2 Nights, 4 microphones, 3 guitars, 2 fiddles, 1 mandolin, 2 voices, 1 Friday and 1 Saturday on Easter weekend in March.
This was our 2nd stint at Dulono's and even though we played both nights, it was overall a more relaxing gig than the Friday night at the beginning of last January. Some of this had to do with the fact that there were not overwhelming crowds this time around: due partially to snow, spring break and Easter weekend, and also due , no doubt, to the fact that so many of our friends did see us in January.
We still had a number of family, church, neighborhood and other friends show up, as well as people just wanting to hear bluegrass (or old time) music. Our new sound system worked really well (I'll probably post more on that later) and every one could hear, including at least one couple from church who didn't hear a thing last time around. I got good comments about the sound quality from a number of people.
A least one train wreck occurred during our first set on Friday (Bear Creek Blues). This taught us to avoid 'newish' songs in the first set (it went fine on Saturday). Although my voice was starting to get strained on our last set Saturday night, the worst physical problem was for our backs and legs - not used to being on our feet that long! (And we do like performing standing up - better for 'control': both breath control and microphone control - plus, I think you just project and connect more.) Also, on Saturday, we remembered the step stool, so getting on and off the stage was a lot easier (if not quite as much of a spectacle for the audience to see an arthritic old man attempt to get up and down the too-high platform ).
A couple of highlights - our 'new' minister came to see us Friday night - he'd heard us at the Lynnhurst Home Companion, so I was happy to see that he found time in a busy week for him to catch a whole set. On Saturday our previous minister and his wife came and sat at the same table (now known as the minister's table). It was good to see them. A guitar playing buddy came who was in the bluegrass band Minnegrassco in the 70's (and who played at Dulono's in 78,79). Gary marveled at the advances in technology - specifically the cup holders we have that attach to our microphone stands. His son is a real fan of bluegrass (and of us as well, I guess).
On Saturday, as we were coming in to set up, a friend from my Black Forest days was just finishing up supper with his family. He and his wife came back later and helped us close out our very last set. Luckily, we did one of his favorites (Sleepy Desert) and I had refound my voice.
Also met a fellow musician, Erin Kate, who I had heard of with her work as part of the Cates. I hope to catch her perform sometime soon.
Most times when we play a gig that goes past midnight, we skip church; however, Sunday was Easter and we were there... singing in choir. We had an Easter Brunch, then napped, then went out to hear Roma di Luna, the Floorbirds and others at the Sunday 416 club at the Cedar Cultural Center.
This week - rehearse songs for another round of recording this weekend - ah, the Musician's Life (who still works his day job ! and put in a full day on Monday...)
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Tenative set lists for Dulono's Mar 21-22
While Lynn was at a church committee meeting, I spend some time last night creating set lists for our two nights at Dulono's this weekend (Fri-Sat 8-midnight).
Although we haven't learned any brand new songs, we did revive a few for our church show in February and the 'Spotlight on Longevity' set with Phil Nusbaum at the MBOTMA winter weekend. As well, we may attempt another fiddle-mandolin medley from our folk-band.
Thus new material that we didn't perform at Dulono's on January 4th:
Life is Like a Mountain Railroad: we considered, but did not perform at the Longevity set. We learned this from a Green Briar Boys LP in the early 70s and often sang at jams.
Last Thing on My Mind: A Tom Paxton song we've both known since our college days (in the '60s) for the Longevity set, we performed in the folky way with finger style guitar. We've come up with a flat pick version that is hopefully light and somewhat detached...
Bramble and the Rose: we learned this from Jody Stecher and Kate Brislin's version. We're changing the ending a little bit, but otherwise it is very close to what they do.
Sally Gardens: this is one that we revived our recording project. A traditional Irish tune that I worked out an finger style (almost classical) instrumental - then found the words from the Yeats book that we both owned from the Modern Poetry Class we both took in the Spring of 1967.
When the Work's all Done This Fall: this is one we considered for the Jan set, but I wasn't too enthused. I learned this from Doc Watson long ago and have varied the guitar treatment over time (from finger picking to flatpicking). Some recent CDs of 78s that I've put on my IPod have early versions of this including one called 'The Dixie Cowboy' and another in 3/4 time. Although I'm not sure that either of these feature the mandolin, I started thinking that switching from guitar to mandolin might make me a bit more enthusiastic and it has. It also is a really cheap way to add another mandolin song to our repertoire.
