Gone and Back Again

Well here it is July, midway between the end of our 2010-2011 season and the start of our 2011-2012 round of dances. Usually we at least acknowledge the end of the old season but there was a lot going on in May and that didn't happen. We did have a lot of fun playing for a wedding reception at the Wildberry Winery just outside of Decorah at our last gathering. Since the gig wasn't exactly a contra dance we had the chance to play a wider than usual range of music in various styles, including a couple of tunes from the Contratopia Tunebook that are rarely performed.

Looking ahead to our upcoming season we have some exciting prospects. First, we have nearly agreed to produce a new CD of Contratopia music. We have begun circulating lists of tunes that we might record (we probably have enough unrecorded original tunes to fill 2 or 3 CDs) and we have a possible target timeline. We'll keep you posted on our progress, or not.

We also have a number of fun gigs tentatively lined up. You can check the "dances" page on our website to see the current list. We are very pleased that we are likely to return as a featured band for Tapestry's 2nd Call of the Loon weekend in April 2012. We have also planned (thanks to Ted Hodapp's hard work) to return to the mid-Atlantic tour region in March 2012. Along with contras at Glenside and Glen Echo we will play a Saturday night dance in Frederick, Maryland. I'm pretty sure that this will be only the 2nd time we have played there.

This tour will be unique because we will bring our great friend Linda Breitag along to play fiddle as a sub for Erik Sessions, who is pretty busy these days helping to raise a houseful of wonderful kids. Linda has played with us many times in recent years but this will be her first chance to travel with the band. I think the folks who usually come to hear us play in Philly and D.C. will really enjoy Linda's approach to our repertoire.

Right now it looks as though our season kick-off might be at the Oct. 21 Harvest Stomp in Northfield, MN but it's only July and we might end up playing somewhere else before that. If so, we will announce it here.