November 10 Thursday 2011

On the 26th of June, we traveled nearly two hours to the edge of Pennsylvania to play at the Bristol Celtic Day. We could look across the sparkling waters of the Delaware River to the shores of New Jersey. Boats of all shapes and sizes zipped up and down the river all day long.

  We were extra early and had the privilege of watching "No Irish Need Apply" as they set up sound and stuff.

  "I'm hungry," said I.

  "Me too," said Melissa.

  We bought chips on a stick to tide us over until the Jamaican food stand opened. Melissa and I picked out what we wanted from the menu and since they weren't ready with anything yet, we ate some strange gooey stuff in a crust. It was good and hot.

  We hauled our gear over the back railing of the gazebo where we would be playing and set up.

  We played.

  We took a break.

  We played again, however, without Zach because he totally disappeared. It turned out that he was not hiding but merely playing in the Delaware.

  After our show, we were done.

  "I'm hungry," said Melissa.

  "Me too,"  said I.

  Dave McGlynn, the guy who hired us,invited us to his house that overlooked the river and treated us to supper. We had pizza, subs, chips, pickles, lemonade, and water. It was good.

  After we finished, we went back to the festival and to Earl who stayed there and was locked out of the van the whole time. Thus ended June 2011.

And so July began. A month "full of promise" and, you guessed it, the Kutztown Folk Festival! But first, on July Fool's Day, we went to Scientist's Cliffs, MD, right beside the Chesapeake Bay. "Goodbye house, goodbye Small the cat, goodbye broken down pile of fence,"

  Our beach house in Scientist's Cliffs was still being occupied when we arrived so we walked to the beach to look for shark's teeth. Alas, the beach was as toothless as Earl.

  After a few minutes, we returned to the Tatum House and got ready to go swimming.  We swam, hunted for non-existant teeth, dug in the sand, took pictures of flip-flops and romantic notes written in the sand, and the other usual things you do at the beach.

  Eventually, us girls went back to the house to watch Pride and Prejudice. When we came back upstairs, our host and hostess were preparing a dinner for us and and some of the neighbors who came to welcome us. They made grilled chicken, salsa, and cold rice salad. It was delicious.

  We changed to gig attire and walked to the tent in the valley to set up for the evening concert. We met a young girl named Hadleigh who was an Irish dancer and invited her to dance a reel with us.

  After the show, us girls went back to the Tatum House to finish watching Pride and Prejudice before retiring for the night. I went swimming in the ocean and dreamed that I went to Egypt. It was a strange day.

  To keep with tradition, Christy and Melissa woke us up the next morning with the tune of "The Farmer in the Dell". They are nuts.

  Early that morning we left for the Kutztown Folk Festival.

  7:51 am-1 hour and 6 minutes down. Only 2 hours and 54 minutes to go. We stopped at WaWa to be cool and walk around the coffee bar. Earl says, "Earl hates the singing fish."

  8: 57 am-We were listening to Adventures in Oddessey.

  9:56 am- We are on Kutztown Road!!!

  11:10 am- We are here! The Sauerkraut Band was playing when we arrived and now the Odessa Klezmer Band is playing the Pennsylvania Polka.

  Kutztown Folk Festival 2011! How time moves fast. My boyfriend, Elijah, bought a week's pass and spent 8 days of the 9 day festival with us, playing percussion with us on stage during the day and working at his job during the night. He didn't get a whole lot of sleep that week.

  One day Melissa and I walked down to see Butch Imhoff at the Make Your Own Music Tent. He was busy teaching kids how to play Old McDonald Had a Farm. "Old McDonald had a farm.  Old McDonald had a-Old McDonald had- Old-Old-Old." After hours and hours of Old McDonald, Butch's voice was skipping.

  We had three new tunes that we played at the festival; Big John McNeill's, Cheif O'Neill's Favorite, and Salt Creek. I hope our sound guy, Bruce, was happy to hear something fresh!

  Melissa played a tune with the Odessa Klezmer Band and the ganz familye joined in with the Beer Barrel Polka.

  Several times during the week, we teased Blue Mountain Junction, the other band performing at the festival, by getting ice cream and filing by the stage eating the nice cool treat.

  On the second day of the festival, our aunt and uncle and cousins from New York came to spend the day with us at Kutztown.

  On the third day, Christy baked a cake and brought it to Matt Wlasneiwski, of BMJ, because he said she either had to buy him a washboard or bake him a cake.  He was kidding but he liked the cake!

  Several of the days I played fiddle with Blue Mountain Junction during their shows. Originally, I was going to be playing with them all week, but I got sick and burned out and they gave me a break a couple of times. My favorite song with them was the bluegrass verision of "Last Train to Clarksville".

  Seasons performed at the festival a couple of days and wowed the crowd as usual as well as doing plenty of goofing off while we were playing. We had a good time teasing them too.

  On the fourth day, Brian was drooping along in the morning until he got an iced coffee from the mudslide lady. Then he started bouncing off of barns and banners and anything else he could possibly bouce off of.

  Rich Machemer, our goofy friend and fellow festival performer, showed up and sang "In the Sweet Sell and Sell."

  On the last day of the fesitval, we ended our show with a big jam; all the festival performers came on stage and played a couple of songs with us. I was so under the weather and so sleep deprived that I could hardly remember what I was doing all that day. The jam at the end of the festival is always a highlight for us because it is so much fun playing and jamming with everyone.

  Here are a few exerpts from the band journal about our conversation on the way home.

  "It was a good week. It went by really fast." -Dad

  "Even though I am now peopled out, I enjoy meeting people." -Mom

  "Yes. I am pumped." -Brian

  "It was fun." -Alex

  "I got to go on two dates with dad." -Mom

   "It's been interesting." -Elijah

   "Interesting is a safe word." -Emily

   "My brain isn't working anymore." -Melissa

  The next show following the Festival was the Graeme Park Celtic Festival. Elijah and his brother, Isaiah, stopped by our house that morning and we of course roped them into going to the show with us. We can always use extra roadies!

