Dad Carter

Coupla Cousins

2011-05-14T10:30:00.001-07:00

Grandaughter's Easter

2011-04-29T11:48:00.000-07:00

Here are some granddaughter pics from Easter.

https://cid-2f2a080e6ea5af54.photos.live.com/browse.aspx/Grandaughter%20Easter?uc=2

John's Graduation

2011-04-29T11:33:00.000-07:00

Great day for John today! Graduated from UVU with a degree in Biology Ed. Way to go John!!! Follow link to photo album.

https://cid-2f2a080e6ea5af54.photos.live.com/browse.aspx/John%20Graduation

Jimmer

2011-02-15T16:06:00.000-08:00

I'm not much of a rap fan, but this one was hard to resist. Now there's a hi-lite reel!!!

Valentine's Day

2011-02-14T19:07:00.000-08:00

Here's proof positive that Kathy's a romantic in spite of protests to the contrary!!!

I do love Peeps!!!

Dad's Music

2011-02-11T15:14:00.000-08:00

I've decide to separate out my musical ramblings. Click on the title to this post to link to the new blog.

Baby Hannah Surgery

2011-01-15T14:41:00.001-08:00

Surgery was good. No problems. Baby's recovering fine. Everything looks good so far! If all goes well she gets to come home tomorrow morning. Fingers crossed!

Baby Hannah Update

2011-01-15T08:02:00.001-08:00

The ENT folks at Primary Children's have decided that an operation is the best course for little Hannah. She's scheduled for 10:00 AM today. They don't enter into it lightly. New born surgery is tricky and difficult. They don't do well with anesthesia either. Please pray.

Hannah Mary Carter

2010-12-19T19:32:00.001-08:00

Scott and Mary Ann's little girl was born yesterday weighing 7 lbs 6 oz and was 20" long. Here lungs were having some problems so she was admitted to the NICU last night. Here are some pictures taken tonight of Hannah still in the NICU. She’s breathing room air tonight and will hopefully be off the ventilator tomorrow!!!

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Heber City Cowboy Poetry Gathering

2010-11-05T16:10:00.001-07:00

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Got to see (and hear) Suzy Boguss and some other great performers at the Heber City Cowboy Poetry Gathering this morning. Suzy’s clear and clean vocals are a given and she didn’t disappoint! The other acts were also great. Of particular note was “Hot Club of Cowtown”, a western swing band doing a lot of Bob Wills stuff. I bought their latest cd, a Bo Wills tribute called “What Makes Bob Holler”. I really need to get more into that genre. My knowledge up to now has mainly been an acquaintance with “Asleep At the Wheel”. Brenn Hill is the male soloist. He’s a local guy and was also good. His friend Andy Nelson told some cowboy poetry. There had to be some of that didn’t there? He introduced a poem about political correctness with “political correctness is like trying to pick up a cowpie from the clean side”! Right on! It was obvious by the crowd reaction however that the morning really belonged to Suzy. She was the only one to get an encore. All sets were pretty short, but it was great. I’ll probably do it again next year.

Washington D.C. Pics

2010-10-18T18:50:00.001-07:00

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Ants

2010-08-23T07:51:00.000-07:00

We've had a problem with "Sugar Ants" in our yard for years. I've tried most of the chemical controls you can buy. Of the chemical controls, Diazanon crystals worked best but are no longer available. We found a better solution thanks to a tip from Shannon given her by a friend who's into organic methods of insect control. Her idea is to use ground up popcorn kernels as an ant bait. We tried it and it really works! All you need to do is roughly grind up a handful of popcorn kernels (un-popped!) in a blender and spread the resulting grit on the ant hills. It's amazing! Within a few days you will see no more ant activity and no worries about toxins around the house! Give it a try. I believe it will even work for fire ants.

Albion Basin

2010-08-15T08:40:00.000-07:00

Kathy and I took a drive up Little Cottonwood Canyon yesterday to enjoy the wild flowers in Albion Basin. Here are a few photos. I didn’t get shots of us since the parking lot was full and we had to keep moving, but it was a fun outing to a place Kathy had never been before.

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Off To The Mountains

2010-08-01T09:32:00.000-07:00

Here are some pics from our outing to the Uintas Saturday with MaryAnn and kids. A fun time!

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Summer Fun

2010-07-25T20:26:00.001-07:00

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Here are some shots from the short back packing trip I took with Josh and Matt to the far side of Washington Lake last Thursday. They both said it was the best camping trip they’ve ever been on. - only because we all caught fish! It was seriously hot fishing when we first got to our camp site. We kept 5 fish for our dinner one of which we shouldn’t have. It was one sick rainbow that turned to mush when cooked – ech! The others were really good, so it was a great experience. We caught more fish in the morning but didn’t keep any. The photo of Josh with a fish was taken in the morning. The companion shot is of Matt releasing it. On the way home we stopped at the Uinta Drive Inn in Kamas for lunch. Great food! I really liked the onion rings and the burgers were really good; served on a square, toasted bun. Other fun things we did while they were with us: swimming 3 times; flying my cheapy RC plane successfully; shooting pellet gun and bow and arrow; watching 24th of July neighborhood fireworks including “Cul-de-sac of Fire” in the Rosenthal’s neighborhood. I also threw in shots of Lauren with light sticks. First time for MaryAnn’s girls. Megan said it was the best celebration ever! I also included a couple of shots of Emily for Shannon’s sake.

I made this entry using Windows Live Writer per MaryAnn’s recommendation by way of Jared. I was sooo frustrated with Blogspot’s photo down loading. This is way better. I highly recommend it! Let me know if using photo albums is a bad idea. It's also possible to load photos directly with Live Writer.

Shannon B'Day

2010-07-19T20:14:00.000-07:00

Shannon, hope you're having a great Birthday! Love! Dad

Dual Birthdays

2010-07-11T10:34:00.000-07:00

Here are some pics from Lauren and Scott's birthday party.

Colorado Photos for non Facebookers

2010-06-06T08:31:00.000-07:00

There you go! Five pics from the Rockies game. Three pics from the Swetsville Zoo. Great guys day out! Oh yeah, one pic just for Scott of his fav player. Gotta love those dreads!

