Small Talk: Out of Genoa

[peacheslatour]

"Most annoying carol"

Paul McCartney and Mariah Carey would like a word.

[OhioSongbird]

Nah....."Little Drummer Boy" hands down.....

[SweePea59]

On 12/8/2020 at 11:13 PM, boes said:

Thanks for asking, Snaporaz.  I was really tired on Monday, slept most of the day.  Today was better but I still feel pretty beat.  And I see Hazel everywhere, out of the corner of my eye, just out of reach.  That's not so bad, though.  

Oh, boes, so sorry for your loss. It's just a few days over 2 months since little Inky passed. I miss her so much. But she is still around. She didn't want to go and tried to stay as long as she could. I still catch glimpses of her and feel her presence around me a lot. 

[SweePea59]

On 12/19/2020 at 4:06 PM, peacheslatour said:

He is his same cheery self though.

 

That's a good sign. I hope he's doing better and better.

On 12/16/2020 at 9:25 AM, OhioSongbird said:

I got out of the hospital Nov 10th and I'm getting better everyday (in small increments....just started getting into the shower by myself a couple of days ago).  Still waaaaay low on stamina.....the fatigue thing is no joke. 

So glad to hear you are getting better. It takes a longer time than usual to recover from this. Hang in there.

[bannana]

Just to prove there are stupid people everywhere, a few people and businesses tried to get the health order overturned because people being traumatized by "cancelling Christmas" would be more harmed than, you know, actually getting COVID-19 and dying. One guy was live tweeting the proceedings and it was hilarious to hear their arguments, which included calling the Chief Medical Officer tyrannical and stating that the data on cases and deaths was simply untrue, but providing no evidence to back this claim.

All of this is because our provincial gov't finally decided to implement more severe restrictions that will last at least 4 weeks. And because people are being told that they cannot invite other people to their homes during this time, which means families and friends cannot get together for Christmas.

The judge rejected the application. Thankfully!

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/emergency-injunction-government-covid-public-health-orders-1.5849157

 

[peacheslatour]

1 minute ago, bannana said:

Just to prove there are stupid people everywhere, a few people and businesses tried to get the health order overturned because people being traumatized by "cancelling Christmas" would be more harmed than, you know, actually getting COVID-19 and dying. One guy was live tweeting the proceedings and it was hilarious to hear their arguments, which included calling the Chief Medical Officer tyrannical and stating that the data on cases and deaths was simply untrue, but providing no evidence to back this claim.

All of this is because our provincial gov't finally decided to implement more severe restrictions that will last at least 4 weeks. And because people are being told that they cannot invite other people to their homes during this time, which means families and friends cannot get together for Christmas.

The judge rejected the application. Thankfully!

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/emergency-injunction-government-covid-public-health-orders-1.5849157

 

So ridiculous. SMDH.

[bannana]

As I mentioned, we are in pretty much a lockdown, and cannot see family or friends in our homes. This is because people didn't follow the rules before and our numbers are spiking.

Therefore, I have been watching a lot of Christmas movies.

I watched one today called Christmas with a View. Jess Walton has a role. it was released in 2018. Her face looked really awful, botoxy, and she actually looks much better now on Show.

But the weird thing was as part of the plot, they are looking at an old photo, and the young male lead asks if she recognizes his parents who had visited the lodge she owns. She says no, I would have been a kid at that time. Then they look at the date on the photo and I think it was the mid eighties. So for her to have been a kid in the mid-eighties she would have to have been born ca. 1970.  Which is like 20 years later than when JW was born. It was so bizarre. No way does she look 50 in this movie. Well, maybe a rode hard and put away wet 50! They should have used a younger actress or just left that line out.

Her husband in the movie was played by Patrick Duffy!

[geauxaway]

Well, I got into it real bad with my mom this afternoon.  She has been self isolating this duration (with her husband, so she is not alone alone). We have seen her 2 times since last Christmas, and neither have been overnight stays or to her house.  This will be our first Christmas not with her or my dad (separate households but in the same state not our state where live).  She told me she found a church close to her home she wants to go to on Christmas Eve.   I flipped OUT.  She hasn’t gone to her own church in close to a year because of COVID.  They decided at her church to do major renovations and remodel during this “down time.”  Why why why would you need to go to a church that’s not your church just for Christmas Eve?  I just can’t with this and it’s ruined my Christmas more than it was already ruined.  I’m sick over it and I can’t sleep.  I told her that and she was like hmmm.  Usually it’s the other way around 🤦🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️

[deirdra]

19 hours ago, bannana said:

I watched one today called Christmas with a View. Jess Walton has a role. it was released in 2018. Her face looked really awful, botoxy, and she actually looks much better now on Show.

