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Rayna's Road Notes

The strange truth according to Rayna

Dec 11, 2007

The Zep-grass review!
Well, last night was the big night out!! It was so exciting to meet up with the g'Earls again, the first time since tour which seemed like a long time! I got to hear about where everyone's been and who's got new shoes etc. Slowly we met up with some friends from back home including Gary Paczosa, Sean and Sarah Watkins, Robby and Ronnie Mc Coury and their wives Lisa and Allison, Scott Rouse, Ferg, Laura and John Cash, Riley Baugus, our audio hero Dave Sinko, John Cowan, and of course our entourage, Jeff Keith, Critter Eldridge and Bela Fleck were there too. Pretty soon we had a little group of bluegrassers in the hallway near the beer stand, completely ignoring Foreigner. We didn't come to see Foreigner! Someone brought along W. Earl Brown from my favorite show Deadwood so of course I was following him around asking a million questions. He learned the meaning of the word "germ" first hand.

Ok, so then we all took our assigned seats, Rayna next to John's daughter, me (unkknowly) right behind James Taylor. Right behind Kristin was Ben Harper and wife Laura Dern, Marilyn Manson was a few rows over, and God knows who was there whom I just didn't recognize! A great moment was when Mo, John's wife walked in to take her seat moments before the show and everyone in our section applauded for her. Yes, she got an official standing Mo-vation. A well deserved moment for a truly amazing behind-the-scenes woman. Ok......enough who's who.......you want to know about the show?

                                                         IT ROCKED!!!!

Seriously,who could have ever imaged getting the opportunity to see the greatest rock band in history? We all felt very lucky to be there and had a great time. We got to go to a fancy invite-only after-show party where we all just nervously stuck together and mostly talked amongst ourselves. The bold Miss Laura, who's been playing bass with us lately went off to try to try to find Will Farrell but I dont' think she ever found him.

Again, the show was truly amazing, Jason Bonham did a great job and played his heart out from beginning to end. I couldn't help but wonder if he felt close to his dad out there on stage with his former band mates.....

Ok, we're all having a picking party here in London tonight and then all flying back to the states tomorrow. We're still trying to process last night. Perhaps we'll have a better report soon.

Thanks for keeping in touch, it means a lot to us to know you're back home thinking about us.

Sincerely,
KC Earl

 

Read our Oct Newsletter here



October 4, 2007
Hello dear g'Earlfriends!

I thought I'd drop a line to you good folks between Earl tours ...

Our last run was pretty crazy. You can check out our photos to see how we dealt with SOME of our many vehicle "issues" on the tour. The Mammals have a wonderful Sprinter van, really... it just didn't treat us so wonderfully when we borrowed it for tour. It must've been some sort of collective car-karma coming to bite us on our collective behind, as we had one problem after another along the way. The many different masks you see us wearing in the photos from the trip were our attempts to protect ourselves from the diesel smoke and fumes we were swimming in through most of the state of Virginia. Yeah, buddy!

But the good news is: we survived. Band morale was strong throughout, and we had some amazingly fun shows. Wheatland rocked, of course -- there's not much Uncle Earl loves better than a festival where we get to dance all night. Another highlight was our Louisville show. It was our first time playing there, and it lived up to my high expectations for that town (where we have a bunch of friends).

The Bristol Rhythm & Roots Reunion was a big pile of good people in a lovely, historic town, playing all kinds of cool music. We were glad to be there, and glad to cross paths with so many road-buddies there. I was particularly psyched to see Martha Scanlan playing with Trevor and Travis Stuart, the Tony Trischka zillion-banjo-bustdown (or whatever he's calling it these days), and the adorable Red State Ramblers. Was also sweet to get to say howdy and play a bit with lots of other pals -- like the Biscuit Burners, The Carolina Chocolate Drops, and the Infamous Stringdusters, to name but a few.

After Bristol, gas-masks in place, we got to play the Birchmere again... this time with our band-crush, King Wilkie. Those fellas RULE. They sounded so beautiful. If you haven't yet gotten their new album, do yourselves a favor and hunt that puppy down. (See below.) The only bummer was that Teddy Thompson had to cancel his opening slot due to not having a voice -- sad! We wanted to hear him.

This round of travel and play wrapped up at The Gravity Lounge in Charlottesville. We are so very comfy there, and the crowd that night was one of the warmest we've ever had. Sweeeeeet! It was such a lovely way to end the tour.

Now, I have to tell you that I'm leaving out the chunk of travel BEFORE this, which included the Minnesota State Fair and other superbly fun adventures. (Corn dogs! Hippies! And more!) But if you keep an eye on the photo section, you may be able to piece it all together for yourselves...

Next up: West coast, Florida, the Americana Music Association get-together in Nashville, and a big ol' tour of the United Kingdom (plus a few days in the Netherlands). Look out!

Thanks for reading. Keep in touch & we look forward to seeing you down the road.
xoxo
rayna & the g'earls

 

FEB 07'
Well, howdy-do, g’Earlfriends!

Life in Earlville is becoming a pretty nutty scene these days, between the Euro-touring and the gearing up for our album release.  There’s a lot cooking, and we’re really enjoying it all.  So let me catch you up…

I’m writing to you from the front room of Abigail “Hammerhead” Washburn, where the windows currently afford a view of the snowy Nashville hills.  The band is retreating here for a few days, taking advantage of a shred of quiet time to tidy up some bits of business, practice our clogging routine, and get over the bronchial funk we all picked up in Scotland.  Last night we also baked chocolate chip cookies (a sure sign we’re on the mend).  In the middle of the cookie project we realized none of us really knew what we were doing – which led to the revelation that we had never baked as a band before!  Doesn’t seem right, but it tells you a bit about how domestic we are these days.

Our biggest recent adventure was our outing to Scotland and England.  I’m honestly still a bit puzzled by the relationship between these places.  They make a big deal about being separate countries, but when you drive back and forth between them it’s about as eventful as driving across the border from North Carolina into Tennessee.  So if you’re headed over there, I’m warning you: don’t get your hopes up about having your passport stamped.

We flew into Glasgow for the Celtic Connections Festival on the morning of January 19th.  We all stumbled around in the airport feeling disoriented, but the festival transpo was so good that before we knew what hit us we were at the hotel and tucked into our beds.  We were determined to overcome our jet-lag as quickly and efficiently as possible, and had many discussions of the best ways to cope with the time-change.  Despite all of our good intentions, it turned out to make more sense just to stay on US time, because the mad Scots had scheduled events every night until 6am.  Whoa.

Our bass player for this trip was Mary Lucey of The Biscuit Burners, who will be joining us for much of our Spring CD release tour. Our first show at the festival was our first show with her, not to mention our first show anywhere in quite a long time.  It was so great to settle back into performing with such a warm audience on our side.  The way that Celtic Connections is set up is total overload – there are always a bunch of shows going on at the same time in different venues.  Knowing that our audience had so many other amazing musical options to choose from made us feel extra flattered to have them, and we were really pleased at their response to our show. 

Later that night we went down into the “Festival Club” at the hotel and saw the wild all-night party that goes on there.  If you’ve seen the endless cloudy wet twilight that passes for daytime in Glasgow in late January, you might be able to wrap your brain around the amount of alcohol that was being consumed in the Festival Club.  It was stunning.  We kept trying to go to bed (this was before we gave up on going to bed altogether), but the lure of hearing all the great party music on stage in the club was pretty tough to resist. 

Sunday was a day of adventure – a gig in Chorley.  Our UK booking agency, Adastra, had lined up a driver and a van to take us to this mysterious town (we didn’t even know which country it was in), and we had assumed said driver was a driver.  Turns out our “driver” was highly-regarded musician and record producer Ben Ivitsky, who thought he’d spend his day off driving us back and forth to Chorley (which is in England, if you’re wondering).  We had a blast grilling him about his musical projects, and he charmed us thoroughly when he saved the day by fixing the van on the way to our gig.

The show in Chorley was a benefit for an organization called Home-Start, which provides aid to families in need.  It was a sweet little room full of friendly folks, including some of the friends we made in Ireland in September and my groovy pals Jock & Vera (of the wacky New Rope String Band).  We had a fun show and then hopped back in the van and cruised through the snowy night listening to the gorgeous Eliza Carthy album Anglicana (which Ben produced).

Monday at Celtic Connections found us at a stylish pub doing a BBC TV taping for a new music show.  We had a surreal time trying to “act natural” in the “casual” setting of the pub – which was decked out with elaborate lights, a smoke machine, and extras at the bar holding beers they apparently weren’t allowed to drink.  Everyone on the crew was super nice to us, and we were especially happy to be tended to by a charming make-up gal named Pip.  We wanted to take her with us.

Tuesday was another BBC TV taping – this time a short concert performance at the Old Fruitmarket.  It was a really cool venue, and once again the BBC folks were absurdly kind and helpful.  BBC elves Brian and Sean were especially attentive (thanks, fellas) and we had big fun busting down on a few tunes.  We were happy to be reunited with our band buddies Bela Fleck & the Flecktones, who were part of the same taping that night.  By then we were definitely in the swing of things, so it was back to the Festival Club for more raucous silliness and jamming til the wee hours.  We had a nice little bust-down with dear Jordan McConnell from the Duhks, and also with new friend Eamon McElholm from Solas.  We knew it was time to go to bed when we saw folks heading out to the airport for their early morning flights. Ouch!

The next night was a special one, as it was the first time we’d ever opened for The Flecktones.  Turns out the festival organizer, Donald Shaw, had just thought that we’d be a good warm-up for those guys – he didn’t even know we were friends!  How cool.  It was such a great experience to do a show with The ‘Tones – their whole crew is so warm and easy to be with, the vibe was all comfy and familial.  We were honored to be in front of their audience (at that same nifty Fruitmarket venue), and even more honored to do a bit of sitting-in on their set.  Kristin and Futureman had a little feet-and-drummitar rhythm moment that was mighty special.  We’re hoping there’ll be more opportunities for Uncle Flecktone to happen soon.

It was sad indeed when we had to pack up and head out of Glasgow, but we knew it was for the best.  Had we stayed we never would’ve slept again.

