It’s summer again, and that means that the annual Summer String Summit in Weed and the Shasta String Celebration in Berkeley are right around the corner… which also means that Tristan and Tashina have been burning the midnight oil, sending emails and logisticating madly. In spite of that, the three of us just spent an equally frenzied but logistication free week in Weiser, ID, at the National Oldtime Fiddlers Contest, playing and listening to texas style tunes till the tips of our fingers were black and rags, hornpipes, breakdowns were haunting our dreams. Tristan came away with third place and Tashina with fourth, but the most novel news of the week was the homemade blackberry pie that Tashina won for second place in the “other” category of the banjo contest… I’ll leave the details of that to your imagination. Now, from the chaos of the warm up room in Weiser, we’re heading east to teach at Megan Lynch’s Fiddlestar youth camp in Nashville, TN, for a few days. We’re really looking forward to that, to playing music with the kids and seeing Megan and Adam. And all the while, the wheels of the String Summit concerts will be spinning. Here’s the line up for the String Summit, which takes place on July 17th at College of the Siskiyous.
Grammy-Winning Songwriter/Singer/Fiddler Laurie Lewis, Legendary Chambergrass Iconoclast Darol Anger (Co-founder Of The David Grisman Quintet & Psychograss), North Indian violin maestro and International Treasure Kala Ramnath, Mesmerizing Dance Phenomenon Nic Gareiss, Footworks Percussive Dance Ensemble Founder Eileen Carson, Jazz Violin Genius Billy Contreras, Folk-Pop Singer Jesse Harper, Legendary Appalachian Music Master John Herrmann, Composer/Scottish Fiddle Champion Jeremy Kittel, Irish Tenor Banjo Virtuoso Dave Cory, Old-Time Fiddle Powerhouse Brittany Haas, Bluegrass Veteran Mark Schatz (Bassist For Platinum-Selling Band Nickel Creek), Bluegrass Guitar Master David Grier, Acoustic Guitar Innovator Scott Nygaard, Bluegrass Mandolin Icon Mike Compton (Featured on “Oh Brother Where Art Thou?”), Chambergrass Innovators The Bee Eaters, And Many Surprise Guests.