Colorado Photos

2010-05-30T13:00:00.001-07:00

See Colorado photos on Facebook.

LDS Bloggers Wanted

2010-05-21T19:30:00.000-07:00

Hey all you bloggers our there! There's an opportunity for you to turn other folks on to the joy of blogging. Nancy Hanson is looking for bloggers to interview on her Mormon Channel radio show "Everything Creative". Anyone interested in sharing their experiences and love of blogging with an LDS audience? If so contact me by email or Facebook and I'll bring your blog to her attention. She's looking for average people having a good time with blogs. That could be most any of you dedicated bloggers.

Mini Reunion

2010-04-26T08:13:00.000-07:00

We had a mini reunion this past weekend with all of our children in town minus a couple of spouses. Here are a few photos. Matt had quite a cheering section at his little league game!

Utah Spring

2010-04-03T08:09:00.000-07:00

It's amazing how quickly the weather changes around here. I drove to work in a virtual blizzard the other day. When I get off the sun's broken thru with blue sky overhead and fluffy white clouds all around. These shots are the best I could do but don't really capture the moment. You'd need a 360 degree panoramic camera and I'm not even sure that would cut it! Sometimes I need a reminder of why I love living here!!!

Dixie Chicks -1

2010-03-31T19:50:00.000-07:00

2 Chicks are better than no Chicks! In fact these 2 sound so good as a duo I have to ask why didn't they think of it sooner! Natalie who?!!!

http://www.courtyardhounds.com/us/home

More Snow Fun

2010-01-24T09:25:00.000-08:00

Had a beautiful snowfall yesterday. Then enjoyed a little fun in the snow with Josh and Matt. They were proud of the jump they created so they could catch a little air!

Let it snow, Let it snow, Let it snow

2009-12-30T20:19:00.001-08:00

Ain't it beautiful?!!!
(Not me. The snow.)

The Black Hole Tree

2009-12-28T07:43:00.001-08:00

That's what I'm talking about!

Christmas at the Carters 2009

2009-12-27T08:00:00.000-08:00

This was the first Christmas in 38 years that it was just me and Kathy in the morning. We kinda slept in at least by our standards. We spent Christmas eve with Kathy's sister Barbara. Had a great time eating dinner and playing games. Just the 3 of us! She came over at 9:00 AM in the morning. Di and Sam also showed up about the same time. We then opened our presents and went over to Barbara's to open hers. We didn't have any more visitors until afternoon when all our local adult children and spouses dragged in. Lynda and her family were the exception. They're spending Christmas in Cedar City with Jason's family. We had dinner and the usual Carter game night well into the evening. No grand kids! That was the only downer, but Josh and Matt will be along this week so we'll get some quality play time in when they show up. Maybe even a little winter back yard camping experience! We call our tree the "black hole" because it seems to suck in more light than it gives off. I'm not so sure led lights are such a hot idea after all. I'll try to remember to add a night time picture of it. You just can't see the effect in this day time shot.

Merry Christmas to All!!!

Musical Thoughts

2009-11-17T20:04:00.000-08:00

Some recent Facebooking got me thinking it might be a good time to throw a few of my latest musical findings out for whoever might find it of interest (if there are such people!). I was a bit bummed when Nickel Creek decided to disband and go there own ways so some of this listing will reflect music that at least for me fills that void. I won't bother to try to categorize these artists, so you'll have to take a listen to figure out to which ones I'm referring as Nickel Creek replacements. Some I've mentioned before, so pardon the repetition. Here's the list:

Erin Bode
Sarah Jarosz
The Green Cards
Adrienne Young
Crooked Still
The Lovell Sisters
Sierra Hull
Diane Birch
Colbie Caillat
Bonnie Bishop

I know, I know, they're all females. Some things never change!
I also had some exposure to new local singers. New to me anyway. My apologies to the many I'm leaving off. There are just so many I can't begin to list them all. The Hammer Hands concert series is a great place to catch on to many of them. He's planning another series next summer, so check it out! Here are just a handful:

Shaun Barrowes (Hammer Hands himself!)
Ryan Innes
Richard Lee Cody and Mary Kaye
Debra Fotheringham
Nicole Sheahan
Danielle Hyde Vaughn
and of course April Meservy

It's been a fun year. I've taken many opportunities to support local musicians. I hope to be able to continue the same next year!

Amazing news stories.

2009-10-04T07:54:00.000-07:00

There have been two recent stories in the news that have inspired me. One was Elizabeth's Smart's 2 hour testimony in court giving evidence against her former captor. The other is Paul Cardall's recent heart transplant and recovery after living with congenital heart disease his entire life. Learn his story at:

http://mytricuspidatresia.blogspot.com/

Lori McKenna

2009-09-15T15:49:00.000-07:00

This picture is of Lori McKenna playing at the folk and bluegrass festival at Snowbird last summer. It was great to get to see her live and even more so to have the privilege of meeting her. Lori is one of the premier songwriters of our time and has a very distinctive vocal style - Heartrending! That's a pretty good description of most of her songs too. She has a very gritty, down to earth way with a tune that really gets to the emotional center. She claims to only know how to write sad songs. It was quite a shock to find out her personality is quite the opposite! To get an idea of her approach to a song check out her cover of Cindy Lauper's "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" on Youtube at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2L3GYAaqbGA. It put's a very different spin on a song I always though was pretty frivolous. She would probably still be relatively obscure if Faith Hill hadn't gotten ahold of some of her music and based her "Fireflies" album on several of Lori's songs including the title track and "Stealing Kisses". This got Lori a major label deal and an appearance on Oprah with Faith. Tim McGraw produced her "Unglamorous" cd. This all resulted in some air time on country radio although she never had a major hit (not surprising; her sound isn't typical radio fair). Apparently her major label deal wasn't to be. She recently switched to an indie label. Probably for the best. She's much too eclectic to follow the dictates of main stream music. I'm looking forward to her next release. She's been writing up a storm all summer. She does an amazing job balancing music and family. She still resides in the small town of Stoughton, Mass, 30 minutes from Boston with her husband and 5 kids and rarely makes it out West, so it was a real privalege to have her out here last year. Anyway, there you go. Another worthy member of my top 10! Do yourself a favor and give her a listen!

