How I spent my summer part 2

Proposing to Christie would be a fitting way to end my summer story, but we were just getting warmed up. Not more than a week after Falcon Ridge we were on a plane bound for Houston, Texas as part of the tenth and as it turns out final SAMfest (southern acoustic music festival) in attendance were Tull Glazener, Robert Force, Karen Mueller, and Neal Hellman, a veritable who's who (and who?) of the mountain Dulcimer. Also in attendance were hammered dulcimer players Rick Thum, Guy George, and Dan Landrum (who plays with Yanni) Christie and I were down there to do a little teaching (I was teaching a workshop on Irish guitar) we ended up pal-ing around with the headlines, jumping in on their sets, and basically being regarded as peers. A great time, even if it took place in Texas (where CNN they say stands for "Clinton News Network")

Finally we were back in NJ at something resembling a home, Christie's parents in Cinnaminson. Only a temporary stop, as we were about to pack up the whole shebang and fire it off to Bowling Green, Kentucky. Where Ms. Burns would be attending grad school. I made a trip or two to Philly to get the rest of my stuff from my apartment we jammed it all into Christie's Buick and made our way down to the Hilltop House in beautiful Harper's Ferry, WV. On top of a birds-eye view of three states, where the Potomac meets the Shenandoah, I spent a week doing ear training, learning dulcimer tunes from a guy named Bruce Hutton, and generally having a great time. About halfway through the week, I got an email from Jon Harris --whom I had met at SAMfest-- in response to a long long conversation we had had about dulcimers, and after seeing me play. He wrote to tell me that he had BUILT me a dulcimer, and where should he send it.

Well I didn't have an answer for him; we didn't have a place to live in KY. After Harper's Ferry, we drove down to Bardstown, KY. Site of my Old Kentucky Home, where Christie and I spent a wonderful evening camped behind the historic house, being serenaded by Little Feet. This time however, there was no Little Feet, just a crappy Days Inn where we slept for maybe 5 hours, tho' we did get to make our own waffles the next morning.

We took the first place we looked at. Not that we didn't spend 12 hours looking at terrible places all over town just to make sure we got the best place. Now that we've been here for a while, and know this house's limitations, I can say with authority, we got lucky. But then again, when I'm with Christie, we usually do.

How I spent my summer part 1

How I spent my summer.

Off, flat out, like a bat out a hell, is how my friend Noelle described it. True enough My summer started strong and just got weirder and crazier as it went along. It started in May with my deciding to hit every dulcimer festival in a 7 hour radius of me. Sometimes my friend Mary would come along, but mostly she would lend me her car. the drives were 5 to 7 hours a piece and they all seemed to be in Ohio. I played some shows, met some great people. won some stuff.

Robert Force had me out to his pad in Port Townsend, Washington, just about as far north and west as you can get in the lower 48. There over 10 days (and one marathon 20 hour mixing session, that we've subsequently spent six months tweaking) we banged out 16 tracks (14 we kept), magic, mayhem and this stupid dog that would not stop barking while the red light was on.

Christie was in Ireland for the summer and asked me come with. Seeing how it was such a long time gone i decided to sublet the room and roll. Now the rug had been wrenched completely from underneath me. So glad i did it too. Ireland was as wonderful as anyone else has ever said. Afterwards we spent a few weeks in England and Scotland, playing shows, meeting the angels of this life, and falling ever deeper in love.

Knee deep in mud at Falcon Ridge as mother nature made us sit through previews of Hurricane season and everyone on the planet seemed to have a song about why they hated George Bush. Kuddos to my porch girls Lisa Beth Weber and Maggie Marshall, who came down the hill in a Boots, dresses and a gift wrapped bass and kick butt in the Friday Showcase. Kudos to those of you who sat through the entire thing.

Sadly, This year also marks the first year I did not make it over to the Budgie Dome. I'm sorry guys. But I decided that since FRFF is where me and Ms. Burns first met, it seemed a fitting place to make an honest woman of the girl. So on one knee I did the deed. Everyone cried, and then EVERYONE plays the sweetest, best, most sentimental song they knew. They say life comes down to moments. I don't believe that for a minute. But this was a indeed a MOMENT. Thank you to everyone who was there.

