How about that?! The official Notes of Blue logo! By Tanner Autry!
It’s a good thing all my kids are good with technology. I’d be severely lacking if they weren’t. I love ’em and appreciate all their assistance.
So this logo will appear on everything: this website, the YouTube page, and the Facebook page. Everything Notes of Blue!!!
If anyone has suggestions for how we can improve the logo, I’ll promise we will consider it, at least until it comes time to file for a licensed trademark. That pretty much locks it in as is.
I should have waited until the logo was finished before I ordered the first run of business cards. It’s okay. You live and learn. Besides, when this order runs out , I’ll add the logo to the next order. No big deal.
Share the logo if you can! I hope you’re as happy with it as I am. Adios amigos!
Most folks don’t even know that I’m in another band. It’s not that I have hidden it (why would I?); it’s just that we’ve only played one gig. That was last September, and we’re so busy we haven’t played or practiced since.
But yeah, we’re called Rough Cut, and we play a mixture of Country, old and new, Southern Rock, Classic Rock, whatever the guys in the band like to play.
(my daughter Kenlee created our logo))
The reason I’m sharing this now is because I was just given the date and time of our second gig. Yahoo!
(from Facebook)
Third Saturday in June, 10AM, we’re leading off a day of great music. Here’s the day’s schedule, in case you want to see some other bands:
Wow! Now that’s a full day of music! McHenry SummerFest has definitely grown into something admirable. In fact, it’s what I’m hoping to do with Rosine Autumn Jam, which I started last Autumn in the Rosine Community Park.
We’re slated for October 4, 5-9:00PM this year (flyer coming soon), but for now Rough Cut is focused on June 21 in McHenry.
Our band is me on bass guitar. My brother Kevin Autry on acoustic guitar. Brennan Embry on lead guitar. Joby Miller on steel guitar. And Ralph Jones on drums (needing a keyboard player and/or fiddler).
My brother Kevin sings lead on most songs (I’ll sing a few). Ralph and I handle the harmony vocals.
We really have a lot of fun practicing, and boy did we have a blast last fall at Rosine Autumn Jam. That’s what it’s all about—having fun and giving the folks in the audience a chance to have fun, too.
(photo by my daughter Lauren Autry)
From left to right, Joby Miller, Brennan Embry, Kevin Autry, Ralph Jones, Yours Truly. Ralph’s drum kit says Tailgate on it because Tailgate is his main band, and they are doggone good!
I hope to have a replica of a huge saw blade with “Rough Cut” on it in time for McHenry SummerFest.
The heat was on last night at The Rosine Barn Jamboree’s 33rd season opener. In more ways than one!
The air outside was a bit nippy, so we had the furnace running. The biggest source of heat was coming from the stage, though.
Dennis Cook, Chairman of The Rosine Association (we lease the barn and manage The Rosine Barn Jamboree), stepped up to a hot mic and welcomed the crowd, and away we went!
It took just a short while to get back in the swing of things after being closed for the winter, and it wasn’t long before everyone was warmed up with love for bluegrass.
Open mic started right on time at 6:00. I was a little concerned at first because it looked like no one was going to participate. You never know from one week to the next. Stage full of folks one week—me all by lonesome the following week.
My worry was premature, though, because Ed Edwards stepped out with his mandolin ready to pick. Ed has been here at the barn from the beginning in 1992. I consider him one of the founders.
After Ed, here came Gloria Jackson. She chipped in singing harmony. Then wouldn’t you know it old “Flip Flop” Floyd Stewart jumped on the bass.
“Floyd and Friends” play from 6:30 to 7:00 each Friday. Floyd, who also is foundational, wasn’t able to sing this week due to a sore throat, but he came on stage to pick with us during open mic and stayed through his 30-minute set.
It works that way some times. We all do what we can to make every Friday as entertaining as possible.
The Rosine Barn has established itself as an international travel destination. One year the New York Times designated us as one of the top fifty places to visit in the USA. Now that was pretty cool!
For opening night, I chose mostly Monroe tunes to play and sing for open mic. If it wasn’t for the Monroe family, mainly Bill and Charlie, we wouldn’t have even been gathered together last night.
After a few of their tunes, we played and sang a few sacred numbers. One was “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot,” a favorite of mine. Bill Monroe recorded it and released it in June, 1951.
In case you’re wondering—no, he didn’t write it. That song pre-dates Mr. Monroe by several decades.
Just as we were finishing up that song, Jasper Beatty arrived. Boy, was I glad. I had sung about seven straight, and my voice was dragging.
Jasper can probably sing from sunup ‘til sundown. I sure am proud of that boy; he’s making a name for himself on the road playing the music we love.
Darrell “Bigfoot” Madison came out next, and everyone was tickled to see him. He’s one of the foundational pieces of The Rosine Barn Jamboree, but he’s been bravely battling cancer for more than a few years now. Any Friday Bigfoot can muster the energy to make it out for some pickin’ is a doggone good one.
From your left to your right, Ed Edwards, Yours Truly, Darrell “Bigfoot” Madison, Jasper Beatty, and Floyd Stewart.
You can’t tell it in the photo, but I kept my word—I’m wearing a blue guitar! I said I was playing blue guitars for open mic this season. This first one is an Applause by Ovation. It’s called the Jump model (AAS-69).
Before long it was time for the first band of the night, Brand New Box of Matches. Actually, they’re a duo! From Knoxville,Tn!
Elizabeth Sherman and Ryan Hardison are not new to The Rosine Barn Jamboree. They played two dates here last season.
Sherman plays bass, and Hardison plays just about everything else. They both handle singing duties. And very well, I might add.
