August 20, 2001

The River Rendezvous dance in Coshocton, Ohio was really really fun, as usual. "A Larry Unger band" (Reckless Ramblers, I think) was the other band and they rocked. If you've just happened onto this site and you are wondering, "What is contradancing, anyway?" you might want to download a 15 second mpeg (1.2 Mb) I shot at the dance with my Mavica. I'd love to have done this while we were playing, but -- I'm always playing when we're playing, so it's sort of hard. At any rate, it's pretty cool. You'll need a media player, like Windows Media Player, to view it. If someone reading this knows the identity of the two folks dancing at the top of the set, would you let me know?

10:33 PM

July 4, 2001

Cool, product placement!... check out this page of the AutoSport catalogue and rest your mouse over the visor CD holder! Thanks, bro...

10:41 PM

June 20, 2001

Okay. I've been lazy. Actually, though, I've been busy with other stuff, like getting the NEW HOTPOINT CD together! Now that we have big boxes of them sitting around, however, it behooves me to take some steps to actually move them out to get heard. To that end, I mailed all the prepaid CDs yesterday, sent a bunch to folk DJs who requested them, and shipped some to efolkmusic.comand cdbaby.com. You can hear great full-length streaming audio previews, nab a free mp3 of one cut, or buy mp3s from the efolk site, and you can get get 2-minute preview files from cdbaby. I'd wait a couple more days for that, though; I just sent the CDs yesterday. You can get 'em from us directly right now, though... same-day shipping in most cases.

I finally got around to looking at and cataloging some of the zillions of great photos I've been taking at gigs. Here are some shots of our faithful dancer friends. Are you in one of these pics? Let us know! (burhans@frognet.net)

Dance Awakening, at Harbin Hot Springs in northern CA

Gypsy Meltdown in North Carolina

the Lake Eden Arts Festival (LEAF) near Asheville, NC

The Blue Moon dance weekend in Huntsville, AL

A special dance in San Rafael, CA

8:33 PM

June 5, 2001

Recording this new CD is really exciting. It seems to take forever and then suddenly your're sending it off to be replicated and waiting for it to come back... which is where we are now. We have been using Oasis for our CD replication needs. They're just really responsive to our needs, and all their instructions are really clear. Tom Erlewine, who designed the package for this CD (and wait 'til you check out the Burhania map!) also really appreciated their professionalism and clear sensible instructions. If you really want a sneak peek at some of the packaging for the new CD, you can check it out on Tom's website at erlewinedesign.com. Just look for Hotpoint CD Cover. I encourage you to also look at the really cool panoramas of the Gibson guitar shop or Dan Erlewine's guitar repair shop while you're visiting Tom's site. (BTW, Tom is the nice guy who animated our Make'em go woo dancers, and one of our dearest friends.)

5:37 PM

Wooo! We've been having so much fun I haven't had time to write about it! Let's see... it's been 3 months or so -- what have we done?Let me try to do this in chronological order. We had a total blast playing in California at beautiful, clothing-optional Harbin Hot Springs, a weekend known as the Dance Awakening. It had been so long since I was in northern California that I'd forgotton how beautiful it all is. The weather, food, and dancing were all great, and new friend Reta organized a Thursday dance at the Marin Masonic Hall for us before the weekend. All went smoothly and well, and I saw several dear old friends while there. I found airfare for the five of us to San Francisco from Columbus, our airport city, for $188 RT. We've got to get out there again soon... maybe for a little tour or something. Organizers?

5:25 PM

January 7, 2001

The new CD!
Well, we've done it -- we've started recording another CD. The working title is "The Road to Burhania," which comes from the name of a great fiddle tune by Al Cantrell. The observant reader may have noticed the similarity between "Burhans" (Mark's and my last name) and "Burhania." As it happens, the title tune on the album refers to, in Emily Cantrell's words, "the path to Mark and Hilarie's house for dinner."

Bernie Nau, the wonderful guy (and keyboard player with The House Band) who recorded our last CD, has made a recording studio out of the house he owns next to his house in Meigs County, OH. We went there this weekend to get started on the CD, and had a wonderful time. First of all, the place is beautiful. It's way out in the country, and up a long steep winding driveway (the road to the road to Burhania??) The picture of a tree covered with birds was shot with my new digital camera (thanks, Santa!) out of the back door of the studio. Secondly, what can I say about my bandmates? I just love these bozos. (oooh, psychic group hug, Hotpoints!) Finally, how many recording studios supply ladybugs to decorate your banjo pegs?This is the only one we've found so far.
I'll keep notes on the CD progress posted here. If you want to preorder a CD to be sent hot off the presses (March, I'm thinking?) just send a $15 check with your mailing address (info on the Contacts page) and we'll waive shipping charges until the CD is released. Be sure to indicate "new CD" on the check, or we'll sort of automatically send you the last one.
Later -
Hilarie