  The shows went well and we opened for the Hooligans which is lead by our "Brother Mike."

  The month of September was the most eventful month we've had this year. The first big event was me getting my pilot's license. What fun it has been to take my family and friends on flights!

  The next event was a very unusual vacation to the mountains. While we were there, it rained and rained and flooded out the bridge and the road to our cabin, leaving us, our van and trailer, stranded. We ended up carrying all our luggage, including some intstruments, and walking several miles through the mountains and woods to the main road where Earl picked us up and drove us home. This was a vacation that we will never forget. We figured that our van, Clifford, and the trailer would be stranded at the cabin for a long time, but we were wrong. Somebody built up the road, drove the van and trailer through the creek, and brought it out to the main road where we joyfully drove it the rest of the way home.

  We managed to make it home after our little adventure to go and play at the Chile Pepper Fesitval. Through rain, sleet, or snow....

 

  Another show we did in September was the McLain Celtic Festival. Here is a list of things that happened this year that did not happen in previous years:

  -Elijah handed Melissa a frog.

  -Ray wasn't there.

  -Melissa had two ice cream bars.

  -Dad bought a mug.

  -Melissa handed Elijah a prickly thing.

  -We played a new jig set and completely surprised dad.

  -Elijah slept for a whole hour. A whole hour!

  -We met a new dance school.

  The last event of September was our trip to Tennesse. Halfway there, we stopped at a cabin in Virginia and stayed the night. The next day we continued on to Tennessee to Lee and Judy Harrison's church to play an evening concert.While we were there, we met another family band called the Willi.

  The next day we played at the Dandridge Scots-Irish Festival. It was a beautiful day, thus, thousands of people came out for the festival.

  Coyote Run was the featured band and they invited me to play a tune with them. That was fun although I had no idea what I was doing.

  The evening ceilidh was also a lot of fun, playing with Coyote Run, and Colin Grant- Adams. Melissa, Christy, and I did an acappella dance with Katie Carver, Lindsay Crawford, and Daniel Nelson (of Coyote Run).

  The next show that we did was the Bowie International Festival in Maryland. Earl was going to a wedding and so Elijah came along with us and played the drums. He did very well, especially considering the fact that we practiced for hardly a half an hour before this show.

 

  Weaver's Orchard was next. It was a beautiful day and brought many people out. Afterwards, I kidnapped Elijah and took him flying to a nearby airport with a restaurant where we had dinner.

  Recently we played at Willow Valley Retirement Community. Mom was under the weather so we had Butch Imhoff fill in on the bass for her. Butch did a good job on the bass but he didn't make a very good mom because he didn't set up the CD table. Haha.

  In other news, our new CD, "Frehlickheit", is finally out and can be purchased at our shows or on our website. We also have a DVD available at our shows.

Well, that about wraps it up for this update! Hope ya'll have a great winter! Come see us sometime.

Emily for the MFB

May 6 Friday 2011

Hello everyone! I apologize for slacking off on the news updates for so long! Forgive me, I literally have had my head in the clouds quite a bit these past several months since I started taking flying lessons. Flying airplanes is fun but also a big challenge!

Back to the band....we spent the last weekend in January getting the last of our recording done for the long-awaited CD. A brand new studio opened up only about a minute from our house and we rented it to finish recording. (If you ever need a place to record, T1 Studios is the place to do it!). Other news along that line is that we have actually been working on getting a DVD made! We hope to have both the CD and DVD available by July.

On March the 12th we took a little trip to Tyrone, Pennsylvania for Tyrone's Irish Heritage Week. It was a long drive from home and we would be playing late, so we planned to stay the night at Stony Point Bed and Breakfast.

  One of dad's favorite things about playing at festivals in town is visiting intriguing shops and meeting new people. We had hardly pulled into Tyrone when he spotted Gardner's Candy Shop. We had to go inside. The displays of chocolate were too irresistable for this family of chocoholics.  Of course we bought some and continued on to our bed and breakfast where we were greeted by a welcoming committee from the festival who gave us a basket full of Gardiner's famous chocolates and other yummy stuff! We ate good that weekend!

  How can I describe Stony Point Bed and Breakfast? It was really AWESOME! We had the place to ourselves and it was big enough that almost all of us had our own bedroom. Downstairs was a kitchen, library, living room, dining room, and the entrance to the front door was a room in itself. We were also privileged to use the servants stairs. :)

  After a chocolate milk/cookie break, we hiked on the short trail behind the house where there was a nice view of Tyrone.

  That evening was the lighting of the shamrock, the opening of the festival speeches, music by us, and fireworks. The event was outside and fortunately it really wasn't that cold! After a good time of playing music and sticking around for the fireworks, we went back to the B&B. Since we have no TV at home, we stooped to watching "I Love Lucy" each in his or her own room.  Every time something funny would happen, laughter would erupt throughout the whole house.

  The next day we went to the Rockhill Trolley Museum where we got our own personal trolley ride and tour from Doug Weidman, a friend of dad's from 'back home'. Thanks for the ride, Doug. It was really fun trollying around in the woods!

  We went to our own home after that. It was an adventurous weekend!

Sometime later in March, we went to Lackawaxen, PA, to the Masthope Mountain Community where they were having an Irish Festival in the ski lodge. We left the warmer-almost-spring weather at home and went to upstate PA where it was still very much winter.

  I felt out of place since I wasn't wearing any green. Everyone else was dressed as green as you can get and were even drinking green beer.

The McElligot School of Irish Dance danced in between our performances and later, they danced with us on a tune.

  After listening to Jimmy Sturr (in CD form of course).being un-Irish by eating cheeseburgers, watching people ski, and seeing Earl's drums get baptized in green beer by a patron up in the balcony, we went back home.

