Hey, I'm out of Town
So if you've been checking for information. I have none. But Robert did send me this:

Friday January 6, 2006
Time: 8:00 pm - 11:00 pm
Venue: The Starlite Lounge, 364 Freeport Road, Blawnox. 412-828-9842.
Artists: Bluegrass Night at The Threepenny Opry hosted by Howard Davidson

Saturday January 7, 2006
Time: 8:00 pm - 11:00 pm
Venue: The Starlite Lounge, 364 Freeport Road, Blawnox. 412-828-9842.
Artists: Gardyloo Fanzine presents The Threepenny Opry Acoustic Challenge, hosted by Robert Wagner

Children welcome if accompanied by parent.
Sponsored by Calliope, The Pittsburgh Folk Music Society
www.calliopehouse.org
No cover charge. Donation requested.

Have You Been Getting Enough Spam?
Jack Erdie will play at the Club Cafe on December 28. Three other interesting acts will be playing along. I hope to post more or have Jack post more on the subject. In the meanwhile, I hope you enjoy Jack's spam waiver (disclaimer?) as much as I did.

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SPAM WAIVER
Your email addresses have come to me -- been caught in my harvesting thresher -- through various and sundry sources. Some of you signed up to be on this list at one of my shows. Others of you were shanghaied through less direct methods. Some of you I know from Christ Hope Church, some through Playback Theater. Some of you I don't know from pithecanthropus man, nor you I.

So, if you'd like to opt off of this list, just reply and type "REMOVE" in the subject window, and you'll never hear from me again. Or, if you'd prefer to only be notified about a specific type of show, reply and writer "BIG DEALS ONLY" or "BAND SHOWS ONLY" in the subject list.

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I do thank you for sparing me all this time!

Your Servant in Song,

Jack Erdie

A Recap: The Last 3Ps of the Year
This will be the final weekend of 2005 for The Threepenny Opry at The Starlite Lounge, and we're going out in style with two nights of great, homegrown, world class acoustic music:

Friday at 8:00, Art Gazdik and Gerard Rohlf of The Newlanders have put together a show featuring Johnstown's TIM & AMY DABBS, Devilish Merry's SUE POWERS & JANE HAMILTON, and EMILY RODGERS with JON PASLOV.

Saturday at 8:00, Rick Malis has put together a show featuring D.C. FITZGERALD & BOB BEACH, and THE MONONGAHELA SHEIKS.

Listening to music in the back room of The Starlite is like having your most talented friends playing in your living room (except you don't have to clean up or wash the dishes).

And, of course, there is no cover charge. We DO, however, ask for donations.

By the way, The Threepenny Opry donated $224 to The Tree of Hope. Thank you to all who contributed!

Americana Night This Saturday
From Rick:

On Saturday night December 17th Americana night at the Starlite Lounge is featuring acoustic blues with two great acts: The Monongahela Sheiks and DC Fitzgerald and Bob Beach. Robert Wagner will be filling in for me as host, but it’s a super lineup.

And How Shall You Judge Us?
From Robert:

A few weeks ago, at Jack Erdie's Folk Off, I said something to the effect that my interest in folk music springs from a desire to find a "pure" source, like spring water, but I'm usually disappointed to learn that very little of the music that has survived can be said to have a pure source--almost all of it turns out to have been in some way created for the marketplace or survives because of the marketplace. (In my Christian/socialist/Utopian ideology, of course, the marketplace is almost always a corrupting influence, a source of evil.) Later that evening, Dave Larose said, "I know what you mean about looking for perfection and purity, but I've come to believe that it doesn't really exist. And as soon as you stop looking for perfection, you begin to see that many things are, already, in their own way, perfect."

This past weekend, members of JACK, Eve Goodman, a few audience-members and I were discussing the challenge of building our audience, of getting people who don't know us to come out to hear us and to get people who do know us to come out more than once or twice a year. Dave Larose once again rose to occasion with a perfect bit of wisdom, "If we want people to come out and hear us, the first thing we need to do is get better."

We DO need to be grateful for what we have and for who we are. Likewise, we DO need to get better.

I suggest that everybody find a copy of the Dave Van Ronk biography/autobiography, "The Mayor of McDougal Street."

I want to start a magazine/fanzine called Gardyloo in honor of the magazine that once reported on the life of the Greenwich Village scene.

