Red River Breeze Blog

After the recording, what happens next?

2011-11-13T10:53:00.001-08:00

The Attic, in Chicago. With watchdog, Maddox!

What happens after spending months finding tunes we want to record, arranging the tunes, practicing the tunes (for many hours...), and then going into the studio to record the tunes? Believe it or not, the process has only just begun. Our recording engineer and David's son, Greg Magers, took all of our recorded tunes back to his studio in Chicago (The Attic) to begin work on the next phase. We will have 17 tracks on the CD - at least that's the plan! That actually worked out to 25 separate recorded sessions!

The Attic, in Chicago. With Eleanora!

So far, David has made two trips to Chicago to provide input in the editting process and to overdub some more guitar tracks and add drum (jjembe!) tracks. We have also asked Graham Burris, Greg's assistant and bass player extraordinaire, to overdub bass tracks on our tunes to add some more color to the finished recording! This work has been done. What remains is for a guest recording on three tracks by Emily Magers, David's daughter and accomplished violinist/fiddler and the mixing and sequencing (another trip to Chicago by Stephanie) and the mastering.

At that point, we will be ready to send our master to a CD manufacturing company to produce. We have decided to not manufacture this CD ourselves as we have the previous two. It's a lot of work to do and the commercial companies can do it faster, more professionally, and for about the same or less money! But it does mean Stephanie is learning Coreldraw to produce the artwork for the CD packaging to submit when the master is ready!

Will we make it by Christmas? Well... unfortunately it is looking a bit unlikely. This process has taken more time that we expected - there have been a couple of unplanned delays and Greg's schedule has been a bit tight. But, the silver cloud to this story is that The Looking Glass has agreed to host a CD release party for us mid to late January! This will be our first ever release party - and based on the reviews of the editted tracks so far, this CD will be even better than our last one - so it will be more than worthy of a release party. Stay tuned for details of the party! Of course, as soon as the CD is produced and we have it in our hands, it will be available for sale - we have been asked a bunch of times when our next CD is coming out because folks want to buy it to add to their Red River Breeze collection! And we absolutely appreciate and cherish the loyalty of our fans!

Recording CD, #3 - October 11th and 12th, 2011

2011-11-13T09:15:00.001-08:00

We recorded our third CD at 16 Ton Studios in Nashville, TN over a two day period in October 2011. This is the same studio where we recorded our second studio so it felt very familiar! Michael Esser, the studio's engineer greeted us the first morning. He worked with us on our second CD so his was familiar face. He then left us in the very capable and friendly hands of his assistant, Tyler Cox. Greg Magers, David's son, flew down from Chicago as he had done for the second CD to be our engineer. Greg has his own very successful studio in Chicago, The Attic.

Stephanie, warming up before recording starts.

Melanie in her isolation room.

Because we are a band of four musicians, instead of the eight when we recorded our second CD in this studio, each one of us was in an isolation room this time. That means we couldn't see each other but rather could hear each other through headphones and a box that allowed us to dial in exactly how much and how loud each of the other instruments sounded in our ears. Playing with headphones on and without being able to read the body language of the rest of the band is definitely an added challenge to trying to record (forever!) our music.

We recorded for 6+ hours each of the two days. This meant recording everything at least twice to make sure we had a good take from each of the four instruments. Stephanie also recorded some recorder and Irish whistle overdubs for several of the tunes (that means it's going to sound like Stephanie is playing hammered dulcimer and penny whistle at the same time!).

Byron, in his isolation room.

David, in his isolation area.

This is what a recorded tune looks like to the engineer! Each instrument has it's own colored track (and the dulcimer has two!). From this, the engineer can edit mistakes (we never made mistakes...!), mix the instruments so that one instruments doesn't - for example - overwhelm other instruments, and getting the tunes ready to be put on our CD. But, of course that happens after the two days in the studio! Stay tuned for the editting, mixing, mastering, producing portions of this project. And fingers crossed we can get this done before Christmas!

We are getting ready to record again!

2011-08-29T18:20:00.000-07:00

It's official.... We have set the date (two days in October) and location (a studio in Nashville) and we are practicing, practicing, practicing! Once we record the tracks, they will be editted and mixed by David's son, Greg Magers, at his studio in Chicago. This is how we produced our second CD, "Morgan's Song", and it seemed to work well for us. So look for the new CD in mid-November - just in time for Christmas!

Speaking of Christmas.... we debated whether this CD would be our "Christmas CD". After much thought and discussion, we decided that since we are now a band of four members - rather than the eight involved in "Morgan's Song" - we needed to do another CD of traditional tunes that reflect the four of us as a group. We have an exciting mix of Celtic, Old-Time, Renaissance, World, and three or four original tunes by band members picked to put on this recording. We have not recorded any of these tunes in either of the first two CDs (with one exception) and many of the tunes we have selected for the CD are recent additions to our repetoire so we are excited to be recording them for you!

So... maybe CD number four will be our Christmas CD. And as for the one tune we are recording again... we have decided to record "Steph's Air" again since it was recorded on our first CD, "Friday Night Favorites", and this CD is officially retired and no longer being produced or sold. "Steph's Air" seems to still be a crowd pleaser and happens to be a personal favorite of Stephanie's since se wrote it many years ago. Look for two other tunes on this CD that are original tunes by Stephanie, and even one written by David, as well as plenty of other interesting traditional tunes all played with our unique style of acoustic instrumental music.

Still to do is to decide the title of our CD, the artwork and layout of the CD packaging, and of course, practice, practice and a fair helping of panic!

