Weekly Gig at The 406

Come to the 406 Brewery in Bozeman on Tuesday afternoons!

101 East Oak Street, Bozeman, Montana

The 406 Brewery supports local musicians, and has invited me to play on Tuesday afternoons. I'll start right around 4:30, or maybe a little earlier, and play until I run out of tunes.

Enjoy great beer, welcome and friendly atmosphere, and traditional Scottish fiddle music.

(And if you play cello, bring it. The cello is traditional in this genre, and sounds really good!)

New Job

With little fanfare I left my job of seven years last Friday and started my new job on Monday. New job woes: discovering who does what, policies, tricks, quirks, and perks. Been a long time since I started a new job, and now I remember how stressful it is. And exciting - so many new things to learn in short order, and then the long climb up the learning curve. Change is good...

Big Changes

Early this week I gave notice to my manager that I'm leaving the company. It's been severn productive, educational, difficult, and rewarding years.  But I've reached a point where working full time is keeping me from doing more important things with my life.

Anyway, we've decided that we can afford for me to work part-time at a reduced salary. I'll work 24 hours a week to start, as a technical writer for another local engineering firm. The rest of my time will be spent working on the house, working on the landscape, biking, gardening, and fiddling.

There's a lot I'll miss about my job, particularly the people I get to work with in Sales. Great bunch of people, and it almost hurts to leave them. They've certainly made it known this week that they'll miss me, and that makes it even harder to leave.

New adventures await. It's time for a change and a new challenge. I'm not really closing doors, I think. Just opening new doors. We'll see where this goes, eh?

First Paying Gig!

Saturday was a big day - my first paying gig!


Tom, my fiddle instructor, started priming me about a month ago - with five new strathspeys - for the Bozeman Scottish Country Dance Club annual dance party on Saturday 5 March. At the dance he and I played fiddle, and Hallie played piano.


We played the first 4-by strathspey set (Jessie Smith, The Warlocks, Lord Banff). It was such a hit the dancers asked us to play it again, and we played it even better the second time 'round. The second set was a 6-by strathspey, playing Lime Hill, Castle Newe, and Captain Campbell's. Tom launched into some pretty wild harmonies, so I held the melody together. We tore it up! 


The mic was positioned such that I couldn't very well watch both the dancers and Tom, so I missed watching most of the dance. Kind of a bummer because strathspeys are really beautiful dances. Maybe it's time I get my fiddle mic'd with a wireless???


At the end of it, the president of the dance club handed me a check, thereby making this my first paying gig!


I'll tell you, though, the richest part of this adventure is playing music that makes people move. This is dance music anyway and it's designed to get people moving. But for me to be able to play it, and they dance and are excited and appreciate my music ... THAT is what it's all about!

Bozeman Scottish Session

Announcing ...

Bozeman Scottish Music Session

Homepage Cafe

242 East Main Street

Bozeman, Montana

Sunday afternoons

3:00pm - 5:00pm

Free and open to the public!
(And they have good coffee there.)

“If he’d play in front of people...”

A friend of mine invited me to his “house concert” where he played classical guitar. I knew he played guitar, but I thought he was just a beginner or weekender. He was nervous and it showed just a bit in his playing, but really it was an impressive performance. If he’d play in front of people more he wouldn't be so stifled by his stage fright, and he’d really shine.

After the house concert Jacquie and I went to Pub 317 for the Sunday night Irish jam session. Simon played Woodcock on the flute and I was barely able to hang on since he plays it much faster than I can. He also played Colonel Fraser’s, the wonderful pipe march that Tom and I learned from Gabe MacVarish in Edinburgh. It’s a four-part reel, and well ornamented it’s marvelously pipey. Here’s one setting, if you’re so inspired: Colonel Fraser's

Bar patrons who eventually moved out of the din of the football fans and into the acoustic influence of the jam appreciated what they were hearing, and the number slowly increased through the evening. I mostly enjoyed my Guinness and listened since I don’t know many Irish tunes.

Until Tom said “Hey, Bob! I want to play Pretty Peg but I don’t remember how it starts. Why don’t you lead us into it?” Very suddenly it was very warm in the bar, and by the second time through I was sweating. Tom smiled. Thanks, Tom, I needed that. “Come on, Bob, let’s do a strathspey set,” Tom hollered at me over the table. “Okay!” I shot back with forced enthusiasm. Me? Play in front of, like, people? Strathspeys? In a bar? In an Irish bar session? Er… but there’s people around!

I stood up for better posture and projection, so did Tom, and we tucked into The Source of Spey, thrice through, then twice through Captain Campbell’s. And the whole circle was on it – two drums, two flutes, two fiddles, a guitar and a bouzouki – and it sounded great! And when we were done the bar patrons applauded. For us!! That’s what it’s all about, isn’t it?

And that leads me back to “if he’d play in front of people more...”

Indeed.

Putting Actions Behind Words

Exciting week... two things happened, or, more accurately, are starting to happen.

Tom, my fiddle teacher, presented the idea of starting the Northern Rockies Strathspey and Reel Society. With a lot of effort, we can make it work. I've got such a terrific number of ideas rolling through my head now, it's all I can think about! Hopefully Tom will be at the jam today and we can discuss more it there.

The other thing I can't say anything about because it won't actually happen for another five months or so. But it, too, will radically reshape the landscape.

I can't say so much that the "plan" is underway because there isn't a plan. But actions are being taken that are facing me in the direction I want to go.