Hi Everyone

All of a sudden March is here and the days are getting longer. Thank goodness, because I never seem to be able to cram everything into a day that I need to

February was a fun music month between our Cameron House and Winterfolk shows, our busking profile on blogTO, and more radio play (including a very cool radio show in Ohio called ‘Detours’ that asked to use our CD in their Spring fundraising drive).

March is shaping up to be a great one too. Here’s what we have lined up so far…

EVERY SATURDAY IN MARCH at THE CAMERON HOUSE, 3:30pm, 408 Queen St W, Toronto, ON; We play 2 sets in the Front Room

Wed., Mar. 10th at The Fox and Fiddle, 1085 St. Clair W, (at Lauder, 2 blocks east of Dufferin St.) Toronto, ON; This is an Open Mic hosted by ‘Uncle’ Herb Dale and Fran McCann. The Open Mic starts at 9pm. We have been invited to be the week’s ”Feature” and will go on at 10pm and do a full set.

Thu., Mar. 25, at The Moonshine Cafe, 137 Kerr St,, Oakville, ON - I’ll be getting back to you with more detail on this one, but I hope all our west TO and other friends in the Oakville area will mark this one in their calendars. Pssst…it’s Dwight’s birthday!

In other news…

• I’m thinking of joining Facebookers Anonymous after spending entirely too much time on there last month. But I haven’t yet so get on their and ‘Friend Me’. It’s very fun!
• Our CD is still available for sale on-line at http://www.sueanddwight.com/ and/or download at CDBaby www.cdbaby.com/Artist/SueAndDwight and iTunes
• Thanks to those of you who passed along last months newsletter to your friends, we got a couple of new sign ups as a result! xo xo
• How do you make a million dollars in folk music? Start with two million dollars
• If you are listening to the radio sometime and you think…hmmmm, I’d like to hear a Sue and Dwight song…call or email in a request to the show okay?! I can only disguise my voice in so many ways. Ha ha, just kidding…haven’t had the guts to try that

Here are some radio shows across Canada and the US that have played our new CD so far. Pretty much all of them can be listened to online. We appreciate their support. Check them out, they are all good shows…

Acoustic Planet - Erin Radio CHES 101.5 FM http://www.erinradio.ca/ ; CHRW Radio 94.9 FM ; Freewheeling 93.3 CFMU http://www.cfmu.mcmaster.ca/ ; Just Us Folk - CKPC-CKPC-AM 1380  http://www.ckpcam.com/ ; FOLK DIRECTIONS CKUT 90.3 FM http://www.ckutfolk.com/ ; REGINA’S MIGHTY SHORES CJTR 91.3 FM http://www.cjtr.ca/ ; TGIFolk WDBX FM 91.1 http://www.wdbx.org/ ; Sunday Morning Coffeehouse KOPN, 89.5 FM http://www.sundaymorningcoffeehouse.org/ ; A VARIETY OF FOLK  WRUR  88.5 FM  http://www.wrur.org/ ; DETOURS 91.3 WYSO FM http://www.wyso.org/ ; Folk Fury KTEP-FM http://www.ktep.org/ ; Acoustic Harmony http://www.acoustic-harmony.com/ ; The Weekend Morning Show (CBC MB) www.cbc.ca/weekendmorning/

Bye for now! Sue (and Dwight)

~ We played more than 60 shows this year including The Cameron House, Mambo Lounge and Black Swan as part of Winterfolk, The Spill in Peterborough, Chapters, McNally Robinson’s in Toronto, Winnipeg and Saskatoon, Lady of The Lake in Brandon, Michelle’s Brasserie and others.

~ We continued our residency at The Cameron House. Can’t think of a better way to spend a Saturday afternoon.

~ We made the cover of the Winter 2009 Ontario Council Of Folk Festivals Folk Prints Magazine! There’s a scan of it in the ‘Stuff’ Tab.

~ We played our first House Concert in May. We have to do more of those…they are perfect for our kind of music. I blogged about it (scroll down) if you want to read all about it.

~ We did a ‘Mini Tour’ of Saskatchewan and Manitoba in June…always great to return to the homeland.

~ We took a travel guitar with us to Uganda, Tanzania, and Malawi in July/August and had the opportunity to play for people in various villages we visited. I blogged about the trip (see link under Archive at right) if you have some free time to kill. Also, in the ‘Stuff’ Tab there are a couple of links to videos of us singing there.

