ilyAIMY Dangerous Music for Dangerous Times

I write a lot of newsletters. I'm "the guy behind the newsletter" at FocusMusic. I'm the "we" at Institute of Musical Traditions, and of course at ilyAIMY I'm my "me". In addition I do a lot of the behind-the-scenes work for a LOT of these shows as well.

I don't normally advertise them to the ilyAIMY crowd because... well, they're not ilyAIMY shows. And unlike my open mics where I'll kick'em off and we'll usually have Rowan Corbett and Joey will often drop in and sometimes there's even a Heather sighting, ilyAIMY's generally not playing'em. However, tomorrow's Institute of Musical Traditions show, despite being ilyAIMYless, is totally one you should know about. Details in Wandering and Wondering below.

Anywho, maintaining the slightly manic edge of multiple mailing lists has come at a cost. I've worn out the exclamation mark on my keyboard. Look. Here it goes. BAM. Nothin'. I'm sure it'll recover. Along with my joyous attitude. Sometimes we just need a little time. Or tomorrow's IMT show.

Our Awkward Plea : ilyAIMY hath lost all their gigs. If you've got some digital currency burning holes in your digital pockets, we've got physical merch at ilyaimy.square.site and digital merch at ilyaimy.bandcamp.com - and of course we'll happily accept donations at paypal.me/ilyaimy and Venmo @ilytips.

upComing and inComing:
rob's VOM XVII -Virtual Open Mic

Running a “Virtual Open Mic” online is a LOT different from running a physical one at coffeeshop or bar, but it’s worth it because maintaining a sense of community… well, it’s even more important than I thought it was. Join us every Monday from 7-10pm ET as we get performances that are angry, joyous, hilarious and strange. We’re About 9 back-to-back with Chuck the Madd Ox. Poetry, flutes, guitars, banjos… and if you don’t like what’s on the “stage”, wait ten minutes. It’s the beauty of an open mic. I try to take care to make sure it sounds as good as possible, and I make the night flow to make it a great SHOW. Tune in below or on either Facebook and Youtube at “rob’s open mics”.

July 22, 2020
19:00 - 20:30

Every week we get the sound a little better, the stream a little nicer. Trio show with acoustic guitar, electric cello, eclectic percussion and three voices folking their little hearts out. Heather’s been throwing her heart, soul and back into giving us a home out back of her house, and…

More info...


July 25, 2020
14:00 - 15:00

Saturday 7/25 – ilyAIMY at C’monfluence 2020. Music all weekend (via Zoom) ilyAIMY at 2pm ET on Saturday afternoon | $25 suggested donation I was so excited about this. ilyAIMY’s first sci-fi con! Covid put a stop to that, almost as if we’re fated to forever be the be’ih and…

More info...


Wandering and Wondering:

Tomorrow's Institute of Musical Traditions show has me eager from a couple of fronts. 

First off - I genuinely enjoy doing them. Strange as it seems, with me behind the scenes and Dave Eisner in front of the camera, we make a pretty good team and though sometimes they're stressful and tarry a bit while hanging off ye olde catastrophe curve, we have a lot of fun.

Second off - do you remember Blackout Tuesday? Wherever you come down on the spectrum of "I noticed it" "it called my attention to Black Lives Matter" "it annoyed me" to "what the Hell, why's all my Instagram blanked out?" - or whatEVER - every folk organization seemed it needed to put out a statement. Few of them were more than boilerplate, IMT included. Almost NONE of them, however, has done what IMT has followed up with every show since: made a point of expanding their bookings from just white guys with guitars. It's something that's absolutely important to me and it's one of the reasons I run my open mics. Tomorrow's show continues in that ... well... it's not a statement because we didn't really say it... Tomorrow's show just continues with its conscious effort of making "booking not just white artists" not an exercise in tokenism - but a true highlight of what the folk world is missing out on by consistently not recognizing the true richness of our community. And it's not a stretch. It's been easy to do. People just aren't doing it.

And thirdly - about the artists themselves: Dennis Lichtman is someone who's new to me, but not new to the world. A jazz artist who sound-checked on mandolin, tenor guitar and clarinet and blew my mind on all of the above. Ruthie Logsdon is a long-time fixture of the Americana and country scene in Takoma Park and is always a joy. And then there's Christylez Bacon.

If you don't know Chris - you should. He's one of the few people who's broken through my depression in the past couple of days. Jazz chords, smart hip-hop styled lyrics... and a clear product of the music of the folk of DC... rhythmically rooted in Go-go. Optimistic and charming and exuding an aura of poise, I've had the pleasure of working with Chris a LOT over the past decade - and his work crossing musical genres as varied as Celtic, Brazilian samba and classical orchestral music with his own jazz / funk / folk and beat box is the exact kind of barrier busting that speaks to my soul.

Was that enough? Have I waxed poetically too long? It's gonna be a great show. And you ought to tune in. Live Tuesday night at 8pm ET on Facebook and Youtube at "Institute of Musical Traditions".

-rob
ilyAIMY
Baltimore, MD (FOREVER!!!!)
www.ilyaimy.com

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