Our schedule in the USA....

June 15, 2009 Madrid
We are just about to fly back to the States and would like to catch up with as many of our old friends as possible (even some of our young ones).

Here's what we have so far:
June 20 -22 ..Sister Carol, Tucson AZ
June 23 - 25 .Brother Tom, Mojave, CA
End of June ..Santa Cruz storage unit, Doctors & Dentists
July 1...... .set up personal camp at Sweets Mill
July 4 .......Fresno, Sister Nancy
July 5......."work week" begins at Sweets Mill - Fresno area
July 10.......Sweets Mill begins
July 20- 22...Santa Cruz storage unit unload & hang posters in SC for show
July 26 ......Richard's Birthday in and around Northern CA
Aug 1.........Berkeley Daughter Elinore's Birthday
Aug 3........ Dermatologist - Santa Cruz
Aug 4 ........Fresno - sister Nancy?
Aug 15........Flamenco Show in Santa Cruz (The show on 16th is pending)
Aug 17 - 20 ..teach workshop in Santa Cruz
Aug 21 -23 ...Santa Cruz?
August 24 - Sept 8 ( Labor Day)..... Santa Barbara, LA, etc.
Sept 10 -18 visit son Tony & Nettie & Oriental, NC folks
Sept 19 arrive in Madrid

All or some of this may change if we get gig offers. We don't have time to organize them ourselves, but will happily jump into something that is ready to go. We're looking forward to seeing y'all!

Closing out Spain Chapter One.....

June 8, 2009 Monday
This will be our last posting from Rota this spring. We are in the process of packing our things and getting ready to leave the boat in the boatyard for the summer.

But some wonderful things have happened recently. Probably you would have to be us to really appreciate it, but we are just marvelling at the kindness and warmth we have received in Spain ever since we got here. Everywhere we go, we are welcomed like family. I almost can't believe it. Sure, we can do a surprising amount of flamenco - essentially a very arcane and private artform. But still, for whatever reason, we are truly grateful. I think they like that we love their culture so much.

One of the high points of my artistic career has been the presentation of a bronze plaque from our peña in appreciation of our contribution to the artistic life there - I played guitar for the saturday sessions and accompanied local and visiting artists during shows. Andrea danced in fiestas and on the stage. We were treated like equals.

Here is the plaque that they gave us.

Here is the president of the peña, Antonio "Bergalo", making a little speech.

From L to R, Miguel, his wife Pilar, us, Bernardo (who put us on local TV), and Juan Rizo, the first aficionado who opened up to us when we arrived.

Then yesterday we went on a Romeria in Chipiona. Romerias have become very big - they are essentially a pilgrimage, but unlike the big one to Rocío, these local ones don't go very far because they are for working folks who can't take a week off work. Like the one in Rota, they leave the downtown church on Saturday morning and go to a small chapel in the pines or on the beach. The devout walk or ride horses or travel in carriages. The trip takes and hour or so, then they arrive and have a little mass in the trees and then it is party time. (This must be a consolation prize for those who don't go on Rocío, which is truly special - we've been 7 times).

Strangely enough, the local virgin (every town should have one) is black, but the baby is white. I have no idea......

Here is the procession of pilgrims coming through the pines.

Then it was partytime. Here are Miguel, his sister, Maria and her husband who is singing a fandango.

Here is Juan "el Moro" from Sanlúcar, singing from his carriage. I get to accompany everyone who wants to sing and never know exactly what they are going to sing, only the basic rhythm.

And here are the two of us....

Better than dreams coming true....

Sunday, May 17, 2009
Sometimes dreams come true and that is a wonderful experience, but what is beyond that is when things you never dared to dream about come true as well. I've been going through that of late.