~ We finished recording our new CD ‘Little Child Big World’. It took quite a bit longer than we expected because new ideas kept emerging during the process, but it was well worth it in the end. We had a great time working with Kevin Quain again on this one. In addition to engineering and co-producing, he contributed some wonderful piano, bass and accordion performances. We were also excited to have Adam Warner (percussion), Shelley Coopersmith (violin), Kim Cole and Michelle Rumball (back-up vocals) perform on the CD.

~ It was a bonus that the whole gang (Kevin, Adam, Shelley, Kim and Michelle) were able to join us on stage for our Toronto CD Release Party in September. The backroom of The Cameron House was packed and the night felt magical. We performed the songs in the order they appear on the CD.

~ In October, we sent our new CD off to radio show hosts across Canada who we thought might be interested in playing our music and were really happy with the response. So in November, we did the same with radio show hosts in the U.S. and again received a very positive response. It’s so exciting that, thanks to the Internet, we can listen these shows either live or as a podcast…in the “old days” we’d have had to be in the same province or state.

~ Since it’s our hometown, we had a second CD Release Party for ‘Little Child Big World’ in Winnipeg in December. We tried out a new venue, a used bookstore/cafe, called Sam’s Place. It was another great night with an awesome turnout. Our nephew Brock, a bass whiz and Dwight’s Dad Ken, a violin player joined us on stage.

~ We were fortunate to do well at this year’s auditions for the TTC Subway Musicians Program, and in October began our 5th season. In addition to busking together, I also busk a lot on my own, occasionally with Shelley, and most recently with Kim. It’s so much fun.

~ Although I’m not quite at the seeking treatment stage, I have become quite addicted to Facebook over the past year. I have actually made some new real-life friends from it!

There you have it. Those are some of the bigger things but there have been many other highlights…you know, those small things that keep you going. Like when someone tells you a song you wrote helped them get through a tough time. Or the many new friends we’ve made through our music. Wishing you all the best in 2010!

I had an interesting experience while busking today at Queen Station. I was singing ‘Time With You’ and a young man was listening intently. When I finished, he came up and asked if I could repeat the chorus into his cellphone after he dialed his girlfriend in India. Aww…so romantic!

P.S. She liked it

There’s been so much going on lately I haven’t had a chance to update you on our standing in the TTC Subway Musicians Program this year. We auditioned in August and then had to wait til almost the end of September for the results. We felt like the audition went well, but as we’ve learned over the years, it could go either way so didn’t want to speculate too much.

I’m happy to report that this year it went in our favour. We scored 9th out of 75! So that means we are part of the regular roster and will have scheduled spots throughout the coming year. Although I  must say, we found the Auxiliiary License we had last year worked out fine.

Oh, I should also mention that Dwight brought the accordion to the audition this year as well as his guitar so we’ll be taking that down with us too! I’ll blog about any interesting experiences that come up.

It had all the trappings of a wedding…on a shoestring budget. Venue booked, invitations sent out, replies received, food, drink, lots of hugging and kissing, a room full of friends wishing you well! And, just like at our real wedding, we were having so much fun, the evening flew by.

Although this is our second CD, it was our first CD Release Party. If we had known how much fun they are we definitely would have had one for ‘Darlings Of The Open Stage’.

The ‘Little Child Big World’ CD has been a full year in the making. We started recording it at Kevin Quain’s studio in September 2008 and picked up the finished product from the manufacturer in September 2009. All thirteen songs on it were written in 2007 and 2008, following a trip we took to Ethiopia, Uganda, and Malawi. They represent an important moment in time for us, both personally and musically. Although Dwight had previously been to Uganda and Tanzania, it was my first time on the continent and the trip was truly life changing, both in the way I view the world and because I had never written a song before then.

Releasing a CD that is so personal and filled with songs of a social justice nature, comes with a certain amount of risk. If the response of the audience at the party is any indication, it was well worth the risk.

It was the first time we’ve played with a full band AND back-up singers! And that is quite a different experience. I am used to just the two of us, occasionally joined by either a bass or violin. We were so pleased to have Kevin Quain, Adam Warner, Shelley Coopersmith, Kim Cole, and Michelle Rumball, who all performed on the CD join us last night. An all star cast! Myself and the girls all wore brightly patterned African kangas, wrapped around our waists.  With no pins or clasps, we all had some advance concerns about whether our wrapping technique was sufficient to keep them from falling off mid show. Thankfully we have retained our G rating as a family friendly act!