50 Mile of Elbow Room: one of our few gospel songs. We originally learned a version to perform with our church bluegrass band from Iris Dement. More recently, Lynn and I performed it using Norman and Nancy Blake's version as a model. At the last church talent show in February, we played the new version with the Hot Dish String Band.
Yamina / Angilina Baker: part of a dance medley that we play at Danebod Folk Camp. Yamina is one of the first tunes I ever wrote, Anginal Baker, of course, is traditional.
Everything else on the set list is something we played at the Jan Dulono's gig. I've mixed things up a bit, so if you came at the same time slice both nights (say 8-10) you won't hear a lot of duplicates. I've invited a few guest musicians - most are out of town, but a harmonica player (from my very first high school folk trio) may show up. Depending on if he plays, we'd probably do some things out of order. We'll probably change a few things as we go over it in the next couple days as well.
Here they are :
Dulono’s Fri
Set A -
1 I Ain’t Gonna Work Tomorrow
2 Oh Lord Won’t You Help Me
3 Bear Creek Blues
4 One More Dollar
5 Wild Bill Jones
6 When First Unto this Country
7 Going to the West
8 Muddy Creek
9 Milwaukee Blues
10 More Pretty Girls Than One
11 Bramble and the Rose
12 Swedish – Xander’s tune
13 Ragtime Annie
14 Sleepy Desert
15 Otto Wood
16 You’ve Been That Friend to Me
Set B -
1 Liza Jane
2 Poor Ellen Smith
3 Handsome Molly
4 Billy Grey
5 Last Gold Dollar
6 If I Lose, Let Me Lose
7 John Hardy
8 Mighty Mississippi, The Story of
9 Charmin’ Betsy
10 / Babbington’s
11 Lonesome Pine Special
12 East Virginia Blues
13 I’m Thinking Tonight of My Blue Eyes
14 I Truly Understand
Set C -
1 Sweet Heaven When I Die
2 Blue Railroad Train
3 Dear Companion
4 Mountain Railroad
5 The Baltimore Fire
6 Train on the Island
7 Swedish - Schottis efter Roger Alexander
8 Radio Joe
9 Sally Garden
10 Green Grows the Laurel
11 When the Work’s All Done this Fall
12 (Jig set) Swallowtail / 100 Pipers
13 Little Annie
14 My Old Cottage Home
Dulono’s Sat
Set A -
1 Lonesome Pine Special
2 East Virginia Blues
3 Blue Railroad Train
4 John Hardy
5 When First Unto this Country
6 Charmin’ Betsy
7 / Babbington’s
8 Sally Gardens
9 The Baltimore Fire
10 Train on the Island
11 Swedish - Schottis efter Roger Alexander
12 Radio Joe
13 One More Dollar
14 Dear Companion
15 Little Annie
16 My Old Cottage Home
Set B -
1 Sweet Heaven When I Die
2 Broken Hearted Love (I’ve been dream..)
3 Last Thing on My Mind
4 Poor Ellen Smith
5 Handsome Molly
6 Liza Jane
7 Otto Wood
8 Last Gold Dollar
9 Bear Creek Blues
10 When the Work’s All Done this Fall
11 Bonaparte Crossing the Rhine
12 Billy Grey
13 I Truly Understand
14 You’ve Been That Friend to Me
Set C -
1 I Ain’t Gonna Work Tomorrow
2 Billy Grey
3 I’m Thinking Tonight of My Blue Eyes
4 Going to the West
5 Yamina / Anglina Baker
6 Milwaukee Blues
7 More Pretty Girls Than One
8 Wild Bill Jones
9 Mighty Mississippi, The Story of
10 Oh Lord Won’t You Help Me
11 Sleepy Desert
12 Swedish – Xander’s tune
13 Mountain Railroad
14 50 Miles of Elbow Room
Although we haven't learned any brand new songs, we did revive a few for our church show in February and the 'Spotlight on Longevity' set with Phil Nusbaum at the MBOTMA winter weekend. As well, we may attempt another fiddle-mandolin medley from our folk-band.
Thus new material that we didn't perform at Dulono's on January 4th:
Life is Like a Mountain Railroad: we considered, but did not perform at the Longevity set. We learned this from a Green Briar Boys LP in the early 70s and often sang at jams.
Last Thing on My Mind: A Tom Paxton song we've both known since our college days (in the '60s) for the Longevity set, we performed in the folky way with finger style guitar. We've come up with a flat pick version that is hopefully light and somewhat detached...
