suziebeezieland

no depression

I'm a fan of a music subgenre I tend to think of as "American roots music." But it has many, many names, because it's hard to categorize. If you're goofing around on iTunes, you'll get the general idea of its breadth if you check out the "Alternative Country" and "Contemporary Bluegrass" cuts on iTunes essentials. (There's some overlap with "Modern Folk," too.)

Are any of you also fans?

I am not, in general, a fan of traditional Nashville country music, although of course I do have a fondness for some particular songs or artists (I have a soft spot for Willie Nelson and also The Statler Brothers, for example), and I do very often love traditional bluegrass, blues, and gospel. 

But you will not find any country radio stations programmed in my car. :)

The best way I can think of to explain this particular brand of music is to say that it is music played on instruments associated with traditional country or bluegrass music (banjos, acoustic guitars, fiddles, harmonicas, dulcimers, mandolins), but played either by younger musicians who grew up listening to punk and rock, or by older musicians who have allowed newer music to inform their take on "country."

So you have elements of traditional country bluegrass music, mixed up with elements of newer stuff. 

The best magazine for this kind of music (it used to be a print magazine but is now just online) has been around for almost fifteen years, and is called No Depression. (The name "No Depression" is from a gospel song called "No Depression in Heaven" which J.D. Vaughan wrote a long time ago and which several folks have covered over the years.)

If an artist is considered "legendary," they can find themselves in this "alternative" category, too, even if they're someone like Dr. Ralph Stanley, who was born in 1927 and is as traditionally bluegrass as you can get . . . lots of singing in minor key, lots of close harmony, lots of banjo, and quite a bit of whining. :)

I suspect another way to define "alternative country" is to say, "country music that Rolling Stone says is cool to listen to." :)

Even if you don't know about or don't like this kind of music, you probably enjoy at least one song that has gone mainstream . . . for instance, T-Bone Burnett produced the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack (Grammy Album of the Year in 2007) as well as the Alison Krauss-Robert Plant collaboration Raising Sand (Grammy Album of the Year in 2009).

Okay, so what was my point with all this enthusiastic rambling about music? I cannot remember. Hold on a second. Oh! I made a list of five "American root music" artists for you to check out if you're new to this genre and are goofing around on iTunes. I am keeping myself to only five because if the list is too long, it's no longer useful or personal, and you might as well just Google "alternative country" and see what you get. I've left off a lot of artists I love, like Lucinda Williams, but five is five.

Please feel free to speak up with your own favorites in this hard-to-define genre if you have any.  :) And again, I recommend the iTunes essentials lists for "alternative country" and "contemporary bluegrass" to get you started, although it's not all great.

Here are my five recommendations:

Alison Krauss & Union Station

They're my very favorite in this genre, whatever it is, and they're probably the most talented, too.  They started playing before "alternative country" or "contemporary bluegrass" or "modern folk" were even terms (Alison Krauss was born in 1971), and Alison Krauss is right up there with Emmylou as a co-queen of traditional bluegrass.  But they made bluegrass mainstream in the U.S. with the "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" soundtrack. (Dan Tyminski did the actual vocals for George Clooney when he sang "I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow" and Alison had lead vocals on a few of the tracks.) If you are new to Alison Krauss & Union Station, you need to get this soundtrack because it'll give you a sample of both Alison's and Tim's vocals. (And other folks', too.) (It's available on iTunes.)

I'm a big fan of all their stuff, old and new, and have lost all objectivity, actually. Get their Live album and also New Favorite. It's all good.

Alison's done a lot of solo work and specials with other artists, also. If you just want to hear a good sample of her vocals, download either "I Went Down to the River to Pray," which has those traditional close harmonies, or maybe "When You Say Nothing at All." Besides everything else I've raved about, I favor her "Simple Gifts" duet with Yo Yo Ma, and anything from the Raising Sand album.

Here's Choctaw Hayride, to let you see Dan in action on the guitar and Alison on the fiddle. (This one's an instrumental.) That's Jerry Douglas over there on the left playing the Dobro. He's actually his own legend . . . I need a separate link just for him. And Ron Block is on the banjo. He has recorded with a bunch of other artists you probably know. And Barry Bales is on the bass, and you probably know people he's played with, too.  The whole band is awesome. I could watch this all day. :)

The Be Good Tanyas
Reviewer Ken Cox explained them this way: "If a person wants to hear performers who embrace the folk, country, and blues roots of American music with a little touch of the contemporary, then The Be Good Tanyas are voices that come out of the wilderness and onto center stage, performing music that transcends their birthdates and transports their listeners from the past to the present and vice-versa."  What do you do, exactly, with a group that has this folksy sound, but covers a Prince song? :)

When people talk about "American Roots Music," they mean "North American," not just "U.S." This band is Canadian.  If you are new to The Be Good Tanyas, you can download "The Littlest Birds" on iTunes, which is their most popular hit. I myself favor "Lakes of Ponchartrain." Their first album, Blue Horse, is still my favorite, because Jolie Holland was still with them, but they're great later, too.

