tick...tick..tick....

The plethora of help I'm getting putting KK together gives me time to catch up on playing my Bacon professional 5 string banjo which just came back from the shop. (Wow! What a difference....!) AND preparing for my class with Sherry Mayrent on the new Living Traditions Online Digital Sound Archives. I've been ploughing through Sherry's mind numbing catalog of some 3,000 78s she's collected (more since the catalog was made) and choosing some weird, rare and just plain amazing recordings for the class. Current faves: Joseph Feldman's 1925 "Fun Schlechte Chaverim Tsum Electric Chair" (From Bad Friends to...you know where.), Anna Hoffman's ribald 1923 "Froyen Nacht in a Terkishe Bath" ("Ladies Night you know where....), an extremely rare 1901 Kol Nidre by pioneeering recording cantor Selmar Cerini and a bunch of really kicking Belf klezmer discs. And about 30 more.
I do have to get some fretted instrument playing in. I still have to restring my '39 Epiphone New Yorker archtop guitar in anticipation of the Ray Musiker CD we're recording at KlezKamp this year. (Haven't played it since Pete and I disbanded Klezmer Plus! nearly five years ago...) Pete tells me his meeting with Ray on repertoire was really exciting and he even coaxed out a tango Ray hasn't played in decades in addition to some wonderful tunes made famous by his older and late brother Sammy.

Who can wait?