MudLark: Upcoming Shows

What a delightful afternoon-- good weather, gentle listeners, creativity and clay! I made a clay quail in between sets of music.

What elegance! What a lineup! What a thrill to get gussied up and participate in this annual showcase of Winters musical talent!

Our first gig with CDs to sell of our very own!!! Dear friends and new faces mingled among the festive artworks. The world's best carrot cake was provided at no charge by Shaunie. We sang and played and chatted and beamed. Nice way to spend a Friday night!

What a warm and wonderful night! Bob Bugg and George Haver were memorable in their roles as narrator and Doug the sound engineer in our comic radio play about the recording process. Volunteers Rebecca and Joe added impromptu sound effects with gusto.

Ray sang his heart out on the Devil Chicken Blues, and Katie got the whole audience turning in circles on Magdalena Pagdalena.

Oh, and of course there were the moments of musical beauty and intimacy that are our bread and butter. When Love Comes Home was especially present and delicate. Reuben was a whirlwind of driving force. Guantanamo was tender and chilling.

Special thanks to all our patrons large and small who put money in our bin. We collected enough in one night to cover the CD manufacturing!

What a seamless and lovely service Rev. Beth Banks put together. Our music flowed among inspiring readings from John Muir and Severn Suzuki, and the room was full of deep listening and hearty singing-along. We debuted three new MudLark pieces: The Miller, Green Fields My Heart, and One Grain of Sand.

If you can ever find your way to Juneau in April, attend the Alaska Folk Festival. It is a phenomenon of musical community that defies description. We were thrilled to be part of this warm, inclusive and diverse event: playing concert sets, leading and attending workshops, dancing at contradances, jamming late at night, watching the snow melt and talking to the ravens...

A lovely evening in Katie's hometown: a friendly crowd, delicious homemade snacks, and a beautiful warm wood church. Many thanks to Katie's entire family for making it happen.

It was strange playing all in the same room with no headphones (we have been in the studio too much lately)! Great to see so many friendly faces from near and far. The distance record went to a friend of a friend who was out from Washington DC and managed to catch our little show.

What a lovely community of music lovers gathered to share Joe's repertoire! He had us singing and laughing and making fish lips and sharing in the suspense of moments fifty years past in his young musical life. He charmed us all with his seemingly effortless banter and quirky song selections. And it was great to make some new friends of people who came from Sacramento, Carmichael, Vacaville...

The rousing sing-along of Study War No More was reason enough to be there. There is power in people singing meaningful songs together that is like no other.

The folk fairyland was strung with twinkle lights and supplied with homemade treats galore. It was the classiest outhouse concert ever seen round these parts, thanks to our generous hosts and the well-behaved audience members in attendance. We scavenged words and phrases from our listeners, in exchange for funky door prizes. Here are a few samples of what they gave us:
--"Sweet music with just a touch of the odd."
--"Songs of meaning and moments of hilarity."
--"A subtle treasure."

This show was a blast! It was unlimited fun to sing old and new tunes with Laura Kemp for a full house that knew they would love every minute before walking in the door! Everyone was quiet and listening when they weren't laughing. TR Kelly was discovered in the crowd and hopped up to add her tattooed Babe flair. Jeremy Wegner of The Sugar Beets joined in with characteristic tasty mandolin. Chris Roth commented afterward: "Without exaggerating, I can say that Sunday night's concert was the best (to my tastes) that I've been to in a long time--in years probably. I would give almost anything (except maybe my Muck Boots--I need them) to have a recording of that concert."
-Katie 5/26/06

What a lovely morning and a delightful crew working the Walker stage. Our diehard fans turned out for a short but sweet set that included a brand new bridge in Mountain Girl-- added in three days prior, and a rocking arrangement of Katie's mudslide anthem "Turkey Buzzard on a Thermal."

The house was full and the mini-disc was set up with a quality microphone, capturing this spectacular evening on a live recording that is now available in limited numbers! Contact Ray for details at ray-mail@muircommons.org

Hearing and meeting Priscilla Herdman was a delight we hope to experience again sometime soon. And playing to the crowd full of UU fans was a pleasure as always. The event was such a success that the church is now considering developing a series of three or four concerts like this annually to benefit the church and local musicians!

It sure ain't MudLark without Katie!!! We managed to have a good time anyway. The crowd at the Fox and Goose was friendly, and sticking around for Rita's show was a pleasure.

Bill was a gracious host as usual. We played six tunes, chatted about our pasts and our future, and had a grand time.

We had a delightul time playing to a full house of friendly listeners. Stay tuned for photos by Woody Fridae from this show...