Dear patrons of the arts:
It's been a weird summer, we'll give you that.
First, the whole band was flown over to Switzerland to work on the Super Hadron Collider, which didn't go well. But they fixed it after we left.
Then we spent the first few weeks of August providing mood music to town hall audiences all over the country to kind of keep them entertained and smiling until the meetings started. (In our spare time, we helped with the proofreading on the protest signs)
Oh, what's the use? You were bound to find out anyway.....
The Flaw broke up. The FLAW broke UP!!
Well, 3/5th of it, at any rate, leaving behind a dumbfounded bassist and perplexed banjo player.
It's been a weird summer, we'll give you that.
First, the whole band was flown over to Switzerland to work on the Super Hadron Collider, which didn't go well. But they fixed it after we left.
Then we spent the first few weeks of August providing mood music to town hall audiences all over the country to kind of keep them entertained and smiling until the meetings started. (In our spare time, we helped with the proofreading on the protest signs)
Oh, what's the use? You were bound to find out anyway.....
The Flaw broke up. The FLAW broke UP!!
Well, 3/5th of it, at any rate, leaving behind a dumbfounded bassist and perplexed banjo player.
Fiddler Edie Murphy decided to pursue solo projects, George Biner lives too far away from the practice site (at least during rush hour on the 405) and is up to his ears in other stuff including his own band, Pure Play. And Jarrett wanted to devote more time to his job (!!) and Simon Pure, a first-rate bluegrass band out of Agoura Hills, in which he plays Dobro. And this all happened in the space of, like, two weeks in August.
So now there were two....
Sure, we saw it coming and we tried to head it off -- we tried Band Therapy:
Therapist: How do you FEEL when they tell you the banjo isn't in tune?
John: The banjo IS in tune!
The band, screaming: See what we mean?
Therapist: Maybe it's best that you spend some time apart.
Shortly after that, we came home late one night and found all our banjos out on the lawn. We knew then that it was over. (And it's always the banjos that suffer in these things...)
And so we started living the empty life of a single picker. Wednesday nights, formerly the practice night, were long and cold, with no rehearsal coffee to warm us. We found ourselves driving by the old practice and gigging spots, then slowly driving home, silently weeping. We'd tell people the red eyes were from allergies. No one was fooled.
After a while, we were persuaded to join a single-musicians mixer at a local church. We went a few times, but -- frankly -- most of the other musicians played these. Small wonder...
We wrote a Craig's List ad looking for new musicians, and got some very interesting replies, suggesting that perhaps placing the ad in the "personal services" category was a mistake. We tried again under the "musicians" category and got better results.
A gigabyte of emails and several get-acquainted jams later, we were back in business -- Flaw 2.0 was born!
This truly Flawed concoction has grown from five to seven members, pretty much guaranteeing no stinkin' money for anybody.
The new roster:
Sure, we saw it coming and we tried to head it off -- we tried Band Therapy:
Therapist: How do you FEEL when they tell you the banjo isn't in tune?
John: The banjo IS in tune!
The band, screaming: See what we mean?
Therapist: Maybe it's best that you spend some time apart.
Shortly after that, we came home late one night and found all our banjos out on the lawn. We knew then that it was over. (And it's always the banjos that suffer in these things...)
And so we started living the empty life of a single picker. Wednesday nights, formerly the practice night, were long and cold, with no rehearsal coffee to warm us. We found ourselves driving by the old practice and gigging spots, then slowly driving home, silently weeping. We'd tell people the red eyes were from allergies. No one was fooled.
After a while, we were persuaded to join a single-musicians mixer at a local church. We went a few times, but -- frankly -- most of the other musicians played these. Small wonder...
We wrote a Craig's List ad looking for new musicians, and got some very interesting replies, suggesting that perhaps placing the ad in the "personal services" category was a mistake. We tried again under the "musicians" category and got better results.
A gigabyte of emails and several get-acquainted jams later, we were back in business -- Flaw 2.0 was born!
This truly Flawed concoction has grown from five to seven members, pretty much guaranteeing no stinkin' money for anybody.
The new roster:
• Bass: Paul Dorn, a holdover from Flaw 1.0, You know him, you love him....well, at least you know him.
• Banjo: The same old hack.
• Mando: Matt Witler, a high school senior and rather amazing player as long as his homework is done.
• Guitar: Mike Gurzi, lead guitar and vocals, an awesome player who's also aiming for an pickup-truck endurance record by driving between Chatsworth (new practice spot) and Long Beach (where he lives.)*
• Dobro: Uli Sinn. Uli is from Austria and does a wicked impression of Governor Schwartzenegger, as does everybody else from Austria.
• Mando and vocals: Dee Farnsworth. Another mando: Why not? A singer and harmonizer? Absolutely!
• Fiddle: Peter Blackwelder, a college student who's really a violinist, but we're trying to beat the music out of him and replace it with sweet, sweet bluegrass fiddling. Resistance is futile.
• Banjo: The same old hack.
• Mando: Matt Witler, a high school senior and rather amazing player as long as his homework is done.
• Guitar: Mike Gurzi, lead guitar and vocals, an awesome player who's also aiming for an pickup-truck endurance record by driving between Chatsworth (new practice spot) and Long Beach (where he lives.)*
• Dobro: Uli Sinn. Uli is from Austria and does a wicked impression of Governor Schwartzenegger, as does everybody else from Austria.
• Mando and vocals: Dee Farnsworth. Another mando: Why not? A singer and harmonizer? Absolutely!
• Fiddle: Peter Blackwelder, a college student who's really a violinist, but we're trying to beat the music out of him and replace it with sweet, sweet bluegrass fiddling. Resistance is futile.
Well, we're going out on a limb here -- the old Flaw members used to go nuts when we'd make practice tapes public. But this band is coming together so well, we can't help crowing a little. Hear for yourself.
Sample1
Sample2
Sample1
Sample2
Can you see why we're so excited??
We know you'll want to come hear us live, and our first gig is for a great cause:
Tierra del Sol Harvest Festival:
9919 Sunland Blvd, Sunland, CA
10-3 p.m. Saturday Oct. 17, 2009.
We do this every year, but this year, with state finances in a train-wreck, the annual fundraiser takes on added importance.
So come on out, hear the new Flaw, and buy a pumpkin, some sculptures, knicknacks and doo-dads. Great barbecue lunch, by the way. Here's a map.
Later that night, John will be shuckin' the corn, at Dave and Deke's annual Hillbillyfest at Joe's Great American Bar and Grill. This one is so humiliating that only John will be allowed to participate.
Yours for greater acceptance of alternative banjo tunings,
Murphy's Flaw
-----------------------------------
Murphy's Flaw: "Expensive, Tasteless, Mediocre Bluegrass since 2005"
We know you'll want to come hear us live, and our first gig is for a great cause:
Tierra del Sol Harvest Festival:
9919 Sunland Blvd, Sunland, CA
10-3 p.m. Saturday Oct. 17, 2009.
We do this every year, but this year, with state finances in a train-wreck, the annual fundraiser takes on added importance.
So come on out, hear the new Flaw, and buy a pumpkin, some sculptures, knicknacks and doo-dads. Great barbecue lunch, by the way. Here's a map.
Later that night, John will be shuckin' the corn, at Dave and Deke's annual Hillbillyfest at Joe's Great American Bar and Grill. This one is so humiliating that only John will be allowed to participate.
Yours for greater acceptance of alternative banjo tunings,
Murphy's Flaw
------------------------------
Murphy's Flaw: "Expensive, Tasteless, Mediocre Bluegrass since 2005"
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