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Roaring Jelly - Ceilidh at the Round House, Evanston, Wyoming, June 18, 2010

After we were selected to be one of the regional bands playing here and had two performances scheduled, one late morning Friday, and one Saturday afternoon, they e-mailed us and asked if we could also do the opening entertainment on Friday morning at 9:30, and play a dance workshop at 10:30, since one of their acts had cancelled. We said sure - you know the old adage about fools rushing in

The above video was our opening. Martin the lead fiddler played the solo strathspey Braes of Castle Grant, Sky our 17-year-old started the reel set with Red Haired Boy, then Bette (whistle/drum), Gordon (octave mandolin), Cathy (guitar) and yours truly on keyboard joined for another Red Haired Boy, and Soldiers Joy/Whiskey Before Breakfast. I played melody with the fiddles the second time thru Soldiers Joy.

We were in the restored machine shop here, so things are a little echo-ey, but it was a beautiful venue. There were also vendors in this building, so we all got our T-shirts with a list of bands on the back. It's really quite fun to share a billing with Old Blind Dogs and Molly's Revenge The dance workshop was outside on a plaza between the machine shop and the partially restored round house, and then we were back in the machine shop for our regularly scheduled performance.

Molly's Revenge with vocalist Moira Smiley played the feature concert Friday night. Their band grew out of a session in California ten years ago. I had thoughts of claiming "oldest musician with a band" status, but their guitar player had me beat by 6 months. The vocalist and their highland bagpipes player had a "dueling banjos" set, and we all agreed the vocalist won. She was amazing.

On Saturday we played outside on the plaza again, and it wasn't exactly a storm, but when we played a tune called The Gale it was entirely appropriate. At one point the wind blew the guitar player's well-anchored sheet music off the stand, and the sound guy caught it, leaned over the stage holding it up, and said "can you see it from here?" Above and beyond the call of duty. The wind was so bad going from Laramie to Evanston on Thursday as I drove up that my gas mileage dropped from 42 mpg on other legs of the trip to 28

Old Blind Dogs played the headline concert Saturday night, and they were terrific. They're from Aberdeen, Scotland, and tour the US a couple of times a year. This time they played Los Alamos, NM, where our band is based, last Friday night. They recognized our T-shirts

There were sessions with all the musicians after both headline concerts, but I was so pooped Saturday I didn't go to that one. But getting to play music with musicians of the caliber of Old Blind Dogs and Molly's Revenge was a highlight.

Someone in the non-classical forum here at PW asked how far people would be willing to go for a gig, and I replied that I had put 2000 miles on my car this last week It was a great gig for us - we did our two originally planned sets on Friday, then took the best and some of the tunes we didn't get to and made up a set for Saturday. Just doing the arrangements for that many sets really upped our game, and the music is great fun.

I think we have a couple of months off, and we're planning a gig at the restaurant where we do St. Pat's sometime in early fall. I think we have some new folks coming to play (the six of us that went to Wyoming are only half of our regulars) so there'll be some changes, but we've come a long ways in 10 years

Cathy

Congrats! I enjoyed the video.

S math sin!!!
Is toigh leam an ceòl seo.

Toe tapping music is always the best, but just one wee question, whaurs' the hammered dulcimer ?

Cathy - That looks like such fun - you all look like you are having a ball! Do you stand when you practice at home?

Congratulations, Cathy! You guys sounded terrific! How impressive to be invited to play at this festival. We want to see a picture of you in your t-shirt, though.

How cool, Cathy! You guys sounded great! (I just wished I could have heard the piano player a little better ). Sounds like you all had a "roaring" good time - and glad you got video to share with all of us.

What a blast! Thanks for sharing!

Thanks you guys.

Bill - if I have a big gig coming up I do run through everything standing up at least once beforehand. That way I know exactly where I want the keyboard, and how to position the pedal, and I'm back in the groove. The pedal is the hardest part. I finally bought two bungee cords and looped them around the base of the stand, close to the front, and put the pedal up against that. Otherwise it just moves away from me.

Ejay - I haven't played the hammered dulcimer in a while. I spend so much time on the keyboards that I don't have time to do both. It has a great sound on this music, though, and one of the other acts had one. We have a band here in northern New Mexico called Hands Five that has an outstanding hammered dulcimer player, and I really like it.

Maybe we'll have to get a band picture in our T-shirts.

Riddler - that's exactly how we felt The sound guy kept telling us about all these other festivals and how we could set up a tour and make three or four of them. <snort> But he thought we were getting paid, too. Not us! We did it for a small stipend to the band for gas money - which I'm not sure we'll get! But it was fun anyway.

Any way, I'm glad you like the videos.

Cathy

Cathy - that was so very entertaining, tapping my foot all the while. Fun was had by all, no doubt about it.

Glen

Cathy,
I am glad to hear your Wyoming gig was a roaring success! Sounds as if you are really enjoying the performing aspect and honing your game with so many.

Enjoy the couple of months off, I know that the Santa Fe Summers are splendid.

I once was driving from Casper to Denver and the head wind was so bad I could only do 50MPH, in my pickup, with the gas pedal on the floor!
Carl

Carl - ah yes. The plains around Denver. My family was traveling to a funeral one time in a heck of a storm and my brother's camper pickup was precarious,so we conferred on the side of the road about how much further to go that evening. Finally my older brother said it all - "If we can only go 35 mph, then an hour from now we'll only be 35 miles down the road." We found a motel

Glen - I'm glad your foot was tapping. Although we sound much better than the audio in the video, we feel like if we've gotten the feet going we've done most of our job.

Cathy

That sounded terrific, Cathy!
Who said that piano playing has to be a solitary experience.

Cathy, I'm sure that was great. One of these days I gotta sign up for facebook so I can see it. It really sounds like fun.

Okay, okay, I broke down and joined. I guess I don't have to do anything else but watch the occasional video, right? That was terrific fun!

Dennis, my heart goes out to you I didn't join for years and years. Then a friend of mine had grandkids - really cute grandkids. There is NOTHING on my facebook page. But I can watch the band videos That's it! I hate facebook What's wrong with good old-fashioned youtube?

Thanks for the comment. We've always been a band that has fun, thank goodness. I wouldn't be there if we weren't

There were a couple of threads around about how to cancel your facebook account. . .might be worth a search -

Cathy

Wish I could have been there -- it looks like it would have been such fun, and I would have been able to hear much better. Congrats on your high-profile gig!