Frank Beacham's Journal

A Real New Years Resolution

If you’re anything like me, you are fed up with our government’s response to Big Banks and Wall Street during the past year’s financial crisis. President Obama made promises to get tough with these institutions, but they haven’t been kept. It is clear to me that members of Congress from both political parties are corrupt to the core. Nothing will be done by the federal government when it comes to reigning in big business.

I read in the Huffington Post a great idea that ordinary people can do to really hurt the Big Banks. As a New Year’s resolution, people would simply move their money from any checking, savings or other kinds of accounts at the Big Banks to smaller community banks. It’s an idea elegant in its simplicity that, if it catches on, could cause some serious pain to these “too big to fail” banks that long ago quit serving the people.

 

If everyone did something as simple as switch their bank accounts away from these major banks it would be an act that no amount of lobbying or government intervention could stop. Congress and the administration would be left scratching their collective heads.

The “Move Your Money” folks did a wonderfully simple video below. And they even give you a way to find an alternative community bank near year you (Click here).  

The small banks are your choice. Just take your money out of the Big Four banks: JP Morgan/Chase, Citibank, Bank of America and Wells Fargo—all of which took billions in taxpayer money and have cut lending to businesses by $100 billion.

And spread the word about the “Move Your Money” campaign. It’s one very fine idea that could make a real difference!

Happy New Year! Be Gone, 2009!

 

To all the readers of these missives, I wish you a Happy Year! It has been a year of discovery and reinvention for me—a time that I’m sure will be better to revisit from the future than it was to live through. Cheers to all the adventures of 2009! I hope the future will be a bit brighter for all of us.

Orson Welles and his Brief, Passionate Love Affair with the Betacam

 

Sometimes the journeys we take through this life begin and end in the most unexpected ways. That happened to me in January, 1985, when the phone rang and the caller announced he was Orson Welles and he wanted to have lunch with me. Thus began one of the most extraordinary adventures of my life.

Read the full story

An Arsonist Sets Fire To Chiquola Mill; Four Fire Departments Try to Save What the Town Won't

On Friday morning, a genuine irony occurred at the Chiquola Mill in my hometown of Honea Path, South Carolina. A warehouse next door to the mill caught fire—presumably the work of an arsonist or homeless person trying to keep warm—and four area fire departments were called out to save the "historic" mill. The firemen were successful in saving what the town is trying to destroy.

You see, Chiquola Mill was the site of the 1934 killing of seven mill workers during the Textile Strike of 1934. My grandfather ran the mill in those days and was responsible for the killings. (Click here for the account in my book,"Whitewash.") 

It is one of the last mill villages left and most certainly one of the most historic in the United States. A restoration could put Honea Path on the map. That's not just from me, but from consultants who have advised the town. Yet, the town of Honea Path won't try to save the mill. Despite the fact the dispatched firemen alone probably cost more than it would to buy the mill, it's currently in a state a demolition. The only reason it still stands today is the poor economy has slowed down the work.

The great irony is the town's police chief has called in the State Law Enforcement Division to investigate the arson. Perhaps, the town should give the arsonist a reward for trying to quickly get a problem off its hands. It's so sad that a lack of education and no sense of history can cause a town to tear down its most precious asset. But that's Honea Path, my hometown. 

 

 All photos by Ken Ruinard, Anderson S.C. Independent  

Harlem Parlour Music Club Conjures Unique Sounds for Christmas Show

 

I brought a friend to the Harlem Parlour Music Club’s Christmas Show who doesn’t usually like the blues, bluegrass or country music, and would have never entered in the building if I had mouthed the words “mountain music.” Yet her verdict on the concert: probably the best band I’ve ever taken her to see. (And this includes Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen and lot of other really big names.)

I don’t know exactly how they do it, but the musicians in the HPMC—who decidedly have a mountain-country-bluegrass flavor with lots of stringed instruments—adds a level of New York sophistication that makes the music sound….well different.  

White Christmas, performed by Allison Cornell, is a good example. Using only a fiddle with the vocal, it’s arrangement was a totally unique, fresh and new version of an old song that everyone knows. She credits this arrangement to David Mansfield, a great dobro, mandolin, violin and pedal steel player, who worked on Bob Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Revue.

 

The Harlem Parlour Music Club performed songs from their new Christmas CD last night at the Village Underground. The musicians in the group don’t normally play this kind of music. The gig is strictly for fun and their records are produced in the home studio of Sammy Merendino, in another life the drummer for Cyndi Lauper’s band. Yet, in pursuing music beyond what they normally do professionally, they’ve found a sound that’s truly unique and wonderful.

Jack Cooke Lived the "Old, Weird America" Through His Music

I was sad to learn of the recent death of Jack Cooke, the great bluegrass musician who played with both Bill Monroe and the Stanley Brothers, and worked as a driver for Dock Boggs, the master of American murder ballads.

Fortunately, I met and had an interesting conversation with Cooke several years ago when he played with Ralph Stanley at B.B. Kings Club in April, 2005 in New York City. Cooke was weary from years on the road and told me he’d like to retire but couldn’t afford to. He worked until illness forced him to retire at age 72 earlier this year.

 

As a young man, Cooke grew up in Norton, Virginia, the same town as distant relative Dock Boggs. Jack drove Boggs around in his later years. As a teenager, Jack took up the guitar, and—in 1955—joined the Clinch Mountain Boys, the band for the Stanley Brothers. A year later, Cook left to join Bill Monroe’s Blue Grass Boys. In 1970, he rejoined the Clinch Mountain Boys as bassest and stayed until the end.

