After the last Jug Band gig in August of 1997, we decided to take a break for awhile and while the boys decided to still play together sometimes, there wasn't much happening. Ben had his thing with his band Sweet Pea, John did his thing with the Stop and Listen Boys, Pryce kept playing with Dan Brain, the Leftovers, the Shifters, you name it, and I put together a new band, attempting to pull together my love for Irish, for old English ballads, for string band music, my roots Appalachian hill music, the stuff I like doing. Maybe some of my originals. Maybe some blues, some Dead, some Country. What the hell, right? So I did.
I'd been contacting other women musicians in town, trying to pull
together
a bunch of people to jam. August 23rd was the night - but with the good
comes
the bad. My dog died that day. The jam was a lovely tribute to Seal, with
tunes
and songs in beautiful and wild harmony. From that night came the nucleus
of
the new band, myself, my daughter Mary, and Ticia Shelton, a fiddler and
singer
and all around good lady. We got Dave Rakestraw to sit in with us and a
month
later performed at the Folk Night at Coal Creek Coffee. People seemed to
like
it - especially the 4 part acapella harmony gospel, and the old-timey and
bluegrass tunes,
high women's voices floating behind Dave's deep rough voice and flatpicked
guitar, and the unheard in Laramie before, American traditional tunes with
mandolin, fiddle, dulcimer, and tinwhistle.
Unfortunately, Dave had to leave for Vail to work. Couldn't be helped. People have to live and we aren't making any money. Yet. So Mike Anderson (Lead guitarist for Big Hollow, a great local rock band) came in. The sound of the band changed, and its a change I liked a lot because one never knew what Mike would throw into the works, only that it would be tasty, right on and unlike anything I'd ever heard before. But again, unfortunately, it was a given that his time with us would be constrained by his previous commitments. He's still playing with us sometimes, and definitely worth catching on those rare shows, but the guitarist we've been lucky enough to play with for the last couple months is Kevin Hart, a long time veteran of the string band scene in the midwest (I'm actually out of the same stomping grounds interestingly enough, and he's toured with some of my dulcimer heroes) and a source of the most obscure fiddle tunes you've never heard.. not to mention such lovely old tunes as Ragged but Right and the Weenie Man Shuffle which I can't repeat in public. OK ,the truth is, I don't know all the words yet. But I will. Its a gem