I'm sitting in my hotel in Jamestown NY.  David and Chalmers have gone to the gym while Tommy and I just got back from the pool.  Very refreshing to have air conditioning after three days and nights of camping at Lampe Marina in Erie PA.

We enjoyed the camping, some more than others, but even for me, who had a great time, it's wonderful to be able to sleep in a bed that doesn't deflate!  So incredibly worth it though.  And believe me, it wasn't that bad.  We had very clean and very nearby showers and bathrooms and we ate pretty well on the campfire.  Sleeping was the only frustration because there were lots of noises, but we wised up the second night and bought earplugs which muffled the problem.  (Ba doom ching!)

Erie was absolutely wonderful!  We made some great friends, heard some great music (Shotgun Jubilee - check em out on myspace for quite a treat!)  and saw some beautiful views.  Thanks so much to Ryan, Dom, Tonya and the rest of Shotgun for everything.  Especially Ryan, because we wouldn't have been able to make the trip or play the great places we did without him.  It's so good to make friends so far away who care about music.  I hope this was the first of many trips to Erie.

There is some video online of us playing at Bryson City's Heritage Festival.  The sound that day was a little iffy so sometimes it's hard to hear some of the instruments but it's a very nice recording and very good footage.  (Notice my niece at the beginning, till she is carted away by Mommy.)  Thanks to Dames Dukes for filming.  While you're at the site, take a look at some of the other videos they have.  Really neat stuff if you're intrested in Appalaichian culture and music.   Here's the link:

http://www.greatsmokymountains.tv/Barefoot%20Movement.html 

Anyways, hope your summer is treating you well so far.  ("You", being whoever is reading this!)

-Noah

Yes indeed, the website is up and running.  It doesn't have a whole lot on there, but it still has some things that aren't on here. 

www.barefoot-movement.com

Yay!

Just a few weekends in to the summer shows and we're already overwhelmed with all the love and support we've received.

The first weekend, we went back to Oxford and Raleigh.  We sold every CD we brought with us and even though we got rained on at Artsplosure, it was still so much fun.  I got a little homesick, especially for my cats.  My parents came to all four shows, and Tommy's mom made breakfast for the boys every morning.  How could I not be homesick?  Purple Hayes rocked out the Relay too.  Rumor's has great pizza.  Free is always yummy.

Next we played Roan Mountain State Park and Heritage Fest.  Roan Mountain was so beautiful.  Definitely a place you should see.  We play there again later in the summer and we're planning on camping.  Heritage Fest in Bryson City was awesome!!  We got our first encore request!!  We play there two more times in our schedule and we can't wait.  Next time I'm going tubing though.  Thanks to Thomas for playing bass with us.

I'm writing this after our Music on the Square show in Jonesborough.  What an amazing crowd.  The atmosphere was incredible.  Logan Murrell opened up for us and all I can say is she's going places.  I could have listened to her sing all night.  She's in our friends--check her out.

The people of Jonesborough rule.  It felt so great to play our music and have people really respond.  They stuck with us the whole time and they came out even though it almost rained.  It's so awesome that they support local music every week.  And we had two fans who saw us play in Bristol come and see us again!  Thanks to the awesome sound lady, Sarah, and Steve Cook, who booked us.    Thanks to Chris for playing bass with us.

We have stickers now!!  The website is almost up, and I'll be putting some pictures and videos up on here and youtube soon.  Three more shows this weekend and the mini-tour in the mini van coming in June.  I'm hoping to make a video-blog/documentary thing during that trip, so hopefully that will go according to plan.

Thanks for tuning in!
-Noah

Yes please do!  Just look up The Barefoot Movement, and we should pop up.

Thanks to everyone who came out to Java J's to sip something sweet and listen to our music.  We had a great time and hope you did too.

Still organizing the summer schedule.  More dates to come soon!

Hope you have some time to check out the five new songs up on the page.  The newest are "Nothing Comes For Free" and "Stay A While."  Also, "Loose Ends," "Tobacco Road," and "The Hail Storm."

We are booking shows for the summer and things are looking good so far.  This year we are hoping to travel some, but we'll see how it goes!  I will update soon once plans are set in stone. 

Thanks for all the feedback so far on the new songs, and thanks for listening!!

Oh and by the way...

David Rich has joined our ranks!  He's from Baxter, TN and he plays banjo and guitar for us.  We met at school at ETSU.  He's a great musician, a lot of fun, and we're happy to have him!

So we were going to have Frank McCurry play with us this summer, but nearly as soon as we began to work things out, Frank found out he had leukemia.

I just found out that Frank passed away in October. I had no idea, and I'm so shocked, I hardly know what to say, other than that he was an amazing bass player, and a genuinely good guy, and I truly hate that we never got to make him an official member of the band. I can't believe how out of touch you can become when you move away from your hometown. I'm so saddened by this, especially for his family and friends.

Frank, I wish there were a better way to honor you, with more than just a blog entry on a myspace page. Wherever you are spending this Christmas, I hope you will feel the love from all the people on Earth so affected by your absence.

You are eternally "Barefoot Movement Emeritus."

There are now four videos on Youtube.  I may or may not upload anymore, but those are pretty decent quality so please enjoy! If you are a Youtube member, subscribe to us! If I upload anymore I will let you know here.

www.youtube.com/thebarefootmovement

As of right now, Tommy and I are looking to record in December.  Hopefully we'll get a good few done so we don't have the same three songs up for the rest of eternity. I have two new songs, and two half finished songs that I should have done by the time we record. Also I hope to involve some of the awesome musicians I have met here, so maybe some banjo? Maybe some dobro? Yes, yes, I hope so. 

So I'm really excited about that.  Once we get the recordings done, we'll start back gigging, which I miss like crazy.  Even the stress that comes along with it. I miss the stress. Ridiculous.

I'm a huge Halloween freak, so have a Happy Halloween.

Check out our videos on Youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/thebarefootmovement

The videos aren't fantastic but I tried to pick the best ones.  Just some of our shows throughout the last year. There's only one up right now, but they take a while to load, so I'm going to be loading them over the next few days.  Eventually I may put some on this myspace! 

Moved to Johnson City a month ago. I'm enjoying it, though I tend to get burnt out on school.  Not my music courses though.  And of course there are always things (and people) you miss from home.

I play in an orchestra at Milligan College.  First concert last night after a six hour workshop.  Try holding a violin for six hours.  Sheesh.

My bluegrass band hasn't really gotten going yet, but this week we should get some idea of what we're going to sound like.  It doesn't hurt that our band leader (Jack Tottle) is the guy who gave Bela Fleck his first job.

This weekend I get to go to Nashville for the first time in my life.  I'm so excited. I get to play and sing with Monty Warren at the Commodore.  Yay!!

Next week I'm going to the Bristol Rhythm and Roots Festival.  Four of my teachers are playing there. 

I can't wait to get something started.  Music, music, music.