We wanted to thank everyone who responded to our last music newsletter. We had an overwhelming response to the news of my Dad’s passing and an especially positive response to the video we took of him singing one week before he died. When my sister Jeanette posted it on youtube we had no idea how many people would be touched by it.  The countless cards and emails with heartfelt condolences have been very comforting. We’ve tried to respond to many of them individually, but haven’t managed to keep up with them all. If you haven’t heard back from us please know we appreciate your kind words! If you didn’t get a chance to click the link before and wonder what I’m talking about, here it is again:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEy8n8We5HY

We’ve been playing music as much as we can between the more mundane jobs:-) We’ve played at several wonderful parties, and we’re also playing for appreciative elderly folks in assisted living/ care facilities. We’re lining up some regular gigs like this and it’s rewarding to make ‘em smile, tap their toes and many of them love to sing along. We’re excited about the next one we’ll be playing in the auditorium at the Redwoods Retirement home in Mill Valley. This is a private concert for the residents and their families, but it’s a small auditorium where Pete Seeger played recently.  Joan Baez played a private concert there for the residents this month. So we’re honored to be asked to play there on the same stage as some of our musical heros! A hard act to follow… but we’ve been practicing up a lot of old familiar folk songs and we get a good response to the occasional original songs we play for them as well.

We don’t have any public gigs lined up right now, except a series of Farmer’s Markets beginning in May, but we wanted to send you all greetings anyway. If you or anyone you know might be looking for music for any event, we’re available for weddings, parties, house concerts, even memorial services…which we’ve been playing for loved ones as well as complete strangers more and more often it seems.

We hope all of you are well and enjoying the new year so far.
We love hearing from any of you who might actually read this! Thanks again for all your kind messages last month.
Wishing you all the best in 2010!
Peace and Love,
Lindalou and Michael

Tomorrow night, December 3rd,  between 7 and 9pm.
We’ll be playing some songs at Ace in the Hole Pub with Festival of Friends, a great group of musician friends of ours from Sonoma County. Ace in the Hole Pub will be closing at the end of December. If you’ve never been there, now is the time to come enjoy the place while you still have the chance!

On December 16th,  from 6 to 9pm
The Calistoga Inn will have their 19th annual Pauper’s Feast.
We’ll be playing in the dining room with our friends, Dan Brunetti and David Chapman. We’ll play some holiday music interspersed with our regular repertoire. Hope to see you there!

Some of you have already seen this, but we just want to share it with everyone:

On Sunday Nov. 22nd, my dear 84 year old Dad, Ken Harris, passed away peacefully at home with his loving family after a short battle with lung cancer. He had a long wonderful music filled life. He maintained a great attitude and one of his last requests was for us to learn a couple of songs for him. One was a beautiful old song written in 1909 called “A Perfect Day.” He wanted us to sing it at his memorial service, which we did in Mill Valley last Sunday. He also wanted us to learn this song George Burns did called “Old Bones.” He asked Michael to back him up on it so he could sing it. I video taped him singing it exactly one week before he died. He could barely sing anymore but was determined to do it and wanted us to share it.

We have a large close family and we’re all missing our Dad and have shed many tears, but we’re at peace with his passing. We’re all grateful that he was able go gracefully, without too much suffering, and gave each of us a chance to say goodbye.

This video is such a treasure for us to have. My sister Jeanette has posted it on youtube and I thought you might enjoy it too.

Let’s all treasure our loved ones while we have them!
Love, Lindalou and Michael

Change of plans….On October 25th    2:00 to 5:00
Unfortunately our Adobe Pumpkin Farm gig in Petaluma has just been canceled. They said due to the rain they’ve been too muddy to open to the public for several days the past 2 weeks. As a result they just can’t afford to hire a band this coming weekend. They said they hope to have us back next year.

On October 31st       9:00am to noon
The last Calistoga Farmer’s Market of the year
We’re practicing up some of our scariest songs for this Halloween morning gig…

We just got back from a quick but amazing 2 week trip, mostly in Denmark, visiting family. We hadn’t seen most of them in 12 years since we were last there with our kids in 1997. Since then kids have grown up, new babies have been born and some of the older relatives have passed on. Life goes on for the rest of us though and we were happy to reconnect and meet the newer members of the Ryge family. We had a great time! We especially enjoyed playing a little music with Michael’s cousins.