The Avett Brothers
It always helps to be from the South if you're going to play any kind of country/bluegrass music. :) They're from North Carolina. They are young, and their style is sometimes called "grungegrass."   They are in the current issue of Rolling Stone, so you see how loosey-goosey it can be trying to pin this genre down.  I've talked about them a lot before. Here is one of my favorite Avett Brothers songs:

Nickel Creek
I think they called their own music "Progressive Acoustic." But you can hear the bluegrass influence loud and clear. :) Alison Krauss produced one of their albums. They broke up as a trio in the summer of 2006, but Sara Watkins is doing her own thing, and Chris Thile's new band is called "Punch Creek".  A little NPR article and a song ("Helena") are here.

If you are new to Nickel Creek, you can download "The Lighthouse's Tale" or "When You Come Back Down" on iTunes, which are their most popular hits. I myself favor "First and Last Waltz."

Here is a fun video of the Smoothie Song.

Béla Fleck
He's the world's best banjo player, or at least the most famous, and he really confuses people trying to categorize him. Go to iTunes and check out the cuts on his "Perpetual Motion" album, and you'll see what I'm talking about. Oh how to categorize Bluegrass Paganini? :) Here is a fun video with Steve Martin playing banjo with Béla and also Tony Trishcka. Béla's the banjo on the far right.

Adrienne Young
Go to iTunes and download the song "Plow to the End of the Row" (and the whole album if you like it), and maybe also the songs "Hills & Hollers" and "The Art of Virtue". See what you think. I love them. (If you're close to Charlottesville, Virginia, you can go hear her live on April 18th.)

Here's a video of The Art of Virtue. The audio is awful, but you get the idea.

Oops. That's six. :) I also highly recommend the albums "Appalachia Waltz" (Yo-Yo Ma, Mark O'Connor and Edgar Meyer)  and "Appalachian Journey" (Yo Yo Ma, Mark O'Connor, Edgar Meyer, Bela Fleck, James Taylor, and Alison Krauss), both available at iTunes.

with a song in his heart, he continues to take the bus

Have you seen this? My friend Becky has it posted on her Facebook page, and I was kind of mesmerized while watching it. (If a little Google ad pops up on the bottom of it, just click the gray x to make the ad go away.)

Here is some info about how it was made, if you get curious after you see it. And the info here under "About Oren Lavie" is charming. Flat-out charming.

march madness

Oh, one more thing . . . I'm not running a suziebeezieland March Madness pool this year (sorry, guys, I just don't have time this year)(although it sounds like CBS Sports sent automatic reminders to anybody who played last year . . . sorry about that) but if any of you want to post your brackets on your own blogs or on Facebook or anywhere so we can compare and trash-talk :), I'll check them out. Here's mine. (Click on it to see it bigger.):

Hi, guys. :) I've got jury duty, so it seems like a good week to take a little blogging break until that's all finished up.  I'll check back in when I'm done. xxoo

a messy house & a kitchen garden

I'm still sick (or sick again . . . honestly, I'm not sure which . . . and maybe it's allergies this time), and moving at a snail's pace around here. I keep expecting to go crazy, but I haven't.  Somehow, it's okay. So many folks are hacking and coughing and sniffling right now, bless 'em.  Nothing hurts, and I've somehow come to peace with my messy house and lack of energy, and just figure I'll get to it all eventually.

Take the living room, for instance.  The red bowl and stack of books that usually adorn the middle of the coffee table have been pushed aside. Right now, it is adorned with three percussion shakers made of toilet paper tubes, filled with navy beans and decorated with scrapbook paper; an empty Kleenex box (boutique size); a stuffed Hello Kitty dressed as a bunny; a piece of Claire's artwork; a Mickey Mouse pen; a SweetTarts wrapper and a Hershey's kiss wrapper; a Highlights magazine; a coaster with nothing on it; a small glass pebble; a green paperclip; and a plastic hairgripper I wear when I'm just hanging around the house or out in the garden. 

There is a pile of unfolded laundry in one of the brown club chairs, and some slippers peeking out from the other.  It's laundry I rewashed because it mildewed in the washer.

