Unlikely duo

I got up this morning to a notice from Rhapsody that there is an album put out by two of my favorite artists, though no one cold have predicted they would ever get together. How did I miss this???

Alison Krauss
and
Robert Plant!

And I'm listening to it right now. It's quite nice. Bayleigh and I are taking a road trip and I think this will be in my cd player all day. Him and her harmonize beautifully, and its laden with acoustic guitar and pedal steel. Refreshing!

The email also said there's a new release by Ryan Adams (not to be confused with Bryan Adams) but I've not got past this yet!

Good music day!!!

Also, a friend of mine has suggested I listen to Caedmon's Call. Sounds like something I would like.

Silas House

My husband had the chance to meet NYT bestselling appalachian writer Silas House last night at a local college. Jeff was quite inspired by listening to him, and he bought the book "The Coal Tattoo". Don't know when he'll get a chance to read it with all his school work.

So, I just now looked up this man's website, and found his list of favorite musicians and I was stunned. People know I have obscure taste in music, and this man had many of my favorites on his list. Artists like Gillian Welch, Lucinda Williams, Be Good Tanyas, Sufjan Stevens, Iron and Wine, Patty Griffin, Darrell Scott, Abigail Washburn, and many others.

Now I can't wait to read his book too!

Update

I read through my last cumulative post, and need to update. I nixed the paid gig, not up to playing with people I've never played with before, and songs I don't know. And not okay with accepting payment for what I know would be a poor job. And the church performance fell through.

But -- I was asked to be on a team for a co-ed Christian retreat for high school and college students. I will be one of the musicians. In fact I'll be the only instrumentalist on the female side (pressure!) I start practices on September 29. I hope and pray I'm experienced enough to pull this off. So I have to brush up on the guitar, since I'll be playing that a lot. The retreat will be four days straight of high-energy worship with kids with more energy than I'll ever think to have! So I figure I better start walking on the treadmill to prepare as well, lol.

I had really been wanting to work the women's version of the same retreat that Jeff is preparing for, but I was not chosen. Even if I had been chosen, I probably wouldn't have been asked to help with music. I was a little upset about not being chosen, but God showed me yet again His timing is best.

I can't wait! I've been needing focus, and this is exactly what I need. God didn't give me what I wanted, but what I needed. I had been floundering for some time, not really committed to anything, depressed, with no goals or aspirations for myself, which is not a good place for me to be. Now I'm going to have to practice several hours a day and I'm going to love it.

Catchin' Up

I've not blogged in forever, sorry.... Life's been a good kind of busy lately. But I'll try to summarize what's been going on, in no particular order of time or importance:

1. I'm practicing to be in my first fiddle contest. A music teacher named Liz and I will be playing "Swallowtail Jig" and "In the Garden" with help from our wonderful teacher. The contest is in September in Newburgh - Catfish and fiddle music, my kind of time.

2. Jeff and I went to ROMP. It was awesome. We listened to lots of cool groups, went to some workshops, and picked with a bunch of other musicians. Eli and I performed with the Kentucky Bluegrass Allstars and got our Tshirts and musician laminates to prove it.

3. I'm going busking soon, probably on Friday.

4. I got a really cool new cell phone. Yep, I'm a geek like that.

4. Eli is going to swim camp this week. He didn't get Jeff's swim gene. Poor guy. But I was proud of him, he jumped off the diving board the second day! Yay Eli!

5. I'm redesigning a website for a local company.

6. Eli and I went to the children's museum in Evansville yesterday with Alicia and her two boys. It was pretty cool! We ran into Ashley and her two girls there. We run into them nearly everytime we leave the house for some strange reason. The kids climbed into a giant nose, fired a fog canon, floated balls on pipes, built a roller coaster, acted on stage, created a stop animation scene, among other things. I ran into Mandy there also, she's 16 and has Rett Syndrome like Bayleigh.

7. Bayleigh's summer program is going great.

8. I really need to shampoo the carpets this week :(. Unless you want to do it for me...

9. My yearly embarrassment is now 364 days in the future. Ladies, you know what I'm talking about. but I have to go get another mammogram next week. *sigh*

10. I love nasonex. I can now breathe like a normal person.

11. I'm thoroughly enjoying Wilco's latest album. It's what you hear in the background of all the new VW commercials.

12. Jeff is working 12 hour days for a while. He's so tired and I don't see him much. I think he's going to be off next Thursday :(

13. Like zucchini? Cause we are going have about 14 gazillion of them in a week or two.

14. I started a real blog on blogger.com. But I've not kept up with it lately.

15. My New Year's resolution was to read the entire bible from cover to cover this year. So far I'm only on 1st Samuel. So, it doesn't look like I'm going to make it. But I'm not giving up. In fact I'm rather enjoying it. So I'll get there eventually, and that's the main thing.

16. Jeff's brother was "months away from a heart attack" according to his doctor. He's now recovering well from receiving two stints and says he feels better than he has in a long time. He said to tell everyone thanks for the prayers.

17. Speaking of #16, Jeff's mom is taking Chantix to help her quit smoking and its WORKING! So I told our family doctor that I want Jeff on it immediately.

18. My mom and dad are in Arkansas diamond hunting.

19. I met a man at ROMP who remembered my Papa. And he played a song for me on the guitar that Papa used to play.

And that's all I can think of for now.