Scouting

2009-09-05T15:28:00.000-07:00

Did a little Scouting with Josh and Matt this weekend with permission of Josh's Scoutmaster. They passed off 3 1st Class requirements including orienteering and lashing. Now is Josh's troop will help him pass of some cooking stuff he'll be done with 1st Class! Nice to be back in the saddle again. The broken rung is from Grandpa try out the ladder. So much for cottonwood. We replaced it with a piece of pine we found in my wood pile.

Jewel Lake II

2009-08-17T19:44:00.000-07:00

We went on our annual excursion to Jewel Lake last Friday and Saturday. Those who went this year were: Lynda and Jason’s family (Josh and Matt), Di and Sam, Scott and Mary Ann and me. I’d been watching the weather reports and didn’t like the look of it but was talked into going anyway. Big mistake! We spent most of the time in our tents due to the 30% chance of rain that parked over us most of our stay there! 2 out of 3 of the tents proved to be leaky. Scott and Mary Ann’s tent (shared with Di and Sam) was fairly new but they’d failed to read the instructions and hadn’t sealed the seams. Not sure what house Scott grew up in! They had a very wet, miserable time. So the night was spent in card playing and in my case listening to the last 2 episodes of “Everything Creative” on my Ipod. To be totally fair about it, we actually were able to eat dinner and breakfast during the brief times it was dry. We also got in and set up before the storms hit but got in little fishing. We were anxious to get out early in the morning but stuck around due the nice fire I got going. That was another mistake because after getting packed up and starting to head out, we were hit with a snow storm. It even made the nightly news. We almost made the nightly news ourselves due to my arrogance and stupidity! I thought I knew my way out from many years of camping there so failed to follow a compass course even though the landmarks I use for reference weren’t visible. We ended up wandering North of where we should have been and subjected my family to crossing one the many nasty boulder fields in the Uintas. I realized we were lost when things continued to not look right and finally got my compass out. I could have sworn it was reading wrong. It looked like we were going North when I thought we were going East. I asked Jason to get his compass out so I could verify that mine was ok. He couldn’t readily find it and it was snowing so hard he didn’t want to go searching through his pack. About then someone suggested we pray. Sam quickly volunteered. After the prayer I made the decision to head East and trust my compass was right. It wasn’t but a few minutes later I realized the meadow we’d come to was looking mighty familiar. Sure enough it was the meadow on the back side of our favored Jewel Lake camp site, a place I’ve fly fished on the meandering stream that runs through many times. We’d gone in a complete circle and found ourselves back where we started after about an hour of hiking! This time I checked the compass and since the storm was lightening up was able to see land marks and stick close to the mountains to the South. It was nice enough by the time we got back to Ruth Lake that some of us made a few futile casts in an attempt to recoup some of the money spent on fishing licenses. The trail out was full of running water so feet already sodden were made even wetter. …altogether a miserable experience but one that made a lasting impression of the power of prayer. Maybe it won’t be an annual event after all!

Suzy Bogguss

2009-07-25T08:13:00.001-07:00

Here are a couple of shots of Suzy Bogguss performing at Charleston, Utah last Saturday night. It was a delightful evening. Scott and MaryAnn came with me and commented that they enjoyed it and even liked Suzy's singing! I wasn't really surprised. Suzy is one of the most easy to listen to singers I know of (and I know of quite a few!). I came to know Suzy's music much the same way as I came to know Nancy Hanson's. Thank you Orem public library! Right after I bought my car cd player I became restless musically and started branching out to different stuff than the oldies rock from the 50's and 60's I'd enjoyed most of my life. The local oldies radio station also booted me in the rear by cutting way back on 50's music and adding 70's music. Who on earth considers 70's oldies? Anyway, I started exploring country, bluegrass and folk music and in doing so stumbled upon a country tribute to the Eagles that had a cut of Suzy singing "Take It To the Limit". Hardly my favorite Eagles tune but I was mezmerized by her voice. Such purity and clarity of tone. As a bonus the picture of her in the liner notes was pretty darn cute! After hearing that I went back to the library and checked out everything of hers I could find. Since then I've built up quite a personal collection of her stuff. I found it interesting that she and Kathy Mattea are best friends and both are friends with Alison Krauss. I guess it's that birds of a feather thing. I picked up her latest release, "Sweet Danger" at the concert and had her sign it. It and the previous album are not at all country but it was apparent that she is still a draw among the country crowd as evidenced by the location ("horse barn") and make up of the folks at the concert last week. She played to the crowd, doing mainly a greatest hits collection of her old country songs. The only number from the new cd was her cover of chicago's "If You Leave Me Now" which by the way, is really beautiful. I was impressed with her guitar playing. That song required a variety of difficult chords that she played with ease. I'd never seen her self-accompany before and was duly impressed. She had husband Doug Crider play mandolin on "Night Rider's Lament" and sing harmony. For the finale they invited the opening act Richard Lee Cody & Mary Kay to come out and sing "Red River Valley" as a sing along with the audience. Those are the people in the last photo. I'm quite impressed with Richard Lee Cody. He sings cowboy music and his voice has an uncanny similarity to Marty Robbins'. So there you have Suzy Bogguss. A most worthy member of my top 10! Next up Lori McKenna (whenever I get around to it).

17 Miraculous Months

2009-07-12T14:31:00.000-07:00

Whoda thunk we'd have the 4 last of our unmarried children hitched in the space of 17 months. Truly a miracle! Here they are in chronological order:

Scott and Mary Ann! (It was worth the wait)

John and Megan! (She must be on a step)

Di and Sam! (Typical Di pose)

Sandy and Jacob! (Open the doors of the temple)

We are so blessed! All 8 of our children have been sealed in the temple. Thank to Scott for the title correction.

Oregon or Bust!

2009-07-06T18:26:00.000-07:00

Here are some pics from our trip to Oregon. First time for me.

