The Tao of Walking Ridge

The economic turmoil and unemployment of the first part of the century caused the population at large to become creative and motivated.  Many united to fight in the revolution.  Those that tried to continue their normal working lives were forced to become creative to find work.   Professors became farmers.  Accountants became carpenters.  Those that had done the manual labor were displaced by the competition.  The displaced became the fighters in the revolution, or they became outlaws.
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Black Hat played at the Raven Friday night.  Frankie the K, Caroline and Jim were great fun and very entertaining.  With their jazzy bluesy style I was able to sit in and have some fun on harmonica.  Jim Hart on drums laid down a cool groove.  Frankie on keys filled it up and has me thinking about a Nord keyboard that played some excellent Hammond sounds.  Caroline Maun adds vocals and percussion and writes the lyrics for originals like “Why You Wanna Do Me Like That”, one of my favorites from their repertoire.  With their kind permission, I’ve included a live recording of it from the midst of the crowd so you can hear the cool jazzy vibe.

Why You Wanna Do Me Like That, - © 2009 Black Hat

Spring arrived today in Michigan.  The temperature was in the mid 60s, the sun was shining, there was a gentle breeze.  It was a beautiful day…..to watch the ice floes drift down river (while dressed in shirtsleeves).  The Bramble was a fixture on the great lakes for many years.  I recall watching the Bramble on station when I raced the 1987 Port Huron to Mackinac.

The Bramble is now at the Seaway Terminal just south of Port Huron as a floating museum.  The Bramble has been replaced by the more modern and larger Hollyhock which is docked between the Black River and the Bluewater Bridge just north of Downtown Port Huron.  I was aboard the Highlander Sea late in the season in 2003 getting the tall ship ready for winter when a flotilla of ships and helicopters came north up the St. Clair River past the old schooner to commission the Hollyhock as it came into service.

Milan and I did some jamming with a guitar and Native American flute.  It was great fun.  We each played off of each other, reacting to what the other was playing and having a true musical conversation.

Native American Flute Jam, - © 2009 Walking Ridge

Milan dropped by the Raven Coffeehouse to jam for a while. Milan has some great CDs that can be ordered on myspace.com/milanacoustic.   I placed a Tascam DR-07 digital recorder in the club to record the afternoon’s jamming. The DR-07 can record 3 hours of music onto a 2 GB SD card. It provided an alternative audio to the Canon G9’s audio.

The Canon G9 has incredible level control and good frequency response for the small condensor microphone. However, the sound mix on stage where the video is best shot is often poorer than what the audience will hear out in the club. In addition, it seemed that the DR-07 had greater bass response. I’m not sure if the bass response was due to superior microphones or due to a different placement within the club.  Either way, it provided a great way to capture additional audio to mix in with the video that was taken.

Milan - Live at the Raven, © 2009

For this painting I chose a warm color palette with mostly yellows.  The barista’s dress and espresso machine were a blue-green to provide contrast.

Barista - Brian Kelly, 2009 acrylic on canvas board, 9″ x 12″

The Raven Coffeehouse inspired another new original song. Unfortunately, the acoustic piano drowned out the vocals on the live track, so I tried to blend the live video with some studio music so the lyrics were intelligible. This was much more difficult than I expected because my live audio was playing in my ear as I layed new tracks so that the lyrics would be timed to the video.  If I got ahead or behind at all readjusting to get back on time was a great challenge.  When I get some time I’ll do a more polished studio version, but in the mean time……

Piano Muse, - © 2009 Brian Kelly