thanks to peter case, i’m now humming railroad songs
In my email in-box this morning I received Peter Case’s latest newsletter and saw a few interesting things I thought I’d pass on.
The first is that he’ll be doing his songwriting workshops at McCabe’s Guitar Shop in Santa Monica early next year. Workshop 1 is an encouraging, friendly and, at times, humorous environment. People are invited to play the assigned songs in the workshop, though performance is not mandatory. Workshop 2 continues and expands on the material presented in the first workshop. Songs will be written each week, and presented to the class. Subjects include imagery, rhyming, verse development, melodic ideas, chord changes, and generating songs from various sources.
For more information you can go to McCabe’s site by clicking here, or you can just email Peter direct at case_peter@hotmail.com.
I find it an interesting and creative way for an artist to share their talent, get a little closer to their fans and help boost their income level at the same time. With the workshops limited to just ten people for each, at $300 per person for six two-hour sessions it seems both a bargain for the budding songwriter and a nice little payday for Peter.
The second bit of information I discovered is that Peter will be participating in the 2011 Kings of California Train along with Dave Alvin, Chris Smither, Rick Shea, Laurie Lewis and Nina Gerber. This adventure takes place on board vintage streamline railroad cars from Los Angeles to Portland and back, starting on April 3rd. Only 45 slots are available and you can find out more about it by clicking here.
While looking at the Roots On The Rails/Flying Under Radar website this morning, I’m surprised that this series is not more well known. Well maybe it is….I had a loose thread about it in the back of my mind…but I couldn’t find anything in the No Depression archives, and it seems like I should have.
Their mission statement (for lack of a better way of stating it) says it all:
There’s something about music and trains that just goes together. The relentless rhythm of steel wheel against steel rail; the sense of leaving it all behind; the unfolding panorama of the North American landscape. From great cities to the lights of small towns, the majesty of the Rockies to the wide-open plains. Join us for one of our journeys – incredible music adventures on great trains with great music and great people.
It appears that they’ve been doing this series from several years and the artists that have participated and the geography they’ve covered is amazing. A short list includes Tom Russell, Eilen Jewell, Gretchen Peters, Fred Eaglesmith, The Flatlanders, Gurf Morlix, Jon Dee Graham, Corb Lund, Po’ Girl and many, many more. Seems like some of the train rides are in Canada, but there’s also opportunity to catch some here in the US too.
Forgive me if this is old news, but I figure if I didn’t know that much about it, you might not either.