JamesRiverBlograss

I don’t know when I first ran across Gerald. I know I was fairly young. My first memory of a conversation with him was at a fiddle jam in Ipswich. He struck me as a happy guy, always smiling. Over the years, I ran into him several times. He did a lot of centennials and such, bringing his ponies for kids to ride, and I would be there for some fiddling. He loved having fun with the kids, and loved listening to our old time music. Always smiling.

One of his birthdays I remember for a couple of reasons. A bunch of us went to his little home town to the only bar in town, and played all night. It was the night that our engine died in our car, and we were stranded out in the cold for a couple of hours. Imagine the middle of nowhere without cell phones. Anyway, the other was as I was playing, Gerald was passing around a tray of fried something. I’m not an adventurous eater, so I’m pretty careful. As we played, the tray was passed to my wife. She looked at me with a ‘Should I?’ type of look. I shook my head no. She ignored that and went ahead and ate whatever it was. Turns out it was rocky mountain oysters. She is still kind of ticked about that.

The other day I heard he had passed. The funeral had already taken place. I was so sad. Rest in peace Gerald.

To add to what Todd has already said about our dear friend Gerald.  I will cherish the times spent with Gerald and his wife Margaret, they always would come into Arby’s to see me while I was working years ago.   There was also the time Gerald drove Todd around while Todd played his fiddle during a parade on the forth of July one year and the time we were at Fort Sisseton and they were there enjoying the old time music being played.  Yes, Gerald always had a smile on his face and was always friendly to everyone he met.  I will miss seeing your smile and hold the memories of you close to my heart.    Gerald will truly be missed.   God Bless and rest in peace Gerald and we will see you someday in heaven with that great big smile welcoming us.

We made this video on the same night the picture was taken.

Will The Circle Be Unbroken

On a hot August afternoon, JRB marched over to Prospect Park to play for a rededication ceremony for the wonderful park. Here are some pictures.

Good lookin’ fellers, wouldn’t you say?

Mark jams out on A Little Mountain Churchouse.

Steve shares his usual words of wisdom.

Denny gets his wires crossed on his 5 string banjo.

Well, thanks to the folks in Mitchell, we finally got a chance to see an 80’s favorite, Night Ranger. Not knowing what to expect, our expectations were fairly low. I figured we’d see a band who was past their prime, and just collecting checks from the folks begging for some nostalgia. I couldn’t have been more wrong. These guys can still rock in America (pardon the pun). They played everything with the same energy that made them popular during the 80’s. They also did a number from the Damn Yankees, you know the one. Anyway, a fun time, and a great concert. A few pictures:

We got a call from our good friend Steve Buechler asking if we could do another Tora Bora party out there. This one would be a fund raiser for next year’s 125th anniversary party. Well, we couldn’t say no, considering how much we love playing in Gettysburg.The ‘barn’ was in good shape, and the bar was ready with long island iced teas as the featured drink (ouch!). Anyway, it was pretty hot, but we had our meal of pork loin sandwiches with all of the fixings (and an amazing pasta salad), and got ready to play.

We had a good time on stage (as always), and played into the night, until mosquitos the size of eagles set their sites on us after the sun went down.

Well, we were headed home for the night after saying our goodbyes, when Steve called and asked to stop at a karaoke night. I’ve only done this once, but him and I did ‘If You’re Gonna Play in Texas’, and actually had couples dancing!

Sunday wasn’t near as fun, but it was well worth it. Stand by for pictures!

Thanks again to Steve, and all of our great friends in Gettysburg for another great evening.

Todd G.

With tax season in full swing, I thought I’d take some of my newfound free time to annonce that I have moved from the area of public accounting to take a position as an accountant with Stan’s, Inc. in Alpena.

Stan, the founder of the company, has built this small company into a diversified corporation that employees roughly 60 people, in a very small South Dakota town. With beginnings as a feed and grain man, he has recently moved into the trucking / transportation field, along with a very large hog confiment operation. The trucking is kind of divided in three parts as well: feed trucks, grain haulers, and reefer trailers. The reefers go nationwide hauling for the Jack Links plant that is also located in Alpena.
I just want everybody to know that I am happy with the switch.

On Friday, September 29, we loaded up the tour bus (a 2003 Saturn Ion) to compete in the Harvest Days fiddle contest in Spearfish. We were there last year as well, and it is one of the most beautiful places in the state in the fall…If you’ve ever driven up Spearfish Canyon, you’ll know what I mean.

So, we rolled into town at about 8:00 local time, and popped by The Stadium, a little sports bar right downtown. After this, we checked out a few of the other watering holes. We found something called the Back Porch, which we found was connected to, a, well, you know…one of those places. We stayed in the porch as a band was readying to play. Well, this was great…a weird dude, a drummer and a bass player walked up on stage. They proceded to break into Alan Parson’s Mamagamma (I think that’s the title…it’s a pump you up song). Funny thing was, the weird dude basically one-fingered it on the keyboard, and there was no guitar solo. Well, they kept on, doing oddball stuff and trying to be funny, so we moved on.

Next was a kind of a biker bar…Harleys and something across the street. A really nice clean bar actually, and I beat Shelly at Monster Mash pinball, and matched to top it off.

Our last stop was a little place called Knight’s Pub, which from the street looked a little highbrow, to be honest. I couldn’t have been more wrong. The bartender, with a fantastic British accent was great and the people were too. A two-piece band was playing and these kids were fantastic. I looked, and there was a staircase, and I had to explore…upstairs were 5 or 6 of those old 70’s couches in which you get comfortable enough to literally to stop breathing, but are impossible to exit. There also was a fireplace. It formed sort of a balcony to watch the pickers pick. What a great place.

9:00 came too early, but I’m a fighter.   The contest went well, and we were free to explore Spearfish before our five hour trek home…which we did.

What did we find? Well, a street vendor that had some of the best mustard I have ever tasted. I went for his original recipe, and Shelly went for the honey mustard. This guy makes this stuff right in Spearfish, and has received a silver medal in the world competition for each of these beauties. The original is hot, but has no jalepenos or horseradish, but will still clear your sinuses. For a bottle, comment and I’ll get you the address.

That’s pretty much the long and short of the 2006 Harvest Days, but it was better than 2005, and it looks like they are building this into a nice little event. Hats off to Spearfish.