Not this one! The ones with dates…

We just got back from a little trip to Bryn Mawr, PA and Annapolis, MD, during which we experimented with getting most of our gear (minus the three guitars that wouldn’t fit), and the three of us, into M&M’s Camry + clamshell.  It worked fairly well as long as the person in the back seat could lie with their legs up on the bass amp.  (Truly, I was pretty grumpy on the way down.)  The gig Saturday was an opener for our friends Aztec Two Step, who packed The Point and inspired us again with a great show.  Neal was funny & chatty and played every note perfectly (again), and Rex was just delicious in his mumu from the Vineyard.  Thanks guys, for having us in.

After the gig we drove to Maryland so we could be up way too early to sing at services on Sunday morning. (What?!  We have to sing in the MORNING??) We did get a nap in the afternoon, although Mark claimed that he didn’t sleep, but only read in the hammock out back.  Yeah Mark.   Our hostess was so gracious that we ate everything in the house including several pounds of berries, and all the grilled chicken.  A highlight of our evening gig was when Megan, who is not quite 7, gave us a picture she’d drawn of the band while we were playing.  She even drew our jewelry, and had Mark with the guitar facing the correct way.  We’ve decided to encourage this at gigs, and set up a page just for fan drawings. (Fan Drawings)

  Another highlight was when I discovered, in the parking lot, that the smell of grape kool-aid I had been experiencing was actually coming from clumps of red snapdragons.  If you see some, go get a snootful.  You’ll be amazed.

On the way back today we made our traditional stop at Fuddrucker’s, somewhere in New Jersey, and had way too large burgers & greasy fries.  Mark told them he was just getting water but did fill his free glass with soda, so we’re considering alerting the beverage police in the morning.  He’s still learning the protocol of being in a girl band, however, so we might just let it pass.*  (*I have since been pressured by a certain party to mention that Margo and I DID in fact have sips of this bootleg brew.  Yeesh!)

If you’re near Manchester, CT this Thursday, stop in at Center Park and hear Margo & Mark play duo stuff at 6:00.  Otherwise we’ll see you at the Sunwise School in New Paltz this Sunday (check gigs page).  THANK YOU everyone who bought CDs this weekend, and have come to the website for more info.  Please spread the word!!

Cheers,  Adrienne (for me, Margo & Mark)

This trip took us to New Paltz NY, Lenox MA, and closer to home in West Hartford, CT.  The Sunwise school was a gorgeous gig — Mg. and I had played there in the 90’s as Madwoman in the Attic, and it was nice to come back.  Glen Nystrup, who runs the school, is a sculptor among other things and we were able to see a little of his work.  What a beautiful room to play in, and it was great to share the night with Steve Nystrup and Amy Fradon.  (I spotted a bluebird in the woods, rare and cool.)  We drove in the night to the Kripalu center, and got there way too late for words.  Margo gets up for yoga early in the mornings, which Mk. and I secretly think is unnatural; but truly we all slept a lot for a couple of days — in between hiking and eating.

(Flash — the formerly Adrienne Solo gig at Blish Mem. Park in Marlborough, CT on July 11th is now a Mad Agnes gig.  C’mon out.)

Where were we?  The Kripalu gig is always lovely, and thank you Steph for having us back.  I loved the saying I picked up from the American Zen book, “Buddhist truth is summed up in two words:  Not always so.

(Flash — if anyone is in the market for a Fender Jazz bass (Mexican made), please email us at madagnes@mindspring.com.  We’ve gotten a new one and would love to find a home for the Fender.)

Last night we played at the incredible Pond House in stunning Elizabeth Park, in West Hartford, CT.  (A:  why haven’t I EVER known this was here?) The roses are so amazing, and Diana Lyn Cote’s paintings of those very roses were the hit of the evening.  Rex Fowler did a fabulous opening set of songs he’s written ABOUT her paintings, so it was all tied together nicely.  Thanks for having us at the event, R & D!  If you’re in the Hartford area be sure to stop by this park — the Pond House is at 1555 Asylum Street and it’s a good place to just walk around and enjoy a pretty day, or take some pictures.

And the good news is, we almost have the album paid off… thank you everyone who has bought the Mad Agnes cd this month!!  Soon we’ll be able to get more buttons… 🙂

(Flash… we now have  {in case you haven’t seen it}  a page on our site where you can sign up for the mailing list.  It’s getting cooler all the time, thanks Mk.)

