March 2 Tuesday 2010
Dear people,
I would like to write some new news because there hasn't been any new news on this old news page for quite some time.
Our last show for January was held at the Lititz Library in Lititz (a great place to have a Lititz Library). This would be our third time performing there and we were excited about doing it again, not only because it has been enjoyable in the past but because we were pining to play again. There aren't too many shows to play over the winter... Anyway, it was grand to see everyone who came out to hear us; they were an absolutey fun crowd. We asked two girls from our dance school to do a two hand dance during a tune and they were fabulous!
So, we waited and counted down the days till our next show which was on Valentine's Day at the St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church in Lebanon. Much to Earl's pure delight, we practiced quite regularly for this event because we were getting the show recorded. Yes, we still have a new CD in mind!
The day finally arrived and the show was underway. Why that day of all days we had to have more than just the usual minor clinkers! It seemed to me that I kept screwing things up, but maybe I was more aware of it because, ya know, I was being recorded. Ha. A very real possibility. I was surprised when afterwards, so many people told me how it was the best show they ever saw us do!
I played my banjo for the first time with the Martin Family Band that afternoon. No, we are not becoming a bluegrass band, although I do love bluegrass music and I listen to it almost as much as I listen to Celtic music.
Thanks to all the people who came- Linda (my bagipe teacher), Moxie, the Imhoffs, friends from our current and old church, friends from my Bible study group, friends from the session at Patsy Fagan's, countless other people that we knew and of course all the new folks that came.... we couldn't do it without ya'll!!
On Sunday we provided music for runners of the Ugly Mudder Race which was held at the Reading Liederkranz. There were about 700 runners participating in the race which I heard was quite a task running through a foot of snow!
As we played, the building grew more and more crowded as all the runners came dashing through the snow and into the building to get beer and pancakes.
Eric and Dianne Fisher came all the way from the metropolis of Stouchsburg to see us and Eric gave us a hand with the music. He and I played some country stuff...it was fun but our unaccomidating brother, Stan, wasn't there as usual.
We danced and played for a couple of hours then loaded up the trailer to head for home. What a gorgeous day it was outdoors! Hurray for spring! I'm so ready for it to come.
Last night, Brian and I, as part of the Quittapahilla Highlanders, were on Berks Community Television with the Acoustic Roadshow. I realized that that was the seventh time I've been on BCTV but it was the first time I've played bagpipes on TV. We had four pipers and three drummers make it out to the show. Everything went without a hitch and Butch even remembered how to say Quittapahilla!
Hopefully as our gigging season starts, I will have more new news to post and keep you updated. Check the schedule and see where we'll be....
Later,
Emily
December 18 Friday 2009
Hey everyone! So, I was going to try and keep this blog thing a little more up to date, but it takes me forever to write it. Finally, here 'tis!!
Our family now has this joke about rainy days being good days for outdoor festivals. We certainly have had our share of rainy outdoor festivals this year. Saturday, Oct. 10, was no different and we were scheduled to play outdoors at the Lititz Chocolate Walk. After setting up our gear under the porch of the Freeze and Frizz, some of us huddled in the trailer to keep dry. That trailer has really come in handy for stuff like this lately.
Friends of ours, Jim and Cheryl, came to see us and Jim played his bagpipes with me before the MFB performed. While the show was going, the rain was not really going. Just a little bit of "sweating".
That afternoon, we had enough of time to eat a little something at home and head on down to Bucks County Community College. We were doing a show there in the evening with the Hooley Irish Dancers. Our friend and fellow dancer, Tosha, and our cousins, Nebin and Celeste, traveled with us there. We spent most of the time singing "You get a line, I get a pole" (from Andy Griffith) and "Ain't She Large" (from the Beverley Hillbillies). Earl was ready to go nuts by the time we got there....not only because of us but because dad was not taking directions from Earl's new GPS. "Make the next legal U-turn," it would suggest nicely. Nope, not listening to you, ridiculous GPS who takes us the long way around. "MAKE THE NEXT LEGAL U-TURN!" it insisted, not so nicely this time.
By the time we got there, we were absolutely starving. The staff at the college had food for us and much to their astonishment, we made it disappear quickly.
The other dancers were at a feis (an Irish dance competition) earlier in the day and got to the college a while after we got there.
The show started with Tom Slattery telling a few stories to the audience. Next, we were on. The dancers performed a slip jig choreography for the first time. Ya'll did a great job, girls! We have a new video on the Music/Video page of the girls performing the dance.
We had a guest dancer join us on a tune. Melissa and Tosha taught Tom Slattery a simple dance step and he actually did it on stage with them!
After the show, there was a reception for the audience to meet the band and the dancers. We got home the next morning that night (If that makes any sense). Let's just say it was late.
The next day, Sunday, we got in a few hours of sleep before going to the early service at church. From there we went straight to the Haldeman Mansion in Bainbridge where the Apple Harvest Day was happening. It was a beautiful fall day...almost too good for an outdoor festival. Just kidding of course. It was a blessing to be playing outside on such a day!
We put a mini pipe band together for the day. Jim brought his bagpipes again and another guy that I used to play pipes with, Andy, brought his. That was fun.
The MFB performed two sets that day. In between shows, I sat in the van to relax because I was thoroughly exhuasted. Soon some of my friends and family came looking for me. I felt so loved! :) Anyway, all of us did make it through the shows and had a great time doing so.
Afterwards, I was out late with some friends and the rest of the family went to a party. Who needs to sleep anyway?
On Saturday, October 17, we had a gig scheduled with the Acoustic Roadshow. We were to play at the Pennsylvania Guild of Craftsmen Fine Craft Fair at the Montgomery County Community College. It was pouring rain and cold. Just another rainy festival. We all dressed warmly and bravely set out. As a joke, I brought three rubber duckies along and put them in a puddle in front of the stage. I got a kick out of watching people stop in amusement and take pictures of them.
Butch Imhoff, president and founder of the Roadshow, was playing his guitar under a tent when we arrived. In the middle of singing about some girl named Mary Lou, the power went out and he stopped to go turn it back on. When he got it going again, he came back, picked up his guitar, and finished the song.
