Playing at Dulono's

Lynn and I are playing our 3rd gig at Dulono's this Friday night (8:00-Midnight, Sept. 19th, 2008). We first played a Friday night last January and then a weekend in March. In my comments on our first gig, I said that one weekend night was enough; however, when Al Jesperson called us to fill in for another band for the whole weekend, we didn't hesitate and we survived. Since you can leave most of the sound system set up overnight (we take the amp and the microphones back home with us), I'm almost disappointed that we aren't playing both nights. (But we are playing both Friday&Saturday the weekend of Jan 2,3 2009).

Having regular gigs at Dulono's is a real privilege. If you look at their schedule, you'll note that some of the top bluegrass/old-time bands in the area play there. I found this link to an article which describes some of the history of bluegrass and Dulono's. Al Jesperson started booking bluegrass and related bands in 1974 and Adam Granger describes it as the 'oldest bluegrass venue in the world'.

We were on the Dulono's stage a couple of times when we took a couple of bluegrass jam classes in the early 90's from Brian Wicklund and Kevin Barnes (who were then part of Stoney Lonesome). The 'bands' that were formed in class each got to do a few numbers. These were public events so some of our friends came to watch.

In 2002 Lynn and I started to 'play out' and a few years later started to do MBOTMA fundraisers at Dulono's. You play about a 40 minute set and in addition to helping to raise money for a good cause, the fundraiers provide a way to meet other musicians and expose your music to the bluegrass and old-time audience. Al Jesperson was at one of these and suggested that we call him to perform, so we are now on the list to do 2 or 3 Dulono's gigs a year. And we still love to do the MBOTMA fundraisers when our schedule permits.

For this Friday's performance, we have the set list mostly figured out and Steve Wold, a musician friend from our church, will sit in for a few numbers on the first set. Although the audience continues to 'change' throughout the night, we try not to repeat numbers so we have about 45 songs and tunes on the list. Three are relatively new: O The Raging Sea, Pretty Little Miss, and I've Got a Bulldog. We've done these at Farmer's markets but not 'on stage'. We've also revived Tim O'Brien's Late in the Day, and Norman Blake's Last Train From Poor Valley, which we haven't performed for a few years.

We are rehearsing most nights this week - making sure the words are still there and that we 'agree' on tempos and arrangements. We'll get to Dulono's on Friday by 6:00 to set up sound, Steve is coming around 7 to go over the 3 numbers he'll be doing, then hopefully time for a little food and ready to hit the stage at 8:00!