The Portland temple.

Blow it up. You might be able to read it.

Gotta see roses in Portland.

Where else would we end up in a new town?

If you look carefully you just might see Kathy in her element.

The lovely bride!

The Hillsboro 4th of July parade is, shall we say, unique?

A coupla old duffers.

'57 T Bird

This shot's for Jacob!

This parade is one candy fest. Better than trick or treating. I came back with a haul!

We made it to the beach on the 4th of July!

Lost in the rain forest.

A Little Late

2009-06-13T14:21:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we had the coolest rainbow here in Orem. It was actually a double but wasn't easy to see from our place and the photo didn't pick it up at all. Utah's been so rainy this spring you'd think it was Seattle! It's actually been nice to have it cool. It's made it a little tough for evening concerts. I hope Shawn Colvin's is dry next Saturday!

This is the really late part. Tuesday we saw Matt pitch for the first time. He does a great job. His team lost 7 to 2 but it was mainly due to poor hitting and too many failed attempts to steal bases. He also gave up the best hit ball I've seen since Matt started playing little league. The guy nailed a hard thrown ball and knocked it out in left center past the 2 outfielders his team had (they played with 8 people that night). It rolled out to the fence for an in the park homer that scored 2 runs. Can't really fault Matt for that one. Like I said it was a well thrown ball. The guy swung hard and level like I always preach to Matt. Bat and ball met perfectly. It really was a thing of beauty. Too bad it was at Matt's expense. Matt really has about the best control I've seen among the pitchers we've watched this year. He oughta stick with it!

SUMMER OF MY DREAMS

2009-06-06T11:35:00.000-07:00

Last night I picked up tickets to see Shawn Colvin at Thanksgiving Point on the 20th this month. I've wanted to see her perform live for a long time. This is the first real opportunity I've had, so I jumped on it. I'm going with a friend at work who like me has a wife who doesn't share his musical interests. He's seen Shawn before and was more than happy to go with me. He describes her playing as: "Where's the second guitar?". Judging from her "Live '88" cd I'd have to agree that she really rips it up and her singing ain't half bad either. Those who are unfamiliar with her may know her from her one big hit, "Sunny Came Home". She's really not a pop artist and kind of lucked into having a major hit. It's never been her ambition. Prefers to be her own person. Anyway, I'm really stoked to see her and the venue's pretty cool too. Saw Peter Breinholt there last fall.

The other cool news is Suzy Bogguss is coming to Utah July 18th. She's taking a nostalgia tour with her family reliving her days touring the West in her Toyota Chinook camper before she became a Nashville star. Thus the old picture. They're touring their favorite national parks and picking up a few gigs along the way and just happened to schedule one at an equestrian facility in Charlston. Who knew?! I've been intending to do a write up about her for my top ten. I guess my procrastination proved providential. I'll do it after the concert and kill 2 birds. Again, I'm stoked! There are a number of other great possibilities for concertizing this summer. I'll keep ya'll posted.

More Matt

2009-05-30T15:15:00.000-07:00

5/30/2009

Left fielder.

Covering second.

Looking to steal home.

Stealing home. Slide ------- Safe!

Idol thoughts

2009-05-21T20:21:00.000-07:00

As I guessed, Kris Allen won AI the other night. My theory is that he had a combination of things going in his favor. He and Danny Gockey are somewhat similar and probably many of Danny's voters chose Kris. AI is one of the few family friendly programs out there in tv land these days and Kris has more appeal to middle America than Adam. The third factor would be the cuteness of Kris. I'm sure he garnered many more of the female voters than Adam. All of that being said, I believe Adam to be the most gifted vocalist to ever appear on the show. I don't think he need worry one minute about his future as a singer. It was similar to last year in the sense it didn't really matter who finished first. The top 2 are both sitting pretty. On a similar "note" I recently learned that Randy Jackson for the first time ever is promoting and producing a former Idol - none other than my favorite Idol of all time, Brooke White. She's looking pretty savvy from where I sit. I believe she has a bright future ahead of her.

Matt's Photo

2009-05-17T15:34:00.001-07:00

Just for Shae. Here's Matt at bat from the previous game we attended. I would've taken pictures yesterday had Matt pitched while we were there .

Father's Day in May

2009-05-16T18:04:00.000-07:00

We decided we needed a new weed whacker to take out the overgrowth that used to be our garden so we went to Lowes and got a nice Troybilt. It was last years model on sale and we also got 20% more off for taking the display because it was the last one left. Kathy used a gift card she got for Mother's day so it was really father's day for me! I guess her payoff was getting the weeds knocked down. I think I got the better of the deal. It's one of those manly tools kinda like a Sawsall - arrgh, arrgh!!! Too bad I didn't get a "before" picture. You don't really get a good idea of the job that thing did from the "after" pic. We also checked out Di and Sam's new railing. It's beautiful. Sam doesgreat work. We then went to Matt's second ballgame today. If we'd know he was pitching the 1st game we'd have been to that one instead. People gotta let us know! I also threw in a picture of our new bedroom ceiling fan. That was a real Mother's day gift. It fought me all the way. Who knew a ceiling fan could be a pain to install. Anyway, we're loving it. We're heading for a 90 degree day Monday so we'll really appreciate it. Don't have the swamp cooler hooked up just yet.

Night Concert

2009-05-12T20:21:00.000-07:00

There's Nancy Hanson performing for our church group. Might be a little grayer audience than she's used to, but they were appreciative! It's pretty sweet to get your favorite singer to come sing for a small group of family and friends. How many people have that opportunity. I'm dang blessed!

Announcement

2009-05-02T12:29:00.000-07:00

I've had the good fortune to entice my favorite singer, Nancy Hanson, to come perform for my home ward this coming week. It will take place May 7th, Thursday, 6:30 PM on the church East lawn. Friends, family and any who may be interested are invited to come. There's plenty of room. Call me if you need directions. It's sure to be a delightful evening and the price is right - free!