I'm going to veer off the path of the Martin Family Band for just a while now and tell you about another band that just got its start. Melissa, Christy, and I, along with our fiddle instructor, Ken Gehret  recently put a band together to do Western Swing music. We girls are playing fiddles and Ken is playing guitar and taking care of most of the vocals. This month we did our first gig on Berks Community Television on the Acoustic Roadshow hour. We had a nice sizable studio audience show up to cheer us on. It was great to have a studio audience so we didn't have to play to just the monitor. Thanks for coming, people!

At the last minute we named the band Circle K and went on the air. We played, messed up, sang, messed up, and played again. Butch Imhoff is the host of the show and since we are good friends and know him too well, we had a fun with the interviews. (Butch to Christy: "What is your name?"  Christy: "My name is Christy."  Butch: "Do you have a last name?"  Christy: "Yes." )

On April 17th, we were guest musicians for the Ringgold Band's concert at the Scottish Rite Cathedral. While the band was playing, we sat backstage, read Masonic brochures, and goofed off with Jim Bauer  (a drummer for the Ringgold Band who kept coming backstage during hemidemisemiquavers to see what was going on.) 

  The Ringgold Band is really good and we enjoyed listening to them before we played.  

  After intermission the moment came for us to join them on stage. It started with me coming on to the stage playing Amazing Grace on the bagpipes and the Ringgold Band joining me the second time through. It was really neat to have an orchestra back me up! With the rest of the Martin Family Band, we started with the Call To Dance . Just before the dance part in the middle of the tune, my fiddle bow fell apart! This had never happened before so of course it waited to happen at the most inconvenient time and when my spare bows were not close by. I calmly walked off stage (or tried to look calm), took off running behind the curtain to the other side of the stage where I grabbed Zach's bow and walked calmly back on stage to finish the tune. It took me most of the show to become unflustered again. The Ringgold Band backed us up on Morning Has Broken and played Rakes of Mallow while Melissa, Brian, Christy, and I danced. We had so much fun!

  When the show was over and we did the last bow, we went back stage to the hallway leading to the front of the building where the CD table was. "Let's go!" Dad said, and being a crazy family, we all went running as fast as we could down the hallway to the CD table to meet people. We were all breathless and laughing when we got to the table, but it was fun.

This past weekend we did our first southern tour of the year.

  Saturday was a crazy day for us. The plan was to drive to the Southern Maryland Celtic Festival in Prince Frederick, MD, play a show there, drive to the Spring Mountain Festival in Petersburg, WV and play a show there.

  So, to Prince Fredrick, Maryland we went... and I believe we were on the premisis for hardly more than two hours. We played down on the Pub Stage and Melissa is convinced that she saw black marks on the stage from when we danced on it last year. The sun was shining right on Earl's head and his Zildgian hat faded from black to brown. Haha!

  Our southern tour almost ended before it started. Zach had just finished playing a tune when he tripped over a cord, fell off the stage, and landed right on his fiddle. Zach was not hurt but his fiddle broke. When I turned back to my fiddle, which was in it's stand, I saw that it was laying on its side. Here the cord he tripped on was right under/at all our instrument stands and he could have wiped out the whole stage full of instruments!

  Anyhow, we finished the show, packed everything up, bought some ice cold lemonade, and hit the road again for the four hour drive to West Virginia. Our first stop was at the Homestead Inn, our favorite motel ever. We rested for a minute, got ready for another show, took some pictures by a really nice car, and went into town for the festival. The fiddle competition was in session when we got there, so we sat and watched it for awhile. When that was all over, we set up and played. It was nice having sound guys so we didn't have to set up our stuff!

  We were quite exhausted when we returned to the motel.

  After looking at the back of my eyelids for a VERY short time, we got up and began the next day of adventure. First we went out to breakfast at a small restaurant in town. Earl ate a ton and said his blood sugar was probably through the roof. We went back to Homestead Inn for church led by Reverend Dad.

  As part of the festival, there was  a fly-in breakfast at the nearby Grant County Airport. Airplanes were going overhead all morning and I was jealous. Curiousity overcame us and Dad, Brian, Christy, Melissa, Zach, and I went to the airport. Mitch Pennington from Just Plane Adventures was there giving plane rides for a small fee. We couldn't resist. When Mitch found out that I'm a student pilot, he took my word for it and actually had me sit in the captain's chair!  I wasn't used to flying a taildragger but he allowed me to taxi it down to the runway and take off with Melissa and Christy sitting fearfully in the back seat.

As soon as we were airborne, Mitch opened his window, stuck his head out and waved both hands at the people on the ground to show that he wasn't flying.

  The view was marvelous!... although I didn't spend to much time looking at it. I was still flying the airplane and trying to find out where all the instruments were situated.  We landed on a grass strip in front of Mitch's house. What a dream! Can I have a runway in my back yard? We flew over some more of those  beautiful West Virginia hills and went back to Grant County. Dad and the boys were in the airport office and they were surprised when my voice came on the radio. "Grant County Traffic, November 953 Papa Alpha is 5 north, entering from a left downwind for 31, Grant County."

  After we landed, Mitch informed me that since he was a certified flight instructor, he was going to enter the flight into my logbook! I was so excited about that. In fact, flying was the highlight of my weekend. It was so much fun!!!

  Dad and the boys took a ride next and we were having so much fun that we barely squeaked into the festival a half an hour before our next show.

  It rained a little while we played but people still came and we had a good time. After the show, we got some food, went back to the motel to get our stuff, and hit the road for Pennsylvania. It was a really really great weekend!

This week has been crazy with going to work during the day and playing a show at night. But today, I am taking the day off from work to go flying before our show tonight. Yeeeessss!!!!

Until the next time I get around to writing an update, this is Emily signing off.

December 2 Thursday 2010

  Here are some more adventures of the Martin Family Band!

