The April News
Hey Folks,
It"s Robin and Linda and it's a sunny morning-after-Easter in the Shenandoah Valley. We're marching quickly into April and, before we get too far into it, we thought we'd report in with theÊlatest news. All in all, everything is fine.Ê Our peace-of-mind was challenged recently by a recalcitrant computer whose ailments defied the best diagnostic minds in two counties and required a week in the shop. And our printer went to its resting place in the recycling center when Robin damaged a roller while trying to cure a paper jam. And our basketball team went out in the first round of the NCAA tournament. As Linda's mother, in her final days, once said about life in general: "Every day, every day. Always, always."
The constant, front-and-center happening in our world these days continues to be our new recording project. We have finished the last technical hurdles, the final mixes, and the sequencing of the songs. And, after much discussion, we have decided to self-release this record. We've played together for over 45 years and have 24 recordings and this is the first time we've released a record ourselves. There is aÊlot we don't know about the process, but we have some friends - musicians, former record company execs, producers, etc - who have been glad to help us out with blueprints and timelines and lists of dos and don'ts. So here we are, old dogs learning new tricks, and we find the undertaking to be interesting and fun.
This project has been completely different from any we've done before and we've been fortunate to have our friend Kevin McNoldy help us with it every step of the way. He brought gear up from his North Carolina home and, in three different sessions over a period of a year and a half, we recorded the project live inÊour living room. We were thinking, at the start, that the project would move along faster, but life didn't care much about our plans and, as we look back now, we realize how fortunate we've been to have had the fantastic gift of time: time to make decisions about our performances, time to decide who we wanted on the recordings, and time to live with and polish the mixes. As a result, we really like what we hear and are excited to have others hear it as well.
The release date is set for August and the CD will be entitled "A Better Day A'Coming." August seems a long way away but there's no reason to hurry now. WeÕre trying to do this thing right. But we will keep you up to date with special plans for our mailing list faithful.
On Thursday this week, we'll be doing an interview online with our friend Joanne Gardner Lowell. It's the initial installment of a series called Blueberry Backstage sponsored by the good folks at Blueberry Bluegrass Festival in Edmonton, AB. It'll be an hour of talk and music starting at 9:00 p.m. on April 8th. For information go to https://www.facebook.com/events/928242497936538/. We're looking forward to it and hope you'll check it out.
Bumper Sticker Of The Month: Metaphors Be With You
Many of you know that our friend Peter Ostroushko died at the end of February. We spent two years on the road with "Cool Pete" in the early days and we remained friends throughout the years. We were especially thinking about him and his family this weekend as, in the tradition of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, on the 40th day after death, a memorial service and ceremony were held in memory of him. Recently we have been enjoying his immense musical talents on podcasts from his A Prairie Home Companion radio days (https://www.peterostroushko.com/). So youÕll know, the three of us take up all of Episodes 5, 7a, and 7b. It's been interesting listening to how we sounded over 40 years ago. Robin wrote our thoughts about Peter in a February 28 post on his Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/robin.williams.5667?ref=tn_tnmn)
We hope this finds you all in good health and spirits. And we'll be sure to stay in touch.
Your pals,
Robin and Linda