We played the songs in the order they appear on the CD. In this time of the iPod Shuffle and individual track downloads, the order of songs may not have the importance it did in the “old days”. However, for those people who like to listen to a CD from beginning to end, the flow is paramount in creating the mood and taking the listener on a journey.

Looking out from the stage at the packed room was a huge thrill. The seating in the back room of The Cameron House is tiered, so the view is pretty much great from every seat. We had set the tables with Ethiopian woven mats, small bark snack boats, and little red votive candles that cast a beautiful glow on the faces of the audience members. To see everyone listening and watching so intently was wonderful, though it did cause me to mist up a few times.

Here was the pièce de résistance…we got a standing ovation at the end of the show! How exciting is that!?! Right now we’re on a real high. Just to illustrate how high…we got home at about 11 last night and realized we hadn’t eaten since lunch so Dwight said “Let’s order a pizza”. And here’s the funny part…I readily agreed without reservation. Normally I would have put forward all the health reasons why eating such heavy food late at such a late hour would not be wise. But look at me…livin’ on the edge. What kind of crazy rock and rollers order pizza at 11 o’clock at night?

We just returned home from a mini tour out west, combining music with some visitng. It was a great two weeks. We love living in Toronto but it’s always nice to revisit other places we’ve lived and the friends and family there. We had hoped to blog from the trip but ran into some connectivity issues so I will have to rely on my memory to tell you about our adventures.

For the first leg of the trip, we flew into Winnipeg and rented a car to drive from there to Saskatoon. We decided to take the more scenic Yellowhead Route, which we hadn’t been on since we lived in Saskatoon years ago. In those days we drove between Winnipeg and Saskatoon regularly and took for granted the beauty of the prairie sky. It really is incredible…the land is so flat in places, you feel like you can see forever. And those “prairie skycrapers” (grain elevators) are a thing of beauty.

It seemed whenever we made a turn or stopped the car, I would notice a strange rattling sound that sounded like it was coming from under the car, so we got out to investigate but didn’t see anything unusual. Finally, I reached under my seat and found the culprit…a full bottle of Labatt’s Blue. Not sure if that is some kind of frequent renter perk
 
Saskatoon was a real trip down memory lane…we drove past our first apartment, our first house, visited some of our favourite old haunts and even ordered a pizza from our former corner pizzeria, the Venice House on 8th St. It was as delicious as we remembered it. We stayed with friends in Saskatoon, which was fabulous. I’ve always appreciated my friends but as I get older I think I realize even more how important it is to have good friends. You know, the kind where you don’t see each other for ages but when you get together you easily pick up where you left off.

On our last day there, some friends took us up to Batoche for the day. We hadn’t been in years so that was a real treat for us. The song ‘Maria’s Place’ by Connie Kaldor was going through my head, the whole time. Now I can think of all sorts of adjectives to describe the feelings evoked by walking on the grounds of the Northwest Rebellion…moving, powerful, haunting…but do you think I could when I was signing the guest book in the interpretive centre? No…so forever recorded for history is that I thought it was “very interesting” Sigh.

Saskatoon wasn’t all just fun and visiting though, we did play two shows while in town. Okay, they were fun too. We played at the Prairie Ink Restaurant at the McNally Robinson bookstore on 8th Street. The McNally bookstores are great supporters of Canadian artists…writers and musicians. And their clientele reflects that too.

The next leg of the trip was to the family cottage in the Whiteshell (Manitoba). We left Saskatoon early in the morning and drove straight through…about 11 hours. That’s a lot of driving for folks who don’t normally drive or even own a car back home! This time we took the Trans Canada Hwy. A little less scenic than the Yellowhead but 4 lanes, so less chance of being stuck behind large slow moving farm equipment for stretches en route. We arrived at the cottage in time to see a beautiful Manitoba sunset. The next few days were spent just hanging out reading, canoeing, walking, communing with nature, and playing music on the deck.

During the hours on the road I had finally finished writing a song I’d been working on over the past month (the third in my “girl power trilogy”). I played it for Dwight at the cottage for the first time. After a few tweaks…he thought one line was a bit cliche and I agreed…we began working on an arrangement. He was, and a lot of other folks it seems will be pleased to hear that this song will feature the beloved “Hohner Stud”. Yes, that little accordian gifted to us by our friend Kevin Quain, has proven to be a fun addition to our show. Who knew accordians had such appeal! 

