Molasses Creek Touring North in September and October. We will see you on the road!

Hey there folks,

Shows are wrapping up this month on Ocracoke.  If you are heading towards the NC Outer Banks, hope that you can see us at Deepwater Theater.  Otherwise, catch us at one of our upcoming concerts in NC, PA, MD or VA.

 Coming up this immediate weekend, Gary and Fiddler Dave grace the stage of the Heartworks Haborfestival, Saturday, Sept 19 at noon at the River Dunes in Oriental, NC.  The Heartworks organization is a non-profit that provides programming for underserved Pamlico County youth and families. We are excited to be a part of this new fundraiser for this great cause. Come show your support!

On Sept 26, we look forward to a return to the lovely land of chocolate at the Hershey Area Playhouse in Hershey PA.  Hmm-good! This will be our third appearance at this beautiful theater.  We encourage everyone to reserve their tickets early as this show usually sells out.  Today, just happens to be his birthday . . . here is a link to CBS.com article on the candymaker who changed the world. Hope to see you there!

On October 1, we continue our fall tour to the Eastern shore of MD, to the quaint town of Easton and the Stoltz Listening Room at the Avalon Foundation. The Avalon enriches the lives of over 100,000 people each year through nearly 300 events, performances, educational programming and celebrations throughout the year. They also run the local Farmer’s Market in town on Wednesdays and Saturdays (Not to be missed for fabulous baked goods and local produce.)

October 2, Molasses Creek will be in concert at the Carroll County Arts Council. Westminster, MD is the home of Common Ground on the Hill festival, so there are always lots of great folk musicians traveling through.  This Arts Council definitely has its finger on the creative pulse of the region, and always has great performances and arts shows (Backstage it is fun for us to read performer signatures on the walls of the greenroom!)

October 3^rd, we return to one of our favorite haunts in eastern Virginia, the Ashland Coffee and Tea, in Ashland, VA.  If you haven’t taken in a concert at this intimate listening room, do stop in.  We love getting to know our audiences there . . . they even sometimes show up in piratical costume! Arrgg!

            By the end of September we are hoping to have the Molasses Creek “Holy Smoke” video live on our website.  This song by our friend, Tommy Edwards, is on our new release, Waterbound.  Take a listen on this page on our website. Our friends in Italy, Andrea Tani & Alex  Martan have been hard a work.  Check back if you want to see some goofiness from the crew lugging BBQ implements and singing out to the side of Hwy 12 on Ocracoke while visitor cars stream past.

Love you folks and see you soon!

Gary, Fiddler Dave, Kim, Gerald

Molasses Creek

www.molassescreek.com

Here is the schedule in a nutshell.

Saturday, September 19, 12-1 PM
Gary and Fiddler Dave of Molasses Creek Heartworks Harborfestival
River Dunes
East Harborside Road
Oriental NC 28571 
http://heartworksnc.org/

Saturday, September 26 @ 7:00 PM 
Molasses Creek at the Hershey Area Playhouse 
Hershey Area Playhouse, Hershey, PA 
http://www.hersheyareaplayhouse.com/

Thursday, October 1 @ 8:00 PM 
Molasses Creek in Concert at the Stolz Listening Room, Easton, MD 
Avalon Foundation, Stoltz Listening Room, 40 East Dover St , Easton, MD 
https://tickets.avalontheatre.com/

Friday, October 2 @ 7:30 PM 
Molasses Creek in concert with the Carroll County Arts Council 
Carroll County Arts Council, Westminster, MD 
http://www.carrollcountyartscouncil.org/attractions_artscenter_events.asp

Saturday, October 3 @ 8:00 PM 
Molasses Creek in Concert at Ashland Coffee and Tea 
Ashland Coffee & Tea, Ashland, VA 
http://ashland.shop.ticketstoday.com/calendar.aspx

Summertime is here on Ocracoke Island, in spite of Hurricane Arthur!

Hello Molasses Creek friends,

Fiddler Dave's son Lachlan, with a tree downed from Hurricane Arthur on the Back Rd of Ocracoke

Summer has arrived on Ocracoke Island and we have jumped into our weekly shows at Deepwater Theater.  On Wednesdays, Molasses Creek presents the Ocrafolk Opry and on Thursdays we feature an all Molasses Creek concert. If you are planning on coming to a show while visiting this summer, we do recommend making reservations online at our Deepwater Theater page at www.molassescreek.com/deepwater-theater, or by putting your name on the Will Call list by calling Fiddler Dave at 252-921-0260.  June shows were almost completely sold out!

