May 2022
This was definitely a busy month but also a fun month. As usual, we were volunteering at Stephen Foster FCC State Park in May
where we provided entertainment and hosted music jams in the Craft Village on weekends
and during the week we assisted the park rangers with the Florida Folk Festival setup.
And the festival report...Since this was the first in-person Florida Folk Festival in three years no one knew what to expect. Overall there were fewer performers and attendees but they were younger and quite enthusiastic. The weather was hotter than normal despite afternoon showers and the children loved splashing in the wading pool and running through the sprinkler...even a big kid named Marg! Perhaps this year was magic because people were thrilled to return and to see old friends and make new friends. Come to think of it every Festival is a magical experience. 
And it was an honor for us to perform at the 70th Annual Florida Folk Festival. Playing on The Old Marble Stage and the River Gazebo brought back memories from past years.
And it was an honor for us to perform at the 70th Annual Florida Folk Festival. Playing on The Old Marble Stage and the River Gazebo brought back memories from past years.
April 2022
Welcome to Spring though we have seen several brisk cold snaps in the sunny state of Florid which made for stiff fingers on the strings while we jammed around toasty campfires.
This month saw Gopher Stew playing frequently and featuring often Early Country Songs with our expanded band including Pam Linder and Karyn Lockerman starting with the Barberville Spring Frolic.
Karyn, Pam, Marg. Billy Boy
Poor Billy Boy gets some grief from the ladies when we showcase him in the song Billy Boy. But you know it's all just good fun.
Above is a brief clip of Just Because from our recent performance at Stephen Foster FCC State Park. Video complements of an audience member.
April wrapped up with Saturday performances in the Craft Village as a duo of Marg and Bill.
Then we were a the Florida Old-Time Music Championships, FOTMC, where
we were 1st in Group Singing.
Marg scored 3rd in Women's Singing, percussion, and 4th in Senior Banjo.
Ribbons galore
Marg and Bill Group Singing
Thanks to Tamera for capturing this brief clip
March 2022
It's time to leave the balmy breezes of Cape Florida for the middle section of Florida. Once again it is festival time and we are looking forward to assisting grounds and operations at Will McLean Festival, March 11-13 plus Marg is part of the Banjo Pickin Girls workshop
In between you can find us adventuring, visiting friends and family, jamming, and maybe relaxing before our next volunteer gig.
And I do hope you can join us at a festival or two this spring.
January 2022
Welcome to a New Year from the sunny shores of Biscayne Bay and the Cape Florida Light. Yes it is beautiful here as we spend two more months volunteering at Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park giving tours and history, answering questions, and other necessary tasks to keep the Lighthouse Compound a magical experience for guests.
Magical?
Yes, as if the park, Light, and Keeper's House wasn't enough Bill Messer and I dress in 1850s clothing and play traditional tunes. It's all fun.
December 2021
Once again we are volunteering at Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park on Key Biscayne. This is always an enjoyable time as we often don our period clothing and give tours of the Key Biscayne Light and Keeper's House.
One special treat is having sufficient staff so we can entertain the visitors with traditional music using the banjo, guitar, and our voices.
November 2021
The month opened with the Fall Festival at the Barberville Pioneer Settlement
and ended with Thanksgiving and music with friends in Jupiter.
Between those two bookends were a multitude of fun times sharing music, time, and adventures with friends and family. Oh...and the invitation to perform at the Florida Folk Festival in May 2022 which is always an honor.
October 2021
It is amazing how quickly time passes, the last weekend in September found us at the Tennessee Valley Fiddlers Convention and now it's Halloween!
The Tennessee Valley Fiddlers Convention is held annually in Athens AL and makes for a fun weekend. True it is primarily bluegrass oriented but there were pickets of old-time, country, early bluegrass for plenty of jamming and listening opportunities. Plus excellent evening bluegrass shows and quality contestants. I entered the Old-Time Banjo competition and was thrilled to place in the prize money.
We continued on to the Florida Fiddlers Convention in Live Oak where our pickup band finished in the good pies. Thank you Sharon Hartman for your excellent fiddling and squash pie. As always, the guest artists were top notch in their performances, workshops, knowledge, and friendship.
Next there was a week of volunteer work at Stephen Foster FCC State Park in White Springs before tackling the issues from being away for seven months. But visiting with family and friends, and a few music parties bring a diversion from the chores.
September 2021
The return to Florida from California is proving to be another grand adventure. By Labor Day we had visited friends in central and northern California, hiked trails amid the Redwoods, shared music, and started the journey eastward. I will update you later on our progress but for now...
Enjoy this Frank Thomas song we videotaped at Bruneau Dunes State Park in Idaho
August 2021
It is good to see performance venues and festivals reopening. Of course life isn't returning to the old normal anytime soon but that simply means more opportunity for creative music scenes.
Now, the Covid Shutdown of 2020 plus Covid and it's aftermath gave us time to focus on some new material, write a couple of songs, and refresh several 'forgotten' tunes. So be looking for more lever harp and my Florida Cracker song at performances.
As we leave the High Sierra Mountains and Camp Lake Sequoia we hope to see you down the road.
June-July 2021
Finally the High Sierra Mountains of California adjacent to Kings Canyon/Sequoia National Park. Here we spent three months volunteering at a YMCA summer family camp. Bill helped with general maintenance, solved a few linger issues around the camps, and created beautiful wooden signs using local wood, a router, and paint. My goal was to coordinate with the chefs and order the food supplies twice a week for two kitchens. We provided three meals a day for approximately 400 hungry campers or 1200 meals per day!