While out at the cottage we did a radio interview with Leanne Doty of CKLQ in Brandon, where we’d be playing our next show. There’s no phone at the cottage so we called in and did the interview from a phone booth outside a little store at Peniac Bay. It was going along smoothly until, in the final moments of the interview, some dude pulls up on an ATV, doing wheelies across the parking lot. Ha ha!

Next stop…gig at the Lady Of The Lake Cafe and Pub. We picked up our bass player, Brock Peters, in Winnipeg and made the two hour drive to Brandon. Hey what a coincidence that our bass player has the same last name as we do! It’s not really. He’s our nephew who happens to be an amazing bass player. Dwight sent him some charts for some songs and the others he just winged brilliantly. What a treat it was to have him join us. Lady Of The Lake is another awesome venue to play.

Then it was back to Winnipeg for the remainder of the trip. We had two gigs scheduled…the first at the Prairie Ink Restaurant at the McNally Robinson bookstore at Grant Park. The place was packed…some of our family had to wait til after our first set ended to get a table. It was an awesome night. We were so thrilled when one of the salespeople from the Music Dept. made a point of coming to tell us they’d sold several of our CDs and we’ll have to send more! Our second Winnipeg show was a private party…a birthday celebration for the sister of a good friend who comes out to our shows whenever we are in town. The party was held in a stately home on Wellington Crescent…it was a really beautiful afternoon.

We had an unusual adventure while in Winnipeg…we found a toddler!!! One morning on our way to meet friends for breakfast Dwight says “Look at that!!” I had been rummaging in my purse and when I looked up, was shocked to see a baby, clad only in diapers and holding a bottle brush, standing in the middle of the road…no adult in sight. I hopped out of the car, ran over to him and said “Hey what are you doin’ here?” He smiled and reached up for me to pick him up. I carried him to the boulevard and started asking him if he knew where he lived or where his Mommy was. He was babbling a blue streak and of course none of it made sense.

So I called 911 and was assured by the dispatcher that this was a priority call…oh, and would I stay with the child? Ummmm…yes of course I would. That question seemed ridiculous until a woman from a nearby apartment told me she had witnessed the car ahead of us veer around the baby and keep driving. After 20 minutes and no sign of the police, she said it looks like I would have to keep the baby, adding she thought he kind of looked like me. So naturally I dialled 911 again and was again assured by the dispatcher that this was a priority call. In normal time 20 minutes isn’t long but it seems long when you are trying to corral and entertain a toddler within a few feet area around a tree…the only shady spot in the vicinity. Long story short, after another 25 minutes (45 in all) and still no sign of the police, the baby’s frantic mother came running from across the street. She thought he was upstairs in his room but the little monkey had let himself out. One more call to 911 to cancel the “emergency” and we were on our way. Luckily I was able to reach the friends we were meeting and let them know we would be late…they agreed finding a toddler was a pretty good excuse for being tardy.

The rest of our time in The Peg was spent visiting and eating and eating and did I mention eating? Seemed like we ate constantly and still couldn’t make it to all our fave places. Oh well, next time.

Back in Toronto yesterday for our last Cameron House Matinee before taking July and August off. We continued our residency through the last two Summers but this year we decided to take a break cause we plan to do some travelling in Africa next month. What a wonderful send-off…a bunch of great friends came out and we had a lovely afternoon. We are going to miss our weekly show but look forward to resuming our weekly schedule again in September…hopefully with some new songs inspired by our travels! 

Yesterday we played our first House Concert. If you aren’t familiar with the concept here’s a brief description…House Concerts are usually held at someone’s home or other small private venue. The Host invites people to attend and asks them for a donation in order to pay the artist.

Yesterday’s concert was hosted by a wonderful Toronto poet, named Allan Rose, who we met at The Cameron House. The concert took place in the backyard of his home, which overlooks a ravine. What a treat it was to play outdoors in such a beautiful setting, on such a gorgeous afternoon.

There were little birds chirping in the tree beside where we were playing, robins were working the greens, and big fluffy white “Simpsons” clouds filled the bright blue sky. I noticed all of that because I am trying to stop and smell the roses more often…you know, take a moment to look around and really see what’s there. It’s not as easy as it sounds, at least for me. As someone who can be easily distracted or worried about what coming up, I can forget to do that. But I am working on it!

The audience was amazing, with everyone listening intently. In between sets they were invited to read poems they’d written that reflect the themes of our music. We really enjoyed that. It was an eclectic mix of people and we were fortunate to get to chat with many of them throughout the afternoon.

