hungry monk music blog

The End of 2011

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 16:04:42 -0500

The end of 2011 brought with it a flurry of activity at Hungry Monk Music. Aside from everyone’s busy performing schedule, we hosted several visiting performers who were traveling through Charleston and graced us with their presence.
Scottish fiddle virtuoso Jamie Laval came to visit usin the middle of November. Jamie was in town for a house concert elsewhere, but came to play with The Hungry Monks at Tommy Condon’s on a Friday night, visited with The Hungry Monk Fiddlers on Saturday, and held a workshop at Hungry Monk Music on Sunday.
Then we pushed on into December. On the 9th we hosted the great Uillean pipe (Irish small pipes) player Cillian Vallely and guitarist Ryan McGiver. Definitely the only Uillean pipe concert in town that night, and possibly ever. Quite a treat.
The very next night we were entertained by Tammerlin, the duo of Arvid Smith and Lee Hunter from Jacksonville who have been to Charleston many times and are old friends of Hungry Monk Music. They played their special seasonal concert called Winter Song, a collection of holiday music from around the world and throughout history.
And just to top things off, the folk duo Loves It! From Austin, TX came by on December 16, and really bowled us over with their energetic freak folk original and traditional music. Vaughn Walters and Jenny Parrott played and sang and hung out with us and really helped to close out the year with great fun and music.
See you next year!

Music at Hungry Monk

Fri, 11 Nov 2011 21:29:23 -0500

The Fall of 2011 has seen Hungry Monk Music play host to several visiting performers. In November we were visited by Red June, an acoustic Americana trio from Asheville. Will, John, and Natalya performed a great program of original songs and instrumentals featuring guitars, mandolin, fiddle, and wonderful three part vocal harmonies. Although their sound is very traditional and have a very strong Appalachian feel, this was all new music that reflected a contemporary experience.
Next up (the very next night actually) we were treated to early Classical guitar duets on historic instruments. The early 1800’s saw the beginning of the 6-string guitar and its repertoire. Doug James and Pasquale Rucco are a long standing duo who play instruments from the early 1800’s. What we would call “parlor size guitars” were the norm in early 1800’s Vienna, Paris, Rome, and even Moscow. These beautiful instruments make an enchanting sound that perfectly suited our small performance space. We have a bit of history with Doug James in that Hazel has performed at Appalachian State University in Boone, NC where Doug runs the guitar program. We even had him here in Charleston way back in 1994 for Piccolo Spoleto.

Summer 2011

Sat, 16 Jul 2011 21:25:38 -0400

Hungry Monk Music has been at its present location for just over 6 years now and we’re finally getting our summer ruitine together. Summer Camps and private lessons keep the summer schedule going, but everyone feels the need to get out of town for a while during the hot summer months. As usual, The Hungry Monks, or at least the duo version of Hazel and John, find themselves in the Northeast visiting family and friends, doing some camping, and playing a few gigs along the way.
Our month long excursion takes us to family in NJ as a jumping off point for camping and playing in NY State. Hanging out in the Ithaca area for a week, we camp out at a NY State Park, do a couple of gigs, and eat at The Moosewood Restaurant. This years performances were at Dorothy’s Music Room (formerly The Pour House) and Gimme Coffee. Nice rooms, good audiences, and even some fans from years past. This year we were joined on a few tunes by Jeremy Holenko, who received some enthusiastic applause along the way.
Back to NJ for some non-camping relaxation and a couple more gigs. Since this is John’s hometown turf, lots of old friends came out to see us and to play with us. We’ve also developed a relationship with an old friend, Damian Calcagne, who has a recording studio, so we’ve spent some of our time getting some new music down on tape (actually, hard drive).
The summers are never long enough and we can see the end of our vacation already. We’ll be hitting the ground running once we get back to Charleston with a couple more Camp and lots more playing. Stay tuned.

Bruce Molsky

Mon, 14 Mar 2011 21:22:57 -0400

One of the goals of Hungry Monk Music has always been to be a destination for great musicians traveling through the area. This past week, March 10th and 11th , was one of the highlights of that goal. The great traditional fiddler, guitarist, banjo player Bruce Molsky spent two days here giving workshops and a solo concert. Students at Hungry Monk Music can always count on some workshops during the year, but this is the first time we’ve had a fiddle, banjo, and guitar workshop from the same artist in two days. Sort of a little old time music festival.
Bruce’s solo concert was truly amazing. Alternating between fiddle, banjo, and guitar, with both songs and instrumentals, we were treated to an astonishing variety of music from one performer. One of the more unique things about the concert was Bruce’s ability to sing with only his fiddle as accompaniment. Drawing on repertoire from his many recordings, some new material, and even a request or two, Bruce held the attention of our small but appreciative Hungry Monk audience for two solid hours.
With any luck, this will not be our last visit from Bruce. He was mighty impressed by our students and atmosphere at Hungry Monk Music and expressed his interest to come back. From our end, it was sure nice to hear great fiddle tunes for two days, to make contact with a true legend, and to see our students and our community grow a little.

