February 16-18: Great Georgian Galapagos Gigs

Hello all you Big Love Bussin' Daddios,

UPCOMING SHOWS
02.23.12 - High Rock Outfitters (Lexington, NC)
02.24.12 - Murphy's (Boone, NC)
02.25.12 - Main Cellar City Club (Hickory, NC)

We spent last weekend in the great state of Georgia. It was great to see some familiar faces and meet lots of new ones.

We had a 7 hour drive down to Statesboro.   Fortunately, technology allows us to stay connected and work on the road...even for the Wookie.  This is our rolling office. 

February 16: Buffalo's, Statesboro, GA

   To answer the question: "No, we do not play 'Statesboro Blues' while we are in Statesboro, GA."

When you don't drink before playing you have to find other ways to pass the time.

We'd like to thank whoever changed the sign out front while we played.  We saw this on the way out and had a good laugh about it.  We appreciate creativity in all of its glorious forms. 

February 17: Stillwater Taproom, Augusta, GA


After the gig in Statesboro, we drove to Augusta, and a very nice couple who first saw us a few months back in Columbia, SC graciously offered us their guest house for the two nights we were in the area.  It was easily the nicest accommodations that we've had so far.  

Nice relaxing morning

Little Cabin in the Woods.

The Wook on his way to his favorite activity; DISC GOLF! Hippie Olympics watch out!

The Stillwater Taproom is always a fun place to play, even if our playing space is a little cramped!  It's the smallest stage we ever play but we love the venue and the owner so much that we keep coming back.   This place has so much history to me personally, as you will see in the following photos.

You can barely see Daniel on the right; he had to stand in the floor!

The Taproom has been around for quite a while, so they have this great collection of old press photos framed and hung up everywhere, including two of my old bands and several other familiar faces!  I played in both Wiseapple and Boss Hawg for almost 10 years up in Boone, NC.  Both bands played the Stillwater Taproom several times.  In fact, Boss Hawg was playing one night and Joey Recchio walks in out of nowhere.  I hadn't seen Joey in a few years and he just showed up at our gig in Augusta GA.  Blew me away. 

L to R: Ben McPherron, Brian Swenk, Jon Hill, Tim Marsh

Jon Hill, Chris Lovejoy, Brian Swenk, Kim France, Jonjon Davis

Probably one of the first press pictures they ever took.  And now they're at the Grammy's. 

The following picture shows a "who's who" of southeast string band music.  Matt, the owner of Stillwater Taproom, has gone out of his way to support great music and you can tell he has found some of the best through the years.  I think I know half the bands shown here. 

February 18: Little King Showcase, Atlanta, GA


Many of you may know Thomas Helland, aka "T-Dawg." He's a huge music supporter, promoter, and festival host; we'll be playing his annual Back Porch Hootenanny the end of March. This past weekend, he hosted a Little King Showcase, held in the soundstage area at Encyclomedia. We played last, after The Internationals and Evergreen, but the building had plenty of ways for us to keep busy. 

In table tennis, form is important.

Ok guys, tonight's show will go something like this...

The back drop for the stage. 

Overall, we had a great time down in GA. See you again soon!

Brian and Big Daddy Love
Lonesome Banjo Chronicles
_________________________________________________________________________________

And the winner of the contest is Claudia Kelly. We'll be in touch to get your prizes to you!

Here are the correct answers.

1. Yellow Galactic Seed--Ashley Sutton

2. Red Galactic Skywalker-- Brian Swenk

3. White Spectral Wizard-- Daniel Smith

4. White Crystal Wind-- Joey Recchio

5. Yellow Magnetic Star-- Chasper Horton

SPREAD THE LOVE
We would LOVE for you to help us out with the street team activities. If you'd like to help promote an upcoming show, email streetteam@ufomusic.net and we will set you up with everything you need. We've got great e-flyers, widgets, and other tools you can use to help promote online, so if you've got Internet access, you can help! If you want to hang up posters, hand out flyers, and talk to real people, feel free to print up the digital posters. And of course, we'd also love your help over at the merch booth! Check out the list of places we could use help spreading the love.

