Great playing and love the sparkled hat!

Hi Carrie & John,

Thanks for your comments! They're appreciated!

Peter

Dusty,

Forgot to answer your question about do we play for stuff other than contras. We can and do play parties and weddings, but I would like us to play for more kinds of gigs. We have been working up some songs together. Each of us has been playing 35 or more years, so each of us knows a lot of tunes. And Karl, the guitarist (who also plays about 8 other instruments) loves to sing and knows a ton of songs. We just need to put in some time to work it all up into more of a concert act as well.

Peter

Hi Dusty,

Thank you for the kind words.

The 360 degree tour of what was happening was sorta my "directorial contribution" to the video. I just thought it would be kinda interesting for folks who've never played a contra dance to get a feel for what goes on. Glad you enjoyed it!

The sparkly beret always seems to get comments. My French band has a tendency to wear these as a band outfit sometimes. It kinda suggests that something unusual and fun is about to happen.

Best,

Peter

Peter, I read your comments only after watching the video, and my first comment (after noting your hat) was going to be the video itself. Its great to see a video moving around so we see the way you are all situated but also get close up face time, close up instrument time, and time to see the dancers. Please tell your wife she did a great job.

And the music is a lot of fun, too. Do you guys only play for dances or do you have gigs around the South Bay, too?

Great fun!

Thanks for your comments! We are actually having fun, even though we're all looking pretty serious. There's a lot to think about when playing for a dance: what the caller may be signaling to you, when to change tunes, are we playing at an appropriate tempo for the experience level of the dancers, can we hear what each other are playing, do I remember what tune comes next in our set, do I remember how the tune starts, etc..... It can actually feel a bit overwhelming at times.

Best,

Peter

your Wife did a great job taping. you guys weren't to bad either. Just joking with ya. Great job. Looks like everyone was enjoying themselves.

BTW, I'm wearing a sparkley French beret for fun because we were also playing a bunch of traditional French tunes for some French dancing that was part of the contra dance that evening.

Also, this was the first time my wife (a wonderful fiddler) tried to take a video, and I think she did a good job!

Peter