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| Heading out on the early ferry on a fall morning. |
Hello dear friends,
Although hurricane Sandy is barreling along our direction, the weather has been absolutely stunning these past two weeks. Fiddler Dave neatened up the garden and put in the fall greens (lettuces, kale, spinach, garlic), Gary can see the cormorants making their daily flights to fishing grounds from his soundside home, Marcy has been focusing her creativity on her book, Louie has been whipping the Ocracoke Jazzcasters into shape, and Gerald Hampton has been catching up with his instrument repair projects when not driving back and forth to Ocracoke for performances (and to check up on grandbaby Issac). This weekend, Molasses Creek
will appear on Saturday, October 27 at an event at the Swan Quarter Courthouse from 12-1 PM, at 8 PM at the
RA Fountain General Store in
Fountain, NC, and then at 3 PM on Sunday, Oct 28 at a community concert series at
Music at St Alban’s Church in Davidson, NC.
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| A baby peeper frog perched on a potato plant. |
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| It's a small garden, but it's home! |
Here's What Has Been Happening . . .
On September 14, Molasses Creek traveled to play for the Wilson Council
of the Arts in Wilson, NC. The performance was held downtown at the
Edna Boykin Cultural Arts Center. What an incredible space! The
community of Wilson has obviously put a lot of love into restoring the
old vaudeville theatre (originally built in 1919). Thanks so much to
all the friendly folks who helped to put on the show. We had a great
time!
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| Would you let her in? I don't know if I would . . . |
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| Louie discovered that they moved the Hatteras Lighthouse to Wilson! |
The rest of September we spent focused on Ocracoke Island activities and zipping off to play private events in the Raleigh area and up the beach. October 10th, we took a mini-tour up to Richmond area to play the Ashland Coffee & Tea, and then over to Easton, MD on the eastern shore for some residencies and concerts with the Avalon Theatre.
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| Gerald takes a hot break! |
At the Ashland concert we were beset by pirates!
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| Thanks
to Suzanne Keller for the photos and for engineering the best ever
concert attire in the history of Molasses Creek. Wow! Did we ever feel
at home . . . |
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| Fiddler Dave had to try on a swashbuckling hat. |
After an evening stop over with our dear friends, Ed & Lynda Leslie, we snaked up around DC and over the bridge to the eastern shore of Maryland where we spent Thursday afternoon at school residencies for 2nd graders at St. Michaels and Tilghman Island. Friday morning we performed for our biggest ever 2nd grade audience (300-400 at the Avalon Theatre in Easton), and then in the afternoon we snuck in one more residence performance (hunting down mighty fine homegrown ice cream at the Scottish Highland Creamery in Oxford, MD) and finished out the day with an evening concert at Avalon's Stoltz Listening Room. Easton is a beautiful town filled with wonderful restaurants, galleries, coffee shops, and a phenomenal farmer's market. Hunt this town down!
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| Schooners, in Oxford, MD (home of the Scottish Highland Creamery) |
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| Not to be missed! This ice cream was awesome! |
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Avalon Theatre in Easton, MD
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Also performing on Friday evening at the Avalon was Mike Foley, WWE wrestling star. We caught an aftershow photo with with him down in the lobby.
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| Notice the authentic glowing eyes of fury! |
We arrived back home on Saturday night, just in time to dive into Ocracoke Alive's
Ocrafolk School on Sunday. Gary is the director of the school, Marcy an secretary, and Fiddler Dave the assistant for the Cooking Class. We spent a wonderful week with Ocracoke historians, wood carvers, healing arts specialists, musicians, and chefs. Here are a few photos.
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| Capt. Rob Temple takes the Ocrafolk School for a sail on Ocracoke Alive's new Skipjack, Wilma Lee |
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| Tom Payne with some Old Drum caught fresh from the Ocracoke Working Waterman's Seafood Store! |
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| John Ivey cleans it. |
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| And instructs us on how to turn it into Old Drum Dinner and Fish cakes |
In the carving class, Frank Boyd instructed John Golden in the carving of a dancing man. John crafted a mini "Philip Howard" for Philip to demonstrate at the end of the week. Philip is an island historian, Fiddler Dave's father-in-law, and a storyteller/performer at the Ocrafolk Opry. Excellent work, John!
Finally, this last weekend Molasses Creek traveled up to Nags head to perform at the first annual Outer Banks Seafood Festival. The event featured locally caught seafood, served by a multitude of local restaurants, as well as performances by Outer Banks bands.
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| Lou and Dave warm up on the Hatteras Ferry. |
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| About 8000 folks came out! (Photo by Joann Hummers) |
That's all for this blog! Hope to see you folks on the road or on Ocracoke if you are headed this way!
Gary, Fiddler Dave, Marcy, Lou & Gerald.
Your Molasses Creek crew.
Molasses Creek's Fall Touring Schedule in a Nutshell
Saturday, Nov 3, 7:30 ~ Hersey Area Playhouse, Hershey, PA
Sunday, Nov 4, 8:00 PM ~ Baldwin Station, Sykesville, MD
Monday, December 31 ~ First Night Williamsburg, Williamsburg, VA
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 ***
