Don’t Get Weary, my traveling companions! I arrived home in Detroit after nearly 7 weeks on the road and although Jordan Is a Hard Road to Travel indeed I am so glad to have done it. See below for highlights from the tour and more, but first, the biggest news:

Dos Señoritas: Classic Banjo Duets is now available for digital, CD and vinyl pre-order. When you pre-order the album you get two tracks right away. The vinyl is a Limited Edition of 100 10-inch records and will ship in October — check it out here

Big News

I’ve been accepted to the Silk Road Global Musician Workshop and I am heading there (New England Conservatory in Boston) in just a few weeks. Silk Road GMW is a musician training program modeled after the genesis of the Silkroad Ensemble. This experience is led by a group of all-star faculty artists, including musicians from the Silkroad Ensemble and their colleagues, teaching styles of music that represent a wide range of backgrounds and traditions. I’ll play in bands led by master musicians from around the world and meet all kinds of great musicians with whom I may be able to collaborate in the future. Wheeeeee!

Upcoming Gigs

This Saturday, Detroit Square Dance Society Presents Queer Square Dancing + Potluck at Spread Art, 5141 Rosa Parks Blvd, Detroit – 7-11pm

Tue, 25 July – Caledonia, MI, Summer Concert Series – 6pm, FREE

Wed, 26 July – Big Rapids, MI, Summer Concert Series – 7-9pm, FREE

Thur, 27 July – Remus, MI, House Concert at May Barn – 7pm, $20 suggested donation – For tickets call Kris Stableford, 989-330-7917 or email [email protected]

Fri, 4 Aug – Troy, NY, Alias Coffee – 7pm, $20 – Tickets

Tue, 22 Aug – Detroit, Alpino w/Alex Belhaj – 6:30-7:30pm, $10 – Tickets

and stay tuned for October Midwest tour dates with Corn Potato String Band!

New Videos

I got a lot of great videos from the tour which I will share first to Patreon — Join me for less than the price of a cup of coffee and enjoy early access to new videos, conversation, and the warm feeling that comes from knowing you’re directly supporting my work.

Here’s a video of me playing Albumblatt, a beautiful classic banjo piece by Cammeyer, on the street outside the train station in Brussels. I was on a layover during a journey from London to Berlin, hence the slightly rushed tempo!

Once I got to Berlin I was joined by a fantastic group of local musicians for a couple of concerts that were simply out of this world. Here is our version of Russian Rag (currently only available to Patreon supporters). More of these videos will be made public over the coming weeks and months.

Another great moment from the tour was when Irish writer and co-host of the Irish Mythology Podcast Stephanie Ni Thiarnaigh wrote an original poem in Gaelic (called The Banshee’s Response in English) and performed it with me as I played The Banshee, by Emile Grimshaw. Chills of delight! Check it out here

Ragtime Banjo Revival

The recording process is complete and mixing is under way!

For this project I am looking for two different kinds of support, and I see no reason not to share with you:

One, live performance opportunities to work within an institution (orchestra, music school, festival) and rehearse “in residence” for a week or so and then put on a concert or series of concerts. I am already doing this at one university in Ohio in October (looking forward to sharing more about that!) and the process of selecting and refining arrangements for the concert is quite fun and exciting.

And two, executive producer support for the recording project — I have a fiscal sponsor so can accept tax-deductible donations, if you know of anyone who would love to be responsible for making a project like this one take off. Individual donations for this project can be made here.

Tour Highlights

As a social media experiment I made a video with clips from my travels every day and posted to my TikTok profile, where you can still see them, and to my Instagram stories, where they are no longer visible. I want to point out that I mostly only shot video when I was alone and not actively engaged in something fun, so these little video diaries mostly consist of me on trains, buses, in airports, etc., with little bursts of music, swims, and other joy with friends. For more about the tour, read on —

The best parts of this tour have by far been the people I’ve met, both old and new friends, and the great musicians I was able to work with, such as the ragtime band in Berlin (Anton Wunderlich, Andrea Ramirez, Max Keitel, Matthieu Baud), Moroccan six-string banjoist, singer and composer Hassan Wargui (Thank you, Rotterdam Bluegrass Festival for connecting us), and my dear old pal Cami Flage, who has recorded with me for Mozart of the Banjo and Ragtime Banjo Revival, and performed with me many times before she moved to Seattle last year.

I swam in the Irish Sea and in the River Boyne, in a lake in Berlin (yes, naked), in Lake Siskiyou near Mt. Shasta, and in an unnamed river on private land in Mendocino County, California (yes, also naked and also trespassing, shh!).

I reconnected with old friends and made new ones everywhere I went, and was filled with gratitude and appreciation for all the generosity and hospitality I received.

Every show I played was met with overwhelmingly enthusiastic responses.

I did a video and audio recording session with a 1901 Stewart Acme banjo at the Musee de la Musique Philharmonie in Paris with an incredible team and the results are just amazing.

I traveled everywhere by bus and train, which has its advantages and drawbacks, but for the most part it was pretty sweet.

I’m still waiting to get paid from some of the gigs but once I do I’ll be able to share the spreadsheet showing my income and expenses from the tour. Is that something that would interest you? I want to make it available for transparency, and so people get a sense of what this is like. I’m hesitant to make plans to do this kind of tour again because the amount of money I made and the number of people who came out to the shows felt disproportional to the amount of work I put in. Always looking to work smarter, not harder!

Overall I’m immensely grateful to all the folks who came out to see my shows, all the people who put me up, drove me around and took care of my basic human needs, and the dedicated promoters who believed in what I have to offer and put in the time and effort to coordinate a concert.

Farewell

I look forward to sharing notes from the Silk Road Global Musician Workshop soon. Until then, stay cool!