Today I performed my first duties as a member of the Education Committee of the International Bluegrass Music Association. A few of us that live in Nashville met downtown for lunch to become acquainted with our projects for the year. It was an honor to be asked to serve, and I’m really looking forward to working with all the folks on the committee to make this year’s IBMA World of Bluegrass a great event. Should be an interesting and educating experience for me!
Right now, I’m packing (late) to head up to Chicago (again). It’s supposed to be really, really, REALLY cold up there! Should be a fun couple of gigs. The first one’s in the Chicagoland area at Fitzgerald’s Night Club, and then Friday night it’s off of Ann Arbor, Michigan (Home of the University of Michigan) to play at another music club called “The Ark”. I think I linked to the venues in a post below, but if not, google them. I’m tired and lazy and in a hurry to get to bed.
I do get to come home on a SATURDAY , which is very odd for me. I’ll be playing at the Sheraton Music City for the SPBGMA… then it’s home for a few days to pack for my long, long trip to Florida.
As I’ve said before, it’s very nice to hear from all of you and it’s good to know that somebody’s reading this page! If you have any comments or just want to say hi, feel free to register to comment, or email me at ashby@ashbyfrank.com.
I’d love to hear from yall.
Through Indiana I go….
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.
Mashville went well considering the weather the other night. All of those guys are so much fun to pick with, and Jeremy did a great job sitting in on fiddle. By the end of the show, the illustrious orchestrator of the Mashville recording, Jim Van Cleve, had dropped by to drop off a copy of the rough mixes of the Mashville “Bluegrass Smash Hits” live album on his way home from the studio. I’m very pleased with the way it’s turning out. Especially since it’s a live album that we did in a short period of time. I think yall will enjoy it.
So I had a couple days off, which I spent mostly catching up on the bills, laundry, gym activity, and the news. I packed for the weekend this morning, and then headed up to my bandmate Justin’s house on the other side of town for an evening of Special C practice for the new album.
We’re working up a few of my songs, which is pretty exciting for me considering I’ve never performed my own songs before. It’s going to be pretty diferent than any previous Special C record, but I think it’s going to work out really well.
Tomorrow it’s off to an even colder Indiana and Illinois for a couple of shows. It got down to 12(f) degrees here last night which is really cold for Nashville.
So everyone stay warm, and come see us if you’re near South Bend, Indiana on Saturday, or Roselle, Illinois on Sunday. Check the Special C website for more info.
Picking with me tonight with the Mashville Brigade is Col. Josh Williams, Jeremy Garrett, Aaron McDaris, and Randy Barnes.
See yall there!
Here’s some pictures from this past weekend at the Bluegrass Festival in Blythe, CA:
I made it home. It was a great trip, but I’m beat.
My roommate Donica had a Packers party going on here at the house when I got home from the airport. They didn’t win, and I stayed up too late jamming, so I won’t be saying much. I might post some pictures and comments from the weekend later… but it was fun.
Here I am in Blythe, California…totally different scenery than I saw just a few days ago in Saskatchewan. At least I had yesterday off. 
Blythe’s in the desert of Soutern California, east of Palm Springs and just over the Arizona line.
I played here last year with Alecia Nugent, so I know this little town a little bit.
The flight was kinda long for my liking, but it was kinda fun because there were a few other music people on the flight. My buddies Brandon Rickman and Mike Anglin from the Lonesome River Band showed up at the gate, and wound up sitting right behind us. Brandon’s been a great friend for a good many years and he’s played a number of times with the Mashville Brigade (the group that I’m a part of that plays every week at the Station Inn in Downtown Nashville). I performed with Mike occasionally with Ronnie Bowman and The Committee as well as when we both were in Bradley Walker’s band for a few IBMA showcases a while back.
They’re going to play at the festival that we are. It’s always good to run into other Bluegrass people on the road.
Lorrie Morgan and her band were also on the plane, but they were headed to some casino in Nevada.
I never enjoy the hassle of flying… but when it saves this much time, it’s worth it.
Last week on our way back from Canada we all had to get off in Minneapolis, get our bags, go through customs, go to a ticket counter to get another boarding pass, then get right back on the same plane to go to Nashville. So much fun.
So here I am in Blythe at some hotel, we have to play at 10 AM and that’s pretty early for me to sing, so I better get to sleep. Maybe I’ll get some pictures tomorrow.
Goodnight from the desert.
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!
Here’s a couple articles that reference me that have popped up over the last few days:
“Crowd Warms to ‘Hillbilly’ Concert”(Canada.com)
Bluegrass Impressionists (The Bluegrass Blog)
Here’s a few of the pictures I took last week during the Mashville recording and Regina trip:
Wow. What a great weekend.
I just got home to a chilly Nashville after a day of flying. We had a really great show and stay with the folks in Regina over the weekend. Great hospitality and a really good symphony orchestra. So many nice folks up there. It’s very cool to get a standing ovation/encore from a 2.000 person hall filled with people that have probably never seen a Bluegrass band before… so I guess they liked it.
The City of Regina has around 200,000 people, and is the Capital of the Province of Saskatchewan. They have a huge park downtown, and everything’s pretty centrally located. Downtown hotels, mall, casino, nightclubs/restaurants. It was pretty cold when we got there, but we got used to it, and it warmed up a little by the time we left. Seems like they have a good bit of nightlife downtown for a town their size. Very nice place to visit and play. I got to walk around downtown Friday night after practice, and we went to a nice bistro with the conductor and his family on Saturday for lunch, and after the show on Saturday we had a very nice reception with the crowd and musicians.
A good time was had by all, and I’d love to go back some time!
Well, it’s a few days off (playing Tuesday at the Inn) then it’s off to Blythe, California
I’m pretty excited to get to see my friend Gena playing with Dale Ann Bradley out there at the same festival we’re playing at. It’s going to be awesome!
Pretty tired right now, so I won’t post the pictures tonight. Guess I’ll put them up tomorrow.
It’s good to be home.
I made it up here…
Pretty long evening of flying. Nashville to Minneapolis, Minneapolis to Regina.
It was about 8 degrees when we touched down and the driver picked up up. Once we got to the hotel at about midnight, Justin and I went down to the entertainment section of town and walked through the Casino Regina and hung out for a few minutes, just because it’s right down the street from our hotel and they have a shuttle running. Pretty nice place… I played a couple hands of blackjack, went up a few bucks and then went down to even and we left. A good few minutes of entertainment for free, then it was back to this pretty cool old Hotel Saskatchewan where we’re staying.
We’re going to practice the tempos with the symphony conductor here in a few minutes, then have lunch, and probably hit the gym before rehearsal tonight.
Oh, and btw, here’s some pictures from the Mashville recording session at the Station Inn from the other day, and a few from our travels so far this weekend:
(Moved to post above)