My favorite blankie (my grandma made it for me) is on the sofa, and the pillows are piled up for leaning on.  The slipcover has dirt (from our garden feet) and dog hair on it.  The bench holds Claire's backpack, an empty Whole Foods bag, an Ann Taylor shopping bag (full of Claire's best friend's party goodies from the birthday tea party last month -- she was sick and couldn't come -- which I still haven't managed to get to her) a pile of mail, and a stray mylar Happy Birthday balloon.

If you want to walk from the front door to the dining room, you have to go around a pop-up tent.

I vacuumed and dusted yesterday, but the windows are filthy, and the wood floors need a cleaning some time soon.  The carpet still has a stain from Claire's birthday party, when some bright blue icing fell on the floor, plop.

The whole house is like this. I washed our sheets today, but they're in the dryer and I'm too tired to put them on the bed right now.  Claire has seventeen million pairs of shoes on her bedroom floor.  The kitchen floor needs mopping, and the paperwork counter is covered.  The sink is gross. The trash is overflowing in the small bathroom, and there are crumbs of cat litter next to it. 

But we (Claire had a teacher in-service day and was home from school) did manage, this afternoon, to pull the red adirondack chairs out of the garage and hose them off and de-spider them, and plant a few things in the little kitchen garden at the top of the driveway.  And then we sat in the chairs and did nothing except make the aforementioned percussion shakers, and feel happy about the nice weather. I hope the birds will like the navy beans we spilled.

 

Eventually it will truly be spring and then summer, and eventually we'll all (I mean you all, too) be over the colds and coughs, and eventually my house will get cleaned.  In the summer, if the kitchen garden survives, we'll have geraniums and marigolds to look at, and sage, basil, tomatoes, green peppers, and strawberries to enjoy.  (We'll plant some more stuff later.)

In the meantime, life is too short to freak out about the Chapstick, garden seed packets, hairbrush, half-drunk glass of water, random washcloth, and black Magic Marker on the dining room table. 

:)

the magic, unstaged blueberry strawberry facein the bottom of the bowl

purple

the world is very old;but every springit groweth young again,and fairies sing

Last year, our Lisa O. in Sweden sent me an incredible little package. She had gone thrifting, and found a very sweet doll-sized white tablecloth for Claire, and a book for me: an early edition of Cicely Mary Barker's Flower Fairies of the Spring. (Actually, it's probably a first edition, but Blackie & Son did not date these, so it's impossible to know without seeing the price on the dust jacket.)

It is exquisite, and is one of my favorite things. :) (You can click on the images to see them larger.)

 

I'll post some more fairy pages as spring goes on. :)

suziebeezieland facebook group update

I think we've got the majority of the folks we're going to have in our new suziebeezieland Facebook group, so I've gone ahead and made it a Closed group. You can still join it! It just means that people on Facebook who do not belong to this group will only be able to see the group's description.

It also means that I must approve any new requests to join the group.  Again, any regular suziebeezieland visitors are welcome to join. :)

If you do not want your activities in the Facebook groups you're in to show up on your news feed (ex., "Suzanne has commented in the suziebeezieland group" or "Petunia has joined the group 'Save the Petunias,'") you need to edit your Group settings.

To do this, go to your Facebook account. Select "Applications" (way down in the lower left-hand corner), then select "Edit", then, next to "Groups," select "Edit Settings". On the Wall tab, choose "Never Publish any stories from Groups," and your feed will no longer announce your group activities.

this week in the suziebeezieland facebook group

These are the discussion topics we've got going this week over in the suziebeezieland Facebook group. (Click on the "View Discussion Board" link in the right sidebar on the group page in Facebook to see all topics listed.)

I'll post here each Monday to let you know what's going on over there. :)

blue

1. found nest, 2. Bluey, 3. storytelling, 4. washing up, 5. Blue door, 6. discarded, 7. herbs, 8. It's Wednesday!, 9. Morning Blue, 10. Polka blue, 11. Untitled, 12. A Berry Good Day, 13. bokehfall, 14. sea blue, 15. wash your hands 3, 16. Untitled

God keeps His promises

The woman said to him,
“I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ).
When he comes, he will tell us all things.”

Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.”
{John 4:25, 26}

suziebeezieland facebook group

If you are a regular visitor to suziebeezieland and have a Facebook account, you are invited to join the suziebeezieland Facebook group. This is a place where we can have group discussions on different topics, see what everybody is making for dinner, see what we each look like (with our profile photos), post photos and videos to share with each other, or just say whatever is on our minds by posting on the group Wall.