DC

PS Here's a "cast your bread upon the waters" story about Eva Cassidy: http://www.evacassidy.org/eva/graceandeva.htm

2009-03-07T08:56:00.000-08:00

I found out from Dr. Laura that Kohls hired Brittney Spears to represent thier junior girl fashions. I was so disgusted I sent them an email expressing said disgust and promising to no longer shop there. Here's part of their reply back to me:

"Ms. Spears is an international celebrity and pop culture icon who embodies the spirit of the Candies brand and personifies the iconic Candies Girl flirty, self confident and stylish. We respect Ms. Spears right to privacy, and her personal life does not reflect the views of Kohls Department Stores.

It is not our intent to offend our customers, and your feedback will be shared with Kohls Executives for future decisions. We value the opinions of all our customers and appreciate you taking the time to contact us. "

What's wrong with those people? I don't think I need to detail the reasons for being annoyed with this campaign. If you need to get up to speed on the tawdry details of Ms Spears life, you can check out Dr. Laura's blog on her website. Maybe if Kohls gets enough public backlash they'll think twice about using her in the future. Meanwhile, I hope everyone who cares about the corrupting of our youth will express their disgust to Kohls and boycott their stores.

LDS Musicians

2009-02-04T09:59:00.000-08:00

I believe I'm stepping into a mine field to even take on this subject, so to lead this off, let me just say I'm no expert on LDS musicians and can only give a very limited perspective. This much is certain, there are more LDS musicians out there making great music of all kinds and all genres than I ever imagined. I have to admit in the past to having taking a jaded view of the whole idea of finding great music to my liking among LDS musicians. I have since found out (once again!) how wrong I can be. Again, I can blame my kids for exposing me. It all started with Ryan Shupe and the Rubber Band and Peter Breinholt. Those two played at many local events, most notably the Freedom Festival in Provo. They continue to play locally in spite of RS&RB finding a measure of broad popularity including radio air time and making it on the country charts. I also remember seeing Cheri Call at Freedom Festival and I may have also seen Nancy Hanson there but for some reason she didn't really register until I checked out her wonderful cd "Drops In A Bucket" from the library. Those 4 remain high on my list of awareness. They all fit in with my current interest in folk, country and bluegrass. Another great country duo I recently became acquainted with is Joshua Creek. I found a couple more girl singer I like at:

http://music.mormontimes.com/index.php

They are Amy Van Wagenen and Carrie Scott. Amy sings LDS pop and has a very lovely voice. Carrie sings jazzy, bluesy stuff similar to Bonnie Raitt and Susan Tedeschi. Quite a unique sound. Of course there's also last year's American Idol finalists David Archuleta and Brooke White. Who can deny Achie's great vocals? Unfortunately for me, I don't exactly match his target audience. Brooke White, on the other hand, has the potential to make my top 10. I'm anxiously awaiting her first cd since Idol. I hope it continues in the Carole King, Carly Simon direction she took on the show. As I first said, there are many more artists out there deserving of mention. I wrote about some others around Christmas time. Also some people will probably take me to task for not saying something about the Osmonds, but who doesn't know about them? I want to encourage exploring lesser known talent. With a little research you can find something you'll enjoy. I hope this piques some interest in LDS music. I personally intend to keep my ears open and continue to support my local people.

Dad's Latest

2009-02-03T12:25:00.000-08:00

After reading John's funny post I'm almost tempted to make a list. Just a passing thought. I'm sure I won't act on it!

I thought everyone would like to know Kathy's knee replacement went great. She even slept well in the hospital. That's a first. What a blessing. We brought her home yesterday on account of Stonehenge not taking our insurance. We thought she could use some more physical therapy before attempting the stairs in our home. Turns out she did much better than expected. It's weird, but she walks better with crutches than with a walker. Anyway, things are going well. I'm off this week to help her out. Hopefully by next week she won't require my constant help and will be able to get by with Josh and Matt's help.

I'm finally getting around to using the record to MP3 converter the kids got me for Christmas. It works really well for clean records. The simple software that came with it converts the record tracks into Itunes tracks. If you want to use the more sophisticated software that has noise clean up capability, it becomes more complicated. Being the lazy sort, I'm probably not going to mess with the complex stuff for now. Hard to believe it took this long to get Blood Sweat & Tears on my Ipod. If I'm as happy with this as I think I'm going to be, I won't need to purchase one of their cds or download their stuff. My record has all their songs I really like.

Since I've got some time at home I may just post a time or 2 more this week.

Matt the photographer

2009-01-03T15:02:00.001-08:00

Here are some photos Matt took. Can you believe 4 posts on the same day? And I thought this blogging would only be an outlet for my take on the world of music. Little did I know.

More snow fun

2009-01-03T14:50:00.001-08:00

Another fun day at the football field with a different cast of characters!

Matt and the snowman

2009-01-03T14:10:00.000-08:00

We had Josh and Matt over Friday night to endure a little winter camping out in the back yard (an activity they enjoy all year round). Hey, I've accumulated some decent winter camping gear from my years as a Scoutmaster, so why not put it to good use! The funniest thing happened right after they arrived. Di and Wilky had made a rather largish snowman in the back yard. Matt thought it would be a great idea to climb it. He made it to the top and was sitting on the snow man's head when he realized one of the maxims of climbing, it's always easier to go up than to come down. It took him quite a while spinning around on the snow man's head before he found a toe hold to let himself down. Unfortunately I didn't get to my camera quickly enough to capture it so you'll have to let your imagination run. Here's a shot of the snow man. The "arm" lying on the ground is thanks to Matt. Most of the other embelishments had already fallen to the ground due to the thaw since the snow man was built.

Happy New Year!

2009-01-03T14:00:00.000-08:00

Here are some shots from New Year's Eve at the Carters. I pooped out early knowing that I'd be taking Mary Ann and kids to the airport in the morning but I understand the partay went on without me.

Snow Fun

2008-12-31T10:53:00.000-08:00

Here we are doing a little sledding with Mary Ann and girls.

A Very Carter Christmas

2008-12-29T11:43:00.000-08:00

There were a few interlopers at the normally ultra private "Carter Christmas Kick-Off"!

Christmas Morning was a package opening mayhem.

