Well, folks, I am really REALLY behind in getting another update done! Holy smoke. Better late than never, I guess. So here goes:

Near the end of May 2006 I left, with some regret, my home on a quiet shady street in Largo, Florida, adventure bound once again. Left behind were sailing, working (playing) in my yard, visiting and making music with home friends, riding my bike to a coffee shop I favor early in the mornings, writing, reading, working on my in-progress CD, and a host of other "home" things. Ahead were the open road, my many friends across America, and music, music, music.

I performed in the Florida Folk Festival at White Springs in north Florida from May 25 through 29, 2006. It was the 23rd consecutive year I've appeared at our state festival, one of the oldest and largest of the kind in the USA. Doing the shows, with Florida bassist Jim Davis, flute player Jenny James, and others, was fun, in spite of outrageously bad sound reinforcement work. I did my guitar instrumental "Sunrise at White Springs", composed, not surprisingly, as the sun rose at the Florida Folk Festival many years ago, with Jenny adding a delectable flute part. I think this was the first performance of that piece I've done at the festival.

In many ways the Florida Folk Festival is like "old home week" for me. Kids who were infants when I first performed there have kids of their own now. Some great friends have passed from the scene, leaving memories for the rest of us to talk about around the campfires. It is fun to visit (and pick, of course) with other friends seen only once or twice a year--or more often. New people bring new music and become new friends.

We had our usual jazz/swing jam at Jerry Carris's campsite--hot music smoking on until the wee hours every night. The jam at Art Crummer's campsite was big fun as usual. Had an opportunity to make some music with Jan Milner, former lover and now good friend. We used to have an act together and it was fun to sing with her again.

A highlight of the festival for me was getting my 1934 Gibson mandolin back, expertly repaired by my old friend and gifted luthier (and blues fingerpicker) Charlie Jirousek. Nice to have the old mandolin working well again. It is the mandolin I used on "Ashokan Farewell" on my "Grandpa Flatpicked" CD.

After the FFF, I loaded up the old Toyota van and headed north to play the Hank Williams Memorial Festival at Hank's birthplace, Georgiana, Alabama. What a great time is this festival! Big fun. Again, old friends. Lots of performances, lots of jamming. I did some work with my friend Terry Smith, of Nashville, one of the best songwriters in the world and a consummate professional as an entertainer. Headliner of the festival was the legendary Ray Price and his Cherokee Cowboys band. When I was in New Zealand a while back I spent a relaxing evening at the home of my South Pacific booker, Heather Holland, watching old videos of great country performers. Most memorable of those was one featuring Ray Price. Now, in Alabama, I watched from the wings as Ray did a great show for the big crowd at the Hank festival. He is 80 years old, but he is as good as ever. It was a thrill to watch him work, close up. The Cherokee Cowboys were just wonderful. Anytime I can play on a bill with Ray Price that suits me fine!

I was also impressed by Ray's son, Cliff Price, who warmed the audience up for his dad and did some mighty fine western swing, including one of my all-time favorites, "Right or Wrong". Talent sure runs in the Price family.

As I sat in the wings watching Ray Price on the last day of the Hank Williams festival, I realized my back was aching. I thought I must have pulled a muscle or something. It was the first symptom of an attack of shingles--a terribly painful malady caused by a virus residing in the nervous system which is left there dormant after childhood chicken pox, only to sometimes reactivate after many years as shingles. I'll spare you the details. Suffice it to say that it is a very nasty illness.

My next stop was Nashville, Tennessee, where I was supposed to appear in a show during the time of the CMA convention there. By the time I got to Nashville all I could do was get to Terry Smith's house and fall into bed, where I remained for a week except for visits to doctors. It was great of Terry to put me up, especially as he had other house guests at the same time. I really appreciate having good friends like Terry Smith.

I got back on my feet for a while and left Terry's tender care to journey to Cape Girardeau, Missouri, where I went to do a concert June 12 and to visit my cousin. I was scheduled to proceed from there to Charles City, Iowa, for a June 14 concert with Terry Smith, and then on to a festival at Nashua, Iowa June 15-18. Couldn't go. I had tried to shrug off the shingles too soon, and spent most of another week in bed at the home of my cousin and wife, Stan and Jane Stough, in Cape Girardeau. It was an awful time, including the most pain I've had in my life. You DON'T want shingles. I am very grateful to my cousin