I do not have to be one of your Facebook friends for you to join the group, but if you're pretty sure that I have no idea who you are, just jot me a little note when you hit the Join Group link, so that we can "meet" each other. :)

Right now the group is Open, which means Facebook members can join without approval.  Also, the group page is visible to anyone on Facebook.  Of course, I can delete comments or group members as needed.  I don't anticipate anything odd happening, although with Nadine and Mindi you never really know. :D

However, I foresee making the group Closed once we've all settled in. This would mean the Facebook public can see the group description, but not the members or our interactions.  Each new group member would also have to be approved (the link changes from Join Group to Request to Join Group when a group is Closed).  This way, we will be able to discuss things the way we felt more comfortable doing back when suziebeezieland was password-protected. It will also feel cozier. :)

For now, though, I want to keep it open to make it easy for folks to check it out and see if they want to join before they hit the "Join Group" link. :)

I will post a new discussion topic in the suziebeezieland group every few days, so check in whenever you feel like it, or start your own discussions!

There is absolutely no pressure to join our Facebook group. I just want you to know it's there if you're interested.

If you do not have a Facebook account and are still trying to decide if you want to do that or not, let me throw in my two cents here. :)

First of all, Facebook is about to change to a new interface (it will look something like the photo below), so you may wish to wait until they do that. (This should happen some time soon.)  You wouldn't want to learn how to navigate Facebook and then have to relearn it right away. :)

Second, if you think you would like to be on Facebook to interact with just a couple people, but don't want to "reconnect" with everyone you've ever met, let me assure you that the privacy settings on Facebook are fully customizable.  It looks like some of the forthcoming changes will allow you to customize your Facebook experience even further. 

When Facebook changes to its new format, I'll post a little "Facebook Tutorial" here so that you can see what I'm talking about. I am a private person but have absolutely loved Facebook, and recommend it. And I think our Facebook group could be really fun if we get into the swing of it. :) 

describe it in three words (part 2)

This is a continuation of our first Describe It In Three Words post. 

(The highest number of comments you can display on a TypePad post on one page is fifty.  Once there are fifty comments, a second page of comments begins.  Every fifty comments, a new page of comments begins. You can get to each subsequent page of comments by clicking on the link at the bottom of each comment page. This is also how you can read the newest comments on our Welcome post!)

I think that as long as we're playing this game, it's just easier if I start a new post every fifty comments! :)

Valeria had chosen the next word, which is:

picture

the garden in early march

Boy, nothing says "Welcome" like a pot of dead pansies, ay? My garden is a mess. I would despair, except that it's ALWAYS a mess in March. I have a lot of cleaning up to do. I'm still sick, so I don't have a ton of energy, and I'm just trying to do a little bit whenever I can.  So far all I have managed to do is fill the pots on the front porch with new flowers, because I thought I was probably depressing the mailman and UPS guy with all the decay. :D

I've just thrown in some violas, candytuft, and bacopa, for spring. The tall purpley flowers are scabiosa . . . also called pincushion flowers. They are very sweet, I think.

I stuck some Primroses in, too, in a shady spot. They are also very sweet. I think they will probably only last another month or so here because it will get too hot, but I could not resist them.

It made me laugh when I looked at this "Bloom!" sign, and the floppy, dying pansies.

So I've managed to repot these, too. I need to paint, but don't want to think about that right now. The purple stuff is Nemesia, and then that's bacopa again hanging off the front of the back pot. (It will spread.) There are some scabiosa in the back of the back pot, too, that you can't see. Most of these flowers (except the scabiosa) don't do well in the heat of the summer here, but should be okay through May or so.

The tulip tree in the front yard is at the end of its bloom.

And so are the camellias out back.

I don't know what is up with this bit of grass out front. It would be cool to have an entire lawn like this, all polka dotted.

One good thing is that the geraniums love the cool and the rain. They're doing great. They are perennials here, and have just been outside all winter, waiting for spring.