Next it was our turn to perform. My fingers were so cold that I left my gloves on to play the first couple of tunes. We cut out the dancing for this show because the conditions weren't that great for it.
Fortunately, the day didn't turn out to be too bad of a wash. The rain came and went throughout the day.
Another fellow member of the roadshow, Jim Stauffer, performed after us. He is an excellent guitar player. I stood out in the rain and watched him instead of going inside Butch's camper where I should have been.
Eric Fisher and I played next. I wrote our set list on my hand because Eric gets a huge kick out of having an actual hand-written set list. Afterwards a reporter interviewed us. She asked what the name of our band was and Eric answered "We're the Smith Brothers and Stanley. I'm Eric Fisher and this is Emily Martin." I don't think it got through to her that we started all this as a joke. She took everything way too seriously.
After the MFB performed the second show for the day, we all went to Zern's Market in Boyertown. The guy who put us in contact with the Big Joe Polka Show bought us some gifts that we had to pick up at the market. The male members of the MFB got steaks while the girls got candles. Before we left, the butcher at the stand where we got the steaks got us to sign an apron that Big Joe himself signed.
One Friday evening, we had another Acoustic Roadshow event at Legends Cafe which is in the downstairs of our church. The line-up for the evening was us, The Smith Brothers and Stanley, and Butch.
It was a full house that night. My "best" friend, Bill, was there. Dad, Melissa, and I played at an open mike with him a few months ago and he was joking about being my best friend for some reason. The problem is, I totally forgot his name when I saw him again at Legends. Hahaha...oops. Sorry Bill.
The audience was alot of fun. Some even danced when we played a polka!
That Friday night I could not sleep. I was in suspense because we were supposed to play at Weaver's Orchard with Cool Beans if it didn't rain. I was hoping it wouldn't rain because I had been looking forward to playing there again. When I got up, it was really windy outside but actually warm. There was no rain.
Butch and Marilyn had camped out in our driveway (in a camper) that night since they were coming with us to the orchard. After Butch and dad had gone all over creation so early in the morning, getting coffee, finishing up some job of dad's and whatnot, they decided to call the orchard and find out if we were playing or not. It was announced that we were going! There was a mad dash to worry down some breakfast, jump into vehicles and go. Most of us rode with the Imhoffs in their camper and whistled most of the way there. Poor them.
We set up at the orchard on a covered stage that had ramps over the top of it for goats to walk on. The floor of the stage was made of plywood that made dad sea-sick when we danced. It was a little freaky but it held up. The wind was blowing in like crazy and knocking mike stands and speakers around. The wind was creating quite a roar on one of the mikes so Eric put a big hunk of foam over it. It was dubbed the Cabbage Patch doll. I have no idea where that came from.
Somewhere close to the end of the Cool Beans performance, the rain decided to come. We tore down as fast as we could. We had just barely put all the equipment under cover when the heavens really opened up and dumped rain. What a way to end our outdoor gigging season!
Just recently, we played at Glick's Greenhouse for a poinsettia show. It was already quite unusual for us to be playing in a greenhouse, but we never got stuck in plastic before either. Let me explain.... After loading up the stuff to go home, we all jumped in the big red van and dad proceeded to drive out of the parking lot. But the parking lot was covered with black plastic. As the van tried to move forward, the tires spun on the plastic and somehow got wrapped around the tires till we were unable to move at all. It took quite a crew of people to cut the plastic off the tires and even then, we still had to be pulled out by a skid-loader. Since Melissa is learning how to drive right now, she thinks there should be a chapter in her driver's book on how to get out of plastic.
By the way, Glick's Greenhouse really was a nice place to perform. We had a great time playing for the crowd and looking at the swell poinsettia displays.
Last week, we played our last show for the year of 2009. (Over 80 shows for this year!) It was a good year full of new and interesting experiences.............like getting stuck in plastic, being on a polka show, playing so many times in the rain, hanging out in the trailer, being on a "Fruit and Nut" tour; awesome stuff like that.
Our first public show for next year appears to be at the Lititz Library. Check the details on that one on the schedule page.
The Martin Family Band was featured on the front cover of the Today and Tomorrow magazine. You can usually find them in a grocery store or something like that. Be sure to pick up a copy!
Have a Merry Christmas.....see you next year!
~Emily
October 25 Sunday 2009
On Wednesday, September 23, we took off for Gatlinburg TN. We were hired to perform at the Dandridge Scots-Irish Festival in Dandridge TN, so we took the opportunity to take a small vacation and to see the Smoky Mountains. We drove and drove and drove some more. It took about nine and a half hours. Emily, Christy and I passed some of the time by practicing the Pennsylvania Polka for the Big Joe Polka Show. When we finally reached Gatlinburg, the people we were renting a cabin from told us we had to turn around and drive back a few miles to our cabin. Clifford the Big Red Van had quite a workout climbing the steep hill that led to our cabin. The log cabin was perched on the top of the hill. On the way into the cabin, I passed a garbage can with teeth marks of a bear. That area well populated with bears, and I kept looking out into the woods, hoping to see one. After we were situated, I settled down on the soft sofa with my crocheting. I could hear balls knocking around upstairs on the pool table, and the air hockey game running downstairs. The rocking chair was just inside the door, and somehow it got pushed into the path that everyone took from the livingroom to the dining room, and I banged my ankle on it more than once. Dad made some hamburgers on the grill and after supper we made s'mores over the still-hot coals in the grill.
The next morning Dad was flipping through channels on one of the TVs and he happened to come upon the Big Joe Polka Show! And since we don't have a working TV at home, we took the opportunity to watch and see what we were up for the next weekend.