I suppose it's time I write about our second southern tour of 2010 way back at the end of September in which the Martin Family Band made their second appearance at the Dandridge Scots-Irish Festival in Tennessee.

After driving for quite some time in Clifford the big red Titanic, we arrived at the Hungry Mother State Park in Virginia where we were going to do a little bit of camping before continuing on our merry way to TN. Somehow, just the name of the park made us all hungry and we built up a fire and had the usual camping fare; hotdogs, baked beans, s'mores and all that junk.

The Hungry Mother State Park really is beautiful and I'm a sucker for those mountains around there. We made good use of them and went on an afternoon hike up to a peak called Molly's Knob. Going up was a job in itself but coming down was a little more unnerving as we slid around on acorns and nearly fell off the edge of the trail.

That night, a family from the area that we were in contact with before (The Wright family), came over and we had supper and played some music with them. They are excellent bluegrass players and do quite a few gigs in their area.

We literally hit the sack that night, and found that the woods can be the noisyest place to sleep. There was a bug flying around Melissa's head that drove her nuts because it didn't have good timing. "Buzzz...buzzz......buzzz..buzz." She's a nut for that kind of stuff. Speaking of nuts, acorns were falling all over the deck on which our tents were set up and some dogs found it necessary to have howling practice at 2 in the morning. A couple of those dogs came for breakfast the next morning before we left.

  When we reached our hotel in Tennessee, there was a few hours of "chilling time" before we headed out to the Staff/Patrons/Sponseror's reception on the festival grounds where we and Colin Grant-Adams were to supply the entertainment. After a tasting of the Irish/Scottish foods (mini shepherd's pies, haggis, salmon, corned beef and cabbage, bangers, asparagus, cheesecake thingys, whisky cake, crackers and cheese, vegetables, fruit, water, coffee and iced tea) Colin Grant-Adams opened the show with his lovely songs and guitar playing and then we played together with Colin. 'Twas fun.

  That night at the hotel, since we don't have a TV, Melissa found it completely necessary to watch Paula Deen cooking shows to hold her over for the next 50 years and make the rest of us temporarily lose our appetite for butter.

  The next day was the actual festival and contrary to last year it wasn't pouring rain. It only drizzled a little bit in the afternoon. We had the privilege to share the stage with the Thistledown Tinkers, Colin, and Cutthroat Shamrock all day long and do a bit of jamming with some of them between shows. It was good to see some familiar faces in the audience and meet new people including people who saw us at least four years ago at a different festival in TN.

  The highlight of the festival was the evening ceilidh where all the bands (and a couple of dancers) got onstage at one time, played all together and created a "wall of sound".  It was a memorable experience!

  The day after the festival, we left as early as possible to reach Farron, Virginia in time to get ready for another show at the Rives Theater in Martinsville. We were to spend that night at Dean and Debbie Smith's house before returning home. When we arrived at their house, we were greeted not only by the Smiths but Montana Young (a musician we first met at the Kutztown Folk Festival) and Bill Johnson who is a fellow Acoustic Roadshow performer from around here. Mrs. Smith fed us starving musicians a delicious lasange dinner before we, Dean, and Montana left for the theater. Melissa and I rode over with Montana and got to know her better and hear some interesting stories of her world travels while playing fiddle with the Crooked Road Band.

  At the theater, we did a sound check and us girls spent the rest of the time backstage eating popcorn and chocolate with Montana who was unconcerned about having to sing after eating all that.

  We played to a sold out crowd that night to people who have never heard or seen us before...and they were a really good, lively audience. Dean and Montana were the opening act and I was again just blown away by Montana's incredible fiddle playing. Montana invited Melissa to play "Black Hairy Possum" like she did before when Dean and Montana were at the Kutztown Folk Festival.

  We had a good rest of the time with the Smith's and Bill at their lovely home and left the next day for good old Pennsylvania.

The very next show was another one across the Mason-Dixon line.  Someone I met from Tennessee told me that his truck stops, turns around and flees any time he tries to cross that line. Well, that's not the case with our van. We played again at the Bowie International Festival of Bowie, Maryland. This show is all a blur because we basically crawled out of the van, played the show, and packed up again as fast as we could to get back to Pennsylvania in time for a good old hoedown in Leesport. That weekend I got to attend two hoedowns in two days time. I was the fiddler for the Blue Marsh Ramblers one night and a dancer the next night. It was wonderful!

I'll skip over to our show at Legends Cafe which took place on November 6. November 6 must have been a popular evening because I was asked to play fiddle with the Blue Marsh  Ramblers at a hoedown and to play with Bluegrass Gospel Concepts at another shindig. Ack! It was disappointing not to do those other shows, but I guess playing with my family was alright too. ;) 

Legends was a blast. The building was packed out and we really had a good time. Matt Wlasniewski and Al Hartman were our guest musicians of the evening, playing a couple their good old bluegrass songs.

I guess the last show we played was last Sunday for the Antique Automobile Club's banquet. While everyone was eating in the banquet hall, we were waiting in the lobby having a laugh at dad's expense. Dad, in his attempt to show us how cool he is, snapped his neck so hard that he hurt himself.

With the holidays arriving, holiday parades are happening and Brian and I were in a couple of parades with our pipe band. Oh the fun of freezing our fingers off before attempting to play bagpipes. Playing outside this time of year is very...entertaining.

Well, the Martin Family Band doesn't have a whole lot going on from here till March. So, I guess it's vacation time!

Have a wonderful winter season and an early Merry Christmas to you because who knows when I'll write again?

Time for me to hit the Skyhawk!

Emily

 

September 2 Thursday 2010

Hi everyone,

  Ready for an update? Let me expound upon what's been going on with us lately. That is, if I can remember what we did. We played around 40 shows since I last wrote so I better pull out our trusty band journal...

