Had an amazing Oct./November:  shows in Loveland, CO, Casper, WY, Goldendale, WA, and at FARWest in Eugene, OR--got to see the Rockies for the first time ever and the Cascades for the first time in decades.  Then, after battling the bronchial bug I caught on the plane home, we headed back East, for a delightful time as Jon Stein's guests on WTBQ's Hootenanny Cafe, some much-needed R&R in and around NYC (including showing Stephen the city for the very first time), recording in Brooklyn with our friends Stereo Sinai, visiting L.I.'s North Fork  wineries that inspired my song "Talking to the Vines." Next, we headed back up into the Catskills to Kerhonkson, NY, where we had an intense weekend showcasing (both for ourselves and backing up marvelous Mara Levine), networking and learning.  And I finally triumphed over that pesky turkey (free range organic) and got it to the table for friends and family.  (Still can't contemplate the concept of "mealtime" just yet--maybe in a few hours.  No more dirty dishes......pleeeeeeease)!

About those rehearsals:  I'm multitasking from now till just before Christmas.  Intensive rehearsals (first weekly, now daily) have begun for the 88th annual (and my tenth) CBA Christmas Spirits revue, "LawLawPalooza." Besides my usual supporting and choral roles singing and committing attempted dancing, I'm front and center this time--singing lead and playing guitar (hey, Bob--my Gramann!) in a scene. (Six changes of costume--yike!).  For the first time, we're discounting ALL advance purchases: instead of the erstwhile $65, tickets are $45 orch./$25 mezz. That's right--the lowest-price Broadway-style theater ticket (and by far the funniest evening) in town.  Dec. 6-10 at the Merle Reskin Theater, 60 E. Balbo in the South Loop. 7:30.  Don't miss it! www.barshow.org or 312-554-2134 for tickets (and tell 'em I sent you).

Then it's Andina & Rich's annual "Holiday Party for Those Who Hate the Holidays" show. Usually held in Madison, WI, this year we're bringing it down to the Chicago area (we'd wanted to do a Madison/Chicago doubleheader, but the venue we'd planned to use up in Cheeseland is retooling). Sat. Dec. 17, from 7-10 pm we'll be ho-ho-hamming it up at Grounds For Appeal Coffeehouse in Berwyn, IL (only a block from the Metra station).  Joining us as our special guest will be the inimitable Andrew Calhoun, who'll regale you with traditional holiday and folk songs, his originals, and his world-famous puns. (In fact, we may have a pun throwdown).  How much is this gonna cost you? Just the cost of getting there--and whatever you feel like feeding the tip jar. As always, there'll be free cookies, Wendy's door prizes and her gigantic and delicious hot-and-cold-drink (no alcohol) menu.

So we have all that Madison-specific holiday stuff, and the guest performers up there who were going to help us play it. What to do?  Well, keep an eye out for Red Dragon TV's "Andina & Rich Holiday Spectacular:" the best of this year's "Andina & Rich Comedy Hour," our year-end topical recap, special commentaries, new holiday-themed sketches (there WILL be pie), and of course holiday music: our own originals and our spin on the classics as well as topnotch songs of the season from our arsenal of artists who've graced us with recordings and videos--all hosted by "Escape to Music's" Sam Spindler.  And it streams worldwide at reddragontv.tv, as well as going into our YouTube on-demand archive, so "Madison's too far" is no excuse!

January brings the main tracking and mixing sessions down in Sparta, IL for the third Andina & Rich album, "Chasing Lightning." It'll be chock-full of co-writes, as well as a couple of choice covers and plenty of humor--a nice balance of silly & serious.  And on Jan. 26, I'll be doing a rare solo early evening free set at Metropolis Coffee (cor. Granville & Kenmore, 1.5 bl. e. of the CTA Red Line) from 6-7.  You'll hear stuff I don't usually get to play out these days, and drink some of the best coffees & teas in Chicago!

