Home Articles posted by ekkarn (Page 26)

A Strong Four-Mile Run with Music by The Windmill

Tribus - The Windmill

Since I have restarted running back in mid-October, my weekend runs have mostly been on Sunday. However, with the Eagles-Cowboys looming at 4:25 tomorrow and the prospect of a cold Sunday morning, I decided to run today. In addition to changing the day of the weekend, I also decided it’s time to increase my mileage on the weekends. My plan was to run four miles. The course would be my old Creek out and back course. Read More

Voodoo In the Shadows – Fiona Boyes

Voodoo in the Shadows – Cajun Blues from Australia
I may not have known about blues artist Fiona Boyes., until the last few years,  but the Blues music world certainly did!  Consequently, Fiona is Australia’s most celebrated and successful blues artist. Here are a few of the latest awards…..
  • Professin’ the Blues, received the 2017 Acoustic Album of the Year award from Blues Blast Magazine
  • The Blues Foundation in Memphis has honored her with 6 Blues Music Award nominations, including Acoustic Album of the Year and Best Acoustic Artist in 2017.
  • In 2003, she won their International Blues Challenge, representing the Melbourne Blues Appreciation Society.
About Voodoo in the Shadows
Her latest release Voodoo In the Shadows was the soundtrack for my run last  According to the album’s press release, the  album is a self-produced session that explores the allure of the back roads from Memphis, through Mississippi, to New Orleans and down to the Gulf.  Nine of the eleven songs on the album are Fiona Boyes originals. The songs tell stories of respect, partying, attitude, mystery, sensuality and love.  I really enjoy both Boyes vocals and her amazing guitar work Each song does truly create its own mood. On the album Fiona plays a variety of guitars; her 6-string Maton, three cigar-box instruments along with her rare baritone National Reso-lectric.
Fiona’s Bandmates
Fiona is joined on the album by her two Australian bandmates Tim Neal and Mark Gruden. Neal is a multi- instrumentalist playing Hammond B3, piano, bass and baritone sax. Gruden is drummer/percussionist. To provide some real New Orleans flavor to this musical party Fiona recruited one of New Orleans finest musicians  Johnny Sansone. Sansone adds his harmonica and accordion to this great musical mix. I particularly like his accordion on the song “Don’t Leave Your Feet at Home” one of my favorite tracks on the album. “Party at at Red’s” is another of my favorites. The bottom line is the album will be in my music rotation for a good long while. So Check It Out!

Links for the Further Exploration of the Music of Fiona Boyes Read More

A Good Run, Great Blues and some Explaining!

Hold On - Kirk Fletcher
What’s Been Happening….
Ok so no long recap of why I haven’t posted here for a long time. I’ll just say I had some health issues that appear to have been resolved favorably! The biggest being a high PSA level which is a test used for detection of prostate problems. But after a retest and a normal exam by a urologist, it appears I am good to go. One of the positives that has happened between the initial PSA test and the retest is switching my aerobic exercise from my heavy dance-Kundalini- cardio workout to running. Another is that I have added a 25-30 minute before bed yoga routine. Many of the asanas in the nightly routine are ones that are good for my prostate. Additionally, I have made some dietary changes, adding foods like avocado to my diet! On the downside, but good side, I also tried to eliminate sugary cakey snacks and potato chips!! Anyway, I think all of the above helped to reduce my PSA level. I still think that the main reason that my PSA level was high in the first place was excessive exercise over the weekend leading up to the test. But that’s neither here nor there, the bottom line is hopefully things are good. And the changes that I made to my exercise routines and diet are positive!
A Return to Running
So let’s get to some new stuff and then I’ll try to catch up on some older stuff as we move on! My plan when I started to run again was to return to my old running routine. That routine was running four miles on Tuesdays and Thursdays and then a 5-8 mile run on a weekend day. So far I have only been running a 3.1 mile course and I think I have made three days a week once. However, my minute per mile pace has been much faster than anticipated. Typically, in recent years when I start back running after a layoff my pace hovers around 11:30 minutes per mile for a long while. This time my pace was only around 11:30 for the first two runs. By the third run it was around 11 minutes/mile and it has gone down from there! I think the major reason for that was that was the pretty hard dance-cardio exercising I did from July up until the fateful PSA test. I believe that through that exercising I was in great aerobic shape and that made the transition to running easier than in the past. My average pace for today’s 3.1 mile run was 10:27 min/mile. Here are the stats for the run….. Mile Splits— Mile 1 – 10:24 Mile 2 -10:39 Mile 3 – 10:30 Mile 0.15 – 9:13 Average HR – 141 bpm  Max 172? Calories Burned -419 So hopefully, I can keep running through the winter and not have to start over again next spring! But at least now I know if I do my dance cardio in those super cold or snowy days I will remain in pretty good shape!!
The Soundtrack
The soundtrack for today’s run was Hold On the latest release from blues guitarist Kirk Fletcher. Kirk Fletcher is one of the world’s best blues guitarist. He is a four-time Blues Music Award and a 2015 British Blues Award nominee and has played with a variety of popular artists, including Joe Bonamassa and a three-year role as lead guitarist of The Fabulous Thunderbird. Additionally,not that anybody cares, he has played on many of the albums that have been in my music rotation over the last several years.
About Hold On
Hold On is a great album. It had me from the first track “Two Steps Forward” and it wasn’t Fletcher’s guitar that caught my attention. It was the organ! Subsequently, I have discovered the keyboardist was Jonny Henderson. Henderson is a well-respected British keyboard artist who has been a member of the Matt Schofield Trio since 2004.Additionally, he has been voted Keyboard Player of the Year at both the 2010 and 2011 British Blues Awards. The other member of Fletcher’s band is drummer Mack Brown. Brown has played with Henderson many times. The trio first played together a year or two ago at the Bristol Jazz Festival and as they say the rest is history. It’s my hope that they will be playing together a lot more!! Hold On will certainly be in my music rotation over the next several weeks and beyond! The songs on the album are varied and Fletcher’s guitar work is perfect on each track. Here;’s what Matt Koehler said about the album….
Hold On as an album is so solid, so listenable and so moving that the word
“monumental” comes to mind. It sets the bar for modern Rhythm & Blues albums to come, from Kirk or otherwise, and it reminds the world that the genre is still as strong and meaningful as ever. ~ by Mat Koehler
Currently, Hold On is number 24 on the Roots Music Report Blues Chart. So Check it Out!

Links for Further Exploration of the Music of Kirk Fletcher Read More

A Morning Workout and Then a Run – Not!

A Morning Workout and Then a Run – Not!

This morning I was planning on running, First though I had to drop my wife off at the doctor for a 3-month check-up. So I decided to do a limited dance-cardio workout before taking her and then run. Typically, over the summer and into September my morning dance-cardio workout lasted anywhere from 40 to 60 minutes long and burnt 400-600 calories.Everything was moving along nicely, I was dropping the last few pounds I needed and was get very close to my goal weight. Read More

Catching Up- What’s Been Happening – Part One

one of the books that needs catching up with1
 An Attempt at Catching Up!
Ok so the question before me today is – “How do I get back to blogging again after taking a month or more off?” I think the way I need to do it is to first try to catch up with what’s been happening on my Life’s Safari over the last two months and then create some challenges for the rest of the year. Basically, there are maybe four aspects of my life that I blog about: the books that I read, the music that I listen to, the ways I attempt to turn back my biological clock and my family. My family blogging includes both my current family and my past family, I learn about through my genealogical research.

Now I will attempt to catch up on all that’s been going on in a number of posts. Here’s a brief summary of what I hope to be writing about in those posts. Read More