Yes ladies and gentlemen, gitn’er is in fact a verb, and is indeed what we do in this band when we’re on the road. What is “gitn’er” you ask? Gitn’er is what goes on when applying one’s entirety to a task, be it work or pleasure. When you’re REALLY gitn’er, it’s both.
Most recently, we were gitn’er at Merlefest. This year was totally an awesome experience for us! Things like playing on the Cabin Stage Saturday night between Steve Martin and Elvis Costello, getting to hang backstage with all our friends from The Duhks, Cadillac Sky, and The Travelin’ McCourys to name a few, and the late-night jamming at the hotel we all stayed at made it one of the highlights of our year for sure! Oh - I didn’t even mention my personal favorite part of the festival (and probably the pinnacle of my musical career so far.) This year I had the honor of joining Dominick Leslie, Ethan Ballinger, Rebecca Lovell, Mike Compton, and Sam Bush on the Creekside Stage for the Mando Mania workshop.. DEFINITELY the best mando jam I’ve ever been a part of!
Another exciting part of Merlefest for us this year was having Sam Grisman play bass for us. What a monster.. His infectious groove keeps things honest in the timing department, and gives our songs and audiences a whole new feel (not to mention he’s a blast to play with). He’s been touring with us for a few weeks now since kate left for her trekking trip in Nepal, and will continue on with us through the summer! Our first couple gigs with Sam were really fun as well. We went down to one of our old stomping grounds for the Old Settler’s Festival in Austin TX., and then to Stillwater OK before heading back to Nashville. Once we were there we played on WSM morning radio, Norms River Roadhouse, and the Loveless Café weekly show (also broadcasted on WSM). This was Bearfoot’s first set of gigs in Nashville since the band re-located here, and really got us all cranked up to do more local gigs!
The next show we’ve got scheduled for Nashville is going to be SO much fun. The Green Card’s guitar player Jake Stargel will be starting his summer with us at the world famous Station Inn on the 26th of this month. All of us Bearfooters are completely amped to be appearing on that stage again (especially with a canon like Jake on guitar!) This will be our first time playing the Station since our AMA showcase there last year, and our first full evening with them ever. So everyone who can make it, come on out and have a good time with us, and help us make it a more common event! This will be the Wednesday night right before we go to CumberlandMaryland to play at Delfest, so we’ll be setting the pace for a weekend of GITN’er! Yeeeeeeeeehaaaaaaaaa!!
I guess that’s about all the big news we’ve got to report for this month. Until next blog cyber-friends!!
