Grand Rapids Water Festival

Last Saturday we were furtunate enough to play the Grand Rapids Water Festival. Musicians Bruce Ling and Becca Shilt (Hawks and Owls Band) are extrememly dedicated to the cause of water conservation and other environmental issues, and it was our great pleasure to join them and a host of other fine musicians at this festival of music and environmental education.There are and will be other Water Festivals in Traverse City, Marquette, and Detroit. Look them up and visit them if you can. We're already looking forward to next year and hope that we'll be invited back to play.
Photos by Kris Carpenter. Thanks Kris!

Send Off From Dio

On Sunday June 14 we were treated to double send off parties to mark the end of our stay in Dio.

We were invited to the home of Anton Vandenbeele, a Belgian who has a home in Dio, for lunch at 1:00.

Anton’s home in Dio is built upon the site and partial foundation of what was the largest house in the village (aside from the chateau! Here's picture of part of the Chateau d'Dio. Pictures of Anton's house are below.) hundreds of years ago. Like many of the houses here it is also built right into the side of the mountain. Though you enter the house at street level, there are two living levels below, and an ancient stable and living area (now used for storage) below them. His view of the Orb Valley is magnificent and the combination of old and new construction is very interesting.

Did I say lunch? What an understatement! First of all, Anton is a vintner. His cav and vineyards are about a mile down the road in the nearby village of Caunas near Lunas on the valley floor. He treated to us many samplings of his various wines and other products much to everyone’s delight.

Did I say lunch? Anton is what I would call a gourmet chef, too. After some drinks and lovely hors d’oeuvres, he began the meal with an escargot and mushroom soup made with snails he had harvested locally himself and allowed to live in clean water long enough to clean out their systems. WOW! These were the same breed of snails we had been stepping on in Deb’s garden all week. Next, along with a lovely salad that included some gorgeous wedges of fresh tomatoes and two different home made dressings, he served individual mini summer squashes stuffed with delicious mini-meatloaves. The main course was a perfectly done roast of pork that would make any BBQ fan salivate, along with roasted potatoes and the French version of green bean casserole. Dessert was a chocolate cake with what he called English cream AND a pineapple upside down cake followed by espresso and Belgian chocolates! Then there was Cartagen and something he had distilled himself that he poured from a lab beaker! Did I say lunch?

When this party broke up, a few of us went down to Anton’s cav, LaFaloise. He showed us around a bit. We sampled some more wine and took a few pictures. Most of the pictures were taken by our friend and host Bob. We’ll put some of them up when we get copies.

Later, we visited our dear friends Linnette and Lucien, who had insisted that we drop by Sunday evening for apertif. Linnette served some wonderful snacks and, of course, wine and pastis. We played a few tunes joined by Bob, and Noah played his solo piece.

Lucien and Linnette are two of our most favorite people in the world. Kind and generous, they love music and Lucien can sing. They have childhood memories of WWII, and they have shared some of them with us. Pretty scary, and pretty cool when the Americans finally came along. Lucien is a retired electrician. I think he worked mostly in power transmission. And Linnette worked as a seamstress in Paris for a fashion designer.

After a late night swim in the pool, we went to bed for a few hours before driving to Montpellier to catch our flight for Paris and then home.

Club date in Montpellier

On Saturday June 13 we played in the club Country Rock in the Rue Multipliants in downtown Montpellier. The gig was arranged by our good friend Ilene Gex, mandolin player and lead singer of the Montpellier area band The Dustbowl Darlings.Though small, the Country Rock, is known for concerts in the Americana, Country, and Folk genres. The owner, Fred, is a former musician, and the walls of the club are decorated with American music memorobilia, mostly Country, including some pretty nice guitars. The Rue Multipliants is very narrow, too small for anything but pedestrian traffic, or at most scooters. The outdoor tables appear to be right out in the "street", but since there are no cars it's no problem.After parking in an underground ramp a few blocks away, we got a little bit lost trying to find the venue in the maze of little streets. Eventually, Max screwed up his courage to try speaking some French and tried to ask directions of a guy standing outside an urban fruit market. Just as he was pretty much making a fool of himself he heard a bright little voice behind him asking IN ENGLISH if she could be of any assistance. The young lady turned out to be a student from Lebanon, and her English was perfect. Her nearby friend turned out to be from Ireland. These two nice folks basically walked us right to the club. Talk about luck!Though this gig had been arranged pretty much at the last minute, we played a couple of sets to an almost full house of diners and and partiers. They seemed to like us. Even the watress bought two CDs. Fred and his son Mike who was tending bar and managing the place (Fred and Mike? gotta wonder if they're Frederic and Michel.) were well pleased. Mike was impressed with the original material, saying that the French acts that play there pretty much play the same repertoir of American hits and standards. Fred said that next time we're in the area he'd love to have us back. Sounds good to us!

