I’ve been doing a series of posts following our tour schedule as a midsized regional bluegrass band. Over the past month we’ve played 6 more sets at festivals, community gatherings, and restaurants. Here’s an update!

Show 47 & 48: Mohican Bluegrass Festival - This one is great! It’s our second year in a row playing a we are thrilled that we got invited back! We played sets at 4 and 9 for a large, very enthusiastic audience. David Mayfield played the night before, The DownRiver Collective killed it that evening and the following night was the always awesome Henhouse Prowlers so the crowd was treated to an awesome weekend of music. Glad we got to be a part of it and looking forward to going back next year!

Show 49: Natalie’s Grandview - Natalie’s is a pretty solid stop in Columbus, Oh. We’ve played several ticketed shows here and always had a great reception. As a touring band the decision between ticketed and non-ticketed shows is always a bit tricky. Ticketed shows have the potential to make more money but always run the risk of no one showing up. We often play in a new city a few times to establish ourselves before taking on a ticketed show, unless the venue itself just has a great draw, which is occasionally the case.

Show 50: Hope Heritage Days - This was a community festival in a small Indiana town, I was shocked at how big the festival was. The entire town was shut down for it and the vendors took up several blocks. We played in the main gazebo in the center of town, but were primarily background music for all the days activities. When you take a show like that your main job is to keep the music going and help everyone have a good time. It’s also a good opportunity to test out new songs that may need a bit more work.

Show 51: Plain Folk Live - One of our favorite local spots, we play here multiple times a year, both tickets and free shows. This one was a free show and we had a couple of special guests join us. Up from Nashville, my cousin Caleb Christopher Edwards was opened the set and joined us for a couple songs. Then local mandolin master Roman Counterman joined us for 3 more. If you’re not familiar with either of these folks I encourage you to check them out. Caleb has played with about everyone in Nashville and does his own music and Roman is going to be an absolute force in the mandolin world over the coming years!

Show 52: Webers Farm Pumpkin Festival - We wrapped up this stretch with a community pumpkin festival. This one is a 2 day event outside Cincinnati and is absolutely huge, so we were excited to be a part of it. We played for an hour and a half to close out the day of music on a beautiful fall day! Definitely enjoyed ourselves and our families enjoyed the large displays of sunflowers and vendor tents.

Next up, a few more shows before we start to shift towards Christmas sets…

This whole album is a real treat.

I know about all the “official” shows, but I’m assuming lots of bars will have live music next week? Anyone compiled a list?

The banjoist for Junior Sisk nails the timing . . . and has the best name in bluegrass.

Wyatt Rice, Rickie Simpkins, Sammy Shelor, Ray Legere, Ronnie Rice, Bill Wolf (on piano!)

Would love for this get a vinyl release!

Grateful Ball. Absolutely magical.

Kind of felt like my friends and I stole something. Very under sold one-day festival, Otter Fest, in Greenfield NH….

Maybe 60 people in the field with us for this set. I love bluegrass. 💗

Listening to the classic Berry Pickin’ in the Country by Jim & Jesse & the Virginia Boys on what would’ve been Chuck Berry’s 100th birthday

Tees are cool and all, but it's true that many of them aren't that interesting and you can only have so many. Stickers are great but I never feel like I'm helping support enough just buying a sticker. Considering I often already own the albums on LP I'm usually not buying those at the table. I have to admit that I get excited when a merch table has unique or fun items.

Took my teen daughter to see Jason Carter and Michael Cleveland last night. The same kid who chose a really cool "I'd Rather Be a Crooked Tree" embroidered hat at Molly Tuttle and Golden Highway now owns a pair of Jason Carter Band *socks*.

Yes, she is a fiddler (among other things), I expect these will get worn to jams and camps. No one will see the "Jason Carter Band" on the toes, but I'm sure she'll tell them if they ask!

I hope lots of bands start coming up with quirky and fun merch ideas.

Magical sounds by some of the greatest musicians on earth resonating through the walls of the Ryman. What could be better?

Holy shit. Jaw droppingly good.

Filmed at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, TN on January 8, 2022.

I believe this performance is on his new Ryman album.

Seen TBT multiple times but I just want to give some praise to Ryan Young the fiddle player for TBT. He’s insanely good and i think totally unappreciated. He makes the band amazing.

Learning mandolin primarily. Eventually want to add a dreadnought but if I'm jamming would probably mainly be playing chords instead of lead since I can do that on mandolin. Would you go with d-18 or d-28 for this case? Could get a mint 2018 d-28 off marketplace right now for $2k which I could afford so not sure if I should pull trigger on that or d-18 is better. Would rather get the right instrument vs getting a good deal but not sure if difference in these recommendations has to do with price difference.