Thursday, May 26, 2011

love letter 5/26/11

D Section

First up, if you are a fan of the D Note, will you please go onto Yelp and say why you are a fan? That would help us out a bunch. And if you do put something up, then come in and let us know. We want to say thank you in person.

Also, we are looking for a part time sound man. If you are interested, or know someone that might be, inquire within. Gracias.

Friday night this week starts out with a free concert by the uber-talented songwriter and performer Rob Drabkin at 5pm.

At 7pm Friday Drew Schofield Band is back in the house. Class act. Then the blues dance band Blind Child is playing at 9pm and will rock the night away. $5.

Saturday we have a tango lesson at 4pm followed by the big band jazz of Serenade In Blue. Perfect way to spend an afternoon.

At 7pm Saturday we have the beautiful (and funny) bluegrass folk of the OK Trio at 7pm. They do an excellent Men At Work.

One of our favorite local bands, Junk Drawer, plays at 9:30pm. This is a heavy blues rock band, with a Ween side to their personality. Last time they played they all wore the classic Get Your Phil At The D Note t-shirts.

At 10:30pm we have crunchy ska dub of Transverse Universe. Altogether Saturday is gonna be a lovely night.

Next Tuesday we have band who is traveling through from Austin Texas called The Warm Guns, twee indie rock. They are playing with a local Arvada band called The Belle Jar. Good stuff.

Just a heads up. Next Friday at 9:30p we start a new Friday night series at D Note, Tropical Latin Nights, featuring the band Los Lunaticos and DJ Javi (spinning Cumbia, Bachata, Reggaeton and more.) Mark the date. www.dnote.us for more info.

Yours,

D sponder

Extra credit: Here's a poem from a recent New Yorker by W.S. Merwin called "Turning". It is one of those poems that we read and dismissed. But then it came back later to haunt us.


TURNING

Going to fast for myself I missed
more than I think I can remember

almost everything it seems sometimes
and yet there are chances that come back

that I did not notice when they stood
where I could have reached out and touched them

this morning the black shepherd dog
still young looking up and saying

Are you ready this time

Thursday, May 19, 2011

weekend update 5/19/11

Freddy Franks

Strange how when someone goes
they instantly become myth,
the most of the that that they were.
There is an essence, a spirit

that stays behind in which we can feel
the whole arc of the life.
He preached the gospel every
Sunday for fifty eight years

at the Silver Moon Full Gospel Church
in Granby Missouri. You can imagine
how good he was at the end after all
that practice. (He never retired.)

To give you an idea consider
that he played baseball in college
and could have gone pro, but
instead became a pastor.

(That is the stuff legend is made of,
the All American future baseball star
giving up fame and fortune for
the tending to of a few.)

So just imagine all the heat of the great athlete
directed into the performance at the pulpit,
a little bit of Jerry Lee Lewis' great balls of fire
crossed with the charm of Elvis Presley

and the vocal inflections of Woody Guthrie.
It is a special music that I can hear in my own voice sometimes,
but just barely. This special voice is shared by my grandfather too.
I wish I could hear even more of the sound in me.

Perhaps in homage to these men I will begin to imitate them
and draw out my adverbs, juuuuust for emphasis,
and throw in more "shoots", "brother", "sister"
"man" and "friend" into my language too.

. . .

Think of the vulnerability at the pulpit, the humility
necessary in baring your soul before a congregation
week after week, for thousands of weeks. My Land!
I love to walk in the graveyard in Granby

that Freddy tended and in which he will be buried Saturday.
My Grandfather has taken me through this cemetery
several times and likes to tell stories about the people
buried there, dozens of which, I would imagine,

Freddy helped bury. Even in death
a community will stick together, held together
by the names carved on the stones
and the memories of the living.

. . .

Often as I'm feeling something powerful
I find the music I just happen to be listening to will suddenly
mean something. As I'm writing this I'm listening to a CD
by a songwriter that hopes to play the D Note, John Statz.

The one-line chorus of this beautiful song
repeats over and over, "They mean everything to me."
These words seem to me now to embody
the very meaning of the Granby cemetery.

And it feels appropriate that these words
should come to me in song. Fred
had a beautiful voice and often
led the congregation in song.

I can hear him now in my voice, friend,
ever alive in my vowels, singing
with the angels in heaven and sung
for an lo o o ng time to come.

Thursday, May 12, 2011

weekend update 5/12/11

D La Souls

Hello again dear friends. Thanks for being here. We hope to make it worth your while.

Friday night we have a Free Afternoon Concert w/ Vickie Pompea from Ft. Collins at 5pm. Think John Denver if he was born a woman. Then at 7pm we have the 1, 2 punch of Mitch Lehn Folk Trio (and we always have to qualify that these guys are not a trio, nor folk, nor named Mitch Lehn), followed by The Jake Leg Shakers. These guys always give us a good show. The night ends with an ALL Cream and Jimi Hendrix set by Reverend Hooch at 10:30p. $5. There is a drink special for the night, Hendrix gin w/ cream and Chambord. Ask for a Hendrix and Cream.

Saturday afternoon we have a D Note World Family Concert w/ Rocky Mountain Steel Bands. $7 ($3 for kids under 12). There will be several student steel bands performing.