That’s it for now… next week we’re in NJ and then Mg. & Mk. get to go on a cruise to Alaska.  I will bite my lip as long as they promise to scout some gigs for next year… and meanwhile I’ll be in Vermont on Saturday the 29th.

Cheers,  Adrienne, for me, Margo & Mark

If you’re at a baseball game and it rains, they don’t have to play. If you’re outdoors in Tenafly and it rains, they wait until the last nanosecond and then have you take down all your stuff and move it to one of the municipal buildings and start over. Not so bad for us, as we hadn’t even unpacked the cars yet. But our appointed sound guys set up & struck twice (thanks Harry & David) (yes, those were their names, and they don’t put out a catalogue that I know of — but they do a fabulous job at sound). Aside from being excruciating it was very funny. Apparently the town officials have a steadfast, if naive, faith in the weather gods. Grey & threatening from one horizon to the other: “This will blow over in ten minutes. Don’t call it yet.” Wind picks up… leaves blowing… raindrops starting… Harry & David battening down the tarps covering all their speakers. Mark politely suggests, “The other thing about standing in a puddle is that it’s not good with the electrical equipment.” Thoughtful pause, as our town contact surveys the cement stage, which has a two-foot retaining wall around it. “It won’t fill up.” Mark suggests that you only need an eighth of an inch. Hey, those warnings come on the hair dryers for a reason! Anyway, we finally got the ok to go inside, and bless the people who waited an hour for us to set up again and start. (Margo tried to take the blame for the weather, having a history of getting rained out of gigs.) By the time we started playing the sky had opened up!! It was a deluge of major proportions. We had a lovely set and ate at Tenafly’s excellent diner afterwards. Thunder gods willing, we’d love to do it again.

David said he appreciated the fact that we were self-adjusting vocalists — that is, that we could trade off lead and harmony vocals and he didn’t have to do any volume adjustments at the board. 🙂 I hadn’t thought of that. But it’s ALWAYS good to please your sound guy, especially when he’s cute.

M&M are embarking on an Alaskan cruise this weekend, lucky bums. It’s a family thing; I wasn’t invited. I’m not taking it personally. I’m very busy this week. I’m going to Vermont tomorrow to play a solo gig, and then I have time with my family over the holiday. Goodness, I couldn’t fit in a cruise if I wanted to. BUT then they’ll be back, and we have a bunch of gigs in a row the second week of July, including WUMB Tuesday the 9th at noon to promote our Stoneham Theatre gig on the 12th. Check gigs page for the rest, and we’ll see you soon.

(p.s. Just so you know, we’re encouraging fan drawings of the band, especially if they’re our YOUNGER fans, so if you bring your child to a gig and they present us with a drawing, we’ll send it up to the website. We’re trying to remember to bring paper and drawing implements.)

Adrienne, for Me, Margo & Mark

This is the really beautiful Stoneham Theatre in Stoneham, MA, where we played on Friday (and where KT Sullivan, apparently, played on Saturday).  Just so everybody knows our name was up in lights!  We were in sound heaven; the acoustics were exceptional and Jay DuBois did an amazing job of mixing us (thank you, Jay).   If you’re in that area (north of Boston), this is a venue worth checking out — they do a whole theatre season as well as a music series.  Their number is on the marquee!

This was the third gig, so let’s work backwards.  Thursday we were at Blish Memorial Park for an early evening concert, and although we never did go swimming, we could have, as it’s right next to a lake.  (Actually we were told to pick up our check from the lifeguard, so we wondered if we’d have to swim for it.)  We lucked out with great weather and had a few hard-core fans and some new people as well.  We were under a big wooden pavilion with picnic tables, but some people brought blankets and sat out on the lawn.  Margo made friends with all the kids in the audience!  Since it was an early gig, we weren’t too pooped afterwards, so we went out for ice cream (I had a brownie sundae).

Wednesday’s gig was at the Old State House in Hartford, another gorgeous day singing for people who were sharing their lunch hour with us.  There was room for only one of us to park on site, and I learned a wonderful lesson about making sure to note the parking garage level where I leave my car… and, indeed, the actual parking garage itself…   the two block trip to retrieve it took nearly an hour, and I finally had to hijack a garage employee in a little cart to DRIVE me around and look for my  Honda.   Tired… hungry… dehydrated after singing…  not to mention grumpy, it was one of my least finest hours. (As soon as I get over my snit, I’ll write the song.)

