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Down the road I go…

Hey there!

I am on week 4 of 4 of my current tour and landed in Seattle today!  But let me catch you up a bit on our recent adventures… 

This tour started at the wonderful Palisade Bluegrass Festival in Colorado where everyone shared and enjoyed music amongst the magestic cottonwood trees.  We enjoyed listening to sets by our friends Danny Barnes, the Dixie Beeliners and Cadillac Sky to name a few.  The audiences were spectacular and it was the perfect way to kick off our first official tour of the summer.

Then Cody and I headed to the Peach Bottom Fiddle & Strings camp (Independence, VA) where we connected with old friends (thankfully including my favourite Virginian fiddler, Jerry Correll) and made some new ones too.  I am always in awe of that beautiful part of the country and once again left refreshed and inspired. 

Next we picked up Clay again and spent a few days touring in Maryland and Maine where we enjoyed fresh crab and lobster!  Cody celebrated his birthday on this leg of the tour as well.  We bought him deodorant as a gift.  No – it wasn’t a hint, he asked for it!  We played some great venues on this neck of the tour – some of the best in the country really – and enjoyed immersing ourselves in the local culture and delicacies along the way. 

 I was thrilled and honoured to spend the next week in Los Angeles, teaching at Mark O’Connor’s inaugural UCLA Summer String Institute.   It’salways amazes me how Mark can bring people together in unexpected and spectacular ways.  I enjoyed sharing music and time with Rachel Barton Pine, John Blake, Sarah Caswell, Tashina Claridge, Yale Strom, Mike Block, Becca Albers and of course, Mark!  I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know and work with the amazing students that attended the event and can’t wait for next year.  (Check out my performance with Mike Block here!)

On Friday night I took the red eye flight from LAX to Toronto.  I landed just in time to have a shower (thank goodness!) and start our shows at the Mariposa Folk Festival.  It was a fantastic time – great line-up, perfect weather AND my Mom & Dad came to visit me and brought lettuce and strawberries from their garden!  Our band enjoyed some Tim Hortons stops as well (3 in 2 days!)  What more can you ask for from a summer festival stop?  A slot on the Sunday night main stage before Buffy Sainte-Marie perhaps?  We had that too!

After just a couple of hours sleep and no chance to catch up on the time-zone hopping I caught an early morning flight back to the west coast today.  I have a couple of days to catch up on work and rest (and update my blog!) before our mini-tour of Washington commences.  Tomorrow I’m going to fit in a hair cut and some shopping too.  Tonight I had amazing sushi with my friends Michelle & Ben who are letting me crash at their beautiful home in west Seattle.

I am truly blessed!