Scratchdog Stringband

The Bastards Of Bluegrass

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Mini Tour Dates

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Summer 2017 - Scratchblog

Well here we are again - Scratchblog! For those of you who used to read our always eventful blog of adventures as Scratchdog Stringband, you will have noticed our rather lengthy absence in the writing world. Life as a touring full time musician is rife with many uncertainties and challenges that leave such writings in a secondary category to the current challenges. Much has happened in so many wonderful ways and we keep pushing ever forward to life goals and dreams as musicians. We are terribly excited for the future, music that is on the horizon, and the many hurtles and red tape we have yet to face. It has all been possible by the support of fans (such as yourself), venues, and most of all family and friends who encourage us to push forward. Let's do a little catch-up. First of all, as many of you know, our bass player, Kimbo, left us at the end of the tour season last summer to pursue other life goals. It was difficult to see her move on and we wish her only the best on her new adventures. Life on the road is difficult and is sometimes where the hardest work for a musician will occur. We were able to have a great tour season for the summer of 2016, playing some festivals and traveling all over the Pacific Northwest. She is missed, yet Scratchdog must go forward in our ongoing pursuit of music. As Andrew and James pushed forward through the winter, many new tunes were written and have since been captured on “Scratchdog Saloon.” You can get that album at our website or pretty much any online store that offers music. As winter passed, we auditioned quite a few musicians, trying to find the perfect fit to match our energy and dedication to music. We began with an amazing musician who grew up playing rock and roll with James in Maine. While working up to the recording of “Scratchdog Saloon,” Pete Herman was hired for many of our live gigs and lived the Scratchdog life of touring for a few months. Though our original idea for “Scratchdog Saloon” was to do a duo album, it quickly became apparent that Pete’s addition to the sound was an undeniable embellishment. It was thus decided to have Pete join us on “Scratchdog Saloon.” Unfortunately, Pete already had plans in motion to move back to Maine before Scratchdog approached him, and our short time together came to an end. Nevertheless, we were not discouraged and sent Pete off with many thanks and good memories of playing - plus a great album! Since we had known all along that Pete might not work out longterm, we had been scheming up other ideas for the future. We decided to hold auditions for our upcoming California tour. We were fortunate enough to get to meet and play with Audra Nemir, who got picked up by Crow and the Canyon before we could get her. Eventually we found our spring touring bass player, who will forever be “Uncle Michael” to us. Around the same time, we had an idea that nobody thought of. Our good friends, The Licklog Disputes! An ensemble which James was already sitting in with, these boys were going through bass player problems as well. We began chatting about working to fill out shows together and before long Andrew and Steve began learning each band's songs on bass. It was an immediate idea made brilliant after several weeks of live shows together, yet they were unavailable for our California tour. Thus we practiced Uncle Michael up and set out through California for our “Scratchdog Saloon” CD Release Tour, returning to many of our favorite spots and having a blast with friends and fans. Ah! life on the road - there is nothing like it; filled with adventure from day to day. As the tour came to an end we thanked Uncle Michael for being such an awesome road buddy and musician and thus we began the full rebirth of Scratchdog Stringband with the Portland boys. We are back in full-dedicated force and welcome Maxwell Countryman Skewes and Stephen Eggers to Scratchdog Stringband. Our christening occurred a few days after returning from California in James 11th Street house. Full of music and booze, the boys had a wonderful gentleman’s night of band bonding, which may or may not have left some sore heads the next day. Since that day we have been working steadily in pursuing our new groove. It is exciting to add two more voices and writers to the band, making our sound even more diverse. We are all excited for what the future holds: planning for yet another Scratchdog album, a tour to Washington, Idaho, and Montana, and always pushing our limits as performers. Plus, we were fortunate enough to be a part of the core crew of the Park Blocks Bluegrass Festival, which Max and Steve (founders) had been working on during the California Tour. It was Portland, OR's first bluegrass festival in more than 20 years. It was amazing to see the amount of work Steve and Max put in to preparing this festival, and the glory of its fruition. James and Andrew had a blast joining the efforts and can't wait for next year to help make it even better. We hope to see you all out on that road as we continue our climb ever upward and outward in the pursuit of good music. There are many great things to come, so keep an eye out for us - and thanks again for all the support you all have shown us over our first two years. Here’s to many more to come!