After all that, we actually had a rehearsal day and a half, and are happy to report that the next batch of songs is nearly ready to perform.  We’ll try out a couple at Kripalu this week, and the rest will probably be out of the oven by Goff House on the 25th.  Hooray, we love new material!

This is amazing:  there is a field near M&M’s house where the wild grass hasn’t been mowed, and it’s maybe two or three feet tall, and this field is bordered by trees.   At night it’s a mecca for fireflies.  There are so many, all over the field and way up in the trees, that the whole place just glitters.  Go out and find some fireflies!  They’re so beautiful and strange, and if you hold a flashing one in your hand, you might feel heat (I did).

Please keep telling your friends about the band.  We love converts, and besides, we have a bet going about how long it will take us to sell the first batch of CDs.  And we hope to see YOU soon.

Cheers,  Adrienne (for me, Margo & Mark

Good heavens, it’s almost August. Where have we been? Well, most recently we were at the Goff House outdoor series in East Hampton, CT, which is a cute little berg with several antique shops and a great ice cream place. Perfect weather, nice crowd, good chocolate mint…I took a picture of our instruments on the gazebo:

Six guitars and a slice of bass.

Saturday was a rehearsal day, but no one had any momentum. I’ve been getting up at the crack of doom on Saturdays to accompany my sister to an early meditation group (“Pajama Sangha”), so was short on sleep, and Mark kept falling on the couch and snoring. We did a little music and then went to see Men in Black II, which is funnier than the reviewers would have you believe. Also had some of the best CT corn ever grown, which can be found at Wade’s farm stand in Bloomfield.

Bolstered, we set out for the CT Agricultural Fair in the Land o’Goshen, CT on Sunday morning. The weather didn’t look all that promising, and when we arrived it was foggy. I mean, there was a cloud on the fairgrounds. We set up in a (larger) gazebo which, last year, had been the main stage. “Oh, good!” Margo cried. “We’re on the MAIN stage this year!” Come to find out it was the side stage; a large Main Stage had been set up a little ways off. Facing us. We thought nothing of it.

Our sound babe, Sid, showed up frazzled because her other engineer for the mainstage was an hour and a half late. She might have to run off. Okay. We set up all our babies and wiped quarter inch connectors off on our shirts (everything was a tad moist). “Oh, you’ll hate the sound here,” Sid confided. “This whole structure is like a big, hollow sound board; it’ll be muddy and boomy. That’s why they moved the main stage to another place.” Okay. Moist, muddy, boomy. We can deal with that. We started sound check just as great billows of smoke erupted from the nearby shishkebab stand, which was directly upwind of us. We couldn’t see Sid. We couldn’t hear ourselves. Margo asked for a towel to wipe off the keyboard, which had gotten slippery. I went to the car to get the all-purpose car towel.

We finally started, just a few minutes late, with Sid and her board under a tarp (the bleachers didn’t have any roof). Things went relatively okay for a while, in a moist, muddy, boomy sort of way, with a handful of people coming and going. To our left, cattle were lowing in the “Beef Barn” (isn’t that demoralizing? Shouldn’t they say “cows” or something? The sheep don’t have to be in the “Mutton Barn,” for example), until we launched into our favorite cover tune, Cheryl Wheeler’s “Potato.”

“Potato” has been a hit since day one. It’s funny, it’s catchy, it’s surprising. Kids love it. People request it. They go out singing the chorus.

We got as far as the final two choruses, when the last four people in the bleachers walked away.

Some performers would have become depressed. Not our Margo.

Struck with the giggle disease, I heard her cutting in and out of lines, and we barely finished the song, with Sid cracking up all by herself out in the fog. I turned to Mg. and remarked, “We’ve never had quite that effect on an audience before,” and Sid came up and said, “You can’t see it from here, but it’s raining now, and that’s why they left.” We decided to take an early break and regroup. I wanted to change back into my pants for one thing, as it had gotten chilly.

Hm. Had to change in the port-a-potty. Do you know how hard it is to completely change clothes when you can’t put anything down?

So we dried off our guitars, rearranged the set, and started in again. Just a tidy few minutes before the country/rock band on the big, fancy new main stage started their show.

Facing us, with a bigger sound system.

And a drum kit.

Ahem.

