Last weekend was a joyous trip to Ohio with the All-Michigan Corn Potato String Band (pictured below, L to R: Lindsay McCaw, Rachel Pearson, AJL, Alex Belhaj; photo by Michael Dalby) — On Thursday we played a square dance for a youth group all dressed up in old timey outfits, on Friday we played at…

I got home from tour a week or two ago, simply overflowing with all the love and joy that was shared with me. I have so much gratitude for the people who welcomed me and created the spaces where these beautiful connections could happen! I fell in love with everyone, and everywhere I went I…

New Release! Frog Legs Rag – Sheet Music + Audio The big news for you, my dear newsletter readers, is that you can now order the sheet music and/or banjo tablature for this original arrangement of James Scott’s classic ragtime piece, Frog Legs Rag! You can also listen to it right here: The audio is…

A few weeks ago I went out of state for a couple of sweet little gigs that I really enjoyed. After the second gig I chose to drive home through a real treacherous ice storm. Even though I had a place to stay the night and it seemed safer to stay put I just wanted…

I made it back from retreat and what an adventure it was! I won’t go into detail here but if you’re interested to read my practice log I will gladly email it to you, just let me know. It’s long and mostly quite boring but there were some exciting moments here and there. I’ll include…

Live Stream and In Person, PLUS Upcoming Gigs, New Videos, Book Reports, and MORE I have about six weeks left until I embark on the longest retreat I’ve done so far (three months). I am starting to prepare myself and say my goodbyes so this may be my last newsletter until February or later. (Sorry…

Yes, that title is autobiographical ;0 This newsletter contains 90% of your monthly recommended dosage of AJL info. The rest can be found on IG, FB, YT and TT* Getting older is so sweet because I’ve been learning how to enjoy life and have a good time more, sweat the small stuff less and less,…

I was feeling a bit stressed yesterday when my psychiatrist was more than an hour and a half late to our appointment, but then I got to see my dear friend Alex Belhaj and play a bunch of great music with him and reeds-wizard Chris Tabaczynski and I felt so much better! I’m grateful to…

Wednesday I had the great pleasure of playing banjo with 47 violin students playing “Boil the Cabbage” and “Folk Dream” (retitled from “Devil’s Dream” to not offend religious people) at their end-of-year recital with Sphinx Overturemusic education program. They also played Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, which brought me back to my old Suzuki days. I…

I’ve been so busy emailing radio people that I now have 30 minutes to write this but you’ll forgive my typos, won’t you? What an exciting day! In this newsletter: – Big big announcement: New Release! – New Videos – Gig Announcement: New Corn Potato String Band Lineup?! – Queer Square Dancing in Detroit is…