Cooling at the Cave, Dunbar Cave, July 30 2011!

2011-07-31T15:01:00.001-07:00

From the moment we arrived to start setting up for the "Cooling at the Cave" event at Dunbar Cave in Clarksville, TN on Saturday, July 30th - we were surrounded by enthusiasm, friendliness and helpfulness. With some help from Sally Schiller, of "Friends of Dunbar Cave" we decided to setup as close to the cave mouth as we could get to take full advantage of the cool air coming from the cave. This was instead of playing on the concrete stage area that has been in place since the early days of the 20th century when musicians from Nashville traveled to Dunbar Cave in the summer to take advantage of the coolness of the cave to play dances on Saturday nights. The stage to me, was too hot (always worried about the dulcimer) and too removed from the audience.

Of course, setting up near the cave entrance meant trying to find areas where the ceiling was not dripping on the floor. The evidence was in the wet areas on the floor - and there were a lot of them! Note how carefully we positioned our instruments to avoid the damp spots on the floor which indicated water drips!
As the "Friends of Dunbar Cave" bustled around setting up chairs (which needed to be moved because we moved - and no one was upset!), tables for the board games, and the concession stand, we got to work setting up for our 2 hour concert. Amazingly, on such a hot day on a Saturday afternoon, the cave parking lot was full when we arrived at 2:30 and the participation for the event was amazing!

Even before we were all ready to start playing, the chairs to watch our performance were filling up and we could feel the enthusiasm growing. Children discovered the stage area we had opted not to use and their laughter echoed through the cave overhang as they climbed over the levels.

Oh for a magaphone, or a microphone! While the audience could hear us play just fine, talking to them to tell the stories of the next tunes they were about to hear took every bit of lung power I had (and I have a lot) to be heard above the ambient noise ricochetting through the cave overhand - kids having a ton of fun, folks playing board games and just general noise from people having fun. The audience was amazing. Everyone was very warm and enthusiastic and the applause was defeaning! And thanks for laughing at my jokes! When the audience is enjoying what we are doing and engaged with us, we can't help but play to our best - despite low light and water drips, and an interesting combination of cool air from the cave and hot air from the outside mingling right around us.... amazingly, the hammered dulcimer held its tuning pretty well!

To the "Friends of Dunbar Cave" and all the folks who shared two hours of our music with us under the overhang to the cave, we had a blast! We hope to see you at another of our performances soon!

All photos taken by David Magers, except for the last one which was taken by the Leaf Chronicle.

We Have New Music.. Or Is That "New Old" Music?

2011-07-21T17:26:00.000-07:00

It's been a busy and productive summer for us. We've played a number of events... many of them outside in what has turned out to an unusually hot summer! ... as well as at our weekly Friday night gig at The Looking Glass on Warfield Blvd in Clarksville, TN. We have many more events on the schedule. Check out where we are going to be playing this month and next at our calendar page on our website at http://www.redriverbreeze.com/.

Our performance list of traditional tunes currently contains 63 sets of tunes for a total of 119 different tunes. We are working on 26 tunes which are new to us even though they have been around for at least 200 years. Learning new tunes to add to our repetoire is always an exciting time as we practice these "new" traditional tunes and arrange them so that they maintain their distinct cultural flavor but are also uniquely "us"!

Traditional music with Celtic origins as well as other world cultures often have interesting titles that make us wonder what the story behind the tune is. Sometimes, we can discover the history and story of the tune - which we love to share with our audiences. But for many of these tunes, we never find out the meaning of the titles but enjoy playing them anyway. Several of the tunes we are currently learning and adding to our repetoire have unusual titles including: Down the Broom, Sleep sound in the Mornin, If You Will Not Have Me You May Let Me Go (a rollicking fast tune that is barely longer than the tune!), Lilting Banshee, Wha Wadna Fecht for Charlie (Who Wouldn't Fight for Charlie), Shall I Sue (and it doesn't mean sue in a court of law!), and Mairi's Wedding.

We will debuting these new tunes over the coming weeks at our Friday night gigs at The Looking Glass as well as our other performances. We hope you come on out and listen to our unique interpretations of these traditional tunes as well as all of the tunes you have heard us play and grown to love!

We've Changed...But We Are Still Red River Breeze!

2011-07-09T12:36:00.001-07:00

It's been awhile since I've posted on this blog. Which is definitely my bad...! But we have been actually very busy so far this year and now I would like to catch you up on some of the changes to the band. As you can see from the picture, we have a new look. The biggest change is that earlier this year we officially "down sized" from eight members to the four of us in the picture: Stephanie on hammered dulcimer, Byron and Melanie on fiddle, and David on guitar. We are even changing this up a bit at times by moving Bryon to guitar, David to hammered dulcimer, and Stephanie to Irish whistle with Melanie remaining on fiddle. So, we are quite a bit smaller but we have quite a lot of flexibility!

We have had to say goodby this year to Sarah (whistle), David Elder (mandolin), Dixie (guitar) and Steve (bass). All have found their lives changing and going in new directions and the four of us wish them the best of luck and happiness in their new pursuits. The reality of bands are that they are constantly changing, but the spirit of Red River Breeze is alive, well and very busy making music!

Check out out new and updated web site - it has a new look and our full year's schedule is now being kept there: http://www.redriverbreeze.com/. And, you can also stay in touch with us on our facebook page. We would love for you to "like" us, check out the event photos we've posted there, and drop us a comment. Find us on facebook by searching for Red River Breeze.

