  What's
Inside The Eddies |
Updated
December 1, 2009 The Eddies Big FAQ |
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1.
Should I read the entire FAQ? 2. What was the former, formal name of The Eddies? “The Sidney Bidwell Literary Society appearing as The Eddies (On The River).” We used to be a book club and meet monthly. (See book list below.) We always met in bars - often at Chang O'Hara's, which is now the Happy Gnome. Then we became a singing group and we meet weekly. We found that we created more endorphins by singing than by talking. It has been said that we used to be a reading group with a singing problem and now we are a singing group with a drinking problem. But that is not true, of course. In case you did not catch this earlier, "eddies" are the currents on the river that run counter to the mainstream. Eddy is a relatively useful word in crossword puzzles. and yes, we have carefully researched it and the plural is Eddies. 3. What do The Eddies have in common? The Eddies are all guys, for starters. So we share all of the positive male attributes you can think of, and very few of the negative ones. We have all resided in the same zip code, for another. The 55107 zip code is St. Paul’s West Side – just south of downtown St. Paul – across The Mississippi River. The majority of The Eddies live east and west and south of the Mississippi – look on the map: it’s true! We all have families, including children. Aside from Baker, who is recently divorced, we have wives too. We all have day jobs (good thing!). At various times we have all sported beards and/or mustaches. Some of us still do. We are active in our community and we vote. We talk about our families. We have marveled at the inanity of the Bush administration. We have hope for Obama. Sometimes we even talk about books. Some evenings seem to be given over to subtle and devious prevarication. Not really - did you swallow that? 4. Are The Eddies “a Band?” The Eddies are not a typical band, if that is what you mean. We do not have 2 electric guitars, a bass guitar and drums. Rather, think of 5 male voices, often acapella, sometimes with backup that could be an acoustic guitar, an occasional accordion, a mandola or rhythm instruments. You can dance to our music if you are choreographically gifted. At one gig (on a paddle wheeler) the audience did a conga dance line while we sang a sea shanty. It was a Chamber of Commerce event. It is the only time we were stiffed for our fee. We do not wear uniforms. Click here for some of the concepts we have rejected. 5. What do The Eddies sing?
We sing songs of Work, Love and Death, including Sea Shanties, River
Songs, Ballads and Love Songs, Folk Songs, Popular (at some time
and place with someone) Music, Sing-a-longs, and the like. We choose
music that is well enough known that we remembered it and/or learned
it because we like it and thought we could make it sound good with
5 voices singing it. For a semi-exhaustive list, please see the
Songs We Sing section. 6. What venues
do The Eddies prefer? We like a combination of “big
gigs” and neighborhood happenings. We have performed at the
Two Harbors Folk Festival, the Minnesota Bluegrass and Old Time
Music Association Big Summer Festival, Minnesota Folk Festival,
the Minnesota Irish Fair, The Hat Trick Lounge, the Celtic Connection
at O’Shaughnessy Auditorium, on MPR’s (now defunct)
Word of Mouth, on KTCA’s Almanac, Radio Heartland, KFAI, for
the St. Paul Bike Classic, Molly Quinn’s (also defunct), the
Ginkgo Coffeehouse, St. Paul Farmers Market, O’Gara’s
Garage, etc. People often sing along. They always have a good time,
because we do. 8. What do most people say about The Eddies? “Hey! You guys are good!” (said with surprise). They also ask about our CD. See CD section. We finally made one and it is pretty good. See 5.a. 9. Over the course of The Eddies performing history, what act was the easiest to follow? Five poets. Or was it three poets? 9.b What was the hardest act to follow?
A fantastically talented group from the Czech Republic. The Books of Guys by Garrison Keillor
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©2004
The Eddies