them. That made me feel really good, and I must admit they were pretty damn tasty. I couldn't keep my cousin Ken Johnston out of them. Glad you liked them.

So there you have it, the wrap up of this years "Green Acres Campground" gig. I will have pics posted shortly & if I forgot any "key" points or kudos, I will post them as I remember.

Ok 1 other thing I'm gonna do each week. I'm gonna post a link or tell you where to search for a particular song on the web. These songs are some of my favorites from the years & a lot of the are either "One Hit Wonders, obscure, or b B-sides that didn't (in my opinion) get quit the recognition they deserve. So for this week, considering everything I just wrote about, your mission is to paste this link in your browser: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhSZAhepf1w .
If that doesn't work, go to "You Tube" & search For Tony Carey, It's A Fine Fine Day. a fav of mine from 1984. Tony was the front man for Rainbow as well as Planet P. Hope you like the tune. I think it kick's ass! Ok, til next time, I love each & everyone of you, family, friends & Fans.
Peace Out

Rennie P.S. Almira Fawn is in Nashville as we speak & I will let you know what shes doing, soon as I'm allowed to.

Home from the funnest gig of the summer. Your humble host will be revisiting with you for all the News & Pics.. Stay Tuned...

Ren

Howdy Folks
Hope you all are having a great summer, one thing for sure, it's flying by wayyyy to fast. before you know it the snow will be flying.
first off. Tonight Tom Cool & the Cooligans will be playing at BUDDY'S at 8:00pm.
Almira Fawn is in Wilmington NC, & is playing The Downtown Sundown Concert Series. Tomorrow she opens for Keller Williams in Myrtle Beach. A big good luck wish for Almira, on this part of her summer tour. See her latest doings @ www.almirafawn.com.
A big "HAPPY BIRTHDAY" to Almira AUG. 8th.
Next week is the big Green Acres Campground gig. I'll have a review for you at some point after.
I want to thank Steve "Fuzzy" Knopka for the opportunity to play at the Pine Meadow neighborhood asso. picnic @ Addison Park.
It was a good time & we also had Mike Anderson in with us. I always look forward to the chance to play with Mike & Fuzzy. Their was a pretty decent crowd & the food was excellent. a good time indeed.
A new improvement to my web site. Now when you go to my photo gallery, you can see all the pics in thumbnails. All you have to do is click on any picture & it will open in a a shadowbox, then you can page forward or back, "slideshow" style. You're welcome. Ok I'm gonna end this quick newscast & work on some of the new material for my upcoming record.
Keep Pickin & TTYS
Rennie

Now the rest of the post from yesterday.
Now you know why the updates were late. I was in New Jersey to visit my daughter & granddaughter. It was time to see the granddaughter as she is now 9 months old. This was my first time to see her. I will say she is the cutest, happiest baby I know. (Yes I am probably prejudiced). But hey. Went a visited some really cool Battlefields & forts while there. Such as Red Bank Battlefield at Fort Mercer. It is located in Red Bank National Park, in Deptford New Jersey, which is where my daughter lives.
The next day Jeff (future son-in-law) took us down to Fort Mott & then we ferried over to Fort Delaware. A lot of fun & more than I can post at this moment. I will say that I now have a whole different take on New Jersey, at least southern Jersey. The landscape is absolutely beautiful & the little towns are Norman Rockwell for sure.

The music part of this post is that the first night there Jeff & Candy says,"hey lets have a fire & play guitars out in front of the apartment". So we tune up the guitars, Jeff builds said fire and a good time ensues. Several of their neighbors join us and we start playing & singing. Then one of their neighbors comes over with a police scanner saying," Hey guys I hate to tell you this but the police are on their way. Someone called in a bonfire". Were like oh boy, this should be fun. In about 5 minutes, sure enough not one but 2 of Deptfords finest show up. Jeff drops the lid down on the grill, and I keep playing. Hey I don't like to stop in the middle of a song. So after I finish the song, the cops are standing there & it goes like this:
COP 1: we got a call about a bonfire. You got a fire in that grill.
Smoke is rolling out of it so we cant lie.
Jeff: Yes sir
Me: Were gonna cook some hot dogs
Cop 2: looks around "Well I don't see a bonfire".
COP 1: Looks around & sees we are drinking some cold beer and says. "I heard the music, sounded pretty good"
Me: Thank you officer
COP 1: Looks at Cop 2 and says,"Looks like a good time to me"
Cop 2: "I dont really see a problem here, just dont get to loud".
Us: in unison "Yes officers".
COP 1: Carry on. Have a good evening".
So then they leave. Now am I dreaming. Were playing music, having beer & a fire & we get a free pass??!! Wow.
This is why I said in yesterdays post that the Deptford New Jersey cops are the coolest. SO Jeff lifts the lid on the grill & we have a good time for the rest of the evening. We did make sure to wrap it up by midnight so as not to push our luck & out of respect for the neighbors that weren't in attendance. Hey if that happened here in Lexington, tho cops here would have made us put out the fire, ID everyone & probably give us a bunch of s*** & broke up our little party. In fact Most places I've been, the cops would have tried to use their "cowboy cop" tactics, to ruin our fun. To many now a days love to abuse their power & of course wanna look for the first excuse to use their tazers or guns. Its a shame. Not like 25 years ago, when a cop considered it the highest honer if he could go through his career without shooting someone. So my hats off the Deptfords finest. Thanks guys & next time I'm in town, and your off duty, you have a cold one in the barrel on me.
So you see people can party & coexist with the police when BOTH sides show mutual respect.

