Belle of Lexington, The Golden Ticket
... and more coming soon! I'm back in the land of internet!
Howdy!
I’m getting all settled back in Nashville after our summer away in the Adirondacks. If you’d like to hear more about all the golfing and gigging we did in the last few months, you’ll need to check out the KKRG News (and I hope you will). But here in the Fiddlegeek zone I’ll do my best to keep things short ‘n’ sweet.
Despite being away from regular internet access for a few months, I did manage to add one new video to the tune archive over the summer (“Belle of Lexington” from Emmett Lundy). Yesterday I added “The Golden Ticket”, a favorite contemporary tune (written by my old buddy Eric Merrill) which several of you had asked me to include. And I’ve got several tunes in the chute for shooting—all of them by request, so keep those ideas coming!
My return to Nashville/internet also means a return to availability for one-on-one fiddle coaching sessions. Please reach out if you’d like to have a musical check-in.
GIGGING
TOMORROW, Sep. 21, I’ll be playing a family-friendly square dance at the sure-to-be-sweet Eastwood Fall Fest right here in our neighborhood in East Nashville. (Band is “Uncle Poplar”: Critter Eldridge, Abigail Washburn and self, with Kristin Andreassen calling.)
In the next few months my live show dates will be as accompanist to Joachim Cooder. Check those out on my website calendar, or follow me on Bandsintown to get alerts when new dates are added.
Meanwhile, my duo with Kieran Kane is taking a little gig-break to finish up recording and work on hatching plans for releasing new music in 2025—yee haw!
LISTENING
Gotta give a grateful shoutout to fiddlegeek Justin May for alerting me that this long-lost favorite of mine (only released on cassette tape) is now up on YouTube: Tribute to Fred Cockerham. It features the feverish fiddling of a young Greg Hooven (along with an epically great band), whose playing on this album was the rowdy entity that finally shoved me over the edge into the abyss of trying to figure out how to make those noises. (I also love his singing—I’ve never heard a more frighteningly believable “Wild Bill Jones” than his version on this record.) Greg was a complicated character, and he died far too young. But I count myself lucky to have heard him in person many many times at festivals and gatherings, and also to have gotten to express my gratitude to him for the influence his music had on me.
LASTLY
Thank you for being a part of the Fiddlegeek fun! I’m hoping to find an appropriate moment this fall for an online workshop—I welcome your input on best times and most-desired tunes.
Please share this note with anyone you think may be interested.
Wishing you lots of happy geeking —
😻