We were fetched from our hotel by a young driver named Tom, who was the hapless fellow who ended up with the chore of hauling Uncle Earl down to Spalding and London.  He not only had to listen to our endless chatter, he also had to listen to our endless coughing as we all ended up falling victim to some sort of evil Scottish respiratory bug. 

Though we were all descending into illness, we kept our spirits up and plowed onward.  We stopped for a night in Lincoln and got to poke around there briefly the next morning.  Our exploration there was mainly focused on looking for extra-soft Kleenex and any kind of decongestant we could get our hands on, but there was also time for tea and baked goods to be consumed in the freakishly quaint surroundings.  I ventured into the breathtaking Lincoln Cathedral, but didn’t have time to go hunt down the famous imp.  I bought a postcard of him instead.

We brought our extra-soft Kleenexes with us to Spalding, where we played in a beautiful community theater that made us feel like we were in a submarine.  Or maybe that was the cold medicine.  Anyway, we were surprised to find ourselves facing a nearly full house in a town known for its tulips.  It was a sweet all-ages audience, and they swarmed us at the CD table and had us autograph everything in sight.  We were thrilled, and momentarily forgot to cough.

After the show we piled back into the van and headed for London so that we could get up early and go experience the radio version of the hyper-efficient-yet-wonderfully-friendly BBC.  When we headed for the studio we got thrown off by the very subtle signage marking the BBC building, and Tom kept driving around the block until we were waved down by a nice woman who asked our driver, “Do you have Uncle Earl in there?”  It turned out to be the astute Sara Silver from Rounder Europe, who led us to the right building and through the tangle of autograph-seekers at the door.  At first we thought the crowd of people at the door must be there for someone else and were just settling for signatures from whoever wandered toward the BBC with instruments, so we were taken aback when they greeted us by name.  We rewarded them for their thorough research by coughing on them while we signed their autograph books.

Once we finished infecting our public, we were whisked through security and up to the studio where they tape the LooseEnds radio show (or “programme”, as those civilized Brits would say).  It’s one of those smart-people-sitting-around-a-table-chatting kind of shows, but for some reason they let us hang out in the studio anyway.  Our job was to sit there trying very hard not to sound like a TB ward until the magic directorial finger pointed at us and we launched into “The Last Goodbye” (from our forthcoming album, ahem).  Luckily our spot was early in the hour-long show, after which we were able to chill out with our cough-drops and be awed by the articulate humor of the mostly-English roundtable of arty talkers.  The other guest band on the show that day was London-based Larrikin Love, a crew of walking fashion-tips.  I, for one, took some rock-star notes from those boys, as I was sitting closest to them in the studio and felt lame sipping ginger tea as they cracked open beers at 10am. 

But while we may not be the most rock-star in our choice of morning beverages, at least we have a genuine Rock Star on our team: our amazing producer, John Paul Jones.  He and his dear wife Mo met up with us later that same day at The Spitz, where we did our first-ever London show.  It was an immense joy to be reunited with JPJ for the first time since we were in the studio with him, and he instantly worked his magic and lifted our sickly spirits.  We had a nice dinner before the show with John, Mo, a couple of their daughters and one of their sons-in-law.  We also finally got to meet Adrian Molloy, who’s part of John’s management team.  Adrian has done crazy amounts of work on our behalf for no good reason (unless he’s laboring under the painfully false assumption that our record will end up making him money one day – if so, please don’t burst his bubble), and we were really happy to have the chance to thank him in person.  I was actually surprised that he walked into the restaurant – I halfway expected him to flutter in, as he saved us from total tour-disaster so many times we were convinced he must be an angel.

We ended up having a great time on stage that night – the audience was incredibly high-energy and game, and we felt so welcomed and supported that we just powered right on through and enjoyed ourselves despite fevers and nearly-gone voices.  John joined us for a few tunes and songs on mandolin and mando-cello, which was an extra-special bonus treat.  Thanks to all you wonderful folks who came out that night and helped us have such a big time.  It was amazing!

John and Mo very bravely took all us g’Earls and our frightening plague into their home for the next couple days.  Mo made lots of healing tea, and John distracted us with various instruments – either playing them or putting them into our hands.  We had one day off in London, and despite all our hopeful tourist-planning, we ended up spending most of that day sleeping.  I understand that after I went off to bed for the night the other g’Earls and John ended up using a Mac video-chat program to have a virtual jam session with Bela Fleck, who was already back home in Nashville.  I hear he took a trans-Atlantic solo, but one of my bandmates will have to tell you about that ‘cause I missed it.  Darn!

The next day we headed back to BBC Radio for the Bob Harris show with JPJ.  Bob was just wonderful, as was the whole crew there.  It all went by very quickly, and suddenly we were back out on the sidewalk, only this time John was signing things and the rest of us were swooning because we ran into James Hunter, who was on his way in to do his own radio spot.  We had met him once before, very briefly, at a Rounder radio event in Nashville.  I’m a huge fan of his, and was so sad to be sick when we ran into him – I can only hope he survived my germ-laden handshake.  Once we were back in the car, KC pointed out that James bears a striking resemblance to Max from Where the Wild Things Are.  How cool can one man be?

That afternoon we had a private showcase, set up by our gal Sara Silver and the folks at Rounder.  We felt very special and spoiled, but it went by far too quickly.  We met all sorts of fascinating people once we finished our half-hour set there, and were honored that they all came out to hear us.  KC freaked out when she found out after the fact that Robyn Hitchcock had been in the audience, as she’s been a fan of his for 18 years.  Yeah, buddy!  Thanks to everyone who helped make that showcase happen, and especially to the nice industry-types who attended and listened so nicely.
A special shout-out to our new friends at Ark PR, Del and Chris, whose help before and during our trip was much appreciated. Thanks, guys!

Our last night in London was mostly spent dining at an incredible Indian restaurant that John and Mo insisted on taking us to.  The place is called Rasa Sumadra, and if you go hunting for it (which you should), you’ll know it by the bright pink façade.  It was a meal to remember, indeed, and I’m certain the food possessed healing properties.  It was splendid and unlike anything I’ve ever eaten.  We had great company, too – superman Adrian Molloy, Sara Silver and her charming son Edward Brial, and the previously-missing third Jones daughter all joined us in feasting on all sorts of exotic yummy stuff. 

The next night we were all back in Nashville, wondering if we dreamt the whole darn adventure.

In conclusion:  we are convinced that the UK is a good place for us to hang out, and we intend to come back soon.  Those of you who caught us this time around won’t recognize us when we come back healthy!  Just you wait. 

Now we’re gearing up for our US album-release tour.  We are giddy.  This is a bigger, more road-dogging type of tour than we’ve ever done before.  Of course we’re looking forward to decorating the van.  I heard mention of curtains being made.  Okay, maybe there’s some domesticity in us yet…

Thanks for keeping up with us.  Watch this space for more news coming soon. 
We love all y’all.
Hope to see you soon,
Rayna & the g’Earls

 

Nov 2, 06

Dear, dear G’Earlfriends:
It’s wonderful of you to keep checking this page.  What can I say?  The summer was CRAZY.  Everything has been cooking so non-stop that us g’Earls have hardly had a moment to catch our collective breath and survey the glorious landscape of fun we’ve been rolling around in for months now.  I can’t hope to catch you up on everything, but I can share a few highlights.

But before I retrace the many many steps of our summer, let me first point out that Erin Coats, who has been our regular bassist this year, is now Erin Youngberg.  No, it’s not yet another bass player – that’s her brand spankin’ new MARRIED NAME.  Congratulations Erin!  She has married bluegrass banjo boy Aaron Youngberg.  Um, yes, that is correct.  Aaron & Erin Youngberg.  Wrap your brain around that one.  But I digress...

JUNE & JULY 06

Starting at the beginning… We played the Station Inn in Nashville with the amazing Alana Rocklin filling in on bass while Erin played a wedding elsewhere (not her own).  As usual, the Station Inn felt like home, and was a great chance to visit with Nashville friends, and have some pizza and beer(s).  From there we reunited with Erin and took off to the River of Music Party in Owensboro, Kentucky.  This is a cool festival also known as the “ROMP”.  In addition to our festival performance, we were also there to be MC’s for the Legends Concert that kicked off the weekend.  We all wore prom dresses, which seemed appropriate and yet also confused much of the audience (we blamed our misunderstanding of “ROMP” as “PROM” for our fashion choices).  We heard later that some audience members were concerned about our baring our shoulders on stage, which, to be honest, delighted us in its old-timey-ness.  That was a fun night, but not nearly as fun as our closing set on Friday night there.  It was a memorably wonderful set.  The icing on the whole experience was seeing that a dream-like painting of us (yeah, US!) was the cover of this year’s festival program, and said painting was being auctioned to raise money for the International Bluegrass Music Museum.  Of course we couldn’t afford such a luxury, but we immediately put in a phonecall to Abby’s folks (Don & Chrissy Washburn) and got them in on the auction.  In the end, they won the painting, keeping it in the family and giving a generous contribution to the IBMM.  We were right proud.

We dashed off from there to the Indiana Fiddler’s Gathering in Battleground, Indiana – a festival I’ve been going to since I was in the womb.  It was great to be back there, great to get to see my dad (Dan Gellert) do his stunning solo sets there, and great to see all the good people who organize and attend that gathering every year.  After sets, sessions, and silliness, it was time to head onward.  We found ourselves doing a concert in a beautiful barn outside of Ann Arbor, Michigan, then playing Schuba’s in Chicago – a couple more great chances to catch up with many Midwestern friends. 