"Everyone is complaining about the heat and I'm getting sick and tired of it! After all, it's not really hot, it's only the high temperature that makes it feel that way!" Ah yes, a wise quote from our good friend Rich Machemer about the HOT week at the Kutztown Folk Festival.

The Kutztown Folk Festival. What a wonderful 9 days! The results of being with other crazy musicians and festival workers such as ourselves for that long were very entertaining and we created a lot of great memories. Playing for three days in 100+ degree weather, me being the very first one to speak into the mike in our show (that wasn't too fun, by the way), "Uncle Ed", ice cream wars (compliments of the awesome people at the Virginville Grange), sweat on the dance floor, $1,000,000,000, "How do you balance that Segway?", Flintstones, the polka lean, the Nelson Stomp, jamming in the bathroom, collecting guitar picks from Butch at the Make Your Own Music Tent, umbrellas, "Hey Matt, I've got a problem", hollering for a previously selected band member of Blue Mountain Junction..... a lot happened in those 9 days. Like usual we had a great time jamming on the fairgrounds and playing on stage with lots of other wonderful musicians...Blue Mountain Junction, Seasons, Bluegrass Gospel Concepts (the band I play fiddle for), East Side Dave, Dean Smith and Montana Young, the Sauerkraut Band, Ed Goldberg and the Odessa Klezmer Band, and Keith Brintzenhoff among others.

  On the very last day of the festival we played in Blandon for Maidencreek Church's 150th Anniversary celebration before heading back "home" to Kutztown for the final show.  The last show was one of the best. At the end of our show we got BMJ, Seasons, Hanswascht, Cousin Gressley, Butch, and Karen Terry Ludwig to come on stage with us and play "Will the Circle Be Unbroken" for the grand finale. We were all a little emotional...the last show, the last day of the festival, and we wouldn't be seeing some of these people till next year. I was glad to be done playing our music, but I would miss coming to the festival every day and being with the good friends we have there.

  I felt sorry for our poor sound guy, Bruce, because he had to be at every show all week and listen to the same old music every day. He had our music and even our band moves memorized. Nevertheless, he always sat back at his sound board with a big smile on his face and was always so patient with all of us. Thanks so much, Bruce!

 

  The Thursday following the Kutztown Festival, we took a quick trip out to Penn-Yan, New York to play at the Yates County Fair. Some of our reletives live in that area, so we spent some time with them before going back to Pennsylvania.

  That weekend quite a whirlwind of performances. We did the Graeme Park Celtic Festival on Saturday (where we convinced Luke Jardel of the Hooligans into buying a "kilt"), the Forum in Harrisburg and the Landisville Campmeeting on Sunday.

  On July the 25th, we, with Pint of Irish, played in Heckscherville (people ask "where the heck is Heckscherville?") for the Clover's Irish Weekend.

  Following our performance, we packed it up quickly and went home. On a whim, Dad, Melissa, Christy, and I went to the Sellersville Theater that night to a peformance by Celtic Spring. Yeeehaw! They are a family band who was a great inspiration to us and it was fun to go see them again!

  The next week I had a gig to play with the bluegrass band and one with the pipe band. The MFB, on the other hand, had a week or so of vacation from shows. We took advantage of it and went on a quick camping trip.

  The week of Aug. 14-21 was one of the busiest weeks I've ever experienced. On the 14th I was gone from 5 am-midnight playing shows. First, I played four shows with my bluegrass band in Philadelphia before squeaking in with no time to spare at an MFB show at Blue Rocks Campground. The Blue Rocks show was an Acoustic Roadshow event and other musicians (such as Blue Mountain and Seasons) also performed throughout the evening. Afterwards, we hung out with Seasons till the wee hours -it seemed like wee hours to me- eating cold french fries, making trades and me getting paler and paler the later it got. It was a good time!

  The next day we played at a private party and following that, I squeaked in with no time to spare at a gig with my other band.

  During the week, we performed for the Patriotic Order of the Sons of America, a peach social, and the Kutztown Fair.

  That Friday, Melissa, Brian and I jumped into an airplane with a friend of ours and went flying to Ocean City, New Jersey, just for the fun of it. I squeaked into a recording session with the bluegrass band that night with no time to spare.

  The next morning I had another recording session before squeaking into an MFB/Blue Marsh Ramblers concert at the Bern Church Peach Festival. Ok, I'm getting really really boring with the way I'm writing about all the squeaking around I did, but that's what happened!

  The most recent show we did was at the Zion Lutheran Peach Festival in Womelsdorf. Home sweet home...almost. It was so much fun playing for our friends and the other wonderful folks who were there!

  This past week we went on a much-needed, long-overdue vacation to a cabin in the mountains. It has been FIVE years since we went on a vacation like this! We spent our time swimming, biking, roasting marshmallows over the microwave after a rattlesnake claimed our campfire, sleeping, and just sitting around enjoying the scenery. I hardly touched my poor fiddle the whole time.

  Next show coming up- the McLain Celtic Festival! Check it out, it's a great event!

Ok, ok. I'll admit to writing this update that pathetically took me two months to write.

Emily

June 7 Monday 2010

From our performance at the Highlands on April 27, it wasn't until May the 10th when our next show took place. Wow, no  gigs for two weeks! Actually, the entire merry month of May was slow band-wise and we should have taken the opportunity to practice our stuff and think about new material.  But, we didn't really. New ideas are hard to come by, especially when we are so busy working, finishing up school and planning a graduation party, practicing with other bands, and sneaking in short canoe trips. 

 

  Speaking of our show on May the 10th, it was a Mother-Daughter Banquet in the nice little village of Newmanstown. I did minutely updates in the band journal on the way there, reminiscent of the hourly updates that we do on our way to an out of state show. On this trip, it was only five updates and I was glad because I couldn't think of anything to say every minute. Maybe if I would get paid to think, it wouldn't hurt my head so much to do so! Haha.

