We recently returned from a musical excursion to the Deep South following a long break from our late July trip to Morehead Old-time Festival near Morehead, Kentucky. Mac managed to get to a bunch of the late summer festivals and fiddler's conventions like Clifftop in West Virginia, the Galax Fiddler's Convention and the Fries Fiddler's Convention. We met up with our daughter Hanna and had a fun jam with her at the Rockbridge Festival near Buena Vista in September. Mac also was a beginning Clawhammer banjo instructor at the annual Augusta October Old-Time Week in Elkins, West Virginia.
So with some advanced planning we left for the South on Dec 2 and arrived at our old bass player friend Dick Daniels' place outside of Athens Georgia. We had not see him or his wife Mary in almost 30 years. He had played with Mac a couple of local bluegrass and old-time bands based in Blacksburg, Va in the late 1970's. We had fell out of touch, however, in recent times Dick had found out about Mac's banjos on-line and was interested in purchasing one. The wonderful ability to send photos help with his decision having seen some photos Mac sent of a recent one made of beautiful Canadian birdseye Maple. Being a wonderful bass player and overall music supporter he and Mary decided to fufill a dream to create a music venue where they could feature acoustic music for the general public. In recent months they had purchased an old country store building with a house attached in their rural community east of Athens. They named the place the 'Doghouse' for a variety of reasons. Checkout their website . Our professional trip to the Suwannee Old-time music weekend as well as the banjo delivery to Dick prompted us to set up a house concert at the "Doghouse' on our way to Florida. This was also a great way to break up our trip and to share our music with old friends and new folks in Georgia.
We arrived at our destination in White Springs,Florida late afternoon on Dec 3 only to find it overcast and cool in the mid 40's. We met up with our fiddling buddy Shay Garriock and his wife Leslie who had traveled from central North Carolina with featured former Florida musicians Dwight Rogers and Gail Gillespie. Our contact person, Tampa area DJ , Jim Strickland, met us and got us settled in to a cabin on the grounds of the Stephen Foster Folk Cultural Center operated by the Florida State Parks. The Florida Folk Festival has been held there annually in the Spring for over 50 years. There is a Southern Mansion set up as a museum to honor the famous northern songwriter Stephen Foster.
The camp didn't officially start until 2 PM on Friday so we got to explore around the famous Suwannee River itself before having to be 'on the job'. We were to teach advanced classes in detail focusing on our local Blue Ridge Style of old-time fiddling, banjo and guitar playing and singing. The camp was small in attendence yet we were busy with public performances on Friday nite by some of Florida's best Old-time musicians.
Our trio with Shay was featured on Saturday night along with some other Florida masters. We had a great time and got a lot of pleasure playing for an enthusiastic audience. Both evenings following the performances there was jamming at the local Telford Hotel. The Telford is a classic Southern Hotel with a wonderful buffet type dining room where some participants stayed. It was built in the 1800's with an elegant decor for wealthy folks to stay at while visiting the actual natural mineral spring nearby.
Following our last classes on Sunday we left heading South to experience some of the 'real' Florida in the way of a canoe trip at a place called Ichatucknee Springs. We highly recommend folks experience this place for themselves. It was an amazing confluence of natural spring waters into a flowing stream through a natural area brimming with wildlife and Spanish Moss with no effort made other than to take photos and guide the canoe around natural obstructions. It was still a cool time with temperatures still in the low 50's at best. We headed back that evening and arrived home on Dec8 following an overnight visit with Jenny's cousin Dan Walden in Covington Georgia. We drove all day in the rain arriving home to an ice storm which took out a couple of our best trees near our house by morning. Somehow we failed to find the Sweet Sunny South on our trip and yearn to go back in late Winter but probably won't this winter.
Thanks for visiting this blog
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Monday, October 5, 2009
Fall 09
Late Summer 09 found Mac playing independently at several of the local fiddler's convention. We live in great location for his old-time music addiction. Over the past couple of months several custom banjo orders were filled and other new banjos were produced and sold as well. Not bad for a secret banjo maker/player who keeps trying to top the sound of the last one. Jenny put lots of effort into her gardens and flower bed.
