From The Desk Of Allen Dresser

I had never heard “Two Little Fishes and Five Loaves of Bread” by Benny Goodman until today…at church!

The sermon was from John 6 about the feeding of the 5000, a well-known bible story to most everyone. The kicker was during the offering time when our GREAT music team pulled out this gospel tune from the 1940’s. It was a truly unique juxtaposition of two worlds that mean the world to me – my faith and music. I only wish my dad could be alive to hear such a swinging celebration of praise through a big-band arrangement of this gospel gem.

If you are curious, go to the church website and check it out. Look under the Resources Tab then media. Find the service for January 10 2009. The tune is at the 18 minute point in the service. I hope this blesses you as much as it blessed me.

Daytona Beach Weekend

I was lucky to be in Daytona Beach in the Sixties which was a hot bed of some great music. Rock and Roll, Soul, Psychedelic, and more.

Check out F.M Dobies and Jeff Lemlich’s podcast, Florida Rocks Again, Episode 42 is Daytona Beach Weekend and features a good cross section of the bands at the time. I was in “The 2/3rds” and “Third Condition”. If you have the curiosity of a cultural anthropologist, listen to the lyrics of “Clean Town” by the “Earthmen”. Check it out! Click here to ROCK AGAIN!

Here is the set list from this episode:

THE PREMIERS: Daytona
THE HUNGRI I’s: Half Your Life
THE HALLMARKS: Troubled Soul
THE 2/3rds: 2/3 Baby -
Gene McCormick vocal and keyboards, Allen Dresser guitar, Ralph Citrullo Bass, Phil Jones drums
THE NIGHTCRAWLERS: I Don’t Remember
THE ALLMAN JOYS: You’ll Learn Someday/You Deserve Each Other
THE EARTHMEN: A Nice, Clean Town
THE MIXED EMOTIONS: I Lied
THE SURFTONES: Black Bottom Inn
TOMMY KNIGHT: Say You Do
CHARLES VICKERS: Baby Sometimes the Road is Rough
THE BREWED: Lifeless Love
THE 2/3rds: All Cried Out
CONLON & THE CRAWLERS: I Won’t Tell
CHUCK CONLON: Poor Little Mixed-Up Kid
THE NIGHTCRAWLERS: Show Me the Way/All Day and All of the Night
FLOYD MILES & FRIENDS: Goin’ Back to Daytona
DENNIS WHEELER: Down in Daytona
SANDY & THE BEACHCOMBERS: Daytona Darlin’
HALF JAPANESE: Daytona Beach
SUZI QUATRO: Daytona Demon
THE THIRD CONDITION: Monday in May

OK, this is NOT bluegrass, but it is one heckuva drum solo!

Drummer Lee Allen, Asheville NC, with the “Yo Mama’s Big Fat Booty Band”

This band is all about the “bounce” and as funky as they can be…

Hot night on the Marietta Square! Thanks to the fiddlers for the music and Thomas Kerns for the video.

If you are around Marietta GA on a Tuesday evening, drop by the Australian Bakery for bite and some great music and fun!

St. Ann’s Reel

For our recent anniversary, my wife and I went to a spring event in Atlanta to see Cedar Hill. Duck and the guys were kind enough to play “Misty” just for us….

If you want more information on the band, check them out here.
Video shot by Bob Perl

I am learning the bluegrass community is deep AND wide. I would like to share some of my favorite blogs and sites that share the love through news, tips and humor.

First up is The Bluegrass Blog. This blog is a great clearinghouse for bluegrass folks with a unique feature called “The B”. The B is a page on the  blog where anyone registered can post as long as the post is about bluegrass. This is a great way of promoting your band, latest CD project or an event. The site is authored by John Lawless and Brance Gillihan. There bios are available on the blog. John’s company is AcuTab Publications, a source of quality bluegrass training materials.  Brance has a audio/video production called Clear Blue Productions, an audio/video production company.  It is obvious they love bluegrass music and The Bluegrass Blog is a great resource. In a recent rating of the Top 100 Music Web Sites “The Bluegrass Blog” was rated 97 which is quite a feat for a bluegrass music site to be on the lists with pop, rock and rap music.

The oldest bluegrass site on the web is Cybergrass. Bob Cherry is the owner/operator of the site. Here is a quote on its origins “Bob Cherry created the first bluegrass web site on September 9, 1992 while working on an electronic documentation project. This was the world’s 7th web site. It got the name Cybergrass in 1995 thanks to Karen Quick.” This site is updated frequently and is a top source for bluegrass news. Check out the Top Ten tab for popular articles and postings. Today the Top Ten range from “How to rip your vinyl records to CD’s or mp3’s” to “The Story of the Martha White Bus”.  This site also provides code for several ways of posting bluegrass music news on your own blog or business site. The site is packed with information and the adverstising in relevant to the bluegreass community.

The epicenter of the bluegrass world-wide community is the International Bluegrass Music Association, known as the IBMA. This organization is the authority on the subject of all things bluegrass and of course the IBMA hosts the most prestigious award ceremony for bluegrass, the annual IBMA Awards – The International Bluegrass Music Awards.  Bluegrass Music is alive and well and growing now and programs from the IBMA like “Discover Bluegrass” are leading the way.

Do you have a favorite site or blog? Leave a comment and let us know!