Ashby Frank
Mandolinist, Singer, Songwriter

Back to work! I’m a little bit north of Milwaukee, Wisconsin this weekend teaching at a camp.

Not much time to write anything, but I sure hope everyone’s having a great week.

Mashville was a lot of fun last night! Thanks to all that came (Including the wild English Dancers)

I have a few days off for the first time in a while. After the last two weeks, I think I deserve a little break! So I probably won’t have much to post here.

Oh, one bit of news. Tonight I went to Publix and bought all the stuff to make a pumpkin pie! They had pre-made pies on sale for $5, but I would rather spend $15 and make it myself. hehehe. I love pumpkin pie, and I usually make the “traditional” kind, but this time I used a recipe from Paula Dean and the Food Network that has cream chesse in it. Just from the little piece I already ate, I can tell it’s going to be great!

Here’s a link for the recipe if you’d like to try it out yourself. HAPPY BAKING!

Oh and one more thing, we’re planning on a Mashville Costume Night on the Tuesday before Halloween. I’d appreciate any suggestions on my costume! Last year I was a rastafarian.

Not much today to say other than we had another good day of shows and weather. Oh, and I rode the roller coasters again! I’m not tired of them yet. I don’t think that’s possible. I think I want a roller coaster, and a fake river with a waterfall in my back yard. I think I need some more land. hahaha

I’m very happy to report that despite the horrible economic problems that so many people are facing, there’s still no shortage of people lining up to buy Funnel Cakes here in Branson. You gotta have priorities!

After the show, we had a bunch of time to kill so a few of us went into Branson and ate dinner and watched the show at the Dixie Stampede. Waaaaay too much food, but man, it was awesome! The people that can ride the horses upside down and through fire and stuff like that are really amazing.

This town is really amazing, too. It’s kinda like a beach/retirement town with no beach. Lots of really cool places to spend some cash on for entertainment (mini-golf, go-carts, laser tag, museums, shops ect.), some variety music/magic type shows, and a lot of really, really corny “country” comedy/entertainment shows. Little something for everyone I guess.

Sometimes I drive through places like this and wonder why they’re here, and how it happened to pop up at that spot. Pigeon Forge, Myrtle Beach, Branson, Vegas… very “American” I guess. I think it’s pretty awesome.

Well it’s movie/bed time here. Gotta get up in the morning for another days worth of sets, then a show 2-3 hours from here tomorrow night!

IBMA was a ton of fun, but now it’s back to the real world on the road… well kinda.

Justin and I left Nashville on a 8 hour drive for our week at the Silver Dollar City Theme Park here in Branson, MO on Tuesday, and arrived here at the hotel at about 1AM Wednesday morning.

Our first “gig” of the week was a 8:45 photoshoot for the park’s billboard design that will be up all over the region over the next few months, and it went well. There aren’t many 8 AM’s that find me with my eyes open, so it was kinda rough especially since I didn’t get to sleep until pretty late.

I have a pretty hard time falling asleep immediatly after I’ve been driving all night, so I didn’t get more than 4 hours of sleep. One of my quirks I guess.

All week long, our sets are at 10:30, 1:30, and 3. Between the sets we get to walk around the park and visit the great food vendors, woodworking shops, rides and other booths and shops that they have here at this park.

I’m a rollercoaster fanatic, and there are three really great ones here at Silver Dollar City. Today is day two, and I’ve been on all of them at least three times already! Pretty sweet deal for “work”. They play Bluegrass all over the park over the speakers that they have hidden everywhere, and I think it’s pretty cool to be walking up to a roller coaster or around the Theme Park and hear my friends come over the speakers. Kind of surreal actually… AND they have giant sculptures made out of butter! Wow. That alone is worth the visit! hehe.

Actually, this is a wonderful place to vacation and if you’re within a decent distance, you should come check it out! It’s not your normal “theme park” at all. There’s live music everywhere, lots of shops with furniture, crafts, and country decor and such, and they’re always having some kind of festival.

Well two days down, three to go! Hope everyone else is having a great week.

Here’s my favorite coaster in town… WILDFIRE!:

It’s Saturday night, and I’m at home! Wow.

What a long but great week! This week, I’ve played 7 showcases, 1 Mashville Show, 2 FanFest Sets, been interviewed about 10 times, and stayed up way too late… but it’s great that I get to do this as part of my job.

IBMA’s World of Bluegrass week is always a good one for me because I get to see all my Bluegrass friends that I don’t see very much and hear great new music. Yesterday I helped my buddy Keith Sewell out at 11 AM for FanFest, then had a 13 hour layover until our final showcase set at midnight. Afterwards, I got to hang out and pick some with Alecia Nugent, Barry Bales, Gena Britt, Bradley Walker, Joey and Rory Feek, Randy Graham, Jennifer Strickland, Adam Steffey and many other awesome friends and pickers, but I stayed up way too late and had to be back over there pretty early to be a part of the Mandolin Workshop. Then we had a set for the FanFest crowd at 2:30. It was a lot of fun, but thank goodness that now it’s nap time!

I hope everyone else had a great time!

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!