Music of Love

February's Music (and Barley) Appreciation Night at 604 was all about love... February being Valentine's month and all... so:

Straight to the music...

Anybody Else But You
-- The Moldy Peaches

Chuck E's In Love
-- Rickie Lee Jones

Prego Amore
-- Erlund Oye

Variations On A Theme (Paginini) # 18
-- Sergei Rachmaninoff

A Remark You Made
-- Jerry Douglas

Glory Box
-- Portishead

I've Just seen A Face
-- The Beatles

Cassandra's Song
-- Jonathan Lawson

I Feel The Earth Move
-- Carole King

Hey Mister, That's Me Up On The Jukebox
-- Linda Ronstadt

Tu Solo Tu
-- Linda Ronstadt (en Español)

Jesus of Rio
-- David Crosby and Graham Nash

Cayman Islands
-- Kings of Convenience

More Than Words
-- Extreme

Misty
-- Carol Butler ("Live" on the Baldwin SF-7)

Delilah
-- Josh Wilson

Jericho
-- Joni Mitchell

For All We Know
-- Joan Baez

Vocalese (Rachmaninoff)
-- Julia Tanner

Someone To Lay Down Beside Me
-- Karla Bonoff



In attendance were Marie, Pete, Wade, Tyler O, Adam, Matt and Amanda, David and Heidi, Rusty and Zoraida, and Yours Truly and Carol.



Tasty Brews were in abundance... a good thing since we started the evening late, and ended it later still. They were:


Woodchuck Pear Cider (Green Mountain Beverage, Middlebury VT, USA)

Gaelic Ale (Highland Brewing Company, Asheville NC, USA)

Yeungling Black and Tan (D. G. Yeungling and Son, Pottsville PA, USA)

Ettaler Curator Dunkler Dopplebock (Klosterbrauerei Ettaler, Ettal, DE)

Left Hand Milk Stout (Left Hand Brewing, Longmont CO, USA)

Black Strap Stout (Bridgeport Brewing, Portland OR, USA)

Gumballhead American Red Wheat Beer (Three Floyds Brewing, Munster IN, USA)

Thunderhead IPA (Pyramid Brewing, Portland OR, USA)

Taproom 21 Pale Ale (Moe's Brewing Company, LaCrosse WI, USA)

ESB (Sierra Nevada Brewing Company, Chico CA, USA)


What an amazingly great time to love beer and live in this country... notice all but one of our tasty brews is created right here in the US of A. The Ettaller Dunkler notwithstanding, a lovely evening of Music, and Barley.

Until next time,

HB

April Rocks!

Time again for Music (and Barley) Appreciation Night at 604!

Saturday night, April 26 is the date... plenty of time to scope some tasty brew, collect some tasty music and put it on your tasty calendar! Since April rocks, let's rock in April! With the possible exception of Death Metal, there's a lot of very good ground to cover since "Moondog" Alan Freed referred to rhythm & blues "race" music as "rock'n'roll" on Cleveland's WJW radio in 1952... coincidentally, the year of my birth. His first band, in the late '30s in Salem, Ohio, was "The Sultans of Swing." I always wondered where Knopfler came up with that name... More at:

http://www.alanfreed.com

So... we shall, as the kids used to say, "Rock On!" in April. Tasty classic rock, hard rock, gospel rock, soft rock, country rock, jazz rock, roots rock... whatever is your preference.

7 pm at 604 Darlington Place in Crieve Hall (directions are below). Go to our blog (www.musicandbarley.blogspot.com) for a sampling of the things we've heard and the beverage we've tasted in months past.

For those of you who have not yet made it over, bring two or three selections, either LP, CD or DVD, of music. MP3 and other iPod-compressed tracks are acceptable, but discouraged, as is disco and, of course, Death Metal. If you have vinyl, bring it. The ReVox tangential tracking table, preamp/receiver and DiscWasher are still in the living room.

