Happy New Year!

Curly has updated his blog with another clip of our 2011 Joe Val show.  Thanks Curly, and may your 2012 be full of banjos too!!

Cousin Curly's blog

Good internet reads

Retired English teacher, Ted writes a thoughtful blog primarily about bluegrass.  He and his wife Irene travel the East Coast, have become fast friends with well known artists and advocates in bluegrass.
Bruce is even pictured in the beginning of his 2011 retrospective
Photo Retrospective

Chris Jones, from Chris Jones and the Night Drivers as well as a singer, guitar player and songwriter, is also DJ on Sirius XM (why they decided to keep both names for the combined satellite radio I'll never know).  AND he's also really funny.  I've recently been reading his posts full of suggestions for new bands on Bluegrass Today Chris' page.

Chris Pandolfi who delivered the keynote address at IBMA has a popular blog, Chris is coming from the progressive side of bluegrass; rooted in bluegrass but extending out to larger younger audiences with his band the Stringdusters.

The Murphy Method blog features the whole family's take on various bluegrass events, occasions, happenings.  Our friend Casey is a regular here and it's always entertaining.

These are all folks who care deeply about bluegrass, have a good sense of humor and write thoughtfully about the state of our music.  Thanks for keeping us informed and amused!

A Live Recording!

Hot Mustard takes the stage two nights in a row to create our first album.  February 3 and 4 (the 4th is Bruce's birthday) at 8pm each night.  Cost is $5 donation to Mole Hill Theater at the door.

Dennis Molesky who owns and operates Mole Hill Theater in Alstead NH is kind enough to let us use his place.

Alan Lasky of Electric Open Mic will do the audio/video recording.

By chance on our second gig, we ended up with some recordings by Alan as he recorded audio and video for Railroad House Band.

Hey, look- mandolin player!  That's Adam Buchwald.  Schedules didn't keep us together but we still keep in touch.  He makes guitars at Froggy Bottom Guitars.

What is Mole Hill Theater?  Well, in true Yankee tradition; it's a bunch of things at once.  A semi retired machine shop, concert hall, performance space, and cool hangout in the middle of nowhere (well, not nowhere, 25 minutes from Keene, 40 minutes from Westminster/Bellows Falls VT).

The stage is set between two giant machine presses (15 feet tall?) painted bright primary colors.  There's a pool table, generally pot luck food, bring your own beverages, tables and chairs setup like a coffeeshop and a nice toasty wood stove.
So far every time we've played there it's snowed.  I don't expect it to be any different this time.

So, come on out, hoot and holler, be a part of our live recording!

October?!

October has come, no more summer festivals.  Bruce and I got our last bracelets of the season going to Mass MoCa to see Del and the boys at the Fresh Grass Festival.

We're working on next summer's schedule; and possibly some longer road trips!!  Should be a fun time for sure.

Curly has posted his second installment.  You can find the text here (I won't try to repost, that didn't work too well).  Lets just say the title "All We are Saying is Give Banjos a Chance" is perfect!
Second Cousin Curly

Again, can't thank Curly enough for the kind words and interest in our band.

We watched IBMA through friends who were there on all media platforms, XM Radio, Facebook & Twitter.  Looked like a good time!  

Great to see a tie for banjo player of the year (so.. two banjos is catching on).  Congrats to Ron Stewart and Kristen Scott Benson!!  

I'll leave you with one more video until next time.  We're plotting some recording soon; keep an eye out and maybe you can be in the studio audience, come on down!

-kelly

Feature from Second Cousin Curly!

Second Cousin Curly came up to us at some point last summer and talked about how much he enjoyed our set at Jenny Brook (after we won the band competition).   He asked if he could feature us in on of his series.

At Joe Val this last winter (Feb 2011) he recorded our stage show, and then interviewed us in our room.  He asked insightful questions, laughed at our jokes; all this and we weren't even paying him!

Here's the first installment.  I'm trying to see if I can just link to his blog, but so far, I don't know how.

