Banjo Dan and the Mid-Nite Plowboys

Archive

2002 Newsletters & Schedule

Winter Newsletter Dec. 2002

Holiday Greetings to one and all, and to our new subscribers, welcome to the Banjo Dan electronic Newsletter. 2002 has been a terrific year for the Plowboys, with more gigs than we’ve seen in several years, a lot of new friends made along the way, and the release of our 10th recording project, “Like a River.” Things are cooling down now, but we have a couple more shows on the near horizon, and we’re looking forward to another big year in '03.

On New Year’s Eve Banjo Dan and the Mid-nite Plowboys will again appear at First Night St. Johnsbury, with shows at 10 and 11 PM at the South Congregational Church. Then on Saturday, January 18 we’ll be in Randolph, Vermont at the beautiful Chandler Music Hall for a 7:30 concert. This is a great space, and we’re really pleased to get back to the Chandler for a show after many years. Be sure to catch this one, folks, before we go into serious hibernation.

During the bluegrass off-season Willy and I will again be doing a number of shows with our old-time “brothers” act, The Lindner Brothers – Banjo Dan and Willy. We’re having a great time with the duo, playing traditional pre-bluegrass duets, original songs, a bit of gospel and a few instrumentals, and just a touch of cornball comedy. For a good time come out and catch us at any of the following:

December 31: Burlington VT First Night, College St. Congregational Church, 2 & 5 PM.
December 31: St. Johnsbury VT First Night, 8 and 9 PM, South Congo Church, preceding the Plowboys.
January 30: Middle Earth Music Hall, Bradford VT (details: folkhero@sover.net)
February 15: Purple Moon Pub, Rt 100, Waitsfield, VT, 9 PM.
March 8: Rutland (VT) UU Church Coffeehouse, 117 West St. (details: 802-483-9395)
March 29: Kingdom Coffeehouse, E. Charleston VT, 7:30 PM

And now, for those of you who have yet to complete your holiday shopping, let me gently urge you to remember the gift of music. Banjo Dan and the Mid-nite Plowboys have three titles currently available:

Like a River – our 2002 compilation of 17 most-requested original tracks from our first 8 albums, 1974-94. CD only.
Some Rust, Runs Good – acclaimed 2000 release with Elizabeth, Miserlou, Loggin’ Man, etc. CD and cassette.
The Catamount is Back! – our second volume of original Vermont songs. CD and cassette.

We also have CD copies of Cream of Vermont. This is a generous sampler of music from a whole cross-section of Vermont performing artists, put out by the Vermont Arts Council. We’re there with one cut (Walkin’ the Ties, from The Catamount is Back); so are Patti Casey, Big Joe Burrell, Pete Sutherland, and a slew of others.

Get your order to me quick, and I’ll send it out same-day. Send $16 per CD and $11 per cassette to Banjo Dan, 25 Kent Street, Montpelier VT 05602. Just tell me what you want, and enclose a check for the total made out to Banjo Dan. We cover all postage.

AND, to make your holidays merrier, we’re offering the BD special of the month: With any order of one or more CDs we’ll send you a cassette of The Catamount is Back! for just five bucks more. (Let’s see Amazon.com top that!)

If your Banjo Dan shelf is complete, let me offer a couple other ideas. Many of you have enjoyed the terrific fiddling of Gene White with the Plowboys over the past couple seasons. Gene of course was a mainstay with the excellent Burlington group Breakaway, and I know he has Breakaway CDs and tapes available. He’s also recorded with The Bluegrass Gospel Project (along with our favorite pinch-hit bass player, Jim Disabito). You can order these items directly from Gene at GWhiteJr1@aol.com.

And let me put in a special plug for Children of the Mountains, a digitally-remastered CD of Alli Lubin’s 1983 album of original songs. Alli’s a fine singer-songwriter and a great old friend. The ’83 Plowboys, with Al, Willy and myself along with Pete Riley and David Gusakov, had the privilege of playing on a few cuts; the rest are accompanied by some fine players on steel, piano, percussion, etc. This is a fun album. You can and should order it directly from Alli: allilu@sover.net.

In closing we’d like to thank Sherry Merrick for her fine work as the Plowboys’ booking agent, Rob Resnik for playing our music and promoting our shows on his excellent All the Traditions radio show on VPR (Sunday afternoons – be sure to check it out), and all you fine friends and fans for coming out to support live music in general and BDMP in particular.

