Performing for the Stonearch Festival

Last year we were contacted by Stacy Schwartz to perform at the Stonearch Festival of the Arts held on the 'St. Anthony Main' side of the river (that would be the Mississippi river as it wends through Minneapolis). Since my bike route for commuting to work goes over the Stonearch Bridge ( see here) I was intrigued, so we said yes and we had a great time. It was a performance that a lot of our friends could make and we played for a number of new people.

We're playing at the Festival again at 12:15 this Saturday, June 14th at the City Pages Stage again. (This is the acoustic venue by the 3rd Avenue Bridge - right next to the beer and wine area). Lynn located the set list from last year so for this year we are doing mostly different songs, including new songs we've learned in the past year (marked as 'new', although we have performed most of them at Dulono's or a MBOTMA festival). I've given details for most of these before, so I'll just show the tentative set list for this year:

• Ain't Gonna Work Tomorrow
• If I Lose Let Me Lose (new)
• East Virginia Blues (new)
• Milwaukee Blues
• More Pretty Girls Than One (new)
• Baltimore Fire
• Muddy Creek (fiddle/mandolin tune)
• When the Work's All Done this Fall (new arrangement, with mandolin)
  
• Last Gold Dollar
• Bear Creek Blues (new)
• I've Been Dreaming of You Darling

We're the second act to preform on Saturday and scheduled to play from 12:15 to 1:00. The full schedule is here. Since there is a half hour between sets, it may go a little longer, so we have a few more songs and tunes ready.

In addition to 4 or 5 performing stages there are 250 Juried Art Exhibits, a Classic Car exhibit and more - see the official Stonearch Website.

Last year we were able to hang out and listen to a few of the other acts and we got some pictures of me in our friend Frank Howard '74 Lotus. However, this year we'll be leaving shortly after we perform in order to get to my niece's graduation party in Savage, MN.

Farmers Market gigs

Lynn and I were in Prior Lake Saturday playing the Farmer's Market with the 'Rhubarbarians'. The Rhubarbarians is a band headed by Bob Estes that have been playing for many years. However, only Bob and Tom like to travel to Prior Lake, so Lynn and I often guest. The common repertoire are a number of dance tunes that we also play at Danebod Folk camp. Tom has a number of folk/pop numbers which we jam along with;and Bob and Tom 'jam' with us on the Bob-i-Lynn tunes. Since I have a number of relatives that live 'South of the River' (the Minnesota river), I usually see a few of them. I also went to high school in Shakopee (which borders Prior Lake), so will sometimes see an old high school friend or two.

This was our first farmers market of the year and was especially fun since we had had to cancel our appearance at MBOTMA's homegrown kickoff the previous weekend because of a family emergency.

The weather had been threating and we even had a few sprinkles just before we set up; however, the skies cleared and there seemed to be a bigger 'crowd' than usual.

Although, in the past we have brought our plug-in sound system (with two long extension cords), we've now moved to a total battery powered system. Bob got a Crate TAXI system which he has jerry rigged to have 4 inputs (2 is usual), I have a Pignose and Tom has a Vox system so we had 6 inputs going. This seems to be enough for the venue.

My sister and brother-in-law showed up and Lynn and I visited Otto's mother Norma afterwards.

On Sunday, Bob had scheduled the regular band at Kingfield Market in Minneapolis; however, Dave couldn't make it and Joe and Tom had to leave early. Lynn dropped me off on her way to church; when she came to pick me up it was just me and Bob (we renamed ourselves the Rhu-bob-arians) -we took a break and Lynn joined us for a few last songs.

Good to be playing again - we'll be at Prior Lake again on July 5th and Lynn and I are playing the Stone Arch Festival Saturday, June 14th at 12:15.