Oh, and I almost forgot to mention, the concert was followed by a great BBQ!

All the way home, that song ‘Perfect Day’ from the movie ‘Legally Blonde’ was going through my head…how appropriate!

Someone asked me, the other day, when I planned to blog some more about busking in the subway because they enjoy reading about “life down under”. So I thought today was as good a day as any. 

I went out looking for a spot after 11 this morning and was lucky to find Dundas available. I’m becoming a bit of a fixture there. I know that because of the many Hellos and waves from familiar faces. I was there for about 2 hours.

Things started out well, with the perfect balance of busy-ness (i.e. people traffic) and noise level. I don’t like it when it is too busy because I feel like I get drowned out.

About an hour into my “shift”, a maintenance guy who was pushing a big bin piled high with garbage bags parked it a few feet directly in front of me then chatted loudly with a fellow worker for about 15 minutes. “Helllllooo I’m doing something here!” Well, I said that in my head anyway.

So, after he moved on, it’s going along great and then the announcement about a “medical emergency at track level” shutting down subway service on the Bloor line, started up…every 3 or 4 minutes for almost an hour…completely drowning me out. I was annoyed but then felt a bit guilty for feeling that way because a “medical emergency at track level”, lasting that long, probably means somebody was going through something pretty terrible.

I forgot to mention that when I started out today I couldn’t find my Lucky Turkish Twonie. It is a coin that I use as “seed money” in my guitar case…you know, just so there’s a little something there when you first get started. It looks like a real Twonie but is just a tad smaller in circumference. Perhaps the missing LTT was the reason for the oddities today. I am happy to report I found it when I got home!

There were good things today too. A big group of school kids passed through and three cute little guys came right over and dropped some coins in my case. One of them looked at the US dollar bill, someone had put in earlier, and his eyes got real wide and he said “Wow, you got some real money in there.”

Another funny thing happened…a young man was walking by eating one of those yogurts they advertise with the belly dancer stomach action. Know what I mean? I think it’s called Activia. Anyway, I’m singing and he points to his yogurt, my guitar case and then to his stomach with a shaky kinda motion. Ha ha…what the heck was that all about?!

Well, there you have it…another fun day down-under!

Two very strange things happened this week that I thought I’d share with you. I’ll start with the most recent while the memory is fresh. Gorgeous Saturday weather here in Toronto yesterday and things started out a bit slow at our weekly matinee. But there were some great folks listening intently, so we were enjoying it.

About halfway through our first set, a small group of people came into the club to help their friend dismantle the art show that had been up all month. She had taken a few of the pieces down before we started playing but I guess needed some help with the harder to reach ones and was waiting for her crew to finish the job.

So there we are, mid-set, mid-song, and they pull out a 10 or 12 foot ladder and start climbing it and pulling down the art. They were calling out directions to each other, all right in front of the stage, completely oblivious to the fact that we were performing. We soldiered on for a bit although it was incredibly distracting…until….they started asking the people who were trying to listen if they would move so they could get at the art behind them. Now it was not only distracting, but slightly dangerous for the audience who were shuffling to get out of the way of the ladder while trying to pay attention to us.

First time ever, we stopped wthout finishing the song and said we were going to take a break until they were done. As we were putting our guitars down, Dwight and I looked at each other and said “There’s one for the memoirs” at exactly the same time…ha ha!

We received a “Sorry, but…” apology from the crashers. Not sure how they felt any “but” attached to the sorry was justified. They didn’t seem to get it. One person there said “If I didn’t see it for myself, I wouldn’t have believed it.” Coincidentally, Dwight is reading a book right now called ‘Roadkill On The Three-Chord Highway’…we feel like we added a new chapter yesterday.    

Okay, so here is the other weird thing that happened this week…I was busking at Osgoode station for about an hour around noon on Thursday. Occasionally looking down at the coins in my case, I started to notice that, although people were dropping in Loonies and Twonies, the amount of money in the case didn’t appear to change at all. I even checked around the case to see if the coins were landing outside it, but there was nothing there.  It was the oddest thing, like my case was a big Black Hole! Now I’m not an expert on quantum field theory, but hmmm!