I just checked it out to see how bad Jess looked since I am not a fan of formulaic Xmas stories, but the formula worked - I FF'd past all the 20-somethings until I saw a mansion/hotel ... and that was of course where Jess & Patrick Duffy with a ponytail lived.  LOL.

Jess looked like she had excessive cheek fillers, which made her eyes, jowls & neck look weird by comparison.  She looks much better now.

Edited December 22, 2020 by deirdra

[OhioSongbird]

What y'all cookin' this weekend?  Even if you're alone you gotta treat yourself! Boychild is coming down and he requested turkey, etc since we missed Thanksgiving.   I'm apprehensive but he wants to and we really miss him.  So we'll do the usual games and movies...not to mention the feeding frenzy.  I always have enough food for 6-8 people but we do love our leftovers.  Once the dinner is done I ain't cooking nothin' but brunch and he'll be here Thurs-Sun.  Plus kid always leaves with a huge care package.   😊

Everyone have as good a time as you can, stay positive, do something nice for someone or something, and don't forget to treat yourself, too.  We all need a little TLC.   

A wonderful holiday to all from beautiful Ohio.... 

[bannana]

I am lucky, hubby is cooking beef wellington (first time) and potatoes for Christmas Eve. Then on the day, I will be making Argentinian prawns with veggies and pasta.

I do most of the cooking so this will be nice. We have really focussed on cooking meals since the initial shutdown.

[peacheslatour]

30 minutes ago, OhioSongbird said:

What y'all cookin' this weekend?  Even if you're alone you gotta treat yourself! Boychild is coming down and he requested turkey, etc since we missed Thanksgiving.   I'm apprehensive but he wants to and we really miss him.  So we'll do the usual games and movies...not to mention the feeding frenzy.  I always have enough food for 6-8 people but we do love our leftovers.  Once the dinner is done I ain't cooking nothin' but brunch and he'll be here Thurs-Sun.  Plus kid always leaves with a huge care package.   😊

Everyone have as good a time as you can, stay positive, do something nice for someone or something, and don't forget to treat yourself, too.  We all need a little TLC.   

A wonderful holiday to all from beautiful Ohio.... 

Thank you! Whelp, hubby brought home the makings for The Dip last week. He already had a massive bag of Ruffles from Costco the prior month. On Christmas Eve I'm making lasagna as per family tradition. latour fils will not be joining us this year because of the 'rona.  I have a feeling that we'll be eating a lot of charcuterie boards all week. I'm burnt out on baking but I do have a blueberry lemon cake recipe I thought up that I'm dying to try.

[OhioSongbird]

Oh, yeah.....I meant to mention I made The Dip yesterday.  I swear the longer it sits the better it gets.  Veggies are cut.  It's become a fave at Casa Songbird.  I use it on baked potatoes and other dishes.

bannana....I wish I could teleport myself to your house!   Beef Wellington (I've never attempted) and prawns.....I'm droolin' here.

Let me know how the lemon/blueberry comes out, peaches....I love that combination.

 

[peacheslatour]

15 minutes ago, OhioSongbird said:

Oh, yeah.....I meant to mention I made The Dip yesterday.  I swear the longer it sits the better it gets.  Veggies are cut.  It's become a fave at Casa Songbird.  I use it on baked potatoes and other dishes.

bannana....I wish I could teleport myself to your house!   Beef Wellington (I've never attempted) and prawns.....I'm droolin' here.

Let me know how the lemon/blueberry comes out, peaches....I love that combination.

 

Me too. I can't wait to try it. Will report back. 

[peacheslatour]

Quote

I meant to mention I made The Dip yesterday.  I swear the longer it sits the better it gets.  Veggies are cut.  It's become a fave at Casa Songbird.  I use it on baked potatoes and other dishes.