Saturday at 7p we have a CD release show for Victoria Woodsworth. Victoria once lived in Denver and even won a Westword nod for best songwriter 6 years ago. She now lives in Nashville and we're excited to hear her new songs. Trinity Demask will open the show, another excellent songwriter local to Arvada. $5.

At 9pm we have 3 indie rock bands, Vagrant Son, Firebird 4k and Zombie Survival Guide. Rock on. $5.

Next Thurs night mark your calendar for the ALL BILL MURRAY trivia quiz at 7pm hosted by Geeks Who Drink.

Next Friday we have a Long Spoon Collective Showcase w/ Ian Cooke, Esme (from Paperbird) and several more.

Next Saturday is a birthday party for Bob Dylan who is turning 70. Check out www.dnote.us for more info.

Exeunt,

D Facto

--

Extra Credit: On the front left window of the D Note someone has pasted a Petrarchan Sonnet by Gwendolyn Brooks. This poem is a tricky one and we've been turning it over and over in our minds ever since we first saw it. Here it is.

First Fight. Then Fiddle.

First fight. Then fiddle. Ply the slipping string
With feathery sorcery; muzzle the note
With hurting love; the music that they wrote
Bewitch, bewilder. Qualify to sing
Threadwise. Devise no salt, no hempen thing
For the dear instrument to bear. Devote
The bow to silks and honey. Be remote
A while from malice and from murdering.
But first to arms, to armor. Carry hate
In front of you and harmony behind.
Be deaf to music and to beauty blind.
Win war. Rise bloody, maybe not too late
For having first to civilize a space
Wherein to play your violin with grace.

–Gwendolyn Brooks, 1949

Thursday, May 5, 2011

love letter 5/5/11

D friend

The D Note has two things in common with Facebook. Number one they are both community oriented. But they are both a lot of fun too. FB is, essentially, life boiled down to pithily witty comments between friends. If you have pithily witty friends that is. If not you can always friend the D Note and we'll do our best to be withily pity.

Okay, focus. The keyboardist for Leftover Salmon, Bill Mckay, has moved to Arvada. To welcome himself to Arvada he is playing a free Friday afternoon concert this Friday at the D Note at 5p. Come enjoy the treat. Good stuff all night after that, Jonina Diel (7p), James Hurtado (8p), Dave Boylan Band (9p), Cadillac Grip (R&B and funk dance band) (10:30p). We will be dancing.

Saturday morning is more dance, with Zumba at 10:30. Then at noon, even more, as the Music Train Family Concert Series presents Ricardo Pena salsa band. $7 kids/$3 adults. Cool lunch date with your kids. At 3pm Saturday is more music, with a open jam-band jam (is that a tautology? a jam sandwich?) hosted by Ben and Bill. At 6:45p Saturday is a very young, but good rock band called Synergy. They pump a lot of energy into the D Note.

At 8:30p Saturday we have the long awaited return of the The Mumbles. Firefighter Mike Berg has been a friend to the D Note since day one, and he's also a hell of a songwriter, especially if you like XTC, or say, The Beatles. Mike has brought along another couple bands made up of firefighters, Hot Robots and Reckless Nights. $5. We're stoked (like a fire)

This coming Sunday morning we have designed especially with Mothers in mind. Moms can leave kids at home with Dad and come treat themselves to yoga lead by Nicki Viera w/ live music by Melissa Ivey and Adam DeGraff at 10a. And then have the rest of the family come meet you at 11am for Mello Cello brunch w/ breakfast pizzas, mimosas, bloody marys and of course, cello beautifully played by Monica Sales. Then go home for naps and come back for Baby Boogie at 2p-6p. Cocktail hour. Then take the kids home to the sitter and come back to the D Note for salsa lessons at 8pm followed by La Candela salsa orquestra. $8. Sounds like an epic mother's day to us!

Next Tuesday there will be several student acapella groups. Fun. Next Friday night we have a Jimi Hendrix and Cream Tribute. Next Saturday day is a D Note World Family Concert featuring steel bands. Go to www.dnote.us for details and the rest of the scoop.

Signing off,

D scribe

Extra credit: In recent weeks we have shared poetry with the theme of blessings and curses. Here's another take, lyrics from a new song by Lucina Williams.


Blessed

We were blessed by the minister
Who practiced what he preached

We were blessed by the poor man
Who said heaven is within reach

We were blessed by the girl selling roses
Showed us how to live

We were blessed by the neglected child
Who knew how to forgive

We were blessed by the battered woman
Who didn't seek revenge

We were blessed by the warrior
Who didn't need to win

We were blessed by the blind man
Who could see for miles and miles

We were blessed by the fighter
Who didn't fight for the prize

We were blessed by the mother
Who gave up the child

We were blessed by the soldier
Who gave up his life

We were blessed by the teacher
Who didn't have a degree

We were blessed by the prisoner
Who knew how to be free

We were blessed by the mystic
Who turned water into wine

We were blessed by the watchmaker
Who gave up his time

We were blessed by the wounded man
Who felt no pain

By the wayfaring stranger
Who knew our names

We were blessed by the homeless man
Who showed us the way home

We were blessed by the hungry man
Who filled us with love

By the little innocent baby
Who taught us the truth

We were blessed by the forlorn
Forsaken and abused

We were blessed