Norlands Weekend Day 1

Day 1 started out with cool, windy weather-- I had less than 6 hours sleep because of a rehearsal the night before. I had to work out the costume early and found that the mustache was going to fail. I groomed it until it was less Dixie and more Hitler-- and that drew the straw for me. I ripped it off as I pulled into Livermore.

The weather made our fingers cold and our instruments had to adapt to being outside. If anyone wants to know about playing outside-- it is a vacuum-- no acoustics-- your sound is lost the moment it is played. Once you get used to that sound everything is fine-- save for the fact that you can't hide behind any echo.

We played a total of 4 sets. We positioned ourselves in 3 places and one really paid off tip-wise ($23 I believe). My costume, while obviously fake, still got a few looks. Megan, my violin partner in this adventure, had a great period dress that could have her easily fit into both sides. I was a Union General-- which caused a ruckus when I visited the Confederate camp.

The people of Norlands were great and the vendors gave us tips and props for playing. We repeated many songs and found the ones we really liked and could play well as duets. I pushed it a few times but we got through everything and did the best numbers when we had listeners.

Here is our first and last place to play-- under a tree away from the sun and within sight of ice cream (that I only had on Day 2-- more on that later).

We were staff so we got a free meal and use of the staff facility. My stomach and sunburnt face were thankful!
It was a great time!