cheshiremoonblog

[cheshiremoonblog]

Upcoming shows!

Sept 28 - Max Ames Festival Little Woods - 6pm With Ryan Sheeler & The Coffee Commitee Oct 19 - 21 - OVFF - Guests Of Honor ovff.org Nov 17 - Abzug Amphitheater - Champaign IL (contact us for more info)

2019 Feb 1-3 - The British Filk Con - Overseas Guests Of Honor www.contabile.org.uk/

#cheshiremoonshows

[cheshiremoonblog]

Craziness at CokoCon!

Whaddaweek …

We got going on time for the first leg of the trip. Oklahoma City. The drive through Iowa, Kansas and a bit of Oklahoma was kind of quiet. There were a few lovely vistas here and there, but mostly we were just enjoying being together.

Day two, things picked up. In western OK and the top of Texas you can see for miles and miles and miles. That makes thunderstorms even more amazing. Very high clouds, and enormous lightning strikes. It was breathtaking.

We stopped for lunch in Amarillo at The Big Texan Steak Ranch & Brewery. Yeah, it’s filled with western kitsch, but the food is amazing.

We moved on to Albuquerque for night two. The scenery got more and more interesting as we went along. Huge cliffs around us, just beautiful.

I do have to mention what became one of our favorite websites … whatismyelevation.com

I had some issues going over a couple of 7000s, so we kept close track, just to see where we were.

Day three we got going stupid early, and stopped at the Petrified Forest. The initial north part of the drive was a little daunting, it’s a long way down on one side, but it was worth every bit. gorgeous vistas in every direction. Lizzie posted a bunch of photos on her page.

We wanted to stop at the Meteor Crater as well, but I was having problems with my breathing, so it was time to go down.

And down we went, over to Flagstaff and … DOWN!!!

It was an 18 mile 6 degree downhill run. Pure terror. I will never do that again. We found a better way back up, but more on that later.

Lizzie got more and more emotional the closer we got to Phoenix. She was born in Tucson, and hadn’t been back since she was 6.

Thursday night was kind of a blur. We got loaded in, and went to bed kind stupid early.

Which led to getting up stupid early, Lizzie at 4, me at 5. We went out, played a little bit of music to greet the dawn, then off to breakfast, and then back to bed.

We wandered, chattered with people, got baby fixes. Edward Pulley showed me around the hotel a bit, more on him later.

Our first panel was the getting ready for your first performance workshop that started back at a Musecon, and has shown up here and there over the years.

There was a Jam Session that ended up being open filk pretty quickly. We played some songs, heard a lot of people we hadn’t heard before. It was wonderful.

Saturday I got to talk about sound and lights with Gerry Tyra, who knows a lot more about it than I do. It was fun, and the audience seemed to dig it.

There were concerts from Jennifer Horning and Callie Hills, both of which were wonderful.

Then it was off to Meet The Guests. We got to hang out with Harry Turtledove, who was a hoot, Beth Cato, who was wonderful, and Steve Rude, who was, well, I don’t know. I got into a bit of fanboy squee there, I love his work on Nexus. Edward Pulley was the moderator, and kept things going on the rare occasions that we quit talking. There was a whole lot of laughter. Lizzie charmed the room. It was wonderful.

Then it was sound check, and our first show of two. I talked about this elsewhere but it deserves saying again. We don’t hit that sort of high in a show unless we get a lot of help from the audience. Thank you everyone for singing along, clapping along. Thank you to the two who came up to add some drums on Strength In Fire. The audience was so much of the reason why it as that good of a show. In the words of Marie Browning … it’s better when you help. We got stuff back to the room, went to the open filk for a little while, and then went back to the room and collapsed.

There was a bunch of stuff Sunday. Lizzie had a vocal workshop. After that was the Instrument Petting Zoo. We set up the gear for our show later that afternoon and let folks play with what they wanted. It was lovely.

The Two Gay Geeks had us up for for a fun and silly interview, which will show up sometime in the next few weeks. They have the best geeky “meet cute” story we have heard in a long time! tggeeks.com

Our show that afternoon was much more low key. The only thing plugged in was Lizzie’s violin. Her acoustic fiddle had broken a string earlier in the weekend, and we didn’t have extras. There is video that I am going to go through in the next week or so. Some of it should end up on FB or You Tube.

After that was Mark Horning’s concert. Cool stuff, some of which I knew, a lot of which I didn’t. Oh, and I have serious Baritone Guitar Lust (BGL) now.

We had a songwriting panel that ended up pretty esoteric, but was a lot of fun.

We escaped the hotel for a couple of hours and had dinner with a few of my old High School and College friends. Much laughter was had, scurrilous stories were told.

Lizzie had one final panel Monday morning. Our original plan was to take off after the Dead Dog Filk began, but we looked at travel time, and decided to leave as soon as we could get the van loaded after the panel. We didn’t want to pull into Albuquerque at 11.

There were final hugs. Final baby cuddles.

The trip back was lovely. We didn’t go back through Flagstaff. Instead we took 87 up through Payson, then over to Snowflake and up to Holbrook. There was one several mile area with a nasty drop off to our right, but only a bit, and it wasn’t bad. The funniest thing, it seems that there is a lot of camping done up that way. I’m guessing we saw 10+ miles of backed up traffic north of Payson. Miles and miles of bumper to bumper parking lot. I resisted the urge to wave at the other side of the road. Just as well, probably woulda gotten me in a bit of trouble.

The drive back was uneventful. Other than those first few hours, we took the same roads. Stayed at the same hotels (having a King rather than two doubles was nice at one, we refuse to sleep in separate beds). So it was quiet time with just the two of us, one of our favorite things. We got home to an intact house and clingy kitties.