As to the Barley, it will be served in the format of a tasting. Bring along your choice(s) of a favorite brew or something you've not yet tasted. Three cans or bottles, or two pints of each beer selection should provide a nice 2-3 oz. sample for each of us. Try to read up on your choices and let us know where, how and why they're brewed, and why you love them. Soft drink, coffee and a variety of teas are available for those so inclined.

See you then!

Harry, and the Inestimable Carol

'Blessed' Music Recap

Straight to the evening's playlists:

MUSIC

- Three Ring Circle
   "Do You Hear What I Hear?"
   (Recorded by Harry Butler, Nashville Unlimited Christmas Benefit, 2007)

- Czech Choir, Prague, CR
   "All Creatures Of Our God And King"
   (Recorded by Harry Butler at the International Church Music Festival, 2007)

- Orpheus Male Ensemble
   "Ukrainian State Hymn"
   (Recorded by Harry Butler at the International Church Music Festival, 2007)

- John Mayer
   "Vultures"
   (Continuum)

- LASERDISC: Emmylou Harris & the Nash Ramblers
   "Scotland", "It's A Hard Life Wherever You Go / Abraham, Martin & John"
   (At The Ryman)

- DVD: Sigur Ros
   "Hoppipolla"
   (Heima)

- Glad
   "We Praise Thee, Oh God"
   (Recorded by Harry Butler, 1981)

- Polyphony & Stephen Layton
   "I Thank You God For Most This Amazing Day" (text from ee cummings)
   (Whitacre: Cloudburst)

- The Fire Theft
   "Heaven"
   (The Fire Theft)

- Patty Griffin
   "Burgundy Shoes"
   (Children Running Through)

- Will Barrow
   "You're Not Alone"
   (Recorded by Harry Butler, Nashville Unlimited Christmas Benefit, 2007)

- Buddy Green
   "Mary, Did You Know?"
   (Recorded by Harry Butler, Nashville Unlimited Christmas Benefit, 2007)

- Blair Collegium Vocale
   "Ave Maria (Stravinsky)"
   (Recorded by Harry Butler, 12.06.07)

- Waterdep
   "18 Bullet Holes"
   (Sink Or Swim)

- Gram Parsons
   "Streets Of Baltimore"
   (GP / Grievous Angel)

- DVD: Various Artists
   "Amazing Grace"
   (Awake, My Soul - The Story of the Sacred Harp)

- Three Ring Circle with Johnny Neel
   "Good King Wenceslas"
   (Recorded by Harry Butler, Nashville Unlimited Christmas Benefit, 2007)

BARLEY

- Shiner Blonde - (Spoetzl) - Blonde Ale
- 1664 - (Kronenbourg) - Lager
- Lager - (Yuengling) - American Lager
- Hazelnut Brown Nectar - (Rogue) - Nut Brown Ale
- Cadillac Mountain Stout - (Bar Harbor) - Stout

'Autumn Leaves' Recap (Very Late)

Straight to the evening's playlists:

MUSIC

- YouTube Video: Stanley Jordan Trio
   "Autumn Leaves"
   (Live In Montreal)

- Stephen Mayer
   "Willow Weep For Me"
   (Art Tatum: Improvisations)

- Saffire - The Uppity Blues Women
   "School Teacher Blues"
   (Deluxe Edition)

- Dave Brubeck Quartet
   "Little Girl Blue"
   (Jazz: Red, Hot And Cool)

- Billie Holiday
   "Night And Day"
   (Lady Day - The Best Of Billie Holiday)

- The Style Council
   "The Paris Match"
   (Introducing The Style Council)

- Led Zeppelin
   "That's The Way"
   (Led Zeppelin III)

- Over The Rhine
   "Drunkard's Prayer"
   (Drunkard's Prayer)

- YouTube Video: Eva Cassidy
   "Autumn Leaves"
   (Live At Blues Alley)

- David Mead
   "Nashville"
   (Indiana)

- The Cardigans
   "You're The Storm"
   (Long Gone Before Daylight)

- St. George's Episcopal Choir
   "Psalm 47" (Plainsong)
   (Recorded by Harry Butler, International Church Music Festival - 2007)

- Saffire - The Uppity Blues Women
   "The Middle-Aged Blues Boogie"
   (Deluxe Edition)


