Today is Saturday, February 21st and the laundry is in the wash and my day begins. This weekend will be a Bluegrass weekend. Of course most of my weekends involve Bluegrass in some fashion, if only listening to WBBC, The Bobcat and the "Sweet Brenda & Him" 
show on Sunday morning from 7 to 10 AM, 93.5FM. But, this weekend is one just chock full of Bluegrass. Last night I drove to Farmer's Cafe in Blackstone to hear The Flatland Bluegrass Band in concert. They did a fine job, as always. Be sure to come to the "Night Owl Concerts" as part of the "Cabin Fever Pickin' Party" in Hampton, Virginia coming up in less than two weeks from March 5th through March March 8th at the Holiday Inn. Last night was a lot of fun, but my weekend is just getting started. Tonight I'll be driving out to Farmville, Virginia to hear two great bands at the VFW Hall. Those two bands are Eddie Gill & The Grassmasters and Donnie Mason and In The Tradition. Bosth of these bands play good old hard driving traditional Bluegrass. Eddie is known for his soaring tenor leads, while Donnie has that special touch with heart songs and is especially gifted with his ability to bring a tear to your eye with his heartfelt recitations. If you've got nothing to do tonight, make your way out to Farmville and join me for a great evening of Bluegrass. I'm not sure when things get started, but I wouldn't get there any later than 7PM. Now, you might think, "Well, Gary's Bluegrass weekend is over." but you'd be wrong because I'm heading back out again tomorrow toward Appomattox, Virginia to the Appomattox County High School to hear two more great bands. Presented as part of the Appomattox County High School Athletic Booster Club's Winter Bluegrass Series, this Sunday's concert features Lexington, Virginia's own Nothin' Fancy Bluegrass Band and a great band from Nashville, Tennessee, known as Williams & Clark Expedition. The show gets underway at 2PM, but the doors open at 1PM, so plan to get there early and claim your favorite seat. Don't worry about lunch as the Booster's club grills up some geat Hamburgers and Cheeseburgers along with chips and other snack items. I'm a nut about Bluegrass, so I'll probably be there really early. so, if you read this and came because you saw my blog, come up to me and let me know.
I suppose many of you are wondering when I'm planning on sending out that last newsletter. Well, so am I! No, actually my plans are to enjoy Cabin Fever and then after I get back home I'll get serious and write up that last issue. Most of you read my blog, but there are a few who for one reason or another don't have computers. If you know one of those folks let them know about my plans. While I'm here blogging I wanted to let you know about The Virginia Bluegrass Family/Bluegrass Virginia "Night Owl Concerts." This year, in an effort to present more music and give more bands a chance to play, I have reduced the set times to 25 minutes each. The showcases will begin at the usual 11PM time and end at about 2:20AM early Sunday morning. Here's the schedule:
11:00PM -Flatland Bluegrass Band 11:25PM - The Fitzmaurice Band 11:50PM - Code Blue 12:15AM - The Willow Creek Band 12:40AM - Deep Creek 1:05AM - GrassStreet 1:30AM - Some Assembly Required 1:55AM - Jollet Lane
So there you have the schedule. Note that anywhere in this blog whenever you see words that are highlighted in different color (called hyperlinks) type they are instant links to the web sites of that particular band or organization. Simply place you mouse over the hyperlink and click.
Also, I will not be attending the March meeting of The Virginia Bluegrass Family as I am so excited about Cabin Fever that I plan to be in Hampton that night getting things started early. Tom Reeves will be passing the bucket around, so please be generous and help out the church so they'll keep letting us use the facility. Well, that's the Ramble for this time around. I'll see all of you at Cabin Fever, won't I?
"NUFF SAID!"
