Ashby Frank
Mandolinist, Singer, Songwriter

Well, considering I participated in a seminar at IBMA about blogging, I really have fallen behind during this busy month.

After two days at Silver Dollar City, we had a all night, no sleep, drive to Denton, NC. We made it to the show with about an hour to spare before our first set. Cutting it close.

My mom out-did herself once again in bringing food for all the performers at the festival. She’s becoming more famous for her food then I am for my picking. hehe. Just fine with me. The crowd wasn’t as big as expected at Denton, but it was a fun show and a lot of my family came down to listen. That always makes me feel good.

I was pretty beat down after the all-nighter, but we got up and drove to Nashville the next day. The driving never seems to end. This should be called Ashby Frank’s driving and riding blog.

Once I made it home, being a glutton for punishment and for good music, I met some of my friends at the Station Inn for the annual Ronnie Bowman IBMA Week Kickoff Concert. It didn’t disappoint. Ronnie’s one of the greatest singers of country and bluegrass music, and I know from the little bit of time I spent on the road with him that he’s an equally great guy. First late night of the week… more to come.

Sunday was a day to kind-of relax. I did some quick graphics work, printed up some cards at Kinko’s, then I picked up one of my friends at the airport. We went to meet some more out-of-town musician buds at a restaurant to watch some football and eat some wings. We stayed up kinda late, but that’s the theme of the week.

Monday I went down and did some old fashioned networking and howdys. After that was a rehearsal with the new Special C w/ Ryan Roberts, then 3 after hours showcases (which start at 11PM and end at 2:15ish). Hung around with all my friends afterwards, and got to bed around 5am.

Tuesday, I got to participate as a panelist in a Blogging seminar (apparently people actually read what I write here!) and much fun was had. Heard a lot of good ideas and hopefully someone got something from me. After that was the 3rd annual, totally unofficial and unsanctioned, IBMA poker game (I lost). Then it was off to the Station Inn for a practice for a later showcase, and then Mashville.

Mashville was awesome! Everyone was on their game, and the crowd came to listen from far and wide. We got to debut the Mashville road crew with Terry Baucom, too!

After that, I dashed down to the Station Inn to play that showcase I had practiced earlier for with my buddy Brandon Rickman. Brandon has an awesome new CD out, and is one of the great undiscovered song writers here in town. Anytime he wants to sing and pick, I’ll be there if I can!

I got done with that by around 2:30, then I got to jam some with The Chapmans, Kenny and Amanda Smith, and Thomas Wywrot.  Good times. I think I got to sleep that night some time after 6.

Wednesday, more talking and rewiring my bluegrass networking, then 2 showcases with Special C and a Mashville guest spot at the Mountain Heart 10th Anniversary Concert. Sleep time…4AMish.

Thursday, went and shopped for a new tie then headed on down to the Awards Show reception. Gathered my date (who got me an awesome 4th row ticket) and then headed down to the Ryman. The Awards are always fun, and this one was no exception. I was especially pleased that Jesse Brock won Mando player of the year. He totally deserves it.

After the awards, Mashville played at the big McCoury Music Afterparty at BB Kings on 2nd Ave. The sound was kinda rough at first since there was no time for a soundcheck, but after all that got straightened out it was a blast! I greatly appreciate the McCoury Clan having us down there.

So I got out of there around 2:30, and went back down to the hotel for no real reason. Like I said, I’m a glutton for music… and punishment. Listened and jammed, and got to sleep around 6.

FRIDAY, had to get up way too early to go play our FanFest set at 11:50. Now that doesn’t sound way too early, but consider that I got in bed roughly 6 hours before I was supposed to be on stage.

Special C set over, and then it was time to practice for sitting in with Alecia Nugent for her FanFest set at 3:30…but only for a short while, because Special C had to go and give a workshop on  teaching bluegrass. After that was over, I ran back to the stage and did the set with Alecia. Shew! Bed time…for three hours! I took a nap, and then it was time to go back to the hotel to do a set with Terry Baucom at the Deering Banjo Showcase at 11:30. I jammed for awhile after that, then I went home around 4.

Saturday I got up and was a fan for awhile… watched some FanFest, then it was time for another workshop. This time for the Mando with Alan Bibey, Andy Ball, and Sierra Hull… three of the best players around. It was a huge honor to sit on the same stage as these “guys”… fun too.

When the workshop it was over, it was time to drive north of town to meet the Turtle Top and ride to Chicago. We made it up there, and played the next day downtown at the Chicago Country Music Festival. Awesome day, good crowd. Yep. Ryan and I wrote a good song after the gig, too. Productive day.

Today we had to wait around for 4-5 hours later than we thought because the bus was once again in the shop, but we left out from Chi-town and made it home for me to type this from my own bed tonight.

I’ve got a case of the confused mental clock/exhausted/allergy body aches, but I’m sure I’ll be ready to pick tomorrow night at Mashville.

WOW. What a long trip. Even though I was in my own bed for a portion of it, that was pretty much 3 1/2 weeks straight of work. I’m going to start making the rounds and calls to some of my favorite festivals to try and get some new gigs for Mashville starting tomorrow, but I’m going to set aside some time for the gym and for sleep. I need both very badly right now! I don’t regret one bit of it, though! IBMA week is so much fun for me.

