Father's Day With the Carolyn Martin Trio

Cookin' With Carolyn:  Thanks to the efforts of Judy Muldawer, Abq Jew (accompanied by his smart, pretty, and talented daughter) enjoyed a wonderful afternoon of Country Swing with the Carolyn Martin Trio, featuring the inimitable Rory Hoffman.

Want to know what it was all about?  You can listen to Carolyn here ...

and you can watch Rory here.

The thing about Rory is: well, he's blind.  And, perhaps because of that, he learned to play guitar in a really funny way - left-handed, with the guitar backwards, lying on his lap.  (Rory tunes the guitar conventionally - EADGBE - not an open tuning, like a slide guitar.)  He plays 15 instruments - guitar, accordion (which he also played, expertly, yesterday), a dozen more, plus banjo, which he apparently learned last night, after the concert.

The stage, by the way, was the South Broadway Cultural Center.  Managed by the City of Abq's Cultural Services Department, the SBCC is a multi-cultural, visual, performing, and literary art center that promotes, preserves, and educates the community about the cultures and ethnicities that define Albuquerque. SBCC shares the facility with an art gallery and the South Broadway Library, and collaborates with the library on a number of events and activities.

Concerts at the SBCC are being enabled by the aforementioned Judy Muldawer, aka Banjo Judy.  Judy works as a Volunteer Promoter - there is no other title - for the City of Abq, pulling in fantastic entertainers (many of whom she knows, or gets to know, personally) and setting them up at venues like the beautiful SBCC.

There are plenty of SBCC events in the works, including this Friday night's Really Bigger Banjo Show, featuring Abq's own Dr Wayne Shrubsall.  Great news: It's Summer!  And you can buy tickets before Shabbos! Here is an example of what you'll hear.

As he stated in a previous blog post, Abq Jew cannot help but note with extreme pleasure the strong links between bluegrass, western swing,  folk  music, and the Jewish tradition.  And the angels swing!