5/28/08
It was 106 F when we played outside for the Topanga Banjo & Fiddle Festival held at the old Wild West set on the Paramount Ranch. For our foot percussion number, I had to search the grounds for a big old sheet of plywood, then lug it to the opposite side of the ranch in the beating sun. (It was later reported than nobody could hear the sound of the feet, anyway!) Our instruments sounded flabby and unresponsive in the heat, and the PA system was dreadful. But the audience saved the day with their rapturous approval.

We had just come from a concert in Annaheim the night before, where we had the opposite experience: the air conditioning was so intense that we had to tuck our fingers under our arms to try to keep them warm. Small difficulties aside, though, Steve and Michelle Dulsen run an exemplary concert series. Living Traditions is one of the most "pro-artist", professionally-run acoustic music series we've seen.

Three of our L.A. area performances were attended by representatives from Royer Labs. In mutual admiration, we instantly became friends and they gave us a personal tour of the workshop in Burbank where their unique, ultra-high quality microphones are developed, assembled, and tested one-at-a-time.

Our month-long tour actually began a week earlier in the mountain majesty of the California Sierras. Between gigs in Pacifica and Bishop we were able to squeeze in a glorious one-day holiday in Yosemite park. This was my first visit there. In addition to being stunned by the jaw-dropping scenery, I was thrilled to see that there was no sign of corporate exploitation which would otherwise have marred the breathtaking scenery.

Our annual appearance at the Northwest Folklife Festival in Seattle was met with a roaring audience reaction. Thanks to impeccable blue skies and balmy weather, the crowds were more massive than I've seen in any of the 7 years I've participated. The only down side was that the PA sound was disgracefully bad; it's always so frustrating when one works so long to hone one's performance skills, only to end up battling the evils of electronic mayhem instead of concentrating on the music.

The tour finished up with a bang in Olympia, WA. Thanks to the lovely article in the local Olympian newspaper written by Sharron Wooton, the show sold out the morning before the show. Our friend Warren Argo did a superb job at the mixing console.

2/28/08
Bill Preslan, a fan I didn't even know I had, and his wife Janet set a new record for the furthest someone has travelled for the sole purpose of attending our show: they drove over 430 miles from Vicksburg, Mississippi to Chattanooga, TN to hear us play at Barking Legs Theatre. And they said afterward that it was well-worth it! Now that's devotion! Thanks a lot, guys...Hats off to you!

In the intermission, a man with a strong european accent asked me about the meaning of our CD title "Zephyr In The Confetti Factory." I explained the analogy of musical ideas being like shards of confetti, with a warm wind from the West blowing in and swirling them up like confetti. "Ach," he replied. "In Russian, the word
'ze-feer' means 'chocolate-covered marshmallow'; I had thought it might have referred to a connection between music and a chocolate factory."

2/8/08
I spoke via cell phone with Knoxville newspaper journalist Wayne Bledsoe while we were en route to Georgia for a four-gig run. I told him how grateful we are that the News-Sentinel has been so eager to write feature articles about music events. Very few papers devote even the smallest portion of page space to inform readers about non-commercial music like traditional folk and roots. The public is therefore unaware of such cultural events and attendance remains sparse. This, in turn, discourages performers from returning to that city. In this way, editors have a strong influence on the musical environment of their community.

That very night supported my point. We played in a tiny town west of Augusta, called Thomson. Newspapers in smaller towns often devote generous page space to concerts like ours, and in this case the McDuffie Mirror ran features in two separate editions prior to the event. The venue was a charming, old restored railroad depot with stone walls and high ceilings--perfect for string music. Thanks to the nice press coverage, listeners filled the room in the largest attendance seen in the history of that concert series.

The following night we played in another small town, Martinez, and exactly the same thing happened.

People are sometimes surprised when I tell them that our largest audiences are always in the smallest towns.

2/1/08
One of my favorite of the large Irish groups is Solas. Imagine my delight when we were called by the events director of the historic Grove Park Inn and asked if we would play an opening set for Solas at the Celtic Adventure weekend festival.

1/14/08
I knew little about the Charlotte Folk Society. Four years of negotiations with various loosely-organized volunteers for this one-hour, admission-by-donation program suggested to me a low-key affair with perhaps 10 or 12 attendees. What actually transpired blew our minds!

People showed up in droves to the community college auditorium -- and they kept showing up. When seats ran out, people reverted to sitting in the hallway. Despite that our playing was only at about 70% of our best, folks just ate it up with wild praise. What a great first-time welcome to Charlotte! I guess it just goes to show that no matter how tiny one thinks a gig may be, one should go in with the mental attitude as if it were Carnegie Hall.

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