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The Summer String Summit All-Star Concert, held 7/7/10 at the College of the Siskiyous in Weed, CA was one of the most incredible musical events I have ever witnessed. The list of performers goes on and on and included such string-music luminaries as Tim O’Brien, Darol Anger, Bruce Molsky, Natalie and Brittany Haas, Billy Contreras, Tristan and Tashina Clarridge, and I’m going to stop there because it would take me hours to get everyone’s name on the list. To learn more about the event, and keep tabs on what’s in store for next year, check the website: www.SummerStringSummit.com I got to make a few appearances at the concert. I sang with my good friend Kristin Andreassen on her song “Pale Moon,” I also appeared as Johnny Shasta with the acapella singing group the Shastations. Here’s a photo:
I also played my song “Seed and a Feather” with Maeve Gilchrist on Harp, Paul Kowert on bass, Tashina Clarridge on fiddle, and Sarah Jarosz singing vocal harmonies. That was sweet. What a time at Mt. Shasta fiddle camp! I’m in awe of what Tristan and Tashina Clarridge have accomplished in 6 years since the camp’s founding. Here’s a live show from the Rockwood Music Hall in NY, NY, recorded by John Mahon on June 29, 2010. The band is Erik Deutsch on piano, Jacob Silver on bass, and Marc Dalio on drums. You can download the songs individually by right-clicking or control-clicking on the links, or just listen to them here with the embedded mp3 player. There’s also youtube videos of this concert available online. Big thanks to John for filming, recording, and uploading these songs!
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Hey folks, Happy summer to you! Here in New York, the weather services are celebrating by issuing a severe weather warning due to heat and humidity. Standing today one block from my Brooklyn apartment, looking down 23rd Street across the East River, I could barely make out the Statue of Liberty through a hazy mirage of heated, 95 degree smog. Humbled by the swelter, I can’t help but look forward to this week’s trip to dry, breezy California! This Friday, Laura Cortese and I return to Berkeley’s Freight and Salvage for a headlining show, following up our opening set for David Lindley last March. Then I join up with acclaimed Boston fiddler Tashina Clarridge for a Sacramento concert before heading up to Mt. Shasta Fiddle Camp, where I’ll be teaching and performing with some of the best acoustic musicians on the planet. New Yorkers take note- before leaving the subways behind, I’m doing a full band show at the Rockwood Music Hall this Tuesday. Joining me are some of my best friends and favorite musicians in New York City- Erik Deutsch on piano, Jacob Silver on bass, and Marc Dalio on drums. I’ll be playing electric guitar and singing original and traditional songs. This show starts early- 6:00. I hope to see you there! There’s lots happening later this summer, including the live-performance debut of my Child Ballads collaboration with Vermont songwriter Anais Mitchell. We’ve been interpreting these classic songs from England and Scotland for an album we’re recording this August. Come to the Jalopy Theater in Brooklyn on July 9th for a sneak preview of these rich, melodic stories reinvented. We’re co-headlining with our favorite duo Mike and Ruthy! There’s new shows being added to the schedule all the time, so stop by this website to keep in touch. If you like, you can sign up for the RSS feed to get new blog posts sent to your favorite reader or email! Laura Cortese and Jefferson Hamer’s debut album, Two Amps, One Microphone is available for download here. Finally, you can listen to some of my newest songs on the Facebook Music Page. Thanks for your support, and I hope to see you soon. -Jefferson upcoming shows: Friday, July 2 – 8:00 PM Saturday July 3 – 7:00 PM Wednesday, July 7th – 7:30 PM Fri, Jul. 9 – 9:00 PM and looking further ahead: Fri, Aug. 13 other July dates with Anais Mitchell: Sun, Jul. 11 – 6:00 PM Sun, Jul. 18 August West Coast Tour with Anais Mitchell September Midwest Tour with Anais Mitchell Fri, Sep. 3 – 7:30 PM Sat, Sep. 4 Wed, Sep. 8 – 8:00 PM Fri, Sep. 10 Sat, Sep. 11 – 7:00 PM Share:
The night before I see you
I wonder if I’ll see you at all.
Will some gallant have ridden you off
on his thundering horse
to an exciting life uptown
or a tall house in the country, perfect for forgetting?
Last time I could barely contain myself
And scribbled letters like these
To remind you that I was still near
Until I came home
And when I came home
I wished I had a house in the country, but had none.
The third time we made love
I think of as the first time
We let the sober daylight stream in your window
i don’t remember well
how you said ” let’s get up”
how you were, in your way, already letting me down easy
 Todd Livingston, Jefferson Hamer, and Sam Grisman at Pagosa I’m pretty sure that Delta employees profile musicians. They target them from behind closed circuit cameras and lick salty lips in anticipation of the coming excess baggage charge. They dress like cafeteria workers in a privatized high-school lunch program and treat their customers like 4th graders who forgot their milk money. I’d go on longer but I’m trying to bury too many bad memories, and as a friend of mine once said, talking about your troubles only makes them stick around longer. In fairness, she was talking about emotional dysfunction, which is a condition I’m threatening to approach if I wait for this delayed Delta flight any longer.
I’m back in New York after a three-week trip to Colorado, which for the most part was a total delight. I kicked things off at the Pagosa Folk and Bluegrass festival, where I caught up with some old friends and saw some great music. Darrell Scott’s festival-closing solo set was a particular highlight. Here’s a shot of my friends in the Bearfoot band, who taught the kids’ camp all week and then played a great set on the main stage.