My contribution to The Threepenny Opry for January through May will be a series of fictitious/fantasy Acoustic Challenge concerts in which Bob Dylan, Woody Guthrie, Phil Ochs, John Lennon, Carole King, Patti Smith, Tori Amos, John Denver, Steve Earle, Bruce Springsteen, John Mellencamp, Pete Seeger, Joe Hill, Joni Mitchell, Michelle Shocked and Leadbelly square off against each other to win a case of Yuengling and a Cuban cigar. The contest will be totally rigged, of course.
I'll need volunteers to perform as the above artists.

I'll need volunteers to act as judges, as well. The artists (instead of musicianship, stage-presence, quality of material and industry potential) will be judged on Politeness, Etiquette and Grooming (the P.E.G. Principle popularized by Captain Lou Albano and Cyndi Lauper in the world of professional wrestling.)

Music and Poetry Come to Oakmont
Annette Dietz writes about a non-3p event. Yes, it's a conflict, but we trust our readers will make the proper choice.

This Saturday, Dec. 17 I will be hosting a song circle performance comprising Sue Gartland, Jay Hitt, Heather Kropf and Brad Yoder. Every fourth song we will have two poems recited by published poet, Ken O'Keefe, a member of the Monroeville Poets.

We will hope to have some artwork as well.

The doors open at 7 pm, music starts at 7:30 and we end at 10:00. There is a $ 5.00 donation at the door benefitting the musicians. Free tea and coffee and light snacks are also available at a break.

The location is in the town of Oakmont on the corner of Delaware and Allegheny Avenues in a building called the Student Life Center. We transform the building the night of the concert and it is a very relaxing, intimate, listening atmosphere with a great sound system. It is smoking and alcohol free but there are plenty of watering holes in Oakmont and wonderful restaurants to visit beforehand.

I am he as you are he as you are we and we are remembering JOHN LENNON
Friday, December 9, 9:00 pm at The Starlite Lounge, we will be remembering the music and spirit of JOHN LENNON, twenty-five years and one day after his untimely passing. We've invited a lot of great musicians, so it's going to be fun. Come to listen, to sing, to play, or simply to remember. There will be no cover charge, but we will collect donations for Tree of Hope, an organization that helps families affected by violence.

What's your favorite John Lennon song?

Eve Goodman, Jack, You
This coming Saturday, December 10, Jack will be playing as part of the Three Penny Opry concert series at Starlite Lounge in Blawnox. The show opens at 8:30pm with Eve Goodman. Eve is an excellent singer-songwriter whose music frequently draws comparison to the Indigo Girls. You can check out her website. Links there will take you to cdbaby, where you can listen to tracks from her two releases, buy lots of CDs, and support independent music.

Following Eve, Jack will play an uncharacteristically upbeat set, ending with an instrument swap where Stacy will play Jon's left handed bass upside down, Jon will play Kim's conga, Kim will play the washboard. Please feel free to bring instruments so you can add to the chaos and contribute your own songs.

Not To Be Mistaken for a Mithras Celebrant
We had singing, playing, knitting, and drawing at 3P last night. Randy Hoffman even wrote an appropriate song on the spot for our tribute to The Land of Misfit Toys. A demonstration of the Irish harp, continued discussion of blues purity (hint, the blues aren't Ivory Snow), and some of the origins of Christmas and the obliteration of the Persian-originated celebration of Mithras . . . I even incorporated a Brecht song with a Carter family song. Here's a picture of John Wells that Liz drew:

I Am Hermie
At least that's what someone told me about twenty years ago, even though I never aspired to be a dentist. Not that there's anything wrong with being a dentist.

We have a theme for Saturday, so basically we can focus our attention on one thing for a while and not have to face up to the Bruegelian intricacy, intimacy, and chaos that is our lives. The room will be quiet, mostly, except for the singers, and smoke-free. And, according to Robert, we might be accomplishing something good.

This Saturday, December 3, we're going to try to raise some money for Tree of Hope to provide toys and other forms of assistance for children of families affected by violence. The theme of the evening is SONGS FROM THE LAND OF THE MISFIT TOYS, a tribute to those who walk the road less travelled. Mike Lamont, Bob Wagner, Sue Gartland, Randy Hoffman, Mark Stroup, and possibly others. Music starts in the back room of The Starlite around 8:00.

Boy, do I feel like a misfit. Can't find one of my songs that I wrote and it's a talking blues so it's got about fifteen jillion words, of which I can only remember the theme. But I do have a medley based on a bunch of misfits named John. In the 3P spirit, think the Carter family in a Brecht play.

Anyway, if you're getting in the spirit check out Sixteen Serious Questions Raised by Rudolph. If you want to enter the colloquy, come see us on Saturday.