So in a nutshell that was the highlites of my trip to New Jersey. Like I said I could go on for a long time, but I wont bore you with the details.
Almira Fawn is at O'neills Pub tonight. I've been invited to play but I'm waiting on the inlaws from West Virginia. One of which is driving a 1928 Model A sedan. And I just got word he was overheating in Morehead Ky. Hope he gets here safe & we get it cooled down for the Concourse D'Elegance tomorrow at Keeneland. So on that note.
Later Taters

Rennie

Where to start? I guess by answering the questions, "wheres our update & where have you been? I've been in New Jersey, visiting my daughter & grand daughter. More on that later first lets give you the quick synopsis on the last two LexJam II Unplugged'.

The June LexJam II Unplugged was somewhat subdued in the fact that most people had a lot going on that weekend so we were thin on musicians & spectators alike. However that being said, It was still fun for me & even had some family show up for the event. We see a lot of folks who will come sit for 4 or 5 songs then go on their merry way & we don't mind. Its good that these people give us some of their time & we always appreciate that. We missed Childrens Hour as our Master o Ceremonies was doing 2 gigs that day & Serena was on vacation. We didn't have any other kids show up that day. Like I said, "people had a lot going on that weekend". I would like to thank Eric Hutchens for coming down & helping with teardown.

Now the July LexJam II Unplugged, was only 2 weeks after the June one so more effort was put into promoting that one. When I was given the choice of dates for July, I immediately saw the 4th as a possible date and it was a no brainer. I knew that the town would be flooded with people coming down for "Red, White & Boom". There were droves of people of course & bands all over town playing. One band stand was set up in the park across the street from Lexington Center, & of course they wanted everyone in a 10 mile radius to hear them, (guess they thought they were the only act in town). Non the less I adjusted our sound accordingly, & it worked fine. In fact, We had several people come over from that band 'cause they heard us & were like "hey this is awesome, we can hear those same old covert tunes anytime". You guys are playing some killer acoustic stuff we haven't heard in a while". It was nice to get those type of compliments. Serena Hutchins, once again, treated us to her fiddle, and give us an abbreviated Kids Hour. My good friend Rich Coffield, of The Slagsmiths (www.myspace.com/noondaysun65), came with guitar in hand ready to sing & play, lead, backup & all that he does best (which is pretty much anything to do with the music). Eric brought two Ovation guitars as well as a Gibson.
I played the LX series Ovation & really liked it. These guitars are for sale & I will post them on my home page as soon as I find the "cut sheets" that Eric gave me for each of them. (side note to Eric, sorry I meant to get them posted before I left for Jersey). But anyway We had a blast on the fourth (pun intended), played a lot of fun music & just generally had a good time. As always I have to thank Rich & Eric for helping with teardown. I also want to Thank the helpers from Lexington Center, who do a fantastic job providing us with the setup of tables, chairs and anything else we need to put on the jam. Thanks again everybody.
Mark Mckinley, has posted the July 4th pics on the LexJam.com website, as well as the Lexjam II Unplugged dates for the next 3 months. I am sending him some pics from the June session & will post, both, some of those & some of the ones you see at the LexJam site here, ASAP.

The time draweth neigh, so I will tell you about New Jersey tomorrow. Oh and how the Deptford N.J. cops are the coolest cops I have ever dealt with.

Munyana (or however the heck you spell it).
Rennie

Ok the July 4th installment of LexJam II Unplugged is almost here. Come on down. this should be a great time for all & a great opportunity to promote your music or to listen to a lot of great music.
Rennie

Ok. Here it is. The Late News.
The May 16th edition of LexJam II Unplugged was filled with stellar musical performances. We started out the show with the inaugural premier of Kids Hour. Almira Fawn(www.almirafawn.com), was basically the "Master of Ceremonies" for this part of the show. She did a great job & started out with her Keyboard rendition of "Have You Ever Lost Something" a killer original ballad she wrote. (Remember the children's portion of the show has no rules about using electrical instruments). Almira next introduced Serena Hutchins & her fiddle. Serena treated us to some fiddle tunes such as Redfoot, Happy Farmer & teamed up with Almira & yours truly, with a neat version of the old Flatt & Scruggs standard, Cripple Creek.

We also had a lad by the name of Matthew show up & insisted on singing some songs he wrote, a cappella.

Next up we had the great Rich Coffield of the Slagsmiths, come up & play with us. It wasn't long before Brett Higgins also of Slagsmith fame showed up, teamed up with Rich, and just rocked us all with a nice blend of original & cover tunes. So with this dynamic duo, you had half of the Slagsmiths, for your listening pleasure. I personally like their cover of Domino, by none other than Van Morrison.
Now I,m not a huge fan of American Idol, I don't like Simon or Paula or the new broad & only find Randy to be tolerable. I will tune in the last couple of shows If I like some of the remaining artists. But Brett Higgins has that type of voice & carries himself like one of the Idol finalists. His voice along with Richs' voice, blend into a soul gripping affair. If any of our local followers, or anyone passing thru town gets the chance, you definitely want to catch these guys. Check out their website @ www.myspace.com/noondaysun65.

Lastly, the viewing audience was a bit thin, but this was mostly due to the fact that there was virtually nothing going on in Lexington Center that day.
Once again we lost a lot of the recordings of the day, because of a gross error in the manual that came with the digital multitracker, but I explained that in my news RANT of May 28th. I do know this now that I went through all that, you can be sure their will be no more "lost" recording unless it due to some catastrophe.

The next session of LexJam II Unplugged is coming up quick,(June 20th), so tell everyone you know & lets all get together to make, listen to, support & experience live local music & all the Independent artists' that show up. I also want to let everyone know that the upcoming JULY session will be held on the 4th of JULY . I will also relax the rules a bit for this session because downtown will be rockin for RED, WHITE & BOOM. This will be an excellent opportunity for musicians & especially the independent artists, to showcase their talent & also sell CD's. There will be many musical acts performing in various locations downtown so this will be a great day to hold LexJam II Unplugged.

