Robin and Linda Williams: October's Offerings

Dear Friends,
September! What a month. and did it go fast or what? It started out with us doing five shows with Garrison Keillor on "The Summer Love Tour" and ended with the Fortune Williams Music Festival. It'd been a while since we'd toured with Garrison so it was interesting to join up with the traveling troupe and be part of the last five shows. We saw from the start that they had put together an incredibly entertaining show but we were able to get in there and add some things. Garrison seems to be truly in his element when he is away from the confines of the two hour radio show. The band was superb every night, the humor was second to none and everyone was comfortable with each other and with the fact that the show was constantly changing. We stayed in first class hotels which was a problem because the towels were so thick we couldn't get them in our suitcases and we traveled on a tour bus which led to interesting late night conversations and jam sessions.

Experts predicted the Fortune Williams Music Festival would be fun and they were right. It was as close to perfection as a festival can get. The stages ran flawlessly and every performer put on an magnificent show. Of course you can't go wrong when you hire extraordinary performers. But, and we know we're biased, this weekend was special. What it comes down to is that the FWMF is an intimate affair and, without fail, the energy and approval of our audiences seems to bring out wonderful performances from the musicians. We've seen these people play before but we've never seen them do better shows. It's gratifying and makes all the work worthwhile. Now, on to next year.

As we write the International Bluegrass Music Association is having its annual convention in Nashville. Our friend Paul Kuczko's record company, Lonesome Records, has garnered a nomination for "Liner Notes For A Recorded Project" for the CD "Appalachia: Music From Home." This CD is the sound track to the PBS special "Appalachia", broadcast in 2009, and on which they included us singing our song "Don't Let Me Come Home A Stranger." Also, our good friend Jimmy Fortune's song "Elizabeth" is nominated for Song Of The Year. We're sending Paul and Jimmy our best wishes and will be crossing our fingers for them at the awards show tonight.

Bumper Sticker of the month: I hope I'm half as good as my dog thinks I am.

As we write the last vestige of Tropical Storm Nicole is passing through dumping some much needed rain on the Shenandoah Valley. We're not finding the rain to be gloomy at all. Quite to the contrary, the rain is nice to have especially since it waited until after the festival to come. We'll do inside things today and start getting ready for the rest of 2010. There's a lot to look forward. There's a nice show in Chapel Hill, NC coming up and a benefit for our local historical society which will be fun. But first we get to see our friends Jay Ungar and Molly Mason and the Scruffy Murphy band at The Mockingbird this weekend. We're supporting live music whenever we can. Maybe we'll see you at a concert soon.

We'll be in touch next month. It'll probably seem like no time at all.

Your pals,
Robin and Linda

BOOKINGS:
George Balderose, Music Tree Productions
(412) 323-2707
tradfolk@music-tree.com