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2009 has been an intense year.  It has been quite a ride with many ups and downs and everything that falls in between.  We would like to extend our most heartfelt love and appreciation to those of you who have crossed our paths and supported us along the way.  We feel proud of how well the shows have gone this year, and we are proud of the growth we have experienced as a band.....

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It is with great sadness but hope for great things to come that we announce founding member Jay Lapp has decided to leave the band.  As many of you know, Jay has been splitting his time between Trent Wagler and the Steel Wheels and Goldmine Pickers for many years, and he has decided to devote 100% of his energy to Trent and the Steel Wheels in the year to come.  Jay will also be doing some work with Ted Swartz’s Theater Company.  Trent and the Steel Wheels are currently putting the finishing touches on their 5^th album.  Be sure to pick up a copy and catch them live in 2010.  Jay has expressed an interest is performing with the Goldmine Pickers in the future as a guest artist when the special occasion should arise.....

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As many of you know, long time member, fiddler, singer, songwriter, and joke teller Sean Hoffman has spent time at sea as a Merchant Marine.  In the past, the job has taken him away from the Midwest for extended periods of time.  Sean is currently seeking a maritime job, and he plans to spend some time working on a boat in the year to come.  Sean has expressed an interest in playing with the band on a part-time basis in 2010 when scheduling permits.....

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As for Lukas Simpson and Brian Cook, they plan to keep the band going, or at least continue to play together in some way.  Although the band will never be quite the same, the search is on for musicians who could fit into our Goldmine Pickers’ world.  Brian is currently putting the finishing touches on his solo album, and he will soon be doing shows to promote it.  Luke and Brian will be doing solo and duo shows in the year to come while they search for musicians to reform the band.  So keep an eye out for them.....

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The words “break”, “hiatus”, and “restructuring” have been thrown around, but only time will tell what our collective futures will hold.  In the years we’ve played together, we have formed a friendship and musical brotherhood that will continue on through times of difficulty and change.  Bands come and they go, and lineups go through changes.  It’s all part of being a working musician.  With that being said, we know we will all play together again in one way or another, even if it’s just in our living rooms for the pure joy of it.

Goldmine Pickers

5.30.2009

The Electric Brew

Goshen, IN

3 Irish Tunes*>Cooley's Reel, Dance All Night, My Anxious Heart, Shove That Pigs Foot A Little Further Into the Fire, Barroom Queen, Barroom Waltz, The Split, Corn Fed Girls, Far From Shore, After Yeats>Wool Shirt Rag>After Yeats>Queen's Confessor, Mud, Green Shores Of Africa, Don't Leave Me Here Tonight, The Ballad Of Willie Johnson, Canadian Bacon, Cold Coffee, Sour Oats

*Unnamed Fiddle Tunes

Go to www.myspace.com/goldminepickers to check out some of their music

A music scene is probably not the first thing that you think of when someone mentions northern Indiana to you.  Vast corn fields or huge trailer parks may come to mind, but music…not so much.  Umphrey’s McGee and Lotus pretty much changed that perception, at least for fans of live music.  The members of UM met at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, IN and Lotus teamed up on the campus of Goshen college in Goshen, IN. 

Four piece bluegrass band the Goldmine Pickers are trying to continue to build a musical legacy for Northern Indiana, and they have a pretty good start.  They took the stage at the Electric Brew in Goshen, IN this past Saturday for a quick late night performance that began at 10 pm and ended around midnight.  It was my first visit to the cozy, hipped out, downtown, beer serving, coffee shop.  The comfy couches were all taken in the packed rectangular room.  The Pickers set up stage next to one of the long brick walls in the middle of the room for their performance.

Bluegrass has played a major role within the jam band genre since the emergence of bands like Yonder Mountain String Band, Greensky Bluegrass and even the String Cheese Incident.  These bands helped make bluegrass a household name for live music fans, an opened up the door to another sect of fans for groups like the Goldmine Pickers. 

