Astoria is my favorite coastal town in Oregon, so now that I am a resident of the Beaver State I was excited to learn that there's an annual Tenor Guitar Gathering each spring in Astoria. Due to poor planning on my part, I was only able to attend for a few hours on Saturday, but I'm glad that I did.
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| Not the most flattering picture of Astoria, but the only one I took |
Astoria is a pleasant 100-minute drive from my house with the fastest route also being the most scenic and remote, through Clatsop State Forest. I arrived in time for Alison Helzer's workshop on the neuroscience of practice: what science teaches us about music, learning, and muscle memory. This was a very informative presentation where I learned how repetition, rest, isolation, smiling and visualization can help build myelin. However, the real highlight for me was the Irish "jam" that Alison co-hosted with Pat Mac Swyney immediately after this workshop.
Directly to my right at the Irish session was flatpicker, instructor and Nashville cat Tim May, who has toured with Patty Loveless and John Cowan, and is the author of several books including The Flatpicker’s Guide to Irish Music. Directly to my left was multi-instrumentalist Pat Mac Swyney from Los Angeles. Pat was making great Irishy sounds come out of his 1928 National Tricone resonator tenor guitar! Eugene, Oregon's own Alison Helzer sat across from me on tenor banjo. The only other participants were two fiddlers and one mandolin player. The pros almost outnumbered the amateurs!
With such high-caliber and multi-genre musicians/instructors/performers in attendance, I was worried that it might devolve into a flashy bluegrass style jam over Irish fiddle tunes, but it didn't. We stuck to the Irish session playbook and did common tunes that I know fairly well including Silver Spear, Out on the Ocean, Off to California, Kesh Jig, and Road to Lisdoonvarna. I had brought a tenor banjo just in case but played my Kala tenor guitar the entire time.
The pace was fast at times, but nothing I couldn't keep up with. My hard work over the last ten or so months really paid off. There's something about sitting in with exceptionally talented yet sympathetic musicians that can really lift you up and allow you to play beyond your normal abilities. I had a similar experience years ago at an Irish music camp in Elkins, WV when guitarist Dennis Cahill played backup accompaniment on a tune I was leading in a slow session. So I know the feeling.
The Irish jam went about 20 to 25 minutes beyond its allotted hour. Little did I know that during the latter half of the session mandolinist David "Dawg" Grisman was down below giving a workshop on transitioning to the tenor guitar. So that's where everyone was. I had to be in Beaverton by 5pm so as soon as the jam was over I made a quick exit and hit the road for another 100 to 105 minute drive. Unfortunately, I had no Dawg sightings while in Astoria!
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Nice perspective on a wonderful workshop.
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