Hello again!! Hope everybody is well and doing good. Since the last post, we've been trying to get a bunch of things done, sounds par for the course, don't it. As Fall gets closer, we all try to tie up all the summer loose ends before OLD MAN WINTER rears his ugly head.
The festival season (outdoor at least) is coming to an end and we start more indoor shows. The Autumn season is my favorite, with all the beautiful colors, glorious sites EVERYWHERE! Cindy and I had our anniversary on October 22, our twentieth. It's hard to believe, those 20 years have flew by!
Continueing from the last blog, the Arcadia, MD. WAS GREAT, A REAL BIG CROWD!
Everybody seemed to be having a great time. Got to visit a lot with Ray and Nona Davis, both were doing well. Got to see a former WRB bandmate, Jeff Griffey at the show. He was there performing with his own group, The Mississippi Sawyers, a killer group. I think they've really got it going on, check them out when you can. Also visited with another couple of Alabama folks and former bandmates, Stan Wilemon and Gary Waldrep.
Another highlight for me was hearing Larry Sparks do John Deere Tractor! Does it really get better than that? It was SPECIAL that night for my ears.
Visited IBMA on Friday nite and saw a bunch of friends, heard some great musik, ate some good BBQ while watching the Grascals and Mountain Heart + Tony Rice. A highlite for me was seeing Victor and Malieka Hall from Florida. They're part of a great band in Florida, great musicians, world-class people! Special friends I don't get a chance to see often enough.
We left IBMA around 1am heading to Rosine , KY. for the Bill Monroe Homeplace Festival. That is without doubt one of my very favorite events thast we play each year. The karma is always there, always a great Spirit in the air. Again, the crowd was huge all four days. Robert Montgomery performed with a number of groups there, so you'll be seeing his smiling face on a number of "Cumberland Highlanders" T.V. Shows next year. If you've never been to Rosine for the annual festival, you really should plan on attending in 2009. It's really a special event, a special place. Also, you can see the boyhood home of Bill Monroe, it's all right there! About 3 years ago, Campbell Mercer, the festival's promoter gave me a tiny seedling fom the huge oak tree that has stood in front of Bill Monroe's home for a hundred years or more, it is a huge tree. Cindy and I planted the seedling behind our home and the 2007 and 2008 summer was really dry in our area, but that little tree has survived and is flourishing. That dry weather and my sometimes forgetting to water it didn't stop it. If you've ever tried to raise a seedling , you know it's hard to keep them living early on, or it has been for us. I told Cindy that little tree was just as tough as Bill. I expect it to make it, don't you?
Alot of highlights at Rosine, certainly seeing and hearing Frank Wakefield after a few years was especially fun for me! I've often said that I think his Loar is the hands down best mandolin I've ever had in my hands .
We visited Palatka, Florida on October 9, that was the first fall festival at Palatka. Norman Adams' Spring fest at Palatka has been so well recieved that he decided to add a fall show. The Thursday crowd was large and looks like the Fall show will be a big success! From there we were back in our neck of the woods in Jasper, AL. on Friday, October 10 for the Blackwater Bluegrass Festival. It's one of the best festivals we have in Alabama, hope you can visit the show in the future, it's a good one. A lot of our family and friends got to attend this show. Robert's Mom and Dad were there, some of Adam's family attented as well as Cindy and my Mom and Aunt. From there an all night drive to Herndon, VA. for an indoor concert on Saturday night and then a good night's sleep before a Sunday afternoon show in Marydel, DE. Then two days in W.V in the studio before heading back home to Alabama. Lately, I've been trying to catch up with everything at home that I've been putting off all summer.
In between road dates since early June, we've been in the studio (River Track Studio ,Fort Gay,W.V.) recording a new CD. With the busy summer season and recording in between, we've been real busy and away from home alot the last few months. Earlier this week, we finished with the recording and will be mixing the songs the first part of November. It is a great collection of songs, the majority have never been recorded before, I do believe you'll like them. To say we are excited would be an understatement. It's always a special thrill to work hard on a recording and feel something special comes out of it, something you can feel or might move you. I hope you will like the material and performance as much as we do.
Going to be in Ohio and Virginia on the 31st and November 1st. Hope it'll be a safe trip and I'll look forward to next time, till then, take care! David