Until next time…

Weekend before last, we played at the Parkfield Bluegrass Festival in Central California. We shared the stage with John Reichsman and the Jaybirds, Sawmill Road, Kathy Kallick, Chris Stuart and Backcountry, and some other fine groups.
Parkfield has a population of 18 (I was later informed by the waitress at the Cafe that there are now 24 people there, but they haven’t changed the sign), and it sits on the San Andreas Fault Line. It’s considered the “Earthquake Capitol of the World,” but I didn’t feel any tremors. What a pity!
Apart from the yearly Bluegrass Festival, the main source of tourism for the little town comes from their local Wild Boar population, and the hunters that chase them.
It’s a nice little town, with a few houses, a school, a library, a great cafe, and no AT&T Cell Service! The latter feature of Parkfield kinda got me down for awhile, but it was a nice place to visit and I hope I can come back some day!

[caption id="attachment_325" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Parkfield Inn"][/caption][caption id="attachment_327" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Parkfield School"][/caption][caption id="attachment_331" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Inside the Parkfield Cafe!"][/caption]

I’ve been mighty busy at the World of Bluegrass this week, and today was quite a ride.

I had a practice with a buddy of mine and awesome musician Keith Sewell for a set on Friday for Fan Fest at 4, then Mashville at 9:30, then Special C showcases at 12:30 and 1:30. I’m pretty tired.

We have three shows in the Convention Center tomorrow, then a slower day on Thursday (good thing!)

Thanks so much to all of yall that came to the Mashville show tonight. It was one of the biggest crowds we’ve ever had and we all had a lot of fun.

I’ll try to get some pictures for those of you that can’t be here this week. It’s quite the event!

Tags: IBMA, Mashville, Nashville

Woohoo! Thank you Costco.

Hopefully now I’ll be able to take more pictures, if I remember to start bringing it again!

For all of you folks heading to Mashville tomorrow, the current lineup is: Brandon Rickman, Aaron McDaris, Randy Barnes, Jim VanCleve, and me… CARD SUBJECT TO CHANGE! hahaha

I’ve enjoyed my week off, but I’m ready to hit the road again. Sure was a nice week to have off with the nice hot weather. Hope yall had a good one too!

Thanks to everyone who came to our show last night! We welcomed our new baby (the new CD) into the world with a good night of music. I had a great time and it was really good to see some of our good friends that we haven’t seen in a while. We had a couple of special guests as well. Country singer Terri Clark and Somtimes-Masher Jenne Keener performed a couple of songs with us, and Steve Earle was spotted in the crowd. Very cool.

Ok, well it’s on to Hurst, Texas and Park City, Kansas for the weekend

Speaking of babies… does anyone else think this is kinda strange?

Howdy folks! I went back home for Easter, and just got back in last night. Hope you all had a good weekend!

Tonight the Mashville Brigade will be Josh Williams, Aaron McDaris, Randy Barnes, a fiddle player (maybe Jim), and myself.

Come see us.

Fun show! It was a kinda loose night because we all haven’t been there in so long, so we were cuttin up a good bit, but I think everybody had a good time!

I found out that the new Mashville Brigade record should be out my mid-April so I’m looking forward to that. I got to hear the final mixes last night, and if you like raw traditional Bluegrass Music, you’re going to love it.

Tuesday night seems to be cursed with bad weather. It’s been hurting our crowd numbers lately, every week it’s either tornadoes or ice. It was snowing and icing a good bit by the time I left at midnight. I got on I-40 to go home (I live about 15 minutes from downtown), and after two exits traffic came to a standstill. My poor fellow Southerners freak out when it snows and they don’t know how to drive on the ice… there was a really horrible wreck a couple miles ahead of me. I sat in my car listening to satellite radio for almost 3 hours in STOPPED traffic right in front of the Nashville West shopping center that’s beside of the interstate. I finally got home about 3:15. REALLY long night.

Anyway, more cruise pictures coming tomorrow or Friday, so check back here!

Ciao!

Tonight in Nashville the Mashville Brigade will be:
Jim VanCleve
Col. Josh Williams
Aaron McDaris
Randy Barnes
and ME.

Come see us if you’re within 250 miles of the Gulch. hehe (You’ve still got time if you read this right now!)

Home again.
It was kind of a tiring and hard weekend for some reason and I don’t really know exactly why. I’ve been pretty worthless today, kind of enjoying it

David and Justin were both under the weather all weekend, probably from us changing climates frequently and traveling pretty hard for the last few weeks. Airborne can only fight off so much I guess.

After band practice on Friday, we drove up to South Bend, Indiana  which  is a little over 7 hours from Nashville and the home of Notre Dame University. We played at an Irish Pub downtown called the Fiddler’s Hearth and had a pretty good show to a full house. Some guy did start some sort of a disturbance in the bar section of the place and had to be “escorted” out by the police. That’s always exciting for the band… to watch another show going on while we’re playing.

We stayed at a hotel near Greg’s house near Chicago on Saturday night, then and went and played a quick acoustic concert for the community in Roselle, Illinois, then headed home.
I guess we didn’t really didn’t stop all that much from Friday morning until I got back home here in Nashville at about 2 this morning.
Tuesday I’m playing Mashville with Darrell, Aaron, Randy, and probably Jim. On Thursday, it’s back to Illinois for a show at Fitzgerald’s Night Club in Berwyn, Illinois and then Friday we’ll be jammin’ down at The Ark in Ann Arbor, MI. On Saturday we’ll be back home in Nashville for a set at the SPBGMA convention at the Music City Sheraton.

See yall there.

The Mashville Brigade tonight will look like this:

Me on Mando, my former Alecia Nugent Band bandmate and flagrant Canadian Thomas Wywrot on Banjo, from the Infamous Stringdusters on the Fiddle will be the conspicuously infamous Jeremy Garrett, on Guitar will be semi-regular Masher Col. Josh Williams, and on the Bass will be the silent but deadly regular Masher Randy Barnes (from NewFound Road).

Come on out and see us!