We are starting to "talk about" recording our next CD, which will be the band's third recording. Our 2nd CD, "Morgan's Song", has done amazingly. But, it's time to do another recording to reflect who we are and what are music is today with the four of us. Stay posted as we decide what type of CD to record (should we do a traditional Christmas CD, Civil War tunes, or a variety of Celtic, Renaissance, Old-Time and World tunes?) And let us know what you'd like us to record by posting on our facebook page if you have any ideas!

This Year We Are Going to Be BUSY!

2011-03-07T16:57:00.000-08:00

Check out out schedule... It is filling up fast. We have already played a concert in February for the Grace Lutheran Church concert series which was a wonderful experience for us. We don't often get an opportunity to play in such a beautiful venue with terrific accoustics and playing in this church was truly awesome. And the folks who came to hear our music and who were involved in allowing us to come play were awesome also.

Also, in February we played for a private 50th (!) birthday party. This was a neat experience for us to share in a truly cherished person's special day. We were asked to play for her because she very much enjoys our music at The Looking Glass. Definitely makes us feel good when folks really like our music!

More concerts and events are coming. On St. Patrick's Day we are booked for THREE concerts and if there had been more hours in the day, we could have booked several more.... And with this being the 150 anniversary of the start of the Civil War, we have been booked for several re-enactments and balls. Other events scheduled so far include several outdoor festivals. So, keep an eye on our schedule - either in the blog, the website (http://www.redriverbreeze.com/) or our facebook page - to follow where we are going to be next!

Check out our new Website!

2011-01-23T18:02:00.000-08:00

I (Stephanie) have completely redesigned the look and feel of the band's website. Many kudos to Tiffany Allemand who designed the first website. She is so creative and the look was wonderful. Unfortunately, it was so complex, that it was impossible for me to maintain it. The new look is simpler and I hope easier to navigate. And since I built the site, it should be much easier to keep up to date! So, check it out and let me know what you think! You can comment here or drop me an email at steph2stepper@aol.com.

And, check out the band's facebook page (search for Red River Breeze). We are always eager for more friends and that is the place where I post late breaking info - especially if something occurs that keeps us from playing at The Looking Glass on the coming Friday night.

Our next event - other than our standing Friday night performances at The Looking Glass - is our concert at Grace Lutheran Church in Clarksville, TN, Sunday, February 13th from 4:00 to 5:00. We are looking forward to the opportunity to play in a concert venue and hope to see you there!

It's a New Year!

2011-01-10T14:38:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year to all of our friends and fans and now that the holiday season is over, we am eagerly awaiting spring! Red River Breeze had a busy December - we played at 11 events before Christmas. This year we had an extensive repetoire of traditional Christmas tunes and carols - some of them pretty obscure (I think those are the best kind!). Our arrangements of this repetoire is becoming pretty cool, I think so there just may be - finally - a Christmas CD in our future. Of course, this means recording Christmas music in the summer to be ready by winter - which is a tough sell for all of us!

The band's schedule is starting to expand with the new year also. Several events are coming up in the next few months with more that are being firmed up so they haven't shown up on the schedule yet. We love playing our music so come on out to wherever we are to hear us and we love talking to you about all things related to Celtic music, traditional music and traditional instruments!

Playing for the Fall Frolic at The Nature Station at LBL

2010-11-11T18:44:00.000-08:00

Last Saturday (November 6th), four members of Red River Breeze played for the Fall Frolic at the Nature Station at LBL. Members were: Byron Dumas (fiddle), Melanie Beck (fiddle), David Magers (guitar) and Stephanie Taylor (hammered dulcimer). This is (if we remember correctly) our fourth year to play for this event - and as it usually is in November - it was a cold day! Several of us were recovering from colds and flu so the Nature Station folks were sympathetic and we got to play INSIDE this year! Yes, hearing the music waft through the trees of the station is really cool.... well, actually it's really COLD. Most of the folks who came out to the Fall Frolic seemed to appreciate being inside in the warm - as much as we did. We had a great audience for both performances and we had a really great time. The impromptu percussion band that Stephanie and Byron organized with member participation for one of our tune sets was a blast - there were some terrific drummers sitting in the audience! Thanks, as always, to the great job Cindy Earls of LBL does to make us feel welcome and appreciated. And equally, thanks to the great folks at the Nature Station!

Time to Book Red River Breeze for your Holiday Events!

2010-09-29T19:45:00.000-07:00

It's been awhile since I've posted anything about Red River Breeze....and I have been terribly remiss about it. But the long hot summer is pretty much past us and it's time to start thinking about booking us for your holiday events! The band's traditional music and sound is perfect for Christmas music - and we are already rehearsing the traditional carols, tunes and hymns we love to play at this time of the year. Check out our schedule on this blog and contact me, Stephanie Taylor at 931-801-0251 or steph2stepper@aol.com, to book Red River Breeze for your seasonal event!

Playing for Jefferson Davis Birthday Celebration in Fairview, KY

2010-06-11T11:22:00.001-07:00

On Saturday, June 5th 2010, David Magers, Melanie Beck, Byron Dumas and Stephanie Taylor played at the Jeffereson Davis Monument Park in Fairview, KY for the Jefferson Davis birthday celebration. This was a weekend long Civil War re-enactment with a Civil War Ball held Saturday night. It was a beautiful day - although at times a bit warm - but it's always fun to attend events like this and experience a slice of living history!

The monument is definitely impressive - if a touch unnusual when you first see it from a distance traveling across the farm lands of Kentucky!