We watched half of the show, then we piled into Clifford and headed to the Smoky Mountains. We drove for a long time, going uphill all the way, until we came nearly to the top where we hiked the rest of the way to Clingman's Dome at the top of the mountain. We hiked nearly a mile all uphill, and when we finally reached the top, we had to climb up the tower. Despite some low clouds, we had a beautiful veiw and took a lot of good pictures of the mountains. There were people all around speaking different languages, so Dad started talking in Pennsylvania Dutch as we nearly ran back down the really steep trail. We had a tailgate picnic back at the parking lot and took lots more pictures. I felt like a tourist. After lunch, we wearily climbed back into Clifford and descended down the mountain. Near the bottom we got caught in some really slow traffic. As we inched our way forward, Dad said that he thought there might be a bear, and sure enough, there was! The people in the vehicles ahead of us were slowing down to take pictures of two cute little bear cubs. Dad parked by the side of the road, and we watched as the crazy tourists took pictures of the bears.
After that excitment, we drove on the nature drive, scanning the woods for bears the whole way. We stopped to hike to a creek where the kids waded and I took some more pictures. Suddenly it started to rain and by the time we reached the van we were all pretty wet. On the way back to the cabin, we stopped at a little Amish store for ice cream. We were excited to see products from good ole Lancaster County. We got some chow-chow just to say that we went to Tennessee for it. We also got a box of soft pretzel mix and three enormous cups of home-made ice cream.
When we got back to the cabin, Mom popped the pretzels in the oven, while Emily and I listened to a cd that Emily put together and danced to all the polkas.
We left the cabin the next morning, which was Friday, and headed to Dandridge. I was sorry to leave such a nice cabin, but I was glad for my black and blue ankle's sake that we were leaving that rocking chair behind. We stopped at a cast iron kettle store and a knife museum on the way to Dandridge. At the toy section of the knife museum, a little stage was set up with a duo of stuffed animals playing bluegrass music. Emily got a few licks from the fiddle playing badger that was accompanied by a bear on the banjo.
We stopped at Dandridge to eat lunch by the lake. After lunch we headed to a little soda shop where we got enormous ice cream cones. One scoop was two scoops there!
The next stop was at the hotel. I tried to put Alex down for a nap while Mom and the other kids went swimming. Emily and Dad decided to go back to Dandridge and scout out the festival and watch the people set up.
The next morning I was anxiously watching the sky. It was looking pretty cloudy, and I hoped the rain would hold off for another day. Dad checked the weather on the hotel computer, and it didnt look too promising. Emily, Dad and I went to the festival to watch the pipe competition a little. It still wasn't raining, and I entertained a hope that it wouldn't rain at all.
We returned to the hotel to get ready. I was sitting on the bed crocheting when Zach knocked on the door. Mom opened it, and we beheld a sorrowful sight. It was pouring rain so hard, that we could barely see past the parking lot. I bowed my head in sorrow, my crocheting forgotton on my lap. We mournfully continued our preparations to leave. Dad parked Clifford right outside the door so we could get in without getting soaked. The rain slowed down a little and I began to hope again. It wasnt long until I resigned myself that it was going to continue to rain, and continue to rain it did.
Once at the festival, we found out that the schedule was changed because of the rain. All the bands were moved to the main stage where their were tents both for the band, and for the audience. Apparently the other stage was located in a place that flooded easily. Some cars were parked down there, and one got stuck in the mud. The main stage was by the lake, on the other side of the levee. I didn't even realize that the lake was there at first. A third tent was set up and the pipe band gathered under it to play. A building right next to the stage offered a nice dry place for the grateful musicians to hang out between sets. It did not cease to pour the entire time we were there.
Emily, Christy and I played polkas while we waited for our turn to be onstage. One of the other performers, Colin Grant-Adams, heard Emily playing St. Anne's reel, and he asked Emily to play it with him on stage. Emily was also invited to play bagpipes with the Knoxville Pipes and Drums.
We met up again with some friends whom we met at the Sycamore Shoals Celtic Festival when we were two years ago, and they were kind enough to watch Alex, who wasn't in a very good mood.
We took turns with the other bands doing three twenty-minute sets. Tom, the fiddler from the Thistledown Tinkers, played with us on Kesh jig.
That evening, after our last set, the rain slowed down, almost to a stop, and some of us stood under the pipe band's tent, now converted into the merchandise tent, and watched the closing acts. As we watched, the rain stopped, and the clouds backed away, reveiling a beautiful sunset. I immediately took some pictures of it, which you can see on the gallery page. The rain was done.
It was growing late, so we packed up and hurried back to the hotel where we changed into nice, warm, dry clothes and had a pizza party with the Thistledown Tinkers; Olive, the owner of the hotel; Olive's daughter; and Kevin, a friend of Olive, and who we met earlier in the day. I do not remember the last time I ate pizza at 9:00 pm. We jammed with the Tom and Trip of the Thistledown Tinkers for a while, then dragged our weary selves to bed. The next morning, we headed back to good o'le Pennsylvania. We had a wonderful time in TN.
~Melissa
October 8 Thursday 2009
Hi Everyone! Time for an update on what's been happening with the Martin Family Band.
On September the 11th, we marked the beginning of another year as the Martin Family Band. We are now in our sixth year! We spent the day at the Chile Pepper Festival with the Acoustic Roadshow. It was raining, a cold wind was blowing, and the festival grounds were really muddy. We got there in time to hear our good friend, Rich Machemer, finish out his set. I stood and shivered in the cold outdoors as long as I could before retreating into Butch's warm, dry camper. Later on, curiousity got the better of me and I ventured out to see the other members of the Roadshow perform. I sat in a corner of the stage with some of the other musicians and kept somewhat dry.
Fortunately, there was actually a small window of time when it didn't rain...during our show! After our show, there was an appearance by the notorious Smith Brothers and Stanley, followed by a performance by a former guitarist for the MFB, Steve Hartman.
I did get a chance to sample some of the wonderful foods of the Chile Pepper Festival. One of the infamous Smith brothers got me a shot of garlic vinegar to sample along with some jalapeno poppers which caused us to come up with some of our own definitions of spicy. Let's just say it was so good it brought tears to my eyes.
A friend of ours, Dale Schwoyer, invited us to visit at her house since she lived not far from the festival. She treated us to hot chocolate as we sat in her living room and looked out at her gorgeous property and listened to stories of her travels with her husband, David, who recently passed away.
That evening, much to Earl's pleasure, the band got together and practiced polkas for the Big Joe Polka Show.
