Picking in Rochester, New York?

[Man of Wax]

I will be in Rochester for the month of September and possibly longer and am interested in learning about picks in the area. There are previous posts on this forum inquiring about Rochester, but it's been a few years, so I hope you don't mind my bring it up again.

I've been enthusiastically and imperfectly playing mandolin and a dash of guitar for about 10 years. Mainly I play and sing bluegrass, country, folk, and, you know, that sort of thing. I can hang with old-time, if your standards are flexible. My girlfriend plays accordion and sounds great in acoustic sessions.

Any tips? Anyone in the area looking to pick? I'm ready to go.

[allenhopkins]

Some things that might interest you:

Turtle Hill Folk Festival Sept. 8-10. Concerts, workshops, jams, sing-arounds. John Cadley's band from Syracuse is one of the features; he wrote the #1 bluegrass song Time, as recorded by Lou Reid & Carolina.

Bluegrass jam at Bernunzio's, second Thursday of the month (Sept. 14), old-time jam the third Thursday (Sept. 21).

Johnny's Irish Pub has several bluegrass nights, Sept. 5 with String Theory, Sept. 12 & 26 with North Star Bluegrass band.

Golden Link folk sing-arounds every Tuesday night at the 12 Corners Presbyterian Church in Brighton; free and open to all.

Back to Johnny's for Roots Night hosted by Old-Time Hoedown (Kathy Vandemortel & Stephen Bland), and featuring Wildroot String Band, plus a jam, also Sept. 14. (I'll be playing there in October, if you're sticking around past the end of the month).

You can PM me or give me a call (I'm in the book) if you'd like more suggestions.

[Man of Wax]

Thanks for these great suggestions, Allen. Is the Johnny's bluegrass night just a show, or is there picking, too?

[allenhopkins]

...Is the Johnny's bluegrass night just a show, or is there picking, too?

When String Theory was the regular Tuesday feature band, it was billed as an "open bluegrass night." I never went, because it conflicted with the weekly Golden Link sing-around -- and as a 46-year founding member, I wanted to attend that event. Now that Johnny's is booking other bands, don't know if there's an open stage as well as a feature performance. You could contact Johnny's and see what they say.