New Hoosier Blog Post #2

What we're up to!

  Hey folks! We've been really busy lately. We spent the weekend out at Sugar Hill in Bloomington mostly. We played a show at a Jennings County herb garden and winery on Saturday, then we shot back to Bloomington to jam with old friends and play the midnight set at Sugar Hill. The venue is amazing; it's the oldest herb garden in Indiana. They have ton's of lil shops, a great restaurant, and a great winery. They have Lemon Verbena Lemonade that's probably one of my favorites.
  We finally got back the first run of CD's for our album, The River is Whiskey, and I put the first teaser track up on our Bandcamp for anyone to download. We're so excited to share this album with everyone and get it out there. It's so close to time!

What we've been listening to!

  I've been on a huge Edden Hammons kick this week. I love his weird and windy tunes and can't stop playing the ones that I know. I've been playing Fine Times at Our House, Greasy Coat, and Sandy Boys lately.  

  I've also been listening to some of my buddies a lot lately, Roy Pilgrim and Aviva Steigmeyer. Their band, The Ozark Highballers, is easily one of my favorites. They do such an amazing job at Old Time that they wouldn't be at all out of place on an anthology of old 78's, yet they'd still stand out as a really unique and wonderfully skilled group of musicians.

  They really are what a modern string band should want to be, I think. Their treatment of these tunes gives them such amazing energy. I love hearing them and every time I see them out somewhere it makes me excited for the music I'm about to get to observe.

  Another modern player I've been watching a lot of lately is Henry Barnes from Columbus OH. He's the best player of Ed Haley tunes there is right now, in my humble opinion. He somehow get's the intricacies and feel of Ed's playing in a way that I wish I could. And it doesn't hurt that he's great at hitting high notes; something I should work on much, much more.

That's all I'm gonna say for now so I don't run out of stuff to talk about so soon.

See ya!
Ben