But the flowerbeds are pretty yukky. Mostly weeds. It's time for another family gardening afternoon! :)

tuberous begonias

If you like tuberous begonias and live in North America, it's time to start them indoors here in the next couple of weeks. :) The video above, from my favorite online nursery, White Flower Farm, shows you how to plant the tuber and get it going. Their begonia selection online is great. I didn't used to like begonias, but I've been introduced to new varieties that I think are beautiful (some really do look like roses), so now I do. :)

ps This is not a paid endorsement! Ha ha.

aqua

1. jade, 2. Nostalgic, 3. yellow shoes, 4. Once Was a Flower..., 5. odd view, 6. Miss Limeade, 7. LEAP, 8. Inspiration Pack contents, 9. Aqua & Red MAILBOX?!!, 10. window3, 11. 926, 12. living in this jar, 13. aqua, 14. the life aquatic, 15. real water isn't blue, she'll tell you, 16. Yellow Door

gudrun sjödén

When I was in Germany in December, Bob and I went for a walk one night (in Nuremberg) and one of the shops I wanted to go in was closing, but they had a basket full of catalogs by the door, so I grabbed a couple to show you.  I'd forgotten until I ran into them tonight when I was cleaning.  It's almost spring, and these wintery items will soon be obsolete. :) So quick, let me show you!

This is a Swedish company called Gudrun Sjödén. (It's the designer's name.) Have any of you seen her stuff before? I had not. (Lisa O., what information can you give us as our Official Native and Resident Swede?)  Their new spring 2009 line is up, and is adorable. Here is a screenshot of something cute on their website now, but then we will return to winter.

So, in my catalogs, some of the knits seemed heavily influenced by the style of Peruvian woven and knit goods, and I wasn't as fond of those.  But the funky takes (fresher colors and newer motifs) on more traditional Scandinavian patterns were right up my alley.

I just want to eat up this green.

Look at these cute blue mittens. You're right, what do I want with such mittens as a non-snowboarder in southern California? But still.

And look at these pinky-reds. These colors are very juicy and would cheer up wintertime, I think. (I don't care for that scarf in the background, but love the gloves and mittens.)

Look at the Mary Janes these gals are wearing.

Here is a closeup. Aren't they like funky flapper shoes? I love how the finish is kind of matte, too. (The company is Swedish, but the catalog is in German, because it was for Germany. :) "Farbkicks" means "color kicks"!)

Any company that endorses the wearing of wooly socks with nighties is okay by me.

I have worn outfits pretty similar to this when dropping Claire off at school in the morning. I'm always afraid there will be some kind of emergency and I'll have to step out of the car.

I just love all this layered clothing. Also, the wooden shingles.

Do you like this loose braid? I always think this hairstyle is so pretty. She looks like she's getting ready to go hunt dinner down with that knife and then have a nice cozy read. Or perhaps that is a how-to-whittle book.

Mark, you need to scope out some of these shoot locations. We need a stone tower and a gravel field here in San Gabriel.  The texture of the warm knits is enhanced against the cold stone. Or something. :D

We also need a lighthouse, even though we're quite a bit inland. I've always wanted to live in a lighthouse. Did any of you ever watch that one mystery series about Jonathan somebody who lived in a lighthouse and solved murder mysteries while he worked for a magician? Or maybe he was a magician. What was it called again? Jonathan Creek! He had a great toggled coat like Paddington Bear, and crazy hair and good cheekbones, and I loved him. (I loved Jonathan Creek. Not Alan Davies.) Hold on, I'll find a photo of Jonathan Creek online.

Okay, now back to the Gudrun catalog. Here is the lighthouse.

I like the rainbow of options for the sweaters and tights and so on.

Oh, all these mittens and socks would make everything better.  It's so dumb that in America such patterns are mostly for kids. Who are the fun-stealing police who decided we have to be boring? 

Look how cool the boots up top are, with the ties that go around. And the Mary Poppins bootlets below!

Look! They sell a little "Thermosflasche ein und dann" . . .

. . . which you can strap on to your belt stylishly (no language but French -- not Swedish, not German, not English -- really sums up how cool these accessoires really are), along with the knife, and your loose braid, and your layered, colorful knits, and your boots with the neat tie-arounds, and off you go, to whittle something with that knife. Or maybe peel an apple, all in one long curly piece, which would also make a nice accessoire of some type.

spring is sprung. almost.

If you're longing for spring, you can sprout some grass in about three days (no kidding . . . this stuff grows very, very quickly) in a windowsill that gets even a little light. (I have mine in the kitchen window which has a large overhang and no direct sun, but they still are growing like crazy.)

I used a packet of Renee's Garden Mixed Greens.  I found them at our local Smith & Hawken, but I've seen them at regular nurseries, too. It's marketed as "Gourmet Cat Treats," but all it is is a mixture of equal parts rye, oats, barley, and wheat grasses. Sprinkle several seeds in some potting soil (or use Jiffy's Quick Soil Mix, which are the little pellets that expand when you add water, and are perfect for starting seeds), and keep them damp.

Let the kids give them haircuts every couple of days with the scissors. :) It's so fun.