Oh, hey Leslie. I was in the class with you last year, if that was you.

Dwight

Yes, that was me. We are about to launch a Southeast Wisconsin jam group. The first get together is April 29. After hearing so much about the fun get togethers on the west coast we on the middle coast decided to try it too. Do you have any tips to pass along?
Leslie

Its nice to have a more experienced player or players to help anchor the group.

We've got a plethora of accordion players out here, so one problem can be everyone not knowing enough songs in common to rotate around when playing a particular song. An option to that is to let one accordionist play a set number of songs, then rotate the hot seat to another player. Fiddlers can play all the time, but two accordionists at once will cause amalgam fillings to heat up and fall out.

Trying to get folks to work towards a common repertoire will be like trying to herd kittens. Kittens with ADD, on too much Ritalin.

Folks are moved to play what they want to play. After folks are playing awhile, and their repertoire expands, there will be plenty of overlaps.

How many accordionists do you have? Fiddlers?

Dwight

The first get together is April 29 and some of the interested parties won't be back from Lousiana, but there seems to be about an even split of fiddles and accordions. We are lacking guitars but some of us play that too so in a pinch we will have a band. I am not good enough to lead much but we have one accordion player who has a band and knows alot of tunes. It will take time to get this to jell but part of the fun is the process.
Leslie

Good that you've got some of the pros willing to support you. We've been running into a problem with that lately out here.

I'll be there...looking forward to the laughs with friends, jams, dances, storms, and no sleep!

If they could guarantee the gale force winds from 2 or three years ago, I'd pay the money and go. That was cool. Reminded me of home. If the rain isn't falling horizontally, it just doesn't feel right.