Tuesday, May 19 @ 4:30 PM - Bethlehem Area Public Library in PA 

11 West Church Street
Bethlehem, Pennsylvania 18018
Free
With The Butterbeer Experience, Witherwings, the Princess of Hogwarts, the Cedric Diggories, DJ Luna Lovegood and more!

Wednesday, May 20 @ 7:00 PM - Sidewalk Cafe in NYC  

94 Avenue A at 6th Street
New York, New York
Free but with a 2 drink minimum.
With The House of Black, Swish and Flick, The Butterbeer Experience and Witherwings!

Saturday, May 30 @ 6:00 PM - Patrick Henry Public Library in VA

Vienna, Virginia
Free
With The Whomping Willows, The Moaning Myrtles, and Justin Finch Fletchly and the Sugar Quills!

Wednesday, June 10 @ 1:00 PM - Northside Library in VA

Charlottesville, VA
Free
A solo performance as part of the library's summer reading program kickoff!

Saturday, June 28 @ 2:00 PM - A Sweet Cookout in NC

Cary, NC
Free, but bring some food to share
With The Blibbering Humdingers, Swish and Flick, Hawthorn and Holly, The House of Black and more!

Monday, June 29 @ 2:00 PM - Louisa County Library in VA

Mineral, VA
Free
An hour long solo performance full of classic Snidget songs, sneak peeks of new material and a ton of sing-along wizard rock covers.

There are a few more Virginia shows in the works for this summer, so I'll keep you posted on those - those dates should fall close to the end of a glorious summer, so keep your August open!

I feel like I should also let you know I'm working on some new material, and it's coming along pretty well. You'll get some sneak peeks at the summer shows, and I'll be selling my old EP To Dwell on Dreams as well as some sweet shirts.

I'm looking forward to summer, and I hope you are as well! If you're coming to LeakyCon, I'll see you there... you should join this awesome mix CD exchange I'm organizing, too: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=logo#/event.php?eid=81797847249&ref=mf

Get ready for summer! It's ready for you!

~Grace the Snidget

I have exactly three things to say right now:

1. Check out the HPA No New Stuff 2009 Project! It's awesome.

2. The Yule Ball at Camelot Treasures was amazing, and the Blibbering Humdingers are perhaps some of the finest people on the Earth.

3. Because, I am bad at maintaining this myspace page and blog, I have put myself on YouTube. Sorry for being so awful at online upkeep! I swear I love you all.

Don't worry, I'll still be updating the myspace page. Hopefully with a new layout and some new music soon! Ooh, exciting.

Wishing you all the best in 2009,

Grace the Snidget

Hello again!

I've been meaning to write this blog for a while, but I came home from tour and left almost immediately to go back to school, work and that unavoidable 'real life.' It's strange to think it's been over a month since Terminus.

The conference itself was great; I'd never been to a con before and it was fantastic getting to hang out with so many people I'd never met. I played my music in a lot of different places, mostly casually, which was fun. And I was lucky enough not to suffer Post-Potter Depression after everything ended, because I was lucky enough to go on tour immediately afterward with two truly amazing friends, Amy and Devon of Romilda Vane and the Chocolate Cauldrons and Fred and George the Band, respectively.

Amy and I weren't lucky enough to escape Terminitus, so we spent most of tour coughing our lungs up. But if Voldemort can't stop the rock, then neither can throat afflictions, and so the tour went on!

We traveled all the way from Cary, North Carolina to Brooklyn, New York. We played at libraries and houses and art galleries. We saw a lot of old friends and made even more new ones. I had an amazing time, and I wouldn't trade it for the world.

For some of the shows, we had everyone sit in a circle and we played as we felt like it. During the show at Sarah's, we told each other what to sing. One of the shows we played was in my Fredericksburg, VA; it was the first time wizard rock came to my hometown, and it was the first time my family saw me perform. The shows were all fantastic, and the times on the road were great as well. I have photos from a few of the shows; you can see them here.

