Cheryl's Blog …

May, 2007
HI everyone, just got back from the most amazing 3 weeks — The Falcon Ridge Most Wanted Preview Tour!! I was on tour with Pat Wictor, but I also got the most amazing opportunities to accompany my great friends in Red Molly as well as Ellis. I cannot tell you what an honor this was!!

Each year the people in the audience at The Falcon Ridge Folk Festival, chose the 3 acts they would most want to see come back next year. Pat Wictor was chosen and I was fortunate to get to accompany him last July and will do so again on the main stage this coming July 26,27,28 and 29 at the festival. Thank you to Pat Wictor for having me in his musical life!!

The tour started out as I thought it would with everyone kind of finding their musical places and where magic happened night after night. One of the highlights was Ellis; we all fell in love with her as well as her music. She is a once in a lifetime kind of experience... I don't know what else to say. I loved accompanying her songs, her music is exciting — fresh and beautiful all at the same time.

I also want to say that it was an honor to be on this tour with the girls from Red Molly, as I have a special connection to both Carolann Solebello, with whom I shared a band and music for 5 years, and to Laurie MacAllister, whom I have known for close to 10 years now. We shared a CD project as well as having written the song Fly together. Included in Red Molly is the rising star herself, Abbie Gardner!! Sharing the stage with these girls each and every night was a highlight for me and I will not soon forget it.

And thank you to all the people in each town who made this tour what it was. From the people who hosted us in their homes (a special hello to Sonny Ochs, Neale Eckstein and Scott Ainslie, Laurie Laba, Lee Bowers and Bob Weiser), to the hosts and bookers of all the venues we played, too numerous to mention!!

See you at Falcon Ridge as well as The Philadelphia Folk Festival in August
Cheryl

January through April, 2007
Well, where have the first 4 months of 2007 gone?? That was fast!!

My year started off with lots of music. I would like to thank Erik Balkey for having me accompany him for what was a wonderful show at The Tin Angel first week of January. A good time was had by all!! The most amazingly talented Carsie Blanton kicked thing off. Please look her up, you won’t be disappointed! http://www.carsieblanton.com/

My next musical journey took me on the road with Pat Wictor where we made our way down to North Carolina. Our first stop was Richmond, VA where we shared an evening with Amy Henderson. SHE CAN ROCK!! Always fun hanging out with as we get to cross musical paths from time to time. http://www.amyhenderson.com/

As we drove further down South, the threat of SNOW was increasingly stronger and stronger…how does that work??? So our good friend Jon Shain kept us safe from the storm as we hid out with him for a few days. If you ever get a chance to see him perform, you must do so. http://www.jonshain.com/
Our tour took us from Chapel Hill, to New Bern and then on to Beaufort, NC where we were hosted by some amazingly beautiful people associated with The Down East Folk Arts Society http://www.downeastfolkarts.org/ Thank you so much to all who had us in their homes. We had the best time!! I promise to visit those places again for sure. It’s simply beautiful down there.

Let’s not forget our amazing recording session with Manny Krevat near Raleigh. Thanks for hosting us. We had so much fun adding our guitar and percussion to Mara Levine’s up-coming project. Keep an eye out for that one!!

I must add what an amazing time my husband Charles and I had for our first REAL vacation to Mexico. Thanks for Dan and Brenda for hosting us!!

Onwards to FOLK ALLIANCE in Memphis. Wow!! What can I say?? A lot of great people to see, business to be done and wonderful talent everywhere you peaked. I joined Pat Wictor as we made our way through the showcases. I also had the priveledge of accompanying Jon T. Howard as well. I cannot wait to get to perform with him again.
http://www.jonthoward.com/

When I got back from Memphis, some wonderful performances followed. First was Charlie Zahm: An Evening of Classic Melodies. We (in the middle of a snow storm) went to beautiful theatre in Maryland and a production company from Nashville came to us and we recorded what will be a wonderful live DVD as well as CD. They are Franklin Thank you to Springs Family Media. The DVD should be available very soon! Please check out Charlie’s website for more news
http://www.charliezahm.com/

After that, I started what has been a truly amazing musical experience for me. I did my first show with JONATHAN EDWARDS (see our photo at left).
http://www.jonathanedwards.net/

Godfrey Daniels was first on the list. And since then we have done a few more shows together. I hope it’s the beginning of a long musical relationship for sure. Thank you also to Linda Bolton!!

Stay tuned for reports from the road as I go off with Pat Wictor, Red Molly and Ellis for The Falcon Ridge Most Wanted Preview Tour!!

Revisit my 2006 Blog