Here are some of the re-enactors that attended including, I believe, the newly crowned Miss Confederacy (there is a pageant held as part of this event also!). The definitely look serious in their roles!

Stephanie and David arrived in the early afternoon to provide background music and drum up interest in the Ball that evening. Thankfully, there was a nice large and shady pavillion to play in. The Stage where we played that evening is behind me.

These are particularly interesting shots of a soldier and two woman taken by David over my hands on the dulcimer.

Melanie and Byron arrived in the evening for the Ball. Here is a shot of the dance caller (holding the broom) giving the dancers instruction in doing the Broom Dance. I enjoy playing for this particular dance because it's a lot like playing Musical Chairs and I get to arbitrarily stop the music when I want - and then watch the guys (or girls if it's their turn) scramble for a new partner and try not to end up dancing with the broom!

The four of us had a great time playing at this event and look forward to doing it again next year! (All photos were taken by David Magers.)

Logan County Art and Film Festival Rescheduled, May 22nd

2010-05-21T11:37:00.000-07:00

We will be playing in downtown Russellville, KY tomorrow from 3:00 to 4:00 pm for the Logan County Art and Film Festival. This was the festival that was rained out several weekends ago - the day before the Great Flood of 2010 began in Nashville and started heading downriver to Clarksville and other Tennessee and Kentucky communities sitting on the Cumberland and Red Rivers. For a few weeks, I wondered if being named Red River Breeze was a good thing! Because this festival had to be rescheduled, only three of us will be there - Steph on hammered dulcimer, David M on guitar and Melanie on fiddle - but despite being small, we will be musically mighty! We have performed as a trio before and it works! The beauty of Red River Breeze is that we can be so amazingly flexible - and we then produce music in the true spirit of traditional live music - always somewhat different in wonderful ways everytime we play together! We hope you can come on out to Russellville for this festival. The folks in Russellvile are very warm and friendly and their town is a truly nice place to be!

We will be at The Looking Glass, Friday April 23rd...

2010-04-21T14:23:00.000-07:00

And if the weather cooperates, we will be playing at the Logan County Art and Film Festival in Russellville, Kentucky at 3:00 pm on Saturday, April 24th. We have played at this wonderful little festival for the last three years and are looking forward to it again this year. But, the weather man is already calling for severe storms on Saturday - never a good thing when they start alerting us 3 days before.... So, stay tuned!

Last weekend, David M and Stephanie went to Chicago for a couple of days of sightseeing and then went to a hammered dulcimer festival in Monee, IL with Ken Kolodner as the instructor. It was a great day of workshops with a concert and jam in the evening. David and Stephanie even got to perform two Red River Breeze pieces of music in the evening concert! Here's a photo of part of the jam - imagine up to 17 hammered dulcimers as well as other acoustic instruments (fiddle, guitar, mandolin...) playing at the same time! Ken Kolonder is the gentleman on the left (he is an amazing performer as well as instructor), Stephanie in the back and fellow hammered dulcimer player Donna Woerth on the right. David's dulcimer is on the front of the picture with the fancy green handled hammers - he was taking the photograph so he doesn't appear... but he was there!

We will not be at The Looking Glass this Friday, April 16th....

2010-04-13T13:01:00.000-07:00

Due to other committments and scheduling conflicts, Red River Breeze will not be performing at The Looking Glass this Friday, April 16th. Look for us at The Looking Glass next Friday (the 23rd) as well as at the Logan County Art and Film Festival in Russelville, Ky on Saturday, April 24th at 3:00 pm.

Spring is here and our schedule is filling up! Hope to see you at some of our performances soon!

Playing For Civil War Days in Cadiz, KY - Saturday, March 20th

2010-03-25T18:40:00.000-07:00

Barely a week before this event, I (Stephanie) got a call from "a friend of a friend" to please contact Gary Polete of the Cadiz Merchant's Association as they were in dire need of live music for their Civil War ball being held the Saturday night of their three day Civil War re-enactment festival and had not been successful in locating a group. So I did - and after directing Gary to our website, he said we would be "perfect".... Well, I wasn't entirely certain of that - after all we are a Celtic band, not a Civil War era band AND we had never played for folks dancing, but I decided it sounded like a new adventure. To add to the situation, most of the band was going to be unavailable that day to participate because of prior committments. So - this became a job for me (hammered dulcimer), David M (guitar) and Byron (fiddle). One week later, and several "new" tunes learned (Dixie WAS a requirement!) as well as research from the web and Dixie (who has played for Civil War dances), we were ready....

David M and I went to the festival earlier in the day to play background music for the festival goers at the Cadiz park where the event was held. David was the photographer so he never shows up in the pictures - but he was there... he has the bruised guitar fingertips of non-stop playing all day to prove it!

At 2:00 pm, the main road in Cadiz, KY was blocked and the battle was on. Luckily, we were far enough from the big cannons being fired that we were not deafened.

Always, the children are the most fun to interact with. And they are never afraid to try out the dulcimer if given even half the chance. The two littlest ones are brother and sister, the older girl is their cousin. They all got a chance to play and had a blast doing it!

By 5: 00 pm, Byron was able to get away from his day's committment and join us for a little playing outside before moving to the ball location. By this time, I was definitely about played out and the dulcimer was woefully out of tune - sunlight and wind are both not great for large wooden instruments covered in strings! But, noone had complained about the tuning and folks still seemed to enjoy it.

By 6:00, we moved to the Cadiz, KY VFW - and I TUNED.... Then it was time to start playing for the Civil War Ball at 7:00. David's presence is seen - if only by his empty chair as he takes the picture while Byron and I are tuning.

