to be the third leg (from the "popular Sugar Hill era line up" according to the Pickathon website,) and I'm going back and trying to find old copies of our recorded output to woodshed our old material.I'll be honest with you, I'm just as interested in attending these events as playing them as the line up of acts are just killer.
And for the record, I don't really recall ever "breaking up." I just remember nobody booking us for any more gigs, and me not minding so very much about it. Its what my jazz playing buddies in NYC call it taking a "quiet time," which in our case lasted damn near 8 years. Dan's been out there busting his ass on the road ever since I dropped out, so I guess I can thank his diligence for the renewed interest in our oeuvre.
And I always selfishly thought that we had a hand in changing how people thought about American traditional music, and in a good way too. Here in Austin, and out on the road in far flung places like Belgrade and Genoa as well, I meet young musicians all the time who were influenced either by our live performances or our records. Many a nice person has dropped me a line to tell me how meaningful this gig or that tune was to them. Many of them were still in Middle School, or younger, when we stopped working in fact.
The prospect of one of these aging punk rockers out on a "reunion" tour is not my idea of fun, I am after all already fat and cantankerous. But....they did call us and ask politely. So might as well come out and see what the kids are up to these days. I like to play music. I like Dan's material, which holds up very well over the years. Bob's a fine guy to hang around with. What's not to like?
Oh yeah, and to answer the inevitable question: are you going to play my town/festival, ect..let me direct you to Barnes' blog and follow those instructions. As Danny likes to say, for nearly a decade, we held up our end of the touring-performing thing.
