February 13th was the YouTube debut of a lively interview about the background and making of the album RASA by Jody Stecher and Krishna Bhatt. Henry Kaiser interviews Jody Stecher and asks excellent questions to which he receives animated answers. Worth watching!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0epLiEpj31I
RASA has at last been reissued. For the time being it won't be for sale on this website. For hard copy (CD and LP) or download go to https://www.dongiovannirecords.com/products/734398-jody-stecher-and-krishna-bhatt-rasa
For streaming and variety of download formats go here:
From the record company's forthcoming release statement:
Originally released in 1981, Rasa has long been admired and studied by musicians as a model for how to do a cross-cultural recording project where the musicians actually understand something of each other's musical culture and actually feel it. Remastered from the original tapes by Bob Weston at Chicago Mastering. Energetic, delightful, virtuosic and soulful, and available again for the first time in over 40 years. Includes extensive liner notes by Jody Stecher and a new essay by Baiju Bhatt.
JODY STECHER- voice and guitar
KRISHNA BHATT - voice, sitar, dilruba and tabla
FRED SOKOLOW - voice, five string banjo and mandolin
JEANIE McLERIE - voice and fiddle
KATE BRISLIN - voice
NANCY SCHENK - bass
DECEMBER 6, 2022
"RASA" by Jody Stecher and Krishna Bhatt will be reissued in January 2023 by Don Giovanni Records. It will be available as CD, LP, and download. It has been unavailable for Forty Years! At the heart of the recording is the guitar-sitar duet of Jody and Krishna, with considerable contributions from Kate Brislin, Fred Sokolow, Jeanie McLerie, and Nancy Schenk. More details will be provided here and via our mailing list as the release date approaches.
July 12, 2022
Jody has been posting unusual music videos on YouTube. He'll sometimes leave a few errors uncorrected in order to highlight the obstacles encountered in learning to play a tune or song on guitar, banjo, mandolin or fiddle. He shares his process of choosing which way to play a given phrase. These have been getting favorable response. It seems to be a breath of fresh air. Instead of "look what I can do" these videos are more like "look what I can't quite do yet, and here's why, and here's how I hope to get over the hurdle". His YouTube name is banjrsolo.
August 15, 2021
VIDEOS of CONCERTS AND INTERVIEWS
Dave Berry of Bluegrass Today interviewed Kate in 2019. She tells her story.
https://bluegrasstoday.com/california-report-kate-brislin/
Our 2020 Berkeley Old Time Music Convention set is viewable on the BOTMC youtube channel . Our set begins at about 1 hour and 10 minutes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJOCYVfi8NU&t=4212s
Our June 2021 Library of Congress concert is viewable on the LOC youtube channel.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Abd5Feur1xc&t=1924s
A Zoom interview video Jody did with East Tennessee State University is viewable on the ETSU Facebook channel. Good questions and good answers.
https://www.facebook.com/ETSUBluegrass/videos/etsu-summer-guest-series-jody-stecher/716937039107753/
August 15, 2021
An unexpected and very welcome assessment of Jody's songwriting and musicality has been published in David Nigel Lloyd's newsletter. Did you know that Jody employs "the objective correlative" in his verses? We just found out. And it makes sense too. Read all about it (and see photos too) here: http://davidnigellloyd.com/objective-correlative-in-the-sacred-wood-with-jody-stecher-and-uncle-ganesh/
Jody and Kate have been invited by the American Folklife Center of the Library of Congress to participate in the video series “Homegrown At Home” .
On Wednesday June 16th at Noon east coast time the premier of our video performances will be shown both at the Center’s website and on Facebook. Thereafter it will be stored and available for viewing on the Center’s website *and* on the Folklife Center’s Youtube channel.
During the premier showing Kate and I will be taking questions and replying via Facebook. Those who avoid Facebook can watch at the other options, but not make comments or ask questions.
The concert will be pre-recorded, leaving us able to respond to questions and comments. The repertoire is all traditional music, old and new favorites, sung and played in old and new ways.
Admission is FREE
The URL for the concert will be :
https://www.loc.gov/concerts/folklife/jody-stecher-kate-brislin.html
At (east coast) noon on concert day, the video will appear in a player right on that page. But to get to the Facebook premiere where you can see your comments and ask questions, people should follow the link to "Facebook" in the gray box labeled "How to watch.”
But THAT’s NOT ALL: immediately after our concert (about 12.40 east coast time) there will be a video concert by Martin Carthy. Wow. Double Bill.
Feb 1, 2021. A very positive review in Bluegrass Unlimited:
https://www.bluegrassunlimited.com/article/dreams-from-the-overlook/
They think my name is "Stetcher" but it's easy to forgive because of all the kind words and because the review really "got" the music.
Today Dec 8, 2020, an article on Dreams From The Overlook was published on the Mandolin Cafe website.
https://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/content/723-Technique-as-Connection-Master-Musician-Jody-Stecher-on-New-Album-Dreams-from-the-Overlook