Recalculating on the fly, we deleted all the ballads and re-played some hot, driving tunes we’d done before. Oh, did I say all the ballads? No, we did try Sacred Cow, which I thought might be a good talisman considering our proximity to the, you know, Beef Barn and all, but finally there was no one at all on the bleachers… and the high point of surrealism came when, in the middle of the song, a woman walked up with one of those furry, long-legged marionette puppets that you can get at fairs, and had it dance along to the song for a couple of verses. All by itself, in the mist. Furry legs ‘n all. Mooo-o-o-oo-oo-oo.

At one point we gave up and started singing, “Still the One” along with the mainstage act.

After we were done, things looked up somewhat; the sun eventually came out, and we got to scritch several authentic farm animals such as sheep, goats, pigs and… “beef.” Also saw a very exciting horse pull, chicks hatching, rugs being hooked, a prize nasturtium and Margo was awesomely skilled her first time playing “Whack-a-Mole,” beating my butt twice but magnanimously letting me have one of the prizes. We’re looking for one of those velcro suit games where you can jump up and stick onto the wall, but they didn’t have one there.

So that was our adventure at the Agricultural Fair. Stay tuned next week for SoNo Arts Fest and Bethlehem Musikfest!

Cheers,
Adrienne, for me, Margo, and Mark

The SoNo Arts Festival reminds me of the Saturday Market in Portland, Oregon. The Willamette River separates the east and west halves of Portland. I don’t know if they still have this, but when I lived there in ’79, there was a celebration every Saturday under the Burnside Bridge, a paradise for buskers, and also for anyone looking for handcrafted wares, ethnic foods, art, jewelry, or, let’s face it, anything tie-dyed. Remove the tie-dye and put the buskers on stages and you’ve got SoNo. We played facing down a street, and found that brick buildings make really good acoustics. Very sweet sound and excellent sound engineers, nice day, and we got to hear Amy Fairchild (also on the ArtMusic Agency roster) who has a gorgeous, compelling voice and writes stunning songs. Find her at www.amyfairchild.com. Can’t wait to hear her again at the Atlanta conference in September.

The Bethlehem Musikfest is one of our favorite festivals; Margo and I were there in the 90s with Madwoman in the Attic, and she and Mark have subsequently played it as a duo. We got there on a hot overcast day and heard a little of David Bailey who played on the Liederplatz before us. Please check him out at www.davidmbailey.com! He has an amazing story and I wish we had been able to sit out front and listen, because his songs were fun and moving and it’s very hard to unload the car when your toes won’t stop tapping.

Historic Bethlehem is beautiful, and there is an eerie sense that it was made FOR the festival. I found it hard to imagine that anything else goes on there. Sites are tucked in and around the neighborhood with pathways connecting them, streets are lined with vendors and performers and there is always something fascinating going on. We performed in the evening at the Volksplatz, which is more of a “world music” stage, so we put more of a focus on our Celtic material, old & contemporary. (We just put together a version of Richard Thompson’s “Dimming of the Day” which we’re really enjoying.) The Volksplatz is a HUGE tent with about a zillion seats, a great big stage, several sound engineers, no less than seven individual monitor mixes, and… a bass amp AS BIG AS MY REFRIGERATOR. My little Ampeg looked like a toaster in comparison. So that’s what this bass really sounds like! It was heaven… We wanted to play every gig from now on at the Volksplatz. It rained at the start of our set and it didn’t matter; more people came into the tent. It was one of those gigs that makes you fall in love with playing, all over again.

I have to say the Musikfest is incredibly well organized; the volunteers and staff are just amazing, everything is taken care of, we could hardly carry anything ourselves because there was so much help, so THANK YOU to everyone who makes it happen. Also thanks to Deb Messling & Ron Hertz for helping us out with our CD sales. It was an invaluable favor and we owe you!

If you go in future, plan to stay more than a day. There is too much to see and hear! Our next gig is in Ogunquit, Maine, opening for David Mallett, on 8/16. See you there.

Cheers, Adrienne (for me, Margo & Mark)

We’ve been on retreat in Norway, Maine, in the house that Mark’s father built. Three days isn’t long enough to acclimate, but we made some great music, even came up with a new piece, and had some mad games of running ping pong (and I do mean running). Mark’s dad was a tinkerer extraordinaire, and he made not only the house (nearly everything — right down to the gutters) but the ping pong table, and the go-cart as well. 

For the story of this house, go to the Mad Agnes website, click on “CD store,” and get Margo’s “Big Love” album; listen to “Preacher Hill.” It’s an amazing, true song about a life that touched others, and a house full of love and family history.

