BeauSoleil avec Michael Doucet

Dancers galore at Askenaz! A good couple of dancing music sets after a couple of days off. It was good to play some music again. Now a very long drive to Eugene, OR [Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

We had a day off in Berkeley on Monday. Some of us drove into Oakland to eat at Shin Shin's, a band favorite. That night a few of us went to Brennan's for food, drink, and Monday night football. Today: Askenaz. Big dance tonight. [Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

Though it was a long day of travel, we had a good show at the Carpenter Center. Iris Dement opened the show and was well received. She played about 45 minutes and we played for about 75. Lots of fans were lined up afterwards for CD signings, and when it was all over and done with, we were just plain exhausted. Next up: Askenaz in Betkeley. [Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

Mobile Blogging from here . A new blogging app; another trip. Off to the West Coast! Tonight: the Carpenter Center in Long Beach, CA, with Iris Dement. I'm looking forward to it! [Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

Date: September 13, 2009 9:19 PM Topic: Narrows Festival of the Arts, 9/13/9 We played a long set for the Narrows Festival today to an enthusiastic dancing crowd who never let up. We've always been treated very well by the Narrows in the past, and today was no exception. It'll be nice to play that venue again soon. A special note: after the show we went to the Sagres Restaurant, which features Portuguese cuisine. It was a great meal to end a long, hard tour!

Date: September 13, 2009 9:16 PM Topic: Port City Music Hall, 9/12/9 Port City Music Hall is a very nice performance space, and the renovation of the old theatre is very well done. The green room is well thought out, and the hospitality is very good. We played a very long 2 hour set to an enthusiastic crowd. And they wanted more! Apparently we have lots of fans in Portland and should play there more often. I think we were all happy with the Port City Music Hall and its staff, and hopefully we'll be able to play there again.

Date: September 12, 2009 1:41 PM Topic: iron Horse, 9/11/9 It was a good show at the Iron Horse Music Hall, not sold out but a good show nonetheless. We hadn't played there since October 2007; where does the time go? Also we figured the first time we'd play the 'Horse was in 1987 with Pat Breaux on accordeon/sax. We couldn't remember if we had played there before, perhaps with Errol Verret. We did two full sets, ranging from all of our recorded material plus some extras. There was a fair amount of dancing and record sales were brisk. Until the next time!

Date: September 11, 2009 9:21 AM Topic: Regattabar, Cambridge, MA 9/1/9 We returned to the Regattabar for a single show to about 200 people last night. The sound was really nice and the band played a myriad of tunes ranging from our CDs. We did two ukulele songs: La Chanson de Cinquant Sous and Roswell Rudd's Bamako. The Uke stuff is a nice addition to the sets, with more tunes forthcoming. The nice thing about playing the Regattabar is that the band gets to stay in the hotel. It is so nice to be able to walk to the 'venue' from your hotel room! And of course, to have the restaurant and bar at your disposal is also convenient.

Date: September 10, 2009 9:26 AM Topic: Infinity Hall, Norfolk, CT, 9/8/9 Infinity Hall is one of the finest musical venues I've played in. It's situated in western Connecticut, not close to anything, but it's worth the trouble getting there. The band played two sets and signed CDs afterwards. A lot of people there had never seen us live, as we'd never been in that part of the state before. It was a good show, and though we split the set with Obama's Healthcare speech, we all had a great time there, and we're looking forward to the next show.

Date: September 7, 2009 7:41 AM Topic: On the Waterfront, Rockford, IL, 9/6/9 It was a very long drive from Carbondale to Rockford, taking about 6+ hours. The drive, though, was not hard, just monotonous. We did a first for the group: we had a picnic just north of Peoria, making sandwiches from the deli trays from the Walker's Bluff date. On the Waterfront occupies a large part of the riverfront in Rockford, blocking lots of streets and charging for admission. All in all, the festival seems well run, and we had no trouble getting inside the fest, loading, and setting up. I can't remember the last time we played Rockford, if at all. We had a great reception and sold 49 CDs in about 20 minutes! Maybe we need to return to Rockford again. Today: flying to Newark, heading to Norfolk, CT, eventually.

We arrived at STL on-time Friday and then set out for Carbondale but turned around because of vibration problems in one of the vans. We got to the hotel around 9 pm. The Winery venue was very nice and we had many fans, especially for the second set, when most of the audience was getting drunker by the minuteu Joanne, the event coordinator, liked us enough to ask us back in coming years. Of note: first time BeauSoleil featured a ukelele in a tune, La Chanson de Cinquant Sous.