Our Humble Origins

As you know, The Threepenny Opry was born when the late, great June Carter stopped into The Starlite while her tour manager was shopping for dulcimer strings at Pianos & Stuff. June ordered a fish sandwich, and it's no wonder she couldn't finish it because she talked through her entire meal. As she was getting ready to leave, some of the guys from the Tuesday night bluegrass jam were hanging posters, and she asked the obvious question, "Where do y'all play?" They showed her the backroom. Somehow, the subject of the Grand Ole Opry came up, and somebody said, "I wish we had something like that here in Pittsburgh." June said, "Don't just wish for it, do it. It's real easy. Just ask all your musician friends to come down on Saturday night, move some of these tables, and you can have your own opry right here."

Ever since, we've been having music in the backroom of The Starlite on Saturday nights.

This Saturday at 9:00, we have Tina and Doc performing beautiful duets (they've got great taste in material), and Bootleg Copy, the Greba brothers performing DMB influenced jams.

Never a cover. Bring your babies. Have a Yuengling.

Sponsored by Calliope.

Filk Night

Initially, Captain Kirk was surprised that Starfleet had assigned a female Yeoman to his command. However, after seeing Rand's efficient work ethic in action, Kirk grew to respect her as a crew member and friend. Despite their professional relationship, an undercurrent of sexual attraction remained between the two. Kirk, however, could not requite the feelings Rand felt for him, due to his position as ship's captain. Nevertheless, he was strongly attracted towards her, which became obvious in stressful situations.

If you're wondering what to expect on Saturday, here are some words from filk.com's Filk 101 page:
Traditionally a filksinger is someone who comes from the Science Fiction Fannish community. They have also tended to be amateur performers and songwriters because they do this once in a while and they don't do it to make any kind of money, they do it because it is fun. There are exceptions to this where a handful of Filksingers are professional musicians and some professional musicians have hung out with us filkers not knowing what the Science Fiction Fannish community is. But generally speaking most filksingers just attend the late-night filk singing circles at conventions (often these events are not even mentioned in the program book, but one learns where to go). Eventually, they may wind up attending monthly filk house sings (See Chapter 3, What is a House Filk) or even a filk convention where people do nothing but sing and listen to singers.

In recent years some fans have gotten very good at performing. This performer is a new hybrid of filksingers who is a semi-professional where they are good enough that they a have been recorded and their material has been put onto CDs. We call them semi-professional not because of their quality but because they are not trying to make a living from performing and recording, they are mainly doing for the fun of it. These performers CDs' are not sold in stores and have almost no distribution. They are sold at conventions, the Internet and occasionally get airplay on Dr. Demento or other small radio shows.

sponsored by Calliope

Have a Yuengling!

image courtesy http://tralfaz-archives.com/mona/mona.html

Some Cruising, A Few Crashes

Thanks to those who came out and performed and listened and applauded for "Planes, Trains, and Automobiles." Perhaps not the usual fare, but as usual we had a game crowd.

A Departure
This Saturday take a trip with the ThreePenny Opry on "Planes, Trains, and Automobiles," a multi-media adventure in movement. The sounds you may hear and the sights you may see might not be typical singer-songwriter fare, but look and listen closely and you'll see it all travels from the heart.

I'm very excited about showcasing the talents of Howie Alexander, a fabulous pianist. Music radiates out from Howie's finger tips to the rest of the world, and the world is much better for it. Annette Dietz will be reading poetry, Liz and I will be screening a Pittsburgh video cruise, and The Groove Pilgrims have compiled a set examining the virtues and vices inherent in wandering -- with an emphasis on the beat.

To cap the evening off we'll be singing some songs together, and I haven't figured out what they are and I'm not about to control what we do. I would, however, like to get some suggestions on the theme of travel and transport. Some songs that come to mind are Chuck Berry's "No Particular Place to Go," Frankie Ford's "Sea Cruise," and Woody Guthrie's "Let's Go Riding in the Car." Leave a comment here or send me an e-mail, and I'll put together some lyrics sheets.