Ohh Looks like I got the pictures posted too. Yeaaaaaa.
Ok now that you read this git outta here & go look at the pics in the photo gallery.
I'll talk to you all soon..
Til then.
bom ba de da bom ba de da, de da de da.. Happy trails to you, until we meet again.

Rennie

First: The update & Pics ARE coming from the May 16 LexJam II Unplugged. Please continue to hold...
2nd: I hope you all got a chance to get a hold of the BIG article in yesterdays paper interviewing Almira Fawn 3rd: an ADDENDUM to the update for the APRIL LEXJAM II. I beat myself up here, on this public forum stating that when we tried to record, we only got the first assigned song. I blamed myself for not letting the other guys know that they had to "save", before "creating" a new song. Well, I did show them how to "save". turns out that you also have to "reassign" the tracks before each new song, even though the machine shows you are recording. NO WHERE in the manual does it say you have to reassign, for each new song. Oh the "assign" lights stay lit even after you "save" & when you "rearm" the tracks they light up as they are supposed to. Wouldn't you think that if the "assign" function disables itself after each save, the "assign" light's would go out. Like I said "doesn't say that in the manual! Jeezes! Oh & hold times when you call TASCAM, at least a half an hour.
Ok that's my rant for today & I take back everything I said bad about myself.
TTYS Gotta run.

Rennie

Hey Folks.
Saturday is approaching fast. This Months LexJam II Unplugged, will feature a new twist! CHILDREN'S HOUR. Yes, the first hour will be for the kids. There are no hard fast rules at this time. that means kids can sing or play anything they want. This includes electrical instruments. This will be for kids up to 14 or 15ish. We will see how this goes & decide if we need to make changes or set any rules, but for now its experimental. For all us GRUPS, its still an Acoustic jam. So saddle up the kids & bring them down. The success of this new change is in your hands. I think Almira Fawn will be "Master of Ceremonies" for this part of the show. This of course when she not out gigging. It looks like her calender is gonna start filling up fast.
She will be at Regatta's Every Monday in May. 6:00 to 10:00 pm.
Hey if I didn't see you at Buddy's Bar & Grill. On Friday the 8th. Then you missed a great show by the COOLIGANS. That would be Tom Cool. His assistant COOLIGANS for the evening were Steve Parrish on drums, of Stella Vees fame, & Mike Anderson, your truly excellent bass player from Velveeta Jones fame. We had quite a contingent of people show & a good time was had by all. Hey I think we had to drag my Mum-in-law out kicking & screaming. Not! but she did have a great time out parting with us "kids". I might even post a pic or two. I mean literally a "pic-or-two". Ok thats enough of my jawin for now.
See you Saturday! Please!

Ren

Happy May Day everyone.
We now have 28 pics posted from the April 18th, 1st Anniversary of LexJam II Unplugged. I had over 80 pics to choose from & that's why it has taken me 2 weeks to get them up. The more I have to go through & the more I decide to post = the more time involved.
This time around 5 1/2 hours. AGAIN I'll say why. Because the interface provided by HostBaby Sux!!! I know they can make it easier to put pics in your page, without having to jump through 20 hoops! They Have no drag & drop feature.
Lets say I have ,um, oh, I dunno, 28 pics to post. after putting them 1 at a time into the image bank,(up to 2 min ea depending how fast HostBaby is moving), you have to name each one. Now that wouldn't be to big a problem except when you move them into the Photo Gallery", you have to rename them. Why? THEN, lets say you want to put them in a certain order, so you should be able to move them (1 at a time mind you), in the order that you want. Does it work that way??? no! the first 3 or 4 might fall in a descending order, then all of a sudden they just fall any where. So you ask "can you drag & drop them where you want? No! (See above sentence about No Drag & Drop). You have these little up & down arrows. You have to count out the positions for each photo out of order then click the corresponding arrow that many times to get it into position. Lets say I have ,um, oh, I dunno, 28 pics to post. (where have I heard that before?) You guessed it. It slows down the process dramatically. So yes over 80 pics to weed through & I could have probably posted 50 or 60 really good ones, but you wouldn't have seen them til after the snow started flying again. Note to Host Baby: FIX IT! (This public rant brought to you by Me!). Talk about digressing. Sorry...

On to then; Tomorrow is DERBY DAY here in Kentucky. Today is OAKS DAY. Its almost a holiday in this state. I would say half of the states work force (In all occupations), plays hooky today. There is an electricity in the air. Now of course the derby is at Churchill Downs, but, for me the best bet is to see it at Keeneland. Not just because I only live 2 1/2 miles from Keeneland, But because Keeneland is 10 times prettier than Churchill Downs. More trees! more parking & tons more green space. What a place to tailgate before you go inside.
Hey if you like a big party Keeneland has it for the Derby. Average draw for the Derby. 30,000 people.
Now let me give you the best part I like about Derby @ Keeneland.
Tom Cool & the Cooligans are the entertainment for the afternoon. They are "inside" and draw thousands. It is a blast. Tom is a good friend of mine & most of the Cooligans are too.
You really gotta check out his website @ www.tomcool.net.
Next LexJam II Unplugged is May 16th.
We have a slightly new format starting with this session. We are going to start out with a children's hour, (or however long, depending on how many kids we have to play). So this format may well become a new standard for LexJam II Unplugged. I want to Thank Eric Hutchens for coming up with the idea after his daughter Serena, treated us to her fiddle playing. So I think we'll see her there to help us kick it off & I think she has another surprise lined up for us. So all you parents out there bring your kids & their instruments we start 1:00 ish on the day of the session.
I think I might once again set up inside to do some recording. I got about 13 minutes of good recording last session. We tried to tape about 3 hours of the show but lost most of it. Why? Because some dummy, after showing Sam & Ryan how to start a "new" song for each time we wanted to make one, forgot to show & tell them how & that you had to do a save after each one. And just who was that dummy?Me, that's who. I guess with everything else I had going on at the time that little detail slipped through the cracks. So I guess I wont beat myself up to bad. We'll just do it again.
We did lose some killer music though. So if you want to beat me up, then do it!. I deserve it.
For my local readers. If you like to go to the Regatta for your seafood fix, (personally I go for the chicken), Then you will be pleased to know that Almira Fawn will be playing there every Monday night in May. Go out have dinner by the water & enjoy the awesome music of Almira Fawn. Find about more about where Almira's playing @ her new web site www.almirafawn.com.
OK. so there you have it, your News & Announcements for this 1st of May "2009".
Keep on making music & we'll talk to ya soon.