So, thanks must be given: to Anna, Sarah, Scott and Kirsten, Craig, Tina, Mary and Deirdre for setting up shows; to The Grey Ladies, Sarah the Gryffindor Geek, The Blibbering Humdingers, Fred Lives, Holly and Hawthorn, The Purebloods, The Hungarian Horntails, DJ Luna Lovegood, The Cedric Diggories, Swish and Flick, Camie Heller, and The Gringotts Grrls for playing with us; to all of the people who came out to the shows and bought our merch and supported us along the way; to everyone who loved me even when stress turned me sour; and to Amy and Devon for being the most brilliant tourmates a girl could hope for. Every time there is a silence, I want to shout, "Bryyyyyyyyce!" but I know nobody near me will understand.

If you're a wizard rock performer and you haven't toured before, I absolutely recommend it. You don't have to be hugely popular, you don't have to be that talented -- those things help, I imagine, but what matters more is that you just get out there and play some shows. Don't even worry about touring, actually, just get out there and play some shows. I personally hate recording music and would love to play shows until the Earth explodes. Don't let anything hold you back -- money, fear, whatever. Just go for it. If you love it, it's worth it.

It's late and so I'm rambling, but thinking back on the month of August makes me smile and just want to talk about it. So thanks for listening. Thanks for supporting me. Thanks for being you. Keep on being awesome.

All my love,

Grace the Snidget

PS: The amazing Michelle has posted nearly the entire Camelot Treasures show on YouTube, so go check out the videos and tell her thank you for being so fabulous!

Wow, guys. Terminus was awesome. I had such a blast -- thank you to everybody who was part of the great experience! I met so many amazing people (especially the UK crowd) and miss you all already. I'll eventually post some sort of write up of everything, but for now let me just hit a few highlights:

The Wizard Rockumentary was amazing, and I feel so honored to have been part of it. It was great seeing Megan and Mallory again for the first time since that interview, and I played a set at their vendor table. Good times. If you don't own the Rockumentary yet, buy it now.

2458... what can I even say? You folks are the best, and I still can't believe how many people we squished in there. Mmmm, yummy Malfoy... shhhhhhhhh!

Wrock Chicago was great! Thanks to Jen Boxerman and everybody else who brought the event together. My set went well and I'm sending out extra love to everybody who came out for my set or visited me at the merch table. The whole day was crazy.

I also visited the Sears Tower with a bunch of wizard rockers, and that was an excellent time. My pictures from that should be cool... can't wait to get them online!

All of the other bands that played during the week were fabulous, and it was great to see so many performances by bands I hadn't gotten the chance to see before. RiddleTM is of course amazing, and I think the acoustic set really brought out the best in Ministry of Magic. I wish I could talk about every band, but that would literally take all eternity. But trust me, they were all amazing.

See, and here I was avoiding writing up the event. It was just such a good time! Anyway, I really should get to the point of this blog, which was to remind you that I'm leaving for a week-long East Coast tour [Gryffintour!] today. Check it out!

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August 13 [TODAY] - Morgantown, West Virginia
Morgantown Public Library @ 6 p.m.

Note: Featuring the final performance of the Grey Ladies!

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August 14 [TOMORROW] - Chesterfield, Virginia
Sarah the Gryffindor Geek's House @ 7:00 p.m.
Note: E-mail me at snidget_rock@hotmail.com for the address!

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August 15 [FRIDAY] - Cary, North Carolina
Camelot Treasures @ 6:00 p.m.
Note: With Fred Lives, The Purebloods, the Blibbering Humdingers, and Hawthorn & Holly!

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August 16 [SATURDAY] - Fredericksburg, Virginia @ 5:30 p.m.
Central Rappahannock Regional Library
Note: At my hometown library! And we're all going for ice cream after.

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August 17 [SUNDAY] - Brooklyn, New York
Dam/Stuhltrager Gallery @ 4:00 p.m.
Note: With The Hungarian Horntails, The Princess of Hogwarts, Dj Luna Lovegood and The Cedric Diggorys!

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August 18 [MONDAY] - Armonk, New York
North Castle Public Library @ 5:00 p.m.

Note: With The Gringotts Grrls! The last show in our Gryffintour!

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All of the shows are free, all-ages, and feature music from myself, Fred and George: The Band, and Romilda Vane and the Chocolate Cauldrons. Put the shows on your calendar, and get yourself there!

I am actually running low on copies of my EP, so make sure to buy a copy at the shows as well. ;) And a rock the dulcimer t-shirt... is anything cooler?

