Fri, 09 Mar 2007
We’ve come to an agreement. We’re nowThe Sierra Swing Conspiracy
Ethan Lewis: Violin
Sean Robinson: Mandolin
Greg Brouelette: Mandolin and Guitar
All hail the spirit of Django
Watch this space for upcoming gigs.
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Wed, 07 Mar 2007
First of all, the Slow Jam is tomorrow, March 8th at 7:30 at Music & More. When we moved it to Thursday last month there were several people who I couldn’t contact to let them know. So we did a litle jam on teh first Thursday and the first Tuesday. Well, now everyone knows we’ve moved to the 2nd Thursday so I’m expecting at least 8 musicians. It should be a good jam.Our recent performances
The band (who’s name is still in limbo) has played a few benefit concerts lately. Last week we played at a benefit to raise money to help a group of High School kids go to Costa Rica. Two weeks before that we played at a dual benefit for Habitate for Humanity and the Auburn Interfaith Food Bank. I just received an email from the organizers saying that we helped raise $2870 for those 2 good causes.
Our acoustic trio always makes a great impression. We have a darn good sound for only 3 people. But we were glad to share the stage with "Dr. Bach and the Jazz Practitioners" as well as Tom Briar who’s a fantastic ragtime piano player. It’s good to see early jazz represented so well here in the gold country.
So what’s next for us?
First of all, we need to decide on a name. We’re also in discussions about doing gigs at the Auburn Art Walk and at a local renaissance fair. (We’ll have to learn a lot of celtic music for that one. But Ethan is an authority on celtic music so we have a good person to lead us down that path.)
We’re also trying to set up a 2 hour set of an eclectic mix of bluegrass, Dawg music, gypsy jazz, straight ahead jazz and celtic music. That would give us a chance to play places like The Club Car in Auburn.
Whatever happens, I’ll be sure to keep you informed right here on this blog.
Last Night’s Jam
When I was done teaching last night I drove down the hill to Loomis to the Tueday Night jam at "The Wild Chicken." I surprised myself because I taught 11 students in a 6 hour span on Monday and another 8 students yesterday in just 4 1/2 hours so I was pretty tired. But once I started playing I couldn’t wipe a big silly grin off of my face. It was so much fun.
I’m sure that part of it was the pride I felt when I looked around the room and saw 4 of my students. But a big part of it is the simple joy of making music with other people. If you can make it to the Slow Jam tomorrow night then you may feel that joy as well.
I hope to see you there.
What I’m listening to now:Tony Rice
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Thu, 01 Mar 2007
We’ll be playing at a dinner benifit on Saturday. It will be held at the First Congregational Church on Auburn Ravine Road in Overmiller Hall.We’ll be on at 6:00 to play some more gypsy jazz, swing, and Dawg music.
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And then the snow really showed up …
Remember, the official town motto for Colfax is “Above the fog, below the snow”. Well yesterday, the snow level came down below 1000 feet and we’re up at 2200.
Here’s the back yard
More view from the back yard
The front garden
Part of the property at the side of the house
Thunder thinks this is great. He’s right at home in his element.
Here’s our little house in the hills.
This is the rest of the downhill side of the property. That’s our neighbor’s house.
The roads were pretty bad last night and they were turning cars around on highway 80 at Applegate last night. That’s about 5 miles downhill form us. So we had to take back roads to get home. Luckily, I was at the theater teaching and I stayed there while a student was waiting for his mom to pick him up. She was coming from Meadow Vista which is just down the hill from us and she told me which roads were plowed.
The only problem I had was getting up our driveway. It took me about 7 tries to get up it last night. Then Merja got home and her car slid down the driveway and got a little bit sideways. We got her turned around and then shoveled some more snow and she got right up on her 2nd try.
This is this morning after a lot of the snow had melted. Last night it was 3 to 4 inches deep and icy.
So that’s our little house in the snow. I’m sure it will all melt away in a few days. But it sure looks pretty right now. But remember, just 30 or so mile up the hill is Donner pass. When I was driving home I was listening to the radio to hear what roads were closed and highway 80 was closed from Applegate (just down the hill form us) all the way to the Nevada border. So we got it pretty lightly.
Now, last year when we got snow it was the first snow in 5 years. Now it seems that it snows every February. Oh well, that’s just one of the cool things about living in the mountains.
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