Hello and Happy Springtime!

Since my last newsletter I completed my longest tour to date, a full eight weeks with Nora Jane Struthers & The Party Line! Now I am relaxing in lovely Minneapolis, where spring has fully sprung. Our last show was at the Gettysburg Bluegrass Festival, which was full of great bands and filled us all with excitement for the beginning of festival season. After we played there we had to rush off and drive through the night to get to Nashville in time for our friends’ wedding, which was a beautiful event and completely worth the effort.

Monday night I sat in at the Turf Club with an excellent local country band called the Cactus Blossoms, which features brothers Page Burkum and Jack Torrey on vocals, plus masterful steel, accordion/washboard and bass players. Check out their music! And on Thursday I’m playing at Black Forest in Minneapolis with a new side project called Livshitsky The Magnificient. (We haven’t recorded anything yet and we have no web presence other than some website which labels us “The People’s Revolutioanary Jug Band” so you’ll just have to imagine…) Last night I saw a great show by Jack Klatt & The Cat Swingers at the 331 Club — I am suitably impressed with the music scene here in Minneapolis! And tonight I’m going to sit in with my old pal Pokey LaFarge and his big band, at the Cedar Cultural Center. It’s been a few years since I’ve seen this guy so I’m pretty excited to reconnect with my old buddy.

On Sunday I will rejoin the Party Line for a show at the splendid Grove Park Inn in Asheville, and the following weekend I join the Harwell Grice Band for a few gigs in the Roanoke, VA, area. June is more full of Party Line shows, which I will liste below, and then in July I head to Finland to play a two-week tour with my beloved Froggy Mountain Boys!

I have a not-so-new video to share with you. It’s new for me because I just discovered it but it’s from a show I played with Thomas Bailey and Max Johnson at the Jalopy Theater in Brooklyn back in September of last year. Here it is! The three of us with our powers combined are known as Wild Hog. (That’s a link to our bandcamp page.)

Before I get to listing my upcoming shows, let me share with you again the link for my new release with Square Peg Rounders — squarepegrounders.bandcamp.com — You can listen for free as much as you like with bandcamp. Enjoy!

And now for the tour dates:
Thursday, May 23 – Black Forest, Minneapolis, with Livshitsky The Magnificient, supporting The Poor Nobodys and FireFlyForest, (not sure of showtime or cover charge!)
Sunday, May 26 – Grove Park Inn, with NJS & PL
Thursday, June 6 – Pisgah Brewing Co, Asheville, NC
Friday, June 7 – Carrboro ArtsCenter, Carrboro, NC
Saturday, June 8 – Kirk Avenue Music Hall, Roanoke, VA
Wednesday, June 12 – Music City Roots, Nashville, TN
Friday, June 14 – Music on the Square, Jonesborough, TN
Saturday, June 15 – Old-Time Music Ozark Herigate Festival, West Plains, MO
Monday, June 17 – Barbes, Brooklyn (w/Brain Cloud)
Friday/Saturday, June 21-22 – Smoked Country Jam Bluegrass Festival, Cross Fork, PA
Sunday, June 23 – Wilbert’s Food & Music – Cleveland, OH
Thursday, June 27 – The Gramophone, St Louis, MO
Saturday, June 29 – Flatwater Festival, Hastings, NE

I guess that will keep me busy for a little while. And as always, be sure to check in with my calendar for the latest information. It’s likely some more shows will be added in the coming weeks.

By the way, I just read Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry and it was so good! I can’t wait to read the rest of the series.

Everybody keep on rockin in the ‘free’ world!

Aaron