February, 2003
Hi Folks,
It's been awhile since I've updated this column. I apologize for that and I'll try to update more frequently in the future. I've struggled with a lot of personal health issues this past year, and that has been a big drain on my energy. I've been digging my way out, though, and am much more focused now.
I also struggled with the death of our Minnesota Senator Paul Wellstone. I supported Paul over the years and performed for many of his fund raisers. I was devastated by the untimely deaths of Paul and his wife Sheila. Our country lost a great statesman and voice of the people. Paul was truly a maverick, and can't be replaced. Paul and Sheila made this world a better place, and I'm honored to have spent a little time in this world in their company. Rest in peace...
On a lighter note, this past October saw the release of a wonderful CD I played on. It's a James Galway CD called "A Song of Home" on the RCA Victor label. The recording was produced by fiddler Jay Unger and features Sir James Galway on flute and whistle, Jay on fiddle, Molly Mason on voice and guitar, and myself on mandolin. There's a lot of great traditional and original music on this CD, and it also features James Galway playing one of my tunes, "Heart of the Heartland". It's beautiful music, and I hope you check it out.
My new CD on Red House Records will be out on March 15. The working title had been "Five Saturdays in March", but that was changed. The new title is "Coming Down From Red Lodge", which is the title track of the CD. The recording features a lot of my most requested tunes of late, such as "Teelin Bay Waltz", "East Texas Waltz" and "Hymn: Page 9/11".
The recording features the Prairie Home Companion house band, The Guys Allstar Shoeband with Ritchie Dworsky, Pat Donohue, Andy Stien, Gary Raynor and Arnie Kinsella. Also featured are my old friends Dirk Freymuth, Joel Sayles, Marc Anderson, Dave Newton, Greg Liesz and Diane Tremaine. You can order it directly from Red House Records or from my website. Either way, I hope you enjoy it.
The Mando Boys live CD is also finished. The title is The Mando Boys Live: Holstein Lust, the Midwestern Tours. I'm still working on the artwork and graphics, but hopefully it will be available soon.
Last, but not least, I continue to work on my transcriptions of Irish fiddler John Doherty.
John Doherty, who passed away in 1980, was a brilliant fiddler, with an amazing repertoire of tunes. I fell in love with his music a few years ago and have been transcribing his style and repertoire on the musical page ever since. Tapes of his music are hard to come by because he was rarely commercially recorded. I have managed to track down quite a bit of it, and have even gone to Ireland to see if I could find more. To date I have a few hundred of his tunes transcribed, and still have more to go. I would love to see his music preserved and played for generations to come. I hope to publish these transcriptions in the near future. I also plan on recording some of Doherty's tunes as a companion piece to the book. Let me know if you have any information about John Doherty and his music, or if you have any interest in this project.
That's it for now...
