King Street Bluegrass Band at Howard County Fair

One of the entertainment acts this year at the Howard County (Md.) Fair was King Street Bluegrass Band, an Alexandria, VA based quartet that plays Bluegrass as well as Country and Classic Rock.

The band takes its name from King Street in Old Town Alexandria, where they first started playing together.

Here's a video of them playing the Johnson Mountain Boys' bluegrass tune "Don't You Call My Name" last Sunday at the fair, with this clip capturing some of their cheerful banter:




More Pictures

Related:

• Howard County (Md.) County Fair (8/13/10)
• King Street Bluegrass Band at Howard County (Md.) County Fair (8/14/10)
• Richie Fields at Howard County (Md.) County Fair (8/14/10)

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Line Dance: Refried Dreams (aka Chicken Fried)

Update (6/30/10): I contacted Danielle, the line dance instructor at Ned Devine's, and she graciously corrected the name and steps for me. The actual name of the dance is "Refried Dreams" (which I've fixed in the title and below) and the step sheet is available on her web site, linedance4you.com.

A bunch of folks who usually dance at Ned Devine's in Centreville, VA were at Cancun Cantina this weekend, because the band that was playing there (Rebelicious) comes from the Centreville area. (Note: Ned Devine's only has country events on Tuesdays.)

These dancers did a really cool line dance to the song Chicken Fried by The Zac Brown Band. It's simple, but a lot of fun and some of the young guys were adding a lot of very athletic, very aggressive kicks and boot scoots. The dance has a very fast tempo and looks far more interesting than anything else I've seen done to this song.

I think this dance is proof that line dances don't have to be complicated to be really enjoyable.

I couldn't find a step sheet or video for the dance, so I'm going to attempt to write it up here before I forget it. I'm not sure where it starts and I may have slightly garbled the transition to the toe struts, but I'm pretty sure I've got the correct number of beats.

It's a little hard to keep the beat toward the end of the song, when the musicians slow down during the bridge, but up to that point it flows really well.

Line Dance: Refried Dreams
Choreographer: Unknown; as danced at Ned Devine's in Centreville, VA
Description: 32-count, 4-wall line dance
Music: Chicken Fried by The Zac Brown Band (86 bpm; dance at 172 bpm)
Refried Dreams by Tim McGraw (126 bpm)

1-8 Two right side touches, two left side touches

1 Touch to right side with right toe
2 Touch right toe next to left foot
3 Touch to right side with right toe
4 Touch right toe next to left foot

5 Touch to left side with left toe
6 Touch left toe next to right foot
7 Touch to left side with left toe
8 Touch left toe next to right foot

9-12 Grapevine left

9 Step left with left foot
10 Cross right foot behind left foot
11 Step left with left foot
12 Slight hitch with right foot

13-16 Grapevine right with 1/4 turn right & scuff

13 Step right with right foot
10 Cross left foot behind right foot
11 Step right with right foot
12 Step with left foot while turning 90 degrees right & scuff left foot next to right

17-20 Three steps back (L-R-L), tap

17 Step back with left foot
18 Step back with right foot
19 Step back with left foot
20 Slight hitch with right foot

21-24 Kick-ball-change, Stomp right (2x)

21 & 22 Kick right foot forward, step down on right, step down on left
23-24 Stomp right foot next to left two times

25-32 Toe Struts

25-26 Touch right toe forward, step on right foot
27-28 Touch left toe forward, step on left foot
29-30 Touch right toe forward, step on right foot
31-32 Touch left foot forward, step on left foot

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Fast As You Line Dance

Here's a line dance that is done at Cancun Cantina West in Hagerstown, MD that I call Fast As You because it's the only song I've ever seen it danced to.

It seems to be a twist on The Hitchhiker but what makes it cool is the way they slap the floor in front and behind. It's particularly impressive when it's being done by 40-50 dancers.



In this video a lot of the dancers are clearly learning it for the first time but it still gives a flavor for the dance. I don't do the dance myself because, alas, my knees don't bend that way.