11:04 PM

Dec. 31, 2000 - January 1, 2001 Cleveland's "2001 -- A Dance Odyssey"

Well, in my last blog, I was trying to figure out whether I had the cold or a flu; after being miserably sick playing a dance in Cinci, I dragged myself to the doctor who said I had pneumonia. It seemed to take forever to feel like my old self again; however, I was in pretty good shape by New Year's Eve. This was good, because we were scheduled to play a dance in the Lakewood Masonic Hall with a "2001" theme.

Folks in Cleveland always get into the spirit of these things, and so did we. I wish I had a picture of the whole band with our (last minute $1.98 space blanket) costumes on, especially as the curtains were drawn back after the walkthrough for the first dance! Oh well, I did get one of Mark, it turns out. Here are some other photos too:

Some futuristic dancers

"Cleveland says "Happy 2001!"

Our pal (and pianist extraordinaire) Mark DeLozier with skirt and VERY nice T-shirt.

Sound man for the evening, Dennis Kempthorne, who did a difficult job beautifully.
The wonderful Becky Hill and Carol Kopp called the dance, and a fun time was definitely had by all.

9:35 PM

December 4, 2000

Dec. 2, 2000 The Columbus Advanced Dance

(I generally try to restrict my blogs to descriptions of dance weekends, but this was sort of like a weekend compressed into one day for us, so I figured it'd slide...)

Mark had been sick for more than a week, and I had just come down with the same cruddy illness (Cold? Flu? I was asked which it was and the jury is still out. Here is a chart from the US Food and Drug Administration with criteria for each ailment to help one make a decision; it decided nothing for me as I had symptoms of each.) At any rate, I was sick. This was the first time, believe it or not, that I have ever been quite sick when I had a gig; I'm usually very healthy. At any rate, we made the gig, and ended up having a blast! Cal Hurd and Becky Hill taught a swing workshop in the afternoon, and it was sort of fun, in a way, to sing stuff sounding like I had been smoking cigars all my life or something. There were lots of the usual Hotpoint backstage (and onstage) highjinks, captured, for the first time, by my new Sony Mavica digital camera! Pokey forgot to bring the plant stands he usually uses as stands for the djembe and doumbek, so we scoured the church for a replacement. We settled on a wheeled dolly, which worked beautifully, as a bracket on the djembe fit nicely over a metal bar on the dolly. The drum was suspended at the perfect height. It made for a goofy photo, though!

During the hour and a half allotted to the potluck dinner, the band wanted to go to one of Pokey's favorite stores -- a used CD store in a basement on High St. in Columbus. We all knocked ourselves out on CDs of all varieties, spending @ $3 - $7 for each. We then raced next door and had a great, super fast, and super cheap Chinese meal, making it back to the hall at about 6:59 (in time to play at 7:00.) All in all, a really fun time, considering that 2 of us were sick!

2:25 PM

November 13, 2000

November 10 - 12, 2000 Pittsburgh Fall Dance Weekend... "The Hot Groove Weekend"

The Groovemongers Rule! We just did a weekend with these fine folks, and by Sunday we were one BIG happy band. There's just nothing like a contradance band composed of...

2 fiddles (Mark and GM (Groovemonger) Rebecca McCallum)
2 percussionists (Pokey and GM Teilhard Frost)
piano (Marlene and GM Jane Knoeck),
accordian (GM Jane)
mandolin (GM C.W. Abbott-- and it turns out that Marlene and her husband Bob know them from long ago in Pittsburgh!)
banjo (yours truly)
guitar (Rusty joined us for this gig)
bass (Joe)
2, count 'em, 2! didgeridoos (GM Teilhard and Joe)
....to make one go woooo!

We were torn between Hotmongers and Groovepoints until we were announced as the Hot Groove band. At any rate, we had a blast, and several Hotpoints plan to get up to Columbus to dance to them this weekend. They made US go wooo!