After an all-night drive on Sunday, I headed to Denver and moved in with the guys from Boulder Acoustic Society. We rehearsed for three days and recorded for six, nailing down five songs for their new acoustic EP. It’s called Coal, Cotton, and Dust, and it’s going to come out in August. It was a joy to produce their record. On the last night, sometime around 2:00 AM, Aaron Keim started bowing his open-back banjo while bassist Neil McCormick controlled the settings on engineer John Macy’s Space Echo unit. I have no idea how much of the stuff is going to make it into the final mix, but in my hazy memory I remember it sounding a bit like Ravi Shankar sitting in on a Donovan record. We worked late every night and ate Mexican food from a curiously plural taqueria called Tacoss.  Boulder Acoustic Society (back row): Aaron Keim, Neil McCormick, Scott McCormick, Scott Aller - (front row): producer Jefferson Hamer, engineer John Macy I finished off the Colorado trip at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival, where I reconnected with old friends and enjoyed an all-star lineup. Highlights included Irish Rockabilly sensation Imelda May, who made me want to trade in my Tele for an old Gretsch hollowbody and sing gravel-throated breakup songs while strutting across the stage in a sexy dress. Other highlights included Swedish progressive folk trio Vasen, and Bela Fleck, Edgar Meyer, and Zakir Hussein. I had to catch an early AM flight out of Denver, so I missed the Sunday night headliner Mumford and Sons, but I caught them on the radio. They sounded as fun to watch as they looked to hang out with. I regret having to miss their rousing, emotional performance. Speaking of regrets: I missed my chance at a Friday night tweener- 9:45 PM, right after Lyle Lovett- because as I was warming up backstage the crew mistook me as the guitarist for Leftover Salmon (I’ve never been mistaken for Vince Herman before, maybe it’s the grey hair). Rumours were circulating the next day that I had been forcibly escorted from the backstage area by commandos in desert fatigue. Maybe they caught wind that I was going to play a 25+ verse English Ballad about a woman cursed to stay pregnant forever and her plan to break the spell by employing a wax baby deception at a staged christening party called “Willy’s Lady” (hey, they told me to play something “trippy”). Look for that hit single on my upcoming ballads record with Anais Mitchell. Recording commences this August. Share:
Hey everybody, I’d like to mention a show I’m doing on Tuesday, June 29 at 6:00 PM at the Rockwood Music Hall in New York’s Lower East Side. I’ll be playing a one hour set of voltage-enhanced originals and electric versions of a few traditional folk ballads. I’m bringing a great band with me, featuring Jake Silver on Bass (Tao Seeger, The Mammals), Marc Dalio on Drums (Erin Mckeown, Michael Leonhart), and Erik Deutsch on Keys and Piano (Charlie Hunter, Norah Jones, Sasha Dobson). I’d love to make a strong showing at this early time slot. Hope to see you there! Tuesday, June 29 – 6:00 Share:
Check out Nikolai’s photography site at: http://www.nikolaifox.net/index.html Share:
Like any great week at any great summer camp, this week’s Ballad Camp with Anais Mitchell and Gary Martin has just flown by. We’ve got a couple new Child Ballads tucked under our elbows, and I learned a dozen more arcane ways to say, “Father, I’m pregnant.” I even got a sunburn. Would you like to see it?
We’re sad to pack up and leave Assonet, MA, but we’ve got a festival in New Holland, PA to drive to, and I’ve got to hurry back to New York to do my roommate’s dishes and throw some bills in the paper recycling before I pay them online. Gary cooked some incredible meals for us. Here’s a picture of his ribs. He also fed us steak and pork tenderloin, and we went out for amazing Portuguese food at Antonio’s in New Bedford. We drank a fair amount of wine. It was a carnivorous weekend. I’m ready to hang out with my vegetarian friends again. I wish I could talk more about the music, but everything is under construction and there’s not much I want to share just yet. Let’s say we’ve been reinventing wheels and they’re finally starting to turn. A little more grease and we’re going to be racing downhill at a terrifying pace. Everything is on schedule for our recording dates this August in Vancouver, WA with John Raham (of the Be Good Tanyas and Po’ Girl fame, who I worked with on Reed Foehl’s 2009 record Once and Ocean).
-Jefferson p.s. Be sure to check out Anais’ summer tour schedule online at http://anaismitchell.com, and mine in the “schedule” link up above in the title bar. We’re doing lots of shows together, including some featuring some new songs from Ballad Camp! Share:
 by Jessica Conlan-Glover Jessica Conlan-Glover made this painting. I think it’s kind of cool that someone bothered to make a painting of me. I’ve never painted anyone before. You wouldn’t want me to try either. Be sure to contact her if you want to turn it into a t-shirt, bridge-sized mural, state flag, or something. |
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Copyright © 2010 Jefferson Hamer Music - All Rights Reserved |
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My friend Nikolai Fox is a great old-time fiddler and photographer. Back in May 2008, in Durham, NH, he snapped this picture of me serenading a flaming chair. It reminds me of being a young boy, lighting things on fire in the kitchen. One time when I was eleven I poured an incendiary mix of dried basil, black pepper, and scotch whiskey into a burning candle. The flames leapt dangerously close to the teak-wood light fixtures overhead, and I thought it might be best to douse them with a glass of water. The whole thing turned into a science-lesson-learned-the-hard-way, as a spreading grease fire nearly incinerated the kitchen counter. I think we put it out with some towels. Considering the potental hazard to life and property, I’d say Mom let me off easy with a sharp verbal rebuke and a trip to my room.