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Line Dance: Crazy Legs

I like this video of Crazy Legs, a pretty cool line dance that's usually done to the club mix version of Cotton Eye Joe by Swedish hip-hop country band Rednex.



I'm not sure where the video was taken, but the dancers are all competition caliber. Their moves are smooth but also executed crisply, and some of them add jumps and flourishes. This is an unusually vigorous way to do this line dance. It's worth watching it at the higher 480p resolution.

The song they're dancing to is hard to find. It's called Everybody Gonfi Gon (I'm not sure why, since the only lyrics in the song seem to be "Everybody do-si-do") by an Italian group called 2 Cowboys. At Cancun Cantina, it's usually danced as a Swamp Thang.

Here's a link to the step sheet.


Related:

• Line Dancing 101 (11/15/08)

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117th US Navy CPO Birthday Celebration

As I emerged from the Archives/Navy Memorial Metro Station on Pennsylvania Avenue in downtown Washington DC on a bright, warm spring day I was greeted by the brassy sounds of a band playing patriotic airs.

I unexpectedly found myself in a sea of both khaki and black-and-white uniforms, and the music was coming from a US Navy band. I had to stop to find out what event had brought them there.


117th CPO Birthday
It turns out that April 1st was the 117th "birthday" of the Chief Petty Officer (CPO) rank in the US Navy, which was established in 1893. As is often the case, Wikipedia provided the clearest explanation of what this means. Citing The Chief Petty Officer's Guide by John Hagan and Jack Leahy, the site states that promotion to this grade is the most significant step in the enlisted ranks.


Once an enlisted sailor is promoted to CPO, he or she is henceforth referred to as "Chief" and entitled to wear a uniform that is indistinguishable from that of officers except for the insignia. More importantly, achieving this rank means that the Chief is considered to be part of the leadership team, with expectations of greatly increased responsibilities.

In other words, the Chiefs are the backbone of the Navy in the same sense that senior sergeants form the backbone of the other services.

I couldn't stay to see the ceremony, but I did take a number of pictures as well as this video of the band playing an excerpt from John Philip Sousa's The Stars and Stripes Forever:




Getting There
The Navy Memorial is situated on a prime parcel of real estate at 701 Pennsylvania Avenue, directly across from the National Archives, several blocks west of the US Capitol and just to the north of the National Mall.


There's a small Navy museum at the site, and the memorial represents the Great Lakes and the Seven Seas. The signature element is the statue of The Lone Sailor, an enlisted "bluejacket" sailor willing to serve the country far from home and family.


As in most places downtown, Metro is a great option for getting there and the escalators at the Archives/Navy Memorial stop come up literally next to the memorial.





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DC-MD-VA Country Bands Calendar

As an experiment, I decided to create a public on-line Google calendar that consolidates the band schedules for the three major Country (C&W) dancing clubs in the DC-MD-VA area (Washington D.C. and its suburbs):

• Cancun Cantina (CC), 7501 Old Telegraph Rd, Hanover, MD 21076 [schedule]
• Cancun Cantina West (CCW), 901 Dual Highway, Hagerstown, MD 21740 [schedule]
• Nick's Night Club (N), 642 S. Pickett Street, Alexandria, VA 22304 [schedule]

The cool thing is that I can synchronize this to iCal, the calendar program on my MacBook, so changes to one calendar automatically show up on the other. I haven't been able to figure out how to get them on my iPhone yet, though.



Notes:

• Direct link to the calendar (opens the full-size consolidated calendar by itself in a new window)
• Clicking the downward triangle in the upper righthand corner (next to the Week/Month/Agenda tabs) lets you select which of the four separate calendars you want to view.
• Clicking on an individual entry gives you a pop-up window with options for a map and to add the entry to your own calendar.
• Check the club web sites for line dancing and two-stepping lessons.