Our next round of band fun took us to New York.  We played Madison Square Park in Manhattan, as part of a summer concert series.  It rained right up ‘til we went on stage, and then stopped just in time for us to play for a very sweet (if slightly soggy) crowd.  We love any excuse to get into NYC. Then we were off to the Grey Fox Festival – it was our first RV experience.  I wasn’t on the RV-retrieval-committee, so I missed all the excitement of picking up our home-to-be for the weekend.  Apparently the Infamous Stringdusters were immensely helpful – providing a credit card, a driver, and much charm to aid the situation.  At any rate, when I arrived at the festival, the RV was already parked and decked out with bedding, tiki torches, and chocolate.  We love Grey Fox to bits no matter what, but we found it was almost unbearably fun once we had a home right on the premises.  KC and I swooned over Larry Sparks, Steve Earl & The Bluegrass Dukes held us all rapt, Tim O’Brien blew our minds, Casey Driessen was in every other band and shredded his red-shoe’d ass off, Crooked Still rocked, we all danced and danced and danced to the Red Stick Ramblers and to Girl Howdy, and there’s so much more I can’t begin to list it all.  We also had massive and unforgettable all-night sessions.  And that’s not even including what a ridiculously great time we had being on stage there!  Yee hoo!  We all left there happy, grungy, and inspired.

Uncle Squ’Earl emerged in Colorado not too much later.  This was an incarnation of the band minus Abby – we got some nice folks like Aaron Youngberg and Darol Anger to sit in with us at our couple of shows.  It was fun to get to hang out more in Colorado (we love being there), but we were antsy to be reunited with Abigail.  She returned to the fold just in time for the Rockygrass Festival in Lyons, which is one of our favorite band hangouts.  This year we somehow ended up helping out with MC-ing duties, which I’m sure the folks at Planet Bluegrass immediately regretting roping us into, because we cracked ourselves up way more than we did anyone else.  But we certainly enjoyed it.  We also got to be the inaugural “Moon Grass” show at the festival, which was a new late-night concert on the grounds there.  It was an honor, and also the perfect opportunity to have piles of our friends sit in with us.  Our mainstage set at the fest was the big treat for us, though – a wonderful time slot, gorgeous weather, and one of the warmest audiences anyone could hope for.  One of those face-busting-grinning sort of experiences.  Dang we’re lucky.

AUGUST 06

The next outing took us into Montana and Wyoming (and bits of Idaho here and there).  In fact, we did so much driving back and forth across state lines that I could never keep track of which state we were in, but it didn’t matter much, as everything was so ridiculously, staggeringly beautiful on such a grand scale we stopped even bothering to process it.  You know how we call our wonderful bass player, Erin, “Wyoming Face”?  Well, if you ever seen Wyoming you will understand why.  It’s sooooo beautiful.  We especially loved performing at the Grand Targhee Bluegrass Festival.  And riding the ski lift up to the top of the mountain and having our minds yet-more-thoroughly blown by the big big big view.

After we all ran off to do our own gigs for a week, we met back up in the northeast.  We had a great visit with our wonderful Rounder peeps, told them all about the new album, and met the new Vice President of Publicity, Jen Sacca.  When we mentioned not having anything to wear for our upcoming photo shoot for the new project, Jen (a former stylist) jumped at the chance to take us shopping.  Let me tell you, it was a thrill.  We felt very spoiled.  (Thanks, Jen and Rounder!)

After a stop at Dickinson College to play for the pre-freshman-orientation orientation (strange but true), we found ourselves in Charlottesville, Virginia, having the aforementioned photo shoot with arty photo dude Aaron Farrington (www.aaronfarrington.com).  We had a marathon day of getting spiffed up, getting photographed in various spots, and then doing a show at the Gravity Lounge.  But we love Charlottesville, and we were so happy to have another super sweet audience there – it was a wonderful reward to play for them at the end of a long day!

The next night we found ourselves at the historic Birchmere in Alexandria.  It was my first time being there, and that venue really is just as cool as everyone says.  The food was super yummy, the sound was fab, and the audience was as sweet as any we’ve found.  That seems to be just the way things are around D.C.  It was a mighty big treat to have the amazing Biscuit Burners open for us that night.  We’re always psyched to run into friends on the road, so we’d been looking forward to seeing the Burners that night, plus we knew we’d get to see a bunch of our friends who live in the area (like the Footworks dance crew).  Having most of The Duhks show up was just bonus, so of course we had to have a post-show hotel-jam for a bit.  Thank goodness for nights like that or we’d all end up feeling like aliens running around in our alternate universe known as The Road.

We played the Gettysburg Bluegrass Festival, a private party near Philly (happy Christmas, Kurt!), and a lovely house concert in New York before disappearing from the Uncle Earl radar temporarily. 

IRELAND

The next thing we (or you) knew, we were in Ireland.  The Johnny Keenan Banjo Festival is held in Longford, which is kind of in the middle of… well, both Ireland and Nowhere.  We were informed that the U.S. city equivalent to Longford is Cleveland.  Nothing against either city, but you get the picture.  Fortunately Longford gets swarmed with wonderful, hysterical, brilliant musicianers during the Banjo Fest.  Banjos: check.  Guinness: check.  Party:  um, yeah.  Highlights included raging sessions with a cross-cultural crew of new and old friends.  Cathy Jordan blew all our minds with her singing, her percussion, and her bottomless party spirit, and we were psyched to hang with the hot new Tony Trischka & Michael Daves band (with Brittany Haas and Skip Ward).  We were utterly charmed by The Ranch House Favorites from the Netherlands, who piled into our room and created a party unlike any I’ve ever witnessed.  (There was choreography involved.)  I was also happy to get to introduce the other g’Earls to my buddies in the Rough Deal Stringband.  There are far too many wonderful, generous, fun, talented people in that tiny country.  We really hope we get to go back soon.

Okay, it’s high time this stuff got put up on-line for you to read.  I’ll tell you about the most recent bits real soon.  In the meantime, thanks again for keeping your eye on our site, and stop back by soon for more news and gossip!

Take good care,
Rayna & the g’Earls
           
    

Aug 06'
Dearest g'Earlfriends,
Hey! How is everyone? We just got back from a little western tour that started in Bozeman, MT. We played a house concert for a lovely little family (good Michigan folks actually). We walked into their house and into a big pile of organic vegables, we're talking a truck-load of vegetables. Now, keeping in mind we usually have to chose between a dinner of pecan sandies or     from the gas station on the way, we really though we had entered into some sort of collective vegetable dream. It was true however, as was thier cute little 2 month old daughter, Mae. The concert was super fun, lots of people were there and Kristin's new guitar got put into the sauna. Ok the sauna was off, but how cool is it to have as sauna in your back yard, and then use it for a green room for your house concerts. Dang cool I say. Thanks to the Porters for having us. Thanks also to Rebecca who let us stay at her house while she was off delivering a baby all night. Ok, another thanks to the Co-op in town where we spent about 3 hours shopping, eating and checking emails before heading off to Big Sky. It was tough leaving that town. Who knew it would be so groovie up there?

We were then off to Big Sky, MT where we played a big ampitheatre where I have to admit, the stage was so big I though we were supposed to set up in the corner and everyone was to watch from the "dance floor" but no, the whole thing was a stage and the audience sat on this grassy meadow at the base of a piney mountain. An eagle soared past just as we stated playing. It was beautiful and scerene. We then stayed up all night talking with a college buddy of Rayna who is a now a professional fly-fisher-person in the area.

Grand Targhee was almost too Grand to even talk about!

 

 

June 06
Hello G’Earlfriends!

Our last get-together was a miniature tour of only two dates.  We met up in Johnson City for our first show at the Down Home, where we were cheerfully surprised with a wonderfully warm audience.  It was a treat to see Ed Snodderly again (you should all check out his album “Brier Visions”, by the way, it’s beautiful).  We took off that night to make some ground, and stopped somewhere not too far from Wytheville, which we had a great time trying to pronounce.  The friendly fellow at the front desk of the motel handed our band credit card back to me and said, “Uncle Earl, huh?  What kind of business is that?”  I said, “It’s a band,” and he sort of nodded.  Of course, once all the rest of the g’Earls started rolling into the lobby with instruments and various silly exclamations about the decorating and the facilities, his eyes grew wide and he said, “Oh, it’s a GIRL BAND!”  Somehow that changed things for him, I guess.

The next morning we hit the road for Syria, Virginia, site of the Graves Mountain Bluegrass Festival.  Syria is an almost invisible speck a ways north of Charlottesville, and the drive out there is cinematically lovely.  We were all picking out houses for ourselves (and planning the commune we might start) as we drove further and further into the country and, it seemed, back in time.  We knew Graves Mountain was our kind of festival when we pulled into the performer entrance and were immediately handed a huge basket of homemade jams and jellies.  Dude!  It was steamy hot and stormy off and on for the day we were there, but the audience was undeterred, and we had a wonderful time.  A few members of King Wilkie showed up to cheer us on (or just distract us, we aren’t sure), we saw various friends from the area (like band buddy Kent Murray, who runs the Sunspot concert series in Alexandria, VA), and we met a whole lot of new folks who seemed to be very fond of the new hats on the merch table.  Our evening set at the festival included a grand-finale debut performance by a group we are calling “Uncle Duster” – the combined forces of Uncle Earl and The Infamous Stringdusters (the artists formerly known as The Stringdusters).  Can you say “Yee Haw”?  Then, just as suddenly as it began, we were once again scattering off to our other gigs and other lives.

I’m working backwards now through our calendar to catch you up a bit.  The tour that preceded those couple of action-packed days was up in the northeast, starting at a venue called The Egg in Albany.  Don’t be fooled by the name, it’s a very classy joint.  The room was lovely, the sound was swell, and we were totally spoiled with a wonderful catered spread backstage, which included bourbon (how did they know?) and a massive chocolate cake that we swiftly decimated.  They put us up in a really nice hotel where we were pretty sure Pearl Jam was also staying.  The next night we were back in Northampton, MA, at the Iron Horse.  This time around the place was packed, which felt great, and we had a really wonderful time playing there.  We were sad to have to hit the road after our set – we didn’t want to leave our western Mass buddies, the yummy fries and friendly blues-harmonica playing bartender, and we were intrigued by the comedy duo that was on after us. But, alas, the road was calling, so off we went.  We drove into the rainy darkness listening to Willie Nelson and soon arrived at the home of Ilana Katz Katz (not a typo, really her name), who put us up for our brief stay in the Boston area.  We went to WGBH to do a bit of radio talk with our friend Brad Paul, and were met at the station by Brad San Martin, our band boyfriend.  Okay, actually they both work at Rounder, but they’re our friends, too.  That night we played at the Joyful Noise Coffeehouse in Lexington, where we had some pretty intense lighting due to our opening act, Abigail Washburn and Ben Sollee (ever heard of ‘em?) being followed by a film crew for a banjo documentary.  What’ll they think of next?  It was great to see our Bostonian pals, including the host for the evening, Scott Alarik, who has written such nice things about us in the Boston Globe.