The next day was Saturday and it was still raining. We had a show to play at the Green Lane Scottish-Irish Festival in Montgomery County.
The festival grounds are really nice with a lake in the middle of everything. Vendors had tents set up on either side of the lake. A bridge went across from one side to the other and pipe bands marched over it occasionally. Nessie, the Loch Ness monster, was sitting in the lake and was getting potatoes hurled at it from a trebuchet all day long.
That day all the bands and dance schools performed in a little pavilion to keep dry.
It was a beautiful, sunny day that Sunday. First of all, we went to Geigertown to play at the Hay Creek Fall Festival before heading back to the Green Lane Festival. We were to play in the closing ceremony with the other bands who had been at the festival. Each of the bands which included the Hooligans, Raining Hearts, Barleyjuice, and us, played a set before playing all together in the ceilidh. Some friends of mine came to the festival and "kidnapped" me before the ceilidh started so I don't really know what happened during that time.
On Oct. the 2nd, the Martin Family Band was on the Big Joe Polka Show!
Earlier in the year, Big Joe conctacted us about playing on his TV show even though we aren't a polka band. The only requirement was to learn 4-5 polkas and play them along with our usual music. For the last 6 months or so, we had been learning and practicing polkas....so much that Earl claims he dreamed about polkas.
We left this past Thursday for Buffalo, New York to see the Niagara Falls since we were going to be in the area anyway for the Polka Show. The falls were gorgeous! Mom couldn't get her mind off of people actually getting in barrels and going over the falls or walking on a tight-rope across them.
We all got into big yellow rain coats and those weird Niagara Falls souvenier sandals and went on the Cave of the Winds tour. Before we walked onto the stairs to climb around the falls, a sign was hanging on the railing that said that the tour was not recommended for people with heart or respiritory problems. Earl went anyway. No worries, he survived not only the tour, but also the rickety steps.
After checking in at our motel, we walked over to a little pizza shop for pizza and Buffalo wings. There we met an Apache Indian who was a flute player and was in the area to accept some kind of award for his playing.
The next day was Friday and we were excited about getting to the Buffalo-Niagara Convention Center to watch the other bands and get a feel for how the show worked. While the bands played, couples went on the dance floor and danced to the music. Us kids stayed way behind the TV cameras and did Irish dance back in a dark corner. But it was too late. We had been spotted and Big Joe's daughter dragged us out onto the dance floor. Unknown to us, she told all the camera men to turn the cameras on us. Meanwhile, Big Joe noticed us dancing and informed his daughter to ask us to be featured dancers while the next band played. So Brian, Christy, Melissa, and I were featured doing the Irish 4-hand dance to a polka on TV.
Finally our time slot rolled around. We were desperately hoping that these true polka fans wouldn't throw anything at us during our attempt to play polka or while we were playing the music of the Irish. Surprisingly, they seemed to enjoy it and even tried dancing along. After we played the Hamburger Polka, Big Joe informed us that we had just played a schottishe. None of us have any idea what that is since we are clueless on anything polka.
I had a good laugh while we were playing. I looked behind me and saw Earl sitting at the drum kit with his chin barely clearing the top of the snare. Methinks his seat was a little low.
We really had a wonderful time and the people were great! Some time next year you might see us playing or dancing on the Big Joe Polka show which is shown on RFD-TV. Big Joe said most likely we will be on around St. Patrick's Day.
We returned from Buffalo really late that night and slept for a few hours before hitting the road again. This time we went south to Bowie, Maryland to play at the International Festival. It was a nice sized festival with tents and stages surrounding Allen Pond. While I ate some Carribean curried goat, I listened to some kids playing island steel drum music on the stage. I was marveling over the fact that I had only ever heard of steel drums that morning from my friend and got to hear some on the exact same day! Although he told me it is a less than desirable type of music, I rather enjoyed it.
Our show went well. The stage, the sound, the sound guy, the audience, and we can't forget the weather was really great and we enjoyed ourselves.
As soon as we got home, Melissa and I drove to Leesport for a hoedown. We wanted to surprise some of our friends who would be there because they didn't think we were in the area. Being good buddies with the hoedown band, the Blue Marsh Ramblers, we got roped into playing our fiddles for half the night.
The rest of the weekend was spent having festivities with friends and getting a radio interview on WEEU about the Big Joe Polka Show.
Tonight we are getting interviewed by the magazine, Today and Tomorrow. We will probably be featured on the front cover of their winter season issue so be sure to check it out this winter.
I will certainly try to keep this thing more up to date as our schedule is beginning to slow down a little for the winter. Check out the tour page and come see us if we play in the area...even if we aren't in the area we would definitely love to see you there!
CHECK BACK SOON! MELISSA IS WORKING ON A STORY ABOUT OUR TRIP TO TENNESSEE!!
See you soon.......
Emily
July 21 Tuesday 2009
It's been a while since I've written here and you deserve a big long update. Here it is. Enjoy!
On Saturday, June 13, we played a show at Landis Homes Farm Day in the early afternoon and then two shows at the North Heidelberg Church in Robesonia, PA for the Strawberry Festival. This was our first gig with Cool Beans (Eric Fisher and Butch Imhoff) in our "Fruit and Nut Tour" as we jokingly call it.
It was a pleasant day for a festival and a nice breeze was blowing the whole time we were playing. Of course, a nice breeze for us girls means long hair blowing all over our faces and getting tangled in fiddles. Several times I started to pull horsehair off my bow only to realize that it was my own hair.
We had alot of friends come out to see us including my cousin and wonderful friend, Nebin. We also had a good time getting everyone to participate in the party dance during our show.
After our shows that evening, Eric invited me to get my fiddle and join him at a gig he had to play late that night. So I did. I plunked a shabby old cowboy hat on my head and dodged through the rain storm that had come up and played yet another gig for that day. I kept my eyes open long enough to saw my way through our songs, meet some of Eric's unusual fans, and then go home to my nice soft bed.
