Hey everyone. It’s Mike, here, writing to all y’all web-masses today to tell tales from what has been an epic summer for us. From New Mexico to Chicago and Rockygrass to Nashville, we’ve been around and done a lot. Our summer featured some of our biggest gigs so far, the return of a dear friend, family on the road, and some new songs and goals as we start to lean into a really important Winter for the band. But let’s go back to the beginning of the summer, and I’ll catch you up on what we’ve been doing.

For the third year in a row we’ve all had the pleasure of teaching adult bluegrass camp at Ghost Ranch in Abiquiu, New Mexico during the week before Memorial Day, and this serves as a great kick off for the summer. Although this year we didn’t have Ryan Drickey teaching fiddle (more on Ryan later), we still rocked a great camp, with Matt Flinner, Eli West, Cahalen Morrison, Gregg Daigle and Brian Wicklund. Just like us, quite a few of the campers have been to all three consecutive camps, and we’re all getting to be quite the family, staff and campers alike. We sure do pick a lot of music during those five days. This year we added a special coffeehouse showcase performance for individuals who wanted to, duos and trios for folks, and it was a hit! Teachers served coffee, beer and wine. Here’s a photo of the campers/audience.

Shortly after that we made a great connection with a local T-shirt and screen printing company, Go West and played a show in their warehouse while they made us some new shirts. Make sure you and all your loved ones have a new FY5 shirt.

Just two weeks later we were at Pagosa Folk and Bluegrass Festival, teaching adult bluegrass camp during the week there, and then performing at the festival on the weekend. There was some epic late night staff fighting that happened within the band as well as toward other bands. Even though the sticks were made of styrofoam, you could still get in a pretty good wallop. The campers were all such wonderful people and really sounded great for their big show on Thursday. Alex T. Johnstone kept us all in stitches throughout the week, and did a great job helping teach fiddle. The festival was a great time, our sets were a lot of fun, and our friends Eli and Cahalen were there, the Deadly Gentlemen, Bearfoot, and so many other great musicians and friends that we don’t get to see all that often.

We had to leave in haste however, because of the High Park fire, growing exponentially in the hills just west of Fort Collins, near where the Youngbergs live–they were on evacuation notice, but we were all seven hours away in Pagosa! We were able to make it home in time for them to evacuate, and mercifully they did not end up losing their home, but many families all through our state did this summer and our thoughts and best wishes go out to all those folks.

The last week in June we went to Nebraska, Iowa and Illinois for a packed little run. We got to see our favorite small town in Iowa: Coon Rapids, where we are HUGE! The entire family came on the road, including my daughters, Emma and Clara, as well as little Ramona Youngberg. On fiddle we were treated to the company of Master Jens Hybritson of Boulder, CO, the 17 year old phenom, who proved salty on the road, and particularly fond of my mother’s cooking when we stayed there. Dubuque, Des Moines, Iowa City, Chicago and Lincoln all were well met. Highlights from that trip included a naughty bathroom wall in Des Moines, a two-story tall American Gothic, playing for Joe Biden and Denny Garcia all in the same day, a handy pair of vise grips, and an unforgettable drive into the heart of Chicago.

July had some great adventures too. We played Rapidgrass Festival in Idaho Springs, and had a great couple of weekend runs, around Colorado from Steamboat to Woodland Park to Boulder. Aaron got his studio back up and running after two evacuations and we all got back to our lives a bit. Ramona grew up a lot this summer, but it was fun having her, grandma Chris and all the family as part of the adventure.

I went and taught a children’s bluegrass camp in Crested Butte and had a marvelous time meeting Drew Murzda and all his pickin’ buddies in CB and Gunnison. That was some gorgeous country. The children were delightful, and although it’s tough keeping them focused they put on a great little show for their parents at the end of the week. After camp some days we would go pick, and we had a spontaneous jam with a small group of opera singers. That was weird, loud and beautiful.

We were invited to play a set at Rockygrass in Lyons, CO, which was such a great honor and good time. Rich and the Youngbergs were already there, camped in, but who should make it back to the states just in the nick of time for the biggest show of the year? Ryan Drickey. Yes, the fiddle man himself returned from a year studying Swedish fiddle music on a Fulbright Scholarship just the day before. We had a great little set and were so excited to resume our work together playing shows and making new music. I’ve already posted some videos from this show.

Summer’s not over–this weekend the FY4 (no Erin) take off on the Gunnison River for a musical canoe trip with Centennial Canoe. After that we look forward to Ryan’s wedding to his sweetheart, Kristin Gornstein and a few other more local gigs.

Coming up in September is our showcase in Nashville at the International Bluegrass Music Association annual convention and business conference. We were thrilled to be invited by the IBMA, and are looking forward to meeting some new people and pursuing new opportunities.

Also under works is a new recording! We’ve been working up new songs for the last few weeks and are getting ready to track in the next few weeks. Look for a new FY5 recording in early 2013.

Thanks for checking in. Thanks for being our family and friends and fans. You mean the world to us.

Look out for photos from the river trip this weekend. That’s sure to be a good time.

Mike