Full Text from the website:
http://secondcousincurly.wordpress.com/2011/09/06/introducing-hot-mustard/

Pasted text from the blog:

Once upon a time, I was walking across the fairgrounds at Jenny Brook Bluegrass Festival. It was late in the fest and a maple glazed doughnut and some aspirin was about all I was up for. Then I heard it: a woman’s voice wafting across the field, singing some bluegrass standard in a way that I had only heard on old recordings. You could say that she was belting it out, except her singing had as much color and warmth as it had raw power. I found myself galloping past the concession stands. When I got to where I could see the stage, I discovered Hot Mustard, a group from the frozen north (its members live in New Hampshire and Vermont).

Flash forward a couple of years, and Hot Mustard are going stronger than ever. This summer, they played a number of dates around New England. It’s time that the wider world got to know them, so I’m wrasslin’ up a new series of Ye Olde Performers Showcase featuring this fine quartet. Here’s a quick getting-to-know-you installment that features a performance from last winter’s Joe Val Bluegrass Festival.

If I close my eyes and open my ears, Hot Mustard’s sound is just as natural as a mountain stream or a Stanley Brothers hymn. But when I take a look— dang! Double banjos, rhythm guitar and bass is their default set-up, with Bill Jubett only occasionally trading his banjo for a fiddle. I need hardly point out that this is not your standard bluegrass line-up. Then there is the gender distribution. While a number of the top bluegrass acts are fronted by women, there remains a substantial testosterone imbalance in the genre as a whole. Not so with Hot Mustard, however, which maintains a perfect male/female equilibrium.

The group is, in fact, comprised of two couples. The Stockwells— that would be bassist Kelly and banjoist Bruce Stockwell— have been married for some time, but the Jubetts— lead vocalist April and banjoist/fiddler Bill Jubett— just tied the knot within the last month.

I had the Jubett nuptials in mind when I chose the band’s performance of “Elkhorn Ridge” as the tune to accompany this first showcase installment. April mentions that she listened to a lot of Kate Brislin and Jody Stecher growing up, and I assume she learned “Elkhorn Ridge” from Brislin and Stecher’s fine recording from twenty years ago. As rendered by that duo, this traditional number is an unalloyed paean to flat-out, head-over-heels love. To wit, it contains a verse that consists of just this:

Crazy, crazy, crazy, crazy

Darlin’, I’m crazy about you

The rest of the stanza is AWOL, as if the singer has indeed plum lost his or her mind. Who can argue with that sentiment?

Here’s wishing the newlyweds all the crazy love they can stand. As for the rest of you, check back for more Hot Mustard in the coming weeks.

Yer Pal— Curly

Addendum for the Late Edition: This just in from Richard Hamilton: “Elkhorn Ridge is generally attributed to Oscar Wright, a fiddler/banjo player from Princeton, WV. There are some recordings of his playing available. His version of Elkhorn on banjo looks like it is on Clawhammer Banjo Vol 2. from County.” Thanks, Rich!

Thanks for the support Curly!!

Meet the Jubetts!

I'm sure there will be more pictures to post as they get emailed, shared, posted on Facebook etc. These are the ones that I took, along with Eric Aldrich's picture snagged from the Facebook.

Bruce and I, along with Dick Bowden, two Hobarts, Jesse and Colby both April's brothers, performed the ceremonial music. Candy Gal, Roxanna's Waltz, and then Shave and a Haircut after the kiss (shouting "Jubetts!") and Foggy Mountain Breakdown recessional.

Very cool, very bluegrass. Their vows were filled with love for each other and for their music.
Dennis Molesky of the Mole Hill Theater was the JP; and he did a great job.

ceremony: photo by Eric Aldrich

Bill and April Jubett

April and I had our mustard shoes on.

the cake including bride, groom, kayak and dog!

first dance, Bruce Hobart proud papa sings and plays for the newlyweds.

Post dinner music supplied by friends and family; Dick Bowden was emcee and herder of cats for the event and he did a fine job.

sort of dark, and I only had my phone for pictures. stage on the newly made deck (thanks Shawn Griffiths!)
Dick Bowden is always recognizable in silhouette by his hat.

flower girls captivated!

