Next Workshops:
Guitar: Reno 5/17; Northern CA: 5/19,20,21,24, VA 6/22
Mandolin: Reno 5/18; Berkeley 5/22, DC 6/7, VA 6/21,22

Hola y'all:

December greetings from Maryland.

About every nine months or so I email everybody on my list (which I've actually checked multiple times)
to say 'hey' and let you know what's happening here in Lake Orbegone.

RECENT THINGS
The past couple months have been nicely busy. My last two DC-area shows (October's house concert in Takoma Park with John Seebach and the annual Thanksgiving show in Herndon with Jimmy Gaudreau) were both fully attended, fun evenings. And our fiddler friend Jon Glik - for whom October's show was a half benefit - received his much-needed liver transplant in mid November and is doing well.

Early November's Alabama trip was also fun, with the inaugural mandolin class at the new Alabama Folk School in Nauvoo and a return engagement in Huntsville for the folk society there.

I still enjoy teaching (both privately and in workshops). And if there's a trend in the past year, it's been towards more mandolin workshops. This summer I had the pleasure of teaching the intermediate mandolin class at Augusta's Bluegrass Week (which to my delight coincided with contradance week for the only time ever) as well a return to the the California Coast Music Camp deep in the redwoods (where I led my first week-long bluegrass band workshop in addition to a flatpicking class).

UPCOMING STUFF
Below is my current schedule - which includes things in PA, NY, NJ, MD and FL in the next couple of months. (The current big endeavor is that I will be driving down to Florida and back in February - and I'm trying to arrange some shows and workshops en route. So if any of you in NC, GA, SC or FL might be interested in hosting a house concert or workshop please email me. Also: I expect to be in Atlanta the last weekend in February, and the local folk group there is looking for use of a house that can sit 30+ folks for a concert there.)

MUSIC
Though my intimate guitar recording project is lying fallow at the moment, the muse has recently called me to learn a rash of Celtic fiddle tunes. It began by hearing "Dick Gossip's" reel played by Steve Hickman at a contra dance about two months ago and has continued at a lovely cadence ever since. (I find myself particularly drawn to jigs lately, a la "Morrison's", "Geese in the Bog" and "Maggie Brown's Favorite".) I've also - having spontaneously tried a few in teaching situations with great success - started researching and playing rounds; if all goes well, in about three weeks I will be the world's foremost authority on rounds on the mandolin.

nb: my three extant CDs are all now available for downloading on iTunes and CD Baby et al.

DVD SUGGESTIONS
Two brilliant documentaries:
Les Paul: Chasing Sound
No End In Sight (about Iraq)
One great biopic:
Ma Vie en Rose (about Edith Piaf):

CONSUMER TIP
When flying, forget about the $300 noise cancelling headphones - just use some decent earplugs. They kill the loud white noise and make longer air trips much less fatiguing.

EMAIL LIST ANN LANDERS
Surprisingly often people say to me "I know I haven't been to a show of yours in a while - but PLEASE keep me on your list". I'd like to set the record straight (as well do my bit for holiday season stress-reduction): unless you ask to be taken off the list (or are involved in a tragic romantic scenario with me) - you will be on the list Forever. That's my promise to you; I don't give up on people. (But do let me know if your email is changing.)

A BIT OF BLUEGRASS HISTORY
A number of beloved songs contain things which defy conventional logic. I always wondered, for example, why Mrs. Charlie - of "Charlie on the MTA" fame - would dutifully 'hand him a sandwich through the open window' each day instead of the 50 cents he needed to get off the train. (But then again I've never been married).
Well many years ago West Coast fiddler Jim Moss was on a business call with Bill Monroe's son James - while Bill was also in the office - when he decided to inquire about a vexing narrative element in "Footprints in the Snow", one of Bill's signature numbers:

Jim Moss: So, ah.. James... can you ask your father something for me?
James Monroe: What is it?
Jim Moss: Well, it is about the song Foot Prints In The Snow....
James Monroe: The boy on the phone wants to ask you something about
Foot Prints In The Snow.
Bill Monroe: What does he want?
Jim Moss: Ask him... (testing the waters) if in the song it is snowing?
James Monroe: The boy wants to know if it is snowing in the song..
Bill Monroe: Yes, it is snowing..
James Monroe: Yeah, it's snowing
Jim Moss: I thought so.. (that worked all right)
Jim Moss: Ok, ask him, does the girl gets lost out in the forest?
James Monroe: The boy from California wants to know if the girl gets lost out in the forest?
Bill Monroe: Tell him yes the girl is lost. (it sounds like Bill is reading or doing something else)
James Monroe: Yes the girl is lost.
Jim Moss: (also, now I am the boy from California!!, I wonder what the meaning of that is?)
Jim Moss: Ok, ask him if she dies in the snow.. When he finds her is she dead?
James Monroe: The boy wants to know if she dies in the snow?
Bill Monroe: ( pause.. ) Yes she dies out in the snow.
James Monroe: She dies in the snow.
Jim Moss: Well, now here is one last question, James: Why is it that he blesses that happy day when Nellie lost her way only to die in the show? Why is he happy that
she is dead?
James Monroe: The boy wants to know why is you are happy that she is dead?
Bill Monroe: (...real long pause....)
Bill Monroe: THOSE OLD SONGS.. WHO KNOWS WHAT THEY MEAN!
James Monroe: We have work to do here, is there anything else I can do for you?

And two of my CDs (No Frets Barred and Sultans Live!) can now be purchased from CD Baby.

And I just hung my British-style bristle dart board in my newly clean
basement here at mission control.