This is a good place to end for now.

archives, e-mails, love and rockets

My mailing list is archived, so I can look over all the brilliant, stupid, pathetic, cocky and occasionally meaningful things I've sent to you over the years. Most prevalent: the number of gaps in the posting frequency, and the number of times I've posted an apology for the lack of postings. Well I have said it on many occasion, "never apologize, even when you should". As I dust the debris of the ol' hood of the folk-music machine, and see if I can get her to turn over. I am hoping that this can be part of the project, that I can remember the letdown I feel when i go to the site of someone's music I like and find no new tale to tell.

Greetings from Hibernia

K, I'm not bragging or nothing. But I'm over here in Ireland recovering from a great tour/vacation in the UK. Thought I'd take a minute of downtime and let you know what's been going on.

Right now, I am looking at a finished master of my new record (hey, it's only four years, why the big hurry you say) it's going to be called "the Moonshiner's Atlas" and while it is officially my "dulcimer" album, I think you'll find it's a lot closer to the guy you've been listening to all these years (and asking "when are you gonna put a new record out")

So you can go to the recently re-designed web site http://butchross.com (I told you those free MP3's we're going away) and listen to snippets of all the tunes on the record.

Also, because of spam, I've had to move the mailing list to a new server. This doesn't effect you in any way really. But it may explain why you've gotten a bunch of subscription notices in the last few weeks.

With the new record comes a new tour. Gonna try and put a big one together, but not until fall. I have a busy, busy summer

Hope you are having a great summer too.

writing from the Pacific northwest, with a new album in escrow

Do you have any idea how much work goes into making a digital recording sound like it was recorded on an old Victrola? I do.

I am in stunning Port Townsend, Washington about 2 hours northwest of Seattle. Down the street is the Puget Sound, the other side, Canada. Victorian era gingerbread houses line the postcard perfect streets, and clouds disintegrate from Ansel Adams' best shot of the Olympia Mountains on the horizon. Not that I've seen any of this mind you, I've been at Treehouse
studios finally working on my second record.

A little background: last summer I was in Ireland for three weeks playing the dulcimer and generally oscillating between joy and pain. I play about a week of shows with a guy named Robert Force. Robert is the first guy to play the dulcimer standing up and with Albert D'Ossche toured the world playing as a dulcimer duo; they dropped a book in the seventies called "In Search of the Wild Dulcimer" that sold over 100,000 copies. Plus they were once booked on Hee-Haw, BEAT THAT!

While there, (Ireland not Hee-Haw) he said if I recorded a dulcimer record he'd produce and release it on Blaine Street records. So this is where I've been for the last week. Being gently pushed prodded and poked into what seem to be great performances. We've recorded 16 tracks, and we're gonna whittle those down to 12. No firm track list or title yet, but the tracks run a wide swath of folk music, from my own compositions, to trad folk and fiddle tunes and contemporary singer/songwriters, some more famous than others. ;-)

I plan to have the record available by the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival.

I am extremely happy about this record (despite having spent the last 20 plus hours straight mixing it), and couldn't wait to get back to town to tell you all about it. I am working on a new website, that will go live sometime early in May and it will feature new tracks from the record.

Also, I am finally getting back out on the road a bit. Playing in Worcester, MA on April 29th and back at the Postcrypt in New York, May 1st.: more on that next week sometime.

I know it's taken forever to put out record number two (how many of you even know that there is a record number one). Thank you guys who have hung in there. This may seem like a big departure from what you know me for, but it it's isn't really, not at all.

So with any luck I'll see you at some of these shows and y'all can hear the new (old) tunes.

Record announcement and the new blog.

I am in the Pacific Northwest: Port Townsend, Washington to be exact. This is just about as far away as from the America as you can get. Across the water from me is Canada. Which means at least the radio up here is fairly decent. I am here to record my first dulcimer record with Robert Force. Robert Force I met a did a series of dates in Ireland, he toured for years as a dulcimer Duo with Albert D'Osshe, he wrote a book in the seventies called "In Search of the Wild Dulcimer" it sold over 100,000 copies. He is the biggest Beta fish in the shot glass, and he's producing my record and putting it out on his label. He is Capt. Ahab and we are chasing the elusive white whale of inspiration. Chris Martin is engineering at tree house studios: two small shacks in the middle of the woods that you can call the Pequod. No he's not Starbuck, though' we drink that stuff all the time. and you I guess you can call me Ishmael. Tho' the crazy literary metaphors are just the side effect of being around Robert.