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| Molasses Creek with Fiddler Dave's parents at Opsail 2012, VA |
Hi friends! It has been a very busy summer so far. We're catching up on our news in this letter. Before we tell ya what has been happening, here are our upcoming performances off of Ocracoke Island, NC.
Upcoming performances
Sunday, Oct 28, 3:00 PM ~ Davidson Community Concert Series, Davidson, NC
If you are interested in helping to promote any shows in your region, please visit our Street Team page at
http://www.molassescreek.com/streetteam.cfm. We'll send you at least 10 posters to put up and the new album as a thank you!
***If you are traveling to Ocracoke Island, NC June-Sept, Molasses Creek performs every Thursday night at their own
Deepwater Theater ***
Here's what's been happening!
On Wednesday, May 9 we traveled to Takoma Park, MD for a
concert with the
Institute of Musical Traditions.
While in town we crossed paths with Charlie Pilzer and he
took us over for a late-night tour of his
Airshow Mastering studio.
Gary was in sound dreamland eyeing some
awfully nice mikes and equipment, as well as Charlie’s world famous highly
tuned ears.
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| Charlie Pilzer gives Molasses Creek a tour of the Air Show's toys. |
The next morning we high-tailed it Black Mountain, NC to
perform at the
Lake Eden Arts Festival (LEAF).
What an incredible gathering, nestled in the mountains
around at lake at the historic site of the Black Mountain College!
Thousands of campers spread
across the valley and up the side of the mountain.
The performers and festival goers lovingly shared a weekend
of creative world music, locally grown food, contra-dancing, family activities,
healing arts, and some wild n’crazy activities like trapezing, and riding
ziplines down the side of the mountain into a frosty/misty lake.
Many thanks to Billy Jack and all of the
workers and volunteers for hosting us!
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| Canadian Stiltwalkers |
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| Preservation Hall Jazz Band |
On Sunday, May 13, we left the LEAF festival and traveled to
the Unitarian Church of Asheville for a concert with the
Mountain Spirit Coffeehouse.
This long-running
series, captained by Don and Louise Baker, is held in one of the most beautiful
sanctuaries that we have every played.
The main room of the church has perfect acoustics and reminded us more
of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre rather than a conventional religious meeting
house. The enthusiastic audience joined in with clapping hands and voices on old
favorites.
What a great
community.
Thank you!
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| We're always on the lookout for regional food specialties . . . but this was something new. . . |
Next we traveled down to Hendersonville, NC for a concert at
the
Blue Ridge Community College Music by the Lake Series on Tuesday.
Our concert was supposed to be outdoors around the
college lake, but a stormy afternoon and evening caused us to move the event
indoors.
Loved playing for folks
in the area and visiting with our host and friend at the college, Martha Howell.
We spent a couple of days in Hendersonville staying with our
friends, Frank and Ethlyn Byrd, and seeing the sights.
Nearby is the
Pisgah National Forest, where the
recent adaptation of Suzanne Collin’s great book,
The Hunger Games, was filmed.
We went on a couple of hikes and ate a
wonderful lunch from the lookout atop the Blue Ridge Parkway at the
Pisgah Inn.
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| Gary makes the ultimate sacrifice for the band vehicle. |
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| Montreat Conference Center, NC |
We spent the weekend catching up with
old friends, participating in workshops, and enjoying the inspiring talents of
new musicians.
Gary taught a
workshop on small PA usage for performers, and the band also joined radio
promoter,
Kari Estrin, to talk about the process of promoting our new release,
“
An Island Out of Time.”
Although we enjoyed the time in the mountains, after a month
on the road we were definitely eager to return to Ocracoke Island to prepare
for the impending
Ocrafolk Festival.
Fiddler Dave is the general director and Gary Mitchell the entertainment
director .
. . and Marcy and Lou
are no slackers either when it comes to the grit of festival production. With
only two weeks to go there was a lot of work to finish!
Before we knew it, June 1st had arrived
and with it, the Festival and the seasonal opening of the shows at our own
Deepwater Theater.