Bramble and the Rose: we learned this from Jody Stecher and Kate Brislin's version. We're changing the ending a little bit, but otherwise it is very close to what they do.
Sally Gardens: this is one that we revived our recording project. A traditional Irish tune that I worked out an finger style (almost classical) instrumental - then found the words from the Yeats book that we both owned from the Modern Poetry Class we both took in the Spring of 1967.
When the Work's all Done This Fall: this is one we considered for the Jan set, but I wasn't too enthused. I learned this from Doc Watson long ago and have varied the guitar treatment over time (from finger picking to flatpicking). Some recent CDs of 78s that I've put on my IPod have early versions of this including one called 'The Dixie Cowboy' and another in 3/4 time. Although I'm not sure that either of these feature the mandolin, I started thinking that switching from guitar to mandolin might make me a bit more enthusiastic and it has. It also is a really cheap way to add another mandolin song to our repertoire.
50 Mile of Elbow Room: one of our few gospel songs. We originally learned a version to perform with our church bluegrass band from Iris Dement. More recently, Lynn and I performed it using Norman and Nancy Blake's version as a model. At the last church talent show in February, we played the new version with the Hot Dish String Band.
Yamina / Angilina Baker: part of a dance medley that we play at Danebod Folk Camp. Yamina is one of the first tunes I ever wrote, Anginal Baker, of course, is traditional.
Everything else on the set list is something we played at the Jan Dulono's gig. I've mixed things up a bit, so if you came at the same time slice both nights (say 8-10) you won't hear a lot of duplicates. I've invited a few guest musicians - most are out of town, but a harmonica player (from my very first high school folk trio) may show up. Depending on if he plays, we'd probably do some things out of order. We'll probably change a few things as we go over it in the next couple days as well.
Here they are :
Dulono’s Fri
Set A -
1 I Ain’t Gonna Work Tomorrow
2 Oh Lord Won’t You Help Me
3 Bear Creek Blues
4 One More Dollar
5 Wild Bill Jones
6 When First Unto this Country
7 Going to the West
8 Muddy Creek
9 Milwaukee Blues
10 More Pretty Girls Than One
11 Bramble and the Rose
12 Swedish – Xander’s tune
13 Ragtime Annie
14 Sleepy Desert
15 Otto Wood
16 You’ve Been That Friend to Me
Set B -
1 Liza Jane
2 Poor Ellen Smith
3 Handsome Molly
4 Billy Grey
5 Last Gold Dollar
6 If I Lose, Let Me Lose
7 John Hardy
8 Mighty Mississippi, The Story of
9 Charmin’ Betsy
10 / Babbington’s
11 Lonesome Pine Special
12 East Virginia Blues
13 I’m Thinking Tonight of My Blue Eyes
14 I Truly Understand
Set C -
1 Sweet Heaven When I Die
2 Blue Railroad Train
3 Dear Companion
4 Mountain Railroad
5 The Baltimore Fire
6 Train on the Island
7 Swedish - Schottis efter Roger Alexander
8 Radio Joe
9 Sally Garden
10 Green Grows the Laurel
11 When the Work’s All Done this Fall
12 (Jig set) Swallowtail / 100 Pipers
13 Little Annie
14 My Old Cottage Home
Dulono’s Sat
Set A -
1 Lonesome Pine Special
2 East Virginia Blues
3 Blue Railroad Train
4 John Hardy
5 When First Unto this Country
6 Charmin’ Betsy
7 / Babbington’s
8 Sally Gardens
9 The Baltimore Fire
10 Train on the Island
11 Swedish - Schottis efter Roger Alexander
12 Radio Joe
13 One More Dollar
14 Dear Companion
15 Little Annie
16 My Old Cottage Home
Set B -
1 Sweet Heaven When I Die
2 Broken Hearted Love (I’ve been dream..)
3 Last Thing on My Mind
4 Poor Ellen Smith
5 Handsome Molly
6 Liza Jane
7 Otto Wood
8 Last Gold Dollar
9 Bear Creek Blues
10 When the Work’s All Done this Fall
11 Bonaparte Crossing the Rhine
12 Billy Grey
13 I Truly Understand
14 You’ve Been That Friend to Me
Set C -
1 I Ain’t Gonna Work Tomorrow
2 Billy Grey
3 I’m Thinking Tonight of My Blue Eyes
4 Going to the West
5 Yamina / Anglina Baker
6 Milwaukee Blues
7 More Pretty Girls Than One
8 Wild Bill Jones
9 Mighty Mississippi, The Story of
10 Oh Lord Won’t You Help Me
11 Sleepy Desert
12 Swedish – Xander’s tune
13 Mountain Railroad
14 50 Miles of Elbow Room
Sunday, March 9, 2008
Our first 'real' recording sessions
This weekend (Sat, March 8 & Sun, March 9) Lynn and I spent time at Daniel Leussler's studio near University and Raymond (St. Paul Midway area) doing our first recording project. (Finally, in our seventh decade).
