…to post some thoughts/observations about the IBMA, music, life and all the other general things I ruminate upon.

Yesterday I stopped by the grocery on the way home from work. I bought a few canned vegetables and was going home to make a marinated version of them for tonight’s supper. My oldest nephew happened to check me out at the register. The total was like $4.19. He looked at me and said “I think you qualify for the senior citizen’s discount, since you can’t grow hair on your head.” He then punched a button and lopped off about 20 cents. I know he’s my nephew and my brother …

Ramsey school pic 1920's L to R: 1st row, 1st person on left, Charles Clifton Ramsey, 2nd row 4th from left, Mary Alice Ramsey, 3rd row, 1st person Lula Ramsey and 3rd row, last person Lavada Ramsey. …That’s my Grand Daddy, Charles Clifton Ramsey, on the extreme left in the photo. It was a school class picure. I may post the whole thing in a bit. It has several of his sisters in it as well. I thought it made a pretty good header for this blog.

For me and the missus. Yesterday Aaron left for Nashville and has been recording on someone else’s CD today and will hopefully finish that up tomorrow. Then, he will remain there and work on some pre-production recording on what potentially will be a new recording for Mountain Heart. He may be back home on Friday or maybe Saturday. Labor Day weekend will find him in England as the band travels over there. You can check his schedule at http://www.aaronramseyonline.com Saturday was spent hauling …

Another two months have slipped by, since I last posted. Life can get busy. It’s about to get really busy for me again. But first, I’ll try to recall 2 month’s worth of memories. Merlefest was a blast. Seeing my boy, and the band he plays for, take the main stage with Tony Rice was an experience, to say the least. Just 2 years prior Aaron was out in the tremendous field, with me, watching Tony play with Alison Krauss & Union Station on the same stage. This time, I viewed it from the side of the main …

….well, actually, Ihad a dream Monday night, for real. In the dream, I was having a conversation with Del McCoury (for whomI have the greatest admiration). Something sort of like this: We were talking about how bluegrass has changed. We also talked about how we loved the earlier sounds like Monroe, Flatt & Scruggs, The Stanley’s etc., etc. The gist of his conversation to me (and I remember this part a clearly as the ringing of a bell) was, “I love all that stuff, but people just …

Folks, If you read my post from last June about the end of The Linville Ridge Band, I think it speaks of being involved for 25 years in music. The making of it, the promotion of it, the business end of it, the whatever…..so far. At the time, it was a love/hate thing to have to do. Make that choice. But the end result demonstrated that it was the right move to make. I’ve picked with my buddies from that band in jams and we’re still all good friends. Now, since I’ve had that break, …

October 2008: I went to Nashville for a week at the end of September/first of October. This was to attend the IBMA . Banjos, mandolins, fiddles, dobros (I don’t buy into resophonic guitar), guitars and basses galore. Music 24/7 for real. Bluegrass music. Much business was attempted/accomplished, much sleep was lost. November 2008: Thinking about how high heating oil was going to go. The election. I voted. Did you? My baby did for the first time, which means she’s probably not considered a …

You know how good it smells when you walk past a doughnut shop and they’re all HOT’n'ready? A feeding frenzy can quickly get out of hand. I know I can eat warm doughnuts so fast that I don’t really have time to taste them. That’s sort of what it’s like at The CoMMA about these Mountain Heart & Tony Rice tickets. There’s folks coming from far and wide to see it. Tickets are selling like hot doughnuts! The show is on Friday, May 29, 2009, in Morganton, NC. The CoMMA …

….it’s been since Labor day of 2008 that I’ve posted anything. What a shame. Life is crazy, so I hope you can at least understand a little bit. I’ll try to do a 6 month synopsis, maybe later today.

…was spent cooking pigmeat.  A Boston butt to be exact.  I used a good dry rub mixture given to me by the fishin’ bud, Gene, and I labored over a bed of charcoal with some hickory strips thrown in for 8 hours on Monday.  that don’t count the hour or so I spent mixing the [...]

…of a century has passed since me and the wifey-mae ran through a hailstorm of rice.  Yes after the wedding. We were married on a Sunday, August 7th in 19 hundred and 83.  The prior century.  The 20th century.  It was hot and it hadn’t rained in about 6 weeks prior to our wedding.  After the [...]

My children will always be my children. It’s just that now they are adults (well, the second one is almost an adult). This will be her first Presidential election. Mine was in 1980, when Ronald Reagan went into office. One child will go fishing with a bunch of pre-schoolers today. She will [...]

It’s been a while since I’ve posted so here goes:  Last night was spent wallerin’ the porch of my fishing buddy, Gene Wilson.  As stated before, we’ve been friends for 25-nearly 30 years now. We both believe in preserving or continuing old county ways of life.  That’s where the porch wallerin’ came in.  Folks don’t do [...]

With a bit of regret and a sense of relief, I’m announcing the end of The Linville Ridge Band. It’s been a wonderful 6 year journey with many opportunities. And while a band is dis-banding, the friendship remains. I have the utmost respect and admiration for my fellow bandmates and I’m sure we’ll keep in touch. [...]

Boy, I’ve been pretty much of a slacker of late.  Here it is the 20th of May and the last entry prior to this one was April 30th.  That may change before too long. Anyway for those interested, Mountain Heart will be doing The Opry again this weekend.  They just found out Monday afternoon.  Friday and [...]

For those interested, my son Aaron, will be playing with Mountain Heart (his full-time gig) on the Grand Ole Opry this Friday and Saturday night.  By clicking on “Opry” you can get performance times for the show and links to listen in online. We’ve made a few treks out to Nashland over the past few months, [...]

Morning all, I’ve been behind in blogging lately.  Taxes, young’uns, music-stuff, and taxes.  You know how it goes.  I also got a bit involved in researching my family history through Ancestry.com .  That was fun and interesting, to me at least, and I hope to discover more of those stories. Sista Smiff tagged me in a short survey about [...]

The Dan Tyminski Band showed up in my hometown this past Friday night.  This event was organized by The Men’s Club of Morganton, a non-profit club much like the Rotary clubs across the country.  The funds generated by the show (about $6,000 cleared) will be used to fund 4-5 scholarships for folks in the Burke County [...]