Month: August 2012

York, PA Cigarbox Festival Notes

To say last weekend was full would be a maximum understatement!

BUT- it was a blast and apparently there’s a repeat in the works for
next August…

I was able to bring a show to a cool church called Buckeye Christian
Assembly on the edge of Cleveland (Medina, OH) who also do prison
ministry… next
year I hope to do some of that with them as well if possible.

Then it was on to York, PA for the 3rd Annual Cigarbox Guitar Festival
held in various pubs and in particular, at the amazing and wonderful
York Emporium.

What a weekend! You can file through my pics (from my Android phone)
and get a feel for the event. A lot of cool people, guitars and etc.,
hot sauce, the Emporium’s massive books/music-and-etc. stuff… and
finally face-to-face with Shane Speal who has spawned a movement of
do-it-yourself, build, buy, sell and make music on cool instruments
worth owning and playing.

Shane and Jim & Pam Lewin of the Emporium were great to work with- and fun.

If you know me, inspiration is HUUUUUUUGGGGGGEEEEE as it is to most
creative types. This event was quite the inspiration. I suspect next
year (as in years past) it will grow even more.

The artists were amazing (One String Willie… Shane, on and on…
just -cool- people with cool music. A lot of old (and some new)
friends of mine, of Rez Band, GKB or my solo/blues peeps came out. I
was able to play a couple pubs, did a radio interview with an old
friend (really fun!) at WJTL, stayed with the wonderful Matt and Carol
up in Columbia. Well, I’m gushing but it was a treat.

Finally got to meet Ben from cbgitty.com… nice guy and very cool
gits, canjoes, parts and such.

I will add some links here as well if you want to hear/see more.

Here’s an interview with the York Dispatch for you- it’s on the future
of cigarbox guitars with Shane and myself. I made the short link, it’s
safe!

http://tinyurl.com/9kmzn67

And there’s more via: http://www.cigarboxnation.com

Also- as of this posting (Aug. 30, 2012) there are eight video clips
up on YouTube, 7 from the York festival and a club in York, also WJTL
Radio, one from Daytona Bike Week last year. These are of varying
degrees of quality, some interview clips, some songs from these
events.

My son-in-law Brian Moss is and was a gift to me and I can tell you, a
700 mile drive is a good one to have a friend and co-driver along 🙂

Thanks for stopping by! -Glenn

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GKB & GK Solo Shows, Music & Concerns Update

Moonflower

Our side-yard garden is producing amazing flowers, one of the sweetest
(smelling and looking) are the moon flowers. You don’t have to get
very close to catch their scent. They open up toward evening, hence
the name. There’s a message in this but I’ll spare you for now 🙂

GKB is at Harvest Moon Festival in Oregon this weekend. Next weekend
(Aug. 23-26) I do a group of solo blues sets (largely
cigarbox/found-object guitar-based) in Ohio and Pennsylvania. See the
link for details please.

http://grrrrecords.com/shows.cfm

I’ve got at least 2 full music projects largely written, one a mix of
band-related mostly electric blues tunes, the other (not quite written
yet) will be full-on cigarbox and found-object guitars, raw and close
to my heart. Due to schedule and personnel I don’t expect to do
serious recording on these until later in 2013, God only knows when
really, but just mentioning these fyi at this point.

Further, been doing a lot more work- research, behind-the-scenes and
plans re. prisoners, ex-prisoners, the poor and veterans. There are a
lot of good people who care deeply about these folks and I share the
concern for what we often seem to overlook: for many of us, it’s
out-of-sight, out-of-mind when it comes to us serving such needy
people. Simple answers rarely meet complex needs… and in part, you
and I have to decide where and with whom we need to “step up” and get
directly involved.

In this regard and with recovery in mind, I’m continuing to study the
nature of addiction (plenty of personal experience at core with this
as well!), repeat-offenders and the connections between these and
issues like mental illness, family, jobs and both racism as well as
immigrant issues. There are indeed connections though for many, the
issues “hurt my head” so are largely answered with simplistic and
frankly, unrealistic responses.

Is spirituality, relationship to Jesus foundational to my thinking
-and a biblical response? YES. From there and then in the practical
day-to-day matters there are a load of details that many seem to
overlook or not even notice. It’s the long-haul, not the quick-fix we
need to consider.

I’m not saying I have massive solutions to all this but I’m meeting
and interacting with more and more (Christians and otherwise) people
who care and are seeing solid, positive results in working with the
growing mass of broken and needful people in American society.

I expect to write more on these things in the future.

Thanks for stopping by! -Glenn