On June the 27th, we woke up bright and early and left for Dundee, New York because our Cousin Milford Mast was getting married. The drive was four hours too long and it started out with everyone in the van singing "Humoresque" at the top of our lungs and Alex and Zach playing Cowboys and Indians in the back seat. Some of us sang Sauerkraut Band songs to get everyone all jazzed up for the Kutztown Festival where we were playing the next day.
Eventually we arrived at Milford's house where the wedding would be held. Cousin Mary banished the kittens to the island in the pond for the occasion. We set up our gear on the lovely deck that Milford made and waited for the wedding to begin. After playing for the reception, we ate supper and left for home.
We got home late from New York and got a few hours of sleep before heading to our next adventure at the Kutztown Folk Festival. What a happy reunion we had with all our Kutztown Festival friends! Our daily routine consisted of parking at the house where we would be staying in between shows and walking up to the festival where we greeted Elaine at the gate. Next, we walked down the midway to visit Butch in his Make Your Own Music tent before saying hi to Cousin Gressley at the tractors. Then, we girls went to Cousin Lucy's funnel cake stand to weasel a fork out of her for Butch so he could eat his jelly beans and bananas or something like that. Meanwhile, our favorite bluegrass band, Blue Mountain Junction, was playing on the hoedown stage. We waved to them and continued on our way to the main stage.
Day one at the festival. Sunday was our first day playing at the festival and our first show came after the church service. Savana Martin, a fellow Irish dancer from the Hooley School of Irish Dance, danced with Melissa on a tune during both of our shows that day. We are thinking of adopting her as another sister. :)
The disaster of the day was when Melissa's fiddle bow fell on the stage and broke. She used my spare bow the rest of the week.
Immediately following the second show that day, I grabbed my fiddle and hurried over to the Mennonite Meeting House where my hoodlum friend, Eric Fisher, was playing. The Smith Brothers and Stanley (that's me and Eric) performed a few songs much to the astonishment of Cousin Gressley who didn't know that I played country.
Day two at the festival. Besides playing our usual shows at 11:30 am and 3:00 pm, Butch asked four of us kids to play a set on the Young Folk's Stage which was the festival's new stage for young performers. We played a mix of Celtic and bluegrass tunes and I even attempted to twang a few on the banjo. The Berne Sisters were running the stage that day and they asked us to come back later and play a few more tunes. We roped dad into playing with us the next time around. Dave Fooks, the festival director, said dad looks pretty bad for a sixteen year old. haha!
Every day during the second show on the main stage, Keith Brintzenhoff, who was another festival entertainer, would join us by playing his autoharp on Old Joe Clark and also doing a dance-off with Melissa on a set of French Canadian reels. He would do Pennsylvania Dutch jigging and Melissa would do Irish dancing and the audience got to vote on who was the best dancer. Sometimes he won, sometimes she won, sometimes it was a tie. We had a lot of fun with that.
Day three at the festival. The disaster of the day was when we almost bored a guy to death during our first show. A man passed out and we quit playing in the middle of a tune to ask if there was a doctor in the house. Help quickly arrived and there was nothing we could do but continue with the show although it didn't seem at all appropriate for the occasion. We went to the house that day and ate something other than festival food. We love the festival food but after a day or two of it, it's time for something else. It was great to have the house to rest in between shows. We just sat and rested while Earl made a macrame plant holder. I never spent much time there because there was too much to see at the festival. Melissa and I spent alot of time wandering aimlessly around the festival and listening to Blue Mountian Junction on the weekends or the Back Porch Pickers who played during the week.
The second show that day was one of my favorites. A fond memory of it was when an 87 year old lady got out of her wheelchair and danced.
Day four at the festival. Mom and Alex stayed home that day and we had Nick Franclik, one of our great sound guys, fill in on the bass.
That morning I almost cried when I looked on the stage floor and saw horse hair from my bow all over the place. I'm rather violent with my bowing and broke so many horse hairs from my bow till there was hardly anything left to it. I had to put the poor thing away for the rest of the week and use one of Earl's bows from his fiddle since Melissa was using my spare.
Day five at the fesitval. Every day I faithfully took video on my new video camera that I purchased especially for this festival. I had a grand time interviewing other musicians and other random people all week. After we would get home every night, the entire family would gather in the basement to watch the happenings of the day.
On this day, Thursday, the attendance was starting to pick up a little more from the week.
Bruce Seikmann, our very wonderful and patient sound man, put up with sixteen of our shows that week. One day he asked me hopefully, "Are you working on anything new?" Sometime during the week, we decided to play a set of polkas just for him.
Day 6 at the festival. It was the beginning of the Fourth of July weekend and the busiest day with lots and lots of people. Blue Mountain Junction was back for the rest of the week and they invited me to play a song with them which I did and you can watch for yourself here- www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lrlu9g3M-Qs
Some boys we met from Alabama and Ohio who were helping their parents sell baskets at the festival, came faithfully to every single one of our shows every single day. Another couple drove 81 miles several times a week to see us and countless other folks came and supported us during the week. Thanks so much everyone! And thanks to the wonderful people at the Virginville Grange for the ice cream!!
Day 7 at the festival. It was the Fourth of July and there was a special ceremony and parade that afternoon. The famous quilt auction was that day and people pressed in close to the stage to see and bid on the beautiful quilts.
In our second show, dad was introducing all of us kids to the crowd when Leroy Brown, another festival entertainer, jumped up on stage. "You forgot to introduce one of your kids! What about Nelson junior?" he said. At that moment Bill Meck, a festival entertainer and auctioneer better known as Hanswascht, ran out on stage wearing a bonnet and bib and carrying a bottle. What a surprise to meet our new big baby brother! We laughed and laughed. That evening dad spent his time scheming a way to crash Leroy and Bill's show the next day.
Day 8 at the festival. The final day. Ray Bradley, the Mad Fiddler, was there and he brought his fiddle along and we jammed on the grounds. We played for Cousin Lucy over at the funnel cake stand and she even danced for us.
We were determined to get Hanswascht onto the stage and dance during a show. So in the first show, Melissa stopped playing, grabbed Hanswascht by the arm and pulled him onstage. He did a great job but we wanted to see it again. In the second show, I jumped off stage and pulled him up to dance. So not only did he dance once, but twice!