  We were there and set up early before the banquet began. Dad and I thought it would be an adventure to go home, get one of my band members' phone number and come back before the show. Such strange things we think are adventures! Well we did it even though it wasn't really necessary.

  The show was good. The stage floor was even better. It was wooden and had a really great boom to it for dancing.

  I had four bagpipe gigs in May. One I did on my own was for the Dayspring Golf Tournament which was a very interesting set up. I stood in front of several rows of golf carts with a pair of golfers in each one waiting for me to strike in the pipes. The plan was that I would play as they would drive away to the green in one long line. And that's what I did. I was told not to be offended that everyone will leave when I start playing. Haha!! I wasn't...my own family puts ear plugs in when I practice. 

  Another pipe gig I did was in the city of  Baltimore, MD with another piping fool for an engineer banquet.

 

  A couple of weeks ago, Brian and dad went out on a canoe trip while the rest of us went to Gring's Mill for the Early Bird Fiddle Festival and Fiddle Contest. Christy and Zach were planning on competing in the contest and they were smart enough to bring their fiddles. Melissa and I didn't and we were at a loss when some friends of ours asked us to come jam with them on the perimeter of the festival. But our cousin Mike saved the day by pulling an extra fiddle out of his car and lending me his beautiful Bob Kain fiddle. Melissa played Zach's fiddle since he was busy eating a huge bag of popcorn and watching Danny Paisley and the Southern Grass perform.  We had a really fun polka session with a guy who played a mean accordian and a few other fiddlers including Melissa's fiddle student, Arin.

  Just before the fiddle contest started, I was convinced by some people to sign up to compete. So I did and I immediately became all panicky because I had no idea what to play. Melissa and I were talking to another friend of ours and he didn't have the slightest idea of what he was playing either and he didn't seem to mind.

  Christy loaned me her fiddle...one of those awesome Bob Kain fiddles. My own Kain was probably at home crying and getting ready to run away from home because I was so cruel as to leave it at home and go onstage without it. I was sad not to have my own fiddle with me. That's probably why I almost created a disaster when I went blank at the end of one of my tunes and almost screwed up the ending. Eeeeek. I hate when that happens! 

  So the competition results were this: Zach took first place in the 10 and under division!  He was really excited about this, especially since this was his first time competing. Melissa's student, Arin, won 3rd place in her division much to Melissa's delight. I think she was more nervous for Arin than Arin was! Christy won 3rd place in the 11-18 catagory. Yay, Christy!! I won 1st place in the 19 and up catagory and for the second year in a row I also won the Best in Show award. Part of my award is an opportunity to perform a couple of songs with East Side Dave and the Mountain Folk Band at one of their concerts this year. So I will be a guest at their show at the Gring's Mill Ampitheatre on June the 27th. Come cheer me on if you wish...the show is from 6-8 pm.

  For Memorial Day, I was asked to play a couple of tunes on the pipes for the memorial service at the Newmanstown park. I wore the whole pipers outfit complete with a huge feather bonnet that isn't the most pleasant thing to wear on one's head. It was a really hot day and the wool kilt and feather bonnet didn't help anything.

  For the service, our neighbor's barber shop quartet sang a couple of patriotic songs, a World War II Air Force pilot spoke (I even got my picture taken with him!), a few people fired some guns straight at me (I survived), and I played a set of all the songs from each branch of the military. While I played that set, I watched the crowd to see who was in what branch of the military.....it was really interesting.

  Later on that day, the MFB had a show at Mayfair with the Hooley Irish Dancers. The festival reminded me so much of Musikfest that I kept thinking we actually were there before. Even the people sitting in the front row were exactly the same as the people who sat in the front row at Musikfest to watch us play! Also, I think we worked with the same sound guy at Musikfest...not sure.

  The dancers who joined us that day were Tosha, Gretchen, Faith, Karis, and Gloria. They danced on a few of our tunes and I saw that they added new things to their choreographies. Ladies, you should definitely help us poor Martin girls out with our same old choreographies that we do!

  The day ended with a pizza party at the Martin house with some of the dancers and Tosha's creepy fans- her brother and her boyfriend, that is.

  

  The most exciting thing that happened this week is that Melissa graduated from high school! She can now practice music full time! Just kidding. Congratulations, Melissa!

Well, we're on TV tonight..........I better go put together a set list.

See ya,

Emily

 

May 5 Wednesday 2010

  A couple of weekends ago, we completed our first "southern tour", as our family calls it. We were all eagerly anticipating going on another road trip and visiting different parts of the country for some time. For several weeks, dad faithfully kept us posted on the weather situation in the areas of Maryland and West Virginia where we would be performing. All the while we tried not to fret because it wasn't looking so great. Hopefully the weatherman was wrong again. I always thought it would be great to be a weatherperson and get paid to stretch the truth. Well, not really. Anyway, the day before we were going to begin our adventure, Brian became unwell. Grandma and Grandpa were immediately put on standby to take care of the poor child while we were on our trip if he was unable to go along with us. Early the next day, we left...and Brian decided to come along and lay on the back seat. It was about 3 1/2 hours to our first destination in Prince Fredrick, Maryland. It would be our second year performing there at the Southern Maryland Celtic Festival.

  Right when we arrived, it began to rain. I was sad about this because I don't really like slogging through the rain that much and I was already freezing cold to begin with. But, because of the very wet year we had last year, I had plenty of practice in dealing with rain. I bundled up, grabbed an umbrella and headed out of the shelter of the van to go down to the Pub Stage where we were going to play. Once I got to the stage, an acquaintance of ours, who we call the Green Kilt Guy, was there to meet us. He was wearing jeans and not a green kilt so I barely recognized him. Haha!