Hope to see you this week!

All my love,

Grace the Snidget

Hello again!

Everybody else has been sharing their CD art and tracklist and such, so I figured I'd jump on the bandwagon.

Here's the track list:

1. Erised
2. Always Remember
3. Everything Happens to Hufflepuff
4. Lullaby for my Luna-Love
5. Prelude to an End
6. Bella

So, that's most likely what the EP will look and sound like - song order might change, but that's about it. Those who preordered the EP at past shows will be sent them on August 1, and then they'll be on sale at shows during the month of August. After that they should be available online.

Speaking of shows in August, there's a few set and more are in the works. I'll be touring with Romilda Vane and the Chocolate Cauldrons again, and this time we'll also be joined by Fred and George: The Band! If you know of any good venues in West Virginia or southern Virginia, please let me know - we're also looking for places in PA and NY, so if you have suggestions or a place to crash, don't hesitate to share! And keep an eye on my calendar, I try to keep it as updated as possible.

I've been working on a lot of music lately, and I'll be playing at least one completely new song at Wrock Chicago. A few more should surface during tour.  I've also recently purchased an acoustic guitar... it sounds really nice alongside the dulcimer. :)

Okay, one final note: I'm having a contest! I've wanted to do something to help save modern-day Snidgets, and I've finally come up with an idea. It's small, but at least it's something.

When J.K. Rowling created the Snidget, she reminded us of the value of wildlife and the need to protect endangered species so they can flourish and grow. Our world is full of Snidgets, and they all need some help. So to try and make things better for creatures of all types, I'm going to start selling buttons to raise money for the World Wildlife Fund, a group that does a lot of great things for animals. I'm hoping you'll help me out by submitting designs for the buttons -- drawings of Snidgets that will fit on a one inch round button. Each time I sell out of buttons I'll pick a new design, so a variety of artwork can be shared.

The deadline for the first button design is next Saturday, July 26. That way I'll be able to order the buttons and have them before I go touring (but after Terminus, unfortunately). Send your best Snidget drawings to snidget_rock@hotmail.com. I look forward to seeing your pictures! The winner will be announced on Sunday, July 27 -- you'll get a t-shirt and a copy of the new EP. Sweet!

I hope your summer is going well, and I'll see you in August!

~Grace the Snidget

Wow... 2008 is off to an amazing start.

I owe you all a big huge update, so here we go!

To kick off the year, Amy of Romilda Vane and the Chocolate Cauldrons/WZRD came over to America for the first week of January. After ringing in the new year with Alleycast Chris, Amy and I set off for our first ever tour. The amazing Camie Heller came along for the ride. ;) We played four shows, and here's why each of them was awesome:

New Canaan, CT: We played with the Moaning Myrtles and The Whomping Willows. Flight of the Conchords was covered. An impromptu Prefects are Hot post-show singalong occurred. Tons of awesome people showed up. There was Regina Spektor singing post-show. And most importantly, MARY AND THE GRAND PRES OWNED. Seriously, if you haven't heard their music, go check them out. They have ukeleles and are pretty much hysterical.

Providence, RI: The House Party of Awesome. The Butterbeer Experience, Justin Finch-Fletchly, Draco and the Malfoys, the Whomping Willows, and us. Devon's very Gryffindor birthday. Squib girl's photos and cheese/wine selections. Sleeping on coffee tables. Pretty freaking sweet.

---this is where I ran out of gas and we all got stuck on the highway---

Hellertown, PA: At the Infusion Cafe with DJ Luna Lovegood and impromptu performances by Camie Heller and Fred and George! We're pretty sure it was the first all-girl wizard rock show. How's that for awesome? And a certain other Lovegood was there! Also, the sound guy is convinced that my song 'Bella' is really a Christina Aguilera song in disguise. The jury's still out on that one.

Armonk, NY: Our last tour show with The Whomping Willows, Fred and George, and The Gringott's Grrls. The crowd slowly but surely disappeared, except for the two coolest people ever. Hedwig was declared a Hufflepuff. The first Snidget shirts were purchased!

Also at some point during the tour, my dulcimer was renamed The Snidget Machine. Heh.

