I believe i am the first to list from Kansas. I don't live in any town. I live in Chase County, Kansas. About half way between Kansas City and Wichita. The county is 880 sq. miles of tall (10 to 12 feet on a good wet year)grass prairie. 2800 people in the whole county but because of the grass this is cowboy country with more than a million head of cattle. My nearest neighbor is a long way off. My backyard (i don't own it but i frequently hike through it) is about 80 square miles of pastue with no roads through it. Not far from where i live Home on the Range was written. We still have buffalo (on a few ranches) antelope (one of the few places that does) I believe that poisionous herbage doth grow along Beaver Creek. If solomon gales are anything like the twisters we had go through here last week then we still have them. And as far as I know i've never seen a curlew or heard one scream but on a moonless night the stars are incredibly bright.
I grew up playing drums learned to be a percusionist in college and then realized that i would have to live in a city to make a living doing that. So it was back to buckin bales for me. About 18 years ago i watched a fella playing ragtime and figured that i could learn to do that. I was saying until a couple of weeks ago that i wasn't half bad and then this guy ask me, "Well, just how bad are you?" Now I say I'm pretty fair. Due to more and more people moving out into the country even here in Kansas. A short time ago I met a mandolin/banjo/dobro/uke picker who is awesome. He lives about 30 miles from me. He and i started playing together and then low and behold a woman who is every bit as awesome on cello moved into a farmstead 30 mile in another direction. About 30 miles between them, too. Now that may seem like a long distance to some of you but please remember there's nothing between them and me. I can get to either of their houses in about 30 minutes. It takes that long for some of you in the city to go just a few blocks.
Now the three of us are playing old jug band tunes, cowboy tunes from the thirties and forties, some rock and roll, some jazz tunes and anything else that satricks our fancy. All of the tunes are arranged by us to allow us to freely improvise. We're having a great time and last fall began gigging. We have been very well recieved but it ain't any easier to break into the music business now than it has ever been and we have the disadvantage of being a long way from anywhere. BTW it is a beautiful though slow blooming spring here. A couple of days ago my middle son (I'm single parent of three boys) and I went looking for morels and found about three days of good eating. Better than some years worse than most. I am really glad to have found mudcat. i love the solitude out here in my part of kansas but it is a blessing of these times that i can read and converse with folks all over the world who have similar interests to mine. thanks for letting me be a part.