We have so many people to thank. I will try to not forget anyone.

First of all, Valerie Ritchie for recommending us. Thank you for making a trip of a lifetime possible. We have had some marvelous adventures as a couple, this was one of the best!

Thank you Gary Swaty and the Phoenix Filk Circle for making it possible for us to be there!

Thank you Hal Astell & Mark Boniece for running such a great con. First year … amazing! It went so well.

Joseph Gaxiola and Edward Pulley for taking such good care of us through the weekend. We have got to hang out with you more!

And everyone who came to our shows, came to the workshops we were on, sang along, clapped along, and who just sat and talked to us and made us feel so welcome, so warm (ok, the weather may have had a bit to do with that).

We have had some wonderful adventures as a couple, as a band. This was one of the best.

Thank you everyone, so much.

p.s. If I forgot something, remind me and I’ll add it in. A lot happened through the weekend.

[cheshiremoonblog]

It's time! We have just a little bit of work left to do on the new CD, so we are starting to take pre-orders. The plan is to release it at Demicon in May. Pre-orders are essential this time around. Thanks to the generosity of our Patreon Patrons, we have the money for the studio time, but do not have the money to press CDs. This will be a mostly acoustic, duo CD. 15 songs, all from last years 52 Songs Project. Children Of The Flame Gargoyles of New Orleans Gatekeeper Mamaw's Kitchen Nachthexen Seaside Evening Market Shadow Moon Slice Of Infinity Solstice Spinning Skies & Mirrors Strength In The Fire The Mermaid's Scar Theater Major Blues When Monkeys Fly Within The Snow There is a Paypal link on the website, $15.00 postage paid. Should be go over what we need to press CDs, the remainder will help us set up a better home demo studio than we have at the moment. We need some new hardware and software. If you don't have access to Paypal, send us an email at cheshiremoonband at gmail and we'll work something out! Full length CD #4, who would have thought it?

[cheshiremoonblog]

This week!

We are one of the featured bands on The Iowa Music Showcase this week! It’s the season, so our song Ghost Train gets a spin! https://tinyurl.com/yavryqoo

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This caused a nice little spike in our plays on Bandcamp!

I am the herald of the winter Guiding the autumn from the summer sun For I am the maid They thought was stole away But they forget I had a choice

“Persephone” by Cheshire Moon, because we can never have enough feminist reinterpretations of Greek mythology. 

Lyrics and chords available here.

[cheshiremoonblog]

.Lizzie Crowe from our band.

hello! if you don't mind, would you know of any non-white filkers? thank you!

Unfortunately not very many, but a few!  Sorry this took me like a week to get back to you; I had to consult with @animatedamerican and…I was avoiding my responsibilities, to be honest (yes, there’s a point at which tumblr messages count as “responsibilities,” somehow).

But I can point you towards Terence Chua, whose niche seems to be songs about Lovecraft to the tune of ABBA, and Errol Elumir, half of Debs & Errol, Debbie Ohi, the flutist (and sometimes propsmaster) of Urban Tapestry, also a children’s book author, and Ariel “Abbie” Cinii, who I unfortunately can’t find any recordings of, so here’s her blog, but she did win a Pegasus Award and is also a writer.

I know there are more, because I’ve run into a few and not gotten their names, so if anyone knows any more please send suggestions!  Even if it’s just “hello I am not white and into filk but don’t really perform” because that’s still filking and I want people to make friends.

[cheshiremoonblog]

Also on Patreon, last weeks song finally gets posted. There was a quick voice memo version for folks to listen to, now hear it with guitar too! Blues From A Castle, in which a Prince tells us what he really wants!

#patreon #Callenwood

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The FilkOntario String Quartet!

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This Friday in Chicago! https://www.facebook.com/events/981124258696323/?ti=icl

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We did it!!!

No, that not true. YOU did it. YOU all made this possible. Our Kickstarter has hit its goal, and it's all thanks to you. I am in awe of your continued faith in us and what we do. We will never be able to sufficiently thank you, but we're going to try. *hugs*

#kickstarter #fae #witchesofinstagram

[cheshiremoonblog]

Just 4 more days! We still need help, so please boost signal if you can!

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Recording!

[cheshiremoonblog]

It begins.....

[cheshiremoonblog]

It's day 3, and we are out of our minds with gratitude. We are almost 1/3 of the way to our goal. Thank you guys so much for your faith in us. If you want in on the Shenanighans, come see what we're up to!!

#kickstarter #witchesofinstagram #crowdalbum #cheshire

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*drumroll* The Kickstarter for our third full length album, The Midnight Contingent, is NOW LIVE~!!! A romp of sinister silliness, guardians and goddesses, and a werebear who has an unusual appetite! Lots of nifty extras, too!

[cheshiremoonblog]

As some of you know, Cheshire Moon has launched a new venture: a Patreon! What’s going on here? Well, we are part of a project alongside a slew of other deeply talented artists. The project is this: 1 new original song every week for a year. 52 songs in 52 weeks. And we wanted the chance to share it with all of you! There are 2 levels of participation, lots of other good things besides music coming down the path, and we will continue to add as we go along! Also, since we’re already underway, if you decide to join us you’ll get the first 4 songs of the year as a free thank you! This will also be a chance for us to debut new music as it is written for other projects. And some of these songs will never be heard anywhere else! Dragon eggs to fireflies to a girl named Tempest, there’s a lot in store!

#patreon

[cheshiremoonblog]

In honor of the Women's March on Washington, a tribute to every soul that marches and every voice that refuses to be silent.

#women's march on washington #witchesofinstagram