We felt a lot of that history as we passed in and out of the narrow doors, looked out at the big moon from the back deck, or sang songs from an old camp-song book we found among the vintage Time Magazines and wooden puzzles that still populate the house.

Margo is still mourning the already-owned kitty who visited us for the first two days, and loved us best among ALL humans, until its owner came to fetch it back home. Goodbye, Bushwhack! We’ll miss you!

BEFORE we went to Maine, we went to Maine. That is to say, the prior week we had a couple of Maine gigs, one a house concert at a summer-cottage community on a lake in Fryeburg. Loons crying, dragonflies everywhere and in the morning, a band meeting on the middle of the lake, each of us in our own kayak. THIS is the way to live! Friday the 16th we opened for David Mallett at Jonathan’s in Ogunquit, and it was wonderful to see him again and hear some new songs. Margo and I even got to sing backup on “Summer of My Dreams” at the end of his set, a huge thrill! We were a little tardy getting accommodations, so we ended up staying at a little motel about 40 minutes outside Ogunquit, where everything we touched fell off the wall, the shower was almost big enough to get into, and the air conditioner was just about in my lap as I slept on the twin in the little alcove (yes, we were all sharing a room). No phone in room, no cell service. Ah, the adventure!

(A redeeming item was that we had lobster on this trip, and then on the trip to Norway the following week we ate about five lobsters apiece in three days. Absolute heaven — on a picnic table by the lake, there isn’t a finer meal.)  Our favorite Lobster Place!

Saturday the 17th we were in Warren, RI at the Coffee Depot — they’ve just recently started their concert series and it’s a lovely place with great acoustics.

Warren is a very cool town in general, with shops to go into, beaches nearby, and beautiful houses.

Next week we start recording, so will be laying low for a while, aside from the Sober in the Sun festival in Spencer, MA on August 31st. The following month I hope to move to the Hartford area — one apt. fell through, but I haven’t lost faith! Then I’ll be about 15 minutes from my band rather than 2 hours. This is definitely an improvement.

We hope you’re having a wonderful summer , and that we’ll see you soon.

Cheers,
Adrienne (for MargoMarkMe)

We didn’t want you to think we’d forgotten to write or anything; it’s just that we’ve been recording, and the light of day hurts our eyes. But it’s going fine, and next week we take a little break to go to the Atlanta conference with Rex Fowler & Aztec Two Step and the other fine musicians on the Art Music Agency roster. Fun, glamour, middle-o’-the-night showcases! We’ll check in when we get back around the end of the month — when I’ll be busy packing, because I’m virtually HOURS away from getting confirmation of an apartment. No more two-hour drives to rehearsal. Now I’ll be able to see my band… um… even MORE…

Cheers, & I’ll check back soon, Adrienne for MeMargoMark

This Back from our 2300 mile trip to Atlanta’s Southern Arts Exchange conference. It was our first time at this one; it’s different from the Folk Alliances we’re used to, in that we’re actually something of an anomaly — it’s peopled with classical players and jazz singers and dance troupes but not much in the way of contemporary acoustic musicians. Still, we enjoyed our showcases, especially since it was the first time all the artists on the Art Music Agency roster had been in the same place at the same time. We were awed by everyone, and felt humbled to be in such excellent company! I really should look up everyone’s websites and put them here, but after driving the last 550 miles today… somehow I just don’t feel like it. But I will, I promise. Anyway, it was fun and the hurricaine decided to skip Atlanta so we only had a little rain.

Does anyone know what the heck’s up with all the kudzu down south? It’s turning the roadside treeline into weird, primordial parasitic-vine-covered sculpture! Is somebody trying to do something about this so the trees won’t all die?

Some good news is that we have new “drawings by fans” to post on the Mad website; I expect they’ll be up sometime this week. Rachel (11 yrs. old) and Zoie (7) gave us several at the Druid Hills gig, and they’re wonderful! I love the attention to detail: Margo’s jewelry, our hair colors, instrument differentiation… we did say that they had to be flattering… anyway that was in the newly renovated Sanctuary, which is just stunning. It’s the kind of place where you have to get a lot of people in the pews just to get the reverb DOWN enough to understand words!

Special thanks to Pam and Bill for sponsoring the concert at Druid Hills, and for opening their beautiful home (and wine cellar!) to us. We especially enjoyed our talks about truth, beauty, and feldenkrais.