We took a quick trip to Germany where we finally met our wonderful new friends Sylvia and Daniel, who we had only communicated with through email before we went to stay with them. We had discovered each other’s music on Jamendo, a great music sharing site our son Leif had encouraged us to post our music on. He said if we give our songs away we’ll eventually get gigs in far away places. Well it worked and we were invited by Sylvia and Daniel to come play in Germany and Belgium. They set up 3 concerts for us. We played in Butgenbach, Belgium on Friday October 2nd opening for Sylvia and Daniel’s great band Syl’n'Dan. Had a good turnout and a great time. We even got to play a little with their band when they called us back up for their encore.  They have a virtuoso 6 string electric bass player, Werner, and an amazing drummer, Andreas, whose talents and drum kit include tablas, congas, cajon, and bongos, as well as western trap drums.
On Saturday we played in a little town called Nideggen in Germany and had a blast. We were so surprised and delighted to meet a sweet couple, Anja and Thomas who traveled 6 hours, all the way from Berlin just to hear us play! We were amazed and honored.

On Sunday we played at a house concert near Simmerath. Again we had an enthusiastic audience and really enjoyed playing for them. We met so many nice people and they encouraged us to come back soon and play again. We’d love to! What a wonderful experience.

We hope you’re all well and enjoying life too!

Love, Lindalou and Michael

Tonight, Thursday, September 10th 6:00pm to 8:00pm
Pioneer Park on Cedar Street in Calistoga
The Calistoga Chamber of Commerce has been putting on free concerts for the community every Thursday evening. They’ve asked us to play with our band. Most folks bring a picnic dinner, maybe a bottle of wine and something to sit on. There’s also barbeque, beer and wine for sale there. We’ll be playing with the 3 D’s.

Saturday, September 12th 1:30pm to 3:30pm
Calistoga’s annual Relay for Life
At the Calistoga High School track on Lake Street
With the 3 D’s.

Sunday, September 13th
A private lunch for a Soroptimist Fundraiser in Calistoga

Saturday September 19th 9:00am to noon
Calistoga Farmer’s Market on Washington Street
with the 3 D’s again.

We’ve had to cancel a couple of farmers markets due to a sudden change of plans. We’re very excited to be leaving for a quick trip to visit family in Denmark on September 21st! We’ve also been invited to play some concerts in Germany and Belgium the first weekend of October! Thanks to our sons convincing us to give our music away online… we were delighted to be asked awhile back if we could come play in Germany, where, apparently people are enjoying our CD. You can read some reviews we’ve gotten from far away places here: http://tinyurl.com/mokz6p
We’ve gotten some good laughs from some of the computer translations!

When we were invited to come play in Germany we told them we couldn’t afford to get over there this year. Out of the blue Michael’s brothers and their wives have very generously offered to treat us to a trip to Denmark! They wanted all of us to be over there together and reunite with our Danish relatives who we haven’t seen since 1997.

Since Denmark is so close to Germany, we contacted the folks who had invited us to come play there.We’ve made friends with Daniel and Sylvia on line through our shared love of music and look forward to meeting them in person soon. They are also musicians who happen to play some of the same instruments we play. Check out their beautiful music here: http://www.syl-n-dan.de/index.php?id=43

They’re in the process of arranging 2 or 3 concerts for us to play in Belgium and Germany on October  2nd,  3rd and 4th. Needless to say we’re very excited about this! So if any of you happen to be in Belgium or Germany, please let us know and we’ll send you the details… we’d love to see you there.

We hope you’re all well and having a bountiful fall~
Love,
Lindalou and Michael

Saturday August 29th  9:00am to noon
We’ll be playing the Calistoga Farmer’s Market
with our fabulous band, The 3 D’s, Dan Brunetti, David Chapman and Duncan Draper.

September and October bring some surprising and exciting plans.  We’ll start September off camping at the Strawberry Music Festival. This is one of our favorite places to be every Labor Day weekend (and Memorial Day too when we can do both.) That’s no surprise, but when we return we’ve got a full plate for the weeks ahead!

