Recording Generations!

Recording Generations was a year long adventure for us!  Once we as a group had decided on what tune sets we wanted to put on this album and had several rehearsals to work out arrangements and such, David and I (Stephanie), made several Saturday trips to the studio (The Attic) in Nashville in August and September of last year (2023) to lay down the hammered dulcimer and guitar tracks.  The Attic studio is our recording engineer's (Greg Magers) studio.  Greg has recorded every album since Morgan Song for us - which all the albums we are still offering for sale. (The first album, Friday Night Favorites, which was recorded in the band's very early days and was rather primitive, is no longer for sale!)  

Over the year, we went into the studio in groups of 2 to record everyone's individual tracks, and playing along with what what was already recorded y hearing in headphones. The next two to record after Stephanie and David were Melanie and Michaela,followed by Toby, Nate (unfortunately no pictures exist of Nate - Sorry!), and Kim for the bonus track, Gloomy Winter.  

Greg edited and mixed as we progressed and as he always does, provided great recommendations on tweaks and mixes!   We do call him our invisible 7th member!

Then off for mastering, album cover photos by David, album design by Stephanie, and submitted to diskmakers for production.  Whew - the album arrived early December, just in time for our December gigs!

This is the first album that Toby, Michaela, and Nate are on.  And they absolutely rocked their recording sessions.   This is an album that we are all super proud of!

David, recording in the isolation room

The dulcimer, ready to record!

Melanie, recording in the isolation room

Michaela, recording in the big room

The session with Melanie and Michaela

Kim, recording in the isolation room

Toby, recording in the isolation room

Stephanie and Toby recording in the big room

It's time to resurrect the Red River Breeze blog!

 It's a bit embarrassing - but I haven't posted to the Red River Breeze blog since (gulp) 2012.   But a new year is almost upon us, the band is the most amazing it's ever been, and we just released our newest album, Generations.   I am also volunteering Michaela Allemand, my amazing whistle and flute player, to help make this blog something folks want to read.  So stay tuned!

As mentioned, our new album has just arrived from the manufacturer!  We will have them available at our gigs throughout this month of December and we will announce an official release concert early next year.

The band website is being totally overhauled as I write this and there will be more information here and in the website on how to purchase physical copies as well as streaming opportunities coming soon. This is the bands 6th album since it began in 1999 and we have 5 available for sale.   This newest album reflects who who are today and we are so very proud of how it turned out.   The title reflects the fact that we are a band of six musicians that span the entirety of the living generations in ages!  And yet, we are more than a band, we are a "family" as we care deeply for each other.   I honestly believe that sense of family and community can be heard in our music.  Everyone is not only an amazing musician, but we all care for each other as well and we are committed to the music we make. 

More to come.   So check back often!

How to play a "Honky Tonk" Dulcimer....!

It's summer.  And what a summer it has already turned out to be!  After an unseasonably warm winter in beautiful middle Tennessee, and a very dry spring, we are now experiencing VERY hot temps and a bona fide drought.   But summer means outside gigs.  Lots of them for this local Celtic string band!  Festivals, Civil War re-enactments, 1850's Homeplace events at Land Between the Lake events, and oh yes.... Outdoor Weddings!   Under the most usual of summer temperatures and humidity, playing a stringed wooden box - and this wooden box has 68 strings for the "outdoor" version and 91 strings on my bigger "indoor" version - it can be challenging at best trying to keep it in some semblance of "in tune" for outside gigs.   Add extreme temperatures and it gets impossible. 

So, can we say "honky tonk" dulcimer?!  You know what I mean when I say "honky tonk piano".... Think old western movies and a very out of tune saloon piano and a ham-fisted player banging an old-time tune out on it....  now think of that sound on my dulcimer!  For those who know me well, you know that I am pretty picky about at least making sure my dulcimer starts out in tune, and hopefully stays in tune with itself during the course of playing for an outside gig.  After all - my band also consists of two fiddle players (Melanie and Byron) and fiddles have four strings each - simple to retune to a hammered dulcimer that might be going flat or sharp - and a guitar player (David) with 6 strings - ditto on the retuning.  So we make every attempt to at least stay in tune with each other when playing outside in warm summer events (and the occasional cold winter event).

