I’ll be playing in the Madison area this Saturday (August 2), backing up Deanna Veragona at the Sugar Maple Traditional Music Festival. Deanna is stepping in to fill the void left by Hazel Dickens who, sadly, has fallen ill and is unable to perform. New Lost City Rambler Mike Seeger will be performing earlier in the evening, as will several former Bluegrass Boys.

The emcees for the show are interesting as well: Tom Martin-Erickson, a Wisconsin Public Radio host who has been kind to Tangleweed in the past, and Bill Malone, author of the best comprehensive history of country music, Country Music USA.

Deanna has made a lot of interesting music over the years. In addition to her solo work, she was a founding member of Lambchop, and has collaborated with the Silos, Paul Burch, Bobby Bare Jr., and host of other notable folks.

All of us, by the way, are huge Hazel Dickens fans, and wish her a speedy recovery.

We had a great trip on our first ever Rocky Mountain Foray. Here is a link to my pictures. Hopefully the other guys will post theirs at some point too:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/10799390@N06/sets/72157606443571057/

Here’s a quick summary of the trip:

Day one - drive 300 miles, play two sets to a nice audience at the Bluegrass Cafe in Tama, Iowa, then drive 800 miles to Denver, Colorado over night.

Day two - eat a great breakfast at Udi’s in Stapleton (finally, Colorado green chile!), crash at Ryan’s old friend Molly’s house for 4 hours of much needed sleep in the early afternoon, play a short living room set for Molly and her husband and kids, clean up and drive to CO Springs, eat a fantastic bbq meal and play three well received sets outdoors at the Front Range BBQ, before following our new friend Joe Johnson to The Ancient Mariner bar in Manitou Springs for a latenight acoustic set by the bar. Then drive an hour back to Denver to crash at our friend Cyndy Bruce’s house. Her boyfriend Tommy was an excellent host (Cyndy was stuck out of town) and gave us a great place to rest up and recharge.

Day three - chill at Tommy and Cyndy’s place all day before playing three sets at Duclinea’s Hundredth Monkey on Colfax that night. Many local and out of town friends were in attendance and we had a great night. My old school chum Pete Condon was on hand to add some excellent harmonica to Don’t Think Twice and Mountan Dew. After the show, we packed up and drove 60 minutes to Lyons, CO to setup camp in the dark at Rockygrass.

Day four - wake up to the bright Colorado sun after 3.5 hours of sleep and enter Rockygrass Festival. Hang around for several hours before playing three songs in the band contest. We didn’t place but we had a blast, and had no regrets about our lack of matching suits, or any suits at all, for that matter! Our set was very well received by the audience and though we surely could have played better than we did, considering how we got there, I’d say we did pretty well under the circumstances. The festival grounds were amazing and the band selection was fantastic. We made lots of new friends, re-connected with old ones, and had an excellent time throughout. The highlight of the festival for me was a long latenight jam session with our new friends Andy and Robin from Oregon by our campsite.

Day five - wakeup from a few hours sleep to another blazing sunny day, get a leisurely breakfast and make our way into the festival grounds for our first day of absolultely no commitments. We all enjoyed the fest in our own ways, crossing paths variously throughout the day between swimming/tubing in the river, checking out the band contest finals, enjoying the mainstage acts, shopping for gifts at the local vendors, and sampling the excellent festival chow and beer selections. It was a very nice day, the musical highlight of which was the Carolina Chocolate Drops, who fired up the crowd in a huge way and had a blast doing it. Sam Bush Band put on a great set of classic bluegrass to close out the night while Tangelweed got seriously hula-fied by my old pal Pete Condon. Sam got his friends Peter Rowan, Chris Thile, Edgar Meyer, Mike Miller and several others to join him for a huge three-song encore that sent everybody out of the festival fully sated from a long weekend of bluegrass. Not wanting it to end, we then jammed some more in the parking lot with some new friends from Nebraska before packing up camp and hitting the road at 2 a.m.

Day six - drive 16 hours overnight and all day Monday through Colorado, Nebraska, Iowa and Illinois, arrive home safely around 6 p.m. Sleep the sleep of the dead.

The Embarrassment, sometimes called the ‘greatest band you’ve never heard of’, have scheduled a reunion show August 30th, at Barleycorn’s in Wichita, Kansas. Also cause for celebration: their career-spanning collection Heyday is back in print.

Sorry for the lack of updates the past few days–we have had limited internet access up in the mountains the past few days. Right now, though, we’re almost to the Illinois border, having driven all night from Lyons Colorado. We’re pretty grimy and pretty tired, but in good spirits, with lots of good pictures and stories to share.

More later.

We finished our show in Tama last night at 10, and drove all night to Colorado, with Scott and I doing the bulk of the driving. We visited Molly and Richard Fisher in Stapleton for some much-needed sleep and a shower. Now we’re making the 70-mile drive from Denver to Colorado Springs for our show at the Front Range. Except for a nasty rainstorm in Iowa, and a member of the band having night terrors while I was driving, everything has been smooth thus far.

Here’s a gallery of camera-phone pics from Nebraska and Colorado.

My throat is holding up OK so far. More later.

We’re on the road today, on the way to Tama, Iowa, for a show at the bluegrass cafe. We’re in a rented minivan, packed to the gills with gear. After tonight’s show, it’s a marathon drive to Colorado Springs for our show there Thursday evening.

I’m recuperating from Strep, which isn’t the best way to start a tour. I’m guzzling water and taking Amoxicliin tablets the size of Kennedy half dollars, hoping that I’ll be getting better rather than worse as the week wears on. I all but lost my voice last week, and haven’t really tested it since. We have two sets ahead of us tonight, which is as good a test as any.

More later.

Every bassist needs a hobby. Mine just happens to be building basses. My latest release is ready just in time for some of our summer out of town shows. I started down this path several years ago when I was thinking there must be a better way to get myself and the bass from point A to point B. So I built the original “Suit Bass” from a vintage plywood suitcase. This was a great idea because I could remove the neck and put it inside the body. The trouble was that it had a flat fingerboard and no clearance for a bow. That’s when I came up with this Summers “Howitzer Shell Bass” The neck is still removable and it has a shaped bridge and fingerboard that lets me play with a bow.

I’ll be appearing on WGN TV tomorrow morning (Thursday, July 17th). I’ll be playing on their morning show with the Golden Horse Ranch Square Dance Band, to promote our Friday appearance at the Great Performers of Illinois festival.

Our slots are tentatively scheduled for 7:45 and 8:45, and may feature people dressed as giant ears of corn. No promises.