August Catch-up

A quick miscellaneous catch-up post, before a whole bunch of new stuff happens:

* Our annual Ocean City, MD vacation was two weeks ago. For the second straight year, I've brought my travel guitar with me, and playing it on the beach at night is a blast. I sit on the wall, facing away from the boardwalk, so no one really hears me (which is good - I don't want to be noticed or heard by people walking by.) One guy did sit down close to me one night, and after a while said to me, "That sounds great! Santana!" I smiled and thanked him - even though I was playing Hotel California.

* Eight days to folk fest! We're quite excited, both about the performers on the bill (final schedule is here), and even more about the jamming and the whole camp scene. Much more about this soon.

* July's Rosewood gigs at the bakery and the Craft Ale House were fun and successful. We've been offered more dates at both venues, so we'll be busy into the fall. We added a few songs into the set list, and one we really liked (and that went over very well) was Robert Plant's Band of Joy rockabilly version of "Rock and Roll." (Band of Joy version is here, our version at the bakery is here - Brother Chris can be heard singing along!)

* I've written before about what a huge amount of admiration I have for John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin. This video is so interesting. He talks about how he started playing mandolin - basically, he'd heard it, thought the sound was interesting, and wanted a small instrument that he could take with him anywhere. So he saw one and picked it up on a whim. What he doesn't mention is that one year later he was playing it on Zeppelin albums and onstage as an integral part of their acoustic set. Boggling. And then he talks about going to bluegrass festivals and jams now - just walking up and buying a ticket! - and being surprised that Mike Marshall and Chris Thile want to play with him. I just shake my head.

* My Martin is the sweetest-sounding baby that ever existed. Well, you'll have a hard time convincing me that she's not. I'm playing every day, and it's pure pleasure. I'm still playing mandolin every day too, but the pendulum is definitely swinging back toward the guitar, from the mandolin (which has been my main focus for the past year.) More about that very soon.