I didn’t take even one picture on this trip, so have nothing to post. Next week we hope to mostly finish recording for the new album, whose working title, by the way, is “Magic Hour.” Then I go into another studio to finish my Christmas album which I started some time ago, and then we’re off on another road trip for a week and a half. There goes October. On the way home, Margo found a really cheap off-season airfare to England, so we’re considering a “pre-tour trip” to plant some seeds, invite inspiration, and generally take a break from all this travelling. (Hey, wait a minute!!)

The Stamford Arts Center gig is next on Oct. 18th, so we hope to see you there. Joey Eppard from the Art Music Agency is opening, and you will not believe this old soul in a young man’s body. He knocked us over with his guitar playing alone, and then when he started to sing, we knew we’d never get back up. Come for a truly amazing night of music!

Til next time, Adrienne, for MeMargoMark

Like the white rabbit, I’m late again with news… I’m sure lots of quotable things have happened on our last trip south but now I can’t remember them. When we got back I moved to Connecticut, and that somehow wiped everything else out of my head!

One item of interest is that there is now a link at the bottom of this page for all the archive web notes. (I have received flak for removing entries too soon…) so go and read all about it.

This weekend we’re at NERFA, and if you happen to attend, you can find our showcase schedule on the gigs page, and we’ll also have a table in the exhibit hall — another chance to use the banner! 🙂 Then, directly after Thanksgiving, we head in a westerly direction for gigs in Indiana and Kansas, hitting PA and NJ on the way back.

The album creeps on apace, as albums do, and while our “release date” remains rather elastic, we do promise it’ll be stunning. Meanwhile I (Adrienne) have finally finished my Christmas CD — whoa, just in time for, why, CHRISTMAS — and it’s expected in hand on the 21st of November. We have also discovered CD BABY and our Mad Agnes CD is now available for purchase online — look for the link on the Mad albums page that says “order by credit card,” and it’ll take you right to our CD Baby page — and my solo CDs are soon to follow, for those way too impatient to wait for a check to fly through the mail. CD Baby is a fun, friendly website! Check it out!

Too busy to write any more. All those boxes still to be unpacked. Please come to our gig at Cheney Hall in Manchester, CT on November 22nd — it’s going to be a special evening.

Cheers, Adrienne (formeMargoMark)

This Winter is here! Singin’ in the dark at the Folk Alliance… driving through a snowstorm in CT… a cool house concert in PA with some of the best lasagna on the planet… the birth of a Christmas album… some radio shows… Christmas shopping, are you kidding? The advent of MadAbouts… working on the next Mad CD… sleep, are you kidding? The new Blue Guitar in the family… a new muffler… Thanksgiving… and off to Indiana on Friday. Did I miss anything?

We had an adventurous time at NERFA, made better by the fact that we got a table this time in the exhibit hall. It was a lot more fun to have people come up to us than vice versa… even though we weren’t offering any snacks. The ice storm changed our set lists somewhat on Saturday night, since there was no electricity and therefore no sound systems — and only candlelight to sing by. But it certainly was beautiful driving back on Sunday, with the world surrealistically coated with ice.

We drove home from Johnny D’s last night in the first CT snowstorm of the year. It’s lovely today, with mounds of snow melting off trees and the sun out again. I got to shovel my little balcony (okay, I don’t have an actual shovel, I used a dustpan) and felt like a homeowner (okay, I rent, but it’s the sense of home that’s important).

We’re now assembling a street team, the MadAbouts, of fans in different areas who will be able to help us with various aspects of gig promotion. Congrats to our very first two volunteers, Marcie and Harriet in PA!! Anyone interested in putting up posters, calling in radio requests, selling CDs at gigs, and generally helping create a buzz, email us here.

In other news: my Christmas album, There Is No Rose, is now available! Check the CD store at www.madagnes.com, or the albums page at www.adriennejones.com. …Margo has found a use for my little blue guitar… welcome to the family. We certainly don’t have enough guitars yet! 🙂 …my first repair on the dear Honda, new axle pipe & muffler. 94,000 miles — not bad. …putting a little percussion on the album this week… that’s about it. One down day for Thanksgiving and we’re off to the middle states.

And I can’t get away without mentioning that Monday was MARGO’S BIRTHDAY! Happy Birthday, bandmate!

That’s it from Mad Agnes. More pictures next time, I promise, of Kansas and road adventures.

