Swing Dancing To a Plant-Based Beat

Stopped by our local feed store, Heretick Feed & Seed in Petersburg, back in August to pick up a bunch of collard plants and found out that they would have 17-week old hens in September. So I had them put my name on the call list and began to plan and build the run first. Heretick has been a great resource for feed, straw, pine shaving, diatomaceous earth and many other items that you can use in your urban/suburban homesteading work. I already had the chicken wire at the house, so I stopped by Home Depot and picked up a couple bundles of  2x2's, SPAX screws and went to work on an idea that I had been pondering for a good while now. Instead of building a single box and encasing it in chicken wire, I would build frames and then connect them to form a box. I didn't know how it would work structurally but I was soon gonna find out. So I got to building the frames, two of them 2ft x 8ft and then built six of them 2ft x 4ft. As you can see from the photo, the pieces fit w

One of the great things about living in the Richmond metro area is the wide variety of high quality music available on most any night of the week. Spanning the genres of blues, rhythm & blues, country, rock, dance parties, grunge, hip-hop...you name it and it is available. I, along with my wife Denise, like to hone in on the blues and rhythm & blues bands and the venues that host them. We also, since taking up swing dancing just about a year ago, look for places that have some room to dance. We have found that dancing is a way to become engaged in the music experience and greatly increases our enjoyment of the performance. Because of this, I have set some criteria for planning an evening out and it goes something like this: The Band - If I have heard them before, then it is not a difficult decision and is predetermined. If not, I begin to search the web for sample music in order to gain some knowledge of the types of music they play and the quality of the performance. Take

My wife and I get out quite a bit and really enjoy good music of all types. There are those nights that are complete misses, where nothing clicks, you wrap up and go home after a short time out. Then there are those nights where the band, crowd and venue all agree and compliment each other perfectly. You find yourself immersed in an other-worldly experience. One that causes you to lose yourself in the moment and, many times, ending the night at an unusually late hour having had a completely wonderful time. Then there is the  RVA Music Trifecta ! A night when 3 great bands are playing at 3 great venues and are arranged in a way that you can get to see them all in the course of one night. This can be a truly fun experience and is what I refer to as an RVA Music Trifecta. We experienced our first RVA Music Trifecta was on a Friday night in February where we caught Andy Poxon ( Capital Ale House ), Doctors of Jazz ( Rose Marie Inn ) and finished with Barrelhouse ( Home Team Grill

Translucent Blues is the product of a collaboration between Ray Manzarek, keyboard player and co-founder of The Doors, and Roy Rogers, Johnny Lee Hooker’s Coast to Coast Band and producer of 4 of Hooker’s recordings, and it will not disappoint a fan of either of these guys or the blues. From the first note of “Hurricane”, Manzarek’s signature sound is evident. Heavy on the bass beat, signature work on the keyboards and those unique deep vocals. His arrangement adds to some nice lyrical work about surviving a hurricane, which for many folks on the east coast, hearkens back to the days spent preparing and then riding out a vicious monster of a storm. Throughout the album Ray’s keyboard work is very evident, which I find pleasant and complements the solo playing of most any additional instruments. Good examples can be heard on “Game of Skill”, “Fives and Ones” and “An Organ, a Guitar and a Chicken Wing”. The liner notes thank the poets who made the words available to be put to music b

Listening to the latest release from the Terry Quiett Band out of Kansas, “Just My Luck” is a great genre mixing blend of blues, blues inspired rock and jazz with a bit of soul stirring around in the mix. Maybe we can call it “Blues Stew”! Having recently entered the world of swing and blues dance, I find myself with a keener ear towards rhythm and the swing/groove. This album is chock full of both. The band comes out of the gate and hits you with an attention grabbing groove and some incredible guitar work in “Karma”. This is a great opening tune and sets the tone for the album by getting your feet tapping and head bobbing from the start and then taking you into a full blown dancing frenzy by the end. You add to this groove rhythms of “You’re My Kind”, “Big Man Boogie”, “The Woodsman”, “Pound of Flesh” and “Fool’s Gold” and you’ve got the backbone of a really good record. The guitar work of Terry Quiett is clean, crisp and incredibly creative as he plays what is not expected, keepin

The good folks at the Natchel Blues Network put together quite an event as a final fundraiser to assist two blues acts, Roosterfoot (Seth Stainback and Keith Stainback) and The Bush League, with the expenses of their trip to the International Blues Challenge (IBC) that is being held in Memphis, TN from Jan 31 to Feb 4, 2012. For those of you who may be unaware, the IBC is an international competition where all of the Blues Foundation   affiliates are encouraged to stage a regional preliminary IBC competition, with the winner of that competition representing the organization in the Memphis international competition. I have never been there, but I hear that it is one of those mountaintop experiences for any blues music lover and based on what I heard and experienced at Mojo Bones on this day, I can only imagine what a whole week of this kind of talented musicianship and the blues can do to a person's soul. The day started with a nice 2 hour drive through the countryside, to get from

It was a Friday night, the first night in about three weeks that my wife and I had felt even anywhere near well enough to venture past our front door. When we left the house, Denise and I had agreed that we wouldn't push it and probably would turn in a little early. I was feeling well, but Denise was marginal as we headed to the Brews and Blues function at the Capital Ale House . This is a weekly event sponsored by the River City Blues Society  and features great local and live blues. This night it was The Bush League and, having heard them a couple times before, they did not disappoint. With Gwen Frederick (drums) and Royce Folks (bass) holding a strong and steady line on the back end, it allows John Jay (vocals) and Shane Parch (guitar) to play to their hearts' content. There were joined by a few guest musicians, especially Geo Jacopec on guitar. When he takes the stage with anybody, you know something special is going to happen. It has been three times now that I have bee