Nova Scotia Bound!

Summer – Été 2024

Une belle tournée dans les Maritimes s’en vient! A great Maritime Tour is coming up!

Mardi Gras!

C’est avec un immense plaisir que nous sommes fiers d’annoncer une tournée avec nos amis du Winston Band! Pendant la semaine du 19 au 24 février, nous parcourrons les routes du Nouveau-Brunswick et Québec en accompagnant les gars dans leur spectacle présentant leur nouvel album!

It is great excitement that we announce we’ll be joining The Winston Band for their new CD release tour! From February 19 to 24, we will be on the road with them in Quebec and New Brunswick!

Well well well, look who’s heading on tour!

After two years, it’s almost time to pack our bags and head out on tour with the Foghorn Stringband. We haven’t left home since the pandemic hit and we’re more than ready to see friends, play music till our fingers hurt and laugh till our faces ache from smiling!

We’ve kept busy all these months growing our own garden with our neighbours, tending to our chickens, building a sauna and an outdoor kitchen. We even got a puppy, a gorgeous Australian shepherd x Bernese named Penny who’s turning one year old!

See you down the road!

 

We sadly lost Nadine’s grandfather in February.

It has not always been easy but considering everything, we are counting our blessings. We acknowledge and give our gratitude to all responsable for

We’re getting hints of spring, the days are longer, the sun is warmer and there is talk of lifting the 9:30PM curfew that the province of Quebec has been under for the past 3 months!

You can see what we’re up to by following on Instagram and Facebook.

Here are links to some of the Live shows we’ve done since the past year:

Another cancelled tour

Not surprising but still extremely sad to announce the cancellation of our Europe/UK tour this upcoming May. We hope to reschedule as soon as we can. May you stay safe everyone.

Tour Cancellation

It is with deep regret to inform you that our US tour has been cancelled due to the Coronavirus. Our hearts go out to everyone who suffers during these times. We hope everyone is staying safe and taking this opportunity to stay healthy, physically and mentally.

We have lots of time on our hands and can teach lessons online from our cozy home. Fiddle, guitar, banjo, upright bass or vocals, anything you think we can help with. Contact stephensammylind (at) gmail.com or landry.nadine (at) gmail.com

Stay safe out there, wash your hands and stay home!

Heading out on tour with Foghorn Stringband!

En février on joue local!

ANNOUNCING NEWFOUNDLAND TOUR

PRESENTED BY HOME ROUTES/CHEMIN CHEZ NOUS

http://https//www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10162270973570462&set=a.155430565461&type

We’re heading West for 2 months!

Greetings from our new home!

Moving Home Tour!

We are heading east! With all our stuff, moving to our new home in Gaspesie! We’ll be touring across Canada, here are the dates!

Farewell to the Yukon Tour

Portland, West Virginia, Ireland and to the Maritimes…

Alaska, Colorado, Washington, Oregon…

Summer is here!

Hello!

We are home in the land of the Midnight Sun! Happy Solstice everyone! We just participated in Nuit Blanche, a arts collective bringing all kinds of artists together for a whole night last Saturday June 19. We organized a square dance by the Yukon River on The Wharf, at the end of Main Street! It was amazing to see young and old sharing their love of dancing! There were people from Mexico, Japan, United States, Canada and a bunch of locals!

Before that we were gone for a whole month touring first England with Joel Savoy and Jesse Lege as the Cajun Country Revival! Such an amazing tour. We gave a quick waltz and cajun two-step lesson at almost every concert and it was amazing to see people dance all night! The tour with the Cajuns finished in Wales at the fantastic Fire in the Mountain festival where Caleb and Reeb joined us! We were on double duty with Foghorn and Cajun Country Revival. Jesse and Joel went back home and Foghorn continued on to Ireland where we played concerts for a whole week, finishing up in County Mayo for the Westport Folk and Bluegrass Festival! A million thanks to everyone who made our trip so unforgettable!

We are heading to Yukon Woodshed, a music camp just outside Whitehorse. It’ll be a blast! We will be there along side Anne-Louise Genest, Chris Coole, Rayna Gellert, Kristin Andreassen, Andrew Collins and a bunch more great folks/instructors/friends! Then on to Alaska for a few days before heading to Colorado with Foghorn!

Hope you’re having as much fun as we do this wonderful season!

Happy Spring!

We have been back for almost two weeks after a great tour of DC, Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Tennessee and North Carolina with Foghorn Stringband! It was amazing to tour in a lot of places where the music we play and love comes from! We got to spend a whole afternoon with Skip Ashby, John Ashby’s son, playing tunes from Fauquier County in the northern part of Virginia! We also got to play MerleFest, a huge festival in Wilkesboro, NC created to honor Merle Watson, Doc’s son. We are so grateful for all our encounters, jams, beds and food!

We are leaving again next week for a month in UK and Ireland, starting with the Cajun Country Revival in England, finishing in Wales where we’ll meet up with Reeb and Caleb and continue on to Ireland!

Once we’re back home on June 14, we’ll be part of Nuit Blanche, a art collective project that will take place on June 18 all night long! Our project was selected and with the help of our friend Anne-Louise Genest, we will have a square dance by the Yukon River at the end of Main Street! We’ll play as long as there are dancers! Bring your dancing shoes and/or your string instruments and come spend the night with us!!

We’ll also be part of Yukon Woodshed, an excellent music camp just outside Whitehorse from June 23-27. There is still room available in the fiddle, harmony singing and upright bass classes! Come join us!

Until next time, happy spring!

Aloha!

A cloudy day here in Kauai! Good time to write a little entry! We had a blast on the East Coast with Foghorn Stringband and Jesse Lege and Joel Savoy! Also great to see you all at Brasserie Beaubien in Montreal! We have been in Hawaii for a week now. We are heading to Big Island, then Honolulu before we head on home! We are excited to resume our workshops:

Stringband Class: March 12th 3-5PM

Harmony Singing Class: March 22 7-9PM

All the workshops are held at Hamilton and Son Guitar Works (3165 3rd Avenue in downtown Whitehorse) and the cost is $20-30.

We also are excited to play in the communities! Two upcoming dates: March 30th in Teslin and March 31st in Watson Lake. We will be cooking a Cajun dinner and doing a concert.

Then it’s off to Yellowknife we go for the Snowking Festival the last weekend of March with Foghorn. You can also find us in Juneau at the Alaska Folk Festival April 7-11.

Mahalo!

Nadine

Here We Go!

We just left the beautiful Yukon this afternoon, flying to Vancouver, then Toronto, then finally New York! We are meeting Caleb and Reeb and starting a Foghorn tour of the East Coast, taking us to Jalopy in Brooklyn and The Linda in Albany NY, both double billed with Mike + Ruthy! Then the Joe Val Festival, a few gigs in Massachusetts and we finish up in Vermont at the Spice on Snow Festival with Foghorn, Cajun Country Revival and The Sweetback Sisters. Tons of concerts, dances and workshops available, it’s gonna be awesome!

We have the chance to spend a few days in Montreal, playing at Brasserie Beaubien on Sunday February 21st. Part concert and part square dance called by Becky Hill and joining us will be the members of the All Day Breakfast Stringband! Fun evening not to be missed! Spread the word!

Lucky us, we get to go to Hawaii right after! A few gigs, one in Honolulu and one on Big Island!  Dates on our schedule page under Cajun Country Revival!

It has been so nice to be home for so long! We have had a blast hosting the harmony singing sessions and the stringband classes! We also had a few great gigs, playing with the Bayou Boots Cajun Band at Gr8ful Suds and playing all night long in our cabin for La Nocturne, organized by l’Association Franco-Yukonnaise! We will be away until the 9th of March! Then home for a while till we go to Snowking, the festival in Yellowknife, NWT!

Happy Mardi Gras y’all!

Nadine and Sammy xox

Alberta Travels!

As soon as we walked into the house, I was taken back to my grandparents’ house for dinner. The unmistakable smell of the famous French onion soup mix+ketchup+sugar concoction filled my nose with happiness! What a great way to start a two-week house concert tour, I thought! Thanks to Home Routes, the organization responsible for coordinating dozens of artists in 13 different circuits totaling over 150 homes in Canada, we got to know tons of great people in Northern Alberta during our Big Horn tour!

To the Jasper Budget/Avis Car Rental agent: thank you so much for switching our car after the most horrendous four hour drive, sliding all over the place at 60km/h because the Edmonton Airport Budget/Avis thought it was a good idea to send us down the road with summer tires with no tread at all. It’s only mid-November you thought, probably won’t snow for a while you told yourself! Well, guess what? It did!

To all our hosts: heartfelt thanks for opening your homes to us. We are grateful for the comfortable beds, the delicious food and the space you created for us to perform in your houses. We are also delighted by all the conversations we had and the funny stories you shared. We are thankful for the snowshoes you lent us and the directions you gave us to the best hikes near your house. We loved meeting your family, sitting in the living with four generations was very special.

The photos of the three Syrian refugees you showed us who will soon be welcomed in your home touched us so much and reminded us of the good in people. The night we played music with your son and the few stragglers who stayed till the wee hours was awesome! The words of wisdom from your mom late one night will stay with us for a long time.

The little kittens and the Saint-Bernard puppy and the most diverse array of pets made us so happy!! Winston, Clyde, Marilyn, Spartagus, Howie, Obie, Jimmy Martin, Shadow, Scamp, Poncho, Bella, you sure brighten up our stays. If one thing we learned about you Albertans, you sure love your pets. I mean, how could you not, they were all so adorable!

