Monday, February 15, 2010

Waiting for Spring

While waiting for Spring Jenny and I have gotten plenty of exercise shoveling snow on a regular basis. We had a house concert scheduled for us and Shay Garriock in the DC area that got cancelled due to the record snow that still haunts the area. Several other events featuring music of related genre were cancelled on weekend previous to and the one after February 13th when we scheduled. Oh well, there's always a chance of something weather related coming in to dominate the situation to the point of changing plans. We have been spoiled by several mild snowless winters but we never heard about El Nino's eminent return this year. If I would have read and heeded the farmer's almanac (which apparently was right on) then I wouldn't have had to cut more firewood to make it through the winter. Hind sight can make one feel stupid. Musically, February may turn out a couple of gigs after all. Jenny and I haven't done a restaurant gig in a long while but are scheduled to do a 3 hour time slot at a Giles county establishment called the Pallisades restaurant on the banks of the New River in downtown Eggleston. This place has been featuring live music on the weekends for the customers. Sunday nights have been featuring old-time music from a young group called Old Sledge who are unavailable and offered us to do the gig in their place. So we agreed to help out. It should chance to play some of our old and new repetoire. Check us out if you can.

We are also scheduled to play the following Friday Feb 26th in historic Chatham Virginia for the Dan River Region Bluegrass Music association. Shay will join us in some stringband numbers. The crowd that we played for in 2007 was very receptive and seem to understand the roots of Bluegrass music. NPR radio host of 'Back to the BlueRidge' on WVTF , Kinney Rorrer, has been associated with that group and for many years in the Danville, Virginia area.

In the meantime, I have played for dancers at the Floyd Country Store which seems to always get a crowd on the coldest nights. I will fiddle with a bunch of seasoned Galax players on Feb 19th and expect it to be a fun and easy time. Timing is everything as the saying goes.