The Budrows – The Budrows!

The budrows 3

100% Foot Stompin’ Cigar Box Rock n’ Roll from Laguna Beach’s – The Budrows!

So I like musicians like Seasick Steve and Ben Prestage and others, who make music on handmade instruments. Now you can add the name Jason Farthing to that list. Jason is one-third of the band The Budrows, who classify their music as “Home Made Cigar Box Swamp Rock and Roll” or “100% Foot Stompin’ Cigar Box Rock n’ Roll”. Farthing set out to build his first cigar-box guitar after seeing a picture of one in an antiques magazine. First he got a cigar box from a friend and then he gathered what he thought he needed and set about making one – instructions were not included! He was surprised, when the first one worked, and soon he was making another and perfecting his craft! After making a few guitars, the Drawing and Graphic Design student (at Colorado State University) came out in him, and he realized, that he could use the box top as a canvas and create playable art and that’s just what he did!! Here’s an example of his work!! You can see more here at soundboxguitars.com
IMG_0212When he began showing the guitars at art galleries, he would also play them, to show people that they were actually playable. This was the beginning of The Budrows. Soon after he started to build and play the guitars, he encouraged his step-daughter Macarena Rivera to sing along to some of Jason’s favorite songs and before long they were writing and playing their own songs, as they were showing the cigar box guitars. The final third of The Budrows, Jesse Boden joined the band, after being a star student, in Macarena’s mother.Spanish class.Jesse wanted to meet and hear Jason and Macarena because he was a musician, too. At an impromptu jam session at Jesse’s house, which was just around the corner from the Farthing’s house, Jesse pulled out his flute and began playing along, soon it was discovered that Jesse could also play harp and thus he became the third member of The Budrows!!So now The Budrows were complete with; Jason playing cigar box guitar, gas can banjo, suitcase kick drum/tambourine;. Macarena adding vocals, washboard, tambourine,and shakers; and Jesse Boden providing harmonica and flute and the result for me is a true “Americana” band (so what if Macarena was born in Argentina!).The Budrows albumTheir self-titled début album is full of great homemade music and I for one love it!. Who can’t help but love music with song titles like “Blood, Guts and Gasoline”, “Last Likker Run” and “Pass the Whiskey”.The album even ends with an instrumental  “Campfire Song”!Watching a few of their videos, it seems that the band has a good time playing their home-made swamp rock ‘n roll! Here they are playing the aforementioned “Blood, Guts and Gasoline”….

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The Safari Explores the Music of the Brazilian Progressive Metal band Angra!

So the other day, Spotify suggested that I listen to the song “Reflective” from the album Sounds of Innocence by Kiko Loureiro. Since the name looked interesting and he appeared to be a guitarist I downloaded the album onto the iPhone and it became the soundtrack for my ride to the Motor Vehicle Inspection Station. I discovered that Kiko is a very, very talented progressive rock guitarist and a member of the Progressive Metal band Angra. So after listening to Loureiro’s solo album, I downloaded Angra’s latest release Aqua and gave it a listen! Both of the albums are very good, but I think I prefer Aqua. Sometimes solo prog rock guitar albums seem a little boring to me. So here’s what I discovered about Angra. Read More

Sunday Thoughts about Pete Seeger, Abiyoyo and grandbaby Oliver Edward Karn

AbiyoyoSo sometime this month, my wife and I will become grandparents for the first time, when my son Andrew and his wife Meaghan have their baby, Oliver Edward Karn!! Well, it’s actually Meaghan doing all the work right now and Andrew just gets the congratulations!! A couple of weeks ago, they had Meaghan’s baby shower.and Oliver’s gifts from Andrew’s brothers and sister and my wife and I were books and not just any books, but ones that were special to us.The kids picked ones that were read to them and my wife and I picked either ones that were read to us or ones that we read to the kids! After my wife, whose idea it was first announced the idea. Peter immediately said “I’ll get Where the Wild Things Are” – though Bossy Boots may have been a better choice! What surprised my wife and I, was the first book that Elizabeth picked, which was Abiyoyo! The picture book based on the Pete Seeger song…. Read More

Book 5 of 2014 – Theodore Roosevelt and the Assassin – Gerard Helferich

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John Wilkes Booth

Ok so which of these men do you recognize?? I know that I would probably have a hard time identifying any of them. Each of these four men disrupted American politics between the years 1865 to 1912. Three were successful in their assassination attempts and assassinated an US President, while the fourth made an unsuccessful attempt to kill a candidate for President. They are clockwise from 3 o’clock – Charles_J_Guiteau assassin of President James Garfield, John Wilkes Booth – President Lincoln, Leon  Read More

The Safari Explores the Classical Side of Progressive Rock’s Jordan Rudess – All That is Now!!

The question of the day is: Can a prog rocker create beautiful classical piano music? My answer to that is a resounding yes – especially if that rocker entered the Julliard School of Music Pre-College Division for classical piano training at nine years old, like rock keyboard artist Jordan Rudess did!!. I think that the prog rock world is glad that in his late teens Rudess became increasingly interested in synthesizers and progressive rock music and left the classical world behind and set out to make his way as a solo progressive rock keyboardist!! Read More

The Safari Explores the World Fusion Music of Get Tribal – God of Drum!!

This morning the Safari decided it was a World Music kinda day, so  checked out the Zone Music Reporter’s Top 100 Radio Airplay Chart.. The first album that caught my eye was at number 3 – the self released album God of Drum by Get Tribal. The title of the album brought to mind the music of David and Steve Gordon, and the name of the band John Densmore’s Tribal Jazz. So I loaded the album onto the iPhone and listened to it while I was doing some shopping, The music was, in a word, mesmerizing! I found my feet keeping rhythm constantly and just totally became lost in the flow. I even had to ask directions out of Wegmans. Not really! Maybe I should have just stopped though and meditated on the music for a bit!! Read More

The Safari Encounters Mad Fellaz, an Italian Progressive Instrumental Band!!

Mad Fellaz is a five man is an instrumental progressive rock band from Bassano Del Grappa, Italy. The now five-man band started out in 2010 as an experimental unnamed trio consisting off:Emanuele and Paul Bason Busatto on electric guitars and Mark on drums. As the band developed, bassist Carlo Passuello, keyboardist Henry Brunelli and Rudy Zilio on flute and synthesizer were added to the band.The current line-up of the band is: Read More