And, what a great crowd - and lots of pretty Civil War era ball gowns complete with hoop skirts. I'm not sure I could play music in one of those dresses! Linda Fritz was the dance caller and she was gracious in her help to us on tune types and tempos for each of the dances. She even wants us to play for another Civil War ball coming up soon in the area....!

Dances included the Grand Marche, the Virginia Reel (which goes on a very, very long time.... one gets quite familiar with the tune when it's repeated 30 times....!), the Waltz, the Broom Dance, and the Patty-cake Polka. My favorite was the broom dance - couples dance until the music stops and then everyone grabs another partner - the odd person out dances with a broom. It was great fun to have the power to stop anytime, anywhere and see folks scurry!

Our thanks to the folks in Cadiz, Ky for welcoming us and letting us have so much fun with them - even if David's fingers are still sore. And the Merchant's Association folks purchased quite a few of our CDs to sell in their shops downtown - so thanks for that also!

Saint Patrick's Day Performance at Fieldstone Place

2010-03-25T18:32:00.000-07:00

One of our favorite places to play is Fieldstone Place - an assisted living facility in Clarksville, TN. We play at Fieldstone Place several times a year - and for at least the last two years' St. Patrick's Days. Six members of Red River Breeze performed for residents of Fieldstone Place on the evening of St. Patrick's Day: Stephanie (hammered dulcimer), Byron (fiddle), Melanie (fiddle), David E (mandolin), Dixie (guitar) and David M (guitar). We had a blast and played to a large crowd of residents. We love playing for the folks at Fieldstone Place and it's wonderful to see familiar faces each time we come to perform - so they must like what they hear!

Saint Patrick's Day at Sango Elementary!

2010-03-25T18:06:00.000-07:00

Three members of Red River Breeze spent several fun hours playing Irish tunes for two classes at Sango Elementary School in Clarksville, TN. Stephanie Taylor (hammered dulcimer), David Magers (guitar) and Melanie Beck (fiddle) performed first for Ms. Stratman's class first grade class (Melanie's daughter Eme is in this class) and then for Ms. Harrison's kindergarten class. We had a blast and the kids were all wonderful - they listened well, clapped like a drum through our peppy tunes and asked amazing questions every chance they got. And - both classes had gifts to give us when we were done - you can't ask for more than that! Here are some pictures of the classes and their terrific thank you gifts!

This is the three of us playing for Ms. Stratman's class. Someone should have told Stephanie she really looked silly in that green hat! Melanie and David refused to wear their's - and their's weren't as goofy looking!

We each got a beautiful card from Ms. Stratman's class!

This is the inside of the card. Very colorful and very creative work. They made three cards so it's impressive how much effort went into their signatures!

This is Ms. Harrison's class after we were finished playing for them. The very best question of the day came from one little girl who sounded like she is really about 5 going on 35 years old - and these children had lots of questions - was, "How did you get started in music?"... Wow!

From Ms. Harrison's class, we each got these cool gift bags with baked goods inside. Very yummy! Note the class's signatures!

Our thanks to both Ms. Stratman's class and Ms. Harrison's class for being so excited and receptive to our music. It made the day amazing for the three of us!

Our Schedule is Starting to Grow!

2010-03-05T07:16:00.000-08:00

In the slow, dark days of winter, we look forward to spring and summer events to play our music at different venues and for more folks! Now it's March and our schedule is starting to get a bit fuller so here's hoping spring really is around the corner! CD sales of our new album, "Morgan's Song" are going well despite the slow winter months and we even sold our first CD on CDbaby..... And, we are working on a new set of "new" tunes - many with a good strong Irish flavor just in time for St. Patrick's Day. Keep checking our schedule for places to see us in the coming months and remember we can be found every Friday night at The Looking Glass on Warfield Blvd, in Clarksville, TN!

Our New CD, Morgan's Song, is available now on CDbaby!

2010-02-08T14:36:00.000-08:00

Our new CD, Morgan's song, is now available on CDbaby! If you can't get to one of our performances to purchase the CD, it is available to see the track listing, listen to short snippets from each track and to purchase at: www.cdbaby.com/cd/RedRiverBreeze. We hope you enjoy the music on this CD!

News from January...

2010-01-22T10:54:00.000-08:00

January is always a slow month in so many ways.... After the buildup to the Christmas holidays, everyone just needs to take a break for a bit in January. And besides that, in the south, January is one of the two yucky months - February being the other! At any rate, not too much is happening this month for Red River Breeze but we are playing every Friday night at The Looking Glass in Clarksville, TN on Warfield Blvd. Come out and hear some live traditional music if you're in town. You may even hear some of our brand new tunes - we have 39 new pieces we are working on and adding to our repetoire!

Our new CD, Morgan's Song, will be available for purchase on CDbaby very soon. Watch our webpage, http://www.redriverbreeze.com/, or our facebook page or this blog for more info. CDbaby will have snippets of the tunes on the CD available for you to hear, and will manage all of the stocking, shipping, and money stuff for online sales of the CD. The CD is available, of course, wherever we are playing so if you come to hear us, we have them for sale. We continue to get lots of nice comments about the CD....!

Sunday, January 31st, Austin Peay will be hosting a "Haiti Relief Effort for Visitation Hospital" telethon. Red River Breeze is one of a number of musical groups who are volunteering to perform during this telethon - we are tentatively scheduled to play starting at 7:30 or 8:00 pm for about an hour. When I know a specific time, I will post it. You can see the telethon several ways: at Austin Peay's web site (http://www.apsu.edu/), on Charter channel 99, on CDE/Lightband channel 9 and on WAPX-FM 91.9.