The Day of Our Concert in Dio

Yesterday was the day of our concert in Dio. Earlier in the day, though, we drove down to Valrais to visit the Mediterranean. We strolled along the rows of shops and bistros down to the shore and took a walk out on the pier. The area reminded us of Gulf Shores, AL or Santa Monica, CA. touristy of course, but the beautiful blue of the sea and the French ambiance made it wonderful. It’s still early in the season, so it wasn’t too crowded. We ate the local specialty for lunch, moules. It’s local clams steamed with garlic and onions served with a side of fries. Oh yeah!

Our concert was outdoors in the center of Dio. They set up chairs in the recreation area across the street from the community building, and put up a refreshment bar. Helen, a delightful local musician, allowed us to use her small PA system. She only had one mic stand, so Antoine, a vintner who lives in the village, found a substitute. The weather was gorgeous.

We played a mixture of Ruth’s original songs and some popular chestnuts that we thought the French audience would like including in no particular order: All For Love’s Sake, One Day Ain’t Enough, Crazy, I Know Love, Mama Said, Country Roads, I Don’t Remember A Waltz, By The River, Daddy Dance, High As A Mountain, and more.

Ruth had learned a bit of French, so we did The City Of New Orleans with the addition of the French chorus that doesn’t seem to have anything to do with trains or New Orleans or the American landscape. The complete version in French by Canadian artist Roch Voisin was quite a big hit in France. She also had learned that the popular hit by the Everly Brothers, Let It Be Me, was originally a French song translated into English, so we did an arrangement that includes both sets of lyrics.

Our son, Noah, treated us and the audience with a solo guitar piece. He said he was nervous beforehand, but he played great, the crowd loved it, and we were very proud. Who wouldn’t be?

After the first set we made a brief presentation to the mayor: some small gifts and friendly greetings from the mayor of our home town, and our own heartfelt thanks for his invitation to return for this repeat performance.

When it began to get dark they turned on some bright lights. Our friend Paulette helped sell CDs during the break and after the show. After it was all done and cleaned up we adjourned to Bob’s house for a nightcap, conversation with our Dio friends, and eventually some much needed sleep.

Catching Up In France

We are totally enjoying ourselves here in the mountains of Southern France. Friends that we met last November, Deni and Paulette, through a great party last night.

They must have made over a dozen pizzas in their outdoor wood fired pizza oven.


One of the guests, a Belgian named Antoin, is a local vintner. His rose’ was flowing freely. (They recently passed a law in France making it illegal to mix red and white wines and call the result rose. Rose’ must be made from scratch using proper grapes and methods.) We are invited to his home for lunch and tasting on Sunday afternoon. We know we’ll enjoy ourselves at that one. If his cave has a website we’ll post it later.




We did a few songs thoughMax didn’t yet have a bass to play.












Noah joined in, too, and even played a solo piece on Ruth’s guitar.







Yesterday and the day before we did some walking around the area. The windmills on the plateau at the top of the “mountain” were partially in the mist and Ruth found some interesting “pine cones”. We love the geological features of the area and the flora and fauna, too.

Today we drove down to Pezenas to pick up the bass we’re renting. Our GPS was set on “shortest” rather than “quickest”. Though the route may have been a shorter distance, the roads were mostly the narrow rural mountain roads that are so scenic around here. Instead of going around, we went up and over, through forests, tiny hamlets, vineyards and mountain pastures. It took a bit longer, and the driving was more challenging, but the sights were worth it.

Our rental bass is the same one we used last November, built in the city of Nime by a luthier friend and sometime collaborator of our friend Luigi Notarangelo.
They are currently working on a beautiful “gypsy” guitar of French ash and Canadian spruce.


By all means visit his website for some great pictures of Luigi’s work. We spent some time in his shop on the main street of Pezenas playing and talking guitars. Last year when we met him he showed us a 000 size guitar that was under construction at the time. Taking a point from the Martin D35, this one includes a three piece back. It is with the client now, but the pictures at Luigi’s sight are worth a look. Be sure to look for the “Eifel Tower” bridge on the new gypsy!

Tomorrow we have a date to meet up with some local “Americana” musicians. Ilene and Sharman are in the Montpellier band Dustbowl Darlings. Ilene has been kind enough to set us up with a show at the club Country Rock in Montpellier this Saturday night AND SHE HASN’T EVEN MET US.

Our concert in the village of Dio, where we’re staying, is Friday night June 12. The folks here in the village seem as excited to have us back as we are to be here again. One of the locals, Anne, has even been using our songs as part of the English language classes that she teaches in the area. The sing-alongs could be interesting.


Hope you enjoy the pictures. More soon.