The first task was to determine how to set up microphones. Of the list of over 25 'potential' songs, the majority of these are vocals accompanied by two guitars. Daniel used an initial setup of a stereo pair using a couple of Shure condenser mikes. The recording room is very live and this sounded pretty good, especially the guitars. However, the vocals were somewhat echo-ey so he added two vocal mikes (also condensers). This improved the sound tremendously. Although the guitars sounded good, Daniel was concerned because he could not exercise much control over the guitar mix. He added a pair of Shure 57 dynamic mikes, the same type we often use for live performances, and got the mix he wanted. Thus each voice and instrument had its own mike; the stereo pair was still in place to get ambient sound etc. (We have some pictures that will eventually be posted).
He also asked about doing some multi-tracking (laying down instrumentals first), but we were not at all used to playing separately from singing. (On Sunday, we discussed doing one of Lynn's songs using this technique, so we may multi-track at least one song). Thus, most of the tracks are essentially live recordings. Although Daniel has control of the mix, we are not doing any over-dubbing or multi-tracking. On Saturday we tried once or twice to 'redo' a song: we discovered that the second time through anything usually resulted in a 'train wreck'. Thus, if we didn't get a good take the first time through, we'd shelve it for another day. Another thing that we learned Saturday was that it was a good idea to start a song and agree on tempo before Daniel said 'rolling' and we started recording. And of course, although Daniel said 'rolling', he's doing all the mixing on a computer, no reel-to-reel tapes were harmed in the making of this CD. And yes, Virginia, our goal is a CD, even though MP3s will certainly be available.
On Saturday we ended up laying down about 10 tracks; on Sunday, about 12 for a total of 22 tracks. Currently there are about 12 tracks that appear to be keepers, which I think is pretty good for about 10 hours of studio time. On Sunday we branched out and did some songs with with 12 string, mandolin and fiddle. We also redid a song from Saturday (Otto Wood), and ended up with a keeper. We tried a couple of instrumentals - 'Babbington's Hornpipe', a mandolin tune I wrote, and a flatpick guitar arrangement of 'Bonaparte Crossing the Rhine'. I couldn't get through the B part of Babbington's and there were some issues with Bonaparte (although overall it sounded better than I thought as we recorded it). I'm thinking that we should also try multi-tracking for instrumentals, since it would be useful to fix up any flubs (and there will be flubs!).
The songs that are working out best are usually ones that we have performed for at least a year or two. We are trying a few that we have learned this past fall (and have performed), but are finding that we often haven't quite settled on the arrangement or we aren't quite in sync. I have discussed almost all of the songs in previous posts (raw material for liner notes). As we start to settle in on the songs that make it to the CD, I'll start posting more information on the selected songs.
The other thing we've discovered is that recording is really exhausting. Part of it is staying focused (we found that we could record two songs before we needed a break - we're both pretty ADD). And of course when we weren't recording, we were listening to the 'raw mix' with Daniel and giving an assessment of whether to keep, redo or forget-about-it.
We are scheduled for another weekend at the end of March. (With a Dulono's performance in between). Of course recording is the only the first step - Daniel has to mix and we need everything mastered. (Mastering is some voodoo that is described here). Then there is all the design and packaging and replication of the CD - stay tuned...
The first task was to determine how to set up microphones. Of the list of over 25 'potential' songs, the majority of these are vocals accompanied by two guitars. Daniel used an initial setup of a stereo pair using a couple of Shure condenser mikes. The recording room is very live and this sounded pretty good, especially the guitars. However, the vocals were somewhat echo-ey so he added two vocal mikes (also condensers). This improved the sound tremendously. Although the guitars sounded good, Daniel was concerned because he could not exercise much control over the guitar mix. He added a pair of Shure 57 dynamic mikes, the same type we often use for live performances, and got the mix he wanted. Thus each voice and instrument had its own mike; the stereo pair was still in place to get ambient sound etc. (We have some pictures that will eventually be posted).