Yesterday was a prime example. We were scorched after being at the Feria de Jerez until 5AM, but we had to get up for a communion celebration that was being held at the peña. We got there and discovered that we were in the midst of a gathering of the Agujetas clan (this is a dynasty of gypsy singers that is one of the most important remaining). There were Diego, Luis, and Negro Agujetas as well as Miguel, el gitano de bronce. As soon as I got there, a guitar was shoved into my hand and from that point on it was full-on flamenco. This was the first time I had ever seen Diego other than videos. In no time I was accompanying his bulerias and then the singers just rotated. From time to time I threw in a verse or two. What was amazing was that I got away with it. It was totally accepted - who knows, it might have been enjoyed. This is where the dreams come true part comes in. All afternoon I got to play for some of the best flamenco singers alive and they were totally happy with my playing. I hadn't played for Luis in many years and previously he didn't much like to sing with me. Well, I guess I learned a bit and things are now different. In fact, I had to turn down an offer to do a paying TV show with all of them in August because we will be in California. Now does that go beyond a dream come true?

Here we all were. Hopefully the labels show.

Sometimes fiesta pix come out blurry, but the content is more important than the technology. Here is Luís, with Miguel looking on.

Then, to keep the day from being dull, we jumped in the car with Manolo, Ana, Negro, Andi and I and drove to Vejer where Negro and I sang in a concurso (singing contest).
Here we all were when we got out of the car. Right to left, Manolo, Ana, Andrea, me, and Negro (whose real name is Angél).

The streets were so narrow that had to park outside and walk in. Vejer is a walled city on top of a mountain, although there has been a lot of building outside the walls now. This part of it is the old section laid out by the Moors - narrow, eh?


Negro was terrific and I wasn't the worst by any means. I was the first to sing and the peña was packed because it was still early. My soleá and siguiriya came off very well, judging from the video and the audience response. Then I invited Andi up to the stage to dance with my alegria. She rocked them! She's been in dance deprivation because there are few opportunities for dancers here and much competition for whatever there is. (Spain is all about the singing - dance is reserved for a few little steps at parties or full-on theater productions). But we have been rehearsing and she has a lot of new things worked out. Manolo did palmas, Andi tore up the floor, and the audience went nuts.

Some days, life is very, very good......

Videos are now on YouTube - there is a link on the right side of the page for all of our 17 videos - pick the ones from Vejer..

Zamora and the Feria of Rota

May 2, 2009
Miguel and I took off on a long road trip to perform in Zamora at a festival there. 8 hours on the road is what we got paid for; the singing and playing was fun. We were thoroughly saddlesore by the time we arrived. But we chilled in the hotel and soon felt much better.
The show went well. I opened with some of my usual schtick and then welcomed Miguel to the stage. Can you believe that I actually served as the announcer? He sang beautifully and the both of us got really cranked up. (Sorry no pix or video, but the camera operator wasn't there) After the show, the peña hosted a dinner party for us and since we were so pumped up, we kept the flamenco coming and the peña really got their money's worth.
After all that, we went back to the hotel, but neither of us could sleep and so we started telling stories and laughing (it reminded me of a slumber party complete with giggles) until finally the neighbors banged on the wall. We were just talking - what was the problem? Thin walls I guess.
The next day was another 8 hours on the road, but we ended up happy enough. We took a nap and then escorted the ladies to the feria. They had already gone without us the previous day and so had their own adventures to relate. The daughters of Manolo and Ana really liked to dance the sevillana, so Andi got lots of exercise. They they ran into Jose Merce, who M and A know well.

Here is the entrance to the Rota Feria at night.

Although nothing to compare to the horsey scene in Sevilla, Rota still has plenty of horses and carriages. To my eye, the horses here are the most beautiful in the world (although they can't equal the women!).

Here is Andi with Manolo and Ana and their daughters in the caseta of the Socialist Party PSOE (the one in power at the moment).

Here are Andi and Ana with flamenco superstar Jose Merce.

The parents, if they can afford it, love to dress the muppets up for feria. They start learning to dance at this age.

Some of the casetas are just bars and tables for socializing. Others, like this one, have a full on stage for entertainers.

After Miguel and I got back from Zamora we jumped into feria with both feet.

Feria de Sevilla

Here we are at the traditional April Fair that happens two weeks after Semana Santa. It is probably the biggest fair in Spain. All of these ferias date back to the middle ages when travelling merchants would camp outside the city walls for a week and allow the residents to trade for exotic items not available in the local shops - silks, spices, and craft goods. There was also a lively trade in livestock at these times. Almost all Andalucian towns have a feria and each one has it's unique flavor. The one in Jerez (that we'll go to next week) has lots of flamenco, but most just have recorded sevillanas and rumba. We went once to one that was like a disco festival - you had to look hard to find sevillanas, normally the traditional music for feria.