The curry night, the ribs, the donuts, the lasagna, the chili, the chicken wings, the salads and soups, the pies and cookies, fruits and cheese trays gave us plenty of energy to play all night and the bacon, omelets, eggs over easy, the Saskatoon berry jam and fresh breads kept us going on the road all day.

You also suggested places to go and things to do! We spent a lot of time and money in the Old Strathcona Antique Mall! Just couldn’t pass down a mink fur coat with the matching hat and a pair of seal boots! Sammy is beyond himself to have found a brand new pair of old tyme snowshoes and a vintage egg slicer, all made in Canada! We checked out the dinosaur museum in Grande Prairie and learned a bunch about the prehistoric era in the Peace Region! You suggested the Mind Bender ride at the West Edmonton Mall? Done! Crooked Creek General Store? Check!

To all the people who came to the shows: Thank you! For some of you, you knew the hosts, they were your friends or your family members. But for some, you overcame the awkwardness or apprehension you maybe had to come to a stranger’s house! Thank you for supporting live music, clapping along, showing us you were having a good time! It was so nice to hear that our music reminded you of home, square dancing in the community hall, listening to your grandpa or uncle playing the fiddle and the banjo. You sang along with us, you laughed at our road stories, we even saw a few tears rolling on your cheeks when we sang a song that hit home. You bought CDs for a friend who couldn’t come to the show, you suggested musicians we might like, even gave us CDs of your own music. Thank you!

We spent our last night with my cousin Johanne, Guillaume and Camille. Enjoyed a scrumptious Thai dinner (no such luxury in the Yukon!) and a great visit with family we don’t see enough. But we’ll fix that, right?!

We finished our journey with a visit to Alberta Boot Company where I ordered a pair of tall custom made cowboy boots. Great folks, check them out!

Now that’s what I call I good trip!

2nd Stringband Workshop Nov. 28 3-5PM

Please join us for a second Stringband class on November 28th from 3-5PM at Hamilton & Son Guitar Works!

$20-30 sliding scale.

We’ll be teaching three new tunes! Fiddles, mandolins, guitars, banjos, upright basses and ukuleles are welcome!

Tunes will come from the Appalachian Mountains and the Midwest.

Bring a capo and a recording device!

Come play with us in a relaxed, positive and inclusive environment.

Whitehorse: Let’s Sing! Alberta: Here we Come!

We’re out on tour with the Foghorn Stringband, but we get home soon and we’ll be hosting a harmony singing workshop on Nov. 12. And another Stringband class, date TBD. The Yukon Woodshed website has added a “Nadine and Sammy sessions” page to their website to promote all the workshops we’ll be hosting in the future, take a moment to visit their website and sign up to receive the latest news on these sessions!

Also from November 14-25, we will be performing the Big Horn’s Home Routes circuit in Northern Alberta! Click on the town you’re interested to attend a concert and fill out the info to RSVP. Home Routes is a great Canadian organization dispatching dozens of artists across the country for a series of house concerts. People from Yukon all the way to Nova Scotia open their homes to music lovers and artists perform in the coziness of a living room. The ambiance is great, prone to storytelling, anecdotes, more so than if performed in a bar. Give it a try, it’s delightful!

Jule 19, 2015

Hello!

Here we are in San Francisco, CA about to start a tour with our friends Jesse Lege, Joel Savoy and Cajun Country Revival! We’ll be a week in California, then up to Washington and Oregon before heading to Europe with Foghorn Stringband to play the Roskilde Festival in Denmark, the Gooikoorts festival in Belgium and the Nääsville Bluegrass festival in Sweden with a bunch of other stuff in The Netherlands and Sweden. Check our schedule at www.foghornstringband.com

We’re also super excited to be more present in the Yukon and play locally. So far we participated at the Woodshed: Yukon Acoustic Music Workshops at the beautiful Sun Dog Retreat and played at the Kluane Mountain Bluegrass Festival in Haines Junction! We’ll be at Arts in Park on July 22nd and Cafe Balzam (Takhini Hot Springs) on July 23rd and August 13th. We’re also absolutely thrilled to have our Louisiana friends come to Whitehorse to play the Wharf by the Old Fire Hall on August 7th.

We’re hoping to set up workshops in the fall in Haines Junction, in Whitehorse and in the French classes of the Yukon Schools! Keep your eyes open for any events on this website or around town.

New very cool things are sprouting and developing in Whitehorse and we’re thrilled to be part of it! Did you get a chance to visit the new music shop Hamilton and Son Guitar Works? They have gorgeous instruments and really good coffee! Check it out, on 3rd Avenue between Alexander and Black!

Feel free to email us landry.nadine (at) gmail.com or stephensammylind (at) gmail.com for more informations, lessons, etc.

Happy summer and see you around!

Home and Far Away

Hey everybody! Sammy here writing from our home in beautiful Whitehorse, Yukon! I finally got my Canadian Residency and followed Nadine up to Whitehorse, where she has called home since 2000. After many visits over the years and many longings to be here when not on tour, I decided to call Whitehorse home as well. I love it. It’s a small town full of inspiring, great folks from all walks-of-life, overwhelming outdoor adventures and crisp, bright days. Come visit!

The Foghorn Stringband  has been busier than ever. We completed our 8th album, “Devil in the Seat“. We’re so excited about it and have already done two tours this year in the States to promote it. We all met up in late January to do a two-week Pacific Northwest run, starting on Vancouver Island, British Columbia and finishing up at the wonderful Oly Old Time Festival . In March we met up in Brooklyn, NY at The Jalopy Theater and School of Music to start another fantastic tour, finishing in Southampton, MA at the Parlor Room. We had such an amazing tour, playing in Montpelier, VT for a square dance, workshops, and a show- that’s an amazing music community right there! Thanks to the Summit School. We also played an amazing square dance in Boston and a sold out show there at Club Passim!!  We are really looking forward to playing two shows back at Club Passim   http://passim.org   on September 2nd as well as even sooner, on May 25th at the legendary Irish pub, The Burren in the front bar. Yeah, Boston!!  We also had a lovely time in Maine, Rhode Island, Albany, NY and New Jersey. Check out Foghorn’s website for more details as well as more info about our upcoming tour of Ireland, Scotland, and England! We hope to see you there somewhere!

2014 Recap

2014 was an action-packed year for us for sure. Getting most of my stuff up here to the Yukon seemed rather uneventful compared to some of the music adventures we got to be a part of. I’ll try to re-cap:

The year kicked off with a last “hometown” hang in Portland during the Old Time Gathering, complete with a house-full of friends crashing in every corner of the house. From there we headed to Glasgow to play Celtic Connections with Foghorn and stick around to see a bunch of shows and visit friends outside of Edinburgh and even snuck in a quick visit to Liverpool (sorry about your car, Sarah and Joey…)! The sessions were epic of course, a highlight being tunes with Anna Lindblad (cousin!) and of course our old friends, Sarah McFadyen and Joey Sanderson!

From Scotland we flew straight to Anchorage for the Fiddle Train! The snow wasn’t quite right for skiing like in 2013, but the company, tunes, and the hilarious tune/shananigan-filled train ride was the best! We then met Caleb and Reeb in Minneapolis and started a sweet Midwestern Foghorn tour with The Cactus Blossoms, who we try to play with or just plain listen to whenever we get the chance. You’ll have a hard time finding better harmony singers or nicer fellas anywhere. On that tour we covered a lot of ground, a main stop-off being Folk Alliance in Kansas City. It’s a great place to meet/play for festival promoters and meet up with old friends and have some good sessions. The tour ended in Louisiana for a show with bossman, Dirk Powell, at Parish Ink, and we were in the tidal wave that is, of course, MARDI GRAS! The night before Mardi Gras out at Faquetigue Foghorn played for Lundi Gras in the ice cold weather that continued through the next day. It was “Freezer Gras” for sure! Still fun of course…

The day after Mardi Gras, Nadine and I recorded the second Cajun Country Revival album with Joel Savoy and Jesse Lege called, “Greetings From Louisiana” in Joel’s studio and then headed to China for two weeks with Nick Spitzer, host of the radio show American Routes!! We all had a great adventure playing over there. China is a place I never thought I’d get to visit, let alone go and play there in the first ever cajun band to play at on mainland China! We played in Guangzhou, Harbin, and Shanghai and Nanjing. We were treated so well, and had amazing responses everywhere we played. It was incredibly empowering for the women there to see and hear Nadine play the upright bass and sing the way she does. Folks went nuts and lined up after every show for autographs! We had a little hiccup in our journey over there- the flight attendant on our first flight took our fiddles and guitar off the plane saying they “don’t allow instruments to be in the overhead”, even though they take up much less that people’s huge carry-ons full of whatever unbreakable sh#% !! So the guy lied to us, saying they would be gate-checked and actually made us go to the normal baggage claim, causing us to miss our flight to China and we missed the first gig. Our already checked baggage was, however, on the flight, which caused some problems and it took one week to be reunited with our bags. It was hilarious though- the nice folks up in Harbin at the American Consulate outfitted us with some grey track suits!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtZPfq1qodIAfter China we enjoyed a relaxing couple of weeks up here in Whitehorse before meeting up in Germany with Caleb and Reeb for a month-long Foghorn tour. It was a blast for me to go back to Germany, having studied there myself in ’98-’99. We all had a great time enjoying the sites, beer and heavy food! From there we flew to London and played a couple of nights before heading to Wales to play at Fire in the Mountain, an incredible festival in Wales we can’t wait to make it back to.