Then Dad crashed Leroy and Bill's show. Hanswascht wears a roll of toilet paper with his name "Hanswascht" on it around his neck. The joke goes that he was always forgetting his name till finally his mother told him to write it where he would see it at least once a day. He's a really regular guy. Dad put a roll of paper towels around his neck with Hanswascht Sr. written on it and pretended to be scolding Hanswascht for telling jokes. It was funny.
The final show was really fun but we were all sad for it to be over. I played my bagpipes with the Sauerkraut Band. We called it the Sauerkraut Highlanders. I love the sound of the pipes with a brass band. Very unique. In Old Joe Clark, Keith played his autoharp and Blue Mountain Junction also joined us on that one. Then Keith crawled out onto the stage for the final dance-off in the French Canadian reels. Bruce joyfully looked on as we played our last tune for the last time.
Afterwards, it was time to say goodbye to everyone. I sat with Matt Wlasniewski and discussed events of the week while eating a delicious ice cream cone from the Virginville Grange. Then we watched Blue Mountain Junction's last performance and said our goodbyes to them before they left for another show they had in Lancaster. Next we walked around the festival one last time to say farewell to all the wonderful friends we had made there.
We had a fantastic time playing eight days at the Kutztown Folk Festival.
We had several days to recover from Kutztown before heading back to the Mast's house in New York where we would be staying while playing at the Yates County Fair. We had lunch with Uncle Kenny, Aunt Esther, cousin Mary, cousin Arvilla, cousin Marj and her husband, and their two adorable children.
When we arrived at the fair which was in the town of Penn Yan, Dad opened the trailer door and a little kitty jumped out. Unbeknownst to us, one of cousin Mary and Arvilla's kittens jumped in the trailer over at their house when the door was open. So the kitty had to stay in a box till we went back to the house.
We played I think it was three shows on Friday afternoon/evening. It was fun and we got to see Uncle Kenny dance! GREAT JOB! Afterwards, some of the kids went with Mary and Arvilla on some of the rides. I heard that some of them were brave enough to go on the tilt a whirl. I'm not a fan of rides so I just did what I do best at fairs and festivals...wander aimlessly around looking at all the sights.
That night at the Mast's, we sat around a bonfire and made smores late into the night. The next day, Mom, Dad, Melissa, Mary, and I went to the Windmill farmer's market where Mary worked in the Auntie Anne's pretzel stand. There we met up with our cousin Cynthia, her husband, and their sons.
Back at the fair, the rain was coming down. We were nice and dry under our tent as we played the last two shows. Immediately following the second show, we said our goodbyes to our cousins and other acquaintences we had made, packed it up, and left. We had to be home in good time because we had a gig in Ephrata, PA the next day. On the drive home, we went through a nasty thunderstorm that lasted for almost two hours. But this crazy Martin family never minded and entertained themselves on that drive home by singing in Pennsylvania German at the top of their lungs. And believe me, there is no making it sound beautiful either.
Just this past Saturday, we had another long day of shows. The first two shows were at the Graeme Park Celtic Festival in Horsham, PA. It was another beautiful day for an outdoor festival. I enjoyed watching the other Irish dancers and pipe bands while we were on break. A really good Celtic band, The Hooligans, performed after our second show. I only got to hear a little bit of it because we had to hit the road, but what I did hear sounded great! I'm looking forward to hearing more of them when we play at the Green Lane Scottish-Irish Festival in September.
The next show of the day was at Joanna Furnace in Geigertown. I chilled and listened to Phyllis Hummel and her daughter play before our turn to perform. I was amazed with how well we all held up for the show. We played and danced to our heart's content late into the night to our wonderful audience who even lasted out the rain showers!
This coming Saturday, Melissa, Christy, Brian (yes, Brian is now performing dance!), and I are dancing at the Clover's Irish Weekend with the Hooley School of Irish Dance. The band will be performing there on Sunday. Make sure you come check out this great festival!
There you have it. I hope this has kept you entertained for a while.
Cheers,
Emily
May 7 Thursday 2009
Hi everyone. Here are some stories of recent travels.
Last Saturday we played at the Southern Maryland Celtic Festival in Prince Frederick, MD. It was a beautiful day for an outdoor festival, maybe even a little bit too hot! One of the things I really enjoyed about this festival were the hundreds of bagpipers playing all over the grounds. There were piping competitions happening all day and so everyone was practicing.
We performed at 2:00, right after Moch Pryderi, a band whom we met at the McLain Celtic Fesitval last summer. Everything went well-EXCEPT when it came time for me to play my bagpipes. When I picked them up, all the drones fell out around my feet! I have never had anything like that happen before. I guess I didn't have enough tape on the drones... oops. So, everyone else played a tune so that I could run behind the stage and fix everything. Those pipes certainly have a mind of their own.
We had to leave MD right after the show since I had a gig the next morning. Because we were so close to the ocean, Mom wanted to go see it before heading home. Melissa, Christy, and I had just been to the ocean with Eric Fisher the week before and we had fun teasing mom that we already saw all that last week. When we finally got to the shore, we could only catch glimpses of water in between rows of houses. There was no way to get to the water because it was all private property. So we looked at that piece of ocean for a while then went on our way.
Even after a long day with 8 hours of driving, Melissa and I decided to go to Crave and watch the last 30 min. of some of our Acoustic Roadshow friends perform that evening. They were really good! :)
On May the 2nd, we did a benefit concert for the Sodexo Foundation with the Hooley Irish Dancers at Calvary Chapel, Lebanon. We had the entire show recorded in hopes that some of it will be good enough to make a live CD. Thanks to everyone who came out and helped support the cause.
On Monday night we were on Berks Community Television with the Hooley School of Irish Dance. A few weeks ago I decided to go in the basement and watch all the videos we have of our performances on BCTV. First of all I couldn't even find the TV, then I couldn't get the VCR to work. It only works if something very heavy is put on top of it. :) Anyway, watching all those old videos brought back some hilarious and some not so pleasant memories. It was funny to see how scared we all were. We had a good laugh watching ourselves dance. Let me tell you, it was horrible.
