June No Gloom Newsletter
Hey Everybody!
Our show at the Topanga Festival last month was really fun and so many people made it out to the Paramount Ranch this year! We visited with old friends and met new ones and basically had a great day – and got to sing with Fur and Steve just by happy accident! Right is a photo of Steve and me on the Railroad Stage, captured by new friend Patricia Van Over.
We meet up with June having just come back from our very first trip to the Strawberry Music Festival near Yosemite. It was an amazing adventure, full of the beauty of the Sierra Nevada in Spring, and great music with a stellar lineup of artists. I was really excited to meet the great Lisa Burns (Visit Lisa Burns’ Website) and play two short sets with her on the Strawberry Hog Radio, along with our friends Rodger Phillips and Dan Sankey. Lisa rocks! and I have a new girl buddy in music! This was the best part of Strawberry for me this year. Here’s a picture of Lisa playing her bass.
Back home now, we’re getting ready to play again at the Talking Stick in Venice, this time with our newest member, Mark Indictor on fiddle (here’s a photo of Mark at Topanga, also by Pattie). I so enjoyed meeting Mark last January at the Benefit for Haiti in Culver City I invited him to work with the Hilonesome Band. He’ll be joining us on tour to Northern California in mid-July as well (more about that in a minute), and will be with us at the Coffee Gallery on July 30th.
Another very cool thing coming in June is the AMAZING Joe Craven will be visiting Southern California for two shows and I want you all to do everything possible to make it to at least one of them (that’s Joe below with his banjo). This is a world-class artist in our midst folks, and you owe it to yourself to experience the great Joe! He’s had an amazing career, including his long-running association with the David Grisman Band. From Joe’s website:
“Joe is a musical madman with anything that has strings attached; violin, mandolin, tin can, bedpan, cookie tin, tenor guitar, mouth bow, banjo, berimbau, balalaika, boot ‘n lace, animal bones, squeeze toys, cake pans, waste cans, umbrella stands, martini shakers and; himself. Educator, former museum curator, visual artist, actor/storyteller and festival emcee, Joe has made music with folks ranging from jazz violinist Stephane Grappelli to Grateful Dead Guitarist Jerry Garcia to The Persuasions. An advocate of the folk arts, Joe’s educational mission is to empower individuals to take possession of what they already have and tell their stories by ‘demystifying’ art through self-expression as a daily ritual. No matter who he’s connecting with; a community workshop in Costa Rica, a university lecture demonstration in California, or on stage in front of thousands of school kids in Scotland, he’s at home and loving every minute. ‘Everything Joe touches turns to music,’ says David Grisman, who Joe played with for almost 17 years. No one who saw Joe wring a percussion concerto from his garbage-bag raincoat during a downpour at the Strawberry Music Festival could disagree.”
Joe’s appearances in Southern California are rare so I urge you to check out his shows and plan to treat yourself to a master, virtuoso, and the best student of music and art I’ve ever seen. Joe will be at the Coffee Gallery Backstage in Altadena on June 25th and on June 26th at Russ & Julie’s House Concerts in Oak Park. Visit Joe’s website and his schedule and read about his brilliant work at Joe Craven’s Website.
We’ll be spending the rest of June getting ready for our July tour to Northern California and are totally jazzed that we’ll be playing the Freight & Salvage in Berkeley for the first time! Incidentally, we hope to be filming that show, so if you’re in the area or you have friends who are, please be in the audience and probably in our DVD! We start in Sacramento on Jeffrey Callison’s radio show “Insight” on Capital Public Radio. We then head up to beautiful Colfax and Nevada City near Grass Valley to meet up with KVMR and sit in on Che Greenwood’s radio show. That night we play at the lovely Evangeline’s Cafe in Colfax, then it’s on to THE FREIGHT & SALVAGE in Berkeley. That weekend we’ll be part of the Scott Valley Bluegrass Festival in Etna before coming back home. All the details are below, so we hope to see you or friends you know in July up north! I’ll remind you about all the tour stuff in next month’s newsletter, so stay tuned!
Happy June (No Gloom) Summer, Friends! Make sure to get outside and play with your dog or dig in the dirt, plant some flowers and vegetables and wear sunscreen! We look forward to seeing you out there!
Big Love and Blessings to all,
Susie
