http://www.peggyehrhart.com Author of Sweet Man is Gone Tue, 12 Jan 2010 21:08:13 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en It’s my great pleasure to introduce my friend and teacher, Steve Tarshis.  Here's a picture of Steve at the launch party for Sweet Man Is Gone, where the entertainment was provided by the Steve Tarshis Trio. Steve is a New York City guitar guy with an impressive resume: he’s got a ... http://www.peggyehrhart.com/stevetarshis/ Just like the blues, Caribbean music owes much of its power to African rhythms brought to the New World by slaves--in this case, slaves imported to work on the sugar cane plantations. Rum was a by-product of the sugar-making process, and I knew this pie had to have rum. Who can think of the islands ... http://www.peggyehrhart.com/june-coconut-cream-pie/ [caption id="attachment_416" align="alignright" width="211" caption="A slice of Strawberry Fields Pie"][/caption] "Strawberry Fields Forever" isn’t the blusiest of tunes, though the Beatles certainly owe a debt to the blues tradition. But please indulge me . . . These early summer days are perfect strawberry weather, and for me strawberries always evoke those moments ... http://www.peggyehrhart.com/may-strawberry-fields-pie/ I promised a custard pie this month. The blues purists will be horrified, but my blues connection is Led Zeppelin’s "Custard Pie," in all its sexual innuendo-laden glory. In creating it, they reached back to wonderful Delta tunes like Sleepy John Estes' "Drop Down Mama," Bukka White's "Shake 'Em On ... http://www.peggyehrhart.com/april-rhubarb-custard-pie/   [caption id="attachment_352" align="alignright" width="211" caption="The cloth is from a huge open-air market in Accra."][/caption] I picked this pie for March with a nod to St. Patrick’s Day because when we think of limes, we think--GREEN. Except key limes are yellow and that’s part of the story behind Key Lime Pie. It’s an ... http://www.peggyehrhart.com/key-to-the-highway-lime-pie/ [caption id="attachment_340" align="alignleft" width="211" caption="Can she bake a cherry pie?"][/caption] Cherry Pie is traditional for February because of Washington’s Birthday, but this month’s pie was inspired by Miles Davis too. The ancient children’s song, "Billy Boy," includes a verse that starts with the line, "Can she bake a cherry pie, Billy Boy ... http://www.peggyehrhart.com/february-cherry-pie/ [caption id="attachment_299" align="alignright" width="211" caption="I used the lighter-colored sweet potatoes."][/caption] Sweet Potato Pie is reportedly our new president’s favorite pie, and it’s one of my favorites too. I first tasted it during the student protests at San Francisco State University when I was a student there in the Sixties. Students were boycotting ... http://www.peggyehrhart.com/january-inauguration-sweet-potato-pie/   [caption id="attachment_247" align="alignleft" width="281" caption="Ma Rainey’s Black-Bottom Pie"][/caption] The rock and roll of the 1950’s wasn’t the first example of African-American music and dance influencing mainstream culture. When young people scandalized their parents by dancing the Charleston and the Black Bottom in the 1920’s, they were borrowing both the moves and ... http://www.peggyehrhart.com/december-ma-rainey%e2%80%99s-black-bottom-pie/ Why don’t more women play the electric guitar? I’m the proud owner--and player--of several Strats, but female electric guitarists are such a rarity that when it came time to create my heroine in Sweet Man Is Gone, I went with the stereotype and made her a singer. But why is the chick ... http://www.peggyehrhart.com/why-there-aren%e2%80%99t-more-joan-jets/ Psychologist Sam Gosling could teach Sherlock Holmes a thing or two.  In his book Snoop: What Your Stuff Says About You, Gosling lays out the principles of snoopology.  Its premise is that our possessions, and their arrangement, offer a window to our souls. Gosling demonstrates his powers of deduction when he ... http://www.peggyehrhart.com/the-evil-that-men-do-what-villains-reveal-about-their-creators%e2%80%99-personalities/