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| Ocrafolk Festival crowd |
The weekend after the festival, we were excited to be able
to join Bob Zentz at the
Opsail 2012, Virginia.
This celebration features some of the largest sailing
vessels from countries around the world.
The ones that caught our attention the most were the wonderfully
smelling Mexican ship, the Cuauhtemoc, (they were making tortillas on a flattop
in the galley), and the Indonesian vessel,
Dewaruci, which featured specially
carved masts represented different regions of the Indonesian islands.
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| Bring on the Tall Ships at Norfolk's Opsail 2012! |
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| Indonesian Dewaruci |
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| Ornaments on masts of the Dewaruci |
Molasses
Creek also enjoyed crossing paths with Michael Rondstadt and his sons for a
performance by
Rondstadt Generations.
We hosted them down on Ocracoke about three years ago.
They're still making great music!
While in town, Bob Zentz and Jean McDougal took us to a Norfolk hometown favorite,
Doumars Cones and Barbecue. The classic ice cream parlor was established in 1934 by Albert Doumar.
Albert's uncle, Abe, introduced the waffle cone to the US at the 1904 St Louis Exposition. Bob Zentz has been going there since he was a boy. Doumars has quite a collection of year books from the local high school. We were able to find Bob Zentz's high school picture (Bob's mom's yearbook was somewhere around as well, but we couldn't locate it).
Thanks to Bob and Jean for the hard work and great tunes!
Back on Ocracoke,
Deepwater Theater shows were up and
running with Monday nights featuring You Ain't Heard Nothin' Yet (Ocracoke stories with Philip and Amy
Howard - Fiddler Dave’s wife), Wednesdays' Ocrafolk Opry show sporting the talents of island
musicians and storytellers, and Thursday being the home night for
Molasses Creek (sold out shows so far this season!)
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| Marcy and Lou sweatin' it up at the Croakerfest in Oriental, NC |
We
zipped over to play for the
Pamlico Music Society at the
Croaker Festival in
Oriental, NC on Saturday, July 7.
Whew!
That was one of the
hottest we have played.
Many
thanks Debra Khouri and to the fans that packed our tent and hung on for a two
hour sweat-a-thon!
What a bonding
experience!
We thought about
opening a Weight Loss Concert Series after that one.
Always a thrill to play in Oriental.
Such a sweet place and great folks to
go with it!
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| Floydfest Sculture |
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| Always good to stay connected with your friends at a big festival. |
Our
most recent touring excitement was a trip to play at
FloydFest near Floyd, VA.
This huge event is just off the Blue Ridge Parkway and features a lot of big
names from all over the country.
We
performed two sets a day Thursday-Sunday and enjoyed some of the best
hospitality anywhere.
The thrill
of seeing some of our heroes like
Alison Krauss and Union Station,
Ricky Skaggs,
Sam Bush, Chris Thile and the
Punch Brothers,
Darryl Scott,
Bruce Hornsby, and
Jackson Browne, combined with the thrill of seeing some
new/unknown acts from farther afield.
The spirit of the campers, performers, volunteers, and beautiful weather
culminated in a magic weekend.
Thanks to Kris Hodges, the hard working crew at Across-the-Way
Productions, and all of the dedicated helpers for making a incredible weekend! Also many thanks to Marcy's friend Bernd for hosting all of us over the weekend! Fabuloso!
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| Mainstage at Floydfest |
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| Sara and Sean Watkins |
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| Holler Stage at Floydfest |
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| Gerald with Ricky Skaggs holding Gerald's mandolin (used to be Ricky's mandolin!) |
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| Chris Thile and the Punch Brothers at Floydfest |
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| Sam Bush band at Floydfest |
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| MarchFourth Stiltwalker |
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| MarchFourth Stiltwalker |
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| All is quiet in the back seat. What could possibly be happening?! |
Upcoming
this Sunday, we will be at one of our favorite events of the year,
Greenville Sunday Concert in the Park in Greenville, NC.
The show begins at 7 PM, and we will again be joined by hometown
favorites, the Green Grass Cloggers.
Get ready for some high steppin’ fun!
Thanks to Bob and Jean for the hard work and great tunes!
