Ashby Frank
Mandolinist, Singer, Songwriter

Well, the gig in Houston with Rhonda’s band was a lot of fun, but it made for a long day.

After the Mashville show, I got to bed about 1:30, got up Wednesday around 6, went to the airport with Darrell and Hunter and caught a Southwest flight to Houston. Ate a quick lunch, played a showcase for Martha White at a big convention center, then went back to the airport and waited for a couple hours for the flight home.

So I made it back home around 10, and got up the next day, packed and did some work in the yard, then it was off to Chicago.

Friday was a fun day/night, with a good Special C show at FitzGerald’s in Berwyn, IL (Right outside of Chicago) with the legendary multi-genre instrumentalist Howard Levy. Sometime’s it’s really challenging  to perform with people from different genres, but it’s a rewarding process and usually turns out well. It opens my ears up to influences I may not have heard before, and that’s a good thing for sure.
It’s also pretty cool to put Bluegrass in front of people that may not be all that familiar with it, so it was a good night.

Saturday it was off to the Saint Louis area where we had a really nice dinner with some of our friends that were nice enough to let us in their house and cook for us while we tried our luck at Guitar Hero on the Nintendo Wii. Greg’s technique was rather impressive, I must say. That evening we performed at Harmon’s Auction Barn to a pretty good sized crowd (supposedly their largest of the year).
I drove most of the night at made it to Paducah, where we rested for a while before making back to Nashville this morning.

Needless to say, I’m a little worn out… but it’s all good. I love doing what I do. Mashville on Tuesday will be Darrell, Aaron, Randy, Jim and myself. We’re doing some promotional work for the new CD during the day, so we should all be raring to pick by 9(ish).

So anyway, I’m going to veg out and maybe go to the gym this evening and recharge a little bit.

I’m looking forward to going to Canada this weekend… hopefully I’ll get to see some of my friends that I haven’t seen in a while. See yall there, eh?

Tags: Canada, Chicago, Houston, Howard Levy, Saint Louis