Sunday, October 10, 2010

EZEKIEL'S WHEEL---Skeeter and the Skidmarks

scott freeman, fiddle, edwin lacy, banjo

Here is a video from Friday night at the Front Porch Gallery at Woodlawn, Virginia. Skeeter and the Skidmarks are Edwin Lacy, banjo, Scott Freeman, fiddle, Willard Gayheart, guitar, Sandy Grover Mason, bass. Early 90s they made 2 albums, Hubbin It and Alternate Roots. 2nd hand copies of Hubbin It are available thru amazon.com. They didn't know they had a fan base and they figured they were over. All went on to different projects. Since computers, email, google, people have been finding them asking when they're making a new cd and how they can get the out of print ones. They decided to get back together and make a new cd.

Edwin took a job as a Presbyterian, I think they call them minister somewhere in Indiana. He comes back to visit for a spell and they record a few songs. Sandy comes up from Pilot Mountain area to be with them. They'd played a bit together and practiced on Wednesday, and Friday night they had that something that happens every once in awhile with a band, when they connect with the music and connect with the audience and the whole place flows together like the musicians and the listeners are one. They had that musical connection with each other from the first note. I'm putting up on YouTube probably 10 videos of Skeeter and the Skidmarks. Everything they did was great. Leaving out some they played last time they were here. I'd like to do both versions of them, but its not necessary. That's overdoing it.

I wanted to put up the entire show, but that, too, is unnecessary. I had to take a couple of breaks in order to get some still photos of them playing. They were playing well last night and they were especially photogenic as a band. Got some good pictures of all of them leaning into the music, like in the October 8th picture. In the first several weeks of picture making, I attempted to keep the audience out of the pictures, focusing on the show. Now I want the audience included, being sure to show heads along the lower part of the picture of people sitting there watching them play. They feel a lot better to me than the ones without audience being seen. When the music is over and the clapping starts, I often lower the camera into the audience where you see people clapping from above and behind them. Makes interesting visuals. I believe it was in the tune Running Through The Graveyard where I found Minnie the cat while filming the band. Drifted away from the band twice to get Minnie. She's part of it too. It's her home.

All day today I've been uploading the videos, though not frequently through the day. Went to West Jefferson yesterday to see the show Best Of The Blue Ridge at the Arts Council gallery that Jane Lonon created and maintained until by now it is quite a beautiful, functional and active center for artists of the NW NC region. Perhaps some from Tennessee and some from Virginia. Mostly, I supposed, people who have come to the mountains from other places. We have an awful lot of really good artists in the region now. I liked everything in the show. It was a beautiful show of a tremendous variety of art vision, each artist as different in their art expression as in their fingerprints.

Judging for shows like that is always subjective, just like at a fiddler's convention. I've judged contests of art and photography and I know how subjective it is from both sides. Musicians I know don't take Galax seriously. They compete for the fun of it and I suspect for their own measure of themselves, where they're at in relation to the others. Interesting to see where you place. But the judging is too subjective for it to be a true measure, but an approximation. Like when I've judged a show with 2 others, we spent a lot of time talking, coming to agreements that one rates the prize over another. Then we agree on one that suits all of us. At the end of a library photo show I can see the visual taste of the judge.

For example: I would have given the 4 prizes, best in show and 1-3, differently. Best in show and #1 I'd have reversed. 2 and 3 wouldn't even figure. There were several I found better than them. I'm saying this now in my own taste. I'm not judging the judging. Only pointing out how subjective it is. 2 different people and 2 different results. Either way I'd have not given a ribbon to my entry. It stood well in the presence of equals, in good company. As a measure of what I'm doing, it shows me I'm in the company of some pretty good artists. I didn't enter for an award and am not disappointed. I wanted to see it on a wall surrounded by other artists of the region. I wanted to see how it stood among them. I'm happy with how it stands among them, seeing them as my peers. I liked the entire show a very great deal. And I say Thank You to Jane Lonon for all she has done for the artists who chose to live in this region of the mountains.

1 comment:

  1. Thanks for the video. Great music. I'll try and catch some of the others on YouTube. We generally don't make it up on Friday until 8 or 9. Where is The Front Porch Gallery? I'll find Woodlawn on the map. Sounds like a wonderful intimate venue. We'll be up this weekend but with friends who have a little baby so we won't be able to make it then. Do they post a schedule anywhere? Glad to reconnect with your blog. Forgot how much I enjoyed reading it. I have started posting again myself. Thanks for the encouragement.

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