Episode 32 - Larry Unger
from Contra Pulse Hosted by Julie Vallimont, Larry Unger
The intro and interstitial tracks from today’s episode are Lowdown Hoedown/Beth Cohen’s/Kolomeike from Notorious’ their 2006 eponymous album, Door County #2/Sweetbriar from the Reckless Rambler’s album Lowdown Hoedown published by Great Meadows Music, Two Rivers from Uncle Gizmo’s eponymous album, and Blues at Daybreak from the 2010 Notorious album The Road To Damascus. See the Contra Pulse website for transcripts and more. Or go straight to the transcript. And the Country Dance and Song Society for information about Contra and English country dance across the continent. Be sure to check out Larry’s many recordings here on his website! See and hear Larry Unger in action: Here’s some video from this interview of Larry demonstrating his guitar technique Larry has played for countless dances! Here are a few videos: With Audrey Knuth and Emily Troll in Greenfield, MA With Notorious at Echo Summit Dance Camp in 2019 and at the Dance Flurry in 2012 And here with fiddler Karina Wilson (who you heard in our previous Contra Pulse episode!) at a contra dance in Denver, CO You can hear tunes written by Larry in so many places: Here he is playing with fiddler Audrey Knuth (with an impressive instrumental background!) Playing his waltz "Two Rivers" for dancers at Norse Hall, Portland Oregon, September, 2019 By Rhiannon Giddens & Francesco Turrisi at Le Café de la Danse Paris And a pandemic era solo banjo tune How many instruments does he even play!? Playing “Shenandoah” slide guitar style on a National A fretless gourd banjo at “FunFest” in Evart, MI And how about this jaw harp / hurdy-gurdy duo! Many dances have been written to Larry’s tunes: Voici some dancers in France dancing to his tune “Ariel Julia,” and here are some Tango Fusion dancers dancing to the same tune at the First Night Show at the Saratoga Dance Museum on New Year's Eve 2008. Here some English country dancers enjoy Larry’s tune “Judy and Jim's Wedding” while dancing “Sunlight Through Draperies” by Tom Ruby
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What this episode covers
This episode, Julie sits down with multi-instrumentalist and composer Larry Unger. Larry has been a full-time musician since 1984, and he has presented a diverse range of music at contra, Scottish and English dances, music camps, festivals, coffee houses and concerts all across North America and abroad. You might have heard his guitar, banjo, or bass playing in bands like Notorious, Big Table, The Reckless Ramblers, and Uncle Gizmo. Larry gives solo concerts that include a wide variety of music: finger-style blues and slide guitar, rags, old-time banjo tunes, original waltzes and fiddle tunes. He likes to play a number of unusual instruments such as banjo guitar, fretless banjo, jaw harp and piano harp. Larry has composed more than 5000 tunes, many of which have been recorded by his bands or by other groups. His tunes are widely played at contra dances everywhere and he’s published three books of original tunes and two entire CDs of original waltzes (with Ginny Snowe). His compositions and recordings have been featured in four different Ken Burns television documentaries, on the Grand Ole Opry, and by the San Luis Obispo Symphony Orchestra, to name a few. This episode comes to you out of the Contra Pulse VAULT. It was recorded pre-Covid when Julie was still going to people’s homes to chat and recording interviews in video format. Because the original end-goal of this interview was not a podcast the audio quality is a little hard to hear at times. If you have any trouble understanding Larry and Julie’s fascinating conversation you can find a full transcript of the interview below.
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