That’s Wall, NJ, and at 8:30 am, too. Thursday, crack o’dawn, the lads met to play for two shows for three six grade pods.

Surprise, surprise, today’s drummer was JJ Zeller, a RR alum from 18 years ago! He’s been playing gigs with Donnie, and, Kevin off in Florida, he was the right man for the job. Nick and Donnie clued him in on the ride to NJ (there are some benefits to these long drives), and the poor boy took directions from all three of us. Scattered, but always professional. I am always amazed by the musicianship of these friends.

Boy, say that three times fast…. Anyway, I returned to Whitehall, PA to this cool K and 1st school for an am and pm show. The place was packed with eager faces and feet. We proceeded to make a whole lotta noise, and I worked up two sweats in one day. I learned a Turkey song.

The turkey is a silly bird; its head goes wobble, wobble, wobble.
He only says one silly word: gobble, gobble, gobble.
(Imagine your own movements…)

Crack o’ dawn tomorrow for a RR in Wall, NJ at 8:30 am. Yes, am….

I finally have full cuts of the music from my three CD’s for y’all to listen to. My friend Otto Bost is now working on the site to freshen it up, and we’ll be working on adding new songs and, perhaps, videos. Oh, boy! Stay tuned! .. especially you musicians….

Friday night at Tallarico’s Chocolate for First Friday in Bethlehem. It was a good night for me, as far as playing. I must have been warmed up from the Gorka night before, but I played really well. My Martin was a little stiff, so it made me play forcefully, and it worked. It’s funny how the guitar guides you. Anyway, it was great therapy for me, and Brian, the owner, as well. Off to CT in the morning.

I had the pleasure and honor to open for my friend John Gorka at Godfrey’s on Thursday. Two thieves retuning to the scene of the crime, as it were. It was a full house and a receptive audience. I tried out Guantanamo Bay, and got it almost right, Shark, Giants, Charlie James, a banjo medley, with 29th Regimen thrown in, a Waldzither jig medley, and finished up with Bo Diddley, with the audience doing the drum break.

John’s set was, as always, warm and poetic, with some tunes we haven’t heard in a while, and John graciously wove in his experiences here at Godfrey’s and in Bethlehem. He still keeps it real and genuine. Go John! Thanks for the CD, too.

The LV tour continues tomorrow at Tallarico’s Chocolates on First Friday.

I returned to my ABC’s of Learning session, part II in Monroe, NJ. A nice review of teaching skills in the morning, and an introduction to cooperative learning – getting kids to work as a team. Good stuff.

There’s a term for the moment of best learning, and its based on brain studies – relaxed awareness – when kids (and people in general) are engaged in a supportive atmosphere. You can think of many situations when one or both factors are absent, especially in schools.

Another big word: taxonomy. There are levels of thought (thus Higher Order Thinking – HOT schools in CT), starting with general knowledge, rising with comprehension, and then application of the knowledge. Each step is a richer form of thought. It goes up from there with analysis, synthesis and evaluation, and, eventually, empathy. Fat words with lots of meaning – kind of like going back to college, for me.

Anyway, driving back from the session, I figured out my niche – cognitive folk. My own school of thought. Cool.

RockRoots played at our annual visit to Sabatini ES in Madison, NJ. We’ve been there on Oct. 31st for years, and the costumes are always great. We had five fine Irish step dancers along with Elvis. He sang with us, as well as two members of Kiss. Pretty cool, huh? Lots of dancing.

I’m a happy man.

I guess feedback is an improper term from review from Mountain Way’s gig earlier this month. Echo is probably better. Thanks, teachers!

‘this was an awesome performance – a great time was had by all, teachers included’, “don’t go so long’ (you’re right…), awesome, all of my students had a great time’, ‘good old-fashioned fun’, ‘great singing and audience participation with the whole school’, ‘fun!’, ‘continue this type of interactive assembly’.

from the CA representative: ‘Dave was interactive w/ the children and kept the show at a fast pace so not to loses their attention’. and ‘I could not attend the performance. However, I was told that Dave was “AWESOME”‘ :). Thank you, and I did go longer than I should have, impacting on teachers’ schedules. I have to keep that in mind, too.

This was another part of my secret life as a Teaching Artist, appearing again as Dave, the student. I’m doing a two-day exploration of The ABC’s of Learning, centering on how to teach well. Simple statement but rather expansive. I’m with some YANJ Creative Beginnings folks, and various administrators and artists. Nice folks, all. And thanks to Ross Danis, our guru, and Wendy Liscow from the Dodge Foundation.

Did you know that teachers make around 5000 decision every day, akin to airport traffic controllers. No wonder they’re worn out.

We worked on how to involve your students (and, by extension, audience) in active participation and how that makes learning process quicker, deeper for the student and more efficient and effective as a teacher. random phrases that stuck – make invitations to talk to each other in order to broaden the process to more kids – enjoy the quiet after a question, and use it. the longer the pause increases the quality of the response. Hmmm…..

Interesting section on Inhibitors. Do any of these rattle your memory?
Who can tell me?….. Can anyone tell me?… answering your own questions… saying students name first. These all tend to help the rest of the students reply silently, oh, good. It’s not me. And then tune out of the process.

By the way, it poured all the way there from CT, I got there close but not on time. It started to snow while we were there, sometimes looking like goose features. 7 hours on the road, but worth it.

