Another Good Florida Weekend

Just returned home today after a couple of good shows this weekend. Went to Orlando Saturday, about four hours drive from where I live, to do a show at Fodor's Grove. Great venue. Good outdoor stage, good sound, good lights. Good gig in every way!

The Fodor's Grove setting is very pleasant. I must say, though, that I noticed immediately on arrival in Orlando how much muggier and hotter it is there than it is on the Gulf Coast where I have long made my home. When I first came to Florida I did live in central Florida, but don't think I'd move back there now.

Sharon Hartmann and her group, Barnstorm, opened for me in Orlando, with a nice mostly instrumental set. Good to see Sharon out making music again. She sure can fiddle up a storm! I had not heard Sharon play since the passing of her husband and music partner (and one-time instructor at my Sunshine State Acoustic Music Camp) Bruce Hartmann.

Played my set with my old music cohort, bass fiddle wizard Chris Campbell. Chris was one of the first people I played music with away back when I first arrived in the Sunshine State MANY years ago. Chris remains a great friend and a superb bass man! Thanks Chris! It was big fun to do some of our old stuff together once again...and some new stuff too. I sang and played mostly guitar, and a few playing mandolin and Dobro. Even did one traditional cowboy song, I Ride An Old Paint, without accompaniment. That's the way the real cowboys did most of their songs. With Chris's very strong bass support I was able to spin out some complicated jazz material and a Merle Travis fingerpicking extravaganza I usually don't play out: Farewell My Blue Belle. Chris hadn't played that piece with me in years. He pulled it off without missing a note. That's high-level music making!! Asked for an encore at the end of my show, I did my Florida Blues, from my new CD Roll On.

I had an enthusiastic crowd Saturday evening. There were some folks I knew, like musicians Fred Cantor and Brian Smalley, and many folks I didn't know. My friend Susan Fox showed up, all the way from Tampa, with her new guy---a musician, of course, from Texas. Very cool.

Mark Fodor served a tasty spread of food, some of it brought by audience members. After the show, a group of us, including Chris, stayed up until late jamming---something I love to do. All of the jammers turned out to be good musicians, and some of them had really nice original songs to offer. I did a few of my compositions in the jam that I almost never do in shows, including The Story of My Grandfather's Waltz and Trail of the Lonesome Cowboy: I think I ought to those two more often. I may even put one of them on my next CD.

Sweetwater Farms, a large Tampa organic farm collective, has a market day and concert series weekly, the music part run by Susan Fox, mentioned above, and fine old-time musician Pamela Jo Hatley. I played at Sweetwater today (Sunday). Mark Fodor put me up at his place in Orlando. I rose early this morning and drove back to Tampa. On arrival, I did my morning walk (not nearly as pleasant on the crowded streets of Tampa as it is on the tree-shaded back streets and hiking trails near home in Largo, Florida.) Then I had a coffee at a Borders Bookstore, and went on to Sweetwater.

I do LOVE to play at Sweetwater! What a cool place!! Part of the pay is a gigantic sack of fresh organically grown produce. Love it, love it, my friends!! Not an iota of poison is ever sprayed on that beautiful food; not a toxic chemical is secreted inside it; not one bit of high-fructose corn syrup is applied to it. Yum!!

Sweetwater is a great place and the audiences are always great. Today's was no exception. I love it when people really enjoy what I do. Sound at Sweetwater was good. No lights: We did this one in the early afternoon. My good musical supporters Carl Wade (guitar) and Rick Kennedy (bass fiddle) played this show with me. I sure appreciate those guys doing so many shows with me all over the place when I'm back home. Pamela Hatley was hosting and she did a fine job of it. I played my usual range of things. Opened with Roll On (Nine Pound Hammer) from the new CD. That CD is available, by the way, from my web site, here:

http://www.cgmusicman.com/purchases.htm

Went on to play for an hour or so, and included some I don't often do, including Louise (the Paul Siebel song) on the Dobro, plus The Story of My Grandfather's Waltz and Trail of the Lonesome Cowboy, since both were fresh in my mind after Saturday night. Had a request for Play Something We All Know, also one of mine from the new CD, so did that. Good fun. I think we sounded pretty good today.

After the gig, a crowd of us including Carl Wade, Barbara Shafer, Doug Purcell, Rick Kennedy, and Denise Adams, went out to eat at a new Chinese buffet in Tampa that we had heard about. The food was very good!! I hadn't eaten anything since having a banana and a couple of apples for breakfast, so I was ready to feast! The visiting with old friends was great too.

A nice rain fell late this afternoon, enough to cool everything off and release all the lovely smells of blooming plants here along the Gulf. I've been listening to classical orchestral music on the radio while I've been writing this. Now it's almost time for bed.

See you next time!!