Hello friends!
What a surreal weekend we just had!  Rattletree went up to the D/FW area to play a few shows.  Friday night, we had a great show at a place called Fred's.  It is a really sweet outdoor wooded venue that is run by old deadheads/cowboys.  Texas continues to surprise me with it's really nice and layed back outdoor venues, and people just eat up the Zimbabwean music!  After Fred's, we made the short drive to Dallas and slept there.  THe next day, we played an evening show opening for one of my heroes-Oliver Mtukudzi.  Dallas actually has a really large Zimbabwean community, so it was so great to play music and sing songs and have the audience know what I am singing!  From the opening lines of "Nhemamusasa", people were screaming, dancing, and laughing along as we played music for them.  "Chemtengure" had the whole house singing.  Some of Tuku's band caught the set, and I met a few Zimbabwean kids who were beginning mbira (nyunga-nyunga) players that had been studying with Musekiwa at Prince Edwards.  Small world!  Sadly, we had to pack right up and go because we were headlining a later show a few miles away.  Tuku pulled up just as we were leaving.  Shame, I didn't even get to greet him...

Then the weird night really started!  We got to "Lakewood Bar and Grill" to find that the opening act was a.....wait for it.....Van Halen tribute band!!!  The place was full of people wearing leather, spandex, crazy high bangs, chains, etc, etc!  It was the weirdest thing to walk into right after Tuku!  The promoter was extremely apologetic.  We were very impressed with the banner that the VH tribute band had, though!  It turned out that there was another band that would be .. we played-called "Glam R Us" (as in "glam-rock!).  We decided it was a good time to go get a beer next door.  We did that and relaxed a bit and laughed about the situation.  When we got back, GlamRUs was just packing up so it was time to jump into action!  THe club was actually packed, so we hurry and put the Bass Marimba up so they would be intreagued enough to stick around.  Once we got everything up, we were surrounded by leather and spandex.  A drunk indian guy was leaning against one of the sopranoes just taking it all in.  I went up and asked how he found out about the show.  He said he just "ended up there" and that the crowd didn't know what they were in store for.  I said he was right!

The energy was high so we just busted right into some of the high-energy stuff, and everyone just FREAKED OUT!!!  They were screaming and dancing and having a blast!  Higher energy that the Tuku show!  I played along with the "glam rock" think and told them stories about how this or that song was off of the '78 B side of some rare Van Halen single-guess you just had to be there.

In any case, 2 AM came along, and they just didn't want the night to end, so we pulled out some of our new electric music.  Michael is really ripping up the guitar on the party stuff.  Meanwhile, Carson (it was his last night with us) was just in the zone on the Bass Marimba and was slowly tearing a hole into the paneling of the low ceiling above the bass.  I thought he didn't notice until I saw huge chunks of paneling falling down onto the keys.  He just looked at me and said "don't worry, I'll pay for it!" and kept on.  I think that hole was about 2' in diameter by the end of the night!  I guess it is our version of setting your guitar on fire!

So here we are back in Austin.  We have a few shows to tell you about this month.  We'll be in San Antonio tomorrow night at The Cove-our first time there.  After that, we are taking 10 days off so I can build a few mbiras in some different tunings for the electric stuff.  And the marimbas, and knobs, and that speaker cabinet, and that dun dun, dang 10 days isn't going to make a dent but we do what we can. 

So in the words of Patabi Jois, "less talking, more doing" so here you go for August and a bit of Sept:

Aug 8th- The Cove in San Antonio.  $5.  Supposed to be a sweet outdoor venue.
Aug 9th -Joel Laviolette solo mbira at the "Ice Cream Festival" at Guadalupe Park-Austin
Aug 24th -Live on KVRX Sunday Night Austin
Aug 30- Copa!  We love that place!  We are playing with Aciable-a new Soukus band in Austin.  $8
Aug 31st-Batfest!!  40-70 thousand people will be congregating on the Congress St. Bridge for the annual festival for our furry little friends!  Rattletree will go on at sunset just as the bats launch.  One hour set at the KLBJ stage.  Get there early to get close enough to say hello!
Sept 5th-Blue Star Brewery.  First Friday Fest in San Antonio!
Sept 13- The Texan- Corpus Christi

We look forward to seeing you on the dancefloor!