July 4th I played in a duo with fiddler Mark Campbell at the annual celebration at Poplar Forest,
Thomas Jefferson's second home. Best paying gig I ever had. Mark and I had been over to UK
back in January which was the best professional music trip I have ever taken.
July 6th involved a trip to Canada to visit Jenny's folks. We performed for the 3rd time for the folks at Madonna's House, I mean the 'Madonna House'. They are easy to please and love 'live' music but
our songs are not familiar and I'm sure they wonder why we sing "old" songs and play banjo
in such a way. I spent time cutting up and gluing up future banjo necks from some local 'birdseye' maple boards that I had bartered for a couple of years ago. I also built a walnut vanity for Jenny's sister Terry and her husband Jack in their basement woodworking shop.
Back in Floyd, we hosted our daughter Hanna and her friends from the Pacific Northwest. Her band, the Barn Owls, came to experience Floyd and play as much music as possible. From WPAQ 740 -AM 'live on the air' to The Floyd Country Store to a house concert on our deck, they wowed audiences
wherever they appeared. It was a great time for all. Hanna stayed longer than did the rest to give us
a real visit with her alone. She and I eventually headed up to the annual West Virginia festival known as Clifftopwhere we saw lots of old friends and made new ones playing lots of music of course.
We finally released our Traynham Family CD and began to long process of recouping the expenses by selling as many as we could to friends at Clifftop. Back home, I sent out a few dozen promos to radio stations and others on a list of reviewers and DJ's known to play our kind of music. Without Hanna around to perform with us the CD is not a 'hot' one by any means. At least it documents our potential and preserves our performances at the several sessions held over a 3 year period when Hanna would
come back for visits after leaving for Seattle in Fall of 2011. We'll be together some in 2015 and will brush up our tunes for the Swanannoa Gathering in July where we'll all 3 be instructors.
Mid August found me at Galax Fiddler's convention where I had committed to playing fiddle in an
Old-time band headed up by Trish Fore. Rainy weather made it tough but we managed to play well both nights and got 5th place which ain't bad for stiff competition there. I missed my beloved Fries convention but managed to go to Rockbridge in September for one day. Mark Campbell and I wanted to practice for another duo gig at the new venue in Rocky Mount, Virginia called the Harvester. At Rockbridge we also got up with our buddy John Schwab for a tight string band trio sound that we get a special feeling from.
Jenny and I were involved in an 'end of life' event for our old friend from the 70's in Blacksburg, Bill Richardson, who lost his fight with 'Lymphoma' on Sept 11. Upon Bill's request many people played music continually in his last four days in the hospital; so much that it warranted a front page article in the Roanoke times. In the midst of this event, I wrote a song based on Bill's request and his words for a title calling it 'They Never Told me I was Dying".
I performed it along with Jenny at his graveside located in Smyth County in a beautiful ancient cemetery. Bill was actually buried at the foot of the grave our beloved friend and old-timer fiddler, Hick Edmonds who had passed on in 2008. The experience was profound to both me and Jenny as it seemed unreal at first but eventually it made us wake up to our own mortality.
October found me working on installing a pair of used Solar Hot Water panels to supplement the heating of a volume of water that is part of my outdoor water/wood stove. I also committed to
have solar PV panels installed behind my shop to greatly reduce our electric bill. I hope both solar projects when completed will help me fell like I have become
part of the solution to some of the environmental problems of our time.
Also in October, Jenny and I held some one day workshops at our place as we had done in Spring.
On the first Saturday, Andy Buckman helped us again with beginning banjo while I taught fiddle and Jenny, guitar. A couple of Saturdays later, Jenny and I taught a harmony singing workshop. In early December, we held another one day workshop for intermediate banjo and fiddle.
In early December one Saturday night, I played fiddle at the annual Christmas Party in Rangely Virginia put on by the matriarch of the Blue Ridge flatfoot dancing style, Pearly Reynolds. My 4th or 5th time over the years, it featured a potluck with more deviled eggs than anything else but still included some super country cooking by local ladies who love 'the party' as much as anyone. Lots of green beans, ham, turkey, velvet cake and sweet tea. Fiddler Shay Garriock came up from NC and joined me and the band which included Stan Spencer-guitar, Jared Boyd-banjo, and Stacy Boyd -bass. A couple of exhibitions by lifelong flat footers both freestyle and in a group routine were highlights of the night. Many of the younger dancers had grown up around this community of dancers and were now passing the interest on to their children.
I feel it to be a real honor as a musician to be included in such a community event.
The rest 2014 was spent working on my largest banjo commission to date. The order since May had been for a 12" Birdseye Maple banjo along with a matching banjo Uke with fancy inlays. I had most of the wood work done by end of summer but the final decorations and set up were another big job.
I hired Hanna to employ her artistic talent to cut out the inlay shapes for the pair. I received
them in a timely manner but managed to miss my Christmas deadline I had imposed on myself.
Before New Years, I managed to get them both playing really well.
I took a break from the work to go down to Richmond with Jenny to meet up with family at my brother Randy's house. A great meal and visit with nephews and nieces and a skype session with Hanna
ensued. The highlight was when our son, Ben and his wife Lisa announced to everyone that they are pregnant. Wow! Christmas will be different from now on.
My last event of 2014 was to be part of a OT band to play for an annual New year's celebration at Floyd Country Store. I got Andy Buckman for banjo, George Slusher for guitar and Sam Linkous for bass and called ourselves the Route 8 Ramblers. A good crowd of dancers came and started of the evening with the music of the Zephyr Lightnin Bolts until 10 PM then we took over and played a real long set.
We stopped just before midnight, receiving glass of champagne from the store's new owner ,Heather Krantz, to help bring in 2015 with a toast.
We played Breaking up Xmas and Merry Mountain Hoedown as our first tunes in the New Year.
Not bad way to begin 2015 for a 60 year old night owl. Meanwhile, Jenny stayed home to hit the hay by 10 PM as usual...