This brought us to summer and we jumped right in, heading to California to play at the Grass Valley Father’s Day Festival, Weiser, Idaho to our favorite sandy lot, Stickerville for a week of pickin’, then a quick trip to Kentucky to play ROMP, teach at Fiddle Tunes, play the Big Horn Mountain Music Festival before heading back to the Yukon for some serious summer action in the North! Woo hoo! Highlights included some great swimming here at Long Lake and a trip to Dawson for the Moosehide Gathering.

We got to travel all the way to Newfoundland to play a The Newfoundland and Labrador Folk Festival and the Woody Point Writer’s Festival with the Cajun country Revival. We loved Newfoundland and are counting the days till we can get back there!! We then flew down to Portland and played a couple gigs with Foghorn before heading to the legendary Tønder Festival in good ol’ Denmark. We had a blast playing with both The Foghorn Stringband and The Cajun Country Revival, as well as hilarious sessions with Dirk, Cedric Watson, Anna Lindblad, Sheesham and Lotus & Son, among others! Woo hoo! We followed this up with a sweet little tour of Sweden and Norway by train.

Then it was time for The Cajun Country Revival to join Pokey LaFarge for his Central Time Tour. We had such a blast and made a bunch of good friends along the way! We finished near St. Louis and met up with Caleb and Reeb to play with Foghorn at the Folk and Roots Festival and then off to IBMA for some of that. Next was some family time in eastern Quebec, a couple of “Nadine and Sammy” gigs and workshops in Toronto, Wolfe Island, and Nadine’s aunt’s lavender farm before heading back to Whitehorse for almost a month at home. We didn’t have the snowfall to do our usual snowshoeing and ski trails, but were able to hike a bunch and enjoy some good northern hang time.

Then it was time to make the 8th Foghorn album, “Devil in the Seat” and what better place than on a small island in the Pacific?!? We’re super happy with how it turned out and finished with time to have a last few chill days on Kauai, HI before flying to Boston to be a part of Christmas Celtic Sojourn for two weeks with Solas, Kevin Burke, Lumiere and some amazing dancers from The Stepcrew. It was a great couple of weeks hanging out in Boston with some amazing people. Thanks to Brian O’Donovan for bringing us there and to he and his wife Lindsay showing us a great time!

From Boston we headed to Nadine’s family up in Quebec for the holidays and brought in the New Year there. It was a great couple of weeks of family time and a time to be together after the passing of Nadine’s grandmother, who brought music into the family. We had many late night jams in her honor!

This brings us back to the start of 2015! We kicked it off in Juneau, playing a couple nights at the Alaskan Hotel with The Cajun Country Revival, then Homer at Alice’s Champaign Palace before playing the Anchorage Folk Festival with both The Cajun Country Revival and Foghorn. Thanks to Cedric Watson for filling in last minute and tearing it up! What a blast!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1z_9s65ABk

Remember to check in with what we’re up to on The Foghorn Stringband’s website  and The Cajun Country Revival

We’re headed off soon to do a tour with The Foghorn Stringband of Ireland, Scotland and England!

See you somewhere down the road!!!

SUMMER’S IN FULL SWING

Hi there folks!  It’s been an amazing few months on the road playing festivals and visiting friends and family. After wonderful Foghorn Stringband tours on the east coast and Montana, complete with a family visit to Quebec snuck in there to boot, we started out the summer at the Sacajawea Bluegrass Festival and Dutch Oven Rendezvous  in Pasco, WA at the convergence of the Snake and Columbia Rivers. It’s the second time we’ve played there and we hope to come back. The food made by folks in the cook-off was incredible and thanks to Nancy for her wonderful dessert! Those folks of the Tri-Cities love their bluegrass and old time music!

Next up was Weiser! It’s famous for being the National Old Time Fiddle Championship that’s held the third week of June every year, but known more to us as an excuse to hang out for a week in the desert with friends with no agenda whatsoever other than to play tunes and have a great time. Once again our housemate Huck Notari carted out his cool piano that fits just right in the back of the van.  Always an awesome addition to any session. Anything goes at Weiser and we leave every year saying, “Yep! Best Weiser ever!!”

After breaking down in Caleb’s van on the home, we made it back to Portland just in time to make our flight to Alaska. We thought for a minute there we would miss it, but we were lucky enough to get towed and helped back on the road by an off-the-clock mechanic. We just had to wait for him to go watch his kids’ baseball games, but by 10pm we were on the road!  Thanks Mike!

As it may seem clear judging from our travel history over the years, we look for any reason to spend time in Alaska. It’s where we met after all, some of our closest friends are there, and a Solstice party on the 61st parallel, complete with a full moon, sounds like as good of reason as any! This time we went up to meet up with our buddies Jay Marvin, Nate Williamson, and Scotty Meyer. The band was called “Dem Doze Der”. Since Jay, Scotty and I are all from dem doze der midwestern states, the name seemed to fit… We’d all known each other for 10 years or so and played a lot together, just not all at once! But we knew it’d be a great band, switching between old time and cajun music for some gigs in McCarthy and Hope. Two places completely off the beaten path. Thanks a million to Mike and Karen Loso for igniting the spark last October to get the whole thing going.  It was an unforgettable couple of weeks. Can’t wait to go back in December!!

We flew on a red-eye back to Portland and rented a car and headed straight to Port Townsend, WA to sneak in about 36 hours of the Festival of American Fiddle Tunes. We were kindly greeted by our friends and bandmates Jesse Legé and Joel and Kelli Savoy and pretty much immediately fired up some tunes. I was especially pumped because my new accordion up in the key of F (Foxy, the F-Boxy) made by Joel’s dad, Marc Savoy, was done and I got to hear Jesse break it in all night and play double fiddles with Joel, occasionally playing a tune on it myself. Still a long way to go though!!

From Fiddle Tunes we headed to Orcas Island, WA for a couple Foghorn gigs. It’s always a blast to hang out where Caleb grew up! Thanks to the Island Hoppin’ Brewery for making it happen!

Up next was a sweet, long weekend in Colorado playing a couple festivals with Foghorn. The first was the Rocky Mountain Old Time Festival near Lyons and next up was the High Mountain Hay Fever Festival in Westcliffe. We met up with so many old friends and made a lot of new ones.  Colorado is an amazing place!

From Colorado we headed straight to northern Wisconsin for a wonderful week with my family and then on to the Gaspé Peninsula in eastern Quebec for a week with Nadine’s. We always look forward to chiming in with Nadine’s grandma’s fiddling and mom’s strong piano back-up, and to eating tons of lobster….

The Foghorn Stringband played the amazing Festival Mémoire et Racines last weekend in Joliette, Quebec. We are so excited to make the bond between Foghorn and Quebec stronger! I remember meeting Le Vent du Nord in Denmark
years ago and as well as André Brunet in Portland after he replaced Johnny Cunningham in the Celtic Fiddle Festival
and later Genticorum in Montreal when I started coming there. There’s a huge connection between our musics and of course a huge connection since Nadine is Québécois.  We look forward to many more visits.

We went back to Portland the next week and welcomed Ginny Hawker and Tracy Schwarz to town and backed them up at Pickathon. This was an amazing honor for us, as we’ve been huge fans since we started playing this music.  We all met and jammed at in Louisiana about 4 years ago and have kept in touch ever since and are anxiously awaiting getting to back them up on stage. Yee hoo!! We also played a set and the most epic square dance ever with Foghorn. It’s a sight to behold.  Around 1,000 dancers under psychedelic lights on a hill!!

We’ll spend a lot of August in British Columbia as well as some festivals with Foghorn in Wyoming and New Mexico. In September, we are extremely excited to doing a week tour with Jesse Legé and Joel Savoy up in the Northwest. It’s been too long since we had a tour together with these guys and we’re absolutely stoked!! Then off to the Berkeley Old Time Music Convention to tear it up with our old pal Dirk Powell. Can’t beat that!  Check out Foghorn‘s website for updates!

We always feel fortunate to find the perfect balance between making music on and off the stage. Spending time with friends, family, and getting to hear and see so much live music always proves to be the best inspiration. Hope to meet up with you and have a tune sometime soon!!

THE FIDDLE TRAIN!!!

(written on Friday March 15th, 2013)

Hi there friends! We’re here just south of Anchorage on a snowy Friday morning cooking away for a Cuban feast tonight in town that will be followed by a house concert. We’ve been up here almost two weeks and it’s sure going to be hard to leave tomorrow. This is an amazing place filled with fantastic people and the ever-humbling awesomeness of nature is always nearby.

We flew up here to take part of something Alaskan’s know how to do best- yep, a PARTY!! This one is called the Fiddle Train. We’ve heard about it for years and just couldn’t miss it this year. Once a month in the wintertime there is a whistle-stop train called the Hurricane Whistlestop that runs from Anchorage up to the Hurricane Gulch and back and you can get off anywhere along the way you want. We, along with around 15 Alaskan buddies boarded in Anchorage with our instruments, skis, libations and road the rails N (playing the whole way of course!!) to the Gulch…

… and back down to a B&B just N of Talkeetna, owned by Thomas and Hobbs, long-time acquaintances of our Fiddle Train pals. We spent the next three days skiing the most amazing trails, playing tunes and songs and eating and cooking and having the occasional beverage ( and Jell-O shot ! ). On the Saturday night, a heavy snowfall hit the B&B, gigantic snowflakes dancing above our heads, the biggest I had ever seen! To celebrate Hobbs’ birthday, we all went outside and launched a dozen or so paper lanterns in the sky, what a sight!

