Attack of the Robot Voiced Animations...

Today I discovered xtranormal.com, the website that  brought us the animated explanation of quantitative easing that was bot funny and educational. Turns out you can build you own for free using an assortment of characters and editing options... very cool stuff! I produced this one with no learing at all in about 5 minutes... Look out. This is going to be fun...

A Muse-ical Weekend

We spent this past weekend among great friends in the "Best Small Town in America" (as voted by the Ashley Gang), Eustis, Florida. With our band, (The Ashley Gang), Mrs. Muse and I performed at the historic State Theater on Friday night...

Bob, Michelle, Muse, Al

...and at the fantastic and quaint Olivia's Cafe on Saturday night...

Bob, Michelle, Muse, Mrs. Muse, Al

After about four hours of "on stage" time, we were utterly satisfied that we had given Eustis an adequate does of original Ashley Gang Florida-style Americana acoustic music. Thanks to all who came out to spend quality time with us. We'll be appearing in Jacksonville at the European Street listening room on September 25th and in Osteen (near Orlando) on September 26th.

The Percussion Section

Thanks to Cindy S. for taking control of my camera gear and taking these great shots while I tried to take control of my guitars...

The Accordion Section (norm)

Serious Muse

Briefly....

My apologies for being remiss in my posting these last two weeks... back into a crazy busy patch... The Ashley Gang (my band) will be performing Friday at the library in Sebastian, FL (kids show -- holy moley!), and on Saturday at the Bluesboro Cafe  in Rockledge (near Cocoa). I put Mrs. Muse on a plane from Orlando to visit family in Ohio for a few days, and today was in the studio working on my solo recording project. Then there's this little thing called "making a living"... so I appreciate the understanding of those who have been nudging me to post some new photos. There just haven't been any. What I will do is recommend  a new book for those who are (like me) avid readers. I downloaded "Faithful Place" to my Kindle yesterday -- the new Tana French mystery, and stayed up (too) late into the night reading the first 25% of it. If you enjoy detective stories (her's are based in Ireland), go get it! More soon. Really.

One More Video From Florida Folk Festival

Gail Carson at www.northfloridafamilyfunguide.com was everywhere with her HD video cam during the 58th Florida Folk Festival two weekends ago... this live performance video of the Ashley Gang performing my song, Duval Nights, was shot at the Old Marble Stage -- the original stage for this oldest American Folk Fest. Yep -- the skinny old guy in the middle doing the singing is me... and the lovely flute player is my wife, Kay... hope you enjoy my little love song for Jacksonville...

Florida Folk Festival 2010 -- Part 2

A quick unexpected interim post -- thanks to Gail Carson -- this is a video of my band The Ashley Gang, at the Florida Folk Festival performing Al's song The River Road. One of my favorites. -- Great job, Gail, thanks soooo much for your creativity and effort!

Florida Folk Festival 2010 -- Part 1

Every year on Memorial Day weekend since 1953, Florida Folk artists have gathered on the banks of the Suwanee River in the old town of White Springs. At 58 years, it is the oldest State-sponsored folk festival in the U.S. I have been participating as a performer, either solo or with The Ashley Gang band since 1997.. so this first post on FFF 2010 features photos of the Ashley Gang. Thanks to Cindy Scortino for handling the camera while my hands were full of guitar...

Above: The Ashley Gang on the Old Marble Stage (l-r: Bob on guitar, Michelle on bass and vocal, me, Al on guitar and vocals, Kay on flute, and norm seated on percussion). The Marble Stage was the only stage used for the first few years of the festival and is sacred ground for we Florida songsters. It is the first place I ever performed at FFF 13 years ago as a solo act. We had a full to over-flow audience that sent us amazing waves of energy and appreciation -- and I think we sent that back. One of our best sets ever as a band...

Above and below: 4 of the 6 Ashleys (Kay and norm are there but off camera) at the Ann Thomas Memorial River Gazebo. This is a fully acoustic setting at an old boat landing right on the banks of the Suwanee River, and a place for only Florida music by Florida songwriters. We performed some of mine and some of Al's original tunes for another full house... The concerts at the Gazebo are hosted every year by Florida folk music legend, Frank Thomas (seated behind the band in the photo above). Frank has written hundreds of Florida songs (and has never written a single one down). The Gazebo is now named after late wife and musical partner, Ann.

