Tag Archives: campfire

A Brown Road Campfire

Hi gang, sorry I haven’t been around much the last couple months. I’ve been busy displaying my awesomeness in ways other than being a world-famous blogger. I promise there are some things in the works and that I will be back soon. Until then, in the spirit of Summer which is finally here and warm campfires on crisp, clear, starry nights, here’s a pretty epic old post from Summer of 2011 when this blog was a younger version of itself and which many of you have probably never had the privilege of experiencing.

So that you can vicariously enjoy the whole Brown Road experience and since I can’t think of anything to write about, here’s me singing a campfire song, including all of the outside bird and peeper sounds from the swamp behind us! One of the critters got so loud towards the end, I think maybe it was sitting right underneath me. Maybe it was singing along. I laughed because I thought it sounded like one of those combination music and nature sounds CD’s you can buy.

Sweet Baby James is one of my favorite songs.  My Mom sang it to me to help me fall asleep when I was a baby. I don’t really remember that, but I imagine that’s where it all started. My parents had a copy of the James Taylor album that this song was originally recorded on and I would listen to it all the time.

If you’d like, here’s a video I found on youtube of a crackling campfire, that you can look at as well!

You should play them both at the same time to really get the full effect! You may have to adjust the volume settings on the videos to watch them together, the crackling fire is pretty loud.

Have fun at the Brown Road campfire!

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Campfire Cooking

Today was one of the first very cool Fall days.  It got down into the high 40’s, low 50’s.  I love days like this where you can wrap up in sweatshirts or flannel and a pair of soft, warm denim jeans. Where you can walk outside and take a deep breath of the crisp cool air, so deep that you feel the air touch the very bottom of your lungs… and feel like your body, your mind, your whole psyche is being cleansed. It awakens and enlivens my senses and my spirit like no other season ever will.

It rained hard this afternoon, heavy thunderstorms that cancelled my son’s football game. A good day to be inside, watching movies or college football games, wrapped in a blanket. Tonight though was drier as the cells of storms had moved on earlier in the day. My wife and daughter went off for the closing evening of the county fair where they are participating in the 4H equestrian program.

When the girls are away, the boys like to do stuff… like make fires and then cook our dinner on the fire. I know, I know… you’re saying… why cook on a fire when you have a perfectly good kitchen available? I don’t know, it’s that primal urge that guys have to be and act like cavemen.

So here was our dinner for the evening:

In a large sheet of aluminum foil: Instant white rice (cooked), cannned chicken, frozen broccoli, a couple tablespoons of olive oil and a big dash of garlic pepper.

Wrap it up tight!

Spread out your fire so you have a nice bed of hot coals to cook on. Set the foil packs directly on the hot coals.

Turn on some music, grab a seat and wait patiently! You don’t need to be concerned, that’s not his beer bottle on the chair next to him.

Cook for about 20 minutes!

It’s all about the presentation! See how frickin’ good this looks!!

Okay, so this isn’t really what it looked like.  In fact, it was dark out so I’m not sure what it really looked like. But it sure tasted as good as this looks!

Because you know what? If I’ve learned anything in my many years of parenting…

… it’s not always about the food… you know what I mean?

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A Brown Road Campfire

So that you can vicariously enjoy the whole Brown Road experience and since I can’t think of anything to write about, here’s me singing a campfire song, including all of the outside bird and peeper sounds from the swamp behind us! One of the critters got so loud towards the end, I think maybe it was sitting right underneath me. Maybe it was singing along. I laughed because I thought it sounded like one of those combination music and nature sounds CD’s you can buy.

Sweet Baby James is one of my favorite songs.  My Mom sang it to me to help me fall asleep when I was a baby. I don’t really remember that, but I imagine that’s where it all started. My parents had a copy of the James Taylor album that this song was originally recorded on and I would listen to it all the time. Of course, JT is one of the iconic singer/songwriters of our time!

If you’d like, here’s a video I found on youtube of a crackling campfire, that you can look at as well!

You may have to adjust the volume settings on the videos to watch them together, the crackling fire is pretty loud.

Have fun at the Brown Road campfire!

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Strumming my Six String!

I play the acoustic guitar. I’m not a great guitarist, for me it’s just a hobby, a way to cool down, to take a break from all the crap we deal with every day, to have some limited kind of creative release. I’ve even posted a few videos on you tube: http://www.youtube.com/user/stevetwarner?feature=mhum, mostly to see, after all these years, what I really sounded like.  I like to call myself a campfire guitarist. It’s a nice skill to be able to sit around a campfire with friends and family or the fire-pit at our house and be able to bang out a few simple tunes and entertain a hopefully not-too-critical audience.

Still the one after all these years!

I have played the guitar since my middle brother bought me a used Yamaha six string around 1987 as a Christmas present. It was a gift I hadn’t foreseen, a beautiful blond body, shiny gold pegs, fresh strings that vibrated out beautiful, sensual notes when plucked and strummed.  I still play that same Yamaha guitar that he gave to me.  I’ve never upgraded it, never thought to replace it.  It’s the guitar I built my first relationship with, that I gave my musician vows to, that I touched and held and caressed until I learned to make it sing and it taught me to sing along with it.  It’s like an old friend to me, like a beautiful woman who has been, for so many years, by my side, held in my arms, sitting on my lap, hanging around my neck, and helping me make music for over two decades.

I would be cheating on Yamaha if I started strumming the strings, massaging the neck, cuddling the body, lubricating the wood finish and fingering the frets of a new guitar. My Yamaha would know, it would confront me. And if I did would the passion between Yamaha and me fade away like some lost relationship tossed away over a hot tryst between me and a sexy new Gibson Guitar at the local Guitar Center store? Just me and Gibson, sneaking away to the acoustic guitar room with its closable doors and its controlled climate, secluded away like some cheap mirrored-ceiling motel room, stealing away a passionate musical moment, away from the electric guitars with their thick strings howling and moaning their repentant tunes, away from the pianos with their keys being harmoniously finger stroked in a rapid fire of musical eroticism, away from the drums unleashing their sensual rhythm, banging and pounding away on their loose bass drums and tight snares. Yes, just me and Gibson coaxing out a little music, maybe even inserting a guitar pick-up into Gibson’s sound hole and plugging in to add some electricity, to amplify the experience, to hear the intense sound penetrate the walls of our secluded meeting place.  Just me and Gibson, playing and picking and strumming and caressing and rocking and vibrating and singing… and picking and strumming and playing and caressing and rocking and vibrating and singing and picking and caressing and oh, yeah, and foreplaying and Oh, Yeah Baby, and strumming and rocking and… OH MY GOD … GIBSON BABY… and fingering and plucking and… OOOOOH YEAH, play me an F# minor chord and maybe a B7 chord…. AND MY GOD, Hallelujah… TAKE ME TO THE PROMISED LAND BABY… OH YEAH, TAKE ME ALL THE WAY TO NASHVILLE… YOU HOT, CURVY, SEXY, SIX-STRING, MOTHER OF ALL GUITARS………

Yeah, I think Yahama would notice… and I think I need to go take a cold shower…

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