All things have to come to end, but this weekend was far from over! On Sunday in the late afternoon we all piled our belongings at the bottom of the hill beside the tracks and waited for the Whistlestop to round the bend on its way back S and it blow its whistle and come to a stop and pick us up.

We boarded and enjoyed another couple of hours of tunes and hilarious times. The others on the train probably thought aliens jumped aboard, but then again, as we’ve always said, “anything goes in Alaska!!!” Thanks so much everybody for the great times!

*Check out what we’ve been up to with Foghorn (foghornstringband.com) What a winter it’s been!! See you on the east coast?

BACK TO WINTER!

Hi folks! Well after a couple of weeks back in the Northwest we find ourselves driving down Interstate 81 with Riley Baugus on the way to Knoxville, TN to play in the Dirk Powell band. These guys have been great friends and occasional bandmates for over a decade now and we always look forward to playing and hanging out together when we can. We will play on February 8 in Knoxville and the 9th in Boone, NC.

We will then head back to the Midwest to start a tour with the Foghorn Stringband .

We’ve spent the last two weeks there with family, skiing, hanging out with The Cactus Blossoms and even got to play a square dance with my dad on mandolin, my brother Eric on banjo and Adam Kiesling on bass! We’re so excited to come back to Minneapolis at the end of the month.

FAREWELL UNTIL NEXT TIME

January 8

I just spent my first ever snowless Christmas! I didn’t see snowmen with carrot noses and coal eyes, I didn’t have to wear 6 layers of clothing to go outside nor scratched the ice build-up on the window sills. But we did eat turkey and ham and stuffed ourselves like the Christmases I’m used to! We did spend the holidays surrounded by friends we love, the clinging of the glasses lost in the sound of laughter.

The odometer of the car now proudly displays over 10 000 kms. Australia is huge and its people are amazing!

When we left off in the last blog, we were in Bellingen with our friends Scott and Jay and their boys Ilo and Po. They took us to a swimming hole for the afternoon before our gig at 5 Church Street. Thanks to the whole staff for a great gig and to Jay for the great photos! Before we left for Brisbane, we got a chance to see Scott’s band Midnorth play at the massive market on Saturday morning.

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

Brisbane Music Bureau held its concert at the Bowling Club! So hilarious that Bowling seems to be super popular amongst the younger crowd! Thanks to The Company for offering support and congrats on your new record!

;

The next day, we drove a few hours south to Barkers Vale, a tiny little village in the north of New South Wales. I had been in touch with Gareth, who had invited us on the family property for workshops, dinner and concert. Turned out to be an amazing day! After a fiddle and harmony workshops with really nice folks, a crowded started coming from the main entrance, 200 in total. We got to eat a vegetarian jambalaya, green salad and roasted potatoes beautifully cooked by Gareth’s mom and all originating from the massive 5 acre garden. Then people sat on hay bales and rugs around the outside improvised stage consisting of an old caravan, a trapeze and a white canvas with yellow stars on the ground. The Pitts Family Circus (aka Gareth and his family) started the show with hilarious antics, contortionist, trapeze artists, it was amazing! Then Ruthie-ma-Toothie and the Barkersvale Brothers played and we finished the show! Thanks everyone for a great day and night!

;

Then we really treated ourselves!! We rented a little cabin just south of Byron Bay in Suffolk Park just a few streets from the beach. We spent three days going to the beach, cooked good food, relaxed, it was well needed and exactly what the doctor ordered.

;

After our rest, we headed to Lismore to play the Hillbilly Christmas party with Ruthie-ma-Toothie and the Barkers Vale Brothers at the Bowling Club! Great evening. Here’s a little story from that night:

;

“I sold my cowboy boots tonight. A lady walked up to me and asked very shyly where I had gotten my boots. I told her in the States. She revealed that she had been looking for that kind of boots for a long time but couldn’t find them anywhere. Thinking fast on how I had just gotten those boots recently and how I liked them, I also admitted to myself that, despite my desire and hope that they would be fitting like slippers soon, the boots would hurt forever. The top of my foot will never stop from getting numb, ever. So I told the lady I’d sell them to her. Her face brightened and she asked to make sure I was serious. By that time, I was 100% sure I wanted to sell them to her. When I inquired about her shoe size, I got pleasantly surprised to hear it was the same as me. We improvised a little try on session and yes, they fit her. She went to the ATM machine, I exchanged my footwear for bills and she hugged me and thanked me and then held the boots in her arms for the rest of the night, probably cursing herself for wearing cute shoes with no socks, therefore not being able to wear the boots right away. Diane, I sure hope they fit you! I hope you go dancing and give them a good life.”

;

Our travels continued, a long 10 hour drive to Sydney to visit our friends Jacinta and Terry. We went to see a show, Spurs for Jesus, then went back to their house and had a nice jam with Oh Willy Dear! Next day was a workshop and a concert in Thirroul at the Railway Hall. We got to see Shiny Top Strings and The Butcher Boys, good times! That was December 22nd and we officially started our Christmas Holidays! Nothing like a 10 hour drive to start off, direction Melbourne to see our friends Ian and Linda. Good times catching up since we had not seen them in almost a month! Next night, a surprise gig at Claypots with special guest Craig. Random drunk Christmas orphans came and went, danced a little and hollered, really fun night! Stayed late at Claypots for a night cap and a video chat with Suzy’s family in Ireland. Even danced and sang to “Be Nobody’s Darling But Mine”, kindly requested by Brendan Sr! Christmas morning, we slept in late, then went to Chris’ for brunch and bubbly then on to the next party. Great food and company!

;

We left Suzy the next day with the promise she would come visit us in Blackwood! Got there and yes, it was happiness. I cooked on the woodstove the next few days (a Rayburn stove, a wood stove that heats the stove top, oven and the water that goes in the radiators around the house. Perfect, but kind of hard to regulate the heat with its several valves and openings and what not, but a few more weeks I would have mastered it I’m sure! The sticky date pudding turned out great, even though it cooked for 2 more hours than the recipe called for!) So we cooked a storm, played tunes, ate some more, went hiking, went fishing, Sammy even went kangaroo hunting, bringing some meat back for New Year’s party! A friend made a delicious curry and I made my aunt Rolande’s Tataki sauce on the thinly sliced seared roo. What a feast! Suzy did come visit, great to see the lassie out of the city! Thanks to Nick, Janet, Lachlan, Nicola and the whole Blackwood crew for opening their arms, doors and kitchen to us!

;

All good things come to an end, but in our case it always mean more good things ahead. We packed the car and headed to the Melbourne ferry terminal direction Tasmania. Yep, here we are in this island off Australia, cooking gumbo and doing house concerts, meeting new friends and even seeing an old Yukon friend! Thanks to Roger for organizing a few gigs for us. We spent our last night in Port Sorell with new friends Cathy and David, transplants from Tennessee and Montana respectively. They took us to the beach after dusk to see penguins! The moms or dads (they take turn!) get on the shore and into the bushes to feed their babies (babies stay in the bushes, sleep all day until they are big enough). The parents gorge themselves all day then get attacked by their kids, climbing into their parents’ mouth to get the food. It was hilarious, the bushes were screaming and moving!!! The next day, what better to do than getting our own oysters for lunch? Can’t think of anything! Mud up to our knees, we walked on the beach at low tide at got ourselves 3 dozens of delicious Tassie oysters.

;

We took the ferry last night back to Melbourne and are leaving tomorrow morning. After saying our goodbye to Suzy, we drove to Blackwood for our last night in Aussie. We are a lucky bunch, we keep being grateful and feeling blessed for our lives. A million thank yous to everyone who took care of us Down Under. It is a special place for sure. Your hospitality has no limit, your hearts are as big as your country and we can’t wait to be back! Our thoughts are with all of you fighting the massive bush fires around the country.

;

Half Empty Or Half Full?

Wow, we’re officially half way through our tour! How time flies when you’re having fun. We’ve put 4,500 kilometers on the car so far and have been playing almost every night. We are currently up in gorgeous little town called Bellingen, in New South Wales, a great artist community full of great people. Thanks Scott! We had a beautiful drive north yesterday from Newcastle complete with a stop at sweet little beach called South West Rocks. We arrived in the late afternoon and played up on top of the mountain in a little town called Dorrigo at the Food Angel Cafe. Thanks to the Resonator Brothers for opening the show and to all the nice folks for turning up! The day before we got the opportunity to play on ABC (Australain Broadcasting Corporation) on a great program hosted by another Scott. He was so hilarious as well as super knowledgeable about the music we make. We had a blast! Even if the station was in a modern shopping mall 🙂

So we left off a couple weeks back as we arrived in South Australia- We played a show in Christie Downs, located just south of Adelaide put on by Peter and Annie Thornton. They were amazing hosts and thanks to Pete for the tour of his accordions!
That Friday we had a night off and spent it in Adelaide with our friend Linda Bull. She’s been a long-time friend we know from Vancouver, BC and just happened to be visiting her brother in Adelaide. The world became extra small that night when we were sitting around having a session and it turned out that Linda’s brother and his wife were friends and had been housemates with our good friend Sarah McFadyen in Edinburgh, Scotland!! I love it!

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

The next couple days we spent up in wine country outside of Clare Valley. Everyone from there will tell you the best wine in the world comes from there! We didn’t argue for a second and just grinned and nodded, and grinned and nodded more and more as the night went on glasses kept magically constantly remaining full! 🙂 We’d like to thank Cherie for all her hard work at HATS, Inc. and her committment to building her community and to her husband Ivan as well. We felt lucky to be a part of your concert series and really enjoyed making a gumbo and playing for and with you all!