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SCRATCHBLOG – WINTER’S END 2016

The Scratchdogs have been watching 2016 move along as fast as their paws can keep pace. They finally got some time off from each other to spend with their families over the holidays, but as soon as January hit it was back to work.

They kicked the new year off by solidifying a close musical friendship with Timberbound, splitting a bill with them at Alberta Street Pub. An oldtime stringband, Timberbound is led by contemporary folk/blues pioneer Joe Seamons, who recently won the 2016 International Blues Challenge in Memphis. After this show, Scratchdog went right ahead and booked their CD release party with Timberbound at Alberta Street Pub – April 29, be there!

The next day, Kim and Drew and James drove out to Astoria for their first live radio performance at KMUN on the coast of Oregon. It was a fine promotional opportunity for their three-day residency at the Adrift Hotel in Long Beach, WA. They played to packed houses Saturday and Sunday (thanks in part to the radio coverage), and even managed to keep a kind encore-insistent crowd on Monday night, at the end of which they unplugged and got right in between the tables for a rip-roaring bluegrass encore set.

After playing their regular local shows at Hoppy Brewer and Tesoaria, Scratchdog made their first journey through Sacramento and up to Lake Tahoe, where they were received with full crowds, much hooting and dancing. When they returned, Mississippi Pizza proved to be a fun time, and the night after that they proved that they always can pack Bombs Away Café (in Corvallis) to the walls. Drew and James stayed up till sunrise in the smoky dark recording studio at the invitation of Steve, the talented sound man at Bombs. They also had a wild night at Trillium Café in Hood River, where they had the hardwood floors bowing under the collective weight of the dancing locals – and a fight broke out not three feet away! Now that’s rock and roll, baby.

Which brings us to February. Thanks to some serious serendipity, much planning, and to Hawkins Wright who turned out to be a fantastic engineer and now a good friend of the dogs, Scratchdog Stringband recorded their first full-length album in Hallowed Halls, Portland’s newest top-of-line recording studio! Five days and about 60 hours in the studio; several days of mixing with Hawkins (as well as many hours without our help); and a day of mastering with Justin Phelps, who has worked with everyone from the Neville Brothers to Cake, Leftover Salmon to Joe Satriani; and the album, Three Times Fast, is now in production and will be ready for its spring release!

February was a whirlwind, having doubled up on their duties what with recording and gigging (and all the background business that makes all of that fruitful). The Scratchdogs made their first appearance up at the Conway Muse, which is a very cool venue that anyone passing through the area should check out. They played yet another barn party (though less rustic than the Humboldt scene). However, they did provide a stage with their name painted on it. In Battle Ground, WA they just blew up their first show at Northwood Public House for its second anniversary party, and were hired back immediately for several shows throughout the year.

So Scratchdog has been working their blue-gr-ass off this year, and they ain’t slowing down. Look for them in Olympia this Saturday at The Pig Bar; Edgefield’s Little Red Shed on Saint Patrick’s Day for the late afternoon; then at Duffy’s Hangar in Salem for a blowout Saint Patty’s celebration with Potatoe Famine, a genuine heavy rocking Irish group; the usual great nights at Hoppy Brewer and Tesoaria; their first time at Duff’s Garage at the end of March; Volcanic Theatre Pub in Bend… the list goes on, and leads up to April 29 at Alberta Street Pub! Some serious dog-pack tracks sinking into many a Pacific Northwest terrain – keep your eyes peeled.

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Humboldt Happenings and Hardly Strictly Scratchgrass