If you want to be really decadent, sprinkle the dip and potato with those crunchy fried onions that come in the tall can. I think they're made by Frenches.

[bannana]

1 hour ago, OhioSongbird said:

bannana....I wish I could teleport myself to your house!   Beef Wellington (I've never attempted) and prawns.....I'm droolin' here.

I never really used to like prawns because I had only had them in restaurants. Then I started cooking them and realized that everyone is just overcooking them. Mine are really great, especially now that I found this brand called Unomundo. They smell really fishy when you take them out of the bag but they are succulent and slightly sweet when cooked.

[Anna Yolei]

10 hours ago, bannana said:

I am lucky, hubby is cooking beef wellington (first time) and potatoes for Christmas Eve. Then on the day, I will be making Argentinian prawns with veggies and pasta.

I do most of the cooking so this will be nice. We have really focussed on cooking meals since the initial shutdown.

I will have to try it out myself one day! It's always a staple in Gordon Ramsay's shows and I've been curious to make it ever since ❤️

[peacheslatour]

7 hours ago, Anna Yolei said:

I will have to try it out myself one day! It's always a staple in Gordon Ramsay's shows and I've been curious to make it ever since ❤️

It is but it's usually so much of a fail that I'm afraid to attempt it.

[OhioSongbird]

Ditto!

[pearlite]

All right, the yearly confirmation that I'm a grinch. Don't like the entire season; virtually never have. Only two carols I can even stand.

To diverge from that note, what's cookin'?

The 24th: seafood only and a pile of appetizers--English and Roman Catholic, kids, no meat. The Bishop's Wife with Loretta Young & Cary Grant--we're strictly studio-era folks and I don't want anyone starting up on It's a Wonderful Life again.

Christmas Day: turkey, sausage stuffing, onion porridge* [we do not eat potatoes with turkey ever], braised leeks [courtesy PLL] and something orange. That's kind of standard Anglo Mutt Christmas dinner--and each year I try to suppress memories of eating said meal chez those of more Scots background--migawd, they eat turnips [the big nasty ones] and Brussels Sprouts as sides. Couldn't they at least wait for Robbie Burns Day? Dessert's kind of a wash because it's impossible to get decent Christmas Pudding in glossy new Toronto.

After some cleaning today [cursory, don't get excited], I'll make cranberry sauce and examine the glacéed cherries and pineapple, which may become fruitcake cookies... Or maybe not today...

So there you go, and I wish all of you good health and happiness.

And I attach the closest I get to a Christmas image.

*If you look back you'll find posts about this lovely northern English filler--a food with no redeeming qualities whatsoever.

 

Edited December 23, 2020 by pearlite
resizing image

[peacheslatour]

Quote

All right, the yearly confirmation that I'm a grinch. Don't like the entire season; virtually never have. Only two carols I can even stand.🎶

🎶Last Christmas I gave you my heart. The very next year you stole all my beer.🎶

[bannana]

I am about halfway through watching a 3 part German Christmas series that is offbeat and funny. Highly recommend it.

Over Christmas

[geauxaway]

On 12/22/2020 at 4:04 PM, OhioSongbird said:

What y'all cookin' this weekend?  Even if you're alone you gotta treat yourself! Boychild is coming down and he requested turkey, etc since we missed Thanksgiving.   I'm apprehensive but he wants to and we really miss him.  So we'll do the usual games and movies...not to mention the feeding frenzy.  I always have enough food for 6-8 people but we do love our leftovers.  Once the dinner is done I ain't cooking nothin' but brunch and he'll be here Thurs-Sun.  Plus kid always leaves with a huge care package.   😊

Everyone have as good a time as you can, stay positive, do something nice for someone or something, and don't forget to treat yourself, too.  We all need a little TLC.   

A wonderful holiday to all from beautiful Ohio.... 

I’m cooking for 12 but it’s just the 2 of us.  🤣. Tonight I got my potatoes done (that’s my thing for Christmas Eve, I make my grandma’s potatoes for the fam), got my apps started, and got my Eclair refrigerating.  Boiled my eggs for the deviled eggs which I’ll finish tomorrow.  Doing a beef tenderloin from a recipe I found on Southern Living that appears to be easy.  We shall see.....I’ve never cooked beef befor other than hamburger and pot roast.  I go out for steak 🤣.  Sending love and cheer to all.  My son and I are enjoying our time at home.  The first time we’ve had presents under our tree!  Now just hope he will go to sleep tomorrow night since I have to be Santa. 