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

We headed out early Monday morning back to Victoria out in the country near a town called Carisbrook to stay with our new friends Mark and Natalie Woods and their two boys. We met them at the Harrietville Convention our first weekend here. We had a great dinner and late night full of fun stories. The next day we got a chance to hike around their property and take in an incredible 360 degree view on a top of Bald Hill, and since Mark is an amazing sound engineer, we got to record for a few hours in his studio. Anyone making a record should seriously think about heading out there to record with Mark (http://au.myspace.com/markwoodsaudio) !

Here’s a few tracks recorded at Mark’s:

 

A really sweet couple Annette and Peter, another couple we met in Harrietville, invited us to stay with them if it made sense on our way to Nerrigundah in New South Wales. Turns out it did. They live in a little village called Numerella. We were fed amazingly and they took us to meet their friend Judy who lives alone on heaps ( uh oh! Aussie slang working its way in! ) of acres with her dog. Her drive way crosses a creek and there are a few of the old, original buildings still standing from when the property first was first cleared 150 years ago or so. Quite old for Australia!

Peter and Annette decided to come with us to the gig in Nerrigundah, a small village in the mountains near Bodalla. And are we ever glad they did. We followed their 4×4 truck in our little Hyundai over an amazing gravel mountain pass that took hours at maximum speed of 20 mph. It was such a cool route and actually a short cut, but something we would have never attempted on our own. It takes the help of locals to see these kinds of things. Thanks guys!

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

We arrived in Nerrigundah in the late afternoon and visited with our hosts John and Pam. They are retired teachers who live right on the river and grow almost all of their food! What great folks, and living the dream I’d say. John is my new hero! They had spent some time in Minnesota and Canada too so it was great to share stories. It’s not every day we meet people who have been to places like the Gunflint Trail or Atlin, BC! John had us play in Nerrigundah as part of a concert series he puts on every 6 weeks or so. We played in a town hall for about 80 people (the village itself is only pop. 20!). It was one of the funnest shows we ever played. Thanks so much to those who came out! The next morning we went to visit a Kath, a friend’s (yep, who we met in Harrietville) aunt who lives on top of a mountain in Nerrigundah and owns 200 cattle or so, mostly beautiful, red devons. She spoiled us with tea and homemade scones and told us some neat stories of the land and about the old dances that used to go on there. What a great place.

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

We eventually had to head out of the country for the weekend and play shows in Wollongong and Syndey with a cool band called the Butcher Boys. It turns out I had met one of the guys in the band years ago in Ireland and he claims Foghorn gave him the shot in the arm he needed to get into playing! Nice work boys! We finally got to hang out at the beach! I have the sun burn to prove it! It was however really great to finally meet Val McGarry, who helped us tremendously on this adventure, organizing work visas and booking a handful of shows. We had a great time hanging out with her for a few days! It was easy to forgot about it being winter back home when we were eating oysters and prawns and drinking sparkly by the beach. Thanks so much Val.

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

While in Sydney we got the chance to catch up with Jacinta and Terry (yep, Harrietville). We played at Terry’s 60th birthday party at the Town and Country Hotel, where Terry and Jacenta host a Sunday song session called “Sinful Sundays” with their crew “Safety in Numbers”. It was an amazing afternoon. Thanks to Jacenta for selling all those CDs! We played later that night at the Cat and Fiddle to a really sweet crowd we stayed a night with Suzy and Hunter, great folks and great musicians! What great hospitality we’ve had. I hope we can someday return it and host them at our house!

On Tuesday we did a workshop at a public school in Parramatta that we really enjoyed. These kids were so curious and had great rhythm! At the end of the workshop we let them play our instruments and them just swarmed! I bet next time we come through there’ll be some new stringbands!

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

Well, a stay in Sydney wouldn’t be complete without a few tourist activities so we met Jacenta after work and hit the famous Opera house and took the ferry around the bay and walked through the park and had a lovely dinner downtown. Thanks Jacinta!

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

Well, off to the swimming hole! More soon…

;

Written in the car on Nov. 29

The thermometer in the car indicating the outside temperature just hit 40C (that’s 104F!) Our rental car, a Hyundai i2, is cute, cool inside and comfy. That’s a good thing because today we are driving 9 hours to Christie Downs, south of Adelaide to play the South Coast Folk Club. We are crossing to a new state, South Australia (it’s not that south, mostly central and more north than parts of the country) The landscape alternates between wheat fields, sheep piling on top of each other to get shade under the only tree around, road signs with funny names, road constructions, constant reminders to power nap, road signs for kangaroo crossings, squashed kangaroos on the side of the road, koala crossing, more wheat fields, quaint little villages. We have lots of time to reflect on our two weeks (wow, two weeks already!) in Australia!

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

Starting the tour at the Harrietville Bluegrass Convention was ideal; we got to meet people from all over the country and get a chance to see them again! We handed out heaps of our tour flyers and have already seen many folks at our gigs who were at Harrietville. We left the little mountain village on the Tuesday after a well deserved rest on Monday. We drove straight to St Kilda, a really cool part of Melbourne where our Irish friend Suzy lives and works. It’s kinda the Plateau Mont Royal of Montreal or the West Bank of Minneapolis. You get the idea. Our new friends Ian and Linda took us to Claypots, a fantastic seafood restaurant where we got to meet Suzy, sporting a Foghorn t-shirt with her work apron, as she is the bartender extraordinaire of the establishment. We sat down for dinner and were not prepared at all for something nothing short of an epic meal! After almost a dozen of tiny appetizer plates, we made room on the table for a big cast iron wok looking thing filled with gigantic prawns floating in a garlic chili oil. Then we welcomed a mountain of crabs and mussels in lemongrass and sweet goodness. Thinking we were done, imagine our surprise when a blackened catfish, a grilled snapper and another good looking fish, accompanied with moroccan mussels couscous claypots showed up to our table! What a feast! We spent the rest of the night in the bar, chatting with Suze and looking at an endless Brigitte Bardot slideshow on the screen. Melbourne, you’re awesome!

We woke up the next morning a walked a good few miles to JB HiFi, an electronic store where we got a WiFi Broadband thingy, a little box providing us with internet everywhere we go! Handy little thing! We took the tram to the Northcote Social Club, a great venue in the north part of Melbourne. We got to play with the Beenies, af trio made up of Corrinn and Nicola Strating (whom we met in Louisiana at Blackpot 2009!!) and Kat. Went for a night cap at Claypots and got to see one of the craziest piano players we’d ever seen! Dino Baptiste, you channelled the old guys! Thanks for your music! We had the next day off and took it easy in St Kilda. Suzy brought us to one of her favorite breakfast spots. Well by that time, we’ll call it brunch. Her friends Owen and Chris met us. Hottest day so far, we had to switch tables to get a little shade! Lazy day, picked up ciders, played tunes in the afternoon, went for Thai food around the corner and watched a blues band at Dog Bar.

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

On Friday Nov. 23rd, we took a cab to the airport (no, no, we’re not leaving already!) to pick up our rental car. We thought we had the deal of the year by booking it online but of course once we got at the counter, we had to play extra charges: airport taxes, some other taxes, taxes on all these taxes… We then went grocery shopping and headed to Chris’, our house concert host that night. We cooked a big gumbo, did a fiddle and guitar workshop and played a concert. Thanks to Chris and the Melbourne Scottish Fiddle Society, we had a great evening! By the time we woke up the next morning, it was already super hot! We headed back to St. Kilda and walked to the beach. It was packed! Beach Barbies and Kens everywhere! We headed back and had happy hour Chez Suzy, much better! Played that night at the Lomond Hotel, in Brunswick with Andrew and Geoff Leblanc and Craig Woodward. Cajun night all night! Good times!

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

We said goodbye to Suzy and St Kilda Sunday morning and drove to Blackwood, little village North and West of Melbourne. We arrived at the hall/church where the Academy Review was held and as we walked closer, we could hear the amazing sounds of shape note singing. Then we did a cajun workshop, Sammy taught the fiddle part to a couple songs and I got the whole place singing in Cajun French! Stephanie Coleman was still in town and played a great show with Ian Alexander and Nick and Lachlan Dear. We then played a few by ourselves and got quickly joined by the crew listed above. So much fun! After a great dinner at Blackwood Merchant, we headed back to the Dears for a late pickin’ session.

;

Sammy drinking AC/DC wine! Back in Black baby!

;

;

;

Monday, a new week begins and a new region to discover: Gippsland; a large rural region in Victoria. It begins immediately east of the suburbs of Melbourne and stretches to the New South Wales border, lying between the Great Dividing Range watershed to the north and Bass Straight to the south. Our first stop there was Yinnar, home of the Strzelecki Stringbusters, a group of great guys playing bluegrass and old time music and bringing the whole community together for years now. We stayed with our hosts Ray and Nolene and got fed possibly the best BBQ lamb ever! We did a workshop on Monday night then watched a really good bad movie (you know the ones type!). Tuesday we got up early and headed to Briagolong, little community 100 kilometers from Yinnar. We bought groceries and prepared a gumbo for 100 people and then played a show in the Briagolong Hall, beautiful old building and great audiences.

