January 11th-18th: AirPlay & The Thunderbird

IceJam was fantastic AGAIN! I’m not sure the George’s can out-do themselves again. Just so much fun, and you get to see so many different people! I showed up both days, and stayed well into the night (I think up until around 3 AM for both.) Got to see all the Echo Valley family, my great friends from WV, hell Dennis even showed up, which was a little bit of a surprise to me. The best part though was Saturday night- the David Mayfield Parade came to perform, and David had a lineup of musicians with him- Scott Petersen on mandolin, David on guitar, Ohio’s 2-time banjo national champion Stephen Moore, and a bass player that I’ve never heard of (unfortunately.) David our on a killer show-great jokes, decent songs, good energy. After their set, I had to get him a CD of mine-you never know! We chatted for a quick minute (their merch stand was immediately swamped following their set,) and then Tom Carpenter, Jeff, Lauren McAnallen, and I went off to jam in The Cove (the hallway going to the pool room at the hotel. It’s solid brick and smells like chlorine from the pool, but it’s loud as all get out and you catch a bunch of people there.) It wasn’t long after we got started that Stephen Moore showed up to play! He’s an awesome dude, and an even banjo player. We played Minor Swing (Dm,) Wheel Hoss, Train 45, One Way Track, Kentucky Waltz, Swing 42, and some other songs I’m sure, but I just can’t seem to remember now. Anyways, I hope I get to play with him again in the future. I also got to see Bruce Mountjoy from WYEP out of Pittsburgh and Richard from WRCT. They both do radio spots playing bluegrass music, on different days. Since my EP is coming out soon, I wanted to give them both a copy to play, and thankfully, they both were very happy to do so. So much so that Bruce aired a song that Sunday night, no questions asked. Richard aired it that coming Wednesday in the morning. I am truly grateful that the DJs in Pittsburgh are open to local artists.

Im gearing up for my upcoming show at the Thunderbird! Joe Dep (Shelf Life String Band) confronted me about his jam/show that he does there, where he has special guests every week, and there’s a jam room in the back for people who just want to pick. He asked if I’d be interested in being a guest, and I immediately said “I’d love to play, as long as I can do it at a time to promote my EP!” No problems with that. Then, it wasn’t until after the New Year that we finally booked it. This week, I got done with a 30 second commercial to promote the show. I’ll have my EPs with me, and the lineup will be Joe (banjo,) Patricia Imbrogno (upright bass,) Rocky Youhon (fiddle,) and myself for sure. I don’t know if we’re getting a mandolin player or not, and I’m sure there will be other rotating guests, so it should be a fun tuesday! Music starts at 8 PM, so come down to Lawrenceville!

Last night, I was at The Harmony Inn with The Millbillys for a show, which went great. At one point, I had the whole bar singing David Alan Coe’s “You Never Even Called Me By My Name.” There was also a guy who showed up and wanted to play some telecaster with us, since he knew we were playing older country. I was amazed to hear the sonic difference when adding an electric guitar-it makes a world of difference for country music. So much better sounding! After the show, I also had the pleasure of meeting a guy and girl who were originally from the area, but moved to Colorado for a period of time, and we’re back in town. We get to talking, and I come to find out this guy used to own a studio/music rental space for touring musicians- people like Billy Strings, Railroad Earth, etc. Next thing I know, we’re talking about Telluride, Fruition, local jams, Tyler Childers and Sturgill Simpson- it seems like these people had connections, and they were down to earth, cool cats. As we were talking about Colorado, I mentioned Im probably going to be out that way around Memorial Day. I gave him an EP and a card, and he offered to potentially set up some shows when I come out. But, I’d hate to get ahead of myself too much, so hopefully he gets a hold of me. If not, it’s just part of the business.