Be well, be warm, Adrienne (for MeMargoMark)

The irony, of course, is that the more we’re on the road, the more stories there are to tell… and the less time I have to actually write them down. Let’s plunge in before I forget any more details…

Kansas! In December! They did have a little snow in honor of our arrival, but it melted and then we were treated to a mysterious, foggy day, and then lots of sunshine. AND some tremendous folks for whom we played, and with whom we stayed. We started in Evansville, Indiana, at Tim and Beth’s cabin. Lovely room! Lots of old books! This also inaugurated the Mouse Finger Puppet Picture-taking Tour (it’s a long story, but I’m making a picture book for a friend). Here are a couple of samples:

Having snacks after the concert at Tim and Beth’s.

…and a little breakfast at a hotel.

Speaking of breakfast, we always try to find good diners when we travel, and here’s one we liked called the Broadway Diner. I can’t remember where it was… but I know it wasn’t in Kansas. 

You may be asking, “How did you endure the drive all the way to Indiana, Illinois, and Kansas, and then back, in two separate cars?” The answer is Stephen King’s “Dreamcatcher” on CD. It’s 23 hours unabridged, and Mark & Margo had gotten it from the library and would pass me a few CDs when they were finished with them. I will ALWAYS bring books now! I’d actually read the hardcover when it was first out, but had forgotten enough of it to make it thrilling a second time. (Some things I remember so vividly; others pass through my seive-like brain with amazing rapidity… like book plots, and where that diner was.)

We did get a little tourism into the trip, in the form of the space museum in Hutchinson, KS — really fascinating to see the history of the space station, and we also hit the Imax theatre and the planetarium. Then some Christmas shopping at a Mennonite village. And there’s all that scenery to boot.

We had equipment difficulties at Old Settler’s Inn, when the power supply to Margo’s keyboard bit the dust. Fortunately our host had another keyboard, and while it didn’t have Mg’s programs in it, she was able to find similar ones and prepare her strategy in the last 1/2 hour before the show. We madly rearranged the set list and leapt into set 1, knowing that the show was being videotaped for local tv. (She was awesome in the pinch, I must say.) During the evening’s romp the pickup on Mg’s travel guitar also decided to take an intermittent vacation, and my bass tuner suddenly stopped working. Later, both came back online, and I fully believe aliens were involved. Also, everything Mark touched seemed to repair itself. (Hey… you don’t think that Mark… no, nevermind.) In spite of the electronic serendipity it was a great evening, and what a ready made crowd! “Some people just know how to be an audience,” Margo said, and somebody certainly prepared these folks. Afterwards we had a VERY punchy interview that is to be integrated into the broadcast. Yay Miner, we want to do it again!

Home for two days, then off to PA to a very cool house concert (Thanks Barb and Tom for wonderful hospitality & food!), a little quick Christmas shopping on the way out, and the beautiful Unity church in Lafayette, NJ, where everyone is pumped with good spirit and we got to sit in the aroma of the largest Christmas tree I’ve ever seen indoors. (Thanks too to Ross and Judi for making us welcome.)

Thanks, in fact, to everyone I’ve forgotten to mention here… you presenters who are willing to have strangers in your home bringing music & luggage, all your kids and your cats and dogs, and the wonderful ways you enfold us; and everyone who comes to listen and share. We feel extremely lucky.

My personal thanks to Mark and Margo, for saving my skin on the way back from NJ last week, during what I am calling the Bungee Incident — when my exhaust pipe decided to jettison itself and ski home. In defense of The Tardis, it’s the first part that’s needed repair in 98,000 miles, so don’t hold it against her! After negotiating with a coathanger for about 40 minutes, Mark remembered the bungee that was holding my gig box together (since the latch broke a while back), and used that to lift the pipe off the ground enough so I could drive the 70 miles home. Fortunately I had earplugs so my brain wasn’t damaged by the noise, but I’m not sure my backside will ever be the same. All fixed now.

Then I had a birthday. 🙂

In other news, we’re mixing our album this week (I’m actually in the studio as I write this), and preparing for a few more Christmas-type shows and our First Night Morristown gig. We hope to see you soon, and remember we have multiple CD specials going on for those on our email list. If you sign up on www.madagnes.com, be sure to ask about them — they’re good through December.

I’ll leave you with a few more photos, and best wishes for the holidays. (below)

Mr. mouse catching a nap at some friends’.

Making a little music at Tim & Beth’s Cabin.

And a little nostalgic something we discovered in the “autographed bathroom” at Jammin’ Java…

Til next time,  Adrienne (for memargomark)