Incredible 2nd weekend at Louisiana Renaissance Festival

Well, the second week is over and what a weekend. Our first weekend was a wee bit rough since we are performing on the Kings Stage, which is a bigger stage than we're used to at Ren Faires. But this weekend, we figured out our shortcomings and started to compensate them. I'm thinking this has improved our performance in general. So I'm pretty happy about it.

So what is the faire like? Well, it's a semi-small faire surrounding a wee lake. Very, very beautiful site. And despite the fact that it's a small site, there seems to be a lot to see and do thanks to the lake in the center.

The entertainers are just fantastic. Everyone's been amazingly friendly from our beautiful and talented stagemates, the Limey Birds. We've had an absolute blast hanging out and having dinner with the Limeys who are just the sweetest women on the planet! The Duelists and our ever-favorite inspiring friends, the Bedlam Bards have been great as well.

I gotta say, wow! They've come along way. The Bedlam Bards were an early inspiration to us everything from our kazoo solo in "Wild Rover" to just general performing. They've been wonderfully supportive. But they've never been better performers. Hawke is still as inspiring as ever, and Cedric is just an amazing fiddler. Once again, we've had a blast jamming with him at the end-of-day musician jam by the front gate. Seems wherever he is, there's a Renaissance Irish session a-waiting to happen.

But that's not all. This weekend, we got to finally see those fun pirates of the sea, The Bilge Pumps. They put on a fun performance, and we were delighted to see our friend, Jeremy, has joined the group as guitarist.

Sunday, the faire was blessed with the presence of the hottest pipe and drum act out there, The Rogues. It's always a blast to see them rousing audiences. Wish I could've seen them when they played down in New Orleans Friday night. I heard that O'Flaerty's hasn't had such an enormous crowd since 9-11. Way to go, Rogues! Hopefully, we'll see them back on the charts of the many MP3 communities that are popping up like our new site at SoundClick.

Let's see, other cool folks are the fiddler Natasha, Vince Connaway on hammer dulcimer, and Craig of Farrington. I haven't seen his show yet, but had dinner with Zoltan the Adequate and a member of the ever-popular Tortuga Twins last week as well. And Saturday night, I finally got to chat with the famous, Owain Phyfe, known as the rock star of the Renaissance Faire circuit. Amazing voice and repetoire.

Plus, the cast has been just spectacular. They spend a bit o'time around the faire and even stop by our shows. It's too cool seeing the Queen come by and praise our music.

But one of the people who's been most-inspiring is the Assistant Entertainment Director who's gone out of her way to make this festival a complete joy for us. Weds after our drive, we stopped by her place for a Thanksgiving dinner and a game of Trivial Pursuit. And Saturday, we had homemade gumbo and a great jam session with the faire musicians.

The comraderie has been just fantastic! It's almost as if we've been adopted by these wonderful people in just two short weeks. So a big thanks to everyone at the Louisiana Renaissance Festival. They seem extremely anxious to have us back next year, and I'm looking forward to it too!

This weekend should be an extra big bonus, since we're bringing down Michelle from Kansas City, once again, to help us out. I can't wait. Percussion is just the thing that'll really make our shows rock out the Kings Stage, methinks. So get ready to dance for the final weekend!

A bard in Kansas City?

At the end of this month, I'm hoping to head up to Kansas City to visit friends, and while I'm there, I'm hoping to put together a week benefit concert for the Hamlet of Mid-Missouri Renaissance Festival. I'm in need of people to help organize and promote the event. Interested? Check out the forum, drop a message and start talking with others to help get this rolling. Thanks!