If you ever have the chance to go to a Steubenstock go. John Brett is the only person I know who can convince about a dozen music groups to come to a god forsaken town with one intersection, and pay to play only 2 songs in the local town hall. And the events sells out - standing room only! Such well know groups as Jughead, The Thumpwhackers, Rattlin Bog, and Wildflower gave the evening a great mix of music and comedy.
So of course I had to say yes and it gave me a chance to do a gig with my daughter Kelly. Singing with her is one of the things I enjoy most about music. She has a great voice, and if not perfect pitch, it's almost there. And she goes along with all the stuff I foist on her to sing. It's pretty easy for me to find a harmony to her lead, plus we get to spend some time together practicing - time I really treasure.
For this show I picked out two songs from that well known Country group - "Truckstop Honeymoon" cause it seemed to me to fit the mood and spirit of Steubenstock. I wish I had the video from the evening, as Kelly was in top form, but this link to a later performance we gave will give you the idea.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6uUp9yJGHwo&list=UU5RWgfr6JMmTw831hcQ-qrw&index=4&feature=plcp
Following that show in short order I was practicing for something I'd never done before - a Renaissance Faire as a strolling musician. It was nice to be asked by Mike Carroll and Danny Sargent to join them and play a bit of mandolin and reach back for as many tunes as we could figure came from the period. What we did not know was that we would be in costume and character!!! Not to worry though, the organizers said that they would provide the costumes and all we had to do was show up and stroll the grounds playing what we felt. So we dubbed ourselves "Lord Tyrones Rebels" and got to work practicing old tunes (that in itself was a bunch of fun)
The costume part was also interesting as I had no clue where to get garb from the period. The secret - most of the costume was oversized women's clothes from thrift shops - Fran from Razzle Dazzle costumes did a great job putting together an ensemble for Danny and I, as Mike chose to come in Kilt.
We played only our first two tunes and were approached by a guy who told us how great we were and wanted to know if we could do a gig in the fall, as he was organizing a Pagan Festival! Never knew my music was appreciated by Pagans, but we said sure (later to find out we had been bumped by the "Sons of Satan")
The afternoon was a hoot and we do have a bit of evidence - what you can't see in the video is the women in character as a Renaissance prostitute dancing in front of us - grabbing unsuspecting male citizens and making them dance. The noise you hear is some guy with a sledgehammer in the next tent bashing glass (never did figure that one out}
We enjoyed this so much we decided to form a group "Springhouse". More to follow.
Enjoy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBrTaIE19MM&feature=autoplay&list=UU5RWgfr6JMmTw831hcQ-qrw&lf=plcp&playnext=1
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