The weekend was just right. Deanna is always the "hostess with the mostest" and we were treated to a small impromptu party on Friday night, a great breakfast on Saturday, and a wild party on Saturday night. The photos should show just a taste of the wild time we had. We've played a lot in Pittsburgh over the years, and we knew so many of the dancers at the weekend that we felt completely at home. It was wonderful. Kathy Anderson called with us, and Keith Cornett with the Groovemongers, and as they are of course callers we love to work with, our weekend was complete. Dave Hosmer ran sound, assisted by Tony and C.W., which was quite a feat considering the wide variety of instruments he had to deal with! On the way home, Mark and I had the unusual experience of waiting around while Pokey tried to decide on a CD rack at Ikea. (Generally, I love shopping -- "retail therapy"-- and if Pokey is around, he's drumming his nails on things waiting for me to be done.) It was such a novel experience, we quite enjoyed it!

5:41 PM

November 5, 2000

October 27 - 29, 2000 - Solefest, Springfield, Missouri.... “The Gilligan’s Island Weekend”

“Just sit right back and you’ll hear a tale; the tale of a fateful trip.” We had a great weekend in Springfield, Missouri. This was only the 2nd year for Solefest, but I think they have the beginnings of a very nice little weekend going there. A nicer bunch of folks putting on a dance weekend we’ve never met. Jim took care of all the booking details, a wonderful artist named Nancy housed us, all on real beds!, Bob & Dan took great care of us sound-wise, and Gloria made sure we had everything and anything we needed. Some of our extremely faithful dancing fans/buddies made it there from all over as well.

Theme for the weekend (our personal Hotpoint theme, not that of the Solefest organizers!): Gilligan’s Island. Don’t ask me why. Of course, now we have to figure out just how to do a nice reggae version of the theme song, forced somehow into 32 bars for a contradance.
The only part I can remember is something Mark made up at some point:

No fiddle! No piano! No monitors!
Not a single sound on stage
And when the percussionist realized this, he flew into a rage

(N.B. –actually, he made this up before we even got there, so it’s no reflection on the actual sound provided!)

We flew to St. Louis on Southwest, then drove (in our rental van, the Minnow) to Springfield. We were less than whelmed by the scenery on the way, as it could barely be seen for the billboards. There were approximately 15.8 billboards/mile over the 10-mile stretch where we counted on the way back (Pokey did the right, and Joe the left sides of the road). Apparently, according to a really nice guy we met named Mike (turns out he’s a hot mandolin player with the bluegrass band Radio Flyer) the proliferation of billboards will eventually be history, if a proposition passes this month. I checked out the Save Our Scenery 2000 - Yes on Proposition A website, which listed findings similar to those of the official Hotpoint Billboard Count, to wit:

• “Drive for an hour along almost any major highway in Missouri and you’ll probably pass 85 billboards.” — Associated Press, April 3, 1997
• There are over 13,500 billboards in Missouri, just along our interstates and primary highways. Missouri has nearly three times as many billboards per mile as our eight neighboring states.
• In the 150 miles of I-70 from Columbia to St. Louis, except for one three-mile stretch, a driver is never out of sight of at least one billboard.

Apparently, this bill will stop new billboards from going up, forbid the cutting of trees solely to improve visibility for billboards, and so forth, but will not require that billboards be taken down. So it’s going to take a while, even if it passes. At any rate, Missouri will be prettier once you can actually see it a bit more. But the folks couldn’t be friendlier, starting right now.
“...so join us here each week, my friend, you’re sure to get a smile...”

October 20 & 21, 2000 Looking Glass weekend, E. Lansing, MI

We’ve had a fondness for Michigan dancers ever since we did a couple of Michigan Dance Heritage weekends a few years ago, so we were eager to go up and play for another weekend up there in the Big Mitten. (Whenever someone from Michigan asks us whereabouts in Ohio we’re from, Mark and I like to hold up our hand in an ASL letter A, as shown, and point to Athens County on our hand. Folks there never seem to see anything unusual in this, though, and never get that they’re being gently ribbed...)

We each worked a half day at our day jobs, then drove up to E. Lansing in two cars. Nick was the bass player this trip, and he had business in Cleveland on the way home on Sunday, so he drove up with another band member for company, while three of us rode up in the Ultimate Behemoth (an extremely reliable and comfortable but gas-guzzling SUV) able to listen for once to any CD we chose (one absent Hotpoint member tends to be very picky about the music that invades his head, and tends toward rather juvenile practices such as sticking his fingers in his ears, closing his eyes, and saying NA NA NA NA loudly if his delicate ears are subjected to music not of his choosing.)

