One Down, One To Go

We played in the installation ceremony for Karen and it seemed like a success on several fronts; first, we played in the same service with the choir and the organ and piano (but not at the same time) for the first time and the combination didn't seem to make anyone's head spin and erupt pea soup. Second, we thought we did pretty well, and at the end when the new pastor and the visiting preacher were walking down the aisle to exit we rocked out with "Easter Song" and the visiting preacher danced all the way out of the church.
Also, we came up with a new and much better way to do our sound system. We had been setting up our whole set of gig gear with a huge amp, giant speakers, six or more mikes and tons of cables. That involves taking out some of the walls in the choir area, which is a real pain. But this time, with the choir using their area, we just put two condenser mikes--a high one for voices and a low one for instruments-- on one stand and ran cables into the house audio system and all formed a circle around those two mikes...and it worked great! Not only was it less work for us to set up, people said it was the best and clearest audio we've ever done. We did also set up a separate amp for the bass, though. So we have retired the gig setup from Bluegrass Sundays!
Speaking of which, the next one is this coming Sunday, June 6. Beth can't attend--out of town commitment--and Haddon says he is officially and irrevocably retired. Mike has lined up a really good bass player, though, who has been a master at playing standup bass in country bands for a long time, so we feel lucky to have him pitch in, and also feel lucky we'll have Beth back for the long run.
Allison sent an email to band members suggesting they check out the blog, so I figured I ought to write something. So there! Thanks, Allison.