My one group has stumbled into the corporate world. Last week we played for an "event", I guess you would call it, up in Aspen. They offered us enough to drive all the way up there so we took it. If I am playing in any time period it usually falls within the Victorian time. But these folks had a Renaissance setting. So we rigged up outfits and dug through our Elizabethan material. (Close enough) This was for a pharmaceutical sales company. They brought in 350 of their favored employees and put them in a hotel in the town. This was set up in a very large lodge above Aspen and they bused the folks up. Quite a circus atmosphere with actors doing sword fights, juggling torches, and talking like the time period. Oh, and a raptor group with hawks. Very renfairish. We set up and played at the entrance as the folks would come in off the bus and later for the dinner. In between we would wend through the crowd single file and play as loud as possible in the hope of hearing each other. You learn to follow the bow strokes of your friends to keep in time. Though no one would hear anyway. Later there was some kind of time shift I guess as our actor friends were putting on Starwars costumes and were having a tough time of it with the crowd. Yoda kept getting his ears pulled off. A rock band started up that shook the floor. Our job was done so we got out of there.

Yesterday two of us played for a similar gig in Denver for a woodworkers convention. Must have been tool sales. There's no money in woodworking or I'm not trying hard enough. We didn't know the whole story as it was still being made up. We got there and found out it was for 4000 people with cowboys, indians, mountain men and Buffalo Bill. (my old friend Al) At least we had some friends among the group. There was gold panning and cattle roping and of course a rock band. Timothy P. and Rural Route Three. Well I guess we can say we started for them. We started outside entertaining as they got off the buses. Then we came inside to try to find a place to play over the rock group. Once again, follow the bow strokes. One refuge was a nice coach pulled by a plastic horse. We climbed in there and the fabric top seemed to deaden the din outside. We we could hear each other at least and the crowd thought we looked nice. A high point was later when we were strolling with banjo and fiddle and an older couple recognised the song "Grandfather's Clock" and joined in. Mostly folks couldn't here us. We were western type furniture fitting in with the saddles and plastic horses. Weird. After it was done they fed us nice and we got our money and got out of there. It could have been a miserable time but we had fun with it. So there's money for musicians in the corporate world if you can stand it.

Rex