Of all the things I was looking for on this trip, I think Wednesday was on top of the list! We had arranged to meet with Glen, a Stringbuster, who rescues little joeys and hurt kangaroos or wallabies. Glen walked in the door and handed me a fleeced pouch. Ecstatic, I looked inside and just about melted when I saw a little wallaby head peaking out! We drove back to his house and while Glen heated up some leftover gumbo from the night before, I got to feed the little joey. Glen then took us to Jean, an elderly lady who shelters baby wombats, joeys, owls, and various others baby animals. It was feeding time there too, so we gave her a hand feeding the joeys and wombats. SO AMAZING!!!

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

Later that night, we played at the Yinnar Hotel where almost 200 loyal enthusiasts gathered for dinner and concert. Huge thank yous to the Stringbusters for bringing people together through music. We finished the gig and sadly bid farewell to our Gippsland friends, hopped in the car and drove for 3 hours back to Melbourne, to get a head start for a drive the next morning to South Australia and to avoid the Melbourne morning traffic.

Well there you have it, our first 2 weeks in Australia! We’ll soon post about our next adventures!

;

GOOD TIMES DOWN UNDER!

Nov. 18, 2012

Well here we are in Australia! We have been here for 5 days and already had such an amazing time! We got off the plane, jumped in a car and drove 4 hours North East from Melbourne to a little skiing village (no skiing these days, it’s almost summer here!) called Harrietville. Celebrating their 24th year, Harrietville Bluegrass Convention gathered heaps (see, we’re learning to speak Australian!) of national and international bands. We made so many friends and got to catch up with old friends, including Stephanie Coleman, Adam Hurt and Beth Hartness.

Sammy’s first kangaroo sighting was not a pretty one: roadkill in the middle of the road! But we keep our hopes up that we’ll see a healthy one skipping in a field in no time!

NORTH AND SOUTH

Oct. 25, 2012

;

Hello there folks! We’ve just finished up an amazing little tour with our band with Jesse Lege, Joel Savoy, and Caleb Klauder called The Cajun Country Revival. We only get a chance to play a few times a year together so we soaked up every second we could with these guys, starting in Washington D.C. last Wednesday and ending up in Knoxville, TN. We had perfect weather, amazing scenery, complete with the fall colors at their peak and
visits with great friends along the way. We can’t wait to come back this way with The Foghorn Stringband in March!

We kicked off the month up in Vancouver, B.C. teaching a weekend-long workshop organized by Canada’s #1 fan of old time music, Linda Parke. Thank you Linda! In the summer of 2011 she held the first of these workshops led by Nadine and me at her family cabin in eastern BC on Lake Pavillion, a crystal clear lake nestled in the mountains there. We planned to return last summer but a fire destroyed much of her camp and we relocated Camp Pavillion to Frank Metcalf’s home in Vancouver. Thanks to Frank and Mary for hosting the workshop and to all of the enthusiastic musicians we got to hang out with. It wasn’t quite the same as being out in the boonies, but the spirit was there and we filled up with tunes and home cooking all weekend.

After Camp Pavillion, we took the ferry over to Vancouver Island for a few days off with our longtime pal Anne Louise Genest. Nadine has known and played music with Anne Louise for years so it was a nice reunion. I have been to BC and ridden those ferries many times but never was it so clear and nice. We played tunes the whole trip and met a whole lot of nice people.

After enjoying Canadian Thanksgiving feast #2 we drove down to Victoria and taught a workshop and played a house concert. Thanks to Kelly Sherwin for her last minute organizing and to the Victoria community for coming out!!

We spent our last night in BC back in Vancouver playing an amazing house concert. Our friends Jason and Pharis Romero happened to be in town so we got them to join us for a few at the end of the show. They know their fiddle tunes that’s for sure! We look forward to a Foghorn tour up there in April!

From there we flew to Edmonton, Alberta and met Caleb and Reeb and we all taught at Northern Bluegrass Circle Music Society. Caleb taught mandolin, I taught fiddle and the girls taught harmony singing. It was a great weekend full of pickin’ and super fun to get to hear and play a bunch with Matt Hotte again and to get to meet his family. Keep an eye out for his sister Kayla!

Now we are in Louisiana where we’ve been resting up and getting ready to go to the Blackpot Music Festival and Cookoff. This will be our fourth time being there and it’s always amazing. Music, food, and dancing! Couldn’t be better!

See you next week in California!

;

;

Hey BC! We’re here and we have two shows in the next week in Victoria and Vancouver!

VICTORIA
Wednesday October 10th
Fiddle and guitar workshop from 6:30-8:30PM $25
Concert 9-10PM $10
Fernwood area
RSVP early, space is limited. Email hellostrangerproductions@gmail.com or call 250-886-7108

VANCOUVER
Thursday October 11th
House Concert at 8PM
$15
Kitsilano area
RSVP at landry.nadine (at) gmail.com

Then we will heading to Camp He Ho Ha in Alberta to teach the Northern Bluegrass Circle Music Camp with Foghorn Stringband!

Well hello there!

Welcome to our website! We are part of the Foghorn Stringband, but also play duo shows and collaborations with other people, so we thought it’d be nice to list all our whereabouts!

Coming up later this fall is our 2 month Australia tour. Be sure to check the schedule on where we’ll be down under.

BACK TO WINTER!

Hi folks! Well after a couple of weeks back in the Northwest we find ourselves driving down Interstate 81 with Riley Baugus on the way to Knoxville, TN to play in the Dirk Powell band. These guys have been great friends and occasional bandmates for over a decade now and we always look forward to playing and hanging out together when we can. We will play on February 8 in Knoxville and the 9th in Boone, NC.

We will then head back to the Midwest to start a tour with the Foghorn Stringband .

We’ve spent the last two weeks there with family, skiing, hanging out with The Cactus Blossoms and even got to play a square dance with my dad on mandolin, my brother Eric on banjo and Adam Kiesling on bass! We’re so excited to come back to Minneapolis at the end of the month.

FAREWELL UNTIL NEXT TIME

January 8

I just spent my first ever snowless Christmas! I didn’t see snowmen with carrot noses and coal eyes, I didn’t have to wear 6 layers of clothing to go outside nor scratched the ice build-up on the window sills. But we did eat turkey and ham and stuffed ourselves like the Christmases I’m used to! We did spend the holidays surrounded by friends we love, the clinging of the glasses lost in the sound of laughter.

The odometer of the car now proudly displays over 10 000 kms. Australia is huge and its people are amazing!

When we left off in the last blog, we were in Bellingen with our friends Scott and Jay and their boys Ilo and Po. They took us to a swimming hole for the afternoon before our gig at 5 Church Street. Thanks to the whole staff for a great gig and to Jay for the great photos! Before we left for Brisbane, we got a chance to see Scott’s band Midnorth play at the massive market on Saturday morning.

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

Brisbane Music Bureau held its concert at the Bowling Club! So hilarious that Bowling seems to be super popular amongst the younger crowd! Thanks to The Company for offering support and congrats on your new record!

;

The next day, we drove a few hours south to Barkers Vale, a tiny little village in the north of New South Wales. I had been in touch with Gareth, who had invited us on the family property for workshops, dinner and concert. Turned out to be an amazing day! After a fiddle and harmony workshops with really nice folks, a crowded started coming from the main entrance, 200 in total. We got to eat a vegetarian jambalaya, green salad and roasted potatoes beautifully cooked by Gareth’s mom and all originating from the massive 5 acre garden. Then people sat on hay bales and rugs around the outside improvised stage consisting of an old caravan, a trapeze and a white canvas with yellow stars on the ground. The Pitts Family Circus (aka Gareth and his family) started the show with hilarious antics, contortionist, trapeze artists, it was amazing! Then Ruthie-ma-Toothie and the Barkersvale Brothers played and we finished the show! Thanks everyone for a great day and night!

;

Then we really treated ourselves!! We rented a little cabin just south of Byron Bay in Suffolk Park just a few streets from the beach. We spent three days going to the beach, cooked good food, relaxed, it was well needed and exactly what the doctor ordered.

;

After our rest, we headed to Lismore to play the Hillbilly Christmas party with Ruthie-ma-Toothie and the Barkers Vale Brothers at the Bowling Club! Great evening. Here’s a little story from that night:

;

“I sold my cowboy boots tonight. A lady walked up to me and asked very shyly where I had gotten my boots. I told her in the States. She revealed that she had been looking for that kind of boots for a long time but couldn’t find them anywhere. Thinking fast on how I had just gotten those boots recently and how I liked them, I also admitted to myself that, despite my desire and hope that they would be fitting like slippers soon, the boots would hurt forever. The top of my foot will never stop from getting numb, ever. So I told the lady I’d sell them to her. Her face brightened and she asked to make sure I was serious. By that time, I was 100% sure I wanted to sell them to her. When I inquired about her shoe size, I got pleasantly surprised to hear it was the same as me. We improvised a little try on session and yes, they fit her. She went to the ATM machine, I exchanged my footwear for bills and she hugged me and thanked me and then held the boots in her arms for the rest of the night, probably cursing herself for wearing cute shoes with no socks, therefore not being able to wear the boots right away. Diane, I sure hope they fit you! I hope you go dancing and give them a good life.”