Okay, my computer battery is running low and I’m being far too long-winded.  Let me sum up a few bits from earlier tours…

The Old Settler’s festival near Austin was wonderful wonderful wonderful.  Of course we missed having Erin (aka “Wyoming Face”) along to play bass, but that did give us the excuse to bust down with our dear Sharon once more.  We had some seriously fun sets – the sort of Big Fun that can only be found on a festival stage with the just-perfect audience in the just-perfect circumstances.  Our last set there left us all flying high.  And, as always, there were friends to goof off with, too.  It was great to see Sarah Jarosz and her folks once more – we love that family, and it is an absolute joy to watch Sarah perform.  It was also a treat to see Sharon playing with Peter Rowan and Bryn Davies, and to see the amazing Del McCoury Band once again.  Our first night there Mike Marshall hosted an Uncle Earl band meeting in his hotel room, where he plied us with olives and wine and goat cheese and then totally distracted us from our meeting by showing us video footage from Brazil… and then we all fell asleep in his bed.  The next night when we came back to the hotel we walked right into the middle of a high school PROM that was being held in the ballroom downstairs.  Talk about surreal.  At least the prom king was game for a photo-op. 

And to go back to Florida, all I remember is that KC got woefully sick with the stomach flu and we had to play at Skippers without her, which was sad, but we made it through.  Oh, and on the drive back to Nashville, Erin ate bacon at all three meals.

Whew.  Is that enough for now?  Hope so.  There’s a mighty busy summer ahead, I’m sure there’ll be plenty to report, so stop back soon.  Don’t forget to sign up on our email list, join our Yahoo! Group, become our friend on MySpace, and go shopping at our on-line store.

Thanks for reading, see you down the road,
Rayna & the g’Earls

 

March 19, 2006

Hello G’Earlfriends!

I’m writing to you from the road in Texas. We’ve just finished all
the recording for our new album, which we were working on just north
of Nashville at Karian Studios. We’re pleased as punch to let you
all know that our producer for this project is John Paul Jones. He’s
not only a fiercely musical person and a rock and roll icon, he’s
also one of the most beautiful human beings we know. We’ve had a
totally joyful and magical time working with him, and are honored as
can be that he agreed to be a part of the project. And boy have we
had a blast! We’re all nursing aching sides from laughing constantly
for the past month.

We brought Erin Coats in from Colorado to play bass for the
recording, and she’s gigging some with us in the coming months, too.
You may’ve seen her performing with the great young bluegrass group
Hit & Run. Erin’s a lovely musician and a crazy-fun gal to goof off
with. Also adding to the seemingly bottomless good vibe of this
recording was the amazing Dave Sinko, who engineered for us. He was
tireless and positive and patiently put up with all our shenanigans.
His assistant, Patrick Granado, was a gem, too – he even let us
borrow his Tenacious D DVD!

Immediately after recording, we came down here to play in Austin at
the South by Southwest music event. We played three shows, and in
between we all ran around through the crowd trying to catch
performances by all sorts of folks. That whole scene is just
completely nutso. It was like an experiment in disappointment –
there’s just too much to see, there’s no hope of getting to all of
it. But the result is that when you do finally manage to catch
someone’s set, you’re thrilled. Most of what we heard was very very
loud, and some of it was very very good, indeed. Uncle Earl fell in
love with a number of acts there, including (but not limited to):
Mohair, KT Tunstall, Josh Ritter, The Waco Brothers, and Marty Stuart
and the Fabulous Superlatives.

From here we’re off to Louisiana, where I’m sure we’ll eat some
fried fish and, if we’re very lucky, get to dance some. Then we
drive to Florida to play at the beautiful Suwannee Springfest once
more – hopefully without the flooding this time around.

We’ll try to keep you posted on all our goings-on, so check back in
here at our website often so that you’re in the loop. And don’t
forget about our newsletter and our MySpace page, too!

Thanks for everything, all you kind people out there in cyberspace.
Hope the spring is treated you well...
Keep in touch and we’ll see you down the road,
Rayna & the g’Earls

Feb 20
Hello G'Earlfriends!

We want you to know that we're currently in Nashville doing "pre-production" (that's Nashville speak for "practicing") for our upcoming recording. Today we're taking a break to run up to Lexington, Kentucky, to perform on the Woodsongs Radio Hour, and then in a couple days we'll head to Tacoma, Washington to be a part of the Wintergrass festival.

We'll try to keep you posted on our activities, but in the meantime we'd just like you to know we're having a great time and we're heading into the studio next week. Woo hoo!

Take good care & we'll see you soon --

Rayna & the g'Earls

 

Howdy G’Earlfriends!

Okay, I’ve heard enough complaints about lack of news on our website that I’m finally sitting down and getting to work here.  I guess y’all need an update.  The problem is figuring out where to start.  I guess I’ll just catch you up on the freshest bits, and then fill in the rest some other time.

We’ve just finished up a very interesting trip, which began with the International Bluegrass Music Association conference, held for the first time this year in Nashville, Tennessee.  We had an official showcase this time, which meant we all got to be legit and have our very own laminated passes (a.k.a. “lammies”) – giving us access to the whole kit ‘n’ caboodle.
 
We enjoyed our officialness in part by cruising around the tradeshow, checking out all the booths and trying out fancy instruments.  At one point I was being introduced to someone at the Elderly Instruments booth, and had to step over a banjo that was on a stand in the middle of the crowd.  KC tugged my sleeve and whispered in my ear, “Um, Rayna, that banjo you’re straddling costs $13,000.”  These are the risks you encounter at the IBMA.  I decided to give that banjo a little more space.

While making the rounds there, we also got to meet Peter D’Addario, whose great string company has given Uncle Earl an endorsement deal. Yes, the whole band. Strings for everyone! D’Addario makes my favorite fiddle strings, so Peter (whom I think we all ought to call “P-Diddy-Dario”) is my new best friend for letting me have them for free.  (In case any fiddle geeks are wondering, I use Helicores with a Kaplan E string.  All made by D’Addario.) 

Uncle Earl was busy as could be all week. We are immensely grateful for all the hard work and positive energy of our booking agent, Mary Brabec, who was right there in the thick of it all week long. We really enjoyed our showcases, despite the fact that a ballroom full of presenters with clipboards isn’t really the easiest of audiences. To keep things good and festive, we gave out packets of glitter with our showcase schedules. There’s nothing in this world quite as magical – or surreal – as bluegrass-playing men wearing glitter.  We’re all for it.

Our publicist from Rounder, Lauren Calista, did a fabulous job of steering us from interview to interview throughout the week, and never once scolded us for being hung over. I guess she’s been to the IBMA conference before. One of our highlights for the week was our interview with Martha Burke from Ms. Magazine – an honor, indeed. We’re hoping we’ll make it into her article on women in bluegrass.  Thanks to our Rounder team for everything, including Sheri Sands for spoiling us with great food and lovely company, and an extra special thanks to Brad San Martin, who consistently does far more than he ought to for us. 

All of that stuff was great, but then there was what one might call the “unsanctioned activities”.  (Or one might just call it “partying”.)  There were jam sessions in every possible crevice of the Nashville Convention Center – hallways, alcoves, elevators, lobbies, mezzanines, stairwells, the bar, and, yes, bathrooms (sorry about that, Corbin).  We played with Foghorn, the Sidewinders, the Red Stick Ramblers, the Wilders, the Stairwell Sisters, Chris Eldridge, David Rawlings, Patrick Sauber, Bob Carlin, Chris Sharp, Emma Leahy-Good – okay, too many to keep track of, honestly.  We participated in the first-ever square dance at the IBMA (very unsanctioned). KC found out the hard way that we weren’t in Louisville anymore when she was nearly arrested for riding the freight elevator.  I discovered Danny Paisley.  We saw dawn almost every night.

KC & Chris Pandolfi are secretly cousins. Yes?

* This is Patrick Sauber (that guy in the back with the banjo...).

And then we went on tour!

It all started with Halloween in Knoxville, where we had a raucous bar show at the Preservation Pub with our beloved Wilders and our new favorite rock band, the Tarbox Ramblers.  We did tequila shots (except for Abby – she’s not allowed to drink tequila because it makes her pick fights, so she had whiskey) and danced like crazy women in our makeshift costumes.  I was the devil, Abby was a cop, KC was Minnie Pearl, Sharon was Wonder Woman (ain’t she, tho?), and Kristin was wearing an animal skin and braids and insisted we call her Sacajawea.  The Wilders were adorable in their various get-ups, though we were a bit frightened by how in-character they became.  The Tarbox Ramblers didn’t wear costumes, they just played scary music.  Scary good, that is. And also just scary.

What exactly was Abby's costume?

There's Sacajawea now! Spankin' some genuine 19th-century plywood...

The next night was Asheville -- my first ever hometown show with Uncle Earl.  We got to play with the Wilders again, who rocked the house as they unfailingly manage to do. The sad thing was that I had a terrible cough, which kept me from being able to sing, and also led to some embarrassing on-stage coughing fits.  Luckily the hometown crowd was very kind.  The Grey Eagle was packed, and we were thrilled to get such a great audience turnout.  My friends in the amazing band Toubab Krewe (check ‘em out, people) all came out to the show, too, which made me very happy.  Here’s a special shout-out to our new g’Earlfriend Jim Patterson, who housed and fed the entire band at his retreat-like abode in Black Mountain. Thanks, Jim! 

This turtle tried to block our path when leaving Rayna's driveway. After a brief conversation in which he was reassured that Rayna would be back soon, we were allowed to pass.

