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[chris castle]

Right this moment, I'm sitting in a van, on a quaint little side-street in Rhode Island, over six-hundred miles from home. I'm parked in front of a ranch-style home with a red door, and on the other side of that door awaits a total stranger.

The stranger's name is Michael Palazzalo, of the Village Jammers. And in two days, we'll be performing together in nearby New London, CT. Last week, I was in Maine and New Hampshire, playing gigs that were booked by another Folk Alley friend, Ernest Whaley. The week prior, I was recording my new album with Bob McCarthy- YET ANOTHER Folk Alley friend.

The point I'd like to make is this: a decade ago, all of this would have been impossible. And some credit must be given to the internet, in general. But in my case, most of the credit can be given to Folk Alley. It's been one of the greatest networking tools that I could have ever hoped for. I've met new folks from all over the world, and many of those folks have become personal friends.

Thanks for making this possible. I think I see a light on in the ranch-style home; now I log-out, to go meet my friend Mike for the very first time. Great stuff, all. Great stuff.

Peace.

[JoLynn]

I agree, I agree, Chris!  Because of Folk Alley, I've found a few of my favorite artists, who have also become friends, and I'm now sitting pretty on the  second wonderful year of my house concert series which includes fantastic singer-songwriters I first became familiar with while listening to Jim Blum introduce them on Folk Alley broadcasts via the web, and via Folk Alley's Open Mic.
Now I have the great pleasure to bring these wonderful artists to a whole new local audience who are just eating up the fact that people like The Dreamsicles (Tom Prasada-Rao & Cary Cooper), Brooks Williams, Richard Berman, Tom Kimmel, Vince Bell and Eric Taylor, Malcolm Holcombe (the list goes on..)  plus even fresh, young groups such as Green Mountain Grass and The Blue Hit, and The Hudsons, and Sarah Jarosz  are coming to share their rare gifts right in front of neighbors and friends in my local community, and are being received with great enthusiasm!

I should mention here that Eric Gerber, who I found on Folk Alley's Open Mic, turned out to live right in my own back yard in the So Texas area. A few years ago I ended up parking right next to Eric's  old yellow station wagon which ran on bio fuel (used cooking oil) my first time out to The Kerrville Folk Festival, and later, when listening to Eric's posted songs on FA Open Mic, I noticed his mention of a bumper sticker on his old yellow wagon, "Do you smell French Fries? That's funny, SO DO I !", and realized that he was close by. Eric Gerber & Ken Gaines eventually opened up my very first house concert!

The Folk Alley Open Mic feature has directed me to independent artists whom I may never have had awareness,  like YOU, Chris Castle up in Ohio, and Rick Spreitzer over in Charlotte, NC.  I cannot wait 'till you all can get down this way for your River Road House Concerts!
Folk Alley has been my ticket to the far reaches to connect with these wonderful talents, and I don't know of any other easily accessible and user-friendly tool by which so very many people can be brought together by the common interest of making great music, and making it accessible.  And to think..it's all free and open to the public world-wide,  and for the privilege of making an annual donation to the cause, it will continue in good health.

Thank you Folk Alley!

JoLynn Braswell
www.riverroadhouseconcerts.com

[Marco]

Well, I'll say it this way: just because of Chris Castle, I signed up this morning to join this community here at Folk Alley.

I'm listening to the newest SingOut show on the page next to this one, and I'm thinking I'm going to like it here, for sure!

I met Chris a couple nights ago when his combo "Dirt Sandwich" was playing in a coffee house I frequent. Saw him again last night at the house's weekly open mic and that's where he told me about Folk Alley.

I think I followed a link to it on one of Tao Rodriguez Seeger's pages once but didn't know much about it yet. Well, now I know all about it. Thanks, Chris.

[JoLynn]

Hey - welcome to Folk Alley, Marco! 

[Marco]

Thanks!

[Chris]

You the man Chris!  Glad you're here my friend.

[mike]

I'm the guy with the ranch house and red door.

I woke up that morning to find Chris blogging Folk Alley on my (unsecured) bandwidth in the rain. Running late for work athat morning, I had only time enough to shake hands and offer him and Joe and Tony the run of my new home. We had a gig booked together for later that week. We had time to hang out after they had taken full advantage of all New London, CT had to offer in the way of mid-week venues. A finer, more professional bunch of cats I have yet to meet. I look forward to their scheduled return here in March, and I'm certain I'm not alone.

Thanks, Folk Alley, for making this possible for all of us.

Mike,
Village Jammers

[Marco]

Mike, you're right. You are NOT alone in "can't wait til they travel through our places  again.

[Rich Schletty]

I've done some collaborating here at Folk Alley and heckuva lot more over at MacJams.com. Been doing it for four years. However, my virtual collaborations with people I have never met in person, as satisfying as they are, are not the same as live gigging and realtime feedback from audiences and peer musicians. I'm trying to do more coffee shop gigs, plus I joined MAS and CAM. The Minnesota Association of Songwriters has some folks that are real good at critiquing songs by the Nashville yardstick -- they tell it like it is. Online comments tend to be too "nice." Anyway, my best online collabs so far are with musicians from Iraq, Germany, Italy, Scotland, Spain, Sweden, New York, Texas, Ohio and California. Who'd a thunk it 5 years ago?

[Stringfellow]

I m just looking for moral support.

I ve played music since I was a kid, but sold all my equipment the first time I got married. My 2nd wife and I separated about two years ago. Through the marriage years, I never gave up music completely, but never went at it seriously, either. And over the last year I ve realized the only constant in my life has been guitar.

