Greetings from Day, New York!
It’s that time of year: Kieran and I have made the move north for the summer. We’ve had a busy several days of puttering and nesting as we settle in here at the cabin—unloading the car, stocking the kitchen, cleaning up the house and yard (after having turned the place over to the elements and the critters in our absence), and setting up our bunkhouse studio—but now we’re starting to feel like we’re really HERE.
NEWS ABOUT MY NEWS
I (once again) have way more to share than can or should be squished into a single newsletter. So here’s how I’m dealing with that: I’ve created a blog on my website. I’ll write about some stuff here, and will point you toward more over there.
And, in addition to my own sharing, the KKRG newsletter will be launching “notes from the cabin” tomorrow, which will be frequent short updates on what the two of us have cooking over the next few months. You can sign up to get it in your inbox here, or keep up with it on the Substack site or app.
REAL LIVE SHOWS!
KKRG DUO
On July 1 we’ll be at the historic Caffe Lena in Saratoga Springs, NY—which will also be a ticketed livestream! (Caffe Lena does a stellar job with their online broadcasts, so if you can’t be there in person this is the next best thing.) Info & tickets here.
On August 5 we’ll be at the Tompkins Corners Cultural Center in Putnam Valley, NY. The last time we played there it was at the invitation of John Cohen, and it was a memorable evening for many reasons. We’re looking forward to reconnecting with the good folks there.
EUROPE!
I’ll be jumping back into the Joachim Cooder experience for some overseas adventures later this summer! His band will be the fab Mark Fain and me. So I’ll finally get to experience the legendary Tønder Festival in Denmark, after which we’ll pop over to play the Shrewsbury Festival in England. More dates TBA, so stay tuned.
FIDDLE STUFF
My summertime situation doesn’t involved much internet access, which means I won’t be offering online lessons or livestream workshops for the next few months. In the meantime, you can still access previous workshops, watch the tune videos on my site, and subscribe to my YouTube channel so you won’t miss any video tidbits I happen to share.
Attention fiddlegeeks: Rhys Jones has just launched a YouTube channel that he’s populating with both tune videos AND instructional videos!
If you haven’t yet heard Sami Braman’s new album of original fiddle tunes, get on it. She and her band had a smokin’ album release bust-down at the Station Inn, and hearing Viv & Riley open the show was totally luscious. (I wrote a blog post about that, too.)
Speaking of fun merch: I still have some #fiddlegeek stickers available
OTHER BITS
My dear friend Dick Connette has a new project coming out soon, and it’s something special.
I recently (finally) got to meet the authors of that great book on Omie Wise (which I’d previously recommended), then was treated to a tour of the pertinent locations. Many thanks to Hal Pugh for the creepy & fascinating outing!
I thought the film The Naked City was cool and really gorgeous to look at (though as it went on I became increasingly distracted by the lack of people of color in NYC-??)
If you missed them previously: I have old-time music playlists on Spotify and YouTube that I occasionally add to. I also have an eclectic jogging playlist, if you’re into that sorta thing.
Speaking of: though I am a Spotify subscriber, I absolutely believe in scrutinizing the company and holding them accountable for their corporate ickiness. I recommend this segment from On The Media about the shady deals that the big record companies made with Spotify.
BIRD NEWS
Here at the cabin we’ve got plenty of birdwatching to do, but I’ll miss the owlets I was monitoring back in Nashville. You can read about them (and hear them!) in this blog post.
Just look at these adorable little floofs:
WRAPPING UP
Thanks so much for reading. Please share this note with anyone you think would be interested, and keep in touch!
xo rayna
<3 love hearing from you, Rayna! enjoy the summer cabin goodness!!