Rennie

As one of my favorite artists John Denver used to say, FFFFFaaarrrrrr OOOut!
What a great time we had at Lexington Center for the FIRST anniversary of LexJam II Unplugged. Several great musicians and a nice crowd. Quite a crowd actually for the last two hours. Hey, we even went about 20 minutes overtime. That may have only happened once before, and then, by maybe ten minutes. Big deal you say? Well we can usually start early if we want (that never happens, cause it takes me so long to get everything set up) but we are under fairly strict guidelines as to when we have to stop. So if the music & crowd are flowing & synced, I think its ok. At least I'll take that chance till I'm told otherwise.

I wanted this session to be special & it was. I went to great lengths to get things set up right. We recorded a good portion of the session for the possibility of doing a compilation CD early next year & that added a whole 'nother level to the set up. I spent two weeks prepping.
I set the whole PA system up at the house to tweak the sound and see what else I could do to get that acoustic sound just right. I mean I worked every night thru the week & it really paid off. No feedback issues & the sound was clean. I mean the cleanest ever inside. You have heard me B**** & moan about how hard it is to get good sound in the mall area, but I think I got it down finally. I believe all the artists were happy & I got good feedback (the people kind) from My son Ryan Pennywitt, as to how it sounded.
Yes that was an unforeseen surprise on m ypart. My wife knew, but I didn't. The son & daughter in law had planned for a few week's on coming to town to be at the show. I found out at 2:30 am Sat. morning when the phone rang,(you know how you hate the phone ringing in the middle of the night? Usually bad..). Well Ryan says hey let us in. Me in my sleepy stupor says HUH? We just talked to you earlier you were going out with friends! "Yea, friends in Lexington"! Man, my family, I'll tell ya. I love em! But I digress.

I will say I was surprised by some folks that didn't show, but well talk about those who did.
Of course I started out the session with what may becoming the opening theme song To the LexJam II Unplugged session', & that is Sunup 2 Sundown, the instrumental diddy I wrote & put on my first CD. After that I did three more tunes, another original Then covered Kent Eric Gardener's, Take These rings, then Guy Clarks, She Loves to Ride Horses.

Now it time For Almira Fawn.
I have spent a lot of time in past updates telling you JUST how good she is. Extremely talented & gifted. Almira brought a slew of instruments & songs to the table. As a songsmith, she brought 60 % originals and the rest covers, either solo, or with the group. she did quite a few from her new record CHILLAX.
You will remember she released it at Woodsongs Old Time Radio Hour a few weeks back.
I must not forget FUZZY. Steve (FUZZY) came about half way through my opening set, got ready to go, and as ALWAYS, filled out All the music with his harp. More on that in a minute.
Enter Sam Wooden!
As I said before, Sam Has a huge Baritone country voice that coupled with his awesome songwriting abilities, captures the crowd. Sam sang several of his songs from his first efforts
in the studio on his demo CD Country Music For Food". We will all be in for a treat when he releases his first CD. Promise!

After Sam's first set we decided to get together and jam on a few. Yes this afternoon was so much fun.
I noticed the crowd begin to thicken.

Next up Serena.
Serena came to visit us with her Violin. Now this time she, Played solo for us, next time I think we can get her to join the "band".
You see, Serena is all of 7 or 8, and at this early age has great skills on the fiddle. She gave us about 3 tunes & she was very good on her times & notes, even though maybe a tad nervous.
Non the less, further proof that if this is the future of music, then yes, we are in good hands. Serena's dad Eric, made a great suggestion to me,"would you consider doing maybe a children's hour to start the show"?
What do you think folks?
Put your comments in my guest book. Its the closest thing I have to a blog.
As for me, I think it's a great idea to give kids an opportunity to flex their music muscle in an environment like this. So on that note, I'll have a post later in the week or early next week with the basic parameters. Keep this in mind til next post. Kids are allowed to break some of the rules of the regular ACOUSTIC session. Its up to you the readers to guess what that means.

Yes theres more...
After we all played in a few different configurations, doing such covers as WAGON WHEEL. Old Crow Medicine Show version and some [other] Dylan, I noticed some one else in the crowd.
Jerry Belsak.
I remember Jerry from LexJam I. I heard him play there a couple of times. He has been a staple in Lexington, and goes back a way's. Jerry took us out with several tunes & is probably one of the finer finger style pickers in the area. I want to hear more of this and Jerry, we hope you come back. Next time I'll do the complete vocals on "Secret O Life".

Thank you Lexington Center. Thank you James. Thank you to all the musicians that help make this happen for our town. And thats my take on LexJam .
I want to make a special announcement here. Almira, her mom & dad, Don & Umi, do so much to help keep live music alive and nurture young artists. They also attend, support & help LexJam II Unplugged whenever their schedule permits. So I just want to let everyone know that they are LexJam II Unplugged Core Members. Thanks guys.
I'll have more to say about this and don't forget that announcement about the "Kids Hour".