[Cupid Stunt]

On 12/22/2020 at 4:04 PM, OhioSongbird said:

What y'all cookin' this weekend? Even if you're alone you gotta treat yourself! Boychild is coming down and he requested turkey, etc since we missed Thanksgiving.   I'm apprehensive but he wants to and we really miss him.  So we'll do the usual games and movies...not to mention the feeding frenzy.  I always have enough food for 6-8 people but we do love our leftovers.  Once the dinner is done I ain't cooking nothin' but brunch and he'll be here Thurs-Sun.  Plus kid always leaves with a huge care package.   😊

 

Christmas Eve:

Chicken and dumplings

Vegetable plate, with buttermilk dip

Peaches' Onion Dip

Antipasto plate

Assorted crackers and chips

Stuffed mushroom caps

Baked artichoke dip

Cookie plate

Gâteau Breton

 

Christmas Day:

Rack of Lamb, filled with Butternut (white walnut) Dressing

Roasted root vegetables

Radicchio salad

Potato Soufflé

Vegetable/olive plate

Cranberry-orange sauce

Bûche de Noël 

Citrus Pavlova

Cookie plate

 

Quote

Everyone have as good a time as you can, stay positive, do something nice for someone or something, and don't forget to treat yourself, too.  We all need a little TLC.   

A wonderful holiday to all from beautiful Ohio.... 

God Bless, Ohio and all the Songbirds and Merry Christmas.

[bannana]

5 hours ago, Cupid Stunt said:

=Gold coins, medieval treasures discovered in British countryside during lockdown

My brothers and I, when I was a kid, used to search for coins/treasure. We found dozens of arrowheads. At the time, we didn't realize the significance of our finds.

 

[Cupid Stunt]

A Forum favorite Christmas card ... 

 

Joseph, Mary and Baby Dweezil

 

 

Merry Christmas!

[peacheslatour]

Merry Christmas to you too Cupid! And all the good Preverts everywhere. 🎄

[pearlite]

1 hour ago, peacheslatour said:

Merry Christmas to you too Cupid! And all the good Preverts everywhere. 🎄

 

 

Edited December 24, 2020 by pearlite
image editor stinks

[SweePea59]

On 12/23/2020 at 2:07 PM, pearlite said:

onion porridge*

*If you look back you'll find posts about this lovely northern English filler--a food with no redeeming qualities whatsoever.

Is that oatmeal with onions?

Wasn't Beef Wellington the dish that Mamie taught Drucilla to make for Neil since it was his favorite dish? 

[pearlite]

13 hours ago, SweePea59 said:

Is that oatmeal with onions?

Wasn't Beef Wellington the dish that Mamie taught Drucilla to make for Neil since it was his favorite dish? 

Nope, although porridge might lead you to think so.

Onion porridge is onions, cream, butter, soda crackers [Saltines], with some nutmeg if you're fancy. Pure slodge. I suspect some ancestor lacked the funds to pay the fare up the St Lawrence to Toronto, and got stuck in the Maritimes, because it's kind of like those mushy things that used ship's biscuits as the starch--East Coast kind of thing. No record of it anywhere, although maybe Newfie stuff may come close.

That's all I know.

[OhioSongbird]

My BIL makes scalloped oysters with a recipe like that.  Crackers (Ritz are best but you can use saltines), cream, butter, oysters....it's to die for.  I love onions and I can see a casserole like that with caramelized onions.

Everybody on a food hangover this morning?  🙂

[peacheslatour]

47 minutes ago, OhioSongbird said:

My BIL makes scalloped oysters with a recipe like that.  Crackers (Ritz are best but you can use saltines), cream, butter, oysters....it's to die for.  I love onions and I can see a casserole like that with caramelized onions.