Then it was on to Boone, for a concert and dance put on by Appalachian State University.  The weather was glorious, and the drive up through the autumnal mountains was dreamy.  That was the fateful night that KC got fed up with my evil cough and called our band doctor, Dr. Mike (he’s a real doctor, don’t worry), who diagnosed me over the phone as most likely having the Whooping Cough, and kindly phoned in a prescription for all the needed meds.  I must say I’m rather proud of myself for coming down with such an old-timey illness.  After that matter was settled, we did a concert set, Phil Jamison called the squares, and we had a great time busting down for a cheery crowd of shockingly good dancers there at ASU.  It was another good night of comfy digs, thanks to the generosity of Edward Phifer.  The g’Earls want to be sure to say howdy to Alex and Anne Berhardt, and thanks to Ronnie Sheffler for the bass.

West Virginia was a bit of a blur for me, what with my new prescription cough syrup and all.  But we had a sweet gig at the Rosewood Theatre in Morgantown, and we got to see some old pals, including former g’Earl Amanda Kowalski and kind g’Earlfriend Rachel Eddy.  There was some good dancing there, too!  Next up was one of our favorite places to go:  the Jammin’ Java in Vienna, Virginia.  That place draws one of the lovingest audiences we ever get to enjoy, and the staff there is very welcoming to us.  Plus we have loads of good friends in the area. This time ‘round we got to see my dear friend Paul Brown, wunderkind fiddler Matt Brown, and members of the legendary Footworks Percussive Dance Ensemble (you’ve probably seen Kristin dance with them).  Before we got there, though, we had an in-store performance at Border’s in downtown D.C., and then had the honor of being on Voice of America.  Thanks to Rounder for setting up the in-store (it was big fun) and to Joan Kornblith for having us on VOA, and thanks to our local Superfans, Kent Murray and Bill Smoot, for being insanely generous and helping us out in numerous ways.  Bill and Phyllis Childers also housed us and fed us fruit, which was oh so appreciated.   

How often do we turn up at a gig with this exciting of a sign advertising our appearance? And how awesome that this was the first show we ever did with a BOY on the fiddle!!

The band’s outing into the wilds of Pennsylvania took place without me.  I left the tour to attend a memorial service, and the aforementioned Matt Brown filled in for me (big indebtedness here – thanks, Matt!).  From what I hear, the g’Earls and Matt were treated well, and they enjoyed themselves.  And it would be the weekend I’m away that 5 lbs. of gourmet Spanish chocolate is shipped in just for them.  Not fair.  They also hatched all sorts of plans I missed out on.  Dang, I hate it when we’re separated!

All g'Earl family portrait.. 

I was reunited with my dear bandmates in Charlottesville, Virginia, home to many lovely folks, including the dreamy King Wilkie boys (and their dreamy manager, Rick Easton).  It was also nice to see members of Troublesome Creek, and everyone’s good buddy Joe Fallon (thanks for the bass and housing, Joe).  Our gig was at the very mellow Gravity Lounge. Abigail opened for us with her solo-project bandmate, cellist Ben Sollee.  We did some sneaky plotting and bought a massive chocolate cake and candles to surprise Abby at the end of her opening set, since her birthday was mere days away.  The ensuing chocolate buzz resulted in a couple of very goofy sets of music for our last show of the tour.  Then we all went back to Maddy Olwell’s house (check out his band: www.myspace.com/hellontheninemile) for some conversation, nachos, and a lovely singing session with members of King Wilkie. I was dozing on the couch for much of it, but, as our friend Emily Voorhies says, “You don’t have to be awake to party.”   

 

Abby's b-day = November 10th

So now we’re all running around doing other stuff until New Year’s Eve, when we’ll reunite for a show in Denver with Yonder Mountain Stringband and Peter Rowan and probably a host of other special secret surprise guests. Will you all be there?  We sure hope so.

Thanks to everyone for continuing to be so darn supportive and nice to us.  If you’ve not yet signed up to receive our email newsletter, you ought to.  Kristin puts it together and it’s always festive and newsy and sometimes includes gossip and photos.  And, as a little tip, we’ve got some pretty juicy news that we’ll be sharing soon, so it would behoove you to get on the list.

We love all y’all.  See you soon!

Yer pals,
Rayna & the g’Earls

 
Photo credits for this edition of the notes (from the devil photo on down): Tony Lawson, KC Groves, Kristin Andreassen, Tony Lawson, Tony Lawson, Kristin Andreassen, Anonymous, Davis Tracy, Kristin Andreassen.

JULY 28
Greetings from the road!

Us g'Earls are currently at the O'Donovan House of Comforts and Cushiness in Newton, Mass. The road is treating us well on this outing. The endlessly suffocating heatwave has finally lifted, we're all buzzed from an unbelievably happy show at the Jammin' Java in Vienna, Virginia (where we were spoiled ridiculously by incredible fans), and tonight we're playing at Johnny D's in Cambridge, where we'll be seeing many of our new pals from Rounder Records. In the meantime, you should see us all on our laptops, scurrying around getting business done -- such an industrious crew!

Our dear Sharon is gigging elsewhere this week (hello Rockygrass!), so we've got a sub bass player for this trip. Her name is Alana Rocklin, aka "Rockin' Rocklin", a nickname she totally deserves. We're so happy to have her, and grateful she waded through hours of recordings of Uncle Earl shows to learn all our material (and picking up personal tidbits about each of us from our rambling stage patter).

Welp, I've got to get ready to head over to Johnny D's now, but I just thought I'd drop a line to let everyone know we're all doing well and having a great time on the road. We'd like to send a special shout-out to Rounder Records, who are treating us so well it's almost creepy. Yee haw!

See you down the road,
Rayna and the g'Earls

xoxo

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July 19

Today is the official release of our new album, She Waits For Night! hoooo ray!!!

Also, Sharon is going to be featured on the cover of the Mandolin Magazine!

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July 5th (happy birthday Janet Feder)

Let me start by saying: Telluride is everything that it's made out to be. Words like "magical", "divine", and "perfect" are bandied about, and it's all true. I'll warn you that once Uncle Earl arrived at the festival, we scattered in a zillion directions to take in music, visit with friends, and find Gatorade to help our poor dehydrated bodies. So my report will be lopsided toward my own personal adventures during our couple of days of mountain bliss.

We got in on Friday afternoon in time to catch the Tim O'Brien band rocking so hard it was disgusting. Our good pal (and producer of our new CD), Dirk Powell, was honking on the bass in a massive way, Tim was (as usual) singing his multi-talented ass off, Kenny Malone was tearing up the percussion, adorable Casey Driessen was shredding on the fiddle, and my hometown buddy John Doyle was being his usual unstoppable freight-train of a rhythm machine on the guitar. It was the perfect, joy-filled soundtrack for our arrival at my new favorite festival.

After delivering our stylie new t-shirts to the merch tent, it was into the fray with us. We circulated around the "poser pit" and backstage, saying howdy and catching up with all our buddies, plotting parties and sessions for later in the evening, and marveling at all the sights, sounds, and smells of the Telluride Bluegrass Festival.

For those of you who, like me before this weekend, have never been to this festival, let me give you a quick rundown: unfathomably beautiful setting, absurdly warm and enthusiastic audience, and the most efficient and friendly festival staff one could hope for. I've never been to a festival where I had such incredible listening experiences. Having just one stage made it possible to sit and focus and truly absorb the music, and the music was so damn good it was actually a little horrifying. No, really, I mean it. After seeing the Bela Fleck Acoustic Trio (Bela, Bryan Sutton, and Casey Driessen) on Saturday, KC and I nearly cut our own arms off in order to spare ourselves the task of taking the very same stage the next day. It was just that good.

Saturday afternoon we headed over to the "workshop stage", which is in downtown Telluride – outside of the festival – and hosted an old-time music bust-down with members of King Wilkie, Yonder Mountain Stringband, and Nickel Creek. We played a bunch of old standards, swapped instruments, and attempted to educate the audience a bit. Since it was a gorgeous day and the crowd was enthusiastic, Kristin decided to jump off the stage and organize a dance. It was a great scene, and the response from the audience was a joy.

Saturday night we played a "Nightgrass" set at a local club called Fly Me to the Moon. We opened for our dear friends the Duhks. It was a relaxed set, maybe because there was an oxygen tank backstage, so our heart rates could finally come down a bit. Right…have I mentioned the altitude yet? Way high. Kind of them to provide oxygen tanks backstage for lowlanders like us. Anyway, at that show we invited fiddlers Darol Anger and Sara Watkins to join us on a couple tunes, which was a special treat for me. It was a sort of tonal thrill-ride.Yee doggies!

We went straight from our set at Fly Me to the Moon to sitting in with the Yonder Mountain Stringband. Darol was there, too. (He's everywhere, thank goodness.) The place was packed, the band was cranked up, and the audience was a hazey blur of hollering hippies. We loved it. Note to Yonder: more, please!

Sunday morning we all got up early (especially for us) and headed toward the big stage. The beautiful band Ollabelle was on before us, making such luscious music that we all kept running from our green room out to the edges of the stage to watch the show. Then we were on. The sun was shining, Ollabelle had sucked in a large and happy crowd, and we were all giddy. We had such a blast. I was all blissed out, checking out the gorgeous view, the gorgeous audience, my gorgeous bandmates…it was one of those perfect moments. Very happy.At the end of our set, we invited former g'Earl Sally Truitt, honorary g'Earl Sara Watkins, g'Earl heroine EmmyLou Harris, and EmmyLou's daughter Megan Ahern out to sing "Keys to the Kingdom" with us.

After we finished our set we went to the merch tent to sign cds. I expected that to take us about 10 minutes. We ended up being there for almost an hour and a half. (Apologies to anyone who is sad they didn't get Abby's autograph -- she was getting ready to do her tweener set with Bela Fleck.) Super super sweet folks waited in line for ages to chat about our band and have us sign cds, posters, and t-shirts. We even got to sign a pregnant woman's belly! Big huge thanks to all you kind folks who waited in line to say nice things to us. It seems downright backward to me. Shouldn't we be the ones who wait in line to hear the nice feedback?