BARLEY

- Pecan Harvest Ale - (Abita) - Pale Ale
- Oktoberfest Marzen - (Left Hand) - Oktoberfest Lager
- Oktoberfest - (Bluegrass Brewing) - Oktoberfest Lager
- Schwarz Weisse - (Woosbacher) - Dark Wheat
- Oktoberfest - (Paulaner) - Oktoberfest Lager
- Black & Tan - (Yuengling) - Black & Tan

Life Is Far Too Short To Drink Cheap Beer - 10 Ways To Maximize Your Beer Value

Found a wonderful article about enjoying quality beer and thought it deserved a post.


By Al at Hop Talk

Editors Note: I wrote a piece on how to save money on beer awhile back and Al chasized me for only considering how to save money and not about how to get true value. In response, he has put together this list of how to get the best value out of the beer you buy.

First, stop thinking of beer as a commodity. It’s not toilet paper, or screws, or an all-you-can-eat buffet. Stop thinking of beer in terms of the bland, yellow, fizzy beverages foisted on the American public by huge brewing conglomerates. Not just the big American brewers, who have spent countless marketing dollars convincing most of us that beer is supposed to be bland, yellow, and fizzy, but also their overseas counterparts who offer essentially the same product but use the additional marketing message that theirs is better because it’s imported. In spite of being upwards of 80%+ of the American domestic beer market, American light lagers are by no means the entire universe of beer. In the U.S. alone, the Brewers Association recognizes well over 100 distinct styles of beer, and even within those styles are the brewer’s own variations.

Beer is a food. It is made from grain (almost always barley), hops, yeast, and water. Except for the hops, and if the grain was milled into flour instead of malted for brewing, you’d have a basic bread recipe. When is bread best? As fresh as possible. It is just as true for beer. To stretch the beer as bread analogy a little further, industrial-brewed American light lagers are the beer equivalent of Wonder Bread. Don’t you want a nice, hearty loaf?

So, if you are ready slough off the misconceptions of maximizing quantity of your beer and instead get the most value, i.e., enjoyment, out of your beer, here are some simple tips.

In an effort to promote blogs of fellow beer lovers, please use this link to read the rest of the article:

Life Is Far Too Short To Drink Cheap Beer - 10 Ways To Maximize Your Beer Value

Autumn Leaves (10.28)

Greetings, friends and lovers of music and brew...

Time for another installment of "Music (and Barley) Appreciation Night at 604." The date is Sunday evening, October 28. The musical mood should be informed by "Autumn Leaves." For those chronically unhip amongst you, that means cool, easy jazz... a nice counter to last month's "HOT!" music. According to iTunes, "Autumn Leaves" has been recorded well over 130 times... probably not as many as "White Christmas," but very likely at least 129 times more than "Who Let The Dogs Out." Since we don't want 15 versions in an evening (although two or three would be cool), listen to a sample on iTunes, at Borders, or otherwise, and let the vibe inform your choice of M&B musical fare.

As to Barley, now is the time for Bocks, Oktoberfests, and other autumnal brews to flourish. Or, as usual, just bring along something you really enjoy, or something that looks interesting that you've not yet tried. Three 12-oz or a couple of pints of each choice serves us all well. Light snacks (breads, cheeses, crackers) or desserts are always appreciated. Soft drinks, tea and coffee are available for Barley-free souls.

We missed a reading or two last month (as newcomer Scott S. pointed out), so do come prepared this month... as he did last.

Let me know who's in, and who's out. And, do bring a spouse, a friend or two, or a significant other. You'll be glad you did.

Where else...?

So... where else but Music (and Barley) Appreciation Night can one listen music from Klezmer to a Greek Tubaist; see a DVD of Joe Walsh and James Taylor on the same stage, playing the same song; listen to classic vinyl and unreleased CDs; enjoy pizza, fresh-baked bread and seven different beers... five of which I'd not ever heard... all finished up with Young's Luxury Double Chocolate Stout and fresh-baked brownies.

What an amazing evening. Here's to next time!