Let the games begin!

Lilit, David and Barbara

2008-12-20T14:52:00.001-08:00

Lilit and Barbara stopped by for a visit on the way to taking Lilit to the airport for her return trip to Denver. I took a few pics while they were here. Hadn't seen David since he was new born. As you can see, he's grown some!

Christmas Concerts

2008-12-12T14:20:00.000-08:00

This has been quite the week for catching local musician's Christmas performances. A week ago Tuesday I went with Scott and Mary Ann to see her cousin April Meservy perform at a benefit concert sponsored by Susan Easton Black for her giving tree charity. She was very good as expected, with a decidedly jazzy vibe. I'm not sure if Jazz is big among LDS musicians. Might be some room for her there. It was the first time I'd heard her sing and play live unless you count her performance at Scott and Mary Ann's reception. I'm impressed with her. Debra Fotheringham also performed. She was also very good. Her music is more folky, "girl with guitar" sort of stuff. Her guitar playing was especially compelling. There was another group playing, but we walked out on them. Weren't too impressed. Shame on us!

Last Saturday Karen and Darren took me to see Ryan Shupe and the Rubber Band's Christmas concert at UVU. Karen had distributed flyers for them and got free tickets as a result. We also got to go to a pre show meet and greet, thus the picture. Unfortunately no one thought to bring a camera so the picture was shot with a cell phone. That explains its poor quality. Anyway, it was fun to meet the guys. First time for me. The show itself was amazing. Those guys are just plain world class musicians. I really enjoyed when Santa Claus presented Roger Archibald with his Christmas wished for electric guitar. Man he really tore it up! Those guys could be a great rock band if that was their choice. Lucky for me Newgrass is their preferred mode!

Tuesday I took Lynda and Jason to see "Nancy Hanson and the Rubber Band". It was the annual FM100 free concert at South Town Mall. In the past Nancy has done her own show and Ryan has done his own on seperate days. This year they split an hour between them with Nancy going first and RS&RB going second. She had her own bass player and did her own guitar work. Other than that, the other players were all Ryan's band. Of course Ryan Shupe and Craig Miner were responsible for much of her lovely Christmas cd "All Wrapped Up" so she's always had their support for the FM100 concerts. It was a very enjoyable hour. It interested me to hear the improving sound as Nancy's segment progressed. They only play together this once every year, so it's literally a jam session. Boy, if they ever decided to come together as a band it would be awesome. Come to think of it, just listen to the cd and you'll know what I mean. I'd love to have Nancy sing lead for a great band like that. If I were any good I'd love to be her Dan Tyminski (see previous post). Maybe in the next life! I'll have to post my take on the state of LDS music another time. We have a plethora of remarkable talent. I'll say some more on it later.

Alison Krauss

2008-12-06T13:36:00.000-08:00

Alison Krauss opened my eyes to a whole new world of music and helped me throw off the prejudices I'd had for country and bluegrass music since my youth. She's an amazing talent and her music transcends classification. She's one of the most original artists out there and has steadfastly turned her back on fame and fortune. She's the big fish in the little pond at Rounder Records, the independent label she signed with in her teens and has stuck with for the balance of her career. They pretty much let her do as she pleases. She has such good taste that they've never regretted that decision. She's the leading female Grammy winner of all time. She was recently nominated for 5 more based on her very quirky but wonderful collaberation, "Raising Sand" with Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin. That's the two of them in the picture. She and her band Union Station are some of the most accomplished musicians in the world. Alison is a world class fiddler. I take nearly as much pleasure in her playing as her singing. Band mate Jerry Douglas is without doubt the king of the resophonic guitar. He's also up for a Grammy this year. The rest are on par. Dan Tyminski was the singing voice of George Clooney in the movie "O Brother Where Art Thou". He's up for a Grammy in the bluegrass category for his latest album. Bassist Barry Bales and Banjo/Guitar ace Ron Block are both in demand session artists as well as being involved in many projects of their own. Alison encourages her guys to do much on their own and gives them the time to do it. She feels it only improves the band. If you get the impression I'm totally impressed with Alison, you'd be right. She's very much one of the brightest lights in my musical universe. Thanks to Sandy or Di for introducing me to her music! They both played her before I knew about her. I'm not sure who I heard her first from, so I'll credit them both! Also thanks to Shannon for getting on me to blog again. I know I do neglect it.

2008-11-01T10:24:00.000-07:00

Here are some photos from our trip to MaryAnn's home in Las Vegas. The out door pictures are at Red Spring on the back of Red Rocks. We picnicked and "hiked" there. The shopping shots are from Trader Joe's and Whole Foods. As you can see, we had a great time!

KM

2008-10-28T19:05:00.000-07:00

I'm sitting at MaryAnn's house with time on my hands, so I decided to finally get around to writing about the no. 2 singer on my top 10 list. I've got pictures from our visit with MaryAnn and family and will give a report upon our arrival home. I first became aware of Kathy Mattea while car pooling with a country music nut in the early 90’s. My first impression wasn’t much but then I heard her song “Time Passes By” and liked it so well I decided to by the cassette of the same name. I was totally surprised by the rest of the album. With the exception of “A Whole Lot of Holes” it was unlike anything I’d associated with country music. It has a much stronger folk sensibility to it than I’d expected. In short, I was sold. I drove my family nuts by playing along on my guitar to her version of “From a Distance”. Shortly thereafter I went into a musical funk and didn’t listen to much of anything but oldies rock on the radio. Fast forward to the early 2000’s. I don’t remember the exact year, but it was when I finally awoke to the world of cds and I installed a player in my newly acquired Saturn. I started checking out cds from the library as well as purchasing some here and there. I got my hands on everything the library had of Kathy’s and was delighted to learn that she was still active and making great music. Her latest album at that time was “The Innocent Years”. I loved it but was surprised to learn it didn’t sell well and was the end of the line for her with Mercury. I also learned that one of the librarians at Orem Public Library happened to be Kathy’s fan club president. Her name is Sue Phelps. Through her acquaintance I became very informed of Kathy’s work and the fine person she is. I’ve since acquired the majority of her cds and have attended a number of her performances, meeting her personally 3 different times. She really is a class act. To fully appreciate her you must attend a live performance. She is a totally complete performer connecting well with the audience and her band is awesome. She definitely deserves a high spot in my top ten!

