Monday, April 20, 2009

Move 'em out head 'em out..

Yes, we are still The McKinney Washtub Two,
or The Artists Formerly Known as "Hey You!"...
This despite  the continued efforts of bookers to modify our name
 
...And we haven't gone missing.
As you can tell from our last update, we've been AWOL since November.
Being really, really busy is good, but not when it comes to keeping in touch with
our friends. All we can say is a promise to be better--write less more often...
We enjoyed the end of our long southward autumn in Atlanta (Georgia, for our
Michigan friends, and not your Georgia for our Russian friends).  By "enjoyed,"
of course, we include some sweating bullets and whitening of knuckles in 6-lane rush-hour traffic. City gigs...
Our first stop "on our way" to Florida was Savannah, GA, where we met a great
audience of true folkies at "First Friday of Folk" put on, appropriately, by
the Savannah Folk Music Society. Two other acts preceded us, Laura LaPointe
and Andrew McKnight, both fine singers and songwriters (with two-letter prefix last names...coincidence?); but we had the nerve to follow them anyway and had a great time, and the audence claimed to as well. The Weisman's were kind and generous hosts and Hank a sound "sound man."
Florida had it's share of 30-degree weather this year, and we were safely tucked (plugged!) in at some fine RV parks, performing for the greatest audiences of northerners we could hope to find!
Ocala RV Resort deserves a special mention 'cause it's a great faciltiy with a fun group of travelers. We played there in January and being gluttons-for-punishment, they asked us back for St. Paddy's Day...more Michiganders and Canadians than you can shake a stick at (Really, don't even try!) One couple raved, in compoundly fractured English, how they had enjoyed the show, even though she spoke very little English, and he understond none! (Apparently the music is better than we thought!) Clever Quebecers!
Gulf View Resort in Venice (Florida, for our Californian and Italian friends!) was also notable, goodtimewise, as was Vacation Village in Largo.  We got some miles under our figurative belts. And inches under our actual belts! (Tough to get exercise while traveling, sometimes.) Again, LOTS of Michiganders and Canadians...Is anybody left up north in the winter? (We kid 'cause we feel safe from your snowballs here!)
We played a block party for La Plaza MHP in Clearwater, and got to watch an alligator surface in the park pond to chomp down on a black plastic garbage bag that had gotten loose and invaded his space...good alligator...nice alligator...we just kept on schlepping our gear back and forth near the pond like this happens every day and is normal, which apparently it is in this neck of the swamp!
We made it over to the east coast this year, just north of Miami to Sunrise. We were able to have dinner with Judy's cousin who stayed to see us perform at the Daniel Cantor Center. (Then flew out the next day to Boston to the bedside of her son. (Bea you're the greatest!)  Traffic was definitely reminiscent of Atlanta (GA, still) so, although we enjoyed the folks we met (and a tasty pre-shabbas chicken dinner--got the whole shema with candles, cantor and everything! Very nice!)  we were happy to be back inland and on the west coast.
The 6th Annual Sarasota Folk Festival was definitely a highlight. The Sarasota Folk Club did an amazing job of pulling this off and smoothly!  They have moved it to the Oscar Sherer State park and had record attendance. With so many fine performers, it was hard to tear ourselves away for our own workshop and two sets Saturday and Sunday. Wendy Simmons, Jim & Carolyn Dunn and Jean Hewitt-you're our heros!
Nestled in among the crowd of fine performers were a couple of folk music treasures (and treasuries!), Carl Wade and Barbara Shaffer.   carlwade.com  They were "Something Special". You thought Whitt was a collector of old songs? We spent a wonderful evening and next moring jamming and swapping songs in the performers' campground.
We had another shot at the Folk Fest audience and some more like 'em when we played an hour at the Sarasota Folk Club's Concert at the beautiful outdoor stage at the Sarasota Sailing Squadron yacht club.
Sunset over the bay...deliciousl
Back in Atlanta, now, having just played the renown "Grounds 'n' Sounds" Coffee House at Gwinnett Historical Museum, we thank Jennifer and Keisha for their good nature and hard work that evening. We entertained a small but appreciative audience while tornados whipped across the countryside, and intelligent people cowered in their basements.
We are currently contemplating our journey across America to our daughter's wedding in Eugene, (Oregon, for friends of Eugene!) Stops along the way: Chattanooga, TN, Hutchingson, KS, Lubbock, TX, Las Cruces, NM, & Tucson, AZ in just the next few weeks. Hope to see some of you along the way!
We're really going to try to keep the travelogue up-to-date, so,
if you are at all interested, check back here from time-to-time. 
Something we've noticed:
You can't have it all. You can't even have most of it.
Enoy what you do have to the fullest!