I thought I’d share some memories from this past wonderful weekend of music. It started early with the Winterfolk Launch Party on Thursday night. It was great to mingle with other artists and volunteers and you could feel the excitment building for the festival. This year I’ve gotten a bit addicted to Facebook and have also joined a folk music List Serv and have communicated on-line with a lot of people in the music community. So, when I actually got to meet some of them face to face it was great. Then of course there are all the fabulous people we’ve met over the past few years since we’ve been in this business and it was great to reconnect with them. We were all telling each other when our shows were and at that moment all had great intentions of being at every one! In reality, because there are six stages presenting music simultaneously over the three days of the festival, you just can’t be everywhere. But we did get out to see quite a few when we weren’t performing ourselves.

Our first show of the weekend was 11pm on Friday at The Mambo Lounge, a great little Cuban restaurant on The Danforth. We heard from folks who ate there that the food was wonderful…it sure smelled great, and they serve a tasty German beer that you can’t get anywhere else on the avenue! We went on after Hotcha! who were in great form. They do a smokin’ verson of ‘Old Man Mose’. It’s a song from the 1940’s that we had hoped to cover at one time but it just wasn’t right for my voice…but Bev nails it! 

We were so happy…wait, I need a bigger word…THRILLED…to have Shelley Coopersmith join us on violin and mandolin for our Mambo Lounge show. She plays on the CD we are currently recording and we’ve become accustomed to hearing that haunting violin on certain songs, so it was a treat to have her join us live. It was a small venue and we were expecting to do our own sound but Craig and Paolo arrived to set things up for us and they did a fabulous job. The show was fun. The audience was warm and listened intently. Afterwards, some came up to chat and buy CDs. One fellow gave us a lovely compliment, comparing our songs to those of “a young Gordon Lightfoot” who he used to go see at coffee houses in the 60’s. Sigh…that’s the kind of thing that makes it all worthwhile.

On Saturday we played our weekly 3:30-5:30pm matinee at The Cameron House. It was a busy afternoon…along with the familiar ones that we appreciate so much, there were lots of new faces in the crowd throughout the afternoon. Shelley joined us for our second set, a welcome surprise. She plays with The Cameron Family Singers who come on at 6pm. We had to dash out when we finished playing to make the trip across town to our 7pm show upstairs at The Black Swan.

We were part of the ‘Love At Winterfolk’ evening. It was great. Andy Frank hosted the stage…he’s such a great supporter of local music. We had a super soundman…D’arcy. The Black Swan has amazing lighting which makes you look real good on stage. However, it also makes it difficult to see more than a few feet into the audience. I like to look at people when I sing to them so I was happy when a group of women sat at the tables right up front where I could see their faces. Again, we were pleased to have a real listening audience that evening. After our show, we stuck around to see Treasa Lavasseur. Wow, she was awesome…amazing stage presence.

With the last of our weekend shows behind us, we headed back to The Danforth on Sunday afternoon. Dwight had volunteered to do sound at The Black Swan and I club-hopped. I stopped in at The Willow to see the some performers in The Moonshine Cafe showcase. I was happy to see Paul Rooney and Alan McKinley, who were both wonderful but unfortunately (for me) the place was jammed so I couldn’t get a seat. My next stop was The Mambo Lounge where I hooked up with my friend Kim Cole (another singer-songwriter) to catch Peter Verity. He did a great set. It was packed there too but we managed to score a table.

After that I headed over to The Black Swan to see Crabtree and Mills. There has been such a buzz about their new CD and I was looking forward to catching one of their shows. I loved it. I could really relate to their music. I particularly loved their social justice songs. And they did one song that actually moved me to tears…kind of embarassing for me, cause I was sitting right up front and had to fish in my purse for a kleenex. I found them quite inspiring.

That was the last show of the day so after that, I went down to meet up with Dwight. He was busy doing teardown at the stage he’d done the sound for. So I stood around chatting with other musician friends…some new and some I’ve known for awhile..till he was done. All the way home we compared notes on our afternoons. Well, you just read about mine and Dwight had the best seat in the house at the soundboard for Nancy Dutra, Bill Colgate & Cam MacInnes, Danny Marks, and Wendell Ferguson & Friends (impressive friends like Michael Brennan and Shawn Brush).

Even though we saw a ton of great music, there was still lots more that we couldn’t make it to. If you haven’t been to Winterfolk, make sure you take it in next year. It’s organized by Brian Gladstone who does it purely for the love of music and community. I know this is unbelievable but, with the exception of one stage this year, the festival is FREE….no cover…no tickets. What kind of crazy good deal is that?!