You can watch Monday's show for yourself by clicking here. To all the lovely dancers, you girls did a really great job!
This summer we are playing at several fruit festivals. Cool Beans, which is Butch and Eric, are also performing at 2 of these festivals and the Blue Marsh Ramblers, which is Butch, Eric, and a few others, are performing at the other festival. Our family and Butch and Eric like to call this The Fruit Tour. Our first fruit festival is the Strawberry Festival at the North Heidelberg Church between Robesonia and Bernville. It is on June 13 from 1-7 pm. We would love to see you there!
Looks like our next public show is at the Union Canal Tunnel Days in Lebanon on the 16th. Check our schedule page for more information on that.
Bye,
Emily
March 31 Tuesday 2009
Hi everyone! Here's a bit of an update.
On St. Patrick's Day, we had two shows, one at Country Meadows in Reading, and one at Masonic Village in Elizabethtown with the Hooley Irish Dancers.
At Country Meadows, we had two special guest dancers. A few minutes before the show, Melissa taught a hard shoe step to Kelly, the lady from Country Meadows. She learned reeeeallly fast and actually performed it while we were playing. Later on, our good friend, Keith Brintzenhoff, did his Pennsylvania Dutch jigging during 'French Canadian'. We like to call it our multi-cultural tune because we're a Pennsylvania Dutch family who plays Celtic music with Irish and PA Dutch dancing to a French Canadian reel. Whew! Keith also played along on 'Old Joe Clark' with his autoharp.
From Reading we went right to Elizabethtown. It was really strange to go straight through our town without stopping at home.
This was the first MFB/Hooley Irish Dancers show we ever did. The Hooley Irish Dancers are made up of five championship dancers who do dance choreographies to a few of our tunes. Except for my bagpipes deciding to go out of tune, everything went very well. After the show we hung out at Pizza Hut with the dancers. It was alot of fun and I look foward to doing more shows with the dancers this year.
We love Kutztown. Since a large part of our shows are done in Kutztown, we fondly call it our second home. On March 27, we were on the 'Road to Kutztown', as we call it, heading for the Adam 2 Center. I was in an especially goofy mood the entire evening. I wonder if it could be from playing banjo all day.......or from eating my birthday cake for breakfast........ Anyway, we had a great time again at Adam 2. Thanks to everyone who came out to see us and thanks for having us again, Mr. Zettlemoyer!
On March 29th, we were back in Kutztown, playing our first festival show for the year at the Berks Guild Spring Fine Arts and Crafts Festival. Since this was an Acoustic Roadshow event, we had a chance to catch up with some of our Roadshow friends and also watch them perform.
Matt Wlasneiwski, who is also the guitarist for Blue Mountain Junction, was playing when we arrived. If you get out to the Kutztown Folk Festival this year, be sure to check out Blue Mountain Junction. They're really great! Steve Hartman, who was a former member of the MFB, was also there and we enjoyed hearing him play again. Other performers that we saw that day included Callie Merz, Eric Fisher, Jolene, and Valerie Nicole.
We kicked off our show with a polka medley as a joke for Butch but fortunately, we got back to our usual stuff before it got any worse. No, I actually like polka. I just don't know how to play it.
Eric Fisher and I had been practicing some songs to play together when we happen to be playing at the same place. So, near the end of his performance, we played a couple of songs. When he and I play together, we go by the name of "Smith Brothers and Stanley". Why.....I have no idea. I guess we're the Smith Brothers and that Stanley fellow is a fictional character that never shows up for gigs. Anyway Eric, thanks so much for the invite!
The first lovely day of the year, mom dragged Melissa, Brian, and I to one of the roughest parts of Appalachian Trail for a 9 mile hike. We had done it before when I was about 12 and it took us 8 hours to hike that section. But this time, we beat our record by two hours. We didn't spend near enough time at the lookouts in mom's opinion. Just the day before, the three of us kids had flown over those same mountains with Eric Fisher. While Mom was oohing and ahhing over the view, we were ready to get going because we had seen it all the day before. After we passed the waterfalls and lake several hours into the hike, Brian and I got tired of plodding slowly through the woods so we took off down the trail. Thirteen minutes after we finally got out to the road, Mom and Melissa came stumbling out of the woods. Brian and I felt pretty smart till we got sore the next day. All in all we had fun.
Right now, our fiddles and banjo are at the fiddle shop getting restrung and rehaired and fifth string capoed (how do you spell capoed?) and we really miss them. But the good thing is, Melissa is actually practicing her whistles for a change. haha!
On April 18, there is an Irish jam session at Patsy Fagan's Irish Pub. It just opened on St. Patrick's Day and we had a session there a few weeks ago. Come and check it out and be sure to bring your instruments!
Be sure to check out the new videos we have on our link page.
See ya later,
Emily
January 30 Friday 2009
Another year started! We did over 70 shows this year and some of the highlights were the Giant Center with the Lancaster School of Irish Dance, the Lititz Library, sessions at Cahill's, Fiddle and Acoustic Music Mini Fest, Penn-Mar Irish Festival, Kutztown Folk Festival, Leahy Fiddle Camp, Musikfest, Bern Church Peach Festival with the Blue Marsh Ramblers, Elizabethtown Fair with the dance school, Zion Lutheran Peach Festival, McLain Celtic Festival, Berks County Park with Irish Mist, Chile Pepper Festival, Haycreek Festival, Family Center of Gap with the Isaacs, Lyons Fiddle Festival, Crave Coffee House, Bucks County Community College, Lititz Chocolate Walk, Bainbridge Apple Harvest Day, PA Guild of Craftsmen Fine Arts Festival, Redner's Family Expo, Willow Creek Orchard, and the Halfway to Hogmanay Party.
We played our first show for the new year on BCTV as guests of the Pennsylvania German Choir. Since it was Alex's 3rd birthday that day and the next day was going to be Zach's 8th birthday, the whole choir (and us) sang Happy Birthday......in PA German! We went out with the choir to Country Buffet afterwards and had a good time getting to know some of the members.
