Bond Park Oct, 2003

So I had my stage debut yesterday, fiddlin' and singin'. I played with my friends James, Sarah, and Keith at the Banjo in the Hollow's annual October Bluegrass Concert in Bond Park in Cary, NC. We played Kentucky Waltz during a part of the show set aside for the students of our fiddle/mandolin/guitar teacher, Jan Johannson. I had a great time, and didn't mess up my fiddle part too much. (Although I did get a little nervous and boogered up the second part of my break. I think I covered it up well enough that no one noticed.)

Also, I'm going to stop taking my buddy Shane to these things. There was a raffle for a mandolin, a banjo, a fiddle, and a Martin guitar. I so wanted either the guitar or the fiddle. I'm usually pretty lucky when it comes to these raffles, but I usually get something I don't want (in this case, odds were on the banjo). However, since this was really four seperate raffles -- you bought tickets for the instrument you were interested in, I figured my odds were good, especially for the fiddle. I doubted that many people would buy tickets for the fiddle since so few people can play them compared to the other instruments. I think I was right, there did seem to be less tickets overall for the fiddle, but I didn't win. Shane signed his four-year-old son up for the fiddle since he's taking Suzuki lessons. The fiddle might be almost as big as he is, but he won it. Congrats A! I guess I can't really be jealous of a four-year-old, can I? Hmmm... I guess not. But since Shane won something at the Merlefest raffle this year too, I can be mad at him!

Anyway, thanks to the good people who let us play and cheered us on, it really meant a lot to us. And thanks to all my friends and family who supported me getting up there, I really needed it. And thanks to James, Sarah, and Keith for all the work and fun we had practicing for this! A BIG BIG thanks for Jan Johannson for being such a great teacher and friend and dealing with all the stress of organizing this concert! We had a blast! And lastly, thanks to James and Catherine for this great pic! (picture: left to right, James, Sarah, me, Keith)