First Chattanooga Show

First Chattanooga gig this weekend and news!

11/03/2007
10:00 PM
J.J.'s Bohemia
231 MLK BLVD.
Chattanooga, 37402
Cost: $5.00
Playing with Christabel and the Jons (a cool swing band from Knoxville) and The New Binkley Brothers.


11/9-11/2007
Southeastern Ohio Dulcimer Fest
The Federal Valley Resource Center
Stewart, Ohio 45778
Cost: $35 advance, $40 day of.
A weekend dulcimer festival featuring long in-depth lessons with Jerry Rockwell, Steve Seifert, Steven K. Smith and myself. This is going to be small but very cool.

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Originally I had planned to make this a longer missive, but was faced with writer's block, and really no desire to type. So instead, I thought I would just write a quick email to tell you about the upcoming shows. Now I'm looking at the mess before you.

Also, I'm co-writing this email with my cat, Ellie, who has decided (like most cats do) that the most comfortable spot in the room is between you and whatever it is you're doing right now. She got into a fight with another neighborhood cat and ended up with a big festering ball of infection that needed lanced. So now she trotting around with a disgusting draining wound on her butt and one of those lampshades around her neck to keep her from ripping out her stitches, she hates it and looks ridiculous. It's Halloween today, I think I'm gonna dress her up as a daisy.

The last tour up through Kentucky, Ohio and West Virginia was a really great time. I wrote a review of the week on my web site, and my Myspace page. Myspace is great; they don't accept rss feeds so I have to write everything twice. Plus it's exactly like being on AOL circa 1996. Anyway, I posted some pics and some video both at butchross.com and Myspace.com/butchross. Go check it out.

After I got back from that tour I decided to stay off the road until the end of the year. So I could play local shows and get to know the new neighbors I haven't seen since we moved here. Tho' I've played a lot of outdoors-y event-type stuff, and sat in with other folks (even playing three gigs in a single day two weeks ago), Saturday will be my first local club show here. On the bill are the Binkley Brothers (http://www.myspace.com/newbinkleybrothers), who are a local old-time band, and Christabel and the Jons (http://www.christabelmusic.com), a swing band from Knoxville. I have been telling everyone that I would recommend this show, even if I weren't on the bill, and it's true.

The weekend after that I will be back up in Ohio, at Jerry Rockwell's Southeastern Ohio dulcimer festival. This will be a technique intensive festival with longer and smaller classes from me, Jerry, Steve Seifert and Steven K. Smith. There will also be a big Saturday night concert that is going to feature a lot of collaboration and jamming. It'll be held, as usual, in the community center, which is an old school, just outside of Athens in Stewart, Ohio: A small town just up the road from (I'm not making this up) Guysville, and Coolsville. This is going to be best kept secret in dulcimerdum (is that a word?) and if you really want to learn to play well, you should make the trip.

I've also spent the better part of the last few weeks holed up in Dan Landrum's studio working on my Christmas CD. As those of you who have been on this list for a while will remember, in 2003 I released a CD of Holiday tunes that was my first true mountain dulcimer project. I recorded that in an unused apartment in my building, with a minidisk, a borrowed folkcraft dulcimer, and Pro-tools free. I got reverb by wiring my computer to my Fender amp's reverb unit. I had been looking to update it for some time, and this was the opportunity to do so. I also was able to add some new tracks, including a few played on a Hungarian Cittera, the Hungarian version of the mountain dulcimer (that thing is so cool).

In the near future I'll be posting more about it, including how you can get it for free. But I want to wait a bit before I do. Christmas seriously starts waaaaaay too early these days.

So again, to recap, Saturday at JJ's Bohemia in Chattanooga, next week at Jerry's festival in Ohio, and there'll be a Christmas CD coming that you can get for free.

I really thought that this would be a short email.

C-ya out there.

-Br

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11/03/2007
10:00 PM
J.J.'s Bohemia
231 MLK BLVD.
Chattanooga, 37402
Cost: $5.00
Playing with Christabel and the Jons (a cool swing band from Knoxville) and The New Binkley Brothers.


11/9-11/2007
Southeastern Ohio Dulcimer Fest
The Federal Valley Resource Center
Stewart, Ohio 45778
Cost: $35 advance, $40 day of.
A weekend dulcimer festival featuring long in-depth lessons with Jerry Rockwell, Steve Seifert, Steven K. Smith and myself. This is going to be small but very cool.