A Busy Sunday Evening for Red River Breeze!

2009-12-08T11:53:00.000-08:00

Red River Breeze performed twice on Sunday evening, December 6th - first at the Macedonia Presbyterian Church at 5:00 PM and then dashing across town to play for Dilliard's VIP shopping night starting at 7:00 PM. So - we got several more opportunities to play Christmas Music and have our new CD available for purchase!

The first event, at Macedonia Presbyterian Church, was our 3rd year of being invited to perform as the music for the church's Lessons and Carols program. Our thanks to Rev. Kathy Fox and the wonderful folks at Macedonia Presbyterian. Unfortunately, since we were due across town shortly after the program to perform at Dilliards, we were unable to stay and share in the fellowship and wonderful food the church hasdafter the program. I can attest to the fact that it was very nice in the previous two years!

A quick dash across town, and we arrived at Dilliard's (amazingly before 7 PM) to be the music for their VIP shopping night. We played there until 8:45. This was our 2nd year to be the music for this event and I wasn't sure we were going to make this work, but some adjustment on the start time from the very kind Raymond Hicks, the store manager, and we were in! Our special thanks to Raymond Hicks as well as to all of the Dilliard's employees as well as the customers who stopped and chatted with us. Our thanks also to the employees carrying trays of food who found out we were starving (no time to eat between gigs!) and made sure they made frequent passes by us so we could munch in between tunes!

A very busy day for us as well as week - but a great way to start the Christmas holiday!

Stephanie performs at Madison Methodist Church for the Festival of Lessons and Carols

2009-12-08T11:15:00.000-08:00

I was contacted by Rev. Jared Wilson 3 weeks ago asking me if I would be willing to perform a Malcolm Dalglish piece called Christmas Lullaby with the Madison Street Methodist Church Chancel Choir on Sunday, December 6th. I received a copy of the music on Wednesday, November the 18th and was intrigued to say the least - Malcolm Dalglish is well known in the hammered dulcimer community as a wonderful dulcimer player and as a composer of really wonderful choral pieces with dulcimer. And, this was a terrific opportunity for me to play as a solo artist and with singers... which I have never really done... The music - after I got to see it - was as beautiful AND as complex as I imagined.... I proceeded to get to work memorizing the piece - since that is the nature of hammered dulcimers. Two rehearsals and a dress rehearsal later, I performed the piece with the women of the Chancel Choir on Sunday morning. This was a terrifc albeit scary experience! The performance of the piece was the next to last piece on the program - which lasted over an hour and a half (so I had plenty of time to get really nervous) - and playing with a choir is something I have no experience with and definitely took some different skills than I have acquired. (Poor David M. - He was tasked with being my practice singer countless times over the 2 1/2 weeks I had to prepare as I worked on getting more comfortable with the tempo and timing of a choir as opposed to a string band! David used to sing in church choirs years ago but his vocal skills have gotten rusty so he was consequently hoarse more than a few times after rehearsing with me!) But, when the time came on Sunday, I played the piece well and the choir was magical in their rendition. The church sanctuary is amazing and I most definitely fell in love with the incredible pipe organ that I have heard so much about over the years! The picture at the top of this post shows just how small I felt performing this piece in this amazing space!

Close-up view of me playing Christmas Lullaby with the Choir.

Before the concert; the bell choir is practicing. I'd never heard or seen a bell choir so this was fascinating to me. Note the amazing pipe organ in front. When it was played, the sound was amazing.

Setting up before the program. I am not nervous yet!

My thanks to Rev. Jared Wilson, all of the members of the Chancel Choir and the folks of the Madison Street Methodist Church for allowing me this amazing opportunity and making me feel welcome in their day of music.

Performance at Downtown Artist's Coop, Thursday, Dec 3rd

2009-12-04T12:44:00.000-08:00

Last night, 6 of us in Red River Breeze played for the Downtown Artist's Co-op, http://www.clarksvilleartists.net/, at 96 Franklin Street. This was their 9th annual Arts and Crafts Bazaar held every December and this was the third year we were asked to perform for them. We always enjoy participating in this event and this year the turnout was terrific and coincidently, this was the first real opportunity we have had to debut our new CD and we sold 15 of them! Off to a good start! Members in the band that participated were Steve, David M, Dixie, Melanie, Byron and me (Stephanie) and we were able to play Christmas music for the first time this season. We remain pretty busy the remainder of this week through Sunday - with our normal gig at The Looking Glass tonight, and two gigs on Sunday evening. We should be really good at playing Christmas music by the time we are through Sunday night!

This photograph was taken by Susan Bryant of the Downtown Artist's Coop last year but this is basically what we looked like and where we played this year with two exceptions - David E. couldn't make it this year - he had a nasty cold; and Byron was given the honor of playing in the storefront window to lure folks into the building - definitely a job he enjoyed doing....! Too bad we didn't get a picture of that!

Our thanks to Susan and the folks at the Downtown Artist's Coop for allowing us to share in this holiday event with them again!

The New CD!

2009-11-30T14:32:00.001-08:00

We have begun production of the CD and we have them to sell! I will be updating the Red River Breeze website when I get a chance - but it may be past the Christmas season rush - to sell the CD online as we do for our 1st CD, so if you want to order one now, send me an email at steph@stepper@aol.com with a check to me (Stephanie Taylor) for $17.00 ($15.00 plus $2.00 SH) and I will mail you one. Or, check out our schedule and come see us live, we'll have them to sell there too - just $15.00 at a show!