The Scratchdogs are settling into autumn after a full summer of five shows a week. They saw dozens of towns and cities throughout the Pacific Northwest, built up their merch table with T-shirts and stickers to accompany the EP, “Introducing Scratchdog Stringband,” which has sold over a hundred copies per month since its March release. Now they’re hunkering down to do some serious writing and rehearsing to prepare for five days at Cloud City Sound Recording Studios in the Pearl District of Portland, OR. But before unwinding all the way, the dogs decided to kick off this mellow-out fall by cruising south in Andrew’s Subaru Outback to hit up Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival in San Francisco. Seeing as Humboldt was, in many ways, the incubator for the Scratchdog zygote, and because they’ve never played a show there that wasn’t wall-to-wall with dancers and drinkers, the trio booked a last minute blowout show at The Logger Bar in Blue Lake to break up the long drive south. A week before the gig, their friend Laurel, who has twice booked the dogs for barn parties on a small piece of finely cultivated Trinidad land called “The Ponderosa,” got wind of a duo passing through town that weekend and booked them to open the night at Logger. It wasn’t until hours before the show, driving down the 199 and checking on the Facebook event, that the Scratchdogs realized just who this mysterious duo was: Ben Hunter and Joe Seamons of Seattle’s Renegade Stringband, friends, part of the tribe, old companions of Allen “Alabama” Clayton and current partners with Dark Madrona and Timberbound, all of whom have shared Shady Grove fireside music. The folks in Blue Lake were ready for a rip-roaring, Scratch-stompin’ good time, but were stunned into attentive silence by the openers, who played old and new folk tunes with precision and fire while rotating instruments or breaking it way down in sincere and animated acapella. The crowd was primed and eager by 10:30 when Scratchdog hit them with their riotous bluegrassy classics, as well as many new country and swing influenced originals. Next was San Francisco, where the crew met up with old pal Jesse Shrader and several of Kimbo’s college friends to paint the Mission in a night of moderate debauchery. The rest of the weekend saw them relaxing on the green grass beneath a bright blue sky with thousands of others, wandering Golden Gate Park from stage to stage, catching Gillian Welch and Greg Alan Isakov. Before the sun set, they sneaked back to the car to retrieve bass, fiddle and guitar, which they set up on the sidelines of the main exit path near Martin Luther King Jr. Drive. Scratchdog slowly gathered a crowd: first a small line of folks on the sidewalk, then a growing circle, and by nightfall they were completely engulfed by a rowdy crowd (who, incidentally, hadn’t witnessed a whole lot of bluegrass at Hardly Strictly, and seemed eager to appreciate). By the end of the show, cued as usual by the snap of a final broken guitar string, business cards couldn’t be handed out fast enough, while it was all Kimberly (Kimbo’s sweet gal) could do to keep up at the merch table. To close the trip, the dogs stayed in the East Bay, where they really did mellow out. Not to say that merry wasn’t made. Their hosts, a sweet woman named Sue and her two daughters, bounced on the beds in their Berkeley basement as the Scratchdogs leaned back and performed some of their newer and more intricate material in exchange for bread, cheese, hummus and wine. And it may look like a quiet autumn, but Scratchdog Stringband is already booked out through February, and they anticipate the release of their first full-length album in the spring of 2016. Keep and eye on the performance schedule as the calendar changes – the mutts have it in their heads to kick off a tour in Portland and debut the new CD all along the west coast during the month of April, and they don’t see why next summer shouldn’t find them hitting the southwest, Austin, up through Colorado, and back home via Wyoming, Montana and Idaho.

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Remember that sentence that says insert photo!!! Well here is your photo of that chicken.