Everybody on a food hangover this morning?  🙂

OMG, I ate so much yesterday. Enormous breakfast, chocolates, pistachios, cheese, crackers, more chocolate. *urp*

[Cupid Stunt]

3 hours ago, OhioSongbird said:

Everybody on a food hangover this morning?  🙂

 

[peacheslatour]

What did we all get for Christmas? I got approximately forty million scented candles. I like scented candles.

[Cupid Stunt]

19 hours ago, peacheslatour said:

What did we all get for Christmas? I got approximately forty million scented candles. I like scented candles.

Everyone was so generous ... My Secret Santa was paying attention ... A first edition The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind by Julian Jaynes. Stocking was full of goodies: gift cards, Pre’ De Provence soap, Hawaiian Tropic lip balm and sunscreen, Littlejohn's pralines, an orange and a Christmas quarter.

Sister-in-law Stunt and I hit the After-Christmas sales yesterday: decorations, display feather tree from Macy's, mini-lights, stationary, ribbon, stockings, fleece blankets, Snapware, birthday present for Thing 2, waffle iron, vacuum cleaner bags, April wedding present, fabric store notions and yardage. 

[peacheslatour]

Quote

I'll take a Tab, thank you.

My god. What were people thinking? I hate the fact that mid century modern has made a huge comeback but it did help me sell my dad's house. It was built in the fifties and they added a major addition in the late sixties.  

[Cupid Stunt]

2 hours ago, peacheslatour said:

My god. What were people thinking? I hate the fact that mid century modern has made a huge comeback but it did help me sell my dad's house. It was built in the fifties and they added a major addition in the late sixties.  

It's that bilious orange ... <wince>

A colleague makes her own cards, and the image was from a thank you card.

[deirdra]

You started me watching one Procol Harum - A Whiter Shade of Pale video and that got me watching others from six different decades!

[peacheslatour]

14 minutes ago, deirdra said:

You started me watching one Procol Harum - A Whiter Shade of Pale video and that got me watching others from six different decades!

I love those guys. So elegant.

[peacheslatour]

"Ladies, are you tired of making the same old meatloaf? Try this recipe from the Jello Corporation. You'll thank us later!"

Bleached, washed, plucked Scalp of Klingon.

 

[Cupid Stunt]

Recipe card abominations ... And New Year's Eve is right around the corner

[OhioSongbird]

Can't decide if I'm hungry or gonna be off my feed for the rest of the day........

[Cupid Stunt]

Here Are All the 2021 New Year's Eve Specials to Watch

 

In this undated file photo issued by the University of Oxford, a researcher in a laboratory at the Jenner Institute in Oxford, England, works on the coronavirus vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University. Britain on Wednesday, Dec. 30, authorized use of a second COVID-19 vaccine, becoming the first country to greenlight an easy-to-handle shot that its developers hope will become the “vaccine for the world.” The Department of Health said it had accepted a recommendation from the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency to authorize the vaccine developed by Oxford University and U.K.-based drugmaker AstraZeneca. (John Cairns/University of Oxford via AP, File)

UK is first to authorize easy-to-handle AstraZeneca vaccine

 

Colorado Guardsman has 1st reported US case of virus variant

 

China clamps down in hidden hunt for coronavirus origins

 

How 6 states and D.C. are taking coronavirus relief into their own hands

 

A congressman-elect from Louisiana died from Covid-19 complications. -- You may not believe Covid-19 exists, but coronavirus doesn't care.

The LA Times Letters to the Editor: It isn't a 'mask' if we can see your mouth or nose

 

U.S. Vaccinations at 200,000 a Day Run Far Short of ‘Warp Speed’ -- The nation won’t meet its goal of 20 million doses by year-end

 

Spiral Galaxy/NASA photo

Space missions to look forward to in 2021

 

The Pot Economy: Celebrities, cash and questions: A new force roils the cannabis prisoner-release movement

 

Stock photo/Laura Ingalls Wilder

Little house of maybe: "American Masters" on fact, fiction and the life of Laura Ingalls Wilder.

 

Sugar bowl via www.shutterstock.com

Searching for an ethical sugar

 

 

Edited December 30, 2020 by Cupid Stunt

[peacheslatour]

Hey bannana how was the beef Wellington? My Wi-Fi is down and I had to wrestle my phone to get it to let me spell your name right. 😬

[Capricasix]

Pearlite and any other movie aficionados! I am currently obsessed with The Mandalorian, and it being styled as a “space Western”, I now want to watch the movies that define the genre. Just finished watching The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly - what should be next on my list?