So, now for a quick physics lesson.... Who knew playing a very old (2000+ years) traditional instrument would require more than percussion skills, chord theory, musicality and a phenomanal ability to memorize hundreds of tradtional tunes.  It takes physics also!  Here's the issue....   Temperature AND humidity become a hammered dulcimer player's best friends AND enemies.  And adjusting for both can be very interesting.   Wood expands when humidity increases as it absorbs more moisture from the air.  This expansion causes the strings to tighten on the instrument - which causes the pitch of the strings to rise.  This tends to be a small consistent expansion so at least the instrument goes out of tune (or sharp) consistently - and stays in tune with itself.  Temperature - especially extremes (inside 72 degree house moving to outside 104 degree day) causes metal to expand, which means the strings are looser on a wooden box that may also be expanding from increasing humidity.  So looser strings means lower pitch - except the strings are different gauges, so they expand at different rates unlike the fairly consistent and slower rate of expansion to the wood in the humidity change..... And suddenly the dulcimer is going flat but NOT consistently with itself and thus we have... "Honky Tonk" Dulcimer!   Yikes.

To all of Red River Breeze's loyal fans and appreciative listeners at the outdoor gigs we have played for this HOT summer, I am extremely grateful for the nice comments you have made about our music.  Thanks for not commenting about the really "out of tune" dulcimer!  Honestly... I have tried to keep it in tune...! But 100+ degrees is as hard on hammered dulcimers as it is for the hammered dulcimer player trying to play in this extreme heat!   And for my band mates (who only have 4 or 6 strings to contend with), my appreciation also for not making faces that the audience can see when I hit THAT string that has gone really south in the 30 minutes since we started the set! 

As I write this, the heat wave has finally broken (although it is only July - August is still to come) and it is mercifully raining - a long, slow, steady, soaking rain.  Here's to getting to play melodic (in tune) hammered dulcimer tunes the next time you hear us play outside! 

-Stephanie Taylor

The CD is here! And we are having a release party!

We finally did it!  The CD is finished and we have them in our hands!   Unlike the first two, we are not actually manufacturing this album but rather we had the CD manufactured by a real-life production company.   But, I (Stephanie) still designed the album art work (in Corel Draw - a totally new sotware package... who knew I was a wannabe graphics designer!).  And as we did with the last CD, "Morgan's Song", the photography is all David's!  The good news is, we are out of the CD production business for this album!  They are all made and ready to be shared with you!

So there was some amount of stress involved in wondering if the CD would look as good as we hoped....  It looks better than we ever dreamed!

Each recording has been a learning experience for us and this was no different.  But as pleased as we are with "Morgan's Song", we feel this CD - "The Wren at the "Window" - is even better!  With this CD, we added more instruments in several tunes that the four of us could play simultaneously!  For instance, Stephanie plays penny whistle and hammered dulcimer on several tracks, David plays guitar and djembe (African drum) on nearly all of the tracks, AND we invited a guest artist, Graham Burris, from Chicago, to play upright bass on all of the tracks.  This allowed us to be even more creative than we are in a live performance and to express our love for this music in many more flavors!  Recording, mmixing and mastering, replicating and designing an album like this is a true labor of love (and time) but now that it has arrived, we are certainly glad we went through the process again.  We hope you enjoy it as much as we did in making it!

To celebrate this CD, we are going to hold our first ever release party at The Looking Glass on March 8th from 6:00 pm until 8:00 pm or later!  We really hope all of our fans - the reason we play our music - can come out and celebreate this with us.   We will play tracks from the CD, mingle and sign CDs at your request, and just have a wonderful time with you.   It is a good idea to call the Looking Glas (931-552-6344) to reserve a table and that would help us plan for how many folks attend.  We hope to see you there!

After the recording, what happens next?

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

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!

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!

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?

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!

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!

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!

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!

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

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!

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

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

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...

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....

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

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!