  The rain did eventually taper off but the sun never really came out and I continued to be really cold.  The show itself went alright even though we were lacking Brian (he didn't think he could play and was in the van with Alex). During our set, we ventured to play a polka and hoped the Celtic festival-goers or even our drummer wouldn't throw any rotten tomatoes at us. They were kind enough not to. One couple even danced during the polka and told us they never thought they would be dancing the polka at a Celtic festival. The man also added that he never thought he would be dancing the polka in a kilt either.

  In spite of the damp weather, the festival was well attended. I became more aware of it when I went to get fish and chips and saw that the line was everlastingly long. We needed to head out soon so I found a less occupied stand and got something almost as good.

 

  After the SMCF experience, we got back on the road and headed on through Virginia and finally to West Virginia. Four hours later, we reached the town of Petersburg and dropped off Earl (the Hermit) at the Hermitage Inn where his room was. The rest of us were staying just outside of town at the Homestead Inn. The location of the Inn was beautiful! We had an awesome view of the gorgeous mountains of the mountain momma; good old West Virginia. The Homestead Inn itself is an attractive little 12 room motel located on a working Angus cattle farm. The owner, Helen Grove Hedrick, is a very fascinating person. She is a published author and is also very knowledgeable about local history and folklore.

  That evening, dad, Melissa, Christy, and I went back to town to check out the Spring Mountain Festival where we would be playing the next day. We girls are big fans of bluegrass music and we wanted to go hear Raw Country, a local bluegrass band. We stayed at the festival for a while and listened to the music until I got too cold. I'm always getting cold!

  Back at the motel, Melissa and I were enthralled by an old 1939 Roadster sitting in the field out front and decided to go take some pictures. Melissa is graduating from high school this year and we thought it would be a good place to take some senior pictures.  I would love to have a car like that. They are so cute!

  The next morning, we went to the Hermitage to check up on our Hermit and see if he wanted to go out for breakfast with us. He declined, so we went on our merry way to a little diner called Family Traditions. Right inside the door was a poster with us on it in promotion of the festival. How surprising to see my unsightly face looking back at me in a restaurant several states away from home. Now I know how the Post Office criminals must feel!

  After breakfast, we picked up Earl the Hermit and went to our motel for a Bible study. Next we packed up the van, checked out, and went into town to the Spring Mountain Festival. For the next hour, we set up and did sound check with an amazing sound crew.

  It was a beautiful day for a festival. The sun was shining and it was about 80 degrees. I was warm for a change and even got a little sunburn. The show was a lot of fun, and a big part of the credit goes to the wonderful people we got to play for. After the show, we met the couple who got us into the festival and heard a very amusing story of how they came about finding us. They were sightseeing in our neck of the woods and needed to make a rest stop. They happened to stop at a place that had the Today and Tomorrow magazines that we were featured in and picked one up. The rest is history.

  So that afternoon, we got in the van for the trip home which was another four hour trip. It was raining something awful and was freezing cold at home. I could hardly believe that we played in 80 degree weather that very same day! We had a really great weekend and were really thankful that the weather held out nicely for us.

  Last week we played at the Highlands in Wyomissing. It was our third volunteer appreciation party in two weeks time!

I guess our next public show is at Mayfair on Memorial Day. I hope you all can come out to this event!

Till next time,

Emily

April 14 Wednesday 2010

Hi everyone!!! Here's another account from us. 

 

  March 12 at Masonic Village was the beginning of the St. Patrick's Day festivities for us.....the MFB and dancers from the Hooley School of Irish Dance. It was raining as we unloaded our mishmash of gear into the magnificent Brossman Ballroom of Masonic Village. Every time we unload, we wonder how we accumulated so much equipment! Several loads of plywood for dancing, the sound system, the gig bag, the bass amp, the instruments, and other odds and ends had to be dragged from the trailer to the stage and of course back out after the show. It's a good way to warm up before the show!

  If I can remember this far back in history, I am pretty sure the show went without a hitch. The dancers even improvised on a slip jig that we played. Nice job!

  Afterwards, the band and the dancers went to Pizza Hut for old time's sake. Well, we did this show last year and went for pizza, so we thought it should be a tradition. And like last year, us Martin girls and the other dancers assembled under the Pizza Time clock for a picture. Unfortunately when we looked at our pictures later, our camera decided that the pizza picture should be Unrecognized Format. Great.

 

  St. Patrick's Day show #2 on the 13th was a private party that the Lardners put on. It was a very laid-back gig so we sat in a semi-circle in their basement and entertained the guests. Melissa, Christy, and I did some dancing on boards from our table and had a grand time dodging the lights that hung from the ceiling.

  On the 14th, Brian and I, along with our pipe band, the Quittapahilla Highlanders, spent the day at Jim Thorpe because we were to march in the St. Patrick's Day Parade. It was raining and cold, although not nearly as cold as it was when we did it two years ago and tried to stay warm by standing at a fire truck's exhaust pipe. Oh my goodness, isn't it dangerous to be breathing exhaust fumes?

  This year, we had an overhang on a garage to stand under. The garage wasn't at the place where we were supposed to form up for the parade, but we stayed there until the parade caught up to us. I was glad of this because I saw other pipe bands standing out in the pouring rain, all totally drenched, and it didn't really look like fun. What a relief when the rain stopped just as we had to step out on to the street! A sea of wet drunks dressed in green were all over the street and sidewalk as we entered the town. The townsfolk of Jim Thorpe had been partying since Thursday night and by the parade day, which was Sunday, they were rather... happy, shall we say.

  Monday night's show was at the Farmer's Wife Restaurant for a Lion's Club banquet. While the Lions had their banquet, we set up our stage and proceeded to entertain ourselves by writing in the band journal and reading the advertisements on the placemats- Myerstown Sheds and Fencing, Jono Hardware, Jonestown Self Storage, American Counter Top Experts (Get the kitchen and bath you've always wanted!).  

  It was a fun show and the audience was great!