Tonight, August 1st from 6:00 to 10:00pm
St. Helena Soroptimist Summerfest ~ An evening of Live Music, Dancing, Wine & Food under the stars!  Vineland Station Event Garden – Between Go Fish Restaurant & Tesoro Flower Shop.  Entrance to event at 633 Main Street, St. Helena, CA.
We’ll play with our band from 6pm to 8, opening for a rock band called “Four Shotz”  who will play from 8 to 10pm.
Tickets: $100.00 Benefiting St. Helena Soroptimist Local Charities for Women & Girls.  Contact: mffeet@aol.com or 707-322-8358
Bring your low concert chairs.

Saturday August 8th Playing private blackberry picking party in Sebastopol!

August 16th 10am to 1pm
Windsor Farmer’s Market
Downtown Windsor on the Town Green
We’ll play as a duo. Mmm…

August 22nd
We’ll be attending Cur-ville Dog Days Festival
We’re not scheduled to play this year but we’ll be jamming with friends in the evening and hope to be on the schedule next year.
There’s a great lineup of some of our favorite musicians. We’d encourage you to check out the website http://cur-ville.com/index.html and consider going!

August 29th 9am to noon
Calistoga Farmer’s Market
On Washington Street
with the 3 D’s
Dan Brunetti, David Chapman and Duncan Draper

After that we’re off to the Strawberry Music Festival to camp out and jam with good friends and family for 4 days! Yay!

Hope all of you are enjoying your summer~
Be well,
Lindalou and Michael

We’ve been asked to play as a duo at the Calistoga Farmer’s Market on the 4th of July from 9am to 11am. The market will be extended this Saturday and we’ll stop playing during Calistoga’s 4th of July parade and start up again  from 12:30 to 2:00. Then we’ll go over to Santa Rosa to play for a 4th of July party at a new retirement home where we’ve been hired to play for an hour that afternoon.

On July 11th from 9am to noon, we’ll play again at the Calistoga Farmer’s Market with The 3 D’s –Dan Brunetti, David Chapman and Duncan Draper.

Thanks to our friend Alan Morrell, who invited us, we had a wonderful weekend at the Kate Wolf Memorial Festival up in Laytonville. What an amazing event! It’s hard to believe it’s possible but it seems to keep getting better every year! We saw and heard so much incredible music and got to play into the wee hours three nights in a row, with good friends and strangers stopping by our camp, joining the song circle. One song leads to another and it’s hard to stop. Kate Wolf continues to inspire us and her spirit lives on!

Our friends Diane and Ziggy were helping run the Sunset radio station for the festival and asked us to do an interview and play a few songs during the break on Sunday. We invited Ted Dutcher and Susan Ballinger to join us on a Kate Wolf song dedicated to our old friend Gordy Hall. Some of you may have known him and remember his great smile and enthusiasm. He was a kind hearted elf like musician who died (too young) a couple of weeks ago. We would have been at his memorial service in Fairfax on Sunday if we hadn’t been at the Kate Fest. Gordyo always asked us to sing Kate Wolf’s “Across the Great Divide” whenever we saw him, and it felt good to dedicate the song to him on the air. He’ll be missed by many, especially around Fairfax where he was actively involved in the community.

We would encourage any of you music lovers out there to consider coming to the Kate Fest next year, so we can keep this wonderful festival alive and thriving.  Check out the website: http://www.katewolf.com/festival/ if you’re interested in coming next year, or consider volunteering if you can’t afford tickets. It’s well worth it!

Also if you’re interested, please check out these websites to find out about some of the wonderful music we heard there besides the big familiar names like Emmylou Harris and her buddies, etc. Check out our friend Megan Mclaughlin who played some of her great songs for us in camp. Our dear family friend Nory Fussell also played his wonderful songs for us and was asked to open for our friends Paul Kamm and Eleanore MacDonald who played a couple of different sets including  a “tweener” between Richard Thompson and Emmylou Harris on the main stage!