02.23.12 - High Rock Outfitters (Lexington, NC)
02.24.12 - Murphy's (Boone, NC)
02.25.12 - Main Cellar City Club (Hickory, NC)
03.02.12 - Martin's Downtown Bar & Grill (Roanoke, VA)
03.03.12 - Dante's Bar (Frostburg, MD)
03.15.12 - Clementine Cafe (Harrisonburg, VA)
03.16.12 - Cary St. Cafe (Richmond, VA)
03.17.12 - Lincoln Theatre (Raleigh, NC)

BDL Contest: Galactic Signatures

Written by Ashley "The Wook" Sutton

Ever wonder about the way we observe time?  We don’t even notice it but the calendar we use to observe the passage of time serves as a basis for how we do just about everything in our life; work, play, prayer, appointments and on and on. There’s much to talk about that is odd or unnatural about our calendar, but let’s not get too deep here; plenty of reading can be found for those that are interested. In my own readings on the matter I came across the 13 Moon Calendar, envisioned by Jose Arguelles. This calendar is an attempt to re order the way we observe the passage of time and attune it more to natural cycles. In short, the 13 Moons are months, each consisting of 28 days, leaving one day out at the end of the cycle as a day outside of time, a day of celebration, forgiveness and renewal. Anyhoo, all that aside, this particular calendar has it’s own system and cycles, and so your birthday, or "Galactic Signature", happens every 260 days, and has it’s own astrology and affirmation. The 260 day cycle is due to the fact the this calendar is actually a synchrometer, with cycles within cycles, very similar to the Mayan Tzolkin. It’s fun to investigate and learn about and in doing so I found the Galactic Signature for all of us BDL guys.  Guess which signature belongs to each of us.  Instructions below. 

1. Yellow Galactic Seed

I Harmonize in order to Target

Modeling Awareness

I Seal the input of Flowering

With the Galactic tone of Integrity

I am guided by the power of Elegance (some might find this ironic)

2. Red Galactic Skywalker

I Harmonize in order to Explore

Modelling Wakefulness

I seal the Output of Space

With the Galactic tone of Integrity

I am guided by the power of Navigation (of the mind, not roads, too busy reading)

3. White Spectral Wizard

I Dissolve in order to Enchant

Releasing Receptivity

I seal the Output of Timelessness

With the Spectral tone of Liberation

I am guided by my own power doubled

I am a galactic activation portal-enter me (through poetry)

4. White Crystal Wind

I dedicate in order to Communicate

Universalizing Breath

I seal the input of Spirit

With the Crystal tone of Cooperation

I am guided by the power of Timelessness (my playing sometimes has a galactic timelessness to it)

5. Yellow Magnetic Star

I Unify in order to Beautify

Attracting Art

I seal the Store of Elegance

With the Magnetic tone of Purpose

I am guided by my own power doubled (I play with twice the power of most)

So, for the contest: match up each member of BDL with their Galactic Signature. We've even helped out with some hints in parentheses! Leave a comment on this post OR on the Facebook link to this post. We'll announce the winner on this week's travel blog on Wednesday, so get your guesses in! First correct answer gets a t-shirt, a poster, and free admission to one BDL show of your choosing.

While you're at it, look up your own Galactic Signature on this website, and tell us yours!

January 2012: when we see lots of hard work paying off!

UPCOMING SHOWS
02.16.12 - Buffalo's Cafe (Statesboro, GA)
02.17.12 - Stillwater Taproom (Augusta, GA)
02.18.12 - Encyclomedia (Atlanta, GA)


Hello, all you Big Love Bussin' Daddios!

It's been a few weeks since our last post, but trust me, we've been busy! Let me give some quick highlights of January, and then I'll talk about this past weekend (including Ziggy's and another charity event)!

January 14: The Pour House, Raleigh, NC
This was our first NC show since before Christmas, and it was great to be back!! The room was packed, and there was incredible energy all around.  We remember the days of playing the Pour house when 50 or 60 people would show up, but they believed in us and kept giving us gigs there, including our "River Runs Thursdays" where we played every Thursday in January 2010.  This is a perfect example of a venue and promoter supporting and growing a band, which is vital for everyone in the industry.  We smashed our record attendence there with 350 people! Listen to a great recording of the show by Travis Viars here.

January 26-28: Durham, Charlotte, Asheville
It's always fun to do the NC tours, and this weekend was no exception. Great to see all of you out there dancing! A highlight of this weekend was our friend Nicky Sanders from the Steep Canyon Rangers playing the whole show with us in Asheville.  He's the fiddle player on our new album, and there's even rumor that he'll be sitting in with us on Sunday at Floyd Fest!  (wink wink)

Nicky with SCR and Steve Martin at the recent Grammy Awards

February 2-4: Virginia Beach, Fredricksburg, and Richmond
Our weekend up in VA was fantastic.  The first two venues both had record numbers for BDL shows.  Both Doc Taylor's and The Otter House had been decent gigs for us with around 30 people showing up each time we played there, but for some reason the word got out and we had well over 100 people at each show singing the words and dancing.  Just like in Raleigh it felt really great to see our growth rate jump by such large numbers.   All of us have played music in a lot of different bands before, but none of us have ever experienced anything like this.   It's amazing. 