Erin Bode

2008-10-18T09:00:00.000-07:00

Hey I just re-discovered a great singer. It's a jazzy girl named Erin Bode. I loaded a couple of her songs on my player. Her take on Graceland is, shall we say, interesting? Actually I threw that in to make you Paul Simon purists crazy! She's an Eva Cassidy fan and her take on Time After Time was definitely inspired by Eva while being unique and in no way a copy. If you like Norah Jones you'll probably like Erin. Check out more of her stuff at her website: http://www.erinbode.com/.

Mount Nebo Loop

2008-09-27T14:41:00.001-07:00

Kathy and I took a trip to see fall leaves on the Nebo loop today. It was a perfect day for it. The colors aren't quite as brilliant this year as in other years, but they still look pretty good. Some haven't turned yet, so it could get better. Sorry no pictures of us. Kathy hates photos and I didn't think to turn the camera on myself. We stopped to eat lunch at Devil's Kitchen. I got out my new el cheapo propane stove and cooked some bacon to make a BLT sandwich. Yumm! The red formation in the picture is Devil's Kitchen. Kathy couldn't figure out why it's called that. No fridge, counter, stove, sink or whatever! Right after we arrived there a bunch of folks riding Honda Goldwings pulled in. We'd been leap frogging them all along the drive. Must be some kind of club thing. Right after they showed up some folks driving classic cars also showed up. Another club outing. Must have been something in the air. The pot bellied guy in the photo was with one or the other group. You can see a '57 Chevy and an old Merc like the one in American Graffiti in the photo along with some of the Hondas. There were a lot more of both. The shot was taken from where we picnicked and only shows some of what spilled out onto the road. The parking lot was overflowing. Luckily we got to the John before they all arrived. You should have seen the line! As we made our way out of the North end of the loop we passed hundred of motorcycles going in the opposite direction with Highway Patrol escort on both ends. This group was riding a mix of makes with a predominance of Harleys. Glad we left the picnic site before they arrived! We saw more cycles today than when we went to Mount Rushmore just prior to the Sturgis Ralley. Amazing! I promise I'll get to Kathy Mattea soon. I know you're all just dying for that! Also, I've been making minor corrections and additions to my song list. My goal is to have one song per artist in the 100. I'm really blown away by Katie Melua's rendition of Blues In The Night. Check it out. Lucy Kaplanski's song is about 9/11 in case you couldn't figure it out!

Dad

John Pennell and Eva Cassidy

2008-09-25T19:37:00.000-07:00

I found this on the internet yesterday. John Pennell is the founder of Union Station which as you probably know is now Alison Krauss' band.

This message is partially a thank you, an inquiry and
an acknowledgment. Sometimes regretfully, a person that I should have known about slips through the cracks and I am unaware of something I should have known about all along. Such is the case with Eva Cassidy. This is especially so since she recorded one of my songs and it has been included on her recently released album SOMEWHERE. My song,"If I Give MY Heart", was originally recorded by Alison Krauss on her first recording for Rounder Records, TOO LATE TO CRY.(c.1987) First of all, what an amazing voice!
Eva's recording of my song is so soulful and beautiful I have no adequate words to really describe her performance.
I became aware of all this yesterday, after returning from a playing gig with The Charlie Sizemore Band(bluegrass) out east. Sorting through my mail, I came across a letter from someone who wanted to buy one of my cds and mentioned that "If I Give My Heart" was on Eva's new recording, SOMEWHERE. After checking it out and verifying that it was indeed my song, I left a message with Alison. When she called me back, she told me what a great singer Eva was and she considered her one her favorite singers ever and that she was respected all over the world as one of the best singers of her generation. I bought the album on itunes and have been playing it non stop since. I can't adequately thank the people enough who are responsible for selecting my song to be part of this project. But more importantly, I can't thank Eva and her brother enough for learning, performing and recording my song. I wish she were here today so I could thank her in person. But a voice this beautiful and a soul this pure, surely already knows how I feel.
It's amazing that, in less than 24 hours, I went from absolute ignorance to absolute bliss(no, ignorance is(was) not bliss in this case). I consider myself to be one of the luckiest people in the world to have been honored by Eva's singing.

John Pennell
Nashville,TN

Reply written by Laura Bligh, Webmaster at August 31, 2008, 3:15 PM, EDT

Mr. Pennell, thank you for your wonderful message! Eva loved "If I Give My Heart," and performed it often. She also used to sing "As Lovely As You," which I believe you also wrote. It would have thrilled her to know that you enjoyed her music. Thanks also for letting us all know that Alison Krauss is an Eva Cassidy fan. Eva certainly was an Alison Krauss fan!

Peter B. @ Thanksgiving Point

2008-09-22T16:47:00.000-07:00

Saturday evening I got to see Peter Breinholt's season ending concert at Thanksgiving Point with Karen and Darren. It was a really fun concert with lots of variety. Ryan Shupe and 2 of his band members were there and performed one of their new cd tracks. I was greatly impressed with the gardens having never seen them before. I must go back some time and take more time to explore. I can't begin to imagine how much money must go into such extensive landscaping. It's mind boggling. I think I'll try to make an annual event to catch Peter's last show. The only thing lacking this time was Nancy Hanson. She had another engagement.

Suzanne asked about Eva Cassidy's new cd "Somewhere". It lived up to its billing. In other words great! It's hard to believe her family, friends and record company keep coming up with new quality, material. It was a very good purchase. Next review: Kathy Mattea.

The Tree

2008-09-21T14:12:00.000-07:00

We finally got rid of that nasty cottonwood tree that's been cluttering our yard for years. As you can see there was a price to be paid (beyond the fee paid to the tree trimming service). The big limb we worried might some day hit our house in a storm ended up hitting our house after all. The tree guy didn't have enough tension on his rope pulling the limb away from the house. You can see the result. He was embarrassed and apologetic and had someone there to repair the damage within 1 1/2 hours. We're glad to finally have it gone. This is the last mess we'll have from that tree and someone else gets to deal with it!