Hi everyone! Has it been four months since I posted here? Yeesh!  Steve & I have been on the road since then to such exotic locales as Naperville, Geneva, Bolingbrook, Grayslake, Morris and of course Madison & Chicago.  And, oh yeah:  Loveland, CO; Casper, WY; Goldendale, WA; and Eugene, OR.  Tell ya more later--it's 2 am and we have a long drive ahead of us tomorrow from Youngstown to Warwick--with a fun extended weekend in NYC before we head to NERFA.

Killed time till our room was ready, downing what will have likely been the first of many oyster po' boys for lunch. At the hotel, Bob woke me from my nap to bring me a potent Hurricane from Pat O'Brien's-- don't remember them having been that strong in my youth. Took three gulps and was out for two hours! I don't like to eat much before a gig but Bob was starving, so we headed to Bourbon St. (already deafening and crowded by late afternoon) for a cup of gumbo. Got to Neutral Ground in time to hear the first set, and unfolded my Voyage-Air dread. Fished around to remove the by- now superfluous humidifier (Toto, you're not in Chicago any more); when I couldn't reach all the way in, I upended the guitar so the thing would be reachable. Fished it out only to find that to my horror, two bridge pins had fallen out.....black bridge pins, black case, black pants, black paisley carpet! Found the first one right away, but no luck with the second. Found all manner of detritus on the floor: Scrabble tiles, pennies, scraps of balsa wood, tinsel--despite my efforts none worked. Neither of the two first acts had a spare. But the barista directed me to a decrepit beater guitar, in various stages of stringlessness, and suggested I borrow a pin from it. White plastic and not black ebony/abalone, but it did the trick. Gina Forsyth arrived, we got caught up on news since last we met, and agreed on the two songs on which she'd play fiddle and the one of hers I was only going to sing harmony on but found out I could also suss out the harmonica part (good thing I brought the right ones from home). The song was "St. Anthony:" she joked that since he was the patron saint of lost objects I might find my bridge pin. The set went well, and we exhorted the crowd to sing along to help St. Anthony do his thing. Lo and behold, as we were packing up afterward, she spotted my bridge pin on the carpet. (I'm still remaining Jewish, however). Speaking of that, on the way over we saw a sign on Touro Synagogue advertising Jazz Shabbat services, featuring Irma Thomas the weekend of Jazzfest. Our cabbies included a retired guitarist with the Gypsy Kings, a 20-yr-old with both an e-Trade account and mean sax chops, and a full-on conspiracy theorist. And on Bourbon St. I saw a guy in full pirate regalia, with a sign on his tip box reading "Not Somalian!" Lord, I've missed this place!!!

Then home for one day to do laundry, get my nails in shape for playing, repack and hit the road for the Great Plains with Steve--Iowa City, Columbia, MO, Omaha--and River City Folk!!!--and Hays, KS.  We're going to have to exercise some routing ingenuity, what with gas prices skyrocketing.  At least the cheaper gas prices further from Chicago offer some measure of consolation. My last fillup, last week in Beloit, WI, was $3.45/gal.  It's up to four bucks here by now.  (People ask me why I travel so much for my music--I only half-jokingly reply that it's for the cheaper gas).  Then catch my breath, do Passover, and head down to Sparta, IL the next weekend for our concert at the library. Spending time with our hosts the Gordons will make it feel more like a friendly respite than like work, though we will of course bring our "A" game. 

Meanwhile, I have "gotten religion" when it comes to guitar humidification.  To my horror, Terry at Guitar Works found a couple of nascent cracks in my Voyage-Air dread (I'd brought it in for a fret-buzz correction after I got my pickup installation in my Gramann tweaked to correct a strange resonance in the B & G strings--turns out the pickup wires needed to be harnessed).  He had it spend a few days "in the schvitz" (atop a small room humidifier) and stabilized the cracks.  But I am taking no more chances.  I had been using Planet Waves clay-filled soundhole humidifiers for the past couple of years but had gotten behind in refilling them with distilled water, so I'd switched to dampened sponges in vented Baggies.  Not good enough, I found out--especially in those semi-hard cases that Voyage-Airs come in or in padded rigid gig bags, both of which are porous.  So I got a bunch of Oasis soundhole humidifiers--that's all Terry uses in his house, which like mine has radiators but no ductwork for a furnace humidifier--and a gallon of distilled water.  I put them in my guitar cases, supplementing them with the re-hydrated clay-filled units, and I check them every other day.  Of course, every soundhole humidifier comes with a plastic syringe--and I saved the syringes from the old clay-filled ones that I had to discard when they developed mildew & mineral dust from using tap water.  My bathroom is full of plastic syringes (the ones with the skinny tips are good for refilling fountain pen cartridges too); should there be a police raid I'd have some 'splainin' to do.....