All in all, a great bluegrass wedding with a happy ending, unlike all those bluegrass songs about weddings with bad endings. No one had to be drowned.

A very mustard wedding

It's not often bands get to experience a wedding from within!

We're about to go from a band of three last names, Hobart, Jubett and Stockwell to just two last names, Stockwell and Jubett.

From the wedding we played for Pandi and Tim last weekend, after the service before the reception.
We were at a cool spot in Wallingford VT.

Bill and April met each other at Joe Val 7 or 8 years ago.  April  met Andy Sicard at Banjo Camp North  After meeting Andy who is in  The Goodtime String Band (formerly the Goodtime Charlies) she got introduced to the rest of the band; one of those members was Bill Jubett.  She soon joined the Charlies.

I (kelly) did a brief stint with the Goodtime Charlies, but only having played bass for 6 months, there was no way I could keep up with the immense song list, which included many old time tunes that were so crooked they turned back on themselves.

Below is a picture from The Birch Benders, Bill and April's duo page.  Caption from the website says this is from 2006.  Aren't they cute?

Soon to be married couple number 2, Bill and April.

Weather report for today is perfect, low humidity, sun and tonight a full moon.  Looking forward to the wedding and the picking party afterward.

And to clarify, here's me and Bruce, the other married couple.

Married couple number one, Bruce and Kelly Stockwell

Year of the Labbit: Night of 1000 Cupcakes

Year of the Labbit: Night of 1000 Cupcakes: "Pipkin's friend Kelly from Hot Mustard invited him to listen to the band play at the Cupcake Festival in Jaffrey NH yesterday. It was a rea..."

Cupcake Festival, Bluegrass Festival, White Water Festival & National Mustard Day

Diversity is fun!

Jaffrey Cupcake Festival July 21!

Hot Mustard has been invited to play the Jaffrey Cupcake Festival.  Yes, Cupcakes!  It's our first time although Bill and April have played it before.  Temperatures are supposed to be upper 90s, so there will be melty cupcakes.

(I'm hoping to see some Dexter cupcakes like the last picture)

It's at the Jaffrey Civic Center, and they call it Night of 1000 Cupcakes

We play off and on in between auctions, raffles and announcements of the winners from 5:30-8:00.

Think there will be a Hot Mustard cupcake?  Not sure I'd eat it.

Ossipee Bluegrass Festival July 21-24!

We're really excited about this one!  South Hiram Maine, we play the main stage from 2-3pm Friday; then a dunk in the brook (another hot one).  Last time we went, we camped near the yellow bulldozer, not sure where we'll be this time.  

It's a great festival and fantastic lineup.  If you live near by come check it out.  http://www.ossipeevalley.com/

Here’s the 2011 lineup: The Grammy Nominated Peter Rowan Bluegrass Band, The Grammy Nominated Infamous Stringdusters, The Kruger Brothers, Sierra Hull, Red Molly, The Wiyos, The Spinney Brothers, The Hillbenders, The Frank Vignola Quartet, Eilen Jewell, Old Sledge, Miss Tess and the Bon Ton Parade, GiRL Howdy, Cribstone Bridge, The Bagboys, Wide Open Spaces, Hot Mustard, Local Circus and some more that we will tell you about later!

Wow!

Deerfield Festival July 30th!

Lets blend Bill & April's love of churning white water and kayaks, and Hot Mustard.  We're playing at the annual Deerfield Festival to benefit the White Water association.

http://www.americanwhitewater.org/content/Wiki/aw:events_deerfield

This is April (I'm told) in the Grand Canyon.  They said they had a good time, I'm just glad they got out alive!

We play from 7-9 that night; and are really looking forward to it.

Finally, 

August 6th is National Mustard Day.  