In addition to our little band of Floridians, there were dozens of others -- old favorites and new up-and-comers over three full days on multiple stages at the Stephen Foster State Park. I'll follow up in a few days with photos and notes of some of my favorites.... For those of you here in the States, Happy Memorial Day -- and please take a moment to remember what this day is all about.

Royal Palm Folk and Acoustic Music Festival - NOT

A quick note to let you know that I'll NOT be playing with The Ashley Gang at....

THE CANCELED...

We will NOT take the stage as the featured act at 8:00 Saturday evening -- hope to see some familiar faces NOT at Veteran's Park Amphitheater - Royal Palm Beach, Florida. Heck, they brought Rick Nelson back for this.. you should NOT come! --- The city of Royal Palm pulled the plug on this event at the last minute after the organizers apparently did their job of organizing TOO well. Originally expecting less than 1,000 to show up, advance ticket sales, reservations, and other clues indicated a crowd into the multiple thousands -- somewhat beyond the communities ability to manage safely. So we understand the event is to be rescheduled at a more appropriate venue. We'll see....

A Little More Music...

Short of having the capability of embedding music files directly into this blog -- and in response to a few folks expressing some interest in hearing more and old Muse's tunes, I went ahead an signed up for my own MySpace Music page and uploaded a few of my unreleased solo recordings. These are songs that I had recorded at Acoustic Music Production in West Palm Beach when the Ashley Gang band (see posts and links below) was working on our second album. They are just me and my guitar -- all my own compositions based on real events.

"Home for the Healing" is based on Florida Author Patrick Smith's unfortunate experience during a north Florida winter road trip.

"WalMart of Her Dreams" was inspired by the tale told by a co-worker of mine whose wife was so anxious for the opening of a new Super WalMart near their home that she would watch the construction progress from her car.

"Cat" was inspired by an old yellow ferrule male feline who frequently visited our yard in vane attempts to woo our female house cat. Both have long since departed this world, but the song is left behind.

You can find them HERE.   I'll probably put up more over time -- some from the same sessions, and some from my 1996 solo album. And if you haven't already, please drop by the Ashley Gang's MySpace page here to check out songs from the whole band.

I'll also have a new photography website up in the next couple of weeks -- will keep you appraised of where to find it in the days ahead. And yes, this is all part of my life simplification project for 2009 -- just a couple more pieces of the puzzle falling into place.

Enjoy, and let me know what you think!

The Path To Less, Update 3: The Healing Power of Music

Some things you just have to deal with. Monday morning I flew to the Philadelphia area on business -- it was snowing and cold... but necessary. I love my job. Really. Every day I have the opportunity to have a positive impact upon the future of pediatric health care through the facilitation of biomedical research. Regardless of the altruistic value of that part of my life, it involves stress. Travel, personalities, deadlines, emergencies, ethics -- pressure to do the right thing. Part of the simplification process is making room for the necessity of job stress, and decompressing as a method of managing that stress. In addition to my love of photography -- this is how I do it...

That's me in the Middle, Michelle the goddess of vocal harmonies and fretless acoustic bass on the left, and Al, the king of Florida songwriting on the right -- three of five members of the Ashley Gang. This past Saturday we performed at the Women's Club in Eustis Florida -- a charming little town with a great music scene. There was a time when we did this virtually every weekend -- we were younger and gas was cheaper. But there was something special about this one.. I got lost in the performance.. in the music... found new meaning in the playing, in the singing, in the friendships. What a blast! The place was pretty much full -- friends and family from Orlando showed up -- we received a standing ovation at the end . Refreshing and fulfilling -- a wide awake meditation...
So here we all are... Michelle, me, Al, Mrs. Muse, and norm -- the most dangerous man in folk music (wielding an accordion or playing percussion on pans and assorted kitchen utensils and African instruments). This, above all else is what refreshes me and stirs my creative juices. If you're ever in Florida, come out and hear us some time... Simple.

Musique! -- (My Space Music for Folkie Geezers)

My long-time partner in music Al Scortino (that's Al on the right below and me on the left), being the tech-savvy marketing guru that he is has created a MySpace page for our band, The Ashley Gang...

If you're interested you can find (and listen) to us here. I wrote (and sing) song numbers 2,3, and 5 on the play list -- and Al wrote and vocalizes on the rest. I've been looking for a way to embed audio in this blog, but haven't figured it out (let me know if you have) -- so this is the next best thing for now. Two posts in two days... who knew? Enjoy!