Great Weekend!

Wow! What a great weekend for my ongoing romance with old time music! I played so much this weekend that my calluses have calluses and my hand seems locked in a position that looks like grabbing a mandolin/ukulele/fiddle neck.

Things started well with a jam session Saturday afternoon at the Folk School of St. Louis, where we played a ton of tunes that don’t normally get played there. But the students were game and most of them, even the real new kids, did their best to pick up the new tunes and hang in with the dance tempos that were being played. It was definitely one of the best sessions I’ve been to at the school in months.

Then it was a quick 100 mile jaunt down to play a dance in Cape Girardeau with the Mound City Slickers. We stopped and had dinner together – loading up on pasta and salad to make sure we had plenty of energy to play those long dance tunes! The band played great! The small, but enthusiastic crowd of dancers seemed to love the music and have a real big time. I can’t wait to get down there again. Someone had a video camera and someone else was taking still photos of the band. If I can get hold of any of that, I'll post them here.

Another quick 100 mile drive back to St. Louis and we were able to stop by a party at our friend Michael B.’s where we jammed into the early morning with a fresh set of old time pickers.

Then I finished it all off on Sunday morning with the Hot Baloney Boys, playing our regular set at the Hartford Coffee Co. I don’t know if it was getting some new tunes into our set or what, but we seemed to play extra well, had fun, and got all coffee’d up into the bargain.

Though exhausting, it couldn’t have been a better weekend.

Coffee and Dance This Weekend

In addition to this being the last chance for people to see the play that I've directed for West End Players, I'm also playing a dance on Sunday night with the Mound City Slickers for The Childgrove Dancers. Details on time, place and cost can be found at their website via the blue clicky letters in the previous sentence. Come on out and getin on the contra dancing fun. The Slickers always have a blast when we play for Childgrove, and this promises to be no different.

I should also mention that my other band, The Hot Baloney Boys will be playing this Sunday morning at The Hartford Coffee Company at the corner of Hartford and Roger St. Louis' south side. Colleen, Dan, and I will be playing old-time tunes and singing some songs while folks open their eyes with cups of joe and breakfast.

And then I'm on vacation!

How's the shoulder?

I've been dealing with a shoulder injury for almost a year now. It's kept me from playing the fiddle for the better part of six months or so, and friends are rightly concerned, I guess.


So, for all who care, it's getting better. Each week I improve some, but it is happening more slowly than I'd like. I've been picking up the fiddle and playing a little bit the past month or so and can now play comfortably on three of the four strings. Just a little more gain in the rotation of the shoulder joint and I'll be able to get that low string. I'm hoping to be back playing fiddle full time with the Hot Baloney Boys pretty soon.




In the meantime, I'm happy playing the banjo uke, lap dulcimer, and mandolin.

Of course, the upside to this whole thing is that not playing the fiddle for so long has allowed my mandolin playing to get a lot better than it was a year ago. So, there's always a silver lining!

Friday Night Plans

The weather is finally looking like it's going to be nice for a couple of days in a row. So this Friday evening The Hot Baloney Boys

(me on fiddle, Dan on banjo, and Colleen on guitar) will be out busking in the U. City Loop. Look for us between about 7:30 and 9:30 PM; usually in front of the Star Clipper Comic Shop (Hi, Ben & AJ!) . Come on by and hang out on the street for a while.

Bring cash dollars, please.