So be sure to hug your mustard

Maybe next year we'll be invited to Wisconson.

http://mustardmuseum.com/

Getting Busy

First I guess I should update you on Jenny Brook.  We had a great time, we hosted the Sugar Shack Jam Friday night, and had two sets Saturday.  The weather sure didn't co-operate, but it was a pretty full house there anyway.  We had fun hanging out with friends, camped near Dave and Shawna, our CT crew, Elise and her smurf tent, Grace & Sam (finally met the infamous Steve Roy who performed all of the Scoobie Doo theme Saturday night on mandolin).

The TN Mafia Jug band brought up Shad Cobb, who was amazing.  A violent thunderstorm interrupted the Jug Band's last set; we sat in the rented camper waiting it out.  I guess some buildings were hit by lightening and a number of campers felt the tingle of electricity.  I decided it was a good idea to get on stage and dance with Lonesome Lester.  Not sure there's any video of that, so far I've found one picture. Dick Bowden told me I dance like Elaine Bennis of Seinfeld.  That's sort of what I expected.

All in all, it was a lot of fun!


Following Weekend was Mineral Springs in Stafford Springs CT

We had a great time at Mineral Springs Bluegrass Festival.  It was the first time there for everyone in the band but me (Kelly).  I drove down last year because my friends were playing there.  Bruce was working with the brothers and couldn't go.  They had The Old Time Bluegrass Singers, Grassroutes and TrueGrass.

Those bands were all there again this year, along with Phil Zimmerman's band Last Fair Deal (who played a lot of the non bluegrass tunes you would hear if my ipod were on shuffle, John Hiatt, Gillian Welch, Bob Dylan etc.  They were fun, and Tom had a sweet little button accordion.

We got to camp near the frog pond again, and man can those bullfrogs hit some low notes!  We figured out they were mostly in A, though would adjust to the key we were playing in.  Here is Bruce in front of the frog pond.  I wish I had gotten a picture of our compound, we camped with Tex and Robin Orlomoski, and Phil Zimmerman & Marcia Goodman.  Others joined us over the weekend.

Tex was sporting a new guitar from Ebay, it's a pretty sweet Martin.

Eileen Anderson took some nice photos of us onstage.

Looks like we're invited back for next year, and we're looking forward to it!  Thanks to Bill Goodale for hiring us (he was the first festival promoter to hire us last year) and to Harry Grant for doing sound.  We tried out our new microphone, Audix SCX-25 (lollipop mic bought from Cobra sound who did sound at Strawberry Park).  Reviews were great of our sound, we'll keep using it.  

We're off to Hancock NH tonight (Thursday July 7th), Keene NH tomorrow (July 8th) at Fritz Fries, Newbury NH Saturday (July 9th), and Greenfield MA Tuesday (July 12).  Check our schedule online for details.  

Hope to see you soon!

Jennybrook Bluegrass Fun!

We are now just hours away from heading north, a skip hop and wobble to Tunbridge VT to Jennybrook Bluegrass Festival.

This is the third year the festival has been held at the Tunbridge World Fairgrounds; and this was the best move for the festival ever.  Now with some real facilities, out buildings, a nice brook to jump in when it's hot, a general store up the hill and friendly neighbors; Jennybrook is becoming one of the "must go to" festivals of New England.

     

Ted Lehmann has a nice preview of the festival Ted's Blog

We're looking forward to seeing old friends, making new ones and playing until we can't play anymore.

Last year we signed up for the side stage, and when the festival rolled around, we learned it was a band competition.  Hot Mustard won, and then we got a chance to play on the main stage Sunday, our first ever festival performance.  Kelly joined in for the Kid's Academy performance too on Sunday main stage.  Again, Ted posted a nice write up about us in his blog last year Ted's Blog.

Gazebo Stage

with our judges

main stage sunday

You may be asking yourself, who's that mandolin player, I thought this was a quartet.  We were fortunate to have Adam Buchwald play with us for a bunch of months.  His new born Hazel's first festival was Jennybrook last year, and his son Charlie had a good time too.  Adam is busy building guitars with Froggy Bottom but we're hoping to see him this weekend and play a few.