We had a most unusual 4th of July this year. Hurricane Arthur roared through on Friday morning, July 4th. Unfortunately, it drove away visitors, took down some trees, and snapped the boom in half of Ocracoke Alive's Skipjack Wilma Lee tore up the mainsail. Ocracoke Alive is currently having an Indiegogo Campaign to help raise funds for repairs.  There are some great Ocracoke rewards if you want to pitch in and lend a hand. Fortunately, the damage to the rest of the village was fairly minimal with little flooding. The village chipper is making its way around the island and tourists have returned. Time to come and see what shells the storm dredged up!

Howard St on Ocracoke after the storm

This year's Ocrafolk Festival, June 6-8, was a great success and we experienced some of the most perfect weather in festival history.

Molasses Creek and the Ocrafolk Festival were featured in the June edition of Our State magazine in an article on summer festivals. Read all about it by clicking here!

   

We loved seeing all our friends from years past, including the MacDonald Sisters, Caravan of Thieves, Jef the Mime, John Golden (this list could go on quite a while), and meeting some new folks like Mipso and the South Carolina Broadcasters.

This spring Molasses Creek toured out west and also to the North. We would like to extend a heartfelt thanks to all of the presenters, hosts, and worker bees who help us along the way!  Here are some pictures from our travels.

Winfield, Kansas, home of a fabulous festival!

Fiddler Dave's hometown of Stillwater, Oklahoma, next to the famed Eskimo Joes

Conway, Arkansas, home of Toad Suck Park!

At the beautiful First Unitarian Church of Pittsburgh

With Kris Rust and students from Franklin Regional School

Hershey Area Playhouse in PA

Gerald tries on a new backstage persona under the guidance of our host and friend, Mark Cuddy

A visit to the Hershey School

Lou's quest for great tasting Ketchup is successful!

Of course, a visit to the original Martin Guitar Factory

On air with Wanda Fischer, host of WAMC's Hudson Valley Sampler out of Albany

On to New York City for a concert at the Holyrood Episcopal Church with the Hudson Cliffhangers!

Gary, Dave & Gerald visit the Cloisters, NYC

An afternoon concert and visit to the The Filomen M. D'Agostino Greenberg Music School, with director Dalia Sakas.

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Finishing out with a jam session with Neal Vorus and friends in Washington Heights.

Marcy and Gary onstage at the Tosco Music Party in Charlotte, NC

Stiltwalkers at the Lake Eden Arts Festival, Black Mountain, NC

Gary Mitchell peers out the Barn Stage window at the LEAF festival

Feasting at the lake at the LEAF Festival

Molasses Creek to appear on Woodsongs Radio Hour. Travels in the North Country.

Hello Molasses Creek friends!

 
We have some exciting news before we tell you all about our travels these past two weeks.  About a week and a half ago we confirmed with the WoodSongs Old-Time Radio hour that we would be on their upcoming show this next Monday, November 19th at 7:00 PM.  The show is out of the historic Kentucky Theater, in Lexington, KY, so it means a bit of a drive from North Carolina.  But it should be worth the trip!  We will be sharing the stage with Caravan of Thieves.  The WoodSongs Radio Hour is taped in front of a live audience and streamed immediately to the show's website.  In about two months, the show will air on almost 500 radio stations to an audience of well over 1.3 million listeners.  We're looking forward to a wonderful concert!  Here is the website to find out more.  http://www.woodsongs.com/

Molasses Creek Travels: Where were we the last two weeks?

We are just returning from 11 days on the road.  Whew!  It has been a lot of fun . . . and we did have some unexpected adventures along the way.  We caught the Swan Quarter Ferry on Thursday, November 1st, and made it as far as Roanoke Rapids, NC, when we decided to check out a funny noise coming out of the van.  What we thought would be a couple hour fix turned into the replacement of a front ball joint.  The part wouldn't be able to arrive until the next Monday, so we rented a van and went merrily on our way (okay, slightly less than merry).

