The Viper and His Second String to play the Coffee House

April 29, 2010 Ryan Jerving Leave a comment

The Viper and His Second String will play for the Viper’s debut Milwaukee show on Friday, May 7, 2010, as part of a four-band show dedicated to the jug band sound. The show starts at 8:00 p.m. at the Coffee House, below Redeemer Lutheran Church, 631 N. 19th St. (just off Wisconsin, near the Marquette University campus). As the newbies, I think the Viper and His Second String are going first. The other featured groups are Larry Penn’s Washboard Band (featuring Dave Fox), Peter Lee, and the Grumpystiltskyn Jug Band. This is a Food Pantry Benefit for the Central City Church’s Food Pantry, and so a donation of $4 and two cans of food is requested.

This show also marks the debut of the Second String as the Viper’s support system. At this show, the Second String will feature Riley Broach on the ukulele and washtub bass and John Peacock on the ukulele, toy piano, and percussion. (And we have John and Sue Peacock to thank for the band name.)

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Small minded man

February 23, 2010 Ryan Jerving Leave a comment

As I prepare for The Viper’s upcoming guest spot with The Golden Horse Ranch Band on Sunday, March 7 at The Whistler in Logan Square, Chicago, Illinois, I offer this taste of a new song written specially for the occasion.

This is a bit of a piece of a scratch recording of the last verse and chorus of a number titled “Big Headed Small Minded Man,” a song, as far as I’ve been able to determine, about dry cleaning, .

“Big Headed Small Minded Man” (scratch track)
click right to download

You’re also welcome to view the video version of roughly this same part of the song as filmed by my daughter, Irene, with some help from Ventriloquitty.

on YouTube

those that tremble as if they were mad

In the darkest depths of Mordor…

January 8, 2010 Ryan Jerving 1 Comment

…and Maryland, the Paint Branch Ramblers keep on rambling.

Though secretly sad that the band didn’t collapse entirely in my absences, I am at least outwardly delighted to see them all up and running again – and with new material (I’ll have to find out what “Your Cheating Heart or Here” means).

And I’m glad to see that someone, somewhere – anywhere – was playing the “Lawson Family Murder” this Christmas.

Here’s a clip featuring a clipped version of last year’s Ramblers, playing in sub-freezing weather on the ground of a one-time CCC camp in Masten, Lycoming County, Pennsylvania. Left to right, that’s Peter Jensen, Mike Paul, and Ryan Jerving.

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Jingle Bells

December 23, 2009 Ryan Jerving 1 Comment

The Viper’s seasonal side project, The Reds and the Blues, are back — this time performing James Lord Pierpont’s winter classic from 1857 originally titled “One Horse Open Sleigh.” As usual, Irene Vipersdottir Jerving sings while The Viper plays ukulele (here, doubling on jug).

on YouTube

For just the music:

“Jingle Bells”
download the mp3

For the story of The Reds and the Blues, and our recording of Irene’s original “Christmasy Blues,” see our previous post.

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So be good

December 18, 2009 Ryan Jerving 11 Comments

Here’s a song to open your advent calendar by: “The Christmasy Blues,” music and lyrics by Irene Vipersdottir Jerving, age 5. There’s some good advice in here, so listen up.

‘The Christmasy Blues”

download the mp3

The song is from a forthcoming CD to be titled Christmasy, as recorded by the two-person band (me and her) that she calls The Reds and the Blues. The entire run of the CD will be 1 copy, which she plans to give to our upstairs neighbors for Christmas.