Tag Archives: bluegrass

Going Down the Road Feeling Bad, Bluegrass-ish

<the video won’t load… looking for a fix for this>

Part of the Bluegrass Jam at James Lynch’s house, Danville, Virginia, May 31, 2011. Kevin Hawke, vocals and guitar; Jo Hawke, vocals; Ryland Hawker, banjo; Wes Holtsford, mandolin; and Laura Liem, fiddle.

I uploaded all the pictures I had from the night, along with the audio of this song. Thanks, Animoto, for making it so easy!!

UPDATE: Songs & Pics added to Bluegrass Jam

from left: Wes, Laura, Kevin & Ryland

We’ve added additional pictures and individual song files to the 5/31 Bluegrass Jam at James Lynch’s house — featuring our cousin Wes Holtsford, his friend Laura Liem, and Kevin’s dad Ryland Hawker.

The eight songs include: The Man Who Wrote ‘Home Sweet Home’ Never Was a Married Man, Home Sweet Home, Going Down the Road Feeling Bad, Moondance, Cumberland Gap, Faded Love, Old Joe Clark, and Sally Goodin.

Go listen and let us know what you think. :)

Bluegrass Jam, 5/31/11

Wesley & Laura
Wesley Holtsford & Laura Liem (with Danny Ricketts behind the camera)

Last Tuesday, my cousin Wesley Holtsford and his friend Laura Liem, both in from west Texas, played some bluegrass music with Kevin and his dad, Ryland Hawker.

Their impromptu jam convened at James Lynch’s house. He’s Wes’ great-grandfather and my dad’s sister’s husband. (You really wanted to know the details, I know. ;)

It was so awesome! The four of them really sounded great to have never played together before!

Kevin played guitar and sang most of the songs. Ryland, of course, played banjo. Wes played mandolin and fiddle. And Laura played fiddle.

(I sang some backup and one lead, I think, but was mostly on Kid Patrol. ;)

James was dancing and singing along. He invited his brother and his fiance over to listen, too.

Even Jo-Jo, James’ little poodle had fun … although he probably would’ve had more fun if Lucas and Atticus hadn’t wanted to play with him soooo much! (I wish I’d gotten pictures of that.)

And Wesley and Laura? Wow. They are really great musicians. And both sweet as can be. I wish they didn’t live so far away!!

6/18/11 UPDATE:

I’ve finally been able to sit down and figure out my file-transfer issue from phone to laptop. What a mess!

I used my Droid X’s (awesome!!!) TapeMachine app to record eight songs … and then my phone died.

I didn’t get the beginning of the first song or the end of the last, and I only got eight songs from the several hours of playing. (I wish I’d remembered to grab the H2 on the way out the door, but we only had about 15-minutes notice.)

I’ll come back later and post the individual songs, but here’s the whole of what I recorded, talking and laughing and all in between:

7/17/11 UPDATE:

Here, finally, are the individual songs that I recorded.

The Man Who Wrote ‘Home Sweet Home’ Never Was a Married Man:

Going Down the Road Feeling Bad:

Moondance:

Cumberland Gap:

Faded Love:

Old Joe Clark:

Sally Goodin:

And some additional pictures from the evening:

Thanksgiving Music, part 2

Here’s the second clip of Kevin and Ryland’s bluegrass jam the other night: “Dig a Hole,” “Salty Dog Blues,” “Ballad of Jed Clampett,” and “Can I Sleep in Your Barn Tonight, Mister.” My brother Bobby’s behind the video recorder, and his wife Kim’s dad, Bruce Wiles, is the off-screen singer on that last song.