GmP plays a more traditional form of Bluegrass that filters in a lot of Celtic feels.  The band is comprised of 4 very talented musicians lead by Luke Simpson (guitar, mandolin, banjo,  bouzouki, vocals), Sean Hoffman (fiddle, guitar, vocals), Brian Cook (bass, vocals), and Jay Lapp (mandolin, guitar, baritone guitar, vocals).  Their diversity and creativity is highlighted when they trade off vocals and switch instruments multiple times throughout their performances. 

This evening’s show was being professionally recorded.  I hope that is the reason that the lame crowd sat, motionless and soundless throughout the entire show (minus one dead head that got down for the later part of the show).  The Pickers did not let the bashful crowd stop them from picking away, producing some great feel good bluegrass. 

Their diversity also shines in the songs that they write.  And write they do.  It seemed like every other song was introduced as a new tune, some still nameless.  Sean introduced one of his new songs, “Green Shores Of Africa,” as “long winded.”  It was the high point of the evening for me.  The meaningful lyrics gave me chills as he explained the motivations and desires of Somalian pirates and guerillas to his fans.  Pulling off a song about 21st century Pirates does not seem simple, but they did and it worked out. 

They are capable of going from a song as serious as “Green Shores of Africa” to songs like “Corn Fed Girls” on the drop of a dime.  “Corn Fed Girls” is a song dedicated to the women of northern Indiana and its lyrics are just as amusing as it’s title.  The real treat was the look of embarrassment in each of the band mates eyes as they performed it over crowd snickers and giggles.    

Some of their songs are serious, some are funny and some even relate to the unemployment crisis of their home town.  They all work out splendidly.  GmP is coming at the music world with full force.  They have a unique knack for using a political tone in an entertaining, deep way; something that hasn’t been done successfully in decades.  And they jam the shit out of each song.  These two qualities make them different than any band playing live today, opening up their opportunity to contribute to the music scene in northern Indiana. 

Veiw some pics from that show here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jammershots/sets/72157618946852381/show/

Press Reviews

ALBUM REVIEW: Lonesome Gone
Bluegrass Unlimited - May 2008
The Goldmine Pickers are delightfully "on the edge," but which edge? These talented Indiana-based musicians could be described with several tailor-made adjectives. Their instrumentals often have a sweet clarity that brushes up against on old-time style. Vocals are tinged with an edgy, contemporary bluegrass attitude delivered with either a strong Texas swing drawl or a clear easy-on-the-ears baritone. And, then they blow you away with some full-steam-ahead hot picking.

To be sure, the Goldmine Pickers have lots of edgy stuff on their "Lonesome Gone" CD. Take for example, the nine-minute wildcat instrumental "The Split." It's a rousing jam melody until that split comes. In fact, you'll think the jam (as well as the track) has ended and an entirely different, exploratory jazz tune has taken over. But, eventually, it creeps back into jam mode, resuming the original melody for the final couple of minutes.

There's a wealth of music styles on "Lonesome Gone," which makes for an album loaded with interest. "Barroom Waltz," for example, is a poignant ballad about those last few minutes before the bar closes. It's just one voice (Lukas Simpson's), soft instrumental backup, and a story that aches for human contact, proving that less is often more. "Mud," on the other hand, is on the bluesy side, and Jay Lapp's gravelly voice is the perfect vehicle for delivering the philosophical lyrics. And, then there's the lovely "Iroquois Waltz," a beautiful tune that evokes a time long passed.

All tunes (except "Mud") are band originals, giving the Goldmine Pickers free reign to explore their talents and their souls. You won't find elaborate harmonies on "Lonesome Gone," but you will be able to understand the lyrics, a worthwhile trade-off. This is a band for today's bluegrass fan who doesn't mind poking around in fresh, new territory. www.goldminepickers.com
JK

ALBUM REVIEW: Lonesome Gone
SING OUT! Magazine

"The band's web site describes 'Lonesome Gone,' the Goldmine Pickers' latest self-released effort, as 'deconstructionalist,' which is one of those words that almost by definition can mean almost anything you want it to. In the case of this solidly all-acoustic band from the Midwest, it appears to mean a core of old-time music with a healthy overlay of Celtic overtones and plenty of room for unexpected twists and turns along the way. These tangents include the only song not written by one of the band's four members, the Guy Clark/Buddy Mondlock gem "Mud." Guitarist and mandolinist Jay Lapp has a voice that shares some of the same qualities as Clark's and it's one of the album's strongest cuts.