Here are our consuegros, Enrique and Maru in front of the entrance - (the parents of our son-in-law - we don't have an English word for that). They invited us to join them here. It is always better to go to Feria as an insider. Otherwise, you just walk around and look, but you don't get into things.

Here we are with one of Enrique's childhood friends, Alberto. He's a doctor and father of several doctors. Visiting his family was our first stop.

One of the most amazing things about all Spanish Ferias is the horse and mule scene. They have these impeccable carriages with matching horses and everyone dresses in elegant riding outfits. There were more than 500 carriages in the Feria so there has to be a thriving carriage trade and buggy whips are still being made.

And there are thousands of individual riders. This woman was so elegant that Andi had to grab a photo.

This group was particularly well-dressed, wouldn't you say?

Some really nice horses and the rider in full Spanish cowboy mode. I have an outfit like this which is appropriate to wear on the pilgrimage to Rocio, but at Feria you only dress this way if you are truly on a horse.

Almost all the women dress in flamenco dresses - that's what they call them - while the men wear sport coats and ties.

Here were a group of sweet young things dancing the sevillana to a brass band.

Springtime Musings.....

April 21, 2009
Hi all, Spring has arrived and is gorgeous. We went on a mini-pilgrimage last weekend with Miguel and Pilar. Unlike the pilgrimage to Rocio which lasts 3 days on the road with camping out, this one went about a kilometer from the church to the pine grove on the beach. There the priest said a few appropriate words for San Isadoro Labrador, the saint for whom the pilgrimage was made. Then, it was party time, full speed ahead. We were invited for good food and many drinks. Andi ended up demonstrating who was the best dancer of Sevillanas and I ended up playing and singing in the center of a big circle until a TV camera showed up and someone shoved a microphone in my face. Really fun!

Here are some of the carretas parted in front of the fiesta.

Here is a handsome horse with a funny look in his eye.

The cutest thing all day was Negro's brother Manuel, who had gotten babysitting duty, with a matched team of little kids all roped together so they couldn't get separated. They were all so well behaved.

Other than that, the flamenco has been pretty intense. I am rehearsing regularly with Miguel for our show in Zamora and last weekend at the Peña, I played for many hours. In the afternoon, there was a really good session with some visiting singers from Sevilla including Isabel, the presidenta of the Peña la Fragua. I played about 4 hours. Then the same evening, there was a dinner for people from a Peña in Malaga who had invited the Roteños to a dinner in Malaga earlier in the year. They showed up with several good singers. The Malaga people had their own guitarist, but the Peña asked me to accompany the Sevilla people and the Rota people - so I spent a long time on stage. Andi and I finished off the show with some bulerias.

It is quite a change from when we first arrived and all the men in the peña were very wary about who is this American who keeps wanting to play the guitar. Now they scream encouragement and treat us like dignitaries. This is beyond a dream come true because in my wildest dreams I couldn't imagine this. Maybe I imagined being able to play and sing a little without people being rude, but I never imagined having a place of honor at the table.

Misc. thoughts - Olives: do you like Olives? Well we LIKE olives! Here, there is an olive lady at the market who has different kinds of olives in a variety of marinades. Olives are never refrigerated, but kept in flavored brines sort of like pickles in the days before refrigeration. We really like the "gordales", which are really big, meaty olives. We spend about $40/month on olives and I can't imagine being without them. In the US, we had to make our own. The olives that go in martinis are so-o-o-o-oooo boring. But the upscale markets are starting to have Sicilian varieties that may help us get along.

Speaking of foods you don't get in the USA, how about octopus?

Our US visit - we will be in the USA all summer (We need to rent a car from somebody - borrow is even better, but we would pay for the insurance to cover us. We let our insurance lapse when we sailed away, so need to piggyback on someone else's). Anyway, we are looking forward to reconnecting with old friends....