So it was a very exciting tour and I can't wait to get back out and play more shows! Special thanks go out to Camie for helping save my car and get us places, Tina and Matt for booking shows, Ian for helping us steal his keyboard, Amy for letting me sing Frozen with her, Devon for letting us crash, and to everyone who showed up and rocked out with us all week. And to Amy again for coming over all the way from Ireland to hang out and rock out. I miss you all!

Also, I'd just like to note that the only things I lost during the tour were one ballet flat and the power cord for the keyboard. Usually I lose a lot of things everywhere I go, so I'm impressed. ;)

Now I'm finishing up my EP, which is taking so much more time than I anticipated! I got new hammers for Christmas that sound incredible, so I'm rerecording Bella (again) and have to finish a few more vocal things. But it's coming along very well and should be up for preorder super soon. I'm going to shoot the album art on Sunday, so everything is really coming together.

There are shows up on my main page to anticipate and more in the works, so keep checking there to see if I'm coming near you anytime soon.

In other news, I spent a few days with Anna of the Grey Ladies working on plans for Magus, a wizard rock festival we're hosting in West Virginia in June. We currently have 18 confirmed bands and are working through registration details. It's going to be a family-friendly, very affordable event with all proceeds going to charity, and we both hope you can make it out and enjoy the weekend with us! Magus will be held from June 20-22, and you can check out all announced details at magus2008.wordpress.com, or chat with friends about Magus on our new forums. We're really excited, it's going to be a blast!

I'm back at school now, so I should head off to my first day of classes. But keep an eye on my main page; I should have a new song or a rerecorded song up for you by the end of this week, and the Christmas songs will be disappearing soon so download them while you still can!

I'll leave you with a video that Leah/ProfessorSpork/Hufflepuff took at the Armonk show of me singing 'Frozen' with Amy. If you don't have Amy's CD, you should go buy it... she's amazing. My crappy keyboard doesn't do her music justice. ;)

You'll hear from me again soon, I promise! There's a contest and a new FAQ section in the plans, once the EP is ready to go.

Stay awesome!

~Grace the Snidget

Wow, November has been awesome (mostly thanks to you).

I'm still recovering from the amazingness of this weekend. The shows in Rochester and Philly were such a blast, and it was so super cool rocking out with bands I had never seen live before. It was the first shows of The Butterbeer Experience and The Chinese Chomping Cabbages, but you couldn't have guessed it... both ladies have great stage presence and amaaaaaazing voices. The Sugar Quills played a fun set, too, in Philly! Plus I got to see The Chocolate Frogs - their music is so solid, I have to buy their EP the next time I see them - and The Moaning Myrtles, who were amaaaaaaaaaaazing and so much fun and I could just spend four hours at one of their shows. I know I'm being fangirly right now... but with these bands, you just can't help it. The Whomping Willows were brilliant as always (the Neville song is my new favorite), and I'm not sure what I'll do when I finally play a show Matt's not at, ha.

So, to everybody who came out to Rochester and Philly last weekend - and to Morgantown earlier this month - thanks for being so fun and awesome! Thanks go out to the lovely libraries that hosted the shows, the certain amazing people that saved the Philly party, and the kids who tailgated at the library in Rochester. Uhmazing. I love you all to death! Also, special love to the Philly kids who had been at my first show at LaSalle... it was so cool to see you all again. <3

Now I'm looking forward to my return to PA next month. I'll be playing the Yule Ball that Tina [dj luna lovegood] is working so hard to set up... the band list looks awesome so far!

Princess of Hogwarts
The Hungarian Horntails
MC Kreacher
The Greybacks
25 Hour Unicorn Diner
DJ Luna Lovegood
Snidget
The Moaning Myrtles
The Whomping Willows

More bands might be added to the list, too! All of this goes down on December 15th in Hellertown, PA, and tickets are limited so buy them here now! It is a Yule Ball, so be certain to dress up in all your geeky finery as well. Yule Balls = always amazing.

