Announcement
I'll be making the trek up 79 to Cooper's Lake early Saturday morning to play an AM gig (11:15 AM, main stage) at the first annual Western Pennsylvania Fairie Festival. I'll be there to play for Erin Price and Pittsburgh Gypsy Dancers. Erin's done several shows as part of Wicked Temple, and we performed together several times at Blue Light last year, as well as that glorious show at the UUCNH in November, along with the Konono No. 2 show in January. Wow--has it really been January that I last played with the dancers? Astonishing.

It's been too long, so expect us to dig into this show with great enthusiasm, especially as I'm ready to get back to performing now that I'm mostly healed from my broken finger. I'll be doing the guitar, uke, and laptop tribal ambient/IDM that goes so well with belly dance. Expect a positive outlook to the music's tonality, some further modern touches to the rhythm, and a general lightness of spirit (and of finger, now that I don't have to heft that swollen beast around...but please, no crushing handshakes). I'm not sure what Erin and the dancers have planned, but surely you'll enjoy it.

There's much more going on than just us, of course: our partners in ambience Life In Balance will be shifting the electrons your way, and let me tell you, they're freshly quantized and exotically controlled. (2PM Saturday, main stage, guided meditation on Sunday at 10:30, and another Sunday performance at 11 AM.) Plus, we may busk, so be on the lookout for Irish music being played on a bright yellow ukulele. (That's no more absurd than my playing Middle Eastern electronica on a uke, I guess.) So you can bask in the cognitive dissonance, as well.

Also there are several other performers you may recognize, notably Heather Kropf, as well as Candice Night of Blackmore's Night (not sure if Ritchie himself will be there, but he's been at several Fairie Festivals this year, so I'm told). (No, if he is there, he probably won't play "Smoke on the Water.")

So come on up, if you're into the Renaissance Faire scene: both days, Saturday and Sunday, 10AM to 7PM (though I'm only playing Saturday morning), and only $10 to get in. For more info, see the festival's site. See you there.

11:15 AM, Saturday June 10, Cooper's Lake, Slippery Rock, PA

Report
I haven't listened to it at this point, but it seemed good at the time.

The drive up (early!) was pretty quick and painless, apart from construction for a mile or so before the exit. Still, I got there on time. Just off the highway though we were, this was a peaceful landscape, with rolling hills and farmland. Pretty nice.

As I loaded in (with Ash's help--thanks, Ash!) I could check out the current act, a solo acoustic singer/songwriter, who was dressed for the event (medieval gear), and fit in really well...to the point that I wondered how I'd go following him. Despite a bit of confusion during setup (how the power was going to run, mainly), we made our start time, and yes, most of the audience wandered away. Once the dancers started, however, many of them came back, and brought more with them. So for a morning show, we had a decent crowd.

The set moved smoothly, though I don't recall any standout musical moments. While I don't have to have the finger taped up or splinted anymore, I still noticed some pain when anchoring with the pinky, and on doing the pinky volume swells. This was a bit of a surprise, since generally everything else with the finger is fine, and there's not a lot of force on it with the swells. We'll see what's going on at the next checkup.

For much of the rest of the day, I hung out in the merch tent, talking to people and making a couple sales. I'd not brought any of the Clif bars we'd bought as a lunch plan fallback, but happily one of Pittsburgh's fine vegan bakers was there, so food was available.

I'd hooked up the PowerBook to the battery-powered Pignose, so I demoed the CD at a reasonable volume for people all day. One thing that became notable later was that I chose not to reboot the G4, which I've often done before shows. This was a good decision, as the last few reboots had resulted in my having to keep trying to get the thing to power up all the way. This, in fact, turned out to be the last show with the venerable PowerBook G4, as shortly afterwards, it stopped booting at all, unless one tried hundreds of times. But these problems were still a few days in the future.

Much of the rest of the afternoon was spent trying to make sales and stay warm--it was quite cold for a summer's day, and so when Steve and Ami played their rousing set, I made sure to stand in the sun and soak up some infrared. Their set has really become as tight and powerful--they really know how to draw people in. Great stuff. We didn't busk, as it turned out--there were plenty of other things going down, with roving puppeteers, pirates, a parade, and other performers. (There was something of an alliterative theme there, looking back on it.) Also, no Ritchie, but his wife was there, apparently. Ultimately, late afternoon rolled in, and it was time for me to head home...so that we could attend the free Tom Verlaine concert that evening! A pretty good day, then.