Related:

• My Favorite Country Bars (11/6/08)
• Line Dancing 101: How To Line Dance (11/15/08)
  

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Line Dance: Four on the Floor

I saw a slick new line dance last night at the Cantina. It's called "Four on the Floor" and some girls were dancing it to the song Keep Your Hands to Yourself, which is usually a little dull (slow) to dance to.

I found a YouTube video demonstrating it:



Note that the couple in this video is very good (they might be the choreographers, Michelle Ziminski and Matt Thomson). They've got that spring to their steps that makes them look like they're floating over the floor. The song is Four on the Floor by Lee Brice. 

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Four on the Floor
Choreographers: Matt Thomson & Michelle Ziminski
Level: Intermediate 48-count Line Dance (one tag/restart)
Song: Four on the Floor by Lee Brice (120 bpm), start with lyrics

1-8  Step, wizard step, wizard, rock, recover, coaster step
1,2& R step forward diagonally right (1), L lock step behind R (2), R step forward diagonally right (&)
3,4& L step forward diagonally left (3), R lock step behind L (4), L step forward diagonally left (&)
5,6 R rock forward (5), recover to L (6)
7&8 R step back (7), L step next to R (&), R step forward (8)

9-16  1/4 turn, cross shuffle, 3/4 funky turn
1,2 L step forward (1), pivot 1/4 right shifting weight to R (2) 3:00
3&4 L step across R (3), R step to right side (&), L step across R (4)
5,6 R step to right side (5), L step to left side turning 1/4 left (6) 12:00
7,8 R step to right side turning 1/4 left (7), L step to left side turning 1/4 left (8) 6:00

17-24  Cross rock, 1/4 shuffle, 1/2 turn, left shuffle forward
1,2 R rock across L (1), recover to L (2)
3&4 R step to right side (3), L step next to R (&), R step to right side turning 1/4 right (4) 9:00
5,6 L step forward (5), pivot 1/2 right shifting weight to R (6) 3:00
7&8 L step forward (7), R step next to L (&), L step forward (8)

25-32  Kick ball cross, heel jack, heel jack, stomp, stomp
1&2 R kick forward (1), R step ball of foot slightly back (&), L step across R (2)
&3&4 R step to right side (&), L heel touch forward diagonally left (3), L step home (&), R step
across L (4)
&5&6 L step to left side (&), R heel touch forward diagonally right (5), R step home (&), L step
across R (6)
7,8 R stomp to right side (7), L stomp to left side (8)

33-40  Behind and in front, rock, recover, behind and in front, right shuffle, hitch turn
1&2 R step behind L (1), L step to left side (&), R step across L (2)
3,4 L rock to left side (3), recover to R (4)
5&6 L step behind R (5), R step to right side (&), L step across R (6)
7&8& R step to right side (7), L step next to R (&), R step to right side (8), hitch L knee while
making 1/2 turn over left shoulder (&) 9:00

41-48  Left shuffle, side touches, forward touches, stomp, stomp
1&2 L step to left side (1), R step next to L (&), L step to left side (2)
3&4& R toe touch to right side (3), R step next to L (&), L toe touch to left side (4), L step next to R (&)
5&6& R heel touch forward (5), R step next to L (&), L heel touch forward (6), L step next to R (&)
7,8 R stomp forward (7), L stomp forward (8)

Start again and enjoy!

Tag/restart
At wall 5, dance through the fourth set of 8. Repeat the fourth set of 8, then restart dance from beginning (omit fifth and sixth sets of 8 for this wall, i.e., omit counts 33-48). You will be facing 3:00 when this happens.

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Related:

• Line Dancing 101: How To Line Dance
  

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And now, from YouTube...

I mostly listen to Country Music, but really I like anything with a strong melody and a good dance beat. I heard this song by House Heroes in a club and I had to ask the DJ the name of it because it's got a cool funk to it. (Yes, I know they only repeat it about 30 bazillion times but the sound was up so loud that the words were distorted.)

While I want this to be a family-friendly blog, this is really a pretty innocuous song despite the suggestive title.

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