I'd heard that if you go to Telluride, you must ride the gondola. Even better if there are instruments involved, right? On Sunday afternoon KC, Kristin, our friend Christopher, Jake and Ted from King Wilkie, Chris Thile from Nickel Creek, and myself all squoze into one gondola car with instruments (there was some difficulty, but we figured it out). We also had a pound of chocolate and a flask of whisky. Lovely! The ride was far too short, and also, I'll admit, a bit cramped for comfortable music-making. So once we'd gone all the way up and back on our ride, we all poured out onto the sidewalk in Telluride and commenced to busting down in earnest. We were so absorbed in our own little merry band that we failed to notice that Ted had left his guitar case open and facing away from our circle – thus appearing as if we were busking. We all cracked up when the first couple bucks got dropped into the case, then thanked the small crowd that had gathered, and closed the guitar case. But as soon as we went back to playing, a few more people opened the case and slipped money in. We ended up with $6 in all, which we donated to the tip jar for the bartenders backstage.

The rest of Sunday was spent doing more listening. Bobby McFerrin blew all of us away with his magical solo set, not to mention the guest appearances he made with Bela Fleck and Alison Krauss. That man is tapped into something way deep.

By Sunday night everyone was weary, but I wasn't ready for the party to be over. I wandered over to check out the Nickel Creek performance at the cozy Sheridan Opera House. It was a wonderfully intimate show, and they sounded incredible. I ended up sitting in for a couple tunes with them along with Bryan Sutton and Tim O'Brien. A little later in the show, Kristin got up and danced. Nickel Creek's friendly and stellar show was the perfect icing on a perfect festival.

I, for one, am still recovering from the magic of Telluride. It was a mega-dose of inspiration that could take years to fully digest. I think we'll be fighting tooth-and-nail to get back there again next year, gig or not. Thanks to Planet Bluegrass for including us in their amazing party.

Peace, love, and 1LB of chocolate,
Rayna

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June 23

Howdie folks! We're out on the road again. Big news is that Telluride was a huge success. The weather was perfect and our main stage set went really well. We even had some special guests for our "Keys To the Kingdom" song.....Rayna is working on detailed notes of the whole weekend so stay tuned! We also had a great time before Telluride in Albuquerque and Santa Fe. We played a house concert in Santa Fe and while we played we got to watch a beautiful dessert storm roll by the huge windows we were facing (all the audience could see was us). The rolling thunder and big dramatic cracks of lightening made it a very dramatic and exciting show for us. After the show Kristin and myself (KC) met our friend Rick Easton, the manager of King Wilkie and Reed Burgess' charming brother, Bryce Burgess for a drink on the Plaza. We then drove around for a few hours like highschoolers listening to the new Sometimes Why album, Kristin and I in the backseat giggling, Rick at the wheel driving way too fast while Bryce entertained us with his own stories and theories about music, love and life.

We are now safely in Lawrence Kansas but it was a rough ride here as we experienced something called Vaper Lock on the way here. It got so hot in the car a bar of chocolate melted into a puddle of liquid goodeness. Everyone scrambled for crackers and nuts or anything we could dip into it. We basically had a fondou party in the van somewhere around Hays Kansas.  Unfortunately we missed our show at Mass Street Music but decided to stay in Lawrence anyway.

Our long hot day with our ailing van was rewarded by a pleasant surprise in the form of a giant victorian house with 6 bedrooms and 6 bathrooms (6 clawfoot tubs!) super soft sheets and fluffy pillows. There is a lovely couple here in Lawrence who do house concerts themselves and they offered to put us 5 wayward travelers up for the night (did I mention having to drive through Kansas with the heat on high?). I just woke up and my phone is charging softly next to the bed, I'm using the high speed wireless internet that is coarsing thorough all our laptops which I'm sure everyone is using in their own little corner of this grand but cozy old house. Should I send Rayna an instant message? No, I think I'll let her be. If and when we decide to get out of bed, we will make our way to Owensboro Kentucky to play the River of Music festival then immediately off to the Battleground Fiddlers Convention.

Please send anyone you know in the Chicago area to our show at the Empty Bottle. It's an early show around 5pm I believe (make sure you check before comming out!!) It should be a fun show with a couple of other bands and we'd love to pack the place. That's gonna be on Sunday.

Stay tuned.....more very soon!!!

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June 2005

Happy festival season everybody!!  Our fair writer, Rayna, was in Alaska and is now undoubtedly tearing it up and busting down at Mt. Airy. In the mean time I will fill y'all in on a coupla' things. If you didn't hear the news, or haven't heard the whole story, it goes like this. A few weeks ago, were all at a week-long retreat in Nashville learning new songs and enjoying some down time together.I was in the kitchen, Sharon was downstairs practicing, Kristin was doing yoga by the fire, Abby was working on her computer when from the dining room came a shrill like "oh my god!" We all ran in to see if Rayna was ok only to be asked, "ok folks, there was a cancellation, so do we want to play Merlefest Mainstage 2 acts before Loretta Lynn?" Needless to say there was very little discussion about it!!!! Heck yea!!! So 2 days later we packed in Abby's van and made our way down there. We had a great time playing and made a bunch of new friends. Kristin broke a brand new string during the set but as she walked off stage Bryan Sutton handed her his precious old Martin guitar to play. Did anyone hear us on XM radio?

So other news is that we signed with Rounder Records! Our long awaited CD, She Waits For Night (produced by Dirk Powell) will finally be released!  I think the official release date is in early August, but rumor has it that there might be a box or two to sell at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival....as well as some snappy new tee-shirts.

* KC & the g'Earls

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Feb 2005

Hello g'Earl friends!

The most recent Uncle Earl outing took us all over the frozen Midwest with some of our favorite pals. You can read about some of our adventures in KC's notes-from-the-road. It really was quite the pile of Big Fun. If you've seen the film "Festival Express", you'll know why we're plotting to have our next group stringband tour on a cross-country train. We can't wait.

Since we've already given you the scoop on most of our Midwestern adventures, I'll backtrack a bit and fill you in on our New Year's Eve show in Boulder. We were honored to ring in the new year with The Sam Bush Band and Bela Fleck at the Boulder Theater. I swear I'm not bragging, I just have to say: it seems like wherever Uncle Earl goes, there's a great party. I love being in this band. Anyway, we had a great time playing for the sold-out (and very festive) crowd, and gave them the bonus treat of having our cellist friend Michael James Kott sit in for a few, which is always an adventure.

After our set, the Sam Bush Band and Bela Fleck got up on the charmingly-decorated stage and rocked out (as one would expect). As midnight approached, us g'Earls came back to the stage (bottles of champagne in hand) to participate in a joyful countdown to 2005, a rousing rendition of "After Midnight", and, finally, one of the most ridiculous conga lines in history. Well, I guess conga lines are always ridiculous. But ours had the special distinction of including Michael James Kott, who departed the line in order to hop up on one of the stage props (a giant Rubik's Cube), take his shirt off, swing it over his head, and throw it to the crowd. It was a true rock 'n' roll moment. Afterward, when asked about his wild behavior, Michael said simply, "I'd always wanted to do that. It felt really good."

At maybe 1am, with Sam and Bela and the boys thoroughly immersed in some hard-core jamming that appeared to be headed for an all-nighter, a few of us Earlenes took off across town to the Fox Theater to catch what we could of the historic last performance of Leftover Salmon. We squeezed our way in the back door and found ourselves picking our way through a packed crowd of fans and friends. I think the best word to describe the show is "epic", and I was impressed and moved by the whole scene I witnessed there. It was beautiful music and an amazing vibe.

So the whole night turned out to be magical and lovely, a wonderful way to begin 2005. We've been up to all sorts of stuff since then, and have lots more great times awaiting us this year. A belated but heartfelt HAPPY NEW YEAR to all of you dear people out there who come to our shows and check out our website and support us in so many ways.We're so grateful we could just about bust. Many many thanks to you all.

xoxo,
Rayna and the g'Earls

Click here to read daily updates from the Tidal Wave Tour

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November 2004

In September we stole bass-boy-wonder Kyle Kegerreis from Nashville and took off for legendary Branson, Missouri. We performed for a few days at Silver Dollar City, land of 1880's theme rides and frozen lemonade. The freaky thing was that the darling King Wilkie bluegrass band was sharing our stage with us. What are the chances of that? We'd do a set, they'd do a set -- and then we'd all run off to ride roller coasters. If you're headed to Silver Dollar City, we recommend repeated excursions on Wildfire. Another of our favorite rides is Thunderation--you can see footage of that one on King Wilkie's website. There were all sorts of cool things about playing at SDC (as the insiders call it), not the least of which was having the astonishing Violet Hensley jump up on stage and dance with us. Whoa, dude. My personal highlight was the real-live tarantula that looked like it was part of the olde-tyme-y set -- until I reached for it and it bunched up all its furry legs (and the park officials swooped in to remove it).

We left the theme-park fantasyland of Branson for the musical fantasyland of Mountain View, Arkansas. We performed two nights at the Ozark Folk Center, and after each show went into town to witness the magic of the place--it's like a huge outdoor music party and everyone's invited. There were a ton of sessions going on all over the town square, and loads of folks who were just there to listen. Saturday night we joined in and had a session with some of our new Arkansas buddies. We also took turns getting motorcycle rides with Folk Center music director John Van Orman on his screamingly stylish Royal Enfield bike. Yee hoo! We had a great time and felt so welcomed there--we all fell in love with Mountain View and have claimed it as one of our many homes.

There was bluegrass music piped into the trash cans at Silver Dollar City.
Tim O'Brien was singing a Bill Monroe song at the time the photo was taken.

After a brief return trip to Branson, we drove back to Nashville just in time to have a big bust-down party with The Duhks (who were wrapping up recording there--whoowee, just wait til you hear THAT album!) and Ruthy Ungar and Mike Merenda of The Mammals, plus loads of wonderful Nashville friends.

After a short break from band work, we met up once more in Portland, Oregon. First of all, we had some good rehearsing with Santa Fe-based bassist (and mandolinist and singer and songwriter) Sharon Gilchrist, and then we welcomed our mothers. mothers, you say? Yes, ladies and gentlemen, it was the first annual Mother Earl Summit, also known as Momfest. We knew they'd dig each other, it was just a matter of getting them all in the same place at the same time. It finally happened, and it was sooooooo cool.