I play fairly well and can pick up stuff quick. My singing is pretty good, but I ll never be a great vocalist. Guitar is how I express myself best - even if it s simple stuff. I ve always struggled with lyrics, but have come up with a few good songs over the years. (three, maybe four at the most). But since the separation, I ve reclaimed some of my youth. I bought a couple nice guitars (plus, bought a bunch of equipment I ll never use) and started learning songs - the kind of songs I ve always wanted to learn but couldn t interest anyone else in. I do what I want now and it s working out.

I ve been rehearsing in a post office lobby, after hours, once or twice a week, since last October 29. I work there during the day as a window clerk. There are a couple open mic venues in town. But on the two occasions I ve worked up the nerve to play one - once in February, and then in August - it turned out to be cancelled. What are the chances of that?
But I feel like I m doing all this in a vacuum. I don t know anybody else doing it, and for every two hundred people who come into the post office to check their P.O. boxes, maybe one will stop and listen to a song.
I get ideas all the time, but there is no one to tell. I implement them and they work out. I ve always felt a little isolated, but never knew what to do about it. Now I m reaching out to people and no one responds. I feel even weirder now than I used to. But I m not at all weird.

Since the separation, I ve concentrated on song writing more. One day I had an idea for a song, and went with it, and completed it the next day. That s a personal best. Completed is not finished, of course, but still . . . it s the principle of the thing.
And in learning songs I like, I stumbled onto what I consider to be a technique Lennon used in writing songs. I didn t want to share it because it s so simple anyone can do it, and I didn t want to just give it away. But I told my brother, and he didn t seem to think it was such a big deal. So I posted it on a forum, and nobody there thought there was anything special about it either. All that didn t help with the isolation thing.
And then, yesterday, I had a similar revelation about lyric writing. The concept occurred to me all at once, and within an hour I had developed a song writing template. Two hours later I had - I don t know - four or five half-way decent verses of a legitimate song. I tried to call my brother a while ago, but he was busy.

Even before I resolved to go solo I spent dozens of hours placing and responding to ads for writing/performing partners. Eventually, I gave up on the band idea. At my age (54) I just don t have time for scheduling conflicts and family obligation conflicts and ego conflicts. I just want to play and sing, and as a solo I can do it wherever, whenever, however long I want; can do the same song different ways; be totally spontaneous. I d like to find just one person who can identify with all this and maybe talk them into hooking up with me. I have talent, I can carry my own weight, and I am available.

I d be thrilled just to find some kind of support network for solo acts. I can t be the only one out there looking for that. Searching for that is what brought me here, in fact. I ve googled everything I could think of, from solo act to song writer, and it s like an internet dead zone. The only person who s ever responded is a guy (Steve Ragatz) on Busker Central who - this is the kind of stuff that happens - lives in the same town I do! (Bloomington, IN) and is one of the original members of Cirque de Soleil!
Here s another one: I bought a CD through Amazon.com, and when it arrived, it had been postmarked at the window where I work!!

Anyway. I m sure this is all very interesting. But the point is, I never really considered myself a Folk artist - but maybe I am. If any of this sounds familiar, please say Hello.

[Marco]

Stringfellow,
I just want to point out that you're close to the age that Yeats
was when he began making what so many people consider his best works.

[chris castle]

Stringfellow-

Drop me a line sometime: castle@dirtsandwich.com

And if you have a myspace page, please consider adding me to your friends list; that's another social-networking site that often gets overlooked by us artists. But it does allow regional searches (artists, venues, etc.), and it's another place to post your music.

Keep writing, man. And know that alot of the networking thing happens when we least expect anything to come of it. I appreciate your candor, and I can say that most others will, too. And it costs us absolutely nothing to be ourselves.

All the best to you. Peace.

[Stringfellow]

I did my first open mic performance a couple days ago, and I must say, I left  em unimpressed. I ran into an actress acquaintance of mine later and told her about it. Then I asked her what I might do to inspire people.
She said that if I light up, my audience will light up; that I should use my whole body as an instrument of expression; feel the music in my blood.

It sounded a lot better when she said it.

I had a guy tell me something similar at a rehearsal one night. He said that I didn t need to be concerned with making eye contact with people; that they weren t there for the personal connection; that people just want to see me interpret the material, whether it be my own or someone else s - that I should just play and sing and lose myself in it, and recognize the audience between songs if I felt it necessary.

[Jim Pipkin]

Stringfellow --- an old roadhouse picker once told me something I've never forgotten. "Play from the soles of your feet, boy, and do it loud and proud."

Welcome to Folk Alley!

[Butch]

Stringfellow,
Welcome to the world of music!  You want to learn how to perform?  Start going out and supporting other live music.  Go to the local coffee shops, the music festivals, house concerts, etc.  Watch the people perform, really listen to them sing and play.  Watch the audience, see and hear their response.  Are they paying attention to the performer or talking to their neighbor?  Are they interested in the music or their computers?
Now, I'm the first to admit there are people out there that just ignore the music and do their thing at the coffee shops.  Not why they came, not what they're there for.  Discount those folks and notice if no one is paying attention or if the majority is paying attention, etc.  Note the performer's style, type of music, vocal range, abilities, playing skills.  You don't have to copy anyone, but you can note what works and see if it will work for you.
I listen to a lot of original music and write my own.  Been to a number of music festivals and sit on a board that brings in traditional music for concerts in our town.  I've heard great music, so so music and just plain awful music.  But I always have to respect the person who has the courage to bring their music out for others, even if they really should go home and practice a lot first. 
There is a music community in your town and if you want to be a part of it you need to join it, even if only as an observer for awhile.  I sat on the sidelines for 3 or 4 years when I moved to my present home town and when I finally joined a local songwriters group my friends where astonished that I could play my 12 string guitar and write songs.  They had no idea I'd been sitting home doing this for years.  These folks are excellent musicians, and it was intimidating to perform in front of them.  But we all started somewhere.  So keep polishing those strings with your fingers, and Good luck!