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Summertime for Scratchdog

Summertime has seen the Scratchdogs busier than ever. Since July we’ve been booking it from gig to gig at least four times a week, returning to our favorite spots throughout Oregon, Northern California and Washington, as well as exploring many new towns and venues to which we’ll certainly revisit. THE HIGHLIGHTS: Corvallis: Back at Bombs Away Café for the third time, Pretty Gritty (of Kay’s Bar notoriety) split the bill with the dogs. As usual, once dinner was over the college kids shoved tables aside to stomp and holler for the majority of the show, calling for two encores for which Blaine and Sarah hopped on stage to close the show with some high energy bluegrass. But the night wasn’t over yet. A fireside party down the street was in need of entertainment, and we’re always eager to let loose after a show. Check out this scene where our buddy Bryce proudly introduces his spoiled pet chicken in the middle of a jam (insert photo). When the digital clocks struck four and a police officer appeared, he admitted to standing on the sidewalk for fifteen minutes beforehand, regretting that he was obligated to shut down the music. Longview: In Washington, for the town’s “Go Fourth Festival,” the Scratchdogs plugged into the largest sound system we’ve yet played through. We were also fortunate enough to earn some press. Check out the review – it answers some FAQs regarding the illusive Scratchdog genre and its influences. (insert link http://tdn.com/news/local/portland-band-carries-on-the-tradition-of-american-folk-music/article_b1469171-4616-51bb-93e9-9dd95c9b3f7d.html) Carlton: The Scratchdogs have found yet another reliable home base just outside of Portland at The Horse Radish. The last performance held a full house which included a birthday party for our friend Stan, who made a special trip to celebrate with the band. Just as the gig was wrapping up with the last song and the dogs were getting ready to close up shop, a rowdy group of young ladies from Seattle tumbled in and nearly stormed the makeshift stage with exuberant dance and deafening howls. A new Scratchdog record was set that night: four encores. California: A weekend on the road with The Moonshine saw the big stringband family partying in Arcata at James’ old digs, The Garden Bliss; roaming around the grounds of The Redwood Ramble after The Moonshine opened the festival; in the ghost town of Caspar (no joke), playing through one the finest sound systems we’ve seen; and, once again, tearing down the walls of the Mount Shasta Vet’s Club, where poor Grandma DeRossett became severely discomfited by the number of young folks falling down and breaking glasses. Other recent notable events include a drunken wedding reception cleanup during which the bride’s uncle, a cop, re-corked a dozen bottles of wine and insisted that the Scratchdogs take them on the road; the subsequent crushing of one bottle underneath a PA speaker on the ride north; a wild after-party for our Axe & Fiddle show in Cottage Grove with a sweet woman named Dee, who fed us spliffs and homemade blackberry wine; a startlingly attentive show in Coos Bay at Seven Devils Brewing, where we received some of our first fan-art, and where Carmen and Annie, the owners, put us up in their own home; and a night at Skyway in Zigzag, where we played an acoustic encore set for a group of folks from the UK who’d never heard a live American band before - and where we made a desperate and failed attempt to finish off a hundred dollar bar-tab. Coming up in the near future, Scratchdog’s getting some legit merch, as in T-shirts. Trucker hats and beer cozies are also in the works. We’re opening up for The Tara Novellas at Al’s Den on the 26th, heading to Silverton to play the Milltown Pub on the 28th, Bier One in Newport on the 29th, and preparing for a packed house at Laurelthirst on Thursday, Septemeber 3rd. The list goes on – check out the schedule at scratchdogstringband.com.

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Scratchblog! Springbang!

Springtime for Scratchdog Stringband – PART 2: Season Recap What’s been happening with Scratchdog Stringband? First off, a month back we drove down to Santa Cruz, which is the farthest south we’ve yet been, and played a classy joint called The Haute Enchilada (in Moss Landing, a half hour out of town). After we were finished running The Grime Dog around on the Pacific Shore, hanging and helping out around the Kumada household, and busking a Santa Cruz farmer’s market, we entertained our first Central Cali crowd. Our welcome was unprecedented, with a mix of Kimbo’s old friends and family and a few dozen locals. Ok, then there were all those times we’ve stopped into Garden Bliss, my old Arcata home. Before Portland was even on my radar, I was living there and spending my days busking H Street, where I met Andrew doing the same thing (almost two years ago). Garden Bliss is a community center of sorts, where the residents and their rotating cast of cohorts, drop-ins, travelers, and various community organizers host meetings for the local Permaculture Guild, hold work parties (cider pressings, anybody?), seed and plant exchanges, Food Not Bombs dinner prep. Very rarely are any of these events unaccompanied by music. Daytime or nighttime, when we stop in there’re jams for all genres: blues, reggae, samba, bluegrass, punk, funk, folk. Usually when we roll in at about midnight, after a gig, the place is hopping with music and merriment till dawn. We’ve also had a lot of Greater Portland activity, keeping busy playing Alberta Street Pub, Laurelthirst Public House, Tesoaria Tasting Room, Streetcar Bistro, and other local spots. Getting out of the immediate region is good for stretching our musical limbs, so we frequently head down to Gresham to play The Hoppy Brewer, and last week we played the town’s first “Solfest,” a street-fair solstice celebration. Our friends Pretty Gritty have us booked every other Tuesday in Sellwood at Kay’s Bar (which I’m told is Portland’s oldest bar). Then there’s Sandy, Salem, Carlton, Corvallis, Bend…. And my favorite unofficial gig is one we share with our good buddy Allen “Alabama” Clayton (formerly of Closely Watched Trains): we drive his pickup downtown to busk the PSU farmer’s market, and last week we had six-piece bluegrass jam with The Hillwilliams. When we’re not gigging, we’re gardening Shady Grove, listening to records on the patio in the sun, running around chasing jam sessions. We also spend a lot of time doing shadow work for the band: press releases, posters, booking, and rehearsing (a rarity these days), not to mention keeping up with the booming world of social media. Still we find time to recreate, crawl down Alberta for pool and chess games, ride down to the river. It’s summertime, and Scratchdogs have a lot of kinds of play in them. And now that we’ve hit the hot season, we’re all booked up with three or four shows a week, taking us as far south as Mendocino County, CA, and as far north as Port Townsend, WA. The only downside to being this busy is having to turn down offers for gigs. Oh well, there are worse problems for a band to have.

