This Week

Looking forward to Wednesday night jam. This a good place to practice your songs.

Carolyn's New CD

From Picking in the Heartland: Did you know that one of our regular attenders has released her first CD. It is titled: Carolyn Niccum - "Steppin' Out". It has ten of her all time favorite songs. This is a wonderful accomplishment so please give her your congratulations at our jam this Friday. Each CD is value priced at $10.

You may want to bring a ten dollar bill with you Friday night. If Carolyn runs out of her CD, Picking in the Heartland also accepts donations. :)

"Picking in the Heartland" this Friday Night

I'll be traveling just a short distance to the next jam. Bluegrass Picking in the Heartland http://pickingintheheartland.blogspot.com/ is a new acoustic jam located on the east side of town (Kansas City, MO). The jam is being held the fourth Friday of each month.

Our Last Heartland Unplugged

It's been a great 4 1/2 years. Hope you enjoy the pictures. Thanks for Frank Vail for always being there to take these. He's sure talented. Thanks also to Donna and Craig for cooking all of those cheeseburgers. We really had a good time...didn't we!

Thanks for Jamming with Us

Lots of jammers came out last night....some new...some old. We all had a great time. I learned some new songs. Maybe I should say I learned "of" some new songs. It takes me a while to actually learn a new song. Bill mentioned on his bluegrass blog that the two bluegrass clubs in town will be starting up in October. Be sure to get on out and support these...along with the folks at Country Meadows Baptist who run a weekly Thursday night bluegrass jam. All of these folks volunteer their time to enable all of us to have a safe, comfortable place to play together. So if you're sitting around home on a Friday afternoon, wondering whether or not you want to put the effort out to drive over to the local jam (or maybe you're feeling guilty because you really haven't been practicing), get up off of the couch and get on over there.

We Loved the Frayed Nots

We received lots of compliments about the the performance Friday night. The Frayed Nots were wonderful. They're wonderful harmonies filled the hall. We can hardly wait for them to come back and play again. Here are some great pictures that Frank Vail took during the evening's events.

Frayed Nots to Perform this Friday Night

We're going to have a pair of talented musicians on stage this Friday night. The Frayed Nots are made up of husband and wife team Dave and Kathleen Gustafson on guitar and mandolin. They play a variety of music and can’t make up their minds. It’s not bluegrass, it’s not country, it’s not folk, it’s not something you hear on the radio…well, you can see how they got the name “Frayed Nots.” Dave is heavily influenced by Doc Watson and Kathleen was corrupted by her parents constantly playing swing. They meet somewhere in the middle in an interesting blend of fiddle tunes, swing, jazz, blues and whatever they like. (And they’re NOT going to quit their day jobs!)