[Cupid Stunt]

1 hour ago, Capricasix said:

Pearlite and any other movie aficionados! I am currently obsessed with The Mandalorian, and it being styled as a “space Western”, I now want to watch the movies that define the genre. Just finished watching The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly - what should be next on my list?

Huge fan of Sergio Leone's Man With No Name trilogy, but Leone's unsung Once Upon a Time in the West is excellent film, too. Loads of tension and a slow build, Henry Fonda as the bad guy, the delicious Claudia Cardinale and simmering Charles Bronson -- You can't go wrong.

Stagecoach, the original 3:10 To Yuma (1957), Lone Star, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre are all stellar westerns.

[peacheslatour]

The Magnificent Seven or the movie it's based on The Seven Samuri is even better. 

[Cupid Stunt]

Women walk under an umbrella in front of a 2021 sign displayed in downtown Pristina, Kosovo on Dec. 30, 2020, as Kosovars prepare to celebrate the New Year 2021 at their homes, amid the ongoing Covid-19 (novel coronavirus) pandemic.Armend Nimani / AFP - Getty Images

World rings in 2021 with muted celebrations amid Covid-19 restrictions

 

2020 was a year of desperation and darkness. Here's how people around the world found hope.

 

The pop culture that brought us joy in 2020

 

CNN file photo

Fires, floods, hurricanes, and locusts: 2020 was an epic year for disasters

 

 

COVID-19: One year later – WHO Director-General’s new year message

 

Attendant pushes gurney at Maryland Cremation Services/CNN photo

COVID-19 DATA DASHBOARD -- US sets daily Covid-19 death record for the second day in a row. Another 80,000 could die in next 3 weeks, new forecast says

 

Dawn Wells, Mary Ann on 'Gilligan's Island,' dies of Covid-19 complications at 82

 

‘No Realistic Path’ for Quick Vote on $2,000 Stimulus Checks, McConnell Says

 

‘Covid-19 can kill’: Lawmakers issue fresh warnings about virus after death of Rep.-elect Luke Letlow -- The irony burns.

 

U.K. coronavirus strain emerges in San Diego County

 

A young girl pushes her doll through the border fence from Mexico while looking at Nathan Adams Maldonado, right, as they attend a Las Posadas event with several asylum seeking families at the U.S.-Mexico border wall, Tuesday, Dec. 15, 2020, in Douglas, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

People yearn to connect across borders amid pandemic holiday

 

California governor offers plan, $2 billion to reopen in-person schools

 

Hospital worker fired for deliberately leaving hundreds of COVID vaccine doses out of refrigerator

 

Geico gecko

Feds probing whether Nashville bomber believed in lizard people conspiracy

 

A worker loads heavy bunches of palm oil fruit into a cart on a palm oil plantation in Sumatra, Indonesia/AP Photo - Binsar Bakkara

US bans second Malaysian palm oil giant over forced labor

 

Man called most prolific serial killer in US history dies

 

In this Sunday, Nov. 29, 2020 file photo, Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton of Britain celebrates after wining the Formula One race in Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir, Bahrain. Hamilton is now a “Sir” as well as a seven-time Formula One champion after being knighted Wednesday, Dec. 30 in Queen Elizabeth II’s New Year honors list. The awards also recognize British performers, politicians and public servants, as well as people outside the limelight who have worked to defeat the coronavirus and its devastating impact. (Giuseppe Cacace, Pool via AP, File)

Speedy Sir: Lewis Hamilton knighted in year-end royal honors

 

 

Steve Cropper: A low-key Memphis guitar legend builds on musical legacy

 

 

Edited December 31, 2020 by Cupid Stunt

[OhioSongbird]

I love Little Big Man, The Wild Bunch, Ulzana's Raid and Duel at Diablo.

Great actors, great stories....just good.

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!!!

 

 

[Cupid Stunt]

Photo courtesy of the Tony Rice Foundation and Rounder Records

Tony Rice, who died of undisclosed causes Christmas morning at age 69, was more than just a virtuoso bluegrass guitarist. He was someone who changed the very role of the acoustic guitar in American music.