Theres your recap of lexJam II Unplugged, the 1st anniversary. Hard to believe its been a year. I hope to get at least some pics up tonight, if not check back tomorrow. So good night &
"La ti di a da a du da a shum ba ti du".

Rennie
P.S. That last line: copyright 2008 Almira Fawn.

Ok Kiddies, in 48 hours we'll be in full swing down town. Hope to see you there.

Rennie

1st Don't forget coming up it the LexJam II Unplugged 1st anniversary extravaganza. APRIL 18th 1 to 5 PM!
2nd Things to do this weekend:
LexJam @ NATASHAS BISTRO 1 - 5 PM SATURDAY...

Tonight, The Stella Vees @ ANNETTE'S CITY CAFE, 6:30 to 9:30 PM...

FRIDAY Tom Cool @ Shamrocks Patchen Village 9:00 PM...

SATURDAY NIGHT The Slagsmiths @ the MALABU PUB, 10:00 PM, late show. Goes til 2:00am....

Also Saturday evening a "New" band The City, will debut @ Natashas. I received an e-mail from Tom Martin about this & even though he didn't say, I believe this may be formed of LexJam core members. Either way, I'm sure it will be a swingin good time.
All of these bands are either Good friends of mine or have members that are Good friends of mine. They are ALL great people & would appreciate you helping them to help "stimulate" the economy.

So there ya have it. A lot of great LIVE music to be had around the LEX this weekend. Get out. Enjoy a show or two. I,ll talk to you soon & maybe see you at the show...
Til Next Time..

Rennie

April 12th 2008 a black SUV pulls up in front of Lexington Center. Much to the surprise of the cars behind it, it brazenly pulls up on the sidewalk & parks. The occupants get out, open the back and start unloading what looks to be guitars & pro audio equipment. Unusual? No, not really... Matter of fact, many have come before, street buskers, magicians, childrens choirs, various acts during 4th of July celebrations, etc, you get the picture. So what's going on then? Well... This misty late morning in mid April of "2008" is the first Lexjam II Unplugged Acoustic. More cars show up, out come more guitars, fiddles, and banjos. Within a few hours, the inside of Lexington Center has the sweet sounds of Bluegrass, Folk, Country & even a bit of Acoustic Blues flowing throughout.

"I had Been attending LexJam regularly since August of "2007". I would try to get there early & help setup then just absolutely groove on the music I heard being played. I would wait my chance to go up & play a song or two, then stay around to hear who else might come up to play". Now LexJam is primarily a Jazz & Blues Gig, but you will also hear just about any genre of music imaginable & as I attended these sessions I noticed more musicians coming out & less time allotted to the various group & solo acts. So I started thinking, if LexJam could be expanded to include an acoustic show on a separate date, then we could get more musicians time to play, give everyone a chance to attend both sessions if they wanted & define a stronger classification between the two, while expanding the LexJam name recognition & exposure.

I think it hit me at the "2007" November session. Tom Martin, co-founder of LexJam, Advised me that this Jam session(Nov. 2007) would be dedicated to the memory of Uncle Dave Kiser. This was the day of Uncle Daves funeral, as Dave had passed after a long bout with cancer. For those of you who dont know, Dave Kiser was a longtime DJ at WRFL 88.1 FM, And a friend to all who knew him. Dave was also the first person to ever play one of my record’s on the radio. I attended the funeral & let Uncle Dave's musician friends know about the dedicated LexJam session. Many of Uncle Dave's friends showed up & played music that afternoon. I started talking to people asking their thoughts on an acoustic version of LexJam & the idea was well received. Lexjam II Unplugged or the concept I should say, was seeded that day in the fall of "2007". So after a few months of talking to all the founding LexJammers, LexJam II Unplugged, was born. Thanks to the coordination of Tom Martin, Mike Thompson, Caroline Puterbaugh & a host of other people behind the scenes, we found a place to play.

The charter core members of LexJam II Unplugged include Dick & Shirley Hudson, Carla Van Hoose, Keith Elkins & Carol Smith. Also later in the year we were joined by core members, Mike Anderson & D.J. Crowe. Each month it grew & then posters were made & printed, two 3 x 4 foot banners made & folks started showing up to get their chance to play. We had several special Guest / Guest hosts, Including Tom Cool, Almira Fawn, Kent Eric Gardner, and others. The feedback from people was encouraging.

Near the end of "2008" we noticed a slow down of attending musicians & spectators, so it was decided that we would give it a break during the holidays. Now I’m not one to throw in the towel at the first sign of possible problems, so with my chin held high, I (your humble host) got the dates together for the first two sessions of the year. . Those would be February 7th. & March 7th. I had mentally prepared myself for the possibility that I might be doing a solo show for the good visitors of Lexington Center, and put together my set list accordingly. I had sent out e-mails but didn't get much feed back. I was a little worried but undaunted. At least no anxiety attacks. Then the day came as I set up the PA system, saw a familiar face walking toward the stage area. . It was none other than Donavan "Big D" Howard. Donavan played at the very first LexJam II Unplugged, and is a great "singer / songwriter in his own right. “Big D’ is also a DJ @ WRVK in Renfro Valley, Ky. I also noticed A couple more people show up with guitar cases. Are these guys here to seranade or propose to a girlfriend? No… They’re here to play at LexJam II Unplugged. Yeaaaa… These turned out to be Tom Grafton & David Price, (in that order). Both of these fine young men had a lot to add to the show. You can read more about what everyone who contributed brought to the session’s by simply looking back through my news pages for the LexJam II updates. Then our good friend & “part time regular” (believe me, it makes sense) Tony Jasper came on board. Tony likes to set in & play rhythm with anyone who strikes his fancy, and we encourage that. After all, that’s exactly what LexJam is about!