In late August, we hosted a gathering of local long-time women musicians, most of whom are in their 70's 80's and 90's. These women are still active players of old-time and country music and included Sue Edmonds, Irene Harris, Chloe Bishop,
Rhoda Kemp, Iva Sue Stillwell and Janet Turner. It was time full of great memories as well as great songs by these lifelong dedicated folks most of whom began when they were children.
Following a late September trip to Ontario where we played for a family member's wedding reception,
October finds us gearing up for some upcoming events both local and on the road. Roanoke Mountain Campground near the Blue Ridge Parkway is always a nice venue for an intimate 5 PM concert with local music lovers. We hope the Indian summer temperatures hold and the rain comes another afternoon.
After an October 17th dance at the Floyd Country Store with Mac's all-star group The Mountain Boomers, he will head to Augusta Heritage Center in Elkins, West VA to teach banjo at October Old-Time week beginning October 25th.
We also are supporting the effort of a group of Floyd concerned citizens known as SustainFloyd by participating in a October 24th concert at the Floyd Country Store to help raise awareness of the environment and the dangerous levels of CO2 in the atmosphere presently.
350.org is a website for more info on that serious issue that we are pushing to get addressed by world leaders.
'Fiddlin' Shay Garriock has been performing with us as of late following the release of the acclaimed CD 'Turkey in the Mountain' . For more info visit macandshaycd.homestead.com . We have a couple of road trips involving the 3 of us first to the Northern Virginia area where we will conduct a day long workshop for those interested in old-time fiddle and clawhammer banjo followed by an evening house concert. Thanks to our good friend and DJ Hubie King for hosting us. Hubie will conduct an interview with us to be aired later on his radio show at WAMU in Washington DC. I may post more about this after it gets recorded.
Our second road trip is Dec 2 -6 to Northern Florida to be the guest artist at the 5th annual Suwanee Old-time Music weekend held at the Stephen Foster Folk Culture State Park in White Springs. We will be conducting advanced workshops and perfomances for the attendees as well as the public. On the way down we hope to do a small house concert in Athens Georgia as well, hosted by our old friend Dick Daniels.
Thanks for your interest in our happenings. Keeping updated is a challenge. For more information please Check out myspacemusic/macandjennytraynham
In late August, we hosted a gathering of local long-time women musicians, most of whom are in their 70's 80's and 90's. These women are still active players of old-time and country music and included Sue Edmonds, Irene Harris, Chloe Bishop,
Rhoda Kemp, Iva Sue Stillwell and Janet Turner. It was time full of great memories as well as great songs by these lifelong dedicated folks most of whom began when they were children.
Following a late September trip to Ontario where we played for a family member's wedding reception,
October finds us gearing up for some upcoming events both local and on the road. Roanoke Mountain Campground near the Blue Ridge Parkway is always a nice venue for an intimate 5 PM concert with local music lovers. We hope the Indian summer temperatures hold and the rain comes another afternoon.
After an October 17th dance at the Floyd Country Store with Mac's all-star group The Mountain Boomers, he will head to Augusta Heritage Center in Elkins, West VA to teach banjo at October Old-Time week beginning October 25th.
We also are supporting the effort of a group of Floyd concerned citizens known as SustainFloyd by participating in a October 24th concert at the Floyd Country Store to help raise awareness of the environment and the dangerous levels of CO2 in the atmosphere presently.
350.org is a website for more info on that serious issue that we are pushing to get addressed by world leaders.
'Fiddlin' Shay Garriock has been performing with us as of late following the release of the acclaimed CD 'Turkey in the Mountain' . For more info visit macandshaycd.homestead.com . We have a couple of road trips involving the 3 of us first to the Northern Virginia area where we will conduct a day long workshop for those interested in old-time fiddle and clawhammer banjo followed by an evening house concert. Thanks to our good friend and DJ Hubie King for hosting us. Hubie will conduct an interview with us to be aired later on his radio show at WAMU in Washington DC. I may post more about this after it gets recorded.
Our second road trip is Dec 2 -6 to Northern Florida to be the guest artist at the 5th annual Suwanee Old-time Music weekend held at the Stephen Foster Folk Culture State Park in White Springs. We will be conducting advanced workshops and perfomances for the attendees as well as the public. On the way down we hope to do a small house concert in Athens Georgia as well, hosted by our old friend Dick Daniels.
Thanks for your interest in our happenings. Keeping updated is a challenge. For more information please Check out myspacemusic/macandjennytraynham
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