In the days before the widespread use of microphones and amplifiers, the acoustic guitar was almost always a rhythm instrument. When it tried to play single notes, it couldn’t compete with the volume of the fiddle and banjo. Even when gut strings were replaced by steel strings, even when players used picks instead of fingers, the instrument was just too quiet to be heard. Only when it strummed out chords could it make its presence felt.

North Carolina’s Doc Watson, the Louis Armstrong of American guitar, solved this problem by playing solo or in duos and trio with another guitarist and/or bassist. No longer drowned out by the fiddle and banjo, Watson demonstrated the amazing things that his hollow-box instrument could do. His breakthrough was built upon by California’s Clarence White, who used a microphone to make himself heard in the Kentucky Colonels. But White switched from acoustic to electric guitar to join the Byrds and was killed by a drunk driver at age 29.

It was left to Rice to consolidate the innovations of Watson and White and extend them into new territory. He pioneered the acoustic guitar as a soloing instrument in string bands—and then he pioneered the use of jazz harmonies and rhythms in those bands.

Tony Rice had only been eight in 1959 when he first met Clarence White. White was only 15 at the time, but he was already playing guitar with a rhythmic forcefulness and a harmonic imagination that Rice had never heard before, not even on record. The younger boy was soon following his older hero everywhere he went, staring at his hands and memorizing every note in hopes that he too could someday play the guitar as something more than a background rhythm instrument.

“Clarence was an amazing player even at that age,” Rice told me in 2002. “He was playing mostly rhythm, but he was doing something magical that was different from what Lester Flatt and Jimmy Martin were doing. And when his older brother Roland got drafted into the army in 1960 or ’61, the band was left with no one to play leads. Clarence figured out real quick that he could play those mandolin leads on the guitar. At first he copied Roland’s parts, but he was soon inventing his own lines.”

“About that same time, I heard Doc Watson, who was playing leads on acoustic guitar much like Clarence was. They were different because Doc came out of old-time mountain music, while Clarence came strictly out of a bluegrass mode. But they were both brilliant; I can’t put into words how special it was to hear Doc live or on album in those early days. What people don’t realize is how much Clarence influenced Doc; they had a lot of mutual respect for each other.”

White proved that the acoustic guitar could solo on bluegrass changes with all the verve and invention of a mandolinist like Bill Monroe, a fiddler like Paul Warren or a banjoist like Earl Scruggs. If it could handle those tunes, why couldn’t it handle jazz changes like France’s Django Reinhardt or Oklahoma’s Charlie Christian?

“Clarence never gave me lessons or anything like that,” Rice told me; “we were just two kids hanging out together. But I would try to do everything he did, and when I couldn’t I’d invent something of my own. When word got out how good Clarence was, everyone wanted to play with him. He started hanging out with James Burton [Elvis Presley’s guitarist] and listening to Django Reinhardt. Just as I couldn’t match Clarence, Clarence couldn’t match Django but in trying he came up with something more daring than he’d done before.

In 1970 the 19-year-old Tony Rice replaced Dan Crary in the Bluegrass Alliance, a group that contained Sam Bush, Courtney Johnson and Harry “Ebo Walker” Shelor—three-fourths of the future New Grass Revival. In 1971, though, Rice joined his brother Larry in J.D. Crowe & the New South. By 1975, the band included Crowe, Tony Rice, Ricky Skaggs, Jerry Douglas and Bobby Slone, and that year’s album, J.D. Crowe & the New South, is still considered one of the top bluegrass albums of all time. Here, for the first time, was a traditional bluegrass line-up where the guitarist was taking solos that held their own with those of the banjo, mandolin and dobro. But this only whetted Rice’s appetite for more challenges. Later that same year, Rice joined banjoist Bill Keith—who had just left Bill Monroe’s Blue Grass Boys—to make a more adventurous kind of string-band album. The new band’s mandolinist was a young, frizzy-haired New Yorker, David Grisman.

“Grisman brought along this tape he’d made with [fiddler] Richard Greene and [guitarist] John Carlini,” Rice said in 2002, “and I had never heard anything like it. Coming out of these bluegrass instruments was a form of modern string-band jazz. The chord changes were unusual and the solos were wild, but still everything was pleasant to the eardrum. I remember thinking, ‘Boy, it would be an honor to someday be a part of that.’ Before too long I was.”