Ok so 1st session of “2009” is a success.

March 7th. I prepare once again for the possibility of doing a solo act. After all can we be this fortunate again? My fears are once again calmed, because yes we can. I receive an e-mail from Almira Fawn, telling me she plans on being there. This is wonderful news as it’s always fun to get a chance to play with this talented young musician and we do a couple of songs together that are fun and we do better each time. We are also treated to the awesome country baritone of Sam Wooden who is sent to us by none other the Brian Powers of regular LexJam. Sam is also a Singer/Songwriter. Thanks again Brian. We were also treated to a young lady on vacation by the name of Madalyn Boy. As I mentioned before you can read more about these artist’s in the respective “News Updates”.

So it looks like we have started the year out on the right foot. Hey, any time I DON’T have to do my whole set list is a major good time. I also am hoping to get some of our original “core members” back out this year, and hopefully that will start with our 1 year anniversary show. This session will be APRIL 18th,2009.

With all of your help, I think we can make the 1 year anniversary show a complete success, a LOT of fun and the foundation for an even bigger “2009”. After all LexJam II Unplugged, is nothing without all the good folks who show up and make it happen. So “congratulations’ to LexJam and LexJam II Unplugged. My wish is for continued growth of both of these fine JAM sessions.
See You There!!!
RENNIE

I wanna congratulate Almira Fawn on the release of her CD "CHILLAX", on Monday @ her show at Woodsongs Old Time Radio Hour. I attended the show & both Almira and The Dixie Beeliners put on an excellent show. The rebroadcast will be Saturday Mar. 28th @ 8:00pm. Also I have added the link to Almira's website on my "Link Page". Our hearts are with Almira as she opens for Mofro tonight to a sold out crowd at the Greenfield Lake Amphitheatre in Wilmington, NC. Way to go kiddo. I'll have a special news post coming up in a few days so stay tuned.
TTYS
Rennie

New link will be appearing for Almira Fawn. Plus my take on her CD release & show at Woodsongs.

I now have a handful of pics up from the March edition of LexJam II Unplugged.
several of the pics got messed up transferring over to the image bank. I'll try to fix them somehow. So that means I only posted 5 pics. You can, however see a nice group of pics from this session @ www.lexjam.com,
thanks to Mark McKinley.
You've heard me mention in the past how "user unfriendly" it is to post pics on this site, but I will keep trying.
the exciting news is that Almira Fawn will be the featured artist @ Woodsongs Old Time Radio Hour. on March 23rd, 2009,@7:00pm. To add to the excitement she will be releasing her new record "CHILLAX". This record contains all original material written by Almira & is absolutely great!
To add even more to the excitement,Almira got her new website up & running Tuesday. You can check out the songs from "CHILLAX" on her site as well as other things that interest her. I think you will love what you hear from this extremely talented young artist. You can check it out @ www.almirafawn.com .
You can get info on tickets & the protocol for attending her show on the 23rd @ www.woodsongs.com. Hope to see you there. Its gonna be a really cool show, I have the feeling.
OK that'll do it for now.
TTYS

RENNIE P.S. Don't forget to check back here often, as I soon will be talking a lot about the upcoming 1 year anniversary of LexJam II Unplugged. Coming up APRIL 18th.

After many months, I was able to finally get back down to regular LexJam.
Either lexJam II was scheduled for the same weekend, wedding detail was the order, or other scheduling conflicts arose, keeping me from the "musical goodness' That is LexJam. It was great to talk to everyone; Tom Martin, Mike Thompson, Steve Parrish,
Brian Powers, and so on. The music was rockin and there was a lot of new "young" blood on stage as well.

To see the younger musicians from the area teaming up with some of
older veterans is an encouraging sign of where music is headed in such uncertain times, both musically & economically. I mean, you hear (and I hear) so much about the death or near death of "Live Music", that we all look for something to hold onto & we look everywhere for encouraging signs about where the future of music lies. This my friends, is an encouraging sign. To see "high school" musicians come up and rock out songs like "VooDoo Child" by "Jimi Hendrix", well, yes, it IS something to hold onto and is in fact encouraging. Just like "Almira Fawn" coming to LexJam II, the future of music lies in our youth, and the talent is there. We can only hope that music lovers keep supporting the young people, the older guy's & the venues that bring live music to the masses. After all, life in the musical sense is more than just the I-Pod. The I-pod can't duplicate, or come close to the experience of seeing a show live.

What a great thing to see LexJam in such a receptive (relatively new) home. Natasha's is an awesome place with great food & drink to go with the music.The crowd there was lively and receptive.
What a healthy seed, planted, to grow in the direction of getting the Lexington music scene back on par with some of the other cities you've heard me preach so much about. And "LexJam II Unplugged", another live music event, well believe it or not the April 18th session will be the first year anniversary. Wow, where does the time go. I mean I cant believe it's been a year already since we got this thing up & running. Of course it wouldn't have happened without the good graces of Tom Martin, Mike Thompson, Caroline Puterbaugh and all the other people connected to LexJam and the Lexington Center. Thanks guys.

I'll have a lot more on The 1st anniversary session coming up. We plan on promoting this as much as possible. Another nice twist to this is that LexJam will be on the Saturday before(April11th), then LexJam II, the following weekend on the 18th. Two great event's Back to Back.

