I have had two opportunities come open to fiddlers who know about a half a dozen tunes (or more).
They are in chronological order, and though the first one offers a small amount of pay, I'm most excited about the second one! Read on to learn more.
The first one is on Friday, August 9th, it is an evening gig for a state Kiwanis meeting. They want music from 4:30 to 5:00 or 5:15. The format would be, we'd all play a few tunes together, then it would be more or less "Ceilidh" format, where a fiddler or a group of fiddlers would play two to three tunes, then it would be someone else's turn, then we'd play another group tune at the end. The group tunes would for sure include the following: Road to Lisdoonvarna, Swallowtail Jig, Egan's Polka, and Butterfly. This event is at Bogart Park and, depending on how many people sign up, each fiddler would probably go home with $10.
The second event is a fantastic adventure that I hope many of you will consider! It is Bozeman's First Travelling Jam! As the name implies it will be a jam session that will travel! And the travel will be on bicycles! Anyone can join in, as long as they travel by bike and bring their instrument by bike.
Details: This will be on the morning of Saturday, August 10th. Fiddlers (and others) will meet at the Stockyard Cafe, at 9:30 a.m., The Stockyard Cafe is right next to the old Story Mill elevator where the OLD Stockyard used to be. You can choose to arrive there on bike, or not, but from there on everyone will go on a bike.
At 10:00 we will play a few tunes (probably about 15 minutes worth) for Christine and the customers in the Stockyard, then we will hop on our bikes and go down the bike trail nearby, stopping to play at one or two spots.
At 11:00 we will arrive at the Wild Crumb Bakery (the new one on the corner of Wallace and Peach), where will again play some tunes.
I am working on lining up some more places to play, and I am hoping to have several more places lined up, culminating at the Sola Cafe near the Museum of the Rockies. I will know soon what, where, and when all the stops will be.
Please think about being a part of this! Many of you come to lesson packing fiddles on bikes anyway! I think it will be great fun! I can give you some pointers on carrying your fiddle as you ride.
A few important things: kids will ONLY be able to cross busy streets in the presence of adults! There will only be a few such crossings, but we will make sure all kids (under the age of 16) wait for an adult!
And we will try to stay pretty close together. We might instantly get inspired to get our instruments out and play, anywhere along the way!
As some of you may know, my daughter Greta and I are undertaking a long-term project to do a student exchange with musicians and storytellers in Scotland and Ireland. Called Giant Steps, it is a massive undertaking, but we are starting out with some community-building music events in Bozeman.
The Travelling Jam is our first real event! If you could participate in it, we would be ecstatic and grateful!
Contact me through my NEW email especially for this purpose:
gianthighways1@gmail.com
or, by phone, 406-522-0082.
This is mostly to HAVE FUN, but we will also be asking for donations as we go. Thanks for your interest, hope to hear from you!!
