Friday, August 20, 2010

Brian Hefferan & Lil' Rev Videos

Brian Heferran is a Lansing, MI based ukulele madman! He is a walking encyclopedia of early Tin Pan Alley Music, Ragtime, Blues and Old Time Music. He has been an employee at Elderly Instruments in Lansing for eons and this guy lives and breathes ukulele like no one I know. We share a love of ragtime and old time tunes and whenever I am in MI we try to blaze a path that leads us to a a few happy hours of jamming and video making. Brian is often accompanied by his lovely wife Lynn who plays a homemade upright bass and they harmonize beautifully together. Brian has also been a great resource in my quest to find old tunes and sheet music, he seems to know every obscure song I manage to dig up and I can't stump him with my music history inquiries either! At present, Brian has posted almost 70 videos on You Tube, many of which focus on early ragtime music. He is, to put it simply, an American Treasure and I am always honored to make music with him. We made these two videos on Friday the 13th of August 2010. Enjoy! Lil Rev
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In The Evening When The Sun Goes Down (Lil' Rev's version of this old blues was inspired by Leroy Carr, Scrapper Blackwell, and Big Bill Broonzy.)


.Sandy Boys (An oldtime West Virginia fiddle tune. Lil' Rev plays this mostly with clawhammer technique, and Brian fingerpicks.)

                                                                   Lil Rev @ Sam Ash in Clearwater, FL                                      ...