Courtesy of John Holbo, here’s an amazing piece of art from an 1857 book. The thumbnail doesn’t do it justice — better to click through to the full size image and toggle to the zoomed-in view:
My Last cruise
Where we went, what we saw
Being an account of visits to the Malay and Loo-Choo Islands, the coasts [...]
Kevin Casper of LoveToKnow has posted an interview with me in the guitar section there:
Just when you thought you had heard everything the guitar had to say, a modern swashbuckler uncovers a plan for reviving historical guitar music. Los Angeles-based guitarist and folk music historian Lucas Gonze uses the internet to travel back in [...]
I have hooked up a page on this site for my Alvin and Lucille jazz act. I wanted to give the music a home outside of the Myspace page, which never really got traction.
The best new features are:
The MP3 player works.
Better support for remixers via lossless (AIFF) versions of the parts in [...]
In a comment on Must I, Then, Jim N posted that:
From a folksong book my grandfather gave me, I know that this is based on a German song, “Muss I Den”.
Here’s the german tune:
That’s definitely the same song. Good shot, Jim.
But what about the title? Google translate tells me that “Muss [...]
I ran across a 190? flyer for The Byron Troubadours : novelty musical entertainers that included a cool Led Zeppelin-esque instrument — a double-neck combo of a guitar and a mandolin — which was called the “byrondolin.”
The Byron Troubadours, who were also known as the Magnolia Quintette, doing a multi-jam:
Jimmy Page doing a mega-jam:
MP3: Lucas Gonze — Ella Waltz
This post is a recording of the composition Ella Waltz by D.E. Jannon, which was published in 1854.
It is the third of a set of three waltzes by D.E. Jannon. I have also blogged recordings of Amy Waltz and Carrie Waltz. I don’t consider the series finished because [...]
Lucas Gonze - Spirit Rappings (mp3)
August 20, 1852, Wednesday
Page 2 of the New York Times
Mr. ORVILLE HATCH, of Franklin, Conn., has become insane, he having devoted considerable attention to the subject of Spirit Rappings. Mr. HATCH is a farmer, and has been instrumental in introducing many important improvements in agriculture into the town in which [...]
I needed a pair of shoes aside from sneakers or work boots for the musical act, which is old-time to an extreme, so I went out looking for 19th century clothes on the net. After digging around for a while I ended up in the civil war reenanctment scene, which is oriented towards people [...]
I met a ragtime pianist and 78 collector named Brad Kay at a show I did last night. He sounded like an interesting guy, so I looked him up on YouTube and found this great performance of a 1928 Duke Ellington song.
I posted a new version of the recording in Celebrated Shoo Fly Galop. I made some big mistakes with timing in the old version, and the new version is a lot faster and more fun. The new recording is in the body of the previous post.