February is nearly over and while there’s still plenty of snow on the ground our spring fever is primed and ready to kick in. The thin layer of ice dripping off the trees even resembles little buds that might be showing up in a month or so. Hard to say with our fickle Midwest weather. As usual, I’m writing this from my office staring out the window. There isn’t much happening out there save for a few squirrels in their heavy winter coats, digging in the snow for the stray morsel littered by the unusually large population of birds that are wintering in our back yard. I’ve seen blue jays, chickadees and nuthatches, tufted titmouses (or is it titmice?) and robins all attacking the feeders at regular intervals throughout the day. Even when the polar vortex was upon us. Must be all that flying around keeping them warm.
We had a great run of shows so far this year and most all of them have been sharing the stage with friends. Kicking off with the annual Yellow Room Gang show at The Ark is always a favorite, we’ve had a few Diamonds in the Rust shows despite Jan’s unfortunate shoulder injury she rallied and the concerts were super fun. Rod and I swapped songs with our talented pal, Joel Palmer at Zou Zou’s Cafe right here in our home town. I (Annie) got to share some songs in the round with Mark Jewett, Amy Petty and Sam Corbin for the third time! And let’s not forget our annual My Folky Valentine show. It was the 15th year for this lovefest and we featured Anne Heaton & Frank Marotta, Jr, Dave Boutette & Kristi Davis and Escaping Pavement. Wow!! And if that isn’t enough, I got to top off the month playing a couple songs for the Songwriters Anonymous Showcase to benefit the Trinity House Theatre featuring Gary Browe, Hugh Fader, Dan Hazlett, Karidia, Marty Kohn, Phil McMillion, Jerry Price, Jere Stormer, and Linden Thoburn. I was lucky enough to have the multi-talented Sharon Tse join me on percussion for my two songs! She rocked it!! So grateful for the opportunity to play with such wonderful songwriters and musicians.
Coming down the pick we’re a little light on performances but working furiously to finish our new CD.
Have we mentioned that we’re making a new CD? We’re about 75% done with the recording and the homestretch is always the longest it seems. It is not our intention to bombard you with requests for contributions to a fan-funding campaign but we do have a few nifty opportunities to help us reach the finish line.
One of the coolest things we’re doing is a special limited edition companion CD of cover songs. This will include many of the covers we’ve been performing at our shows over the years along with a couple new ones you probably haven’t heard us perform yet. You can get a free copy of this CD along with “When They Fall” for just $35. Even cooler, we’ll be recording this in front of a live audience at Big Sky Studio in Ann Arbor. Seating is limited to a small number so if you’re interested we recommend jumping on that now. Most importantly, we really want you to have this CD and Presales will help as much as anything.=
Check out all the options by clicking the button below.