CANYON LAKE, WALT-FEST, GRUENE HALL. That’s what I’m talking about!

Last Friday night we performed at the Canyon Lake Library
aka The Tye Preston Memorial Library.   It was a standing room only
audience. They were there ready to hear some music and to support and raise money for their local library.  Do you all remember libraries??? They existed way before Wikipedia and will be around long after I predict. The evening was a great success.  It was a beautiful audience. We are very blessed to be able to play a variety of venues, such as house concerts, clubs, and festivals and even libraries.

Speaking of festivals… Texas’ own Walt Wilkins launched his first annual
music festival this past weekend and Michael Hearne and I were invited to perform. It was a two day event with a strong lineup, Susan Gibson, Bob Livingston, Tina Wilkins, Tommy Alverson Band, Larry Joe Taylor, too many to list. It was held at the Jelly Stone Park (‘YABA DABA DOO!) right off highway 290, just west of Stonewall and east of Fredericksburg. It seems Walt has brought another great annual event, like the Kerrvllle Festival to Texas and it’s music lovers.  If you missed it, well check it out next year.  Thanks Walt! We’re looking forward to the second annual Walt Fest!

On Sunday it was ‘Palm Sunday’ and we made our way to Gruene Hall for
a very gratifying Sunday evening concert.  We thank you all for showing up!
The beautiful thing about playing Gruene Hall is, besides the people
showing up who are familiar with our music, the venue is also a magnet
for first timers and folks visiting Gruene and New Braunfels and the iconic dance hall regardless of who’s performing.  It’s a great opportunity to meet a lot of new, first timers, and to introduce them  to our music!  It’s a touch of big ole’Texas!

This Wednesday I’ll be in OLD TOWN SPRING @PUFFABELLY’S. It’s a show/song swap with Davin James, who is recovering from a quadruple bypass heart surgery, So… we may be sitting down for this show, but we’ll be there. All of you in North Houston come on out and give us a shout.  The show starts at 8pm (sometimes before… over by 10pm, sometimes later) so you may be home early! (Looks like I will be doing a solo show buy with Davin coming for a short visit!)

Then on Friday might we’ll be back down in Houston for another show at
ANDERSON FAIR.  It’s one of the most respected ‘listening rooms’ in Houston.
They even made a movie/documentary called, "For The Sake of the Song”
 about this famous music venue and all the songwriters who have performed. It’s always an honor to perform there. Thanks Tim and all the volunteers, Bob, Joy, David, and all the others who work there for keeping this musical institution
alive and thriving.

So I hope to see you out at one of our upcoming shows.
Stay tuned for more…see you up the road…
Thanks,
Shake

Spring has Sprung
April 5

Thank you Bernhardt Winery for hosting the fundraiser
for John Finnegan and Maureen of “Silver Shoes” this past weekend. John is battling lung cancer at M.D. Anderson, so he’s in the very best of hands and the treatments are working and prognosis looks good. In the mean while, “Silver Shoes” is unable to perform or to earn an income. So, we came together to help raise some money to help them through this hard patch they’re traveling. What a great success it was thanks to all of you who came out and were so generous in supporting our old friends. The morning weather that Sunday was ominous with severe thunderstorms and tornados flying across the radar and more predicted to come our way later in the afternoon. It didn’t look good or very promising.  But as if all our prayers were answered, the clouds began to break away, when blue skies began to appear, and the sun came out to play.  It was a great omen and a blessed sign of this good day that was about to unfold. All of John and Maureen’s friends and family were there to encourage and cheer them on. We all sang songs and told stories. John and Maureen aka ‘SILVER SHOES' along with Mead Turner on fiddle, performed for us, doing songs from their new CD “Another Time Around”. They encored with a song we had written together called “OLD FRIENDS”.  Old friends indeed. We all took the stage for “Deep in the West” and the iconic “DRIFT AWAY” to end a beautiful day of friends, family and music.

On Monday night MIRANDA’s album, “The Weight of These Wings” won COUNTRY MUSIC “ALBUM OF THE YEAR” and she won ”FEMALE VOCALIST OF THE YEAR”!
WAY TO GO MIRANDA!! This girl’s on fire!! it’s the first time in my career I’ve had one of my songs on an “album of the year.” Thanks Miranda for making my song a part of your journey.

SHOWS COMING UP
Michael Hearne and I will be performing this Friday, April 7 at the Tye Preston Memorial Library in Canyon Lake. Show starts at 6:00 to 8:00 PM.  Saturday we appear in Fredericksburg at ‘The Walt Fest’.  It’s Walt Wilkins first annual music festival.  He’s taken a few notes from Michael Hearne’s Big Barn Dance and decided to start his own version here in Texas.   Thanks for asking us Walt!

Sunday we’re back at Ole Gruene, Hall so bring the kids and come on out!  Down beat is at 5pm. Next Wednesday I’ll be back in the Houston area swapping songs with Davin James at PUFFABELLY’S in Old Town Spring, TX.  Davin has had some recent heart surgery but is home and doing better.  We have all been praying for him and our friend and fellow music lover, Seth Sanders, has started a GoFundMe for Davin!  Help if you can.  Music starts at 8pm, sometimes earlier and sometimes later than 10:00!  We hope to see you out at one of the shows.

Stay tuned….I’ll keep you posted on “what’s shaking” up the road.
Thanks, Shake