If you're near a radio or streaming computer, we'll be on Lilli Kuzma's "Folk Festival" show Tues. May 24 for the Bob Dylan Birthday Celebration; and Stephen will be on WMMM-FM (Madison's Finest Rock) on Apr. 4 (time TBA) with our latest song, "This is What Democracy Looks Like" as part of Tom Kastle's presentation of local musicians doing political protest songs (I'd be there but I'd have to teleport myself from New Orleans).  

Check out the video for that song at the DulciYodel channel on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9AoVjvsdKQ

My prayers and good wishes go out, of course, to all those impacted by the horrendous earthquake and tsunami in Japan (make sure you text "Japan" to 90999 to donate $10 to the Red Cross) and those in harm's way--from both Qaddafi's forces and the side effects of the Allied efforts to enforce the no-fly zone.  I am reserving judgment on both the wisdom of our involvement and the way the decision was implemented. I support freedom and our President....but am willing to call 'em as I see 'em......once I have enough information to "see 'em" clearly and accurately.  Now is not the time to complain about who should get the credit (or blame), nor to cling blindly to the Constitution as the sole and immutable touchstone for any & every governmental action.  Contrary to popular belief, governments both federal & state have powers and people have rights not specifically spelled out therein.  More specific than that and it'd have to be a blog entry---and it's too late at night for me to start that tonight.

No real weather adventures (yet--we're headed into flood country tomorrow & Wed.) on the order of our little I-57 thrill ride in Feb. '10.  We managed to hold the road despite wind, sleet & ice en route to Montpelier, OH; but apparently, 7 semi-trailer rigs and an SUV between there & Upper Sandusky did not.  We dodged a couple of HUGE "snow bullets" there:  10" overnight as we slept in Montpelier, and another 4 or so overnight in Upper Sandusky.  But out in farm country road crews take snow removal seriously--driving was no problem and even the county & township roads were clear and (mostly) dry. By the time we got to Pittsburgh the ice & snow from earlier in the week was gone; we had nice mostly mild weather (interspersed with some rain & minor chill) in northern VA all week.  Heavy rains didn't dampen our fun in the Wilmington/Philly area; and Sunday's snow in Pittsburgh was long gone from the roads by the time we pulled in tonight. Hope our route up to northwestern OH tomorrow and home Wed. will be above the waterline!

Just a reminder that on Sat. 3/12 we'll be playing one of our very favorite concert series, Second Saturday at Ethical Humanist Society of Chicago (7475 N. Lincoln in Skokie---just barely in Skokie) at 8 pm, with Norm Siegel opening. $8 gets you an evening of fun and entertaining folk music, plus noshes & sips available.  

And the week after, Fri. 3/18 finds us up in Madison, WI at Wild Hog in the Woods Coffeehouse, Wil-Mar Center, 953 Jenifer St. (a block east of the Willy St. corridor). Admission $3/members $2, sugg. donation up to you--remember to "Phil the Pig--Wild Hog's unique tip jar--at the refreshments table.  Open mic between sets--sign up before the show starts at 8 pm. Come for the State Capitol protests, stay for the music!  (Because Stephen Lee Rich was unavailable to serenade the sit-in on Sat. night, the protest organizers had to go with their second choice: Michele Shocked.  By all rights, Stephen could be crowing about the pecking order, but he's ever the gentleman).

That's March (unless something else crops up, which will be the subject of add'l Sandygrams).  April finds me in New Orleans with Bob (long overdue alone time) with a possible gig-share; and then on to the Great Plains leg of the Attitudes tour--Iowa City, Columbia, MO; River City Folk taping in Omaha, and a return to Cafe Semolino in Hays, KS.  After that, Passover & Easter.