July 11, 2021
Dear friends, We hope this letter finds you well and that you have been able to enjoy many days of the summer so far even if it is another unusual one. We continue to feel grateful for increased vaccinations, things …
April 11, 2021
Today is the official release of Old-time Sweethearts! Next is the BIG EVENT that will bring us all together, our Sweethearts Online Release Concert featuring twenty musicians from the project in one show!! Mark your calendars for Sunday, May 2nd, …
February 14, 2021
Dear friends, The pandemic has been hard on all of us. The only thing many of us musicians knew what to do after our tours, concerts and livelihoods were disrupted for this long was to dive back deep into the …
September 13, 2020
Hello and thanks for visiting Dittyville! Fall is here and although times are still unsteady we strive to thrive. Carl and I hope you are all safe and finding ways to stay busy with activities you enjoy and keep your …
April 14, 2020
Hello Friends (aka shelter-in-place buddies!), April 14, 2020 Thanks for coming by for an online visit. Hope you and yours stay safe and healthy during these pandemic times. Carl and I are managing ok and have been home for a …
December 21, 2019
Dear friends, The new recording by Old Tin Erynn Marshall & Carl Jones is coming January 1, 2020! We are so excited with how the music came out and hope you will enjoy all the songs and tunes too! It’s …
May 30, 2019
May 30, 2019 Nature is in full splendor, the garden is growing, we can sip iced tea on the porch in a rocker, play tunes at a campsite while the river rolls by, and the fireflies have returned! Summer beckons …
Fall Rambles, September 16, 2018
Today is a stormy day here in Galax, Virginia and storm Florence is giving us a deluge of rain! We hope all of you are safe and sound. Carl and I were supposed to play a festival in Norfolk, VA but it was cancelled so we are enjoying a quiet day at home. I brought in our fresh herbs before the rains and hung them to dry. They smell beautiful and aromatic. Then I made a big batch of fresh pesto and did some baking. Carl made his signature dish Tamale Pie (it’s awesome) so I guess this storm is inspiring us to cook a lot. We’ve also been catching up by organizing fall tours and putting up our schedule on www.Dittyville.comWe’ve been doing some singing/picking tunes and I finally have a chance to write you a fall update!
We love fall. It’s our favorite season but still it’s is tough to say goodbye to summer after it’s golden curtain call. We enjoyed all those music festivals, jams with friends and 8 fabulous fiddle camps! The fresh garden veggies wind-up around the same time the camps end but we might get a few more leafy greens. Still the season was so sweet and we have a lot of great memories. Hope you do too!
A couple ribbons of note from this summer of fiddle conventions and good times. Carl won 2ndplace in banjo and Erynn got 5th in fiddle at the prestigious Clifftop Festival (WV), and our pick-up band Mountain Holler (Erynn & Eddie Bond on fiddles, Carl on mandolin, Eric Hill – banjo, Bonnie Bond – bass and Dennis Hall – guitar) won 1stplace Stringband at the Old Fiddlers Convention in Galax, VA. What a blast!
Looking ahead this fall Carl and I are back to teaching lessons and workshops, playing the Virginia State Fair in Doswell, a wedding, a couple of shows with the Galax Bogtrotters Stringband which will be big fun) plus doing a month long tour of England in November!! Erynn is teaching two weekend of fiddle workshops for the FOAOTMAD organization in the UK (Friends of American Old-Time Music and Dance). Plus – a big shout out to Eddie Bond from the Galax Bogtrotters and New Ballards Branch Bogtrotters who won the NEA award this year. We’re so proud of him!
2019 Summer Music Camps & Festivals are already on our minds. Here’s some we’ve just been hired for: John C Campbell Winter Dance Week (North Carolina Dec 26-31), 8thof January OT Music Weekend (Tennessee Jan 10-12), John C Campbell Fiddle Class (North Carolina Feb 3-9), Bellingham Folk Festival (Washington Jan 25-27), Old Pal Festival (Texas: Mar 21-23), Mandolin Camp North (Carl: Massachusetts Apr 12-14), Kaufman Acoustic Kamp (Tennessee June 9-15), Swannanoa Old-Time Week (North Carolina July 21-27). We’re already looking forward to these and many are already letting folks sign-up!
Fall is time when we get to learn new music, compose songs or tunes, get back to our overdue book projects, and even start thinking about some recording again! We’re dreaming of digging around our storage and digitizing some field recordings we made many years ago. Summer is always too busy for these kind of projects but the fall is full of creative possibility.
Hope you all too find time to make music and be creative this fall! If you would like a lesson to help you get inspired and move forward in your music drop us a line at info@dittyville.com Fall schedules can be busy but be sure to make some time for enjoying this beautiful season. We know once storm Flo passes we’ll be doing the same!
Best Wishes, Erynn and Carl
September 16, 2018
May 25, 2018
May 24, 2018 Thank you for stopping by and visiting Dittyville! Summer festival and camp season is here! Carl and I will be teaching at several great music camps from now through fall. In June we will both teach at …
January 6, 2018
Happy New Year everyone! Carl and I hope you all made some good resolutions and they last as long as you want them to. I like to make mine highly attainable so I’m starting with these: 1. Start the day playing …