We stayed overnight with Marcy's sister and husband in Jefferson, MD and then traveled up to Harrisburg for a concert with the Susquehanna Folk Music Society at the Fort Hunter Centennial Barn.  The barn was constructed in 1876 as part of a dairy business and has now been redesigned as an activity space.  You can read more about the beautiful Fort Hunter Mansion and Park at http://forthunter.org/. Thanks so much to Jess Hayden and all of the friends at the Susquehanna Folk Music Society for a packed out concert night!

Sound check time at the Susquehanna Folk Music Society

 We traveled on to spend the night with Mark Cuddy and Karen, friends who we met on Ocracoke at our Deepwater Theater.  Mark works with the Hershey Area Playhouse, and also works for the Hershey chocolate company.  Let us tell you, when your host works for Hershey . . . you get a humungoid sized chocolate bar on your pillow in your room!  Incredible!

Did we mention that there was also a bowl of chocolate treats next to each bed?

Our instruments were protected from midnight barnyard attacks by this fierce chicken-eating terror!

Gerald was initially reluctant to visit the local antique shoppe.

Until he found this treasure! He'll never doubt Gary again!

 Mark and Karen took us on a tour of Hershey, PA and told us all about the history of founder Milton Hershey.  What a fascinating tale.  Read more about the origins of the company at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hershey_Company and about Milton Hershey at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milton_S._Hershey.

Hershey Park was originally built for the benefit of the Hershey community

Lobby of the Hotel Hershey, built in 1933.

Saturday afternoon we loaded in and prepared for the evening concert at the Hershey Area Playhouse.  Another old Pennsylvania barn converted into a great performance space!

Here we are at home at the Hershey Area Playhouse

Beautiful theater!

Did you ever wonder what happens backstage before a concert?

Ooops.  That was a mistake!

Fortunately Marcy always looks nice at showtime.  Here she is sporting her hobo digs!

Action!

 Thanks again to our gracious hosts for treating us like royalty!

On Sunday, Molasses Creek drove back down to Sykesville, MD to perform for Uptown Concerts at the Baldwin Station.  Baldwin Station is an old railway station that has been converted into a fine restaurant.  Hmm.  Hmm.  Tasty!

 Thanks to Joyce Sica for hosting us!

After the Sunday concert we returned to Jefferson and then Gary and Dave spent the next day driving to pick up the van (5 hours south . . . 5 hours north).  On Tuesday, we resumed our journey up to Albany area to spend a few days with Dave's uncle and aunt in Delmar.  Ron and Carolyn Tweedie are close to winning the fig-stuffed turkey for putting up with more Molasses Creekness than anyone else we know.  Ron is our #1 Albany are promoter, and Carolyn takes the prize as the #1 cook.  Thanks to them for another incredible visit.  We look forward to returning the favor this summer at the Ocrafolk Festival! 

The repaired van made it safe and sound to Albany!

 On Thursday, November 8, Molasses Creek traveled south to the Hudson Valley Resort in Kerhonkson (bless you!) for the Northeast Regional Folk Alliance Conference (NERFA).  Molasses Creek was awarded one of the 15 official showcase spots during the weekend.   Here is where we got to perform!

Backstage Getting ready to go on!

 Not that it is always about food . . . but we did find this great German restaurant (the Mountain Brauhaus) just over the Mohonk Preserve mountain.

 

Pear, melted cheese sandwich

Hot Brown

This looks like some traditional German fare!

And back over the mountain

Up to visit the glacial lake on top of the mountain

Look at this ball of white stuff Fiddler Dave found!  Must of been a big polar bear!

Louie jamming at the conference

 On Sunday, we journeyed back to Jefferson one more time (kudos to Mark and Judy Coyne!  We love you!). And on Monday we headed south . . . aiming for that 4 PM Swan Quarter Ferry. 

On the way home we found an interesting town of Milford, PA.  Here are some shots from that visit.

Fiddler Dave, eat your heart out!

Ah! Swan Quarter Ferry on our way home to Ocracoke Island!

Our next public performance after Woodsongs Radio Hour is the Ocrafolk Festival Thanksgiving Fundraiser on the island, on Friday, November 23.  After that it's First Night Williamsburg on December 31.  Hope everyone has a tasty Thanksgiving.  We'll check in with you after this weekend's adventure!