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Fan blog

Hey all, check out what one of our fans wrote about us after our show in Sandy OR. : Scratchdog Stringband Gets Trout Pub Strumming June 5, 2015 Fiddle player James Rossi stacks the five-dollar CDs featuring the namesake pup in a cone-of-shame as bassist Kim Kumada and guitarist Andrew DeRossett scramble to piece together the sound system five minutes to show time at the Elusive Trout Pub. The cheery ale sippers offered their applause as soon as Scratchdog Stringband crossed the threshold into Trout Pub’s mining-themed digs without knowing of the musical gold that was in store. Rossi starts the set with an original titled “No Woman,” which gets a pleasant reverb off the rough cut wooden walls and ceilings. Scratchdog is tucked into the corner underneath a shelved pair of Peavey speakers split by Kumada’s hard cider courtesy of the Pub’s staff. Alcohol is the backdrop for the real treat of Scratchdog’s music. Of course, no one’s glasses are empty at Trout Pub, where the tap selection spans an entire side of the main room. Soon after the music sets in, a preschooler begins a jig at the rear, employing her mother as the other half of the tyke’s flailing choreography to the cover of Bob Dylan’s “Highway Sixty-One”. Rossi’s fiddle cries out the bending intro to his original tune entitled “Stuck on the Wheel”. Two middle-school sisters voluntarily part with their cell phones to begin tapping out the rhythm to the tune near a wooden wagon wheel chandelier chained to the ceiling. After the first hour-long set, several in the audience sound a scattered chorus for “More banjo!” followed by an inevitable lone call for “More cowbell!” Kumada manages to turn her song “Amelia” into a censored version for the benefit of the younger ears in the audience, which scores a fiver in the tip jar from a camo-clad senior. One of her other songs “Going for Broke” brings the growing pile of tips to a healthier height. DeRossett’s masterful guitar work doesn’t go unnoticed either, especially on “Blackbird,” a cover of Della Mae’s song. DeRossett’s flatpicking breathes new life into Trout Pub, a locale that hasn’t hosted live music since the eighties, until the newest owners (as of this year) realized what a hidden gem the pub is for live music. The crowd has been supportive of Trout Pub’s recent weekly addition of good, live bands every weekend thanks to the bartender’s urging. You can contact Scratchdog Stringband on Facebook or by emailing [email protected]. ----------- By Jesse Shrader

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Scratchblog! Springbang!

