Monday, September 29, 2008

Carter Family Comics

A pretty interesting blog about getting a graphic novel biography together on the Carter Family. Nice pictures.

Here's hoping that Tommy Jarrell, Roscoe Holcomb, and Mississippi John Hurt are next!

Fall Weather / Contra Weekend

Well, it was a real dance filled weekend. The Childgrove Dancers here in St. Louis and their dance-caller-in-training program teamed up with the Mound City Slickers to hold contra dances at St. Louis Gateway Arch and over in the Grand Center Arts District on Saturday. It kept me and the rest of the band busy running from one place to another to play tunes for the dancers, but was a lot of fun. The weather couldn’t have been more beautiful and it’s always a blast playing with these guys for dancers.

Then Sunday night, there was a reunion of Slickers fiddler, Bill’s old band, The Road Kill Ramblers for Childgrove’s regular weekly dance out in Webster Groves. I headed on out there from stately R-B Manor to listen to the music and watch the dancers (I’m on the injured reserve list for dancing until this shoulder of mine gets stronger). What a good band! They haven’t played together for 20 years and they still sound great.

At a point somewhere in the middle of the evening, I was sitting just outside the contra line with a big grin on my face, tapping my foot and really enjoying the music and the energy and the swirling round of the dancers. One of the women dancing leaned out, smiling, right into my face and shouted, “It doesn’t get better than this!” I couldn’t agree more.

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Upcoming Dates:

You can catch me playing with the Mound City Slickers here:
  • 9/27/08 @ 10:00 AM - Parkapalooza at the St. Louis Gateway Arch
  • 9/27/08 @ 1:00PM - Dancing in the Street at Grand Center in St. Louis (we'll be playing for an all ages contra dance at the Grandel stage in front of the Grandel Theater)
  • 10/11/08 @ 4:00 PM - Hanley House in Clayton, MO for a Civil War historical event
  • 10/8/08 10:00AM 'til 1:00 PM - Gateway Greening Fall Harvest Pot Luck - This is a great bunch of people and a good time. The food is great, too!
  • 10/25/08 - Private party
  • 11/23/2008 @ 7:00 PM - Childgrove Contra Dance in Webster Groves, MO

I'll be holding down the mandolin spot with (and maybe a little fiddle) with the Hot Baloney Boys every other Sunday morning from 10 until noon at the Hartford Coffee Company, corner of Roger & Hartford. Upcoming dates are:

  • 9/28
  • 10/12
  • 10/26
  • 11/2 and
  • 11/16

Hope to see some of you at one of these dates/locations. They'll all be a lot of fun!