Hungry Monk Fiddlers

Thu, 3 Mar 2011 21:16:48 -0500

In February 2010, Pam joined Mark O'Connor for a presentation of his new Violin Method at the Herb Alpert School of Music at UCLA. Several Southern California Area Suzuki teachers took on the project and started teaching from Mark's new books. Last Fall, Pam & John received a call from a teacher at STEP (Suzuki Talent Education of Pasadena) inviting them and any of their students to join them for a Fiddle Fest on January 15th. Twelve students and their families accepted the invitation and made the long trip from Charleston to Pasadena. The Fiddle Fest featured a whole day of classes and activities combining the repertoire of the Suzuki and O'Connor Methods at Wilson Middle School in Pasadena. The end-or-the-day concert featured pieces from both styles. It was particularly fun to hear Dill Pickle Rag programed between the Bach Double and Humoresque. The Hungry Monk Fiddlers worked with several teachers from the LA area and fiddler Pattie Hopkins from North Carolina. (Pattie will be on the faculty on the O'Connor Method Camp in Charleston in August). Hazel and her guitar also found themselves in Pasadena and provided a wonderful accompaniment for our featured solo on the concert. The students and Hazel assisted Pam in a teacher-training workshop held at a private home in Pasadena the day following the concert. Javier Orman, formerly of Charleston, was among the participants in the workshop.

The Hungry Monk Fiddler also visited Disneyland, Hollywood and several other LA area attractions. The hotel pool was also very popular. The plane was HUGE! The group had a great time with the activities and getting to know each other. Students ranged in age from 7 to 15 with one adult student also joining in. 5 parent chaperones helped Pam and John look after the troop.

Stevie Coyle

Mon, 9 Aug 2010 21:14:42 -0400

One of the things we enjoy about life at Hungry Monk Music is the way it mirrors the school year. We see our year in terms of Fall and Spring semesters and a summer break. As usual our summer break this very was very productive with lots of summer camps and all of our faculty off traveling and gigging.
To celebrate the end of summer and the beginning of the Fall semester (here in SC anyway), we hosted our friend Stevie Coyle in performance and turned the whole evening into a big party. Stevie last visited us a couple of years ago and he sent us note just recently expressing his interest in playing at Hungry Monk Music again, so we got out the word and had a great evening of music. Stevie is a great finger style guitar player, singer, and songwriter. A founding member of The Waybacks, a former circus performer, actor, and voice-over personality, Stevie always puts on a great concert. He’s one of those performers who can make an audience laugh or cry with nothing but the music coming out of his guitar. But then he goes on to tell stories and jokes that really hit the audience. And did I mention his guitar playing? From old blues and folk standards, to witty originals, to a Who medley and a version of Stairway to Heaven with the lyrics from Gilligan’s Island, he managed to get just about everything in there.
But we thought that as long as we had folks sitting and listening we would add a little more. One of Hungry Monks rising stars is Samantha Kirstein, a 13 year old guitar student who happens to write amazing songs. Samantha opened the show with a few of her tunes, and as Stevie commented when he took the stage, “I hope you were all listening carefully, because you will all be singing her songs some day”.
Our little concert turned into a Hungry Monk party with more music. Making their debut, the trio of Althea Holenko, Rebecca Culver, and Claudia Jos, calling themselves “Chasing Zingy” (you’ll have to ask them about that) played us an opening set with guitars, drums, vocals, and the newest must-have instrument at Hungry Monk, the ukelele.
All in all it was a pretty good start to the year. Stay tuned, there is much more to come.

Perpetual E-Motion

Thu, 18 Mar 2010 21:08:06 -0400

The latest edition of the highly erratic performance schedule at Hungry Monk Music brought us an incredible concert that really brought together the old and the new. Perpetual e-Motion is a fiddle and guitar duo from New England that are on a Southern tour playing mostly contra dances. The duo is made up of Ed Howe playing a 5 string electric violin, and John Cote playing a Godin electric/acoustic guitar, a digereedoo, and foot percussion. Both players are hooked up to a bunch of electronics, and Ed particularly makes use of a loop pedal. The music is traditional, with a couple of newly composed pieces that sound traditional, but the sound and texture of the group is built around very modern electronics. A couple of vocal tunes, courtesey of John, round out the repertoire.
It’s fair to say that the entire audience was enthralled from beginning to end. Certainly nobody had ever heard so much, and such varied, sound from a duo. While the use of loops and other electronics is rather common in pop music today, not many traditional musician’s venture into this world. To the band’s great credit, the gadgets never got in the way of the music, and it’s clear that they spent a lot of time making sure that the electronics served the music. It turns out that Ed is also an electrical engineer, so all his electronic devises had custom modifications done to them. The addition of the digeridoo and the foot percussion gave the sound a bit of a “world music” flavor as well.
An interesting side note: Ed’s Volvo (the band vehicle) is outfitted with a solar panel on the roof, and a couple of batteries store electricity. Run through a transformer and wired to an outdoor electrical outlet installed on the exterior of the car, these guys can power their whole system (or any electrical devise) all by themselves. No venue is too remote for Perpetual e-Motion.
These guys came our way through contact with Charleston Folk and they will be back in town in June of 2010 to play a contra dance. Can’t wait to dance to them.

