Great weekend so far! Friday we drove up to Lutsen, Minnesota to play the Sweetwater Shakedown Festival, opening for The Travelin McCourys. Our friends the Sans Souci Quartet were there, too! We killed it! The audience was going crazy, I was asked to touch beards with a guy, and an attractive young lady asked if I would watch her work out. I dont know what that means. Back in my day... well, anyway. And they ALL were in love with Kim, saying she was incredible, inspiring, a Goddess... Kim was a hit. The Travelin McCourys were incredible. I was inspired by their virtuosic playing to work harder than ever on my own playing. On top of it all, organizer Jim Vick & the folks at Papa Charlies (hosts of the event) fed us delicious food and put us up at Bluefin Bay Family of Resorts where we had an awesome, lake-side-view room, with a tiny loft in it that the girls were over-the-moon about: it had a ladder they climbed up, and a little lamp and a window for them to peek out of. Saturday we got up early and hit the road for River Falls, WI, and the River Falls Roots and Bluegrass Festival. Kim had a clogging workshop scheduled at 1 PM; when we got there, it had been upgraded a bit: we were greeted by a camera crew from Explore Wisconsin, a reporter, and the local Chamber of Commerce, asking if they could video Kims workshop and if Kim would teach the reporter how to clog! While this was going on, the room filled to capacity with people ready for the workshop. Kim was champion and led the reporter and group through the workshop, and they all did a great job! Then, the original group & reporters left and were replaced with a SECOND camera crew and group, so Kim did the lesson all over again! After that we headed up the block to Bos N Mine, where we were scheduled to play at 4:30. We had a great lunch, then got ready to play. We met the owner, Cedric, and he was SUPER accommodating, moving a ton of tables and a huge pool table to make room for us to play, AND a dumpster out back so we could load our gear in easier! Then we got a great surprise, a student from University of Wisconsin-River Falls, Lauren, was taking classes in Marketing and was working as our Artist Liaison for credit. She was awesome! We played three sets, and the place was packed to the gills! We heard from several people there that the place had NEVER been that full before. In fact, Cedric came up towards the end of our set and said that they were so full that they were in danger of going over fire-code. YEAH! As we were loading out, Cedric asked if he could get us anything for the road. Kim asked if there was any dessert for the girls to take home in the van. He disappeared for about 10 minutes, then came back with two boxes of chocolate ice cream bars. He had run across the street to the local supermarket, which was CLOSED, got the owner to open the place back up, and bought them for the girls himself! We were stunned. :) Best part of the whole trip: On the way home we were listening to a CD that our friend Isak Howell from The Black Twig Pickers turned us onto last year when we were in West By God Virginia: Anna & Elizabeth. Onnee fell asleep, but Elspeth (5 yrs old) began singing along to the songs, and she knew all the words and was in pitch & tune. I had no idea she knew all the words; shes never sung the songs before. You cant imagine how heavenly it was to hear that beautiful voice singing along quietly to the wonderful old-time music on the stereo. Kim & I were VERY proud. :) TODAY (Sun Apr 6) were heading over to the 331 Club to practice some voodoo with Corpse Reviver, playing songs from the Harry Smith Anthology of American Folk Music, 3 - 5 PM, FREE & ALL AGES!
Posted on: Sun, 06 Apr 2014 16:10:33 +0000
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