He also asked about doing some multi-tracking (laying down instrumentals first), but we were not at all used to playing separately from singing. (On Sunday, we discussed doing one of Lynn's songs using this technique, so we may multi-track at least one song). Thus, most of the tracks are essentially live recordings. Although Daniel has control of the mix, we are not doing any over-dubbing or multi-tracking. On Saturday we tried once or twice to 'redo' a song: we discovered that the second time through anything usually resulted in a 'train wreck'. Thus, if we didn't get a good take the first time through, we'd shelve it for another day. Another thing that we learned Saturday was that it was a good idea to start a song and agree on tempo before Daniel said 'rolling' and we started recording. And of course, although Daniel said 'rolling', he's doing all the mixing on a computer, no reel-to-reel tapes were harmed in the making of this CD. And yes, Virginia, our goal is a CD, even though MP3s will certainly be available.
On Saturday we ended up laying down about 10 tracks; on Sunday, about 12 for a total of 22 tracks. Currently there are about 12 tracks that appear to be keepers, which I think is pretty good for about 10 hours of studio time. On Sunday we branched out and did some songs with with 12 string, mandolin and fiddle. We also redid a song from Saturday (Otto Wood), and ended up with a keeper. We tried a couple of instrumentals - 'Babbington's Hornpipe', a mandolin tune I wrote, and a flatpick guitar arrangement of 'Bonaparte Crossing the Rhine'. I couldn't get through the B part of Babbington's and there were some issues with Bonaparte (although overall it sounded better than I thought as we recorded it). I'm thinking that we should also try multi-tracking for instrumentals, since it would be useful to fix up any flubs (and there will be flubs!).
The songs that are working out best are usually ones that we have performed for at least a year or two. We are trying a few that we have learned this past fall (and have performed), but are finding that we often haven't quite settled on the arrangement or we aren't quite in sync. I have discussed almost all of the songs in previous posts (raw material for liner notes). As we start to settle in on the songs that make it to the CD, I'll start posting more information on the selected songs.
The other thing we've discovered is that recording is really exhausting. Part of it is staying focused (we found that we could record two songs before we needed a break - we're both pretty ADD). And of course when we weren't recording, we were listening to the 'raw mix' with Daniel and giving an assessment of whether to keep, redo or forget-about-it.
We are scheduled for another weekend at the end of March. (With a Dulono's performance in between). Of course recording is the only the first step - Daniel has to mix and we need everything mastered. (Mastering is some voodoo that is described here). Then there is all the design and packaging and replication of the CD - stay tuned...
Monday, March 3, 2008
MBOTMA Winter Weekend - a few notes
Lynn and I spent this past weekend (Feb-29 to March-2) at the MBOTMA Winter Bluegrass Weekend. We played at the Europa Room Friday night and were part of Phil Nusbaum's 'Spotlight on Longevity' on Sunday afternoon. Saturday we just showed up and went to some workshops, heard a lot of bands and did a little jamming - some notes:
Our gigs went well and the sound was good on both stages (at least the monitors were set right). For the Longevity session it was kind of fun to resurrect a couple of old songs and arrangements (and I actually remembered all the words!). Didn't get a whole lot of feedback, but did hear from a few people that they liked what we did. Al Jesperson (from Middlespunk Creek Boys, another band in the Longevity set) told me we did a good job. Since he's the guy who books Dulono's (where we play in a few weeks), that was good to hear.
We didn't spend much time jamming, even Saturday. I sat in on the Saturday tune Session with the 'New Bad Habits' and Lynn sat in on a Swedish Tune Jam (finding that she and the Swedish folk had friends in common). We also jammed with Bill Cagley and others and wound up "entertaining" the line waiting for the 9:30 Main concert on Saturday Night.
When we weren't performing or getting ready to perform, we spent a lot of time catching up on some bands with friends in it or some new bands (to us anyway) that we hadn't heard - these included:
- Ditch Lilies, John Whitehead and Deb Carlson and the Eelpout stringers: these bands played at the Saturday Night Dinner. We ended up sitting in the way back area (behind the buffet), the sound was OK , but couldn't really see the bands. John and Deb were accompanied by Deb Sorenson-Boeh, a great fiddler which added a nice touch to the good singing. I think John is writing some great songs (and we saw some scenes from his new movie on Black String Bands on Sunday). We know folk in the Eelpout stringers, but hadn't heard them before - good string band sound (we didn't hear the whole set as we had to finish eating and run down stairs to hear Hello Stranger).
