An August for Memories of Summer

Well, friends, as I write, the summer seems to be already winding down, and I don't feel like we got enough summer at all. Perhaps I feel this way because when we were kids the summers seemed to stretch out in front of us like years, like oceans of time, like entire eras in our lives. Now, as grown ups, it's a whisper of time….we mark it off as a series of events, maybe a trip or two and bang, it's Fall before we know where all the time went.

Steve at Yosemite

This summer, though, has been full of adventure, joy and profit for us, in music, community and spirit. Steve and I began the summer visiting two great California music festivals, the Strawberry Music Festival near Yosemite Valley and the Live Oak at Lake Cachuma, North of Santa Barbara. We had friends at both places who made us feel at home and showed us the ropes. At Strawberry we actually were snowed on during our first night there and wowie, were we glad to be in our snug little RV that night! Before it snowed, however, it had been raining and it was definitely cold. We had the great fortune to snag our buddies Rodger Phillips on banjo and Lisa Burns on bass, rehearse really quickly in the warm RV, and made our way out into the cold, dark and wet for our debut on the Hog Radio after hours show! We patted ourselves on the back for being professionals as we splooshed through the muddy meadow in the rain with our instruments in their gig bags. Waking up the next morning we looked out the window to see the trees covered in white!

Susie With Fred and Sharon Munroe at Live Oak

It was astonishing to see Camp Mather transform itself so quickly just a couple of days later into a sunny and warm early spring paradise. We played again on the Hog Radio that weekend, thanks to new friend Larry Carlin, at the "Breakfast Club" on Saturday morning, with the same crew, this time adding our pal Dan Sankey from San Diego on fiddle.

Susie with Che Greenwood at KVMR, Nevada City

Michael Lewis Luthier - Working on the OMC

We then began on our July adventures with a feeling for and excitement about travel in our heads. Our Northern California tour began on the 12th of July with the trio appearing on CalPublic Radio in Sacramento with Jeffrey Callison on his show "Insight." We then headed further North in our lovely little van (which Steve packed professionally) to Nevada City and Colfax where we did shows at The Crazy Horse Inn and Evangeline's. We loved getting to know Evangeline and swimming in the beautiful and cold American River on a hot day before our show. It was the peak of the stunning Sierra summer for us. We also loved playing for Che Greenwood on KVMR in Nevada City the morning of our show at Evangeline's. We shared a love of the old masters, especially Jean Ritchie, with Che on his show "Folk Say." We got to visit luthier Michael Lewis that same day out at his shop near Colfax before our show that night. And Michael came to our show just to check on our guitars! (not really – he came to hear the music)

The next day we left the wide open spaces and found our selves back down in the Bay Area urban reality, in Berkeley, playing on a triple-bill at the Freight & Salvage Coffee House. Our new friend Bill Evans joined us on stage and played his great banjo on two songs he apparently learned in a matter of minutes while we drove into town! And he was great!

At The Freight & Salvage with Bill Evans

The next day we said a reluctant goodbye to our newest band member, Mark Indictor (fiddle), along with his wife Pattie (who had taken video for us) and picked up Rodger Phillips (banjo) for our further caravan North! Our comfy little van took to the beautiful Klamath River Valley, traveling through the Mt. Shasta area, to join in the Scott Valley Bluegrass Festival. It was one of the most beautiful parts of California I had never seen. We had a great time with new friends there and garnered an offer to return for next year's festival.

At The Scott Valley Bluegrass Festival

All along the way, we were in the midst of family, whether our actual family (my two brothers, Rob's brother James, Fred's nephew) or those who just felt like family, old and new. It was an enormously enriching trip and I am still unwinding all my memories and good wishes from all those in our audiences.

Now in August, we have some time finally to work on Rob's new songs for a new album project I hope to get started on later this year. We're all excited to get the songs off the ground at last. We'll also be including on this CD project some other songs from friends of ours, also wonderful songwriters, like Ernest Troost, Steve Werner and Jeni Hankins, along with songs from Gillian Welch, Steve Earl and Jean Ritchie.

Now I'm squeezing every bit of summer I can out of August, my true time off, and it feels so good, with our good friends around us, and good fortune to have them. And fine memories of a great summer and plans for the future. We feel really blessed.

Enjoy the rest of your summer! Fall will be here in the blink of an eye!

With love,
Susie

July Rides!

Hey Friends,

Steve and I had a great time in June getting around to music festivals in California and enjoying the new friends we've made there. The Live Oak and Strawberry Music festivals were such fun and I recommend them both to you if you haven't been. A wonderful family feeling invests both of these events and it's so great to experience live music outdoors in California's golden spring! We've seen some wonderful artists ~ so inspiring!

As I write, we're excitedly preparing for our July tour to the wilds of Northern California mid-month. We also have a couple of shows here in So-Cal in July, both return trips to great venues we know and love. On the 10th we're back at the Fret House in Covina, California, then on the 12th we embark on our travels. The crown-jewel of the tour is our show at the Freight & Salvage in Berkeley on July 15th in their beautiful new location. We hope to be filming that show, so if you're in the area or you have friends who are, please come see us and land in our movie!

That weekend we'll be driving up to the Scott Valley Bluegrass Festival in beautiful Etna, California near the Klamath National Forest, and then at the end of the month we return to old stomping grounds at the Coffee Gallery Backstage in Pasadena with our good friend Ernest Troost opening the show for us. If you don't know Ernest, he was the Kerrville New Folk winner last year and is a truly gifted songwriter of new Piedmont blues -inspired songs. That should be a great show for all of you in the greater LA area.

We look forward to seeing you all out there on the road!

Happy Summer Trails!

Love,

Susie

PS: The Martin Guitar official newsletter for July "The Sounding Board, Vol. 29"  featured us in June!  More about that next letter.  Stay tuned!