Then, after a break for the holidays, I'll be going on tour for the first week of January! Yes, really on tour! With - wait for it - ROMILDA VANE AND THE CHOCOLATE CAULDRONS! I know, she's so amazing! And she's coming from Ireland to tour for a week, so you better come to our shows, ha. And the Whomping Willows will be with us for most of the shows, too! We'll be playing in NY, CT, RI, and hopefully PA as well. The shows we already have booked are on our Myspace show lists - those shows are all three bands - and we're working on filling two more dates! It's going to be SUPER exciting and we really, really can't wait. Definitely put those shows on your calendar now!

I'm still hard at work on my EP, so it can be out by the tour in January. I'll also have buttons and t-shirts to sell... ooh, exciting! Those might even be done in time for the Yule Ball, I'll keep you posted.

I hope your Thanksgiving break has gone well for those of you who enjoy the time off, and I hope everybody's getting excited for the super happy fun times of winter. In the spirit of wintertime, I've uploaded two holiday songs. One, Carol of the Spells, is a rushed instrumental variation of Carol of the Bells I made up last year (I'm currently working to mix it with a certain instrumental track also on my Myspace, ha, which is fun). The other is the song I submitted for An Enchanted Christmas, an awesome holiday compilation put together last year by the Bandon Banshees. The song is Christmas in the Great Hall, and I hope you like it. : )

That's all of my news for now... see you at the PA Yule Ball!

'Til next time, spells and sparks from

Grace the Snidget!

Hello again!

I've been holding out on posting this blog for a while now, and so now I have a nice big pile of news to share with you.

First of all, I'm back at school now and as such have been without my dulcimer for a month and a half. I'm reuniting with her this weekend, and then working really hard to get the E.P. finished in time for my shows in late November. It's going to be a real challenge, but I'm really excited. I've waited a long time to record anything official, as you well know, so I think this is going to turn out really nicely. There will be six tracks - some you've heard demos of, most of which I've played live, and one not-quite-finished instrumental - and the E.P. will be title To Dwell On Dreams. I'll release the official tracklist and album art once I nail track titles and order down, so keep an eye out!

The other great news is that I have so many shows in the works! Four of them are currently confirmed, and I'm really excited for them. Here are the details:

November 3: Morgantown Public Library in Morgantown, WV with The Grey Ladies and The Whomping Willows! At 5:00.

November 17: Henrietta Public Library in Rochester, NY with The Chocolate Frogs, The Chinese Chomping Cabbages, and The Butterbeer Experience, and The Whomping Willows! At 2:30.

November 18: First Unitarian Church in Philadelphia, PA with The Chinese Chomping Cabbages, The Butterbeer Experience, The Chocolate Frogs, The Sugar Quills, The Moaning Myrtles, and The Whomping Willows! At 3:00.

And... here's the big one...

August 6, 2008: Wrock Chicago at Terminus! With twenty-four AMAZING other bands, all uniting for half a day of wizard rock. At 12:00, for twenty dollars + Terminus registration.

I'm really excited for Terminus, as it will be my first convention ever! Now I just have to figure out how to get my dulcimer there, eep! For more information about Wrock Chicago, including the lineup of bands and how to register for the event, check out the site here. Amazing, right? You definitely don't want to miss it.

Beyond that, I'm working on more music for various compilations and the myspace page. It's just been slow going without my instrument, but that will change soon. 

Speaking of my instrument... I got a chance this summer to play Remember Cedric with The Remus Lupins! Somebody was awesome enough to take a video of it and youtube it, so you can see just how cool it was. It was my second time playing with other instruments (the first time being a jam session with Camie that morning, ha), so I was pretty psyched.

So, that was pretty much the most fun ever. The Remus Lupins = the coolest. Thanks for letting me jam!

Moving on... I'm going to start working on merchandise as well, so you guys can buy fun stuff at shows! I'm not running any official contest, but I'd love suggestions about what to put on t-shirts or buttons. Be creative, and let me know! If I pick something you suggest or design, I'll give you a free button or shirt, whatever it goes on, and thank you a lot in this blog. So, start suggesting!

Other unrelated notes: Don't dissect animals, opt out of classroom dissections! Get psyched for National Novel Writing Month in November! Read books by M.T. Anderson! Catch Nickel Creek on their farewell tour! Stay awesome! 

I think that takes care of everything I have to say this time. Keep rocking, and stay in touch! I love chatting with you.

See you in November!

~Grace the Snidget