Stay tuned & keep checking the "News Page" here as well as www.lexjam.com.
The pics from March 7th are in the works
Till Next Time...Keep Pickin

Rennie

With another LexJam II Unplugged under our belts, it's time to give some accolades, credits, thank's & so forth.
1st I'm gonna mention everyones name, then I'll touch on individual performances,etc. Our musicians for March were: Almira Fawn, Steve "FUZZY" Knopka, Sam Wooden, Madalyn Boy, & yours truly. OK. These are your musicians for the 03/07/09 jam. A BIG THANKS to all of you for your part in making this jam a special one.
Also we're gonna mention Mark McKinley(LexJam's Official Photographer) & James, the help from Lexington Center.
The March session turned out to be one of the best jam's yet. The flow & quality of the music was superb. Now if you remember our February session was also an awesome session, and If this trend continues, as it appears to be doing, I think this is gonna be one heck of a year musically for LexJam II Unplugged. So here's your line up.
We'll start with Sam Wooden. But first, as always, I start out the session with whatever moves me at that particular moment. Sometimes it may be a "cover tune", or I might do an "original". I started out with the instrumental version of "Ivy Covered Dreams", then "She Got My Order" & onto "Concerts of a Trucker". At this point it was time to bring up our first guest
Sam Wooden. Sam is a singer / songwriter, with a powerful voice. As a matter of fact you look at Sam & when he sings you go "wow",as you soak in his deep baritone country voice & smooth guitar licks. Sam treated us to some of his handiwork & threw in a few covers as well. After several songs it was time to give him a rest & bring up Almira Fawn.
Now you will remember that Almira has graced us with her presence at several LexJam II Unplugged's. She also was our "special guest host", for the September "08" session. Almira started out her portion of the show with an upbeat original she
wrote called Chillax. Chillax is a song about "chillin & relaxin", hence the name Chillax. She then moved into some more of her originals including (my personal favorite), Appalachia, where she plays harmonica as well as guitar. It is ALWAYS a special treat when Almira comes to jam with us. You can find a lot more info if you browse through previous news posts.
Enter Fuzzy. Fuzzy actually jumped in when Sam was doing his first set. Fuzzy is an accomplished harmonica player, and his craft is well documented in these news pages, as he has been to several LexJams, both I & II, & also has come to several of the Goshins jams. He can jump in with just about anybody & can play several styles as well. Everyone was amazed how well he fit in with Sam & I think he might have backed Almira on a few as well. I have a hard time trying to listen to every song that's going on, because I am either tweaking the sound system (sound's weird, but you cant adsorb the song as deep as you'd like when your adjusting the board), or talking to & signing in new guests, talking to the photographer or even talking to the spectators. But I do know, I liked what I heard.
Next in was a young lady by the name of Madalyn Boy. Madalyn came equipped with her, KAY "Shocking Pink Dreadnought", model# K537P. Yes it is solid pink & bright! She started out playing Lucky Man by Emerson, Lake & Palmer, & I think she took everyone by surprise with that selection. I don't think anyone there was expecting that song & I must say she did an excellent job on it, with her own arrangement. It was still true to form & close to the original. I mean I could hear the synthesizers in my head! Madelyn said she had 2 songs to do, but after her first 2, we coaxed her to stay on and do 3 more.
Madalyn was there with her family on vacation & I think probably for the "Winter Jam" christian rock concert that was being held in RUPP that evening. They informed me they came all the way from Slippery Rock PA, .which is about 20 miles from where I grew up. I have been to Slippery Rock, many times. Matter of fact, my good friend Dave Booter, his brother is a DJ for the college radio station WRSK 88.1. Man I just love the 88.1 on the dial, because thats the same frequency of our own WRFL 88.1. www.wrfl.fm, which as I have mentioned a gazillion times, has, I think the best programming & has played several songs off my first record. Long Live Uncle Dave Kiser, the first person to ever play one of my songs on the radio. Anyway, Madalyn & her family left before I had a chance to get an e-mail to keep them posted on the Lexington music scene, so BOY family if you find this, please drop me a line & I hope you like the pictures in the photo album here. You can also see more pics @ www.lexjam.com.
At this point we all did a few songs together, Like "Wagon Wheel" by Old Crow Medicine Show & "Knockin On Heavens Door", by Mr. Bob Dylan, and another song or two that escape me at this point.
Ok this is where I will give a special shout out to Sam Wooden for helping me tear down. You just don't know how much I appreciate it. I haven't had any help the last several Jams, and my core folks have been MIA lately. Its a lot of work. So THANKS again Sam. I also want to thank JAMES who works for Lexington Center. This is the young man In charge of having the chairs & stuff set up for LexJam II Unplugged. James had the foresight to have a table there for me to set the sound equipment on, so THANKS James for your help. I want to thank ALL the people who showed up, music fans & musicians alike. This couldn't happen without you.
As always, a special thanks to Mark McKinley for maintaining the website & taking all the great pictures. You can see even more of Marks handywork @ www.mogswebsite.com.
Yes, I came home last Saturday evening walking 2 feet off the ground. Next month LexJam II Unplugged will be held on April 18th. This will be the 1st anniversary of LexJam II. We hope to try to get a record crowd & even a record # of musicians. I'll have more on this in the coming weeks. Pic's from my camera will be in the "Photo Gallery" soon.
Ok that should be a wrap for now.
Your Humble Servant
Rennie P.S. Happy Friday 13th. Always one of my lucky days.

Its Time!!! Tomorrow, starts @ 1:00pm. Hope to see more people show up!!!

TTYS
Rennie

ONE week from today, good peoples. The 2nd installment for "2009", of the soon to be "critically acclaimed",(we hope) LexJam II Unplugged. More on this soon.
Over & Out

When I left you yesterday, we were talking aboutDavid Price, & the Digitech Vocalist Live 4 Harmonies machine he brought to the JAM. Dave let me use it to close the show with the song I wrote for my son & daughter in law. That song being When Our Toes Touch in the Sand. I realy liked the way it filled out the chorus, and add depth to the song overall. Thanks Dave, I appreciate it.
All in all it was a fun afternoon, made better by the traffic that the boat show brought through.