Mixing the CD, in Chicago - November 13 - 15

2009-11-30T13:52:00.000-08:00

David M. and I (Stephanie) traveled to Chicago, spending 3 days in Greg Magers' studio (The Attic) listening to all of the individual instrument tracks for the CD, and making decisions on mixing everything so that it all of tune tracks sound balanced and amazing. What an experience...! This process has to be as difficult as the "in the studio and recording into a microphone" process. I can honestly say that I have listened to each track at least a thousand times. Many, many subtle adjustments later - and lively debate at times between Greg and I on whether we needed more of this instrument or less.... and he was spot on so many times.... even though it is my band and my arrangements - fresh ears provide fresh insight - and we have a master CD and we're beginning production!

Here are some photos of The Attic, Greg's studio (and this was my first visit to Chicago - this is the largest city I have EVER seen - I suppose this means I have led a bit of sheltered life). We spent just about every available moment in the studio and it began to feel a bit like home.... as I mentioned, this was quite the process!

Greg at his post - note the multi-lined digital rendition of a tune on his screen. Greg is amazing to watch at work adjusting and fine-tuning the mix.

Towards the end of the process, it was time to finalize the order of the tracks as they appear on the CD. The white board helped a lot as I worked to order the tunes in the most pleasing way possible.

Here I am - at the console - listening to the final product yet one more time to make sure it is the way I want it to sound.

Maddux - the cutest Studio mascot in the world. He is Greg's Maltipoo and a more lovable, cuddly creature there isn't. His main goal all day, every day, was to find an available lap to crawl into and go to sleep on.

So, the CD is done (yes!) and we have begun prodution of them. I will be updating the website very soon to provide a means to purchase them online. Before that happens (it is the Christmas season and we suddenly have several gigs in the next week.. so we are a tad busy), if you want a CD, drop me an email and I'll send you one. The cost for this one is $15.00 plus $2.00 for shipping and handling. My email address is steph2stepper@aol.com.

In the Studio - Recording CD#2!

2009-10-28T17:48:00.000-07:00

What an amazing experience! The band spent all day last Friday and Saturday at the 16 Ton Studio in Nashville to record our 2nd CD after a month of rehearsals and countless setlist changes and re-arrangements of tunes. Getting to record in Nashville in a full scale studio was an experience many of us have never had and it was truly a fun education for all of us. The studio engineer, Michael Esser, and his assistant, Ryan Waniata, were very helpful and great fun also. Greg Magers, David's son and recording guru with his own studio in Chicago, flew into Clarksville Thursday night to spend the weekend with us and lend his considerable expertise to this project. Pictured in front of the building (we look happy because this picture was taken AFTER we were done on Saturday!) from left to right are: Steve, David M, me (Stephanie), Dixie, David E, Melanie, Sarah, Byron, and Greg.

This is the "lobby" area of the studio. We are so big that half of the band was set up in this room as far apart from each other as possible and the entrance door was locked during the recording sessions. The rest of the band was located individually in the smaller recording rooms in the building. This meant that for the first time ever we couldn't see everyone when we played. Amazingly, we did just fine even though we were all separated from each other, some considerably more than others!

This device was at each of our "stations". With headsets on, we could dial-up exactly what mix of instruments we wanted/needed. This box definitely became our best buddy because even though we couldn't see everyone, we could definitely hear who we needed to most.

Byron is in the control room looking over the very complex looking recording console. I believe this piece of equipment is considered one-of-a-kind for its type!

While I look upset and/or frustrated, I'm really not. I was taking the opportunity to sit down for a moment as I was listening to the play-back of the track we just recorded to see if we needed to do it over or if (please!) we'd nailed it and could move on!

Melanie was definitely the most unflappable of the group. I don't think she EVER hit a wrong note!

David E in action. It is sometimes difficult to hear David on the mandolin in live performances (we usually perform un-amplified and when everyone is playing, it's easy to drown the mandolin out) but you will be able to hear him on the CD! He looks intense because he was really concentrating...!

I was in the lobby area on Friday but was relocated to my own soundproof room on Saturday. The dulcimer has a big sound and lots of harmonics and since we were doing well not being able to see each other, the expert engineers decided it was better to separate me so I wouldn't bleed into the other's mics!

Break time and we hung out in the control room so we could hear the tracks again and watch Greg at work. Now that we've recorded everything for the CD, the mixing of the tracks is in process but from what I've heard so far, I think we are going to have a CD we are all proud of. This was an intense two days but was definitely an experience none of us are going to forget. I am very proud of the band. We did great and had a wonderful time doing it. Look for the CD to be out soon - possibly by the end of November!

Red River Breeze Plays at "Sounds, Cinema and More" in Russellville, KY

2009-10-05T12:46:00.001-07:00

Russellville, Kentucky is a wonderful little town about 45 minutes north-east of Clarksville, Tennessee. Red River Breeze has been honored to play for Russellville's spring festival for the past two years and we traveled to Russellville this past Saturday to play for their 1st "Sounds, Cinema, and More" event at the 4th Street Theatre. The theatre is a 1950's building that is in the process of being renovated to be used as a multi-purpose arts building and this event was held to help raise more money for the renovation. Because the theatre area is not yet habitable, the event was held outside with music by us from 6:00 to 7:00 pm and the screening of a movie starting at 7:15 pm. Six of the eight members of the band attended: Byron, David M., me (Stephanie), Steve, Sarah and Dixie. It is always a pleasure to play for the wonderful folks in Russellville...they were as usual a terrific audience... but we found out that daylight is gone this time of the year at about 6:45 pm! Next time, we'll remember stand lights - and I discovered I really can play the hammered dulcimer pretty much with my eyes closed!

