PhilGE
Oct-29-2005, 11:37pm
A couple of weeks ago I got a call to play for an annual contra/barn dance held by a local church. This dance has a lot of traditions including some specific dances, specific callers, and specific musicians. It was an honor of sorts, to be asked, but I was a bit worried about the band, since it seemed like the organizers were assembling a band, not hiring one. Just in case, I encouraged them to contact a friend of mine, Pete Miller. Pete and I have played a couple of gigs together recently (whoa - just recognizing that I'm playing gigs is very strange, but good!)
When I showed up this evening, "the band" was Pete on banjo, his brother, Evan Miller on fiddle, Jen Bartlett on guitar, and me on mando. Turns out the other three played together as "Shoofly" about 17 years ago. They hadn't played together in about as long, but you'd never have known. We had a lot of fun playing tunes - and boy did I feel honored to be on mandolin. I played some lead, but mostly rhythm, for a total of about 2 plus hours. Did I say it was fun? I felt carried along to very nice heights for my own playing in public. Still made numerous errors, but didn't really care. We all had fun.
Looks like we have a new/old old-time band. # http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif
When I showed up this evening, "the band" was Pete on banjo, his brother, Evan Miller on fiddle, Jen Bartlett on guitar, and me on mando. Turns out the other three played together as "Shoofly" about 17 years ago. They hadn't played together in about as long, but you'd never have known. We had a lot of fun playing tunes - and boy did I feel honored to be on mandolin. I played some lead, but mostly rhythm, for a total of about 2 plus hours. Did I say it was fun? I felt carried along to very nice heights for my own playing in public. Still made numerous errors, but didn't really care. We all had fun.
Looks like we have a new/old old-time band. # http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif