Ashby Frank
Mandolinist, Singer, Songwriter

Well, I’m back from Colorado.

We played a very diverse set of gigs out there. 3 days. One park show that got rained out, one show at a Club/Restaurant, and another at a huge YMCA Resort on the edge of Rocky Mountain National Park. I have to say I wish I could have had a few days off before that trip. I was so tired and cranky the whole time, and I didn’t get any pictures. I’m so happy to be home today! I went out and bought a new lawn mower and messed around in the yard in the  97 degree heat all afternoon. It was great.

So, here’s the rest of the pictures from the trip. The last set was from our arrival, and the week we spent in Wales. These pics are from Ireland (We played in a town called Athy) and Scotland (for the Guildtown Festival). We had some downtime in the middle where we hung out in Dublin, Belfast, and Edinburgh. Saw a lot of sites, and took a lot of pictures. Here’s a few of them:

We’re here in Colorado, but our first show got rained out after about the 5th song. Bummer.

Anyway, here’s some more pictures from the UK and Ireland. Enjoy:

Yesterday was rough. 25 hours from the time I woke up in Guildtown, Scotland until I got to sleep in my own bed here in Nashville.

The trip was a blast though! Lots of pictures that I’ve taken that I’m behind on putting up on here, so look out for that.

I will be at Mashville tonight though, and I’ll be on my way to Colorado tomorrow morning. The things we do…

Hello from the airport in Glasgow, Scotland. We had a blast in Ireland even though we weren’t all that close to touristy stuff… but the festival was great.

We’re in Scotland all this week until we come back to the States next week, and this could be the last time I have net access. I’m really looking forward to seeing the sights here, so it will be a good week for me.

Very tired now bye!

Here are some pictures from Conwy, Wales and the first few days of our trip.

Not much battery or strength in Wifi signal that I’m stealing from someone near this Bed and Breakfast…

We had a great time hanging out in Northern Ireland with some friends. We got to tour Belfast and see some of the famous landmarks of the town and a lot of historical places relative to the violence that happened there. We also got to jam with a lot of the locals in Lurgan where we stayed. It was a lot of fun!

Now we’re here at the festival in the Irish Republic town of Athy. We’re here for the next few days. I’ve tried to upload some pictures from Wales, but this connection is so bad I can’t seem to get it to go through. Just means more work when I get home!

Battery’s gonna die now… more later.

The following message is from a few days ago, but my internet connection at the library died before I could publish it. Here goes…

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We made it across the pond!

I lied about getting those pictures from South Dakota up. So many things to do before I left! I’ll get them up on here when I get home in a few weeks, or if I find wifi someplace around here I can upload them. I need to fit in a major site overhaul sometime too when I get home, this page is way too dark!

Anway, here I am in North Wales. After our two airplane rides, two bus trips, a ferry ride, and a train, we made it here to the town of Conwy, which is right on the sea. There’s a festival here, but we don’t play until 10 tonight (It’s 6 hours time diference between home and here). We’ve already had a blast touring the castle, walking the town’s walls, and looking around the village.

Gotta go! Hopefully I can write more later!

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Wales was awesome! We had a great time seeing this old little town and the castle, and the festival we played was a lot of fun too.

Performing with us there were Bluegrass Bands from the Chech Republic, Italy, and the UK. That’s the great thing about music… it’s a universal language. Even though most people spoke English the Chech guys didn’t, but I still feel like we made friends with them.  Very cool.

After five days in Wales, we’ve ridden the train and the ferry back to Ireland and now I’m in an Internet Cafe in Downtown Dublin. I think David and I are the only people that speak English in here.

It’s a few days before our next show and we’re just hangin’ out downtown for a couple days, trying to survive eating out with the horrible exchange rate. It’s a nice town though. Friendly people everywhere… I think some big American towns need to learn a few lessons from the Irish.

Ok, well next stop is Belfast, Northern Ireland (Back in the UK) then on to a festival south of here in Athy, Ireland.

Talk at yall later.

The trip to South Dakota was great! I got to see the sights and hang out with some good friends, made that long drive through nowhere seem a lot better. I have some good pictures that I’ll try to put up here tonight.

I spent my afternoon prepaying bills and trying to get my tags renewed before my next big trip, and here in Davidson County, TN that’s not much fun.

Waited in line for over an hour for an emissions test, then I stood in line for 20 minutes after I drove to another place to get my sticker. I wonder how much gas was burned and emissions were put out during that time when all of us stupid Nashvillians were parked in a creeping line waiting to pay someone to see if we have a good gas cap so we don’t waste gas. They really need to open more of those things with more workers if we need them. Enough of that rant.

I won’t be at Mashville tonight because I am so behind on getting ready for the trip to Ireland and the UK that I leave for tomorrow, but Josh Williams will be organizing what I’m sure will be a good show.

So yeah, I’ll put some pictures up here later hopefully, and I might be able to blog from overseas, but I don’t know. What I’m saying is, it might be awhile before I get to say much more, but I promise that they’ll be a lot of pictures and stuff when I get back.

Oh and by the way, Happy Independence Day! Downtown Nashville’s the place to be for fireworks and music on the 4th, so come check it out!