;

Our travels continued, a long 10 hour drive to Sydney to visit our friends Jacinta and Terry. We went to see a show, Spurs for Jesus, then went back to their house and had a nice jam with Oh Willy Dear! Next day was a workshop and a concert in Thirroul at the Railway Hall. We got to see Shiny Top Strings and The Butcher Boys, good times! That was December 22nd and we officially started our Christmas Holidays! Nothing like a 10 hour drive to start off, direction Melbourne to see our friends Ian and Linda. Good times catching up since we had not seen them in almost a month! Next night, a surprise gig at Claypots with special guest Craig. Random drunk Christmas orphans came and went, danced a little and hollered, really fun night! Stayed late at Claypots for a night cap and a video chat with Suzy’s family in Ireland. Even danced and sang to “Be Nobody’s Darling But Mine”, kindly requested by Brendan Sr! Christmas morning, we slept in late, then went to Chris’ for brunch and bubbly then on to the next party. Great food and company!

;

We left Suzy the next day with the promise she would come visit us in Blackwood! Got there and yes, it was happiness. I cooked on the woodstove the next few days (a Rayburn stove, a wood stove that heats the stove top, oven and the water that goes in the radiators around the house. Perfect, but kind of hard to regulate the heat with its several valves and openings and what not, but a few more weeks I would have mastered it I’m sure! The sticky date pudding turned out great, even though it cooked for 2 more hours than the recipe called for!) So we cooked a storm, played tunes, ate some more, went hiking, went fishing, Sammy even went kangaroo hunting, bringing some meat back for New Year’s party! A friend made a delicious curry and I made my aunt Rolande’s Tataki sauce on the thinly sliced seared roo. What a feast! Suzy did come visit, great to see the lassie out of the city! Thanks to Nick, Janet, Lachlan, Nicola and the whole Blackwood crew for opening their arms, doors and kitchen to us!

;

All good things come to an end, but in our case it always mean more good things ahead. We packed the car and headed to the Melbourne ferry terminal direction Tasmania. Yep, here we are in this island off Australia, cooking gumbo and doing house concerts, meeting new friends and even seeing an old Yukon friend! Thanks to Roger for organizing a few gigs for us. We spent our last night in Port Sorell with new friends Cathy and David, transplants from Tennessee and Montana respectively. They took us to the beach after dusk to see penguins! The moms or dads (they take turn!) get on the shore and into the bushes to feed their babies (babies stay in the bushes, sleep all day until they are big enough). The parents gorge themselves all day then get attacked by their kids, climbing into their parents’ mouth to get the food. It was hilarious, the bushes were screaming and moving!!! The next day, what better to do than getting our own oysters for lunch? Can’t think of anything! Mud up to our knees, we walked on the beach at low tide at got ourselves 3 dozens of delicious Tassie oysters.

;

We took the ferry last night back to Melbourne and are leaving tomorrow morning. After saying our goodbye to Suzy, we drove to Blackwood for our last night in Aussie. We are a lucky bunch, we keep being grateful and feeling blessed for our lives. A million thank yous to everyone who took care of us Down Under. It is a special place for sure. Your hospitality has no limit, your hearts are as big as your country and we can’t wait to be back! Our thoughts are with all of you fighting the massive bush fires around the country.

;

Half Empty Or Half Full?

Wow, we’re officially half way through our tour! How time flies when you’re having fun. We’ve put 4,500 kilometers on the car so far and have been playing almost every night. We are currently up in gorgeous little town called Bellingen, in New South Wales, a great artist community full of great people. Thanks Scott! We had a beautiful drive north yesterday from Newcastle complete with a stop at sweet little beach called South West Rocks. We arrived in the late afternoon and played up on top of the mountain in a little town called Dorrigo at the Food Angel Cafe. Thanks to the Resonator Brothers for opening the show and to all the nice folks for turning up! The day before we got the opportunity to play on ABC (Australain Broadcasting Corporation) on a great program hosted by another Scott. He was so hilarious as well as super knowledgeable about the music we make. We had a blast! Even if the station was in a modern shopping mall 🙂

So we left off a couple weeks back as we arrived in South Australia- We played a show in Christie Downs, located just south of Adelaide put on by Peter and Annie Thornton. They were amazing hosts and thanks to Pete for the tour of his accordions!
That Friday we had a night off and spent it in Adelaide with our friend Linda Bull. She’s been a long-time friend we know from Vancouver, BC and just happened to be visiting her brother in Adelaide. The world became extra small that night when we were sitting around having a session and it turned out that Linda’s brother and his wife were friends and had been housemates with our good friend Sarah McFadyen in Edinburgh, Scotland!! I love it!

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

The next couple days we spent up in wine country outside of Clare Valley. Everyone from there will tell you the best wine in the world comes from there! We didn’t argue for a second and just grinned and nodded, and grinned and nodded more and more as the night went on glasses kept magically constantly remaining full! 🙂 We’d like to thank Cherie for all her hard work at HATS, Inc. and her committment to building her community and to her husband Ivan as well. We felt lucky to be a part of your concert series and really enjoyed making a gumbo and playing for and with you all!

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

We headed out early Monday morning back to Victoria out in the country near a town called Carisbrook to stay with our new friends Mark and Natalie Woods and their two boys. We met them at the Harrietville Convention our first weekend here. We had a great dinner and late night full of fun stories. The next day we got a chance to hike around their property and take in an incredible 360 degree view on a top of Bald Hill, and since Mark is an amazing sound engineer, we got to record for a few hours in his studio. Anyone making a record should seriously think about heading out there to record with Mark (http://au.myspace.com/markwoodsaudio) !

Here’s a few tracks recorded at Mark’s:

 

A really sweet couple Annette and Peter, another couple we met in Harrietville, invited us to stay with them if it made sense on our way to Nerrigundah in New South Wales. Turns out it did. They live in a little village called Numerella. We were fed amazingly and they took us to meet their friend Judy who lives alone on heaps ( uh oh! Aussie slang working its way in! ) of acres with her dog. Her drive way crosses a creek and there are a few of the old, original buildings still standing from when the property first was first cleared 150 years ago or so. Quite old for Australia!

Peter and Annette decided to come with us to the gig in Nerrigundah, a small village in the mountains near Bodalla. And are we ever glad they did. We followed their 4×4 truck in our little Hyundai over an amazing gravel mountain pass that took hours at maximum speed of 20 mph. It was such a cool route and actually a short cut, but something we would have never attempted on our own. It takes the help of locals to see these kinds of things. Thanks guys!

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

We arrived in Nerrigundah in the late afternoon and visited with our hosts John and Pam. They are retired teachers who live right on the river and grow almost all of their food! What great folks, and living the dream I’d say. John is my new hero! They had spent some time in Minnesota and Canada too so it was great to share stories. It’s not every day we meet people who have been to places like the Gunflint Trail or Atlin, BC! John had us play in Nerrigundah as part of a concert series he puts on every 6 weeks or so. We played in a town hall for about 80 people (the village itself is only pop. 20!). It was one of the funnest shows we ever played. Thanks so much to those who came out! The next morning we went to visit a Kath, a friend’s (yep, who we met in Harrietville) aunt who lives on top of a mountain in Nerrigundah and owns 200 cattle or so, mostly beautiful, red devons. She spoiled us with tea and homemade scones and told us some neat stories of the land and about the old dances that used to go on there. What a great place.

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

We eventually had to head out of the country for the weekend and play shows in Wollongong and Syndey with a cool band called the Butcher Boys. It turns out I had met one of the guys in the band years ago in Ireland and he claims Foghorn gave him the shot in the arm he needed to get into playing! Nice work boys! We finally got to hang out at the beach! I have the sun burn to prove it! It was however really great to finally meet Val McGarry, who helped us tremendously on this adventure, organizing work visas and booking a handful of shows. We had a great time hanging out with her for a few days! It was easy to forgot about it being winter back home when we were eating oysters and prawns and drinking sparkly by the beach. Thanks so much Val.

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

While in Sydney we got the chance to catch up with Jacinta and Terry (yep, Harrietville). We played at Terry’s 60th birthday party at the Town and Country Hotel, where Terry and Jacenta host a Sunday song session called “Sinful Sundays” with their crew “Safety in Numbers”. It was an amazing afternoon. Thanks to Jacenta for selling all those CDs! We played later that night at the Cat and Fiddle to a really sweet crowd we stayed a night with Suzy and Hunter, great folks and great musicians! What great hospitality we’ve had. I hope we can someday return it and host them at our house!

On Tuesday we did a workshop at a public school in Parramatta that we really enjoyed. These kids were so curious and had great rhythm! At the end of the workshop we let them play our instruments and them just swarmed! I bet next time we come through there’ll be some new stringbands!

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

Well, a stay in Sydney wouldn’t be complete without a few tourist activities so we met Jacenta after work and hit the famous Opera house and took the ferry around the bay and walked through the park and had a lovely dinner downtown. Thanks Jacinta!

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

Well, off to the swimming hole! More soon…

;

Written in the car on Nov. 29

The thermometer in the car indicating the outside temperature just hit 40C (that’s 104F!) Our rental car, a Hyundai i2, is cute, cool inside and comfy. That’s a good thing because today we are driving 9 hours to Christie Downs, south of Adelaide to play the South Coast Folk Club. We are crossing to a new state, South Australia (it’s not that south, mostly central and more north than parts of the country) The landscape alternates between wheat fields, sheep piling on top of each other to get shade under the only tree around, road signs with funny names, road constructions, constant reminders to power nap, road signs for kangaroo crossings, squashed kangaroos on the side of the road, koala crossing, more wheat fields, quaint little villages. We have lots of time to reflect on our two weeks (wow, two weeks already!) in Australia!