Happy Holidays, and we look forward to seeing you in 2003. Banjo Dan

September 15, 2002 update

Hi again to all subscribers to the Banjo Dan electronic newsletter. We've had a terrific summer, playing more shows and seeing more old and new friends than any summer in recent memory. It's been great. Last night we marked the end of the season with the annual 4-H tent party at Con Hogan's, one of our favorite shows of every year. But we're not done yet -- we have a few more gigs in 2002, and we'd like to fill you in on one in particular.

On Sunday, October 13 we'll be playing at a really special event billed as "An Afternoon of Vermont Bluegrass to Benefit Con Hogan for Governor!" It's at the beautiful Barre Opera House in Barre, Vermont, running 3 PM to 5:30 PM. Banjo Dan and the Mid-nite Plowboys will be sharing the program with The Radio Rangers and Cold Country Bluegrass.

As Vermont's Independent candidate for governor Con will undoubtedly have a few words you'll want to hear about his platform and his plans. But as the 5-string man for Cold Country you can be sure he'll let his banjo do a lot of the talking, and the whole program is guaranteed to be full of good music and fun.

Our subscribers on the other side of the country or the world might have to miss this one, but we'd love to see all you folks in and around Vermont in Barre on 10/13. Tickets will go for $13 adults, $11 seniors, $5 students 12-18 and $3 children under 12. They can be purchased at the Opera House or by calling 802-262-8683. Proceeds, of course, will go to the Hogan for Gov campaign.

Hope to see you on the 13th! -Banjo Dan

August 12, 2002 update

Hi, music lovers. Banjo Dan and the Mid-nite Plowboys are in the midst of their busiest and most interesting summer to date. It's been great to get out there on the bluegrass trail and run into so many old friends, and we appreciate your support for real, live music. We're also pleased by the excellent response to our most recent CD, "Like a River," which chronicles the long and winding road we've taken since the '70s.

We'd like to express our appreciation to the terrific musicians who have filled in for those regular Plowboys audacious enough to take a little vacation this summer. These guys are pros, and you won't find any better bluegrass musicians than Andy Sacher, Pete Riley, Frank Orsini, Jim Disabito, Neil Rossi, Paul Miller, David Gusakov and Caleb Elder.

Finally, thanks to all you new e-Newsletter subscribers. We're pleased to have you on board and will do our best to keep you updated on our concerts, recordings, and so on. Since we sent out the last bulletin we've added a few show dates. Here's what we have in the way of public performances over the next few months:

[latest schedule is below]

That's it for now -- hope to see you soon. Regards - Banjo Dan

June 10, 2002 Email Newsletter:

Greetings to all friends and followers of Banjo Dan and the Mid-nite Plowboys in this palindromic year of 2002. It puts us in mind of the only palindromic Plowboy, former bass player Clyde Stats. (Too bad his first name wasn’t Bob.) We don’t plan on performing any songs backwards this year, but we do plan on a whole lot of righteous picking and singing all around northern New England and New York. We hope you’ll plan to come out and join us for some of that high-energy Vermont bluegrass. Let’s start with a public tip of the Stetson to our new agent, Sherry Merrick, who has helped us put together the busiest schedule we’ve had in years. Sherry will be on the road this summer with the Karelian band Myllarit, so if you wish to contact Banjo Dan and the Mid-nite Plowboys for a booking you’ll probably have better luck reaching our guitar man Alan Davis (adavis1163@aol.com).

We also encourage you to keep up with BDMP by checking our website. Our friend and site manager Dan Axtell has recently procured the “Banjo Dan” domain and changed the site to make it so simple even Willy can remember it: www.banjodan.com. What could be easier? Keep an eye on the site for new show dates and other late-breaking Plowboy news.

Before listing all the Plowboy shows, let me mention a special appearance by The Lindner Brothers, Banjo Dan and Willy, on June 16 at the Tinmouth Pond Pavilion in Tinmouth, Vermont (a bit south of Rutland). The show starts at 2:30 PM with fiddling by the Tinmouth Field Mice (!), followed by the Brothers with their old-time music show at 3 o’clock.