This year we're booked for Friday night's Sugar House Jam, and two sets on Saturday.  A few members of the TN Mafia Jug band are rumored to come join us at the Sugar House and we're hoping that's the case.

TN Mafia Jug Band

It may be raining, but it's certainly not cold.  There's cover over the audience area, and we should have a great weekend up in Tunbridge VT.  Saturday and Sunday will even be sunny!

I'll leave you with a Hot Mustard video from our youtube channel.

Tony Trischka with Hot Mustard on the side Tour

Last spring, at Banjo Camp North I floated the idea of a New England Tour with Tony Trischka band headlining, and our band opening.  The gracious person he is, he said sure; set something up.

April and I then embarked on a journey of finding venues on dates that worked.  We were initially behind the 8 ball; and decided to scrap the idea of a fall tour.  We quickly tried again for spring time (with more notice to the venues).  As attendance is down at many live events, most venues are doing fewer shows and therefore you need to be more proactive in your searches.

We hit a few more snags, turns out Michael Daves ended up touring with Chris Thile on our dates.  Tony brought in Brandon Rickman to fill the lead singer/guitar player slot.  Tony and Brandon had done gigs before and enjoyed working together.  Brandon was a lot of fun and a great picker/singer.  Also joining the tour, Mike Barnett on fiddle, and Skip Ward on bass.  Both superb musicians and great guys.

Final snag, Steve Martin, and the Steep Canyon Rangers were suddenly playing in Portland Maine, the same night we had booked One Longfellow; a Wednesday night.  What are the odds???
Luckily for most, Tony and his fearless gang got to open for Steve Martin, and Hot Mustard got awesome free seats to the show.  If you have a chance to catch the Steve Martin show, DON'T TURN IT DOWN!

Finally, our tour begins.  We all converge in Albany NY at The Linda.  WAMC's public broadcast venue.  Nice folks, nice sound; really great evening.  April's college friend Allison Bradley took the pictures.  They came out really good!

Allison's Pictures

We hang out in the hotel after the gig, drink some beer and laugh a lot (sorry guy staying next to us!) and the next day, the long drive to Portland Maine.  April's long awaited guitar made by Scott Conley was picked up in Bowdoin Maine.

The Steve Martin show was great, the whole band was his straight man.  Steve's tunes are fun, interesting and have great lyrics (none have cabins in them, I think).  

We were off to Bellows Falls VT the next night; everyone staying at the Stockwell compound after the show.  Check Ted's Blog for a review of this.   

   

For the record, I claimed I would wear my K-Mart shorteralls if we sold X number of tickets; and you people did it... So there's your punishment, for those of you who thought I wasn't brave enough, I showed you.

We stayed up too late playing & singing.  Ask Brandon to play banjo next time you see him, he can do it!  

Off to Club Passim the next night, sold out crowd, and a lot of fun.  We were on Concert Window, so friends and family could watch.  Britney Haas was in town, and twinned with Michael Barnett.  After the show, Tony and Britney did some hot jamming.

Bruce and I stayed at Tony Watt's place and I was up until 2 am or something still playing bass!

Last night of the tour was East Hartford Community Cultural Center, Roger Moss of Podunk hired us on.  He fed us a nice meal, gave us a great venue and sound and we really had a good time on our "sniff" last evening together.

All said and done, we had a great time, and are hoping we can tour again next spring with Tony and company!  Valuable experience; and a little taste of the road to a new band.  

I finally learned to spell Trischka in one fell swoop (just when you think you're done with consonants, add another one), Tony is very proud when his socks match his shirt and Mike Barnett makes a great surprised face.

Welcome to our blog

Welcome to Hot Mustard's blog.  Hoping we can keep posting on a regular basis.

Last weekend was our second festival of the year, Strawberry Park.  We played Sunday to a small but welcoming crowd and had a lot of fun.  It was pretty chilly at night (mid 40s) which put a damper on some of the field picking.

Heading to Acton MA to the Car Show/Bluegrass Fest tomorrow June 11, and then the Firebox in Hartford CT June 12.  Hope to see you down the road.