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

Starting the tour at the Harrietville Bluegrass Convention was ideal; we got to meet people from all over the country and get a chance to see them again! We handed out heaps of our tour flyers and have already seen many folks at our gigs who were at Harrietville. We left the little mountain village on the Tuesday after a well deserved rest on Monday. We drove straight to St Kilda, a really cool part of Melbourne where our Irish friend Suzy lives and works. It’s kinda the Plateau Mont Royal of Montreal or the West Bank of Minneapolis. You get the idea. Our new friends Ian and Linda took us to Claypots, a fantastic seafood restaurant where we got to meet Suzy, sporting a Foghorn t-shirt with her work apron, as she is the bartender extraordinaire of the establishment. We sat down for dinner and were not prepared at all for something nothing short of an epic meal! After almost a dozen of tiny appetizer plates, we made room on the table for a big cast iron wok looking thing filled with gigantic prawns floating in a garlic chili oil. Then we welcomed a mountain of crabs and mussels in lemongrass and sweet goodness. Thinking we were done, imagine our surprise when a blackened catfish, a grilled snapper and another good looking fish, accompanied with moroccan mussels couscous claypots showed up to our table! What a feast! We spent the rest of the night in the bar, chatting with Suze and looking at an endless Brigitte Bardot slideshow on the screen. Melbourne, you’re awesome!

We woke up the next morning a walked a good few miles to JB HiFi, an electronic store where we got a WiFi Broadband thingy, a little box providing us with internet everywhere we go! Handy little thing! We took the tram to the Northcote Social Club, a great venue in the north part of Melbourne. We got to play with the Beenies, af trio made up of Corrinn and Nicola Strating (whom we met in Louisiana at Blackpot 2009!!) and Kat. Went for a night cap at Claypots and got to see one of the craziest piano players we’d ever seen! Dino Baptiste, you channelled the old guys! Thanks for your music! We had the next day off and took it easy in St Kilda. Suzy brought us to one of her favorite breakfast spots. Well by that time, we’ll call it brunch. Her friends Owen and Chris met us. Hottest day so far, we had to switch tables to get a little shade! Lazy day, picked up ciders, played tunes in the afternoon, went for Thai food around the corner and watched a blues band at Dog Bar.

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

On Friday Nov. 23rd, we took a cab to the airport (no, no, we’re not leaving already!) to pick up our rental car. We thought we had the deal of the year by booking it online but of course once we got at the counter, we had to play extra charges: airport taxes, some other taxes, taxes on all these taxes… We then went grocery shopping and headed to Chris’, our house concert host that night. We cooked a big gumbo, did a fiddle and guitar workshop and played a concert. Thanks to Chris and the Melbourne Scottish Fiddle Society, we had a great evening! By the time we woke up the next morning, it was already super hot! We headed back to St. Kilda and walked to the beach. It was packed! Beach Barbies and Kens everywhere! We headed back and had happy hour Chez Suzy, much better! Played that night at the Lomond Hotel, in Brunswick with Andrew and Geoff Leblanc and Craig Woodward. Cajun night all night! Good times!

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

We said goodbye to Suzy and St Kilda Sunday morning and drove to Blackwood, little village North and West of Melbourne. We arrived at the hall/church where the Academy Review was held and as we walked closer, we could hear the amazing sounds of shape note singing. Then we did a cajun workshop, Sammy taught the fiddle part to a couple songs and I got the whole place singing in Cajun French! Stephanie Coleman was still in town and played a great show with Ian Alexander and Nick and Lachlan Dear. We then played a few by ourselves and got quickly joined by the crew listed above. So much fun! After a great dinner at Blackwood Merchant, we headed back to the Dears for a late pickin’ session.

;

Sammy drinking AC/DC wine! Back in Black baby!

;

;

;

Monday, a new week begins and a new region to discover: Gippsland; a large rural region in Victoria. It begins immediately east of the suburbs of Melbourne and stretches to the New South Wales border, lying between the Great Dividing Range watershed to the north and Bass Straight to the south. Our first stop there was Yinnar, home of the Strzelecki Stringbusters, a group of great guys playing bluegrass and old time music and bringing the whole community together for years now. We stayed with our hosts Ray and Nolene and got fed possibly the best BBQ lamb ever! We did a workshop on Monday night then watched a really good bad movie (you know the ones type!). Tuesday we got up early and headed to Briagolong, little community 100 kilometers from Yinnar. We bought groceries and prepared a gumbo for 100 people and then played a show in the Briagolong Hall, beautiful old building and great audiences.

Of all the things I was looking for on this trip, I think Wednesday was on top of the list! We had arranged to meet with Glen, a Stringbuster, who rescues little joeys and hurt kangaroos or wallabies. Glen walked in the door and handed me a fleeced pouch. Ecstatic, I looked inside and just about melted when I saw a little wallaby head peaking out! We drove back to his house and while Glen heated up some leftover gumbo from the night before, I got to feed the little joey. Glen then took us to Jean, an elderly lady who shelters baby wombats, joeys, owls, and various others baby animals. It was feeding time there too, so we gave her a hand feeding the joeys and wombats. SO AMAZING!!!

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

Later that night, we played at the Yinnar Hotel where almost 200 loyal enthusiasts gathered for dinner and concert. Huge thank yous to the Stringbusters for bringing people together through music. We finished the gig and sadly bid farewell to our Gippsland friends, hopped in the car and drove for 3 hours back to Melbourne, to get a head start for a drive the next morning to South Australia and to avoid the Melbourne morning traffic.

Well there you have it, our first 2 weeks in Australia! We’ll soon post about our next adventures!

;

GOOD TIMES DOWN UNDER!

Nov. 18, 2012

Well here we are in Australia! We have been here for 5 days and already had such an amazing time! We got off the plane, jumped in a car and drove 4 hours North East from Melbourne to a little skiing village (no skiing these days, it’s almost summer here!) called Harrietville. Celebrating their 24th year, Harrietville Bluegrass Convention gathered heaps (see, we’re learning to speak Australian!) of national and international bands. We made so many friends and got to catch up with old friends, including Stephanie Coleman, Adam Hurt and Beth Hartness.

Sammy’s first kangaroo sighting was not a pretty one: roadkill in the middle of the road! But we keep our hopes up that we’ll see a healthy one skipping in a field in no time!

NORTH AND SOUTH

Oct. 25, 2012

;

Hello there folks! We’ve just finished up an amazing little tour with our band with Jesse Lege, Joel Savoy, and Caleb Klauder called The Cajun Country Revival. We only get a chance to play a few times a year together so we soaked up every second we could with these guys, starting in Washington D.C. last Wednesday and ending up in Knoxville, TN. We had perfect weather, amazing scenery, complete with the fall colors at their peak and
visits with great friends along the way. We can’t wait to come back this way with The Foghorn Stringband in March!

We kicked off the month up in Vancouver, B.C. teaching a weekend-long workshop organized by Canada’s #1 fan of old time music, Linda Parke. Thank you Linda! In the summer of 2011 she held the first of these workshops led by Nadine and me at her family cabin in eastern BC on Lake Pavillion, a crystal clear lake nestled in the mountains there. We planned to return last summer but a fire destroyed much of her camp and we relocated Camp Pavillion to Frank Metcalf’s home in Vancouver. Thanks to Frank and Mary for hosting the workshop and to all of the enthusiastic musicians we got to hang out with. It wasn’t quite the same as being out in the boonies, but the spirit was there and we filled up with tunes and home cooking all weekend.

After Camp Pavillion, we took the ferry over to Vancouver Island for a few days off with our longtime pal Anne Louise Genest. Nadine has known and played music with Anne Louise for years so it was a nice reunion. I have been to BC and ridden those ferries many times but never was it so clear and nice. We played tunes the whole trip and met a whole lot of nice people.

After enjoying Canadian Thanksgiving feast #2 we drove down to Victoria and taught a workshop and played a house concert. Thanks to Kelly Sherwin for her last minute organizing and to the Victoria community for coming out!!

We spent our last night in BC back in Vancouver playing an amazing house concert. Our friends Jason and Pharis Romero happened to be in town so we got them to join us for a few at the end of the show. They know their fiddle tunes that’s for sure! We look forward to a Foghorn tour up there in April!

From there we flew to Edmonton, Alberta and met Caleb and Reeb and we all taught at Northern Bluegrass Circle Music Society. Caleb taught mandolin, I taught fiddle and the girls taught harmony singing. It was a great weekend full of pickin’ and super fun to get to hear and play a bunch with Matt Hotte again and to get to meet his family. Keep an eye out for his sister Kayla!

Now we are in Louisiana where we’ve been resting up and getting ready to go to the Blackpot Music Festival and Cookoff. This will be our fourth time being there and it’s always amazing. Music, food, and dancing! Couldn’t be better!

See you next week in California!

;

;

Hey BC! We’re here and we have two shows in the next week in Victoria and Vancouver!

VICTORIA
Wednesday October 10th
Fiddle and guitar workshop from 6:30-8:30PM $25
Concert 9-10PM $10
Fernwood area
RSVP early, space is limited. Email hellostrangerproductions@gmail.com or call 250-886-7108

VANCOUVER
Thursday October 11th
House Concert at 8PM
$15
Kitsilano area
RSVP at landry.nadine (at) gmail.com

Then we will heading to Camp He Ho Ha in Alberta to teach the Northern Bluegrass Circle Music Camp with Foghorn Stringband!

Well hello there!

Welcome to our website! We are part of the Foghorn Stringband, but also play duo shows and collaborations with other people, so we thought it’d be nice to list all our whereabouts!

Coming up later this fall is our 2 month Australia tour. Be sure to check the schedule on where we’ll be down under.