Hannah Bingman

Alas,
my soy nog is dun
soy nog with spiced rum
sometimes burned my tum
yet it was yum
my soy nog is dun

My desire to pick up the guitar at the age of 13 started when I discovered the Beatles. Fourteen years later I still find them just as inspiring. George Harrison’s playing was always so tasteful and complimentary to the song, melodic and easy to digest. Shortly after receiving my first guitar, a tragic trampoline accident left me with a broken ankle. This kept me off the basketball court and away from my beloved summer league basketball team. Summer meant no school, and lack of mobility meant the fostering of an intense relationship with my guitar for the next three months. This was before Guitar Hero was around and I was less interested in becoming a “shredder” and more realistic about my immediate goals of mastering the first positions chords and scales with the help of my weekly guitar lessons from my instructor, Mr. Bixler. When I thought I’d mastered that week’s assigned pieces, I worked on Beatles songs. When my fingers became too sore to play that day, I researched. The Beatles were inspired by Chuck Berry, who was inspired by T-Bone Walker, who was inspired by….and so on. It became one of my favorite activities: backtracking where my favorite musicians came from. Who inspired them? Where can I find more of this? What was the root of it? There were two tracks: guitarists and songwriters. I was led to many of each kind. I found Robert Johnson that way. Same for Woody Guthrie, who still gives me butterflies. The part where I struggled was the guitarists. I really had to dig to find female guitarists that possess/ed and/or exercised the technical ability I aspired and aspire to exhibit. Joni Mitchell, Bonnie Raitt, and it took me a chance encounter with a documentary to unearth Ani DiFranco. Maybelle Carter and Sister Rosetta Tharpe came to me later. As a music major and a student of classical and jazz guitar techniques, I found Sharon Isbin. Learning about the history of the guitar, I found that it started out as an instrument geared towards women. It has a female shape of the body, but can easily be adopted as a phallic symbol….so to me, that means it’s made for everyone. Once again, fourteen years later, I am still madly in love with the Beatles, but I still don’t see the female guitarists being recognized as they should. The recent issue of Rolling Stone lists the “100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time.” It’s a list they seem to compile every few years, and every few years I am disappointed by the lack of female guitarists included. This issue included two (Joni and Bonnie). Out of the dozens of contributors to the list, four were female. I understand without the widespread acknowledgement of talent that many female guitarists would not come to mind for such a list. My point is this, I had to do my research (and in all honesty, this should have been a telling sign of my future vocation in library science), but will every generation of aspiring female guitarists have to do the same? Do female guitarists who can competently play make people uncomfortable? I can’t remember who it was, but I remember reading a quote from a female guitarist that said a woman has to play twice as well as a man to be respected. That was years ago. Let’s move on.

These days, it seems like there are less and less venues for a singer/songwriter to occupy. Then I realized that if there are coffee shops, there will be places for my kind to annoy you while you try to study with your latte. I’m really looking forward to creating a mass occupation and annoyance this Saturday at Avenue 209 Coffeehouse. It will be my first time there, to perform or otherwise. They seem like really cool folks. www.avenue209coffee.com

This Saturday at the Lemont Granary

This is not a spam. Doug McMinn and I will be playing at Elk Creek Cafe + Aleworks tomorrow (October 6) night at 7:30pm. There is also no reason to spam this post. I will now end my anti-spam rant.

Flooding and basement trouble has caused the cancellation of my gig at Eagles Mere Inn on Saturday. Let’s hope they recover swiftly.

Due to flooding in the area around Selinsgrove and possibility of more water, the show tonight at the Selin’s Grove Brewery has been cancelled. Be safe everyone.

Did you vote yet for the Mountain Stage NewSong Contest People’s Choice?

Also, Crickfest is Sunday!

There must a come a time, or several, in every artist’s or writer’s time when a lack of encouragement leads to a desire to abandon all hope, put down the medium, tune out the muse, and say “fuck it” while deciding one’s time might be better spent learning how to make coasters out of old CDs. I can remember a gig maybe a month ago at a venue that caters to a very affluent crowd and I had just retired to the bar after finishing my two contracted sets. A gentleman who was sitting at the bar for the better part of my last set asked me “So what kind of music do you play?” Confused by the question as he was just present for the music in question, I said “Well, the kind I was just playing.” Now he was confused and asked again, “But what kind?” It took me a while to realize that since I was
performing almost entirely my own songs, as opposed to well known cover songs, he didn’t know how to digest it. Such situations leave me unsettled, not just because all songwriters want to be heard, but it worries me how less receptive to original artistic endeavors our society seems to be. When is the last time you listened to or even bought an entire album from one artist? Attended a local concert? Read a book that Oprah didn’t guilt you into reading? Not that this so wrong, but I don’t know if it’s best. Put down the Blackberry and look around.
Then there are times in an artist’s life when there is a return on investment. There is validation. I’ve gotten some nice accolades and gratifying gigs in my ten years of performing, but it’s always been about the songs for me. Yesterday, when I learned that I was selected as a Regional Finalist in the Mountain Stage NewSong Contest for my song “Farmer’s Plea,” it took a while for me realize what that meant. Ok, so I SHOULD keep working on the songs then? All right, cool. There are 60 finalists, 10 from each region. I’m in the Northeast category. The judges will select one finalist from each region to advance to the live performance finals in New York City on October 20th. In addition, there will also be a “People’s Choice” finalist chosen by tallied votes from the web site. The odds aren’t in my favor, but it doesn’t hurt to vote for me, right? Just go
here to do so. I’ll love you forever…but not as much as Bob Dylan…sorry.

Validation is a nice word.
http://www.newsong-music.com/newsletter/2011/081811_RegionalFinalistsAnnouncement.html
I’ll write more later when I’m awake and clearheaded/sober. In the meantime, make me your “People’s Choice.” Or Brad Yoder, he’s great, too.