There are many ways of getting gigs, but having your cousin Phylis hear you and your family rehearsing music for your mother's funeral is a new one for me. My mother died a year ago last March from Alzheimer's and there was plenty of music at her funeral. Lynn and I aren't the only musicians in the family, so we did music with my siblings, inlaws and nieces and nephews - a few songs featured the 'Dixon family band & chorus'. Phylis started talking to some of her sisters who still lived in SD and we've ended up with a gig in Milbank this weekend. (6:00pm Sunday at the Methodist church - open to all if you're in Milbank).
My Dad's two older sister's married two farmers who farmed near Milbank, SD. One family had 8 kids and the other 10. They now range in age from 50 to 75 and have kids and grandkids of their own. When I was a kid I spent many summers at the farm and spent a lot of time with my cousin Tom who is the same age. So part of this weekend is a family reunion: I saw some folk at my Mom's funeral but many I haven't seen for 15-20 years or longer. My cousin Shirley is arranging a tour of Milbank 'hi-lights' on Sunday Afternoon, this includes my grandparents 'retirement' home in Twin Brooks, SD (a blip on the map). I mainly remember that my grandmother kept chickens... and I used to build 'traps' for them.
Shirley will direct a 'cousins' choir which last performed when her father (My uncle Henry) turned 80. (That was a while ago (15 years?) - he was the last survivor of that generation and died a few years later: but was still vigorous for his 80th). The choir will perform at church and the Dixon family singers may do a number as well as a preview for Sunday night's performance.
The 'gig' itself is at 6:00 on Sunday the 22nd at the fellowship hall in the Methodist Church in Milbank. My impression is that this is a regular or semi-regular occurrence as there is a somewhat set idea of how it goes: thus, we'll play for about an hour, then we'll break for an intermission (where they 'pass the hat') than we play a short 20 minute set to finish up.
We're gonna do about four Dixon Family Band/Chorus numbers. There are also a couple of numbers that Lynn and I will do with Marly (our brother-in-law) and Kim ( our niece). As well, Kim will do one of her pieces and Marly, Kim and Erin( Kim's sister) plan to do a number. We'll be closing with the Dixon Family band leading the whole audience in Amazing Grace. (My cousins have a number of strong voices as well, so we should have a nice big sound to finish).
Lynn and I will fill out the set (which comes out to around a dozen songs). Some of the songs we plan to do that we haven't done recently are:
My Old Cottage Home: I learned this originally from Big Medicine but I've also been listening to a couple of source versions so it has evolved. I know the original is probably some mountain cabin, but going to see my grandparents old house (which is a cottage-style) brought this one to mind.
Going to the West: one of Lynn songs - she's using Kate Brislin's version as a starting point. One of the few duets where I'm playing mandolin. (We hope to add more). South Dakota is west of Minnesota, but Milbank is pretty close to the MN border.
When the Work's All Done this Fall: a cowboy song that I've played forever - I think I originally finger-picked it in A, but lately I've been flat-picking - recently moved it from C to D. It hasn't been part of the bob-i-lynn repertoire but I think we're getting it into shape.
We are doing one song we've learned recently:
What are They Doing in Heaven Today: like any large family, there have been many losses. In fact cousin Phylis couldn't stay for my Mom's funeral because she was on the way to the funeral of one of her sisters' son - (it was a sad time). I heard Riley Baugus do this a while back and thought it would be a good one to do in Milbank. At Lanesboro I got Washington Phillips doing the original (from the 30's). I'm finger-picking in F (Guitar in Drop D, capo on the 3rd fret). Lynn is adding fiddle and harmony. We performed at our church and it went well. As a gospel song I like it 'cause you get to sing about heaven without dying first.
We've also got a Swedish fiddle tune and flatpick Guitar number planned as well as the gospel song I wrote for Computer Geeks:
God 2.0: this has played well at Unitarian and Congregational churches, we'll see how a probably more conservative audience takes to it (on the other hand, some of my cousins went into very technical fields, working for NASA or something similar) so I'm guessing they'll like it just fine. We'll be performing this with Marly and Kim.
We'll be bringing our sound system and my 16 year old nephew will be running it. Marly and Cindy hopes that it helps keep him interested in a trip that otherwise is just seeing a bunch of relatives. (I recall family trips as a teen-ager, not always my first choice in ways to spend my free time).
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