Springtime for Scratchdog Stringband – PART 1: Petrolia I stood on the log cabin’s wraparound deck as clouds glowed orange and pink through a wide window in the looming redwood landscape before me. Far beneath the setting sun, the moon glimmered faint and silver off the great Pacific shore. The Lost Coast of California. Beside me, Micah inhaled deeply… and slowly exhaled. “Hear that?” he said. “…Nothing.” Andrew used to play gypsy jazz and funky folk music in Mount Shasta with his friends Micah and Angelina, who now live happily off the grid in the hills of Humboldt. Asleep ‘n’ Acreek, they called themselves. On a recent tour which brought Scratchdog Stringband through Bend, OR, Eureka and Petrolia, CA, Kim and I were thoroughly welcomed into their family (and thanked for taking care of their little brother Drew). When we got up into the hills, the deal was that we would be hired to play their friend’s birthday party, and the catch was that we were forbidden from bringing our own beer and food – that just wouldn’t be proper Petrolia hospitality. Down by the rolling Matole River, underneath the proud birthday boy’s new florescent pink tent, Scratchdog set up the PA system… and plugged it into a massive Honda 2000 generator. Sloshing homebrewed cider and IPA, the rowdy hillfolk alternated between dancing about the campground and wrestling one another down onto the five-person beanbag cushion set in front of the makeshift stage. For our set break, Kim and Drew and I wandered the short path down to the riverbed where we rock-tossed, a game from my New England youth in which one large rock is hefted into the air over the river while all participants take aim at it with a smaller rock (it’s not as easy as it sounds, and more satisfying than you’d expect when you actually do hit the big rock). Back at the campground, we ate grilled lamb and hot dogs as the wind chased paper plates off the picnic tables. Up the mountain at Micah and Angelina’s, we drank a fair number of cheap domestic beers amidst feasting, merry music-making, and fierce card-playing. At one point I asked Micah where to toss our empty cans. He smiled mischievously and said, “Wait till morning.” I must have overslept (as I’m wont to do when traveling with Scratchdogs), but Kim told me later, with glee, how Micah and she lined up the couple dozen empties behind the rear wheels of his pickup truck; after they were all set up, he hooted a hill-holler and launched that machine in reverse, flattening the cans into aluminum pancakes.

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The Saint Paddy’s Day Tour

The week of Saint Paddy’s Day saw Scratchdog Stringband through six shows in nine days, while Drew and I totaled eight shows! Here’s the rundown….

Friday: At the Hoppy Brewer in Gresham we’ve found a home-base of sorts. When we loaded in, there were already several tables of familiar faces that showed up early to see us play for three hours. A fan who repeatedly assures us that we’re her favorite band even got a little misty in the eyes when speaking to Kimbo after the last set – some combination of the emotional effect of our musical efforts and of fine locally crafted beer, I suppose. Fortunately we were able to console her by putting our brand new CD in her hands.

Saturday: We were at Tesoaria in North Portland, a wine bar which we’ve played bimonthly since our very first show nearly a year ago (woah). We like to think of it as our Portland home-base. Whenever John (the winery’s proprietor) is present, without fail he calls for an encore for his house band – “Please give it up one more time for Scratchdog Stringband, and before you leave, show your appreciation by dropping something in their tip jar; I know how much they get paid, and I’m a stingy bastard!” Which, by the way, is far from the truth; at Tesoaria they spoil not only the band, but also everybody who walks through their door… test me on it sometime.

Sunday: In Ashland, Drew and I met up with his old friend Alex Adsitt, also known as the Nevada Kid. Hosted in a protestant church, the Knights of Columbus held a Saint Paddy’s Day dinner. Alex led us in a few hours of traditional Irish songs, very few of which were we familiar with, but that’s just the way we like it – rehearsal be damned! We may or may not have been utterly upstaged during our dinner break by two of the church’s youth singing “Red is the Rose” in classically trained harmony. Either way, we had plenty of consolation. All we had to do was walk into the pastor’s office to find two kegs of home-brew sitting in ice buckets! The three of us clinked glasses to our first night drunk in a church.

Tuesday: It was Saint Paddy’s Day proper. We stuck around Ashland to play Paddy Brannan’s Irish Pub, where Drew and I first accompanied Alex for another three hours of (now sort of familiar) Irish music, which wrapped up around 9pm. Kimbo arrived and Scratchdog set up next. Since everybody was drunk and dancing, we played almost until 2am. Thankfully, after seven or eight hours of playing, we had beds made and waiting for us at Grandma DeRossett’s house in Mount Shasta – and yes, Deb, Kimbo stayed sober for the drive.