"Lukas Simpson, who shares guitar and mandolin chores, takes the lead vocal on "Don't Leave Me Here Tonight," a tune with something of an engaging Grateful Dead feel to it, and it's also an arresting track. And it's safe to say that you don't often find tunes drawn in spirit from William Butler Yeats ("After Yeats"). The band is rounded out by fiddler Sean Hoffman and bassist Brian Cook, and on both vocal and instrumental numbers, the quartet supplies a nice fluid drive that's never too frantic or too laid back. 'Deconstructionalist' perhaps, but not at all hard to take in and savor."
-JL

Just posted on www.goldminepickers.com:

Live @ The Old Town School of Folk Music 6/20/08 Chicago, IL

A great live room recording!

click here to listen to the entire show
…After Yeats/Woolshirt Rag/After Yeats/Queen's Confessor
Mud
My Anxious Heart
Far From Shore
Barroom Waltz
Cold Coffee, Sour Oats


Live @ The Ark 8/3/08 Ann Arbor, MI

…After Yeats/Wool Shirt Rag/After Yeats/Queen's Confessor
Intro to Mud
Mud
Iroquois Waltz
Don't Leave Me Here Tonight
Stumblin' Lenny
Sean's Favorite
Conversation's Free
Dance All Night
Greed
Barroom Queen
Far From Shore
Barroom Waltz
Intro to The Split
The Split

This one's a direct sound board recording. It sounded much better in the room!

Fiddler's Hearth 2/8/08 recorded by Andyman Hopkins is posted here:
http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=goldmine%20pickers
It's in four installments but all available for downloading in mp3 and a few other formats. Keep checking back to www.archive.org in the future for more live show postings.

Goldmine Pickers are the featured "Band Of The Month" on the Fields Of Bluegrass Radio Hour for November, that new CD has me tempted to award "Band of the Year" honors!
Pure and unpretentious, anything but over-produced, and technically brilliant.
The understated approach applied throughout places the emphasis squarely on the melody.
"Lonesome Gone" is a deconstructionist masterpiece that explores the very essence of twenty-first century traditional song.
-Cary Allen Fields
Fields of Bluegrass
"The Fields Of Bluegrass Radio Hour on WICR 88.7FM"
FIELDSOFBLUEGRASS.COM

"Lonesome Gone" is a definitive artistic statement, with an eclectic set of mostly original tunes that establishes the band as a new breed of the Americana musical realm.
Tom Conway
Tribune Correspondent
South Bend Tribune

September 15. 2006 6:59AM
Barroom waltz coupled with romance

New World reprises violent but tender play


KAREN RIVERS
Tribune Staff Writer

"Danny and the Deep Blue Sea" is a play that's dark but funny, violent yet tender. A story of contrasts and complexities, it bears the mysterious subtitle "An Apache Dance."

It's a phrase that never appears in the script, so when Eric Meyer set out to direct the show for New World Arts in Goshen, he started with a reasonable question.

What in the world is an apache dance?
Meyer found a fascinating answer.

"(An apache dance is) a violent dance between a couple, developed by Parisian ... street gangs," he says.

The dance represents a bar fight between a man and a woman and is violent yet romantic. The intensity of this rather risqué performance, which began as a kind of waltz, is said to have influenced other forms of dance, including swing and the tango.

And clearly, the play is something of an apache dance itself.
Pulitzer prize-winning playwright John Patrick Shanley, who also won an Oscar for the "Moonstruck" screenplay, wrote

"Danny and the Deep Blue Sea," which has only two characters, Danny, played by Kyle Dean Reinford, and Roberta, played by Michelle Milne.