Two weeks later, all of us except Mom and the 2 youngest piled into Earl's truck and headed to Legend's Cafe for the monthly jam session. The session was at the cafe this time because Cahill's Fish and Chips closed and is moving several blocks away. We will hopefully be having sessions at the new location starting in March. A lot of the regular musicians were there at Legend's as well as three new players; a fiddler, a bodhran player, and even a man playing a saw!
Mom, Zach, and Alex arrived in time to do the show that we were to do after the session. We had a great time. Thanks for having us, Legends!
On Jan. 22, Dad and the 4 oldest kids did a show with the Hooley School of Irish Dance (formerly known as the Lancaster School of Irish Dance) at the Wharton Elementary School in Lancaster. The day before, I had my hair put in blue spike curlers so that my hair would be curly for the show. It turned out nice! The show was to start at 6:30 and by 6:00 there was still a van-load of dancers and the sound system missing. Fortunately, they arrived a few minutes before the show and still had time to set up the sound system. We played some music for a few of the dances and Christy, Melissa, and I even had a chance to join in a some dances. Afterwards, we went to McDonald's with Aubree, Aly, Tosha, and Gloria for ice cream and chicken nuggets and we just HAD to try ALLLLLLL the sauces for the chicken nuggets!! I think the Chipolte Buffalo sauce was voted best. Fun times!!!
On Sunday, we played at the Chilly Cheeks Race at the Reading Liederkranz. It wasn't quite as cold as last year which was FREEZING!!!! Earl did not bring his drum kit along to this show, so he had a blast banging on the hand drum. Mom pulled her bass guitar out of the Christmas tree and we played that gig! Thanks Ron and Helene for having us!!
On February 13 we are doing a show for the Kutztown Folk Music Society at St. John's UCC at 8:00 pm and we are playing at Crave Coffee House in Womelsdorf on Feb. 21 at 7 pm. Be sure to come out and see us at one of these great places!
Till next time!
Emily
September 24 Wednesday
"September 9, 2004 dawned bright and clear. Mouthwatering aromas floated across the balmy air into our open van windows as we turned into the muddy entrance to the Bowers Chile Pepper Festival. Butch in his flowery Hawaiian shirt and shorts with his usual straw hat perched upon his noggin directed dad to a parking space behind the stage. Everyone helped to unload all the gear and nervously began tuning instruments. Too quickly it was our turn to perform and in a blinding rush we were up on stage. Feverishly, we fumbled through the Cape Breton reel and raced through Morrison’s Jig. All the while Butch was smiling and nodding and choking on his hot pepper stew as he adjusted the knobs on his sound board. To our amazement the crowd responded enthusiastically and soon we were able to focus on the friendly faces of the audience. It began to dawn on us that playing as a family was fun. Finally it was over and we descended the rickety stairs with wobbly legs and were mobbed at the bottom of the stairs by a sociable crowd asking for CDs and future performance dates. After our show, we all wanted to try some of these hot pepper drenched foods. We walked through the dusty festival grounds and came across a hot pepper ice cream stand. Dad concluded to get a cup since it sounded especially disgusting. It being a hot day, Brian ate a hefty spoonful of ice cream, not realizing that there were hot peppers in it. He grabbed the nearest water bottle and took a large swig, forgetting that water makes it worse. After we were sure he was okay, we took another excursion in a horse drawn wagon down the road to the farm where they grew the peppers. Till we reached the farm, the sun was at its highest peak and we were all very hot. We all hopped out of the wagon and looked around at the fields full of colorful peppers. Before we wended our way to the pepper fields to sample the varieties of peppers, the three younger children enjoyed a ride on a miniature carriage drawn by two comical goats led by a lady of the same character. Finally we marched up the hill to the field. It was interesting to see all the shapes, sizes and colors of the peppers. There were tiny dark purple ones, long skinny red ones, globe-shaped yellow ones, and orange ones.
“Here, try this,” Steve dared Melissa pointing to a hot pepper appropriately named ‘Teardrop Pepper.’ After hesitating a little, Melissa bit a tiny piece off the end. Unfortunately for her, it was one of the hottest peppers in the field. She made the same mistake Brian made and drank what was left of the water. Steve apologized profusely between chokes of laughter. We headed home with a feeling of exhilaration having played our first Acoustic Roadshow gig. "
Sept. 5, 2008, we celebrated our fourth year of being a band at the Bower's Chile Pepper Festival. Four years ago this was our first Acoustic Roadshow gig ever. We were glad to be back at the festival after not being there for two years. It certainly brought back a lot of memories. I was reading our band journal the other day and I thought it was very interesting how we felt and how we thought of our first gig and how far we had come from then. This year we were definitely more relaxed than we were then. It was an enjoyable day. We went on the horse drawn wagon to the pepper farm again. They were selling hot and cold ice cream there and dad actually got the hot ice cream again and enjoyed it! The rest of us weren't as brave- we were all remembering our first hot ice cream experience!
The next day, the rain was dumping down and our show at the Haycreek Festival for that day was cancelled. But the day after that was nice and sunny and we were excited to go back to the Haycreek Festival.
Last Sunday we played at the grand opening of the Family Center of Gap. That was a lot of fun. We opened for an amazing bluegrass/gospel group, The Isaacs. I really enjoyed listening to them and watching them play. After their show, we went over to Jonas and Anne Beiler's house for a late night supper before heading home.
Sept. 20, Brian and I did a gig with the pipe band. It was Brian's first time performing with them. He played the tenor drum. That afternoon we went to a session at Cahill's.
Sept. 21, was the Lyons Fiddle Festival. I injured my foot last Monday at dance class and I was unable to dance. Keith Brintzenhoff and Melissa had a dance-off during one of our tunes. That was so funny! My cousin nearly gave me a heart attack while I was playing my pipes. She had been in India for several months and I was not expecting to see her till Christmas. I was very shocked but very happy to see her again!
After our show, we went back to the jammers up on the hill. We joined a group of people that we jam with at Cahill's (including Ray the MAD Fiddler haha!).
A week or two ago we bought a banjo!! Isn't that exciting! haha. I'm having fun trying to play it though.
Well, there you have it, another boring update. Come see us sometime!
~Emily