A side note about David Price.
David hosts' a jam session at Shamrocks on Patchen Dr., on any Tuesday That the CATS aren't playing. This makes me think about maybe putting a "GIG A DAY", reference on my home page when I get 7 days worth of variety. I have 4 days worth now. Such As; Mon with yours truly hosting an open JAM at Goshins Tavern, Dave's JAM at Shamrocks on Tuesday, The Wednesday JAM at O'Neill's Pub, hosted by either Lindsey Olive or Mike Anderson. & an awesome Bluegrass JAM at The Barn @ First United Methodist Church of Georgetown, on Thursday nights. Although it's been awhile, I used to frequent the BLUEGRASS JAM on Thursday nights, it's loads of fun & a LOT of good pickers show up. Oh let me not forget to say that this JAM is hosted by June & Jim Willoughby The backbone of DRIVING RAIN, A beautiful regional bluegrass band from the area. Jim & June are great people & I look forward to (1) getting back to their JAM at some point hopefully soon. & (2) catching Driving Rain at one (or more) of their shows this year.
I'll try to dig up JAM"'S for Fri, Sat & Sun, Then do that Gig-a-Day thing we talked about.

The Next LexJam II Unplugged, will be March 7th, 1-5PM.
Looking for a special guest for this session, any Singer/ Songwriters out there that might be interested... This is a great place to promo your stuff of plug your new record, etc. Also looking for core band members for this year. As core band member, we ask that you can make at least 6 out of the 10 sessions for the year & help with setup & teardown when you can. I know it's not always possible to make the commitment, but load in and load out is a job & I greatly appreciate any help I can get. This also provides more time to tweek the PA system to get the sound "just right". The ideal situation would be to have 10-12 core band members as this helps fill in when some cant make it & also adds to the variety of acoustic music we can offer to the masses. Please go to www.lexjam.com and look at the news page there for more on this topic.

Alright then. Last thing for now is that you might have noticed that I have left a Russian entry in my guest book. I usually pull these foreign entries because they are usually porn links or Sales spam. This one however is an actual music related compliment. I always go to www.babblefish.com and translate these entries out of curiosity & this entry says: "Class site at you, I wish you successes". Ok, it's broken English, but hey, a compliment is a compliment, so it stays!
Alright I'm gonna stop for now and start swinging the chainsaw.
Please consider joining LexJam II Unplugged, if you are an area musician, and we will work together to bring a nice balance of acoustic Bluegrass, folk, blues, etc., to the live music scene here in the big Lex!
Til Next Time
Keep Pickin
Rennie
P.S. you may have noticed I have left the Nov. & Feb LJ II sessions together in the Photo Gallery. When the time comes I will collapse them into the same album, this, because they are small groups.

Ok so we have the pics from LJ II Unplugged up. always a drawn out process. We'll start from the top.

Set up was in the usual spot inside (outside during nice weather).First person to show up was Donavan Howard.
Donavan was also the first one to show up at the 1st LJ II UNPLUGGED in April of last year. Donavan is a very talented young man. He has several original tunes that are in the country vein, with just the right amount of folk seasoning to make it full flavored. I believe he will have a CD coming out at some point & I know I will “wear it out”, when I get a copy. Donavan (AKA “Big D”) is also an on air DJ @ WRVK, in Renfro Valley KY. He has my record & might give me a spin or two, & he plans to come back to LexJam II Unplugged when time permits. I know I look forward personally to this prospect, as mentioned above of his skills.
Next on the sign in was Tom Grafton. Tom brought his blend of Irish folk tunes as well as an original song from a local band where he grew up in Illinois. Tom is another talented individual that is always encouraged to come back.
Part time regular, (does that make sense?), Tony Jasper came to set in with us on several songs. And we always look forward to Tonys’ rhythem to compliment our songs.
We also had 1st timer David Price come to grace us with his presence. Dave brought a slew of cover tunes to the table, such as Matchbox 20’s, 3am & several Old Crow Medicine Show tunes. One of my favorites (which I also cover) Wagon Wheel, and a lot of others.
David also brought something to the gig that I have been looking at for awhile, a Digitech Vocalist Live 4, vocal harmonies machine that puts up to 4 backing harmonies in your song wherever you punch it in. It sets on the floor like a pedalboard (side note; For those of you that follow me and aren’t musicians, a pedalboard is what you see on the floor in front of “eletric guitar’ players. They use this to punch different effects into their guitars.) We got it hooked up & He used it on most of his chorus’. This is a great tool for solo players to add [said] backing harmonies to their songs, without actually having backup singers there. At some point I might add this to my gear.
(to be cont.)

Ok, Got the images in the "Image Bank! so tomorrow I should get them posted in the photo gallery along with the News Update.
Shouldn't take 3-5 minutes per pic to just to get them in the image bank. I'm gonna e-mail the host & try to find a faster way. But, as it stands, I am doing it by the book, just like they instruct! Soooo, keep your fingers crossed for tomorrow, cause I am gonna play guitar tonight instead of working on website! Gotta Run
Ren

Ok. Just finished editing the pics from Saturdays (02/07/09) LexJam II Unplugged. So hopefully I'll post them tomorrow, and have the narrative.
An old friend & a few new faces. Some killer original music & some killer covers.
The painful part is the process of getting the pics off the computer (or Memory card in this case), all the way through to the point where you can see them. I think I have mentioned before that it is one pic at a time through various levels. I wish my web host would make it easier to post pics! I put the pics on the computer, edited them on my very limited Kodak software, then sent them back to the card. That way I might be able to get them posted at work tomorrow. Note to boss; On my lunch break of course.
We'll have it for you soon folks. Time for the Ky/Fla game.
Ren