And now for Banjo Dan and the Mid-nite Plowboys (print this out and post it on your 'fridge or dart board):

Latest Schedule (updated Aug. 12, 2002)

June 20 – Rusty Parker Memorial Park, Waterbury, Vermont, 6:30 PM
June 23 – Vermont History Expo, Fairgrounds, Tunbridge Vermont, 12 noon
July 5 – Town Bandstand, Bradford Vermont, 7 PM
July 6 – Stratton Mt. Bluegrass Festival, Stratton Mt. Vermont, afternoon & evening
July 7 – Festival on the Green, Middlebury Vermont, 6 PM
July 19 – Haskell Opera House, Derby Line Vermont and Stanstead Quebec, 7:30 PM
July 21 – Bromley Mountain, Peru Vermont, 1:30 PM
July 25 – Swazey Park, Exeter New Hampshire, 6 PM
July 26 -- Village Green, Manchester Center Vermont, 6:30 PM
August 5 – Curry Place, Holderness New Hampshire, 7 PM
August 6 – Town park, Ticonderoga New York, 8 PM
August 9 – Summerfest, Jay Vermont, 7 PM
August 10 – Bluegrass on the Mountain Festival, Burke Mt, Burke Vermont, afternoon
August 15 – Lakeside Concert Series, Bates College, Lewiston Maine, 6 PM
August 16 – Great Falls Balloon Festival, Auburn Maine, 7:30 PM
August 17 – Bridgeton, Maine
August 18 – Monson, Maine, festival
August 19 – Slate’s Restaurant, Halowell Maine, 8:15 PM
August 20 – Memorial Hall, Wilmington Vermont, 7:30 PM
August 23 – Bondville Fair, Bondville Vermont, 6:30 PM
August 24 – Moultonboro, NH, Castle in the Clouds Festival [added since spring newsletter]
August 25 – Ogunquit Playhouse, Ogunquit Maine, 8 PM
August 31 – Bandstand, Wolfeboro New Hampshire, 7:30 PM
September 7 – Town green, New Milford Connecticut, 7:30 PM
September 14 – East Hill Farm, Plainfield Vermont (802-479-2723 for details)
September 21 – Shelburne Farms Harvest Festival, Shelburne Vermont (time pending)
September 29 – Bromley Mountain, Peru Vermont, 2:30 PM
October 5 – Middle Earth Music Hall, Bradford Vermont, 8 PM
October 13 – Barre Opera House, Barre, Vermont, 3 PM, Hogan for Governor concert/rally [added]

Finally, before posting this Newsletter, let me check in the attic….Yep, just as I figured: we still have several truckloads of Banjo Dan CDs and cassettes. You can order our popular 2000 release, “Some Rust, Runs Good,” or our collection of original Vermont songs, “The Catamount is Back!” by contacting me at banjodan@pshift.com. And be sure to notify me if you change your email address. Thanks – we’ll see you soon.

Banjo Dan

May, 2002 Email update:

Hi, friends. I know you're chomping at the bit to know when Banjo Dan and the Mid-nite Plowboys will be visiting a venue near you. In fact, we have a great summer schedule full of shows all around New England and beyond.

Our regular newsletter will be coming out in a couple weeks or so. But for the Vermonters among you, we just wanted to let you know we're doing a special noon-time concert for Stowe Performing Arts on Wednesday, May 15. It's at the Stowe Town Hall. Come on by if you can.

Hope to see you all soon. -Banjo Dan

Jan. 21, 2002 Email Newsletter:

New Year's Greetings to all Banjo Dan friends and fans. We hope 2002, which spelled backwards is 2002, is off to a great start for you.

The Plowboys will emerge from hibernation for a rare February concert on Saturday, Feb 9, at the Congregational Church in Thetford, Vermont, beginning 7 PM. As Jon Henry would say, we're jonesin' to pick and sing, so there'll be plenty of energy and good old bluegrass music to warm you right up. Be there if you can! (Snow date 2/10 in case of wretched weather.)

As mentioned in a previous bulletin, Willy and Dan are on the circuit this winter with their old-time brothers duet. Their show features early country songs, gospel, instrumentals, and a simulated 1940s-type early-morning radio show, complete with theme music, commercials and dedications. We have a lot of fun with it, and we'd love to see you at one of our shows. Here's what we have lined up so far:

• Saturday March 9, 2002 -- Starksboro Coffeehouse, at the Meeting House in Starksboro, Vermont. Open mike at 7:30, our show at 8.
• Saturday March 23, 7 PM -- Middlesex Concert Series, at the United Methodist Church in Middlesex, Vermont, just off Route 2.
• Cancelled- Monday March 25, 8:15 PM -- Slate's Restaurant, Hallowell, Maine. (A good listening space and the food is fabulous.) --Cancelled
• Saturday March 30, 7 PM -- the Music Box, 147 Creek Road, in the village of Craftsbury, Vermont.

We'll be in touch if and when additional shows are added for the winter. And of course we'll be sending out the regular Newsletter this spring with our summer schedule, news on the band and its recordings, and other invaluable information. Hope to see you soon,

Banjo Dan