As with every group we found several campers were amazing musicians and some were budding musicians. This led to fun jams on the porches and campfire performances.
May 2021
Since Covid canceled many of our spring volunteer and performance activities we were left free to finally travel west, far west to California.
Our first stop was to visit our friend Phil at a Pirate Festival in Hammond LA and provide entertainment in the food court.
The journey continued through southern Texas to Albuquerque NM for a visit with family. Well, eventually we crossed the Great Divide at Pie Town NM where we had to play the following Kate Wolfe song.
December 2020
Fall found us volunteering at Jonathan Dickinson State Park, Jupiter area, where we have many music friends...needless to say the Covid shutdown didn't preclude small outdoor gathering to share music.
Unfortunately winter wasn't kind health wise which led to some unexpected downtime. However, we did participate in the Great Florida Cattle Drive Reunion Ride by sharing our music in a stage performance and around the campfire.
Spring burst forward with fun camping, memorable moments, making music with friends around Florida, and the opportunity to perform at the Barberville Spring Frolic.
August 2020
Summer found us at Sebastian Inlet State Park as campground hosts. It is an amazing place and my first time to spend my than a night. Now Bill was raised in the area and surfed the inlet before the bridge and much of the park development. As luck would have it we found a Sunday acoustic jam two miles from the park that was intimate and drew mostly locals many who attended the same schools as Bill. It was a wonderful opportunity to expand my folk song repertoire, leading to my recording one on our trip west summer of 2021. And we visited the jam in December.
January 2020
Welcome to another year for adventure and discovery. We are currently volunteering at Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park, Key Biscayne FL. As with most adventures this is a delightful experience where we have met new folks and made more friends.
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| On the porch of the Lighthouse Keeper's House Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park |
One delightful lady, Nancy Beth Jackson, is a reporter who captured our service in a story for the local paper. You may want to read her article on Key News, https://www.keynews.org/2020/01/02/florida-folksingers-are-live-in-volunteers-at-bill-baggs-park/
November 2019
Our travels are slowing down, after the Barberville Fall Festival at the beginning of the month we headed south and are now settled at Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park. This is an island connected by a causeway to Miami so yes it has an international clientele.
Our main "job" is interpreting the Lighthouse and Keeper's House until the end of February. We lost no time in donning period clothing and bringing music to the Keeper's House on holidays and many Sunday afternoons. So do stop by when you are in the area.
October 2019
Where's the time gone? It has been a busy month...traveling back to Florida, visiting friends along the way, reconnecting with our Florida support system, playing tunes, volunteering, and enjoying life.
So here we are at the end of October having assisted with the Quilt Show at Stephen Foster FCC State Park, given a near perfect performance at the Central Florida Folk House Concert in Winter Park, and getting ready to share our music, talents, and time at the Barberville Fall Festival.
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| From the Concert Promotion Flyer |
September 2019
Welcome to fall. As Ohio prepares for harvest season our Florida friends and family are dealing with hurricanes. But there are options like joining us at the Yankee Peddler Festival in Canal Fulton Ohio. We are playing your favorite harp/guitar and banjo/guitar duets for the first three weekends this month.
Can't wait to see your smiling faces.
August 2019
What a wonderfully busy summer on our travels through the midwest. We have shared music with folks in every state, sometimes participating in a jam, at a pub session, or by campfire. At other times we have been the entertainment for friends, children, families, gatherings, and neighbors.Feel proud that in the USA we have good and friendly folks. But don't expect consensus, people are opinionated. Now it seems most of the folks we encounter seek commonalities and tiptoe around our current political situation.
The mid-west is a great place to understand the development of our nation with most lands opening for settlement around 1800. This westward immigration impacted the native inhabitants, their spiritual values, lives, and eventual poor treatment by the US government. The logging, mining, and farming built our country but changed the landscape; interestingly, today states and organizations are restoring the land to an earlier time.
One takeaway
...Music is always regional
...but sometimes not from the region you expect!
Florida and Alabama is where old-time reigns at jam circles
Mississippi sports the blues
Tennessee, Kentucky, and Indiana tout bluegrass first followed by southern old-time and Celtic
Michigan... Can you polka? From the Scandinavian, Cornish, and Irish roots
Wisconsin is a true melting pot where any style can be found and often in in same set.
June 2019
Summer is our time to explore new locations and revisit from previous trips. So this year we will travel north to the Michigan UP (Upper Peninsula). Along the way we are planning on attending festivals, hiking and kayaking trails, visiting friends and family, and learning more about our wonderful country.
May 2019
Spring is festival season in Florida and this May has been particularly busy with performances, jams, workshops, and playing sound or set up crew at several events. You can read about those on the Upcoming Events and Recent Appearances.It is also the month we managed to finally get some of our original ssongs of Florida on a professional recording. Starlight Sound in Lake City had an opening. Donald, the owner and sound engineer, was wonderfully easy to work with, he made you feel like family. But still recording isn't easy...
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| Donald playing back the preliminary mix. |
Know how you feel about posing for photos?
OK then, consider putting your voice, words, music, and playing skills down for posterity...or until all the evidence no longer exists.
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| We were captured live....warts and all. |
Yes, it can be unnerving. And listening to the final results can be humbling. But we are folk singers who have written some good songs and so I am relatively happy with the results.
The recordings for Gopher Stew and other Tales should be available for download in the near future. Drop me an email if you want to be notified on release.
