Note: This is Jed, not Duckboots!

Following up on the Fielding/Beef Brothers tour thread:

It's a pretty cold cold (bloody cold) day in Toronto. Rick, Mick and I are about to head out to visit a music shop or two. We sat and picked and talked 'til all hours last night, but have a few more songs to sing and stories to tell for the next few days; the Toronto adventure begins!

I had a great visit with the Good Folk people in Fayetteville AR. Great venue, nice folks ... we sat and picked 'til all hours, then I visited the Pea Ridge civil war battlefield - under a fresh coat of snow ... beautiful park and one I want to visit again in the Spring. I stopped over in St Louis on my way to Grand Rapids and Mick's house. I didn't make it in time to catch the sessions on Wed night, but I did get to visit a wonderful music shop enroute - played all their Santa Cruz, Collings and Martins ... tried a few banjos and mandos ... then moved on to Mick's.

It has been non-stop with Mick! He had a busy schedule for us, and we moved through the days with laughter, never ending stories and lots of music! A radio show at the Grand Rapids PBS station, a session with the Conklin Ceili band (punctuated with venison jerky, cheese olives and sardines - apparently typical Grand Rapids fare). Mick had arranged a show for me at a popular local pub called Pete Brown's Office ... we had a great crowd and it was fine room to play, good sound, plenty of room. I closed the night with a long set of ad-libbed songs with the Conklin Ceili band.

The trip to Toronto with Mick is worthy of a thread of its own! You might imagine that there was a bit politics discussed. But - now it's time to leave. I hope to get back to this thread in a bit, to pass on some more ....