Through his association with two of the world’s great bluegrass bands, Cooke became one of the masters of the genre. As anyone knows who has been to bluegrass concerts, the performers love to chat up the audience and sell their records and tapes. Cooke was one of the best at this. Before we finished our chat, he made sure I bought his only solo album, Sittin’ On Top of the World. I'm glad I did. It’s a wonderful recording that I would have missed if Cooke hadn't insisted that I buy it. 

RIP, Jack Cooke. Finally, you can retire.

 

David Ippolito & Company Play Holiday Concert at New York City’s Merkin Hall

David Ippolito, the guitar man from Central Park, assembled a terrific ensemble of musicians for his annual year-end concert last night at the Merkin Concert Hall.

One of the most successful “street musicians” working today, David has parlayed free summer concerts in Central Park into eight CDs and a very loyal audience. In a way, he’s the epitome of the modern independent musician who astutely uses the Internet to cultivate a fan base that he has built over almost 20 years. (Yes, the concert last night was streamed live on the net.)

In fact, David rejects most of the trappings of the earlier era of recording artists, maintaining personal relationships with most of his fans. He calls himself a "possibility junkie" and many musicians could learn a lot by watching him.

A loyal fan of Ippolito is Sid Berstein, the retired music promoter who changed rock and roll by bringing the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Herman’s Hermits, the Moody Blues and the Kinks to America. He also organized the famous Beatles concert at Shea Stadium, the concert that spawned stadium concerts today. Sid was in the audience as David sang “Keep Hope Alive,” a song he wrote from one of Sid’s phone messages.

 Teresa Reynolds is a powerful vocalist with a winning smile. 

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Though David usually plays alone with only his guitar, on this night he assembled a wonderful lineup of musicians. An impressive newcomer was Teresa Reynolds, a singer of exceptional voice and an electric smile. Pianist, singer, songwriter and monologist George Wurzbach was at his curmudgeonly best. And Chris Tedesco and Cenovia Cummins were both terrific on fiddle/violin.  

George Wurzbach sings about writing a song with God.

Chris Tedesco and Cenovia Cummins on fiddle duet. (All photos by Frank Beacham)

Write Down & Remember the Name Elle B. She’s a comer!

At the last Songwriter’s Guild circle at the Red Lion in Greenwich Village, host Skip Brevis called up a young girl he’s been working with in the studio to perform a couple of songs. To put it simply, she blew everyone away.

She goes by the name Elle B, but her real name is Laura Brooke Winter. She’s 10-years-old and in the fifth grade at the Town School in New York City. She’s been singing since she was three, and has already performed in theater productions and talent shows around the city, as well as commercials and print jobs at major advertising agencies.

 

Skip has been working with Elle B and so far they, along with Skip's wife, Claudia, have co-written six songs. Three were recently recorded at Germano Studios in New York. In January, they return to the studio with the goal of producing Elle B’s first full CD by next summer.   

Watch out for Elle B. If there’s ever proof that some people are born with talent, this young girl proves it.  She is simply sensational!

 

 

New on the Streets of New York City, Bouquets of Cotton for $7.00!

One of the nice things about walking the streets of New York City near Christmas is the scent of cedar trees for sale on the street corners in front of small grocery stores. This week, however, I saw something new. Bouquets of cotton for sale as Christmas decorations. And for a hefty $7.00 for a few bundled stems. Since cotton currently sells for about 75 cents a pound without the stems, that’s quite a Manhattan markup!

I’m a Southerner who grew up around cotton and cotton mills. I’m certainly aware that it’s used for Christmas decorations, but I had never seen it placed in bouquets and sold like flowers. When I approached a shopkeeper, he said he’d never seen it either. The store had the cotton only for a couple of days.

Apparently bringing cotton bouquets to the streets of New York City was the idea of the same people that supply Christmas trees, he told me. I suspect we’ll see more though. He said the cotton bouquets are selling like hotcakes. Now if I could just figure out a way to sell Southern Kudzu for big bucks on the streets of the city!

Harlem Parlour Music Club Releases Country-Folk Christmas Album; To Do New York City Gig on December 16th

Sammy Merendino, the kick ass drummer with Cyndi Lauper, recently sent me the new Christmas CD by The Harlem Parlour Music Club, a group of top flight professional musicians who come together to have a good time and play the music they love. Since they formed in the spring of 2008, they have produced two CDs: the first called Salt of the Earth and the latest, A Harlem Parlour Christmas.

Though I’m not usually a fan of Christmas albums, this has been a very good year. After Mr. Dylan’s surprise, A Harlem Parlour Christmas is a real delight. As with the Salt of the Earth, the music has a country-folk flavor performed with the precision that only top studio musicians in New York City could bring to it.

 

This is one BIG band. The core musicians consist of Ann Klein and Andrew Carillo (guitar, banjo, dobro, and mandolin & vocal), David Mansfield (dobro, mandolin, violin & pedal steel), Steve Count (electric & upright bass), Andy Burton (accordion, keyboards & vocals), Allison Cornell (violin, viola & vocals), Sammy Merendino (drums), Chris Tedesco (violin & vocals), T-bone Wolk (accordion) and Tim Hatfield (recordist). On vocals is Amanda Homi, Elaine Caswell & Tabitha Fair. Jeffrey Golub (guitar & dobro), Robbie Kondor (harmonica) and Eric “Roscoe” Ambel (dulcimer) also join guest artists Darden Smith and Mary Lee Kortes. If something happened to this band, it would shut down half the major music acts in America!

This is a rare Christmas record that I highly recommend. It has a great mix of traditional songs such as White Christmas and a beautifully sung Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, along with a funky fiddle version of Auld Lang Syne and a country-style Christmas Time's A-coming. 

The Harlem Parlour Music Club band will do a rare personal appearance on Wednesday, Dec. 16, at 7:30 at the Village Underground at 130 West 3rd Street in New York City.  Make a reservation and be there. You won't be sorry.