We hadn’t worked with Kathy Anderson for quite a while, so it was good to get to see and work with her again. I enjoyed playing a lot of squares that weekend. It’s sort of roots music for me, having started out as an Appalachian old-time banjo player. On the whole, though, we much prefer to play for contras. I’ve been thinking about just why that is, and it comes down to something quite simple: I think we like having dancers to dance to our music, rather than to a caller. There’s not much room for dynamics and shenanigans when you’re playing for squares; for most squares the requisites seem to be (1) pretty fast and (2) a good clear beat. Contradancers need to hear/feel the beat too, of course, but there seems to be a lot more room there for variation in intensity and tempo. Musicians can do things for a contra that might be distracting to a dancer trying to listen to what a caller is going to say next in a square. Mark and I feel that Kathy Anderson sorta “raised us from pups” as dance musicians, and way back when, Kathy used to caution us before squares by saying, “remember, no drama!” Well, as I said, I enjoyed playing a lot of squares for a change, but it’s not our best thing. It also seems to be harder on us physically; both Mark and I suffer from repetitive stress problems to a certain degree, and the sort of full-speed-ahead playing that squares call for seems to exacerbate this a bit.

Stay on target... stay on target.. Oh yeah, Michigan. Another great thing about the weekend was the fact that the organizers realize that any musician visiting Lansing will want to make a trip to Elderly Instruments, so they plan time for this into the band’s schedule. Thanks, Bonnie and Hanno! We felt right at home there...On our trip to Elderly we ran into Kathy, then stopped into the repair shop to say hello to a friend of our friend Dan Erlewine, then ran into folks we know from here in Athens! The Local Girls are a vocal trio consisting of Mimi Hart, Brenda Catania, and Gay Dalzell. They were with Mike McGannon, another member of their band. It was a hoot to run into them there. All in all it was a wonderful weekend, and we look forward to getting back to Michigan soon.

October 13 - 15, 2000 Lake Eden Arts Festival Black Mountain, NC

Setting out for a beautiful fall drive to North Carolina, we weren’t our usual raucous selves. For one thing, we were divided up into two vehicles, as Marlene’s family had decided to join us for the weekend. Another reason for the calm, peaceful trip with little of our accustomed ribald humor was that Pokey had traveled separately – the other contradance band Pokey plays in, the Sevens, were also playing at LEAF, and he had to be there a day early to play a dance in Asheville on Friday. As far as I can figure, that’s why there was no theme to the weekend. After waiting for a long time in a big traffic jam, we finally got to Black Mountain, NC, where the Lake Eden Arts Festival is held. We were really looking forward to the weekend, but when we arrived, in the dark, we were hungry and grumpy. It was hard to see how cool the place was, but we ate some hippychow and started to feel better. By the time we were set up to play, we were majorly psyched. LEAF was as incredible as we had heard it would be. Hotpoint and the Sevens were housed together in a beautiful new lodge, and it was great to have the chance to get to know “Pokey’s other band.” The dances were huge - it was such a trip to have @400 folks dancing to us, with another 100 or so ranged around the sides because there was no more room on the floor! Mike and Weogo took truly wonderful care of us, sound-wise. (We had first experienced their ministrations at the most excellent River Falls dance near Greenville, SC, and have never forgotten the great sound and great folks at that dance!)

Pokey, as the percussionist in 2 bands, played a LOT. On Saturday, for example, he played with the Sevens from 3:30 to 6, then did the concert in the dining hall with Hotpoint from 6 - 7, then had an hour for dinner. After that he played with Hotpoint from 8 - 10:30 pm, then with the Sevens from 10:30 until 1:00. That’s a total of eight and a half hours of playing drums like a maniac (in a good way, Pokey!) with an hour off for dinner somewhere in the middle. A large part of what he does is hand percussion; by the end of the weekend, his hands were swollen from banging on drums, although not as bad as I’ve seen them sometimes. But don’t “poor Pokey” him – he loved every minute of it.

One of the great things about LEAF is the music in the dining hall during each meal. Most memorable was the Sunday morning music of Freddie Branch and the Singing Stars. What a rockin’ time that was! They had everyone in the aisles, singing and amen-ing. Sarah Blair, (the superb Sevens fiddler) who grew up attending the local Catholic church in Montpelier, VT, commented that, “...they didn’t do this in my church.” Quite the understatement! We’re hoping to do LEAF again very soon... and this time, I’m going to try each and every massage booth they have there (except possible the one that looked like the masseur was trying to make the massagee into a pretzel. I’ll give that one a miss – he really looked like he knew what he was doing, but somehow it didn’t look all that relaxing.)