We left our moms to bond with each other while we took off for Eugene. We really should've brought them with us, because they'd have nearly doubled our audience there. All I can say is, thank goodness Kristin has supportive relatives sprinkled all over the glorious state of Oregon. Anyhoo, the next night was Seattle. We played at Conor Byrne's Pub, and it was packed with a super-fun crowd. They were sort of freakishly attentive for a bar audience, and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Oh, yeah--and Mount St. Helens blew that day. On the drive back to Portland the next day we could see the massive plumes of steam. Dramatic, but luckily not tour-disrupting.

Next up was our now-annual engagement as part of the Sisters of the Road benefit. This year it was at the Portland Zoo, and it was a splendid event in support of a great organization. We played in between dinner and the auction, and after the auction the Foghorn Stringband played for a square dance with Bill Martin (the world's most good-humored and laid-back dance caller). We all got to dance with our moms and be silly. The following night we had our "public" engagement in Portland at the White Eagle Saloon. It was more like a private party in a great pub, though, since we packed the place with our family and friends. I guess there were a few people there we didn't know, but I think we knew everyone by the end of the night. After we finished up there, we scrambled over to the Moon and Sixpence, where Foghorn has their weekly gig. Some of us joined in for some tunes with the boys, some of us just dug the scene, and we all drank Spanish Coffees (thank you, Caleb Klauder)--a must-have drink experience if you're in Portland. It was a wonderful last blast with our moms and our Portland buddies.

Our last night in Portland blurred into the next morning, when we all--somehow--managed to find our way to the airport to fly to Louisville, Kentucky, for the International Bluegrass Music Association conference. The week at IBMA was a wild ride. We had showcases every night, plus jamming and visits with many old and new friends. The legendary cellist/character Michael James Kott just happened to be staying at The Gault House (where the conference was held), and he created many a memorable moment during our week--including hosting a party in a mysteriously empty room in the hotel that he'd decorated just for us. Security came and chased us out for making too much noise, but not before we'd all gotten Michael's electric-mandolin version of "Another One Bites the Dust" stuck in our heads.

Our week in Louisville was everything we knew it would be: intense, joyful, educational, and profoundly exhausting. But beyond showcasing or partying or schmoozing, the most important event of our IBMA 2004 experience came on our last night there. Sharon Gilchrist had been playing with us for our Northwest stint and our week at IBMA, and, well, we'd fallen in love with her. She's amazing in every way. So before our final showcase, the four of us g'Earls got down on one knee (each) and proposed. We asked her to join the band and she said "yes". Thus Uncle Earl has officially expanded to be five women in five far-flung states. We know--it ain't practical. But practicality is for wimps.

So that's the scoop on our September/October adventures. Next up is a short Colorado tour in early December. Brrr! Maybe we'll see you there--?

Take care and visit often,

Rayna and the g'Earls

 

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August 2004

Howdy Earl-friends!

Kind of you to stop by the site. We hope you'll stop in often and maybe even give us a holler now and then.

Before I catch you up on our travels, I need to clear the record a bit. Rumors of Uncle Earl being involved in group-marriage, cloning research and other cult-like behavior have been blown way out of proportion by the media. But of course Uncle Earl's true fans would have more sense than to trust the tabloids. Right?

Our July adventures began when we all scrambled into Salt Lake City (with bass player Dan Rose) in barely enough time to wash our faces before sitting in for a few numbers with Peter Rowan at the downtown summer concert series there. Kristin played for much of his set, and then the rest of us joined Peter and his band at the very end of the show. Peter is so gracious, he didn't even cringe when we thoroughly butchered "Free Mexican Airforce". (What key was that in?) Okay, some of us (points at self) butchered it more than others.

From there we found our way to Snowbird for the Founder's Title Festival. Our performance at the festival was great fun, and we met lovely people. Leo Coulson of the Deseret Stringband was the very patient vendor who let KC and I sit at his booth for much of the weekend, petting and cooing at a lovely old Gibson LG-2 that KC ended up buying--yippee! I turned in early on Saturday night, thus missing a groovy party. But my weariness also saved me from a freak golf-cart accident that left my bandmates with contusions (and a good story). We enjoyed our drive back to Uncle Earl base camp in Lyons, Colorado, and upon arrival there we immediately hunkered down to woodshed and prepare for the upcoming recording project.

We were giddy over being included in the lineup for the Rockygrass Festival right there in Lyons, and we had a panel of experts helping us figure out what to do for our set. Despite our playing early on Friday at the height of the cruddy weather--thunder and blowing rain--there was a crowd of devoted festival-goers who appeared, from our view, as a mass of writhing ponchos in the mud. We were touched by their hardiness.

Saturday night of that same weekend will forever be known as "The Best Bar Gig Ever". Oskar Blues is a great bar and restaurant in Lyons, and we'd played there before. But playing there Rockygrass weekend makes for a unique experience, indeed. Because Abby had to leave town to attend a funeral, Noam Pikelny very kindly stepped in to be our banjo player for the evening. With Noam on board, things were already getting wacky and fun. But then we had Sharon Gilchrist, Jeff Hamer, Amanda Kowalski, and Greg Schochet join us at various points throughout the evening. The third set, however, kicked the wackiness level to new heights. Mark Schatz showed up with his dancing shoes and his banjo, and he was ready to rock. Chris Thile arrived, as we'd hoped he would, and he was followed by his mando-pickin' buddy John Paul Jones. Yes, you heard me right. Because I'm a Led Zeppelin fan, I have to tell this part of the story: I approach John Paul Jones and say, "Do you want to play some?", and he says, "Oh, that'd be great! Are you sure it's alright?" Um, yeah. Rock & roll legend, meet old-time stringband. Mark, Chris, and John proceed to join us for our entire last (exceedingly raucous) set, which was such a buzz it's probably illegal.

After Rockygrass, we all piled onto an airplane and headed down to Louisiana to record our full-length album at Dirk Powell's studio near Breaux Bridge. Dirk, his amazing wife Christine Balfa, and their two daughters live right on the Bayou Teche, and Dirk's new studio is a sweet little building on their property. We were generously housed by Josh Caffery, formerly of the Red Stick Ramblers, at his gorgeous home in Breaux Bridge. Josh and his sweetie Claire treated us far better than we deserved, and we all slept soundly in comfy beds. Everything about the experience down there was wonderful, and Dirk's steady hand steered us through a surprisingly comfortable week of recording. I'm sure you've all heard stories about bands breaking up in the studio, but I'm happy to announce that our recording experience did nothing but bond us. We departed Louisiana chock full of good vibes and excitement about the music we're working on. You can look for the finished product to be released this winter.

We went straight from making our record to the wild party scene at Clifftop, in West Virginia, where the Appalachian Stringband Music Festival is held. We set up our camp, which we dubbed "Earlville", and decorated our tents with flowers and streamers. One of our band highlights for the weekend was getting to participate in the Lonesome Sisters CD release party. They had a few friends come and join in with the festivities, so we did a few numbers there, and also got to hear the Lonesome Sisters, Riley Baugus, Ginny Hawker and Tracy Schwartz. If you haven't heard the Lonesome Sisters yet (Sarah Hawker and Debra Clifford), you really must check them out. We're big fans. Another festival highlight was having Abby's mom, Chrissy, show up at Earlville to have her first festival experience with us.

From there we all went our separate ways for a couple weeks, then met up again on Cape Cod for our first ever Northeastern tour. We played a lovely private party right on the water--along with our beloved Open Road boys--and then headed to Boston to play at Club Passim. It was great to get to see our Boston-area friends, including the elusive band Tenbrooks, who opened for us at Passim. From there it was off to Ithaca, where we had a surprisingly large crowd for a Monday night at the Charter House. We think that was partly due to very good publicity on the part of the concert organizer, and partly due to having our road-companion Bela Fleck open for us. (You should've seen the cell-phone action happening on the front sidewalk as soon as he started playing.) We had an incredibly fun time at that show. Thanks to everyone who packed themselves into that venue, and special thanks to Scott Seidts for being our soundman. It was somewhere around there that Kristin bought the old road-hog van known as "Rosie" from our pals in The Mammals, which made for some cushy travel to Carlisle, PA, the next stop on our tour. We were there to play for freshman orientation at Dickinson College. Some of them actually listened, and Kristin managed to get a few of them dancing! We got to stay in the plushy college guest house and have
all the free coffee drinks we could hold.

Our next adventure was finding our way to the Wednesday night dance in Baltimore, which was a great chance for us to just bust down on fiddle tunes for a whole night. Our pal Bonnie housed us that night and pampered us the next day with a great lunch before we headed to DC to play at the Kennedy Center Millennium Stage. The Kennedy Center show was quite a treat--a beautiful space to play, and a very warm audience. We were all impressed with the whole concept of that concert series: free concerts every day, and a very wide variety of music. We were honored to be included in the lineup.

The legendary Philadelphia Folk Festival was next, and the heat was suffocating. Luckily, the audiences there more than made up for the discomfort of the heat. And really it was all worth it just to see one set by La Bottine Souriante (featuring the amazing dancer Sandy Sylva), and also to get tosay a quick hello to the good people of Ollabelle. Our mainstage set with the Greengrass Cloggers was a huge thrill--the energy of the dancers really got us fired up, and the sweet reception from the audience was a joy.

We hightailed it out of there that Sunday in order to get to New York City in time to play for the Republican National Convention. Ha! Actually, we were splitting a night at Pete's Candy Store in Brooklyn with Rushad Eggleston and his Wild Band of Snee. They really are wild, too. That was a teeny, cozy venue, and we had a great night goofing off with members of the Mammals, Crooked Still, and other music buddies.

So that's the scoop from most of our summer. I'm writing this while on the road in Missouri, but our more recent road stories will be included in another update very soon. Check back to hear our stories from Silver Dollar City!

Take care y'all,

Rayna & the G'Earls

 

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June 2004

Hello friends of Uncle Earl!