Eva Cassidy +

2008-09-03T17:15:00.000-07:00

Here's part of an article from the Baltimore Sun about Eva Cassidy I intended to include in my Eva Cassidy comments but had one of my senior moments when I first wrote:

"There's a lesson in the legacy of Eva Cassidy -- that we make the effort to appreciate what's right in front of us instead of what's distant, what's instinctually attractive but not widely acclaimed. Sometimes the greatest talent and the most enduring beauty lives where we do. Sometimes the best things in life exist just down the road, and not in lofty places. Sometimes, when you're not looking at what's before you, you miss out."

My first thought on reading this was how well it applied to Nancy Hanson. I think we tend to turn up our noses at local talent just because they may not be on the radio. I'm trying to be a little more broad minded about that these days. Makes you wonder how many DC area people missed out on Eva during her lifetime. You can read the whole article at:

http://www.nikilee.com/evacassidy/eva_article.htm

2008-09-01T08:16:00.000-07:00

Ok for all youse guys who think it’s a sin for a singer to re-do a famous song this entry is about the greatest “cover” artist of all time, Eva Cassidy. Hers is probably the most remarkable posthumous success story in all of popular music. Eva died in 1996 of melanoma a total unknown except around her home base in the Washington D. C. area. She got a recording contract about the time of her death that resulted in her “Live At Blues Alley” cd being released to limited sales. It wasn’t until her 2^nd cd, “Song Bird” came to the attention of the BBC that she became an overnight success with multi platinum sales of the record in the U.K. It’s taken a long time for the

U. S.

to catch on. “Song Bird” was released in ’98 and just recently went platinum in the states. Her total sales are somewhere around 7 million and climbing. Eva was very shy and shunned the spotlight, so all this success would probably have caused her great anxiety. It's kind of cool how it's all working out.Knowledge of her is largely through word of mouth. Radio in the states isn’t too friendly towards her. My antipathy toward radio would take several blogs to express. She does amazing things with the way she rearranges songs and makes them her own. Some of the American Idol contestants have caught on and used her arrangements to good advantage. The most recent was David Archuleta’s rendition of “Imagine” by way of Eva. He’s been pretty vocal about his admiration for her. Good publicity! Sting’s “Fields of Gold” and Judy Garland’s “Over the Rainbow” are 2 of her signature songs. Sting heartily endorses her version of his song. Judy Garland was very protective of “Rainbow” and hated anyone using it, but many knowledgeable music people prefer Eva’s version to Gralands. Eva could and did sing in about every genre imaginable. She could find the emotional center of a song and touch the heart of the listener. Making grown men cry is her specialty. The picture is from the cover of her latest cd "Somewhere" which was just released on the 26th of August. You're probably wondering how a dead singer can be releasing a new album. Due to her shy nature and being a total perfectionist, she spent long hours in the studio practicing with a tape running and many recordings were made of her live performances. Her family and band members have come forward with tapes they've had in storage for years. With modern technology it's been possible for her label to produce new albums by adding accompaniment and cleaning up these old recordings. It's been 5 years since the last release, so it appears the source material is drying up. It's been amazing to discover how extensive a catalog she created. This latest cd even introduces her as a songwriter. 2 of the tracks are her own material. One required co-writer Chris Biondo to finish. It was a project he always wanted to complete but had to get some emotional distance to take on. I'm anxiously awaiting my copy to arrive from Amazon. I'll tell you more about it after I get it. Anyway, I think she’s great and enthusiastically recommend her.

Fence Video

2008-09-01T08:00:00.000-07:00

This is for all the requests we've had for pictures of our new fence. Oh alright it was only Shannon and Sandy that had any such interest!

More Jewel Lake

2008-08-24T15:39:00.000-07:00

Jewel Lake Video

2008-08-24T15:11:00.000-07:00

We had a fun outing this weekend at Jewel Lake in the Uintas, so I'm taking a break from the musical commentary. Here's Mary Ann catching a fish at Jewel Lake. It got away as Sam tried to help land it. I was clear across the lake and had my lens cranked up to 10x. I wasn't aware she'd lost the fish until I looked at the video afterwards. It was a fun experience. Mary Ann liked primitive camping a lot more than she thought she would. We might have to give it another go some time. I need to get in better shape. I was really dogging it! Eva Cassidy comments will be along sometime in my lifetime for all who are dying to read my thoughts on that subject.

Me a blogger?

2008-08-18T17:39:00.000-07:00

Ok, I don't know what I'm doing with a blog, so I guess I'll take out my musical frustrations. I sincerely doubt anyone will find this of interest, but at least it's an opportunity to express myself. I added a music player thanks to Project Playlist and had a fun time loading it with 100 superior songs! If Brooke White can do it why not me? The first artists represent my top 10 and yes, they're all girl singers. I'll own it, I prefer the sound of the female voice. I'll take time to explain the inclusion of all my top ten in due time. Other than no. 1 they aren't in a particular order, so for now, let me explain why Nancy Hanson is no. 1 in my book. It's really pretty simple. After following her for a few years, it occurred to me as I sat listening to her perform for a church group I was associated with, that she and I were on the same page in so many ways. We share the same beliefs, standards and values. I knew I could count on her to never disappoint me with an "F" bomb or any other such profane expressions as many other beloved singers have done. I'd always considered her a top notch performer, musician, songwriter, guitar player and humorist. Put those all together and the result is top place in my pantheon of performers! With the player I used, you're limited to songs that legally exist for free download on the internet. Some artists are hard to find represented. The only full track of Nancy I found was "The Way to Emmaus". Luckily it represents well what I'm talking about as far as standards and values go. Unfortunately it doesn't showcase her great guitar playing. Check out her website to get an idea of the extent of her talent. That's Nancy on the far right in the photo with her "fan club".

My next input will deal with one of the greatest musical secrets out there, the late, great Eva Cassidy. Stay tuned!

Daddy-o