Our new friend Ginger Parish’s trio “Three At Last“  played on the new “People’s Stage” and they were so good I expect we’ll be seeing them on the main stage eventually.

A duo called Ma Muse also played on the People’s Stage and were amazing, as were the Blushin’ Roulettes!

I could go on and on but I won’t. We do want to let you all know about something coming up this summer we hope you might come to. Our friends Laura Hinerfeld and Dale Henry Geist have been putting on a great little music fest the past couple of years. They call it “Cur-ville Dog Days Fest.” It’s growing and evolving and we’d like to encourage you to support it. Read about it here:  http://cur-ville.com/index.html

We hope you’re all enjoying the summer and will get out often to hear plenty of live music!

Enjoy!

XOXO, Lindalou and Michael

We missed our beloved Strawberry Music Fest last weekend to play a wedding with our full 6 piece band which was a wonderful, uplifting event, and now we can afford to go to the Fall Strawberry Fest!  We’ve been playing every weekend lately and some weekdays and nights as well. We’ve been out making so much music that we wonder when we’ll ever catch up with the chores around here!
We went up to Mendocino Woodlands this past Friday for a rehearsal, to play a beautiful wedding there on Saturday and then rushed back Sunday morning to play a wonderful annual event at the Mark West Creekside yesterday. It was the “Shade Tree Preservation Tour Picnic hosted by Joe Branum Tree Care and Jack Martin of the Mark West Lodge.

We’re looking forward to playing even more music this month:

Sunday June 7th 10am to 1pm
Windsor Farmer’s Market
We’re playing as a duo
on the town Green

Wednesday June 10th  6pm to 10pm,
at The Blue Heron in Duncans Mills
As a trio with Terry Ann Gillette

Saturday June 13th 9am to noon
Calistoga Farmer’s Market
on Washington Street
With the 3 D’s:
Dan Brunetti, David Chapman and Duncan Draper

Also Saturday June 13th 2:00pm to 4:30ish
At the Logvy Property in Calistoga at the end of Washington Street
Celebrating, at last, the opening of the long awaited
Calistoga public pool!
We’ll be playing with the 3 D’s again!

Saturday June 20th 11am to 5pm
Calistoga Art in the Park
Pioneer Park on Cedar Street
with the 3 D’s and our favorite fiddler
Terry Ann Gillette

The following weekend we’re off to camp out, dance and jam with good friends at the Kate Wolf Memorial Music Festival!

Hope to see some of your smiling faces along the way~
Love, Lindalou and Michael

On to the next weekend:

We’re playing at the Calistoga Farmer’s Market again!
Saturday May 9th from 9am to noon
With the 3 D’s (Dan Brunetti, David Chapman and Duncan Draper.)

We have 2 big wedding gigs coming up later in May, one with the band and one as a duo. We’re hoping more gigs like that come our way soon. We love playing weddings! Please keep us in mind if you or anyone you know needs music for any kind of event. Thanks!

Happy Spring and good health to all,
Lindalou and Michael

P.S. One more really fun gig has come up in May:

Sunday May 31st  noon to 11pm.
Mark West Shade Tree preservation Tour Picnic
Joe Branum Tree Care is hosting this event.
Bring a dish to share and a bottle of wine.
Barbeque, meat, fire pit and music provided
RSVP to Joe at  942-8954
(We’ll play off and on with the 3 D’s starting around 1:30)

Once a year our local market puts on a festive party with live music inside and out, with lots of free samples and a raffle. Everyone has a great time. They’ve had us play this event before. This year it happens to be on Earth Day so we’ll be celebrating that as well. It’s not always easy “being Green”… but we’re trying our best and we think Cal Mart has been working on it as well! It’s a great local market with a good selection of organic produce. We’re happy to have no Safeway or large chain stores in our little town.

We’ll be playing with our band, including Duncan Draper on stand up bass, David Chapman on drums and Dan Brunetti playing guitar and singing harmonies. Our favorite fiddler Terry Ann Gillette will also join us! We’ll be in the parking lot where there will also be plenty of good food samples and smiling faces and who knows what surprises. A rare treat for us to get hired to play on a weekday! Hope to see you there supporting our local market and enjoying the music and our Calistoga community.