September 22 - 23, 2000 – the Foursquare Weekend (Berea and Lexington, KY)

Anybody ever been to the home of Charley Harvey and Theresa Cole in Berea, Kentucky? At 5:40 am on April 20, 1996, the building where Charley has his house and shop (he does exceptionally fine Shaker woodworking) at 128 North Broadway in Berea was hit by a tornado. The building was a total loss, condemned. He was able to save his woodworking machinery and, believe it or not, his inventory of handmade chairs! He rebuilt the building and now the upstairs is the most incredible abode for a pair of dancers to live in that I’ve ever seen! It’s absolutely gigantic; he has contradances and house concerts there. After a HUGE dance at the Russell Acton Folk Center in Berea (I wish we could get crowds like that for our local dances in Athens!) we adjourned to Charley and Theresa’s for a swingin’ party. By the end of the night we could only lounge on a couch tired of dancing but mesmerized by the salsa dancing that was going on... I don’t think my honky hips could ever move that way, but I sure wish they could!

On Saturday morning, we had intended to take a long walk around Berea. However, one of us noticed some tape remnants on the wooden floor in the gigantic living area, and asked why the tape was there. In response, Charley opened a nearby closet and brought out a ball. Yup, it was a foursquare court. To make a long story short, the whole band played cutthroat foursquare for 2 hours straight. We were sweating bigtime and getting pretty competitive. Good band therapy! Oh how I wish MY living room was big enough to have a foursquare court...
In case you have forgotten the rules, I visited the website for the the Friendly Hills Elementary School where the rules for foursquare are posted:
Foursquare Rules

Server bounces ball, then hits it underhand to any square.
The ball must bounce only once in the square and then that player hits it to another
square.
The ball must bounce before being hit to the next square.
The ball must be struck with an open hand.
Waiting players line up 3 feet from the game.
Stepping on or over the line is a foul, causing the player to be out (except when
stepping out of your own square).
Players rotate towards square A. Only the person who is "out" leaves the game. New
players enter at square D.
Square A is always the server.
If the ball hits on a line, it is an out for the hitter.
If the ball is made to bounce over an opponent's head, it is an out for the hitter.

Some of these rules would have come in handy that morning in Berea, as I recall there were a few friendly disputes about some of these.

September 7 - 10, 2000: Bear Hug (The Moose Drool Weekend)

Off to Spokane on Thursday for a dance, before going to northern Montana for the Bear Hug dance weekend. We flew there ($220 each RT... good, huh?) and rented a minivan for the trip across the Idaho panhandle to Flathead Lake in Montana. We were pretty pooped when we first got into Spokane, so we called Cynthia, our contact there, as we drove away from the airport, to ask her if we could all come over and let us lounge/nap somehow at her place. She took it in stride and provided blankets and pillows, and we all took nice naps in her pretty backyard, as the weather was absolutely beautiful. We ate dinner at a great little sort of nouveau asian restaurant called ? (no, that wasn’t the name of it– I just can’t remember it. Help?) then played a dance at the Woman’s Club. We generally ask for some sort of carpet scrap or rug to put under the drums. Well, in Spokane we had the most beautiful oriental rug under the whole band. Definitely the nicest rug we’ve had under us for a dance! Ron and Karen put us up, all in real beds, and in the morning we left for Bear Hug. We were in two cars, as Marlene’s husband Bob had gone with us and Ron Buchanan, who was calling, was with us too. We had been concerned about the fires that had been ravaging the area, but we never saw much evidence of fire, and saw absolutely no smoke. We also brought them some rain from Ohio, which I’m sure was much appreciated.

I gotta say, this weekend had a very definite theme, which can be summed up in two words: Moose Drool! Bob ran support, keeping himself and the drinking half of the band well supplied with this local-ish (Missoula) brew. (Only 5% actual moose drool by weight.)
We had such a good time at Bear Hug. Best of all was finally getting to know Julie King, Claude Ginsberg, and David Bartley, who make up the wonderful band KGB. David’s wife Mary was there too, and we all, including Ron Buchanan, stayed in a cabin together. We had a blast, and of course, by Sunday, we were all playing together for the dance. Too bad they live so far away... we’d love to be able to get together some more with them! The organizers of the weekend took excellent care of us from start to finish, and some fellow named Cowboy something-or-other told me some great totally stupid jokes after we inflicted a bunch of bad jokes on everyone during a concert performance. One really cool thing about the weekend is that we ran into so many people that knew people we knew. Mostly everyone knew our dear friends Al and Emily Cantrell, who lived and played in Montana for many years, including at some of the early Bear Hug weekends. But our new-found friend Dennis White, it turned out, knew like 10 people that we knew from various places: Bob Bauer, Dobro Dick Dilloff, and Jack Wright, to name just a few. The week finished with a big bear hug, topped off by – you guessed it – more Moose Drool.

8:26 PM