Northern Aire Coming Your Way

If you are in the D.C. area this week you have the opportunity to dance to the sounds of our own Pat O'Loughlin, sometimes Contratopian Tim Reese, and Bob Walser, who are touring as Northern Aire with caller Ted Hodapp.

It's probably a little late to catch them tonight in Baltimore but you can certainly hear them at Glen Echo on Friday and Sunday night. They will also be playing for the Richmond contra dance on Saturday night. The band sounds great and, if you're lucky, Ted may share a few of the new jokes he tried out last Saturday night at Tapestry in Minneapolis.

Speaking of Tapestry, Contratopia had a super good time there last weekend and the crowd was great. We also had a fine rehearsal on Saturday morning at Patrice's house and had the chance to try a few new things that night. Everyone at Tapestry seemed pretty excited about the upcoming Call of the Loon weekend with Contratopia and Wild Asparagus. Even though the dance weekend is booked to capacity I believe that they are taking names for a waiting list in case there are cancellations.

Bad News, Good News

Bad News first: we are sorry to announce that we will not be playing in Northfield on Feb. 19 because the Winter Stomp dance will not be taking place. There are perfectly good, although private, reasons for this but we hope to schedule another dance in Northfield soon.

Good News:

• Even though we won't be playing in Northfield on the 19th we will still be playing at Tapestry on Saturday Feb. 20.
• While we love all of the callers that we are privileged to work with at Tapestry we are excited to learn that we will be working with our old buddy Ted Hodapp on the 20th! 
• This will be our first time working with Ted since last winter on our short mid-Atlantic tour and our first time working with Ted at Tapestry since Feb. of 2013. So look out!
• Even though Contratopia won't be touring out East this winter, Pat's "other" band Northern Aire (featuring Bob Walser and Tim Reese) are bringing the Upper Midwest Sound out to Glen Echo and the mid-Atlantic area at the end of February. 
• We are really only a few weeks away from the Call of the Loon weekend at Tapestry in April. As you can imagine we are honored to be sharing the weekend with the great Wild Asparagus band. In addition, Pat and Northern Aire will also be featured on the Sunday of the weekend. 
• Registration for Call of the Loon has closed but I believe you can still sign up to be put on a waiting list. Hope to see you there.