Here is a photo from Semana Santa here in Rota. This is one of the pasos from the church here, carried by about 20 young men (hidden under the skirts of the paso).

BTW, in the sidebar at the right is a new entry "All Our Videos" that takes you to a list of all our videos including new ones with Miguel and Negro.

Here is a video of Semana Santa....

Semana Santa (Holy Week) in Sevilla - and Rota

Friday, April 10, 2009
After getting back from Zamora, we rested for a day and then went to Sevilla for Holy Week. Steve and Robin Kahn joined us for the first few days and it was a delight to show Robin (new in Spain) all the fleshpots of Sevilla and then the first Holy Week activities on Palm Sunday.

Here are Steve and Robin in front of El Toboso, a good place to be found.

Here is Columbus' tomb in the cathedral of Sevilla.

Here is the cathedral itself - it is much too big to fit into a picture. All the processions of Semana Santa come through this cathedral.

For those of you who don't know about this, Semana Santa is a huge event in Spain, but especially Sevilla. Many families are on vacation all week and some bury themselves in religious activities and others go to the beach. For the former group, there is plenty to do. There are 72 cofradias in Sevilla - that would be a group from a specific parish that will actively work in the church activities. There are 3 cofradias in Rota, so you can see the difference in scale. The main activity, besides masses, is a procession in which they carry these huge floats (pasos) weighing sometimes more than a ton around the city. The wealthy churches may have a variety of pasos, some for Palm Sunday, some for Good Friday, etc. The poor churches usually just have two, one of Christ carrying his cross and another of the Virgin Mother. These pasos are usually hundreds of years old and are covered in silver or gold, carved from dark hardwoods, and covered with candles and flowers.

Here is one with lots of carved hardwoods.

They slowly wind their way through the streets to the big cathedral in Sevilla and then back to the church. They are accompanied by many (often more than a 1000 per church) Nazarenos (those guys with the Ku-klux-klan outfits - the idea stolen from them by some bigot). The Nazarenos carry huge candles through the streets and each church has their own color scheme for the outfits.

Here is my cosuegro, Enrique looking down on the littlest Nazareno, who retired to her stroller and took off her capilote (pointy hat).

Here is a proud dad helping junior with some detail of his outfit.

And here one of the Nazarenos is giving candy to kids (which they do during informal moments when the pasos are stopped)

And there is a band with every group too, that plays special holy week music and plays drums in between. The pasos are carried by 40-60 men who shuffle through the streets with a synchronized step that they practice the week before carrying loads of bricks or metal. Since they need to rest from time to time (their route may be several miles through streets so narrow that the pasos can barely fit through), they lower the paso for a break. At that time, singers on balconies will sing Saetas to the Christ or Virgin on the pasos. Ah, Saeta - that's the name of our boat! Saetas are impassioned moorish sounding songs done without accompaniment that are only done during Semana Santa. They are chilling.

Here is the church next to the house with the paso of Christ coming out of the door.

After the Cristo comes out, then the Virgin comes out with 400 Nazarenos and a band of musicians between them.

Here is the paso of Jesus coming back by the house at 2AM with the streets much more empty than when they left at 6PM.

You can see all this much better on TV, but TV can never capture the emotion that you feel when a paso comes by you in the middle of the night with the smell of incense, the thousands of candles, the hushed crowd, the beat of the drums that you feel in your stomach, and the awesome spectacle of the pasos and Nazarenos. One group had a choir of tiny children - really young - who sang so sweetly it made me cry. You have to be in this to really get it, but I try to give you a hint. There are so many cofradias in Sevilla that they all have defined arrival and departure times and colored routes on a map so that you know where to meet them. The problem is trying to get around on foot during this time. It is very difficult because somewhere between here and there you will probably have to cross 3 processions, 1/4 mile long, which takes lots of time. Yesterday there were a million people on the streets!!!! Luckily everything is made of stone because the fire trucks could never get through.

Here is the Virgin coming back to the church at 2:30AM.

We spent 5 days in the house of our wonderful Spanish relatives and then retreated to the relative calm of Rota to see Semana Santa in a small town. It's nice to be surrounded by people we know.