Category: Roots Music Safari
My Fastest Training 5K-Music by Bryce Janey
Tuesday night before bed I checked what kind of temperatures to expect yesterday morning. The temperatures were predicted to be in the mid-30s, which is perfectly acceptable, to this weather runner! My temperature law is that anything below 30 is just a little too cold! Anyway, I was thinking about adding some distance to my 5K run and running four miles.
Another Strong Run with Blues from Sean Chambers
The Run
Yesterday it was pretty cold in the morning, so I put off running until the afternoon. It was actually pretty nice in the early afternoon but when the sun started to go down it got chilly pretty fast. I ran the same 3.1 mile loop that I’ve been running since I resumed running back in October. It was a pretty easy, nondescript run. The GPS seemed just on target. Here are the results……
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
A Good Run, Great Blues and some Explaining!
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….Currently, Hold On is number 24 on the Roots Music Report Blues Chart. So Check it Out!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
Links for Further Exploration of the Music of Kirk Fletcher
Kerani – Small Treasures is a Treasure!
A Little Heart Scare? Not! – Music by Anthony Gomes
Santa Fe Trail – New Native American Flute from Douglas Blue Feather
New CDs From the Princeton Record Exchange – Yeah!
While we were raising four kids my wife and I rarely spent money on ourselves. So when it came time that two oldest boys started to buy CDs, I was thrilled when we found Tunes Used CD store in Marlton,N.J. At the time they had bins and bins of cheap used CDs. Thanks to the fact that my taste was slightly different than their typical clientele my CD collection skyrocketed. I found albums from a ton of Americana artists that I couldn’t find anywhere else, at prices I could afford!! Texas music artists like: Ray Wylie Hubbard, Jack Ingram and Pat Green along with Americana musicians like Jack Williams and Chris Knight.
