We’ll be doing some shows this weekend in New Mexico on our way to the Southwest Regional Folk Alliance conference in Austin.  First, on Saturday, we’ll be at Solid Grounds Coffeehouse in Albuquerque (4601 Juan Tabo NE) at 7 p.m. (doors open at 6:30).  Then the next day, it’s down to Carlsbad to Living Desert Zoo and Gardens State Park (1504 Miehls Dr. N.) at 3 p.m.  We played there 11 years ago and it was one of our most enthusiastic audiences ever.  Plus, the desert gardens are beautiful.  So, if you’re in that neck of the desert (neck of the cave?), stop by to see us!

We have some shows in New Mexico this weekend before we head off to the Southwest Regional Folk Alliance Conference in Austin. First, we’ll be in Albuquerque on Saturday, 9/19, at Solid Grounds Coffeehouse (St. Stephens UMC, 4601 Juan Tabo NE).  We start at 7 p.m, doors open at 6:30.  Then, the next day we head to Carlsbad, for a show at Living Desert Zoo and Gardens State Park  (1504 Miehls Dr. N.) on Sunday afternoon at 3 p.m.  We played there 11 years ago and had a great time — one of our most enthusiastic audiences ever!  Plus, the desert gardens are beautiful.  So, if you find yourself down in that neck of the desert (neck of the cave?), stop by to see us!

We’ re going to be doing a set at the Colorado Dulcimer Festival in Denver on February 7th!  Here are the details:

Colorado Dulcimer Festival
St. James Presbyterian Church
3601 W. Belleview Ave.
Littleton, CO

The Colorado Dulcimer Festival has been relocated to Denver after having been in Fort Collins for many years. It’s being held both Friday, Feb. 6th, and Sat., Feb. 7th, with workshops both days and Friday and Saturday evening concerts with featured guest musicians/teachers Guy George on hammered dulcimer and Heidi Muller on mountain dulcimer.  For more information and to register for the festival, visit http://www.coloradodulcimerfestival.com.

If learning to the play the dulcimer, learning about the dulcimer, or hanging out with cool dulcimer people was on your New Year’s resolution list, you’ll definitely want to check out this festival!

We’re back in music land!  Willie is doing great, hiking/walking more every day, but he’s still not supposed to lift anything (nothing heavier than a dulcimer!) for another few months until everything heals.  So we’re still laying low as far as performing goes, since there’s no carrying of speakers, amps, and other equipment.  However, we do have a show (where we don’t have to do sound) next week in Estes Park.  It’s Tuesday, July 15, at 7:30 p.m. at Hempel Auditorium at the YMCA of the Rockies, 2515 Tunnel Road, Estes Park, CO, http://www.ymcarockies.org.   This is always one of our favorite shows of the year — nice auditorium, great sound, audience from all over the country/world.  And it’s free!  And who can beat Long’s Peak as you enter the theater?   We’d love to see you at this one!

We’ve been taking some time off due to Willie having/recovering from back surgery.  It will be good to get back in the sing of things.  But for now, it’s time for rest, recuperation, recovery, all those re words.  Perhaps some re-creation will be involved?  Anything’s possible on pain meds.  Who knows what wild dulcimer instrumentals will be unleashed?  And the possibilities for song lyrics!  “Dumbo” will seem relatively tame in comparison.  But, of course, he is a circus elephant.

Today is Beatles Day.  So I have declared.  February 7 – the day The Beatles came to America.

It was 50 years ago today.  Everyone will be writing that.  Little did they know, I know, we know, what that would mean.  The day the music changed.  The day the world changed.

It was all such a lark for them.  Visiting New York, Washington, D.C., and down to Florida.

Riding the train between New York and Washington (there was a snowstorm).  Photo ops in Central Park and on The Mall.  In one of my favorites, the U.S. Capitol shines behind them — two of my favorite icons. Down to Florida, and sparring with Cassius Clay (soon  to be Muhammed Ali), posing on the beach in old-fashioned striped swimsuits, swimming in the pool.

Performing on Ed Sullivan, in back-to-back weeks.  We sat, mesmerized, in front of the T.V. , me directly in front on the living room floor.  George, you were my first favorite, shy, but with a sly smile and a sly little kick. Ringo grooving on the beat, his beat, head and hair shaking from side to side.  The flash of “Sorry girls, he’s married” under John’s screen image — oh, how sad!  But Paul, oh Paul.  Oh, so irresistible.  Those eyes, that boyish demeanor.  Close your eyes and I’ll kiss you , tomorrow I’ll miss you.

And that hair — that beautiful, wild, new hair.  The next day, it was every boy’s dream.  And every girl’s.  And to sing and play that music, any music, became many’s dream.  Including mine.

And to see the world.  There’s more to the world than my little town.  We’re off to see the world.  The wonderful world of ours.

We’re off to change the world.

She Loves You.  All You Need Is Love.  Let It Be.  Imagine.

What more could you want in life?  What more could you need?

These are my creed.

(See “Four Common Men Create The Weather/Diamonds” on the Jubilant Bridge recording, “Under Shattered Skies”)

At the Jamboree we saw our old friends Abe Lincoln, Buffalo Bill, The Beatles, and new this year, the B-52s.  But Elvis was not in the building.  Willie got to try on some new(old) hats, and I went around listening to all sorts of music (via headphones) at everyone’s tables and picking up chocolate and other freebies.  Oh yeah, and we both spoke with presenters and other musicians as they came to our table and picked up our chocolate.

Enjoying working on our Christmas music again for the future CD.  We decided not to do a Groundhog Day CD—worried it would sound like a broken record.   But it was tempting.    Hits such as “You Ain’t Nothin’ But A Ground Hog,” “How Much Is That Groundhoggie in the Window,”  “Who Let the Groundhogs Out” and “Camping On the Cold Hard Groundhog” could be irresistible.

More snow’s in the forecast—six more weeks of winter.

At the Mercury Cafe, we’ll be performing our “Dumbo” song inspired by our song assignments at the conference mentioned in the previous blog.  Plus there will be a few other surprises.  We haven’t actually played in Denver for a while, so now’s your chance, Denver-metro-area-ites!  Be there, or be hexagonal!

Then this Sunday, November 17, we’ll be performing from 3:30 to 5:30 at a house concert in a benefit for the Longmont Humane Society.  There will also be a yard sale, plus food and drink.  The location is near Hygiene, CO, and for reservations/directions, please call 303-345-1854.  Help the Longmont Humane Society stay afloat with your donations!

Yes, we had a wonderful time at the conference.  Dumbo was a definite highlight, but my favorite activity was the Beatles Jam.  Yes, I stayed up until 5 AM (the only time I ever do such a thing, well, unless there’s a lunar eclipse or something equally cosmic).  Smaller than in past years, but still, you can’t beat 25-30 people in a small hotel room, some coming and going, singing and playing, remembering every lick, every vocal nuance, of our favorite songs.  And we had a lively discussion of the first chord of “A Hard Day’s Night.”   Sublime.

Cardinals galore at Pedernales Falls, and even at Palo Duro Canyon, in Texas.  Never seen them that far west before.  There’s hope they’ll come to Colorado yet.  And petroglyphs/pictographs in Picture Canyon in Comanche National Grasslands in SE Colorado.  A nice two-day vacation!

Back here at home, there has been an influx of googly eyes and Halloween wind-ups (pumpkins, mummies, ghosts, bats).  And Nemo, the big stuffed fish, has been turned into a witch.  Never a dull moment here.   I never know what I’m going to find, glowing in the dark.