New CD "Catharsis" and a new website to match!

We have liftoff! Molasses Creek's Catharsis CD is in orbit . . .new MC website is up and running!

We gave our tour sponsors a special sneak peak of the new Molasses Creek album at the beginning of June . . . and now the new release , Catharsis, is available for online purchase at our brand new Molasses Creek website. Go to www.molassescreek.com and click on the cover of the new album on the home page, and you will be taken to the Catharsis page where you can hear audio samples from the new release and read more about it. The whole gang is really excited about this recording. Hope that you can’t wait to get your hands on it too! We also wanted to let you know that all through July we will have weekly drawings from our Newsletter e-list and Facebook Likes list for the new CD. Sign on up and you could be a winner!

Deepwater Theater Opens for the Season on Ocracoke Island


Molasses Creek opened up the season at our Deepwater Theater the first week of June. This year on Monday nights, Amy & Philip Howard (with Fiddler Dave) host an evening of Ocracoke Stories, Wednesday nights feature island musicians and storytellers at the Ocrafolk Opry, and Thursday Molasses Creek takes to the stage for an all new 2011 showcase. Tickets are available for shows at the door or online a www.deepwatertheater.com. Door opens at 7:30 PM for evening shows, and performances begin at 8:00 PM. For more details and pricing visit the Deepwater Theater website.

Also this year, we have special guests on Tuesday afternoons at 3:00 PM from up the Outer Banks . . .the NC Marionette Theatre has been traveling our way to do an adaptation of Tom Ben and the Pirate Blackbeard. Their impressive production includes a wonderful soundtrack, beautiful scene changes, and actual firing cannons!

Plans Underway for Molasses Creek Fall and Spring Tour

Molasses Creek will be heading north in October to give a performance at the Carroll County Arts Council in Westminster, MD at 7:30 PM on Saturday , October 15. We are looking to add a few more dates on this mini-tour, so if you have any requests or suggestions, please let us know!

Also, in April/May of 2012 we will be doing another Northeast tour, traveling up to Saratoga Springs to play on Saturday, April 28 at the renown Cafe Lena . . . one of the oldest and most revered concert coffeehouses in the United States. "It is an internationally renowned cultural center and an American treasure. Opened in 1960, the café has helped to launch many of America's best loved songwriters, including Bob Dylan, Arlo Guthrie, Ani DiFranco and many more." In the weeks surrounding this performance we are playing to be touring through Vermont, Boston area, and Washington DC. Don't hesitate to contact us if you have concert suggestion near your home!

Island Life ~ Ants in the Garden, Ants in the Kitchen, Ants at Suppertime!
by Fiddler Dave



Ants, ants everywhere. Visitors to Ocracoke Island often contact their rental agency about the presence of ants in their rental house. This time of year, the small little critters invade our houses searching diligently for any little scrap of food to take back to the nest. Unscrew your honey jar, and . . .what? How did it get in there?! Even the cleanest of homes can have lines of these little visitors honing their survival skills in little caravans up the walls, out of the electric sockets, investigating the fruit bowl. You have to admire their tenacity and resilience. They also don’t seem to be slowed much by ant poison . . . and if you don’t like to spray poisons around your house . . . you just try the best you can to keep food out of their way.

In other ant news, I was out in my little garden today squishing aphids (placed and milked by ants no doubt). They mainly inhabit my tomato plants . . . this year I have a few cherries, better-boys, a Mr. Stripey, as well as some peppers, purple and green basil, watermelon, and a very happy fig tree in the corner which will probably take over the entire garden in a couple of years.

Here on the island, good soil is hard to find. Although I augment mine with some local horse manure and fish carcasses from the Working Waterman’s Association Fish House, to start things out I ordered a dump truck load of cotton compost from Swan Quarter. Although I’m not thrilled about what farmers spray on cotton, after a couple years of composting . . . I hope most of the sprays have broken down, and the plants are sure happy with the soil. My garden is a two foot high raised bed about 20x15, so maximizing growing in the small space is really important. I just installed a drip irrigation system to be most efficient with watering in the summertime. I'll let ya know how things turn out!