Saturday was a blustery and rainy, yet warm, day in Hellertown and Saucon Valley. I played fro my friends and families with the Red Door Childhood Center in Hellertown. I love the fact that sometimes, you just gotta dance. I was several songs into my kindermusic, when two two-year olds just got up and started dancing while I was talking (supposedly entertaining folks). I dawned on me, thanks to my crowd-control senses developed in my thankfully distant days doing bar gigs. “Shut and Play!” I get all my cues from kids.

I headed out to Saucon Valley Country Club for what was to be my annual hayrides with families out through colorful trees and psychedelic golf pants of the Republican duffers. It was not to be with the driving rain and wind. So I set up shop out under the tent with pumpkins, hay, kids games, cookie and pumpkin decorating, and me. It was fine ’cause it was loose, families and kids in costumes, great food (PB&J sandwiches shaped like coffins… think about that one…). Anyway, since I’ve had the pleasure of playing with these folks and families for several years, we could pass out the instruments and play, dance and celebrate being families around Halloween. Thanks to SVCC for involving me.

I received some nice comments from some teachers from our gig this summer at the Atlantic County Special Services School this summer. It was our annual visit to this gym full of special needs kids and their very special and caring teachers. The event always energizes the school, and, of course, the band. Music is a powerful communication – but you know that….

Comments:
Outstanding performers: involved student population a great deal; students and staff thoroughly enjoyed the performers (the school’s Cultural Arts administrator)

and… ‘bring them back again’ , ‘our kids really enjoy this assembly, so does the staff’, ‘great show!’, and two ‘excellent’s.

The band had a good time, too.

We had our firts RR of the season at a nice K-5 school – Terhune ES – in Wayne school. It was good to see the lads again, and catch up with our travels. It was nice to see pictures of Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington up on the stage curtains. Made me feel right at home. The older kids were up and dancing and we had a rollicking good time. I amazed myself by remembering the show after 4 months of vacation, but I guess it’s genetically imprinted by now. Good to be out on the road again with RockRoots.

Back to Bethlehem and meet with Otto Bost who’s going to update my web site, since Front Page has some major hidden worms that preclude working on the site from different computers. Drat. Anyway, the mp3’s will be working soon, and full versions at that. Stay tuned.

I topped off Wednesday with a nice drive down to South Street in Philly for a YAPA get together with prospective board members and a few YAPA acts, including my friends, Two of a Kind – Jenny and David. I spent 30 minutes trying to find a parking place, got therein time to do two songs. Such is life.

Another ealry morning, heading out of Bethlehem for Annapolis, MD, for a Pottery Barn show. The place was jumping from the get-go. with kids dressed up in lion outfits, Spiderman, fairiies, etc. I found some great Halloween songs for toddlers, most based on familiar tunes. Try goggling Halloween and scroll down to some of the non-commercial sites for some nice songs. A long drive but worth it. Back to Bethlehem and then a drive to Philly in the evening.

I hit the road early on Tuesday to Raritan, NJ for a delightful K-4 school, JFK. the kids were a pleasure, and the teachers danced right along. That’s what I love about these schools. Community!

I’ve been dragged into the new century and added my face to Facebook. Anyway, I can put up some nice photos, and add some DF video I’ve been working on, as part of the CT Troubadour project (which, by the way, is due today – I got it in the mail last Friday). So, stay tuned and stay in touch.

An nice open mike – South Green Coffeehouse – has moved to the third Sunday and it brought out some good folks and friends – Cece and Ruth, Stan, Rick, Kent, et al. It’s in a nice paneled room at the church on South Green. Nice sound, with or without mics. People playing songs that matter to them. I flailed through Bonaparte’s Retreat/Temperance reel on the guitar, and Kent joined me on Spoonful. Forgot words and muffed notes – in other words, a normal open mike for me. Nice to hear Ricks’ version of Green Green Rocky Road, and learned that it has roots to slave songs. cool.

Saturday took me to Lewisboro, NY, just across the border from western CT for a small town harvest festival for kids. Pumpkin decorating, inflatable bouncers, popcorn, hot chocolate and cookies, a magic show and me. I was on a stage backed by a pond, big yellow trees overhead, and a blue sky. After about a half hour, kids and parents drifted off to the many other events, which was understandable, so I backed off the sound system and sat down with my mandolin – sure enough, some dads and kids gathered around and we had a great time just playing. Perhaps I should have done that to begin with. A pleasure to be out in the world as the leaves change.

I’ve been banging around my application for this year’s stab at the CT Troubadour “Contest”, working on a song about the CT 29th Colored Regimen, a Civil War outfit of Blacks and Native Americans that fought in that war. After much technical snarls, recorders, computers, etc., I finally got the song down on a CD form this morning, and put it in the mail with the application. A load off my head.

The process (this is my third attempt) is always a growth experience, not only with the song-writing, but with updating my peripherals – web site, promo, video to DVD, gig count, etc. So I really have a chance to focus on my biz. The narrative sections are good philosophic exercises, too.

Web site – still have to get comfortable with Front Page skills and fix the music listening snaffu. Soon…
Promo – it’s still a home project, but a project that’s got to be done.
Video to DVD – I found some great video from Philly Folk and a few other sources, so I look forward to sharing some of that soon on the web site. I had to get a VID-DVD machine, and now I have to find some editing space to fine tune the material.
Gig Count – 2007 – 180, 2008 – 187, so far.

So, we’ll see how it goes this time.