  We had the day off on Tuesday. Wednesday was St. Patrick's Day and we were on the road to Country Meadows in Reading. It was a beautiful day. The band jumped into Clifford, our big red van, and headed out towards our destination. On our way past the mechanic's shop where our mechanic was sitting outside, dad blew the horn and we all waved. Once we got into Womelsdorf, dad realized that he forgot his wallet. So we found fourty acres to turn the rig around and went back home and past the mechanic shop where dad blew the horn and we waved. A quick dash inside the house and we were back on the road...and past the mechanic who was getting tired of waving at us and being honked at and getting more confuzzled all the time.

  Finally we reached Country Meadows where we performed an hour long show for the residents.

  Gring's Mill park was very near Country Meadows and we went there to eat a picnic lunch, or was it supper? It was both, I guess, since we had a show to play later and wouldn't have time for eating. As we were sitting there enjoying the park and the airplanes taking off and landing at the Reading airport, a man came over to us and asked us if we were coming or going to a show. It was funny because we could say we were doing both!

  The next show for the day was in Macungie, Lehigh County, at...I can't remember for the life of me what the name of the place was. I think it was Willow Lane Retirement Community. At least that's what Melissa thinks it was. I really enjoyed playing there and meeting the lovely people who lived there. It was a busy but very good St. Patrick's Day.

  Thursday was another vacation day. On Friday, we played a show in Lancaster. It's another one of those places that I can't remember the name! As Butch would say, "There are three things that go bad when you get old. One of them is your memory, and I can't remember the other two."

  This audience was really amazing. I wasn't feeling too good, but they were so enthusiastic and encouraging that I was able to forget about it as we played.

  The next day was Saturday and Brian and I were in the Girardville St. Patrick's Day parade with the pipe band. It was a gorgeous day for a parade! Unfortunately, I was quite ill and hardly survived the parade route.

  On Sunday, we had two shows to play. The first one being in Lemoyne for "Grandma" Bootsy's birthday party. At the area where we set up to play, there were two balconies above us. Dianne Fisher, who is Bootsy's daughter, was up on a balcony threatening to spit on us. Haha, thanks Dianne, we love you too. There was a brunch and after that the MFB performed. Next Eric Fisher and I (incognito as the Smith Brothers and Stanley) played some songs. I scribbled out a set list for us on my hand, but as it turns out, Eric can't read palms. :) 

  After receiving party favors (back scratchers, party hats, and cake) we were back on the highway and on our way to the Lebanon Arts Center for a Ceili. Sarah, Faith, Joan, Anya, and Dina, dancers from the dance school, came to help out with the dancing part of the Ceili. How fortunate for me, because I was still under the weather wasn't the least bit entergetic! Anya and Joan led the audience in a few ceili dances in between our sets and the others danced a little while we played.

  The next show wasn't until Wednesday night, March the 24th, at Ridgeview Mennonite Church in Gordonville. I was still sick but still able to play and dance and surprisingly still able to blow bagpipes at this point. When the crowd gave us an encore, I was already backstage shivering under a pile of coats, so the rest of the family kindly played a tune without me.

 

  The next show was on the 27th, the day after my 19th birthday. It was an Acoustic Roadshow gig at the Berks Guild of Craftsmen Spring Fine Arts and Crafts Festival. The festival was held at the Kutztown University. Another family, the Lee family, who plays Celtic music just joined the Roadshow and they were to perform that day as well. There are 6 kids in the family and they play harps, dulcimers, a mandolin, and a fiddle. They go by the name of Seasons. We first met them at a session at Patsy Fagan's and boy, they are really good!

  We kicked off our show with a bunch of reels and had Butch feverishly turning knobs on the sound board. As we played, I was amused to see Mr. Lee doing all the work of bringing in all the instruments and whatnot of Seasons. Dad told me not to get any ideas. 

  After our set, in which I didn't dance because I was still not on the mend, Seasons along with us, played a few tunes together. That was really fun. They played their own set after that and did a fantastic job. When it was time for us to go home, I got a kick out of the fact that Seasons also has an enormous red van!

  After writing about our show at the Spring Arts and Crafts Festival, our band journal was full. Time to begin Band Journal number 5!! It's a pretty little Celtic journal that says Claddaugh on it. We found out recently that we have Scottish ancestory and Claddaugh is our clan. Wahhooo! They've got a really cool tartan too!

 

  Two weeks later, we united with Seasons once again for another roadshow event at the food court at Kutztown University. It was a Thursday night and it was very warm. Butch was inside sweating and hoping that they would throw another log on the air conditioner. I was thoroughly enjoying the warm weather because I was ready to thaw out after such a forever long winter.

  Melissa and dad decided to do something different and start off the show with a rousing set of reels and then go into our usual show-opener. It's always fun to do something different.

  We switched off and on the stage with Seasons all evening and even did a few tunes together. Butch joined us and Seasons on a song called "In Christ Alone" that we quick learned a day or two before. It actually sounded pretty good! Steve Scrinerie and Steve Stanislaw, a whistler and banjo player from Patsy Fagan's, were there to see us and they broke out their instruments and joined us on a few.

  Butch asked me to close the show with a solo on the bagpipes. So I huffed and I puffed and I got those pipes resonating across the dining hall, quite loudly at that. I remembered back to another show we played there many years ago when we shared the evening with a band called Trean. One of the guys in the band was a piper and he played a tune on his great Highland pipes. I remember even while it was very loud, I was tremendously impressed and more enthused than ever to begin learning how to play that beast. To this day I am still learning how to conquer the instrument...I still don't understand how an instrument can have a personality, but still, its got me wrapped around its little finger (or drone, or chanter, Ok, I'm not making any sense). You either are in love or in hate with pipes. I don't think there is an in between.

Well, I guess I am done soliloquizing till the mood to write strikes again. I think I'll go outside and enjoy this beautiful day.

Have a great day!

Emily

 

 

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

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