Like I said earlier, the furnace was already on. Add in the heat from a burning box of matches and you got a heatwave.
Check ‘em out on Instagram: @brandnewboxofmatchesband. Or visit their website at www.brandnewboxofmatches.com. You can catch their show at a number of the venues they play all over the south, especially when they visit us again in the fall.
The last band of the night were newcomers, and they kept the heat on. The Grassy Creek Bluegrass Band hail from Gatlinburg, Tn.
The band is led by Brian Eversole on mandolin and lead vocals. Interestingly two of the other members are his children: thirteen-year-old David Eversole on guitar and fourteen-year-old Julia Eversole on bass and harmony vocals. Last, but certainly not least is young Aston Murray on banjo.
Together they made some mighty fine bluegrass and made the whole place even hotter from their fiery pickin’.
Check ‘em out on Instagram: @grassycreekbluegrassband.
A great big “thanks” to these two Tennessee bands for coming all this way. Words can’t express our gratitude enough, but we’ll try anyway.
Also, a quick shoutout to Jenny Edward’s, Ed’s daughter. She was home from Tennessee and gave me a helpful, social media lesson.
Folks, I will be needing a great many lessons before progressing very far with this venture into the world of technology and social media.
I do have a Notes of Blue YouTube channel set up, but I haven’t begun posting videos yet. Never fear, though, for they are coming soon.
That is, if the Good Lord’s willin’ and the creeks don’t rise…
As you can see in the photo, the road leading to the Monroe Homeplace was almost washed away in the flood last week.
It’s the worst I have seen it on that particular section between the railroad and Hwy 62.
I had actually fixed that same erosion about a month ago with the Bill Monroe Foundation’s little blue, New Holland tractor, but the February flood damage wasn’t as bad then.
The road department is supposed to be repairing it this time around. Good thing, too, because my repair work obviously didn’t last.
I parked my truck by the hole to add some scale perspective to the photo. I put the orange cone there to warn people to stay away. If one of your wheels slips off in there, you’re stuck—no getting out by yourself. Tow truck time!
I was talking with Marty Hayse last week about it. Marty lives in the Monroe Foundation doublewide with his wife Robin. They are the caretakers of the Homeplace.
Marty was wondering how Robin would get home from work if Hwy 62 was flooded. I gave him a couple routes she could take.
As we were talking, I told him about a flood that came when my family lived in Charlie Monroe’s house in the 70’s, somewhere between ‘72 and ‘75.
I remember Dad taking me and my brother Kevin down the hill in the dark to where the flood water was roaring through a gap it had cut through the road.
The gap appeared, to my little eyes, a mile wide. In truth, it was maybe ten or fifteen feet across, four or five feet deep.
And there on the other side was Mom. She couldn’t get home from work.
She ended up spending the night with relatives while Dad, Kevin, and I went back to the house without her. Sad.
I sure wouldn’t want that to happen to Marty and Robin Hayse—two lovebirds separated by a flood (might be a song in there).
I think about that night without my mother every time storm water rises and rushes over that road.
Maybe this time the road department will make it where it can’t erode like that again. Maybe add a little concrete or something.
And there it was. I had all but given up finding any today. It seemed like I had walked at least a mile with no luck whatsoever; in fact, I was on my way back to the truck, plumb worn out and dejected. And there it was.
In a place I wasn’t expecting, there, a foot from my foot, was a little morel (not a mushroom). I looked around and saw no poplar tree. Where was its symbiotic friend? The only tree in close enough proximity to fit that bill was a hickory.
You’re thinking, “Why is he so surprised? Aren’t they called hickory chickens?”
Well, yes, they are. And you would think that’s where I find these things. Except I don’t!
This species is of the Black variety, and my family finds them under poplar trees mostly. I don’t even bother to look under hickory’s because normally they aren’t there.
So I suppose I was lucky to notice it as I walked by that hickory tree. Yes, it must have been luck indeed for I found six more near it. That made a lucky number seven.
Oh, you don’t believe in luck? Or fate and stuff like that?
I do. For example, fate brought me and my wife together. I know it in my heart and soul.
Luck and fate may not be the same thing, so I can’t say conclusively if luck played a role in me finding those “7”!
At any rate, seven isn’t enough for a mess. So I left them all right where I found them. That way they can finish dropping all their spores and grow more next year.
Hopefully, someone else doesn’t come along and find them. If they do, I hope they’ll leave them for seed.
I found another first today when I returned home. A package! A big box!
If you’ve been keeping up with my blog posts, you might have a good idea what was in the box. I myself knew right away because of the box’s shape. A big rectangle about five-feet long, about two-feet wide, and five- or six-inches deep.
Let me help you. The thing inside was blue, and its purpose relates to The Rosine Barn Jamboree.
Yep! You guessed it! A guitar!
My first ever blue guitar! I said in a post last week that in order to promote Notes of Blue I would be playing blue guitars every Friday during Open Mic for at least this season.
In case you’re wondering, the guitar is an Applause, which is made by Ovation. Model is AAS-69, a slope-shoulder dread (short for dreadnought). That’s actually another first for I have never owned a slope-shoulder, just numerous standard dreads.
And if you’re also wondering where the pick guard is, I took it off. I didn’t like the original, so I’ll be replacing it as soon as the new one arrives.
A day of firsts. Here’s one more for the road. Because of all this datgum rain postponing last week’s Bill Burden Tribute show, the first Friday night of the 33rd season of The Rosine Barn Jamboree will be this week.
I’ll be there with bells on—and my blue guitar! Auf weidersehen!
For a while the blog might look weird or off because the website is being built out. Stay tuned as the website is soon going to look like it should. Thank you for your patrience.