My, my, we've certainly been up to some adventuring lately. So much so that I've fallen behind on telling you about our time "on the road". But the suspense ends here. Let me tell you all about our recent travels.

Back in April there were a few days in Nashville. We opened for the ever-colorful Jim Lauderdale (and his bluegrass band) at the Station Inn. It was great to see all of our Nashville pals, and we enjoyed picking with our bass-player-du-jour, Kyle Kegerreis. Our favorite banjo-playing alien freak Bela Fleck very graciously hosted us during part of our stay in Nashvegas, and provided us with a machine that made fancy coffee-drinks at the push of a button--and our own private concert by the dreamy Paul Brady. There was much swooning and teary-ness among us g'Earls (and that was just over the coffee machine!--kidding). Many thanks to Bela and all the other friends, old and new, who took such good care of all of us there in the belly of the beast.

Uncle Earl then parted ways for one weekend, before meeting up again in Colorado for our trip to the exotic Western Slope. Sally Truitt, Eric Thorin, and Dan Rose shared bass duties for that tour. Things got started kinda funny, with KC falling prey to a nasty stomach bug. We actually had to perform without her at Oskar Blue’s in Lyons--her hometown show! Terrible! But she valiantly pulled herself up by her bootstraps for the next night's show in Denver, at the Skylark Cafe. That place was so hip it scared me. It was an adventure (to say the least) to run our own sound, but once we settled in we had a great time there. The following night--Steve's Guitar Shop in Carbondale--was our first night ever playing with Dan Rose on bass, and it was a memorably fun night. The place was packed, and the good vibes were almost more than we could take. Thanks to Steve and everyone that came out that night and made that show such a blast.

Paonia deserves its own paragraph. We performed at the Paradise Theater, which is very appropriately named--a neat old movie theater, and a lovely setting for a concert. Paonia is a nuttily beautiful area, and filled with wonderful warm characters. We were spoiled terribly by Rob and Rebecca, who fed us amazing food and handed their home over to us. So we all have great memories of Paonia, except for Abby, whose turn it was then to have the flu. But she set a precedent for g'Earl toughness by performing while turning various shades of green. Way to go, Abby!

Then it was off to Nederland to play at the Acoustic Coffeehouse. It was yet another beautiful part of Colorado I'd never seen, and the venue itself was cozy and staffed by sweet folks. The crowd was great, and it was a treat to have Ross Martin sit in on guitar for one number. In the few days following that gig, we cranked out a mini record (six cuts) to sell at festivals this summer. It's called "Going to the Western Slope," and it's available through our website and also through CDBaby.com--but of course we'd prefer that you come see us live and buy one at a show.

Our next adventure began in Michigan in mid-May. We split a show at The Ark with Steppin' In It--an insanely fun band of Michiganders. We're big fans. After our show, we popped on over to the Fox Theater in Detroit to say howdy to our friends who are doing that "Great High Mountain" tour (including our producer-to-be, Dirk Powell). You wouldn't believe the fleet of cushy tour buses those people are cruising around in. Wow.

The next morning we hit the road for Beanblossom, Indiana, home of the Bill Monroe Bluegrass Festival. No, it wasn't for that festival. We were playing at the first annual Beanblossom "Olde Tyme Music Festival". (Please don't let their spelling reflect on us as a band, thank you very much.) It rained like mad, but we managed to have fun anyway (imagine that). I had the big surprise of seeing my gradeschool friend (and fine bluegrass picker) Rich Walter there, and afterward we had a very fun session with him, Bela Fleck (who also sat in for a couple tunes on stage), Mark Johnson, and a slightly confused but apparently music-loving crawdad. From there we headed to Elkhart, Indiana, my strange hometown, for some parental pampering and a fun little concert that my mom, Jenny, put together for us. My dad, Dan Gellert, sat in with us on a few numbers there (you all need to buy his new album, by the way). It was great fun to show off my beloved and charming bandmates to my folks and old friends.

There was a long, strange trip from there out to Colorado, including a stop in Nebraska to see a beautiful barbed-wire buffalo, and a coffee-break in Iowa City that lasted three hours. Dan Rose did most of the driving (we’re hoping we can all marry him when we go to Utah later this summer). We finally made it to Lyons, where we did another superbly fun show as part of the High Street concert series. We’ve all settled right into being at home at KC’s house there--it feels like Uncle Earl’s spiritual center, for sure, and we always love to be there.

New Mexico was next, and I honestly don't know quite what to say about it. We played a small concert in Corrales, then on to a private party somewhere way out in the desert. Gorgeous. Let me just say Uncle Earl has never been so spoiled. There just aren’t enough thank-you’s for Bevin and John. I mean, really--cute boys who take us in, feed us incredible gourmet snacks, give us cushy beds in a stylish house, then in the morning take us to a huge thrift store??? I think it was actually a collective dream. But we ain’t arguing. We just hope to go back there someday.

Since then we’ve all been having individual adventures. Those of us in the eastern half of the country all managed to make it to Mt. Airy, where we quickly gained a reputation for being crazed sparkler-wielding party animals. Yee hoo!

Please check our schedule page to see when we may be headed your way, because it’s likely we are. Much love to all our kind supportive friends out there, and we look forward to seeing you soon.

Party on, dudes.
xoxo,
Rayna & the rest of the g’Earls

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March 2004

Greetings from Uncle Earl!

Our most recent adventures took us to beautiful California, where we did a string of double-bills with our favorite bluegrassers, Open Road, before landing smack dab in the middle of the insanity that is the Folk Alliance Conference.

The week began bleary-eyed in San Francisco, with all of us arriving from different time zones--and in various states of exhaustion. But it seems that when we get together, sleep becomes just about unnecessary. So the usual buzz of Uncle Earl activity got underway--tunes were played, set-lists sketched, outfits discussed (yes, it's true), roasted almonds consumed, etc. We were so happy to participate in the San Francisco Bluegrass and Old-Time Festival, and extra happy that the venue we lucked into getting was the Noe Valley Ministry. Our first night of the tour turned out to be one of our all-time favorite shows...it never fails, that festival draws the greatest audiences, I swear. After the show, I begged to go see Rube Waddell play at the Odeon, and was rewarded with getting to share the Joy of Rube with my bandmates, various band-friends, and Open Road. A wonderful night, all around.

The next day we drove a bit north to play at Rancho Nicasio, a gorgeous spot, and well worth the queasy drive to get there. There we played a short opening set, then enjoyed the great music and sweet company of the Kathy Kallick Band (along with our Open Road buddies, of course). We ate well, drank well, and then headed back to San Fran to catch Bob Carlin, The Stairwell Sisters, and the Foghorn Stringband at The Makeout Room as part of the SFBOT Festival. Yet another crazy-fun night of music, dancing, and camaraderie. After sleeping well at the home of Kristin’s gradeschool chum Ellen (thank you so much, Ellen and family!), it was off to Fresno. And how do you get there, again? Okay, so we took an unintended detour. Okay, so we arrived a little later than we’d planned. Luckily, the handful of people hanging out at Club Fred didn’t really seem to mind too much. In fact, they kept bringing us beer, so I think they liked us. We played our set, then ran off to eat while Open Road got started. When we got back to the club we danced and cheered the boys on for a while, then eventually we all wandered back onto the stage for a big-band bust-down/song-swap that so entertained us we didn’t want to quit. We dragged ourselves to our motel in the wee hours, only to be frustrated by confused electronic keys. And then after that all got sorted out, there was the Open Road “fan” who tried to break our door down (Bradford seems to have that effect on women). At any rate, we all survived Fresno, a town which has some fun record stores and very nice signage.

San Luis Obispo struck us as clean and serene. The whole Uncle Earl/Open Road crew hit the streets together to find a good spot to busk, though our progress was slowed when the fellas realized we’d parked next to Victoria’s Secret. Outfits were discussed once more. The take from busking was slim, but we met some nice folks and got the word out about our show that night at the Frog & Peach. Of course it was Mardi Gras, so I’m not sure the youngsters in that town needed much convincing to come out to a bar. We certainly got into the spirit as well...but let me assure you that anything KC may tell you about what her bandmates did that night just ain’t true.

The next day was our “day off”, and we parted ways with our bluegrass buddies to hit the road for Los Angeles. It was a butt-numbing drive through pouring rain, but finally having some chill-out time that night in L.A. did us all good. Big thanks to Abby’s old friend Amy (and her housemates) for taking us in! After a good night’s rest, jogging for everyone, and laundering of clothes, it was off to the AlterKnit, which is actually a broom closet at The Knitting Factory. Sally Truitt arrived, much to our giddy delight, to relieve Eric Thorin of his all-girl-band bass-playing duties, which I’m sure was a relief both to him and his Open Road bandmates (who were afraid we intended to keep him for ourselves). After the gig--which was attended, it seemed, only by close personal friends of Uncle Earl--there was a photo op with the Earl Scruggs (he’s not our uncle, by the way) and Dwight Yoakam stars on the walk of fame. Then piles of Honey Duck were consumed at Toi Thai.

After all that, Kristin and KC piled into the Open Road van to drive to San Diego that night, while Abby and I retired to Amy’s. We woke the next day to clear skies, and--because of the rain--got to see the L.A.skyline minus the smog. Gorgeous!

And then: San Diego. There’s simply no hope of describing even the tiniest fraction of what all we managed to fit into that one weekend at the Folk Alliance, so I’m afraid to even try. I’ll just say that we had a great time playing our showcases, we were very happy with how we were received, and we all had an unbelievably great time hanging out with and listening to our friends, old and new. It was an extra special treat to spend the last night playing tunes and being downright silly with a conglomeration of members of Foghorn, The Duhks, The Mammals, and Crooked Still, among others. Many thanks to our agent, Mary Brabec, for being a wonderful showcase hostess, and also to the folks at the Roots Revue showcase. We had such fun!That’s the scoop from Uncle Earl’s road adventures. We’re really looking forward to our next outing (Colorado in April). Drop us a line with any questions, and feel free to contact Mary Brabec with gig ideas.

Thanks for visiting, and best wishes,

Rayna (on behalf of the g’earls)

 

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