Too bad all eight of us weren't at this event and made it into this picture - it could have been our CD cover! Thanks to Darelene Gooch, the Mainstreet Russellville director, for volunteering to take our picture on David's (intimidating) camera AND for doing such a great job of it minutes before introducing us to begin playing. The casual wall leaning bunch of Steve, Sarah and Dixie is because it was beginning to get chilly at 6 pm and the wall still held quite a bit of heat from the day's absorbtion of sunlight - it must have felt pretty good... I don't think Steve ever got off the wall during the hour he played his bass!

We are working on our 2nd CD!

2009-10-02T14:56:00.000-07:00

OK.... The date is set.... We are going to go into the studio Friday and Saturday October 23rd and 24th and (with luck and lots of rehearsals) we hope to have our next CD ready soon! We have been selling our 1st CD for 2 1/2 years now - and folks that hear us continue to want to purchase it which is very encouraging for us. But, many of those that have bought the 1st CD are eager (also encouraging) to get more tunes from us. The 1st CD was recorded with 6 of the current members so I am anxious to have a CD that represents who we are and what we sound like today. So.... the date is set, we are rehearsing, the set list for the CD is shaping up and the arrangements/instrumentation is coming today. No... we're not nervous! This project will be accomplished somewhat differently from the 1st CD so stay tuned as we chronicle the progress. And I will absolutely let you know when this second CD is ready for purchase.

Christmas in August

2009-08-25T08:46:00.000-07:00

Last night was probably one of the more unusual gigs we've been asked to do in awhile. The First Baptist Church on Madison Street had a thank-you dinner for members of their choir and (I believe) orchestra and we were the last minute (they called us to set this up only a week ago) surprise program for a 30 minute concert after the dinner. The kicker was that we were asked to play Christmas music to get them in the spirit to start working on their Christmas music! Those near and dear to me know that Christmas music is not a favorite of mine - at least not on the hammered dulcimer. Because playing hammered dulcimer means I have to memorize everything (the rest of the band can use sheet music...), along with the fact that the Christmas season to play this music is relatively short AND Christmas music just begs for more than just a melody on the hammered dulcimer, I struggle every year to get enthusiastic about re-learning and re-arranging our repetoire of approximately 50 Christmas pieces. So being asked - on really short notice in August - to do 30 minutes of Christmas music (which actually translates to 17 Christmas tunes in nine sets) - made things a bit challenging, to say the least. Five of the eight of us (Byron, Dixie, Steve, David M, and me) where able to participate - and we accomplished this without a single group rehearsal. All in all - it went very well (and I hope my brain-dead moments weren't too obvious). We even got a standing ovation - and this from fellow musicians - and sold every one of the stack of CDs I had brought! The folks at the First Baptist Church were very warm and loving and I would like to says thanks for making us feel so welcome and for enjoying our music! Hmmm.... since we've started this... maybe we should consider recording this for a CD. I do keep threatening to do a Christmas CD!

Almost Struck by Lightning!

2009-07-15T12:24:00.000-07:00

Three members of Red River Breeze (Stephanie Taylor on hammered dulcimer, Byron Dumas on fiddle, and David Magers on guitar) played for the Homeplace at Land Between the Lakes on July 4th. We were a small group - it is a busy weekend and most of the group had other family things to do... but we were having a great time of it as a trio... until the sky got really dark and ominous. Folks in the audience were taking flash photos, and I remember one particulary bright flash which I assumed was from a camera... however... several seconds later Mother Nature drowned us out with a tremendous clap of thunder. It definitely scared me (you can hear me scream!) and the music... stopped.... The guys seemed to be fairly unfazed and used the opportunity to show their "funny" side. The video of this event was amazingly taken by my daughter and band web master (Tiffany Allemand) who wanted to get a video for the web site. I don't think this is exactly what she was hoping for! But, I'm truly grateful she did not end up with a video of us actually getting hit by lightning...and that goes for her and the grandbabies as well as the rest of the audience...!

The remainder of our set was played on the porch of the Homeplace dog-trot house in the midst of a terrific deluge raging outside. It was close, hot, crowded, but allowed us to be able to share the music much more personally with the folks who stuck it out and listened to the rest of our set!

First Blog for Red River Breeze

2009-07-15T12:03:00.000-07:00

Hi! This is Stephanie - the "leader" of the group called Red River Breeze based in Clarksville, TN. We are a Celtic/ Old-Time/ Renaissance String Band (mostly) that plays traditional music on a variety of instruments including hammered dulcimer, penny whistle, recorders, fiddle, mandolin, guitar and string bass. You can see more about the band and hear snippets of tunes off of our (so far) one and only CD, "Friday Night Favorites," at our website: http://www.redriverbreeze.com/.

My hope with this blog is to share the happenings and stories of the band as we play at our standing Friday night gig at The Looking Glass in Clarksville, TN as well as the other interesting and fun places we are asked to play at throughout the year in the area around Clarksville, TN as well as up into Kentucky. Other events - such as trying to produce our next CD - will be chronicled as well. In this way, I hope we can keep our fans and followers up-to-date on what we are doing and the great stories we acquire in the process. I think that the next post will be the story of the "lightning strike"... Stay tuned!