We try to eat fairly healthy on the road, but I do make the guys stop at McD's for coffee in the morning.  I'll always choose a local coffee shop if I can find one, but I've found that McD's has the best coffee for the price. Gas Station coffee is terrible and Starbuck's is too expensive...it's one of those things you learn from a few years on the road.  Oh, and you always travel with a travel coffee mug with a top that seals.  That's a big one too.   

The Otter House has tons of great bands that come through and play their venue, but they only put up certain posters on the downstairs walls of the restaurant, and we found out that we are one of the posters they've framed and put up.   Now that doesn't seem like much of a big deal until you see all the great bands that didn't make it.  They really like us up there!  

Now that we're somewhat caught up...


February 10: Ziggy's, Winston-Salem, NC
After our fantastic experience at our CD Release Party at Ziggy's in September, we were thrilled to be back there this weekend. Ziggy's is a local institution, especially for those of us who remember the "old Ziggy's;" it's an honor to be up on that stage. Local rock band Wafer Thin opened up for us this time. We had another great turnout of over 300 people, and had a great time sharing the stage with special guests James Bernabe from Breakin' Jimmy's Martin on mandolin and Brent Buckner from Possum Jenkins on harmonica.

View from the back of the room, with Brent on stage

The show was also a Love Bus event: 2nd Annual LoveFest: The Good Morning Sunshine Breakfast Drive. We asked everyone to bring cereal and/or juice for Crisis Control Ministry in Winston-Salem, and you all supported in full force! Over $260 in monetary donations and 100 items of cereal, juices, and even grits and
cocoa, poured into Ziggy’s in the hands of fans and friends of Big Daddy Love. Thanks to YOUR DONATIONS of cereals and juices, many kids in need will be eating breakfasts provided by the wonderful team at Crisis Control Ministry, Inc. in Winston-Salem. A big thanks to the entire team at Crisis Control that worked with us to arrange this event, send out a press release to spread the word, and handled donations during the show, especially Judie and Corey! If you’d like to get their news about more events, how to volunteer, or donate, please visit their website at: www.crisiscontrol.org/

The Love Bus donation table. And this was early in the evening!

We had almost as much fun backstage as out on stage (...almost). Always good music going on, and good friends to hang out with.

Feeling the love in the green room.

February 11: Fat Frogg, Elon, NC
We always have a great time playing at the Fat Frogg, and this show was no exception. In the second set, our friend Jesse Hensley from Big Something joined us on guitar for several tunes, including "Franklin's Tower" Led Zeppelin's "Lemon Song" and "The Wall."

Jesse and Joey onstage at Fat Frogg

The beginning of 2012 has shown us that all the hard work has paid off.  We are seeing record numbers at all types of venues and we can't thank everyone enough for it.  We couldn't do this if all of you didn't talk about us to your friends, and share our music, and bring new people to shows.   We are always saying "Thank you" and there's a big reason for that: we know we couldn't do it without all of you.   See you soon!

Brian and Big Daddy Love
Lonesome Banjo Chronicles




SPREAD THE LOVE
We would LOVE for you to help us out with the street team activities. If you'd like to help promote an upcoming show, email streetteam@ufomusic.net and we will set you up with everything you need. We've got great e-flyers, widgets, and other tools you can use to help promote online, so if you've got Internet access, you can help! If you want to hang up posters, hand out flyers, and talk to real people, feel free to print up the digital posters. And of course, we'd also love your help over at the merch booth! Check out the list of places we could use help spreading the love.

02.16.12 - Buffalo's Cafe (Statesboro, GA)
02.17.12 - Stillwater Taproom (Augusta, GA)
02.18.12 - Encyclomedia (Atlanta, GA)
02.23.12 - High Rock Outfitters (Lexington, NC)
02.24.12 - Murphy's (Boone, NC)
02.25.12 - Main Cellar City Club (Hickory, NC)
03.02.12 - Martin's Downtown Bar & Grill (Roanoke, VA)
03.03.12 - Dante's Bar (Frostburg, MD)
03.09.12 - The Double Door (Charlotte, NC)