“I had the bluegrass background Grisman was looking for, but I had my work cut out for me. My only knowledge of modern jazz was listening to it and loving it; I had no idea how to play it on guitar. Carlini, who became a good friend, tutored me and I had to learn music theory for the first time. I had first heard jazz when I was a sophomore in high school. My girlfriend had an eight-track tape player in her car, and one day when she turned the car on, Dave Brubeck’s ‘Take Five’ started playing. It grabbed me the same way Flatt & Scruggs had back in 1955.”

After four years with the David Grisman Quintet, the guitarist formed the Tony Rice Unit, an instrumental ensemble that pursued Grisman-like string-band jazz but with Rice’s compositions and a bluegrass-flavored sound. At the same time, however, he made solo albums that showcased his handsome voice.

Singing songs by Bill Monroe, Bob Dylan and Gordon Lightfoot, Rice expanded his audience considerably. But when his voice gave out at the 1993 Gettysburg Bluegrass Festival, he stopped singing for good. The diagnosis was dysphonia, a cramping of the throat that prevents singing and gives even the speaking voice a perennial trace of hoarseness. Many musicians would have been devastated by such a setback, but Rice insists that he shrugged it off and returned to his first love, the guitar.

“I don’t worry about it as much as people think,” he said. “The guitar was always the main thing for me. I spent four years with David Grisman where I didn’t sing at all. I got so far into that music, in fact, that I didn’t care if I ever sang again. As I was losing my voice, I was getting more interested in the guitar again; I was getting back to where I was during the Grisman years.”

For the rest of us, though, it’s hard to forget the sound of Rice’s burnished baritone as it delivered contemporary folk songs with conversational ease, as on the 1996 Rounder collection, Tony Rice Sings Gordon Lightfoot. Or the thrill of hearing his voice rise high and lonesome on the classic 1975 album, J.D. Crowe & the New South, or on any of the Bluegrass Album Band projects that Rice has headed up.

“But that was the whole problem,” Rice points out. “My voice gave out from all the abuse of trying to sing too high for too long. Because I was so dedicated to that high, lonesome sound, I was singing out of my range for all those years. I was trying to get my vocal mechanism to do something it wasn’t designed to do. It was a gradual thing over the years; I first noticed something was amiss way back when I was with Crowe.”

To fill the role of his missing voice, Rice began tour as a duo with Peter Rowan, a former member of Monroe’s Blue Grass Boys and of Jerry Garcia’s Old and In the Way. Freed from his former vocal duties, Rice was able to further develop his guitar innovations.

“If I do a gig with Peter,” he reflected in 2002, “and I’ve been listening to some small-combo jazz CDs, I become conscious of an attempt to emulate their approach, even if I’m not playing the same tunes. I get more input and motivation from listening than most musicians do. I listen to the Marsalis brothers, Pat Metheny and Eric Dolphy. I’m a John Coltrane fanatic, but on the opposite end of the spectrum, I’m also a Jascha Heifetz junkie. And some days I’m in the mood to hear some Flatt & Scruggs from 1952.”

As a baby-boomer in Southern California in the early ’60s, Rice was in the right place at the right time to grab hold of the tectonic changes in the use of an acoustic guitar. His parents had grown up in North Carolina, so their sons were rooted into the bluegrass and old-time string bands of Appalachia. But the sons were also plugged into the exploding pop culture of L.A., where folk music, rock ’n’ roll, jazz and classical music were equally available. Many young guitarists were bombarded by this smorgasbord of stimuli, but only Rice was able to translate it into unprecedented guitar playing.

“Because I grew up in Los Angeles, where bluegrass wasn’t an accepted form, I became a very different kind of bluegrass guitarist than I might have back East,” Tony he told me in 2001. “Because bluegrass was a smaller part of the scene, the folk boom was much more important, and that made me a different kind of singer and picker. And because I met Clarence White at an early age in California, I became a lead guitarist rather than the usual rhythm guitarist and singer you might find in a traditional bluegrass band.”

-- Geoffrey Himes 

 

Edited December 31, 2020 by Cupid Stunt