- Hello Stranger: this is a band that has been around for a while with some veterans of the Minnesota Bluegrass scene. They recently added Deb Carlson on guitar and vocals and the duet singing of the two Debs (Deb Sorenson-Boeh is the other) was a real treat. We hope to make it to one of their nights at Dulono's on March 14 or 15th (one week before we play Dulono's).
- The Roe Family Singers: a band that I was aware of but had never heard. We heard them at the Europa room Saturday night (after dinner so we had better seats). Great old time singing - I especially liked their take on Cuckoo (Clarence Ashley's version).
- The High 48's: we just caught the tail end of their set on Sunday after our Longevity set. Classic bluegrass band with a lot of original songs - they are having their CD release concert at the Cedar, Sat March 22nd. We'd go, but we're playing that fri-sat at Dulono's ;-)
- New Bad Habits: this was the national old time act (from Illinois) - saw their concert and listened a bit as they played for the Sat night square dance. Chirps Smith and Dot Kent will be at the Bluff Country Gathering in Lanesboro in May (and so will we!).
We also saw The Fish Heads, Switched at Birth, Poor Benny, Highway 61 and more.
As Lynn says, these MBOTMA events are getting to be more and more fun as we get to know more of the performers. Next up is the Homegrown kickoff - we're playing on Saturday afternoon - we volunteered to be in a duet singing showcase/workshop, but no word on that yet.
See ya' there!
Our gigs went well and the sound was good on both stages (at least the monitors were set right). For the Longevity session it was kind of fun to resurrect a couple of old songs and arrangements (and I actually remembered all the words!). Didn't get a whole lot of feedback, but did hear from a few people that they liked what we did. Al Jesperson (from Middlespunk Creek Boys, another band in the Longevity set) told me we did a good job. Since he's the guy who books Dulono's (where we play in a few weeks), that was good to hear.
We didn't spend much time jamming, even Saturday. I sat in on the Saturday tune Session with the 'New Bad Habits' and Lynn sat in on a Swedish Tune Jam (finding that she and the Swedish folk had friends in common). We also jammed with Bill Cagley and others and wound up "entertaining" the line waiting for the 9:30 Main concert on Saturday Night.
When we weren't performing or getting ready to perform, we spent a lot of time catching up on some bands with friends in it or some new bands (to us anyway) that we hadn't heard - these included:
- Ditch Lilies, John Whitehead and Deb Carlson and the Eelpout stringers: these bands played at the Saturday Night Dinner. We ended up sitting in the way back area (behind the buffet), the sound was OK , but couldn't really see the bands. John and Deb were accompanied by Deb Sorenson-Boeh, a great fiddler which added a nice touch to the good singing. I think John is writing some great songs (and we saw some scenes from his new movie on Black String Bands on Sunday). We know folk in the Eelpout stringers, but hadn't heard them before - good string band sound (we didn't hear the whole set as we had to finish eating and run down stairs to hear Hello Stranger).
- Hello Stranger: this is a band that has been around for a while with some veterans of the Minnesota Bluegrass scene. They recently added Deb Carlson on guitar and vocals and the duet singing of the two Debs (Deb Sorenson-Boeh is the other) was a real treat. We hope to make it to one of their nights at Dulono's on March 14 or 15th (one week before we play Dulono's).
- The Roe Family Singers: a band that I was aware of but had never heard. We heard them at the Europa room Saturday night (after dinner so we had better seats). Great old time singing - I especially liked their take on Cuckoo (Clarence Ashley's version).
- The High 48's: we just caught the tail end of their set on Sunday after our Longevity set. Classic bluegrass band with a lot of original songs - they are having their CD release concert at the Cedar, Sat March 22nd. We'd go, but we're playing that fri-sat at Dulono's ;-)
- New Bad Habits: this was the national old time act (from Illinois) - saw their concert and listened a bit as they played for the Sat night square dance. Chirps Smith and Dot Kent will be at the Bluff Country Gathering in Lanesboro in May (and so will we!).
We also saw The Fish Heads, Switched at Birth, Poor Benny, Highway 61 and more.
As Lynn says, these MBOTMA events are getting to be more and more fun as we get to know more of the performers. Next up is the Homegrown kickoff - we're playing on Saturday afternoon - we volunteered to be in a duet singing showcase/workshop, but no word on that yet.
See ya' there!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