Jacqueline Schwab

Tue, 9 Feb 2010 21:07:55 -0500

Once again, Hungry Monk Music was able to attract a wonderful musician traveling through Charleston to offer a workshop. In this case, we hosted Jacqueline Schwab for 2 piano workshops. Jacqueline is a wonderful pianist who specializes in traditional American music, like Ragtime, 19th Century songs, contra dance music, and improvisation. If you don’t know her name, you have heard her music if you have watched any of the Ken Burns documentaries on PBS, including the Civil War series. Jacqueline plays the piano background music through all of these award-winning films.
Jacqueline gave a concert on Thursday Jan. 28, at the Unitarian Church in Charleston. Joined by our new friend Susan Conant on flute, the duo performed original music of Susan’s that really lives in a world both classical and traditional. Jacqueline then played some old dance music, 19th century song interpretations, and even had the audience singing some Stephen Foster.
On Sunday, January 31, Jacqueline taught 2 workshops at Hungry Monk Music for our piano students and faculty. One workshop was geared towards our younger students who have been taking Music For Young Children classes. She got them to think about their music in a fresh new way by encouraging them to improvise and verbalize what they felt about their music. I’m sure the 3 young students were a little nervous and unsure about what they were being asked to do, but I can say without a doubt that they participated with enthusiasm and I hope they will look back on this as the first in many workshop/master classes that they will encounter along the way.
The second workshop was attended by some of our more advanced students, and nearly all the piano faculty at Hungry Monk Music. Such was the level of excitement and hunger for knowledge that everyone wanted to be a part of this class. Improvisation and technical skills were part of this class and our entire faculty came away with new ideas about playing and teaching.
We hope to have Jacqueline Schwab back when she comes through town again. Our growing tradition of hosting visiting teachers and performers is exactly what we hoped would happen here. Stay tuned for even more in the future.

Gage Hall 2009

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 18:39:42 -0500

Some years ago, Hazel and John were Artists-in-Residence at the Cuyahoga Valley Environmental Education Center just south of Cleveland, Ohio. It was a great gig for many reasons, particularly for the opportunity to make new friends. Two friends we made there were Michael and Sandy Bashaw from Dayton, Ohio. Michael was there constructing an environmental sculpture with the students. Turns out, he’s also a great flutist and harmonica player. His wife Sandy is a wonderful singer/songwriter, and a great guitar player. The amazing thing is that Michael’s grown daughters live here in Charleston and they visit here often.
Finally, after about 5 years of friendship, we managed to put together a concert. The Gage Hall Coffee House approached The Hungry Monks about performing and we thought about Michael and Sandy. It didn’t take much to lure them to town with children, grandchildren, and gigs waiting for them.
On Saturday night, November 14, the combined forces of The Hungry Monks and The Bashaws took the stage at Gage Hall for an evening of traditional and original music featuring guitars, mandolin, fiddle, flutes, harmonica, accordion, percussion, and of course, great vocals. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. We broke up into various duos (John & Hazel, Hazel & Sandy, John & Michael, etc) and played a whole set as a full band. I’m pretty sure everyone there had a good time, I know we had a blast. We even got Michael into the recording studio the next day to lay down a few tracks for an upcoming CD recording.

RocktoberFest 2009

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 18:34:37 -0400

The 2nd Annual RocktoberFest out at Awendaw Green, the weekend of October 9 – 12, was another huge success. Awendaw Green, as you may know, is a recording studio/performance venue owned and run by our friend Eddie White. They have weekly Wednesday Night Jams out there and lots of great performances. RocktoberFest is a weekend long festival of music and crafts whose proceeds go to the Wando High School music program. This year’s event featured 3 stages with music going constantly for 4 days. Most every local band put in an appearance, and some played more than once. Such was the case on Sunday when The Hungry Monks arrived early to check out the music and were promptly recruited to fill out the membership of Big Stoner Creek. Our friends George Fox and Jamie Crisp have been playing together for years in a series of bands, but their first venture was the fondly remembered Big Stoner Creek. Due to various circumstances, when their time slot came up they were missing some key players, so John Holenko became their lead guitarist, Bob Culver became their fiddle player, and Hazel Ketchum played drums for half the set. Thus was born The Hungry Stoner Creek, or Big Stoner Monks, or something.
Later that evening, The Hungry Monks took the Porch Stage and played a great set of our newest original songs and tunes. The basic Monk unit of Hazel , John, Bob, and John Kennedy was augmented by our great friend Jim Donnelly on drum kit, who has been known to play with us from time to time, and has been in the recording studio with us recently. As usual with The Hungry Monks, folks were up and dancing almost immediately, some were singing along to songs of ours that are getting pretty well known, and we ventured into improvisational territory with long jams and a couple of songs we had never played on stage before.
All in all, a great fun day that was part of a great fun weekend. We look forward to next year’s event and will probably be out there before that doing some playing at another Awendaw Green event.