Thursday: If you haven’t heard of “The Grime,” check the cover of our CD – he’s Kimbo’s lovably bat-eared Boston terrier mix. On our previous tour through Humboldt, after packing Siren’s Song in Eureka, we were invited to play a private barn party in Trinidad for some of Kimbo’s old HSU friends. It was there that Grime made his big debut, gnawing a four-foot stick right in between us and a dancing crowd. We were invited back this time around, and Grime made his second appearance on-stage (or in-barn, rather) with Scratchdog. It was supposed to be a “top-secret barn party” tucked away in Trinidad, but somehow word leaked out and spread around Arcata. We found ourselves entertaining not so secretly after all, and it was a blast – there’s video footage online to prove it too!

Friday: We started slow at the Shasta Inn, playing mostly for Andrew’s family (he’s a Mount Shasta native) and keeping it fairly quiet for the first set – “Walking after Midnight” and “Miss Ohio,” etc. As the night went on and the joint filled up, we picked up the pace and Drew’s family was soon obscured by a crowd of dancing youngsters who moved with trademark Californian freedom and enthusiasm. At the after-party, it turned out that our host was yet another HSU friend of Kimbo who she hadn’t seen in years. I think that party may have been the highlight of my trip – it’s exhilarating to have the pressure off and be able to make music in a relaxed and intimate environment with friends.

Saturday: We concluded our tour with a perfectly mellow performance at Oberon’s Tavern back in Ashland, where the crowd was calm and attentive. There had just concluded an open Irish fiddle jam in the backroom, so many of our audience were musicians. It’s always nice to have the support of fellow fiddlers! Fortunately we had an early slot, so afterward Kimbo and I hightailed it north on I-5 while Drew stuck around to see family for a few days.

Anyhow, we’re all back in Portland now, well-rested and back to work. Coming right up are our first official shows as Shady Grove Stringband with Michael and Rachael Levasseur of The Moonshine! Tonight it’s at Alberta Street Pub; next Tuesday’s at McMenamin’s White Eagle to help kick off a two month tour for our friends, Robber’s Roost. Train’s still chugging, baby.

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Some photos of the trip. 

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A weekend with The Moonshine

During Oregon's "spring fake-out" this year, if you happened to get lost in Northeast Portland (maybe on a dive-bar hopping tour from Mississippi to Cully Neighborhood) and found yourself walking by a little house with two tour busses in the driveway; and, stopping to gawk a moment, you heard the sound of soaring fiddles and boots knocking hardwood, and voices raised in exultant chorus; and maybe some hairy shirtless smoker on the front porch asked you something inexplicable such as, "How do you like our Buddha?…" Well, I'd say you may have stumbled upon a place called Shady Grove, and the folks inside were likely preparing for an unforgettable weekend of family and celebration (though I can't speak for that hairy shirtless smoker). It was definitely the start of springtime for Scratchdog Stringband, who had worked their bluegrass off all of January to compile, at last, their first professionally produced EP, which they released on two back-to-back nights with their musical cohorts, The Moonshine. Since autumn, these two bands have been cultivating a bond rooted in fierce creative passion, communal living, and deep spiritual love; and when they all get together with their friends, they call that bond "Shady Grove Stringband," a group fluid in its membership. As if to confirm the familial unity of this wild weekend, Shady Grove was visited by Brother Rossi, the east coast sibling of Scratchdog's fiddle player, James. Brother Rossi had previously been only as far west as Pennsylvania, but with his Maine winter beard and flannel, he blended right in (and dove in with culture-shocked exuberance). It's little wonder that James, at both shows, needed constant reminders to plug the new CD, what with seven of his adopted family pouring, sawing, and plucking out their joy on stage in front of so many friends, supporters, and his blood brother to boot. If I haven't made it clear, this CD celebration was a raucous good time. By the end of Saturday night there were boys and girls nearly storming the stage: one girl managed to get behind a microphone between Michael and James, while others danced so vigorously they could barely keep their feet. It was, in short, an exhilarating party, and all parties involved walked away revitalized and motivated. Now, after a few days' grace, Scratchdog Stringband is off again, starting their weekend in Portland at their favorite regular venues, and then touring southern Oregon and northern California for a week of Saint Paddy's gigs. When they return, they'll reunite with members of The Moonshine to play their first official shows as "Shady Grove Stringband." So it looks to me like this train's really rolling, and all I can see is more folks getting on board and steam climbing to the clouds.