They meet one night at a bar in the Bronx, both bearing awful burdens.

"It's two characters who are broken, violent, unable to forgive themselves -- and they decide to try happiness," Meyer says. "They say, 'Why can't we be like other people?' ... They decide to be romantic to each other sort of as an experiment -- and it turns into something really powerful."

The show opens the ninth season of New World Arts, and it is, in fact, a reprise. The theater produced the work in 2001. Meyer designed and ran lights that time around, and he remembers the play as dark and hopeless.

That's not what he saw when he read it again.

"I found characters that were so full of life," he says. "The script was very funny. It has so much hope and love and magic."

Milne, he adds, had been looking at this play for a while. She was cast in a production of "Danny" a few years ago in Indianapolis but was unable to accept the part because of other commitments. The script has been on her mind ever since.

"I think it's just two characters that are so complex and funny and lovable even though they don't see it in themselves. ... They're caught in a cycle of self-loathing and this desire to be happy, and I just have so much compassion for them," she says.

For this production, Meyer and the actors truly embrace the apache idea by incorporating elements of dance into the blocking of the show. In addition, they will use a song by the local bluegrass band Goldmine Pickers.

The song has the strangely serendipitous title "Barroom Waltz."
"I know that song and I love that song ..., but we were at a Goldmine Pickers Concert (recently), and when they played it, I thought, that perfectly describes the show," Milne says.

The Pickers were happy to lend their tune to the production, and the slow, pretty, sad song does seem to capture the idea of "Danny." The honest lyrics admit "it's getting kind of late" and "I'm pretty drunk," before asking rather sweetly, "Come and dance with me under the smoky barroom light."

As the song says, "we'll pretend it's moonlight."

Staff Writer Karen Rivers:
(574) 235-6442
krivers@sbtinfo.com

Found a cool Jerry Garcia/John Kahn video playing Deep Elum Blues. It's in our video section. Check it out! Keep checking back, we'll be posting some more live gmp videos soon...

We've been here for a week now and things have been absolutely wonderful.  We had a show at the Island Arts Center in Lisburn (about 20 min. from where we are staying) on the first night here.  It was a great reception and we were well recieved.  The only odd hiccup in the night was at the end of the set when some craic'd out Irish woman kept requesting that we play religious songs.  While this isn't so odd in itself, she was very drunk (we think) and behaving very oddly.  When she asked to get up and sing, Luke (being the absolute gentleman that he is) called her up and we sort of played along.  While I don't want to be disparaging about the quality of her singing, I will say that what she lacked in talent, she made up for with enthusiasm.  This wouldn't have been too bad, but then after the show, Luke was standing outside selling CDs and she came walking out with her pants halfway down to her ankles.   We ran....

The next few days we did a bit of practicing and sightseeing.  We took lots of pictures at the Giant's Causeway, drank the Bushmills distillery dry...not even close...and took some band photos at Dunluce Castle on the north coast. 

We had some great weather and have seen lots of brilliant sunshine (much to my chagrin as I vehemently swore that we'd never need our sunglasses in Ireland and caused everyone to leave them behind). 

We played Valentines Day in Belfast at the Stillwaters Coffee House to a sold out house.  We were fed very well and had a wonderful time getting teased by Sophie, the owner's young daughter who informed us that Jay's new nickname should be "Stupid".  Everyone except Jay thought this was very funny.

Last night was at the Railway Bar in Lurgan and wow, what a night!  We got to see a lot of familiar faces as well as loads of new ones.  The guys running sound did a fantastic job and we had a great couple of boys, Stevie and Johnny, open up for us.  Stevie wrote some great songs and Johnny (who we've met before) played banjo and guitar.  Fantastic stuff and we got Johnny up with the banjo for some pickin' on a medley of Salt Creek and Old Joe Clark.  Hot stuff!  More updates as I find time to write between Guiness!

We're very pround to announce that our song "Conversation's Free" will be used in a commercial advertising the new Nissan Note in thirty countries throughout Europe, Eastern Europe and India! More details to come...