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Bernie Griff at Fairfax, CA Festival - 1988
Hi my name is Bernie Griff. I'm recently retired from teaching at the Ross Valley School District in San Anselmo, California. For my last two years (1994-1995) my classes sang songs I had written that cover roughly a period of American History from 1803 to 1880. With my last 4th grade class of 1995, we created a History Folk-art "Singing" Quilt. Each student fashioned a wonderful square or panel that represented a song we sang in class. These songs have now been released in a CD called "WEST HO! & SONGS OF THE WEST".

Before I go any further I would like to wave a fond hello to Sandy and the staff, Especially my singing and guitar picking buddy, Joan Owen (who also is quite a songwriter too!), at Upper and Lower Campus at Brookside. I miss all of you and wish you many fine travels cyberwise and otherwise. This site is still under construction and I hope you enjoy the journey through my pages and stages of songbites futuredelights and Hindesights! Drop me off a note if you get the chance and I'll play it on my Sound Machine. Take care and have fun! Bernie


UPDATE (1/4/99): I have worked with various musicians (20 in all) recording the songs for the CD-"West Ho! & Songs of the West". This CD also comes with a Song-Coloring Book, that contains the song lyrics, pictures by students, and a word search activity for each song to enhance Spelling and vocabulary, a page showing the panels of the quilt each student crated that represents each song on the CD. (Yes teachers, parents, ministers, and folks in general, it has an answer key to save time etc.). (See more information on this at "West Ho! Info".) Here is the CD Timeline:



The CD-"West Ho! & Songs of the West" is used in conjunction with a CD-Rom project I initiated while still teaching at Brookside School (Upper Campus). This project is still in progress. I am using Hyper Studio for this history simulation I call - "West Ho From ST. Jo".I hope to apply the new programs to this project when the CD is done. At the starst I was using a Performa 575 with 8mb of Ram and an FPU chip I added for better graphics and animation. I am making great use of Photoshop, Logo Motion, TextureScape, Ray Dream Design, Supercard, Logic and Encore to name a few. So let me get off this computer for a while, I've got to get my Martin D-28 revved up! Got to get some arrangements, leadsheets, drum tracks, and Intros figured out straight away here! (More to come as days go by! I will keep you posted).

Best to all you Super Surfers!

Bernie Griff

P.S Since my last writing (March 1996) I have been working on my updated equipment (Power Mac 7500/133 with 48 mb Ram).

New news - I have been in touch with an educator from Solano County. His name is James Stevensen. He has a site that emphasizes California History for teachers and other educators (Internet:stevensn@community.net).

If you haven't already, you should check it out. We are at present about to initiate an arrangement of my music materials on his net site -"West Ho! & Songs of the West" CD plus the songbook with songs and activities and the play that utilizes songs from the CD - "What Hath Sam Wrought" - a history play about Samuel F.B. Morse and others connected with the technology of telegraph and the Pony Express. Jim Stevenson and I have been sending messages back and forth over the past few months. Recently he requested the words for the State Song - I Love You California for 4 teachers in Solano County who were putting on a California Pageant. I looked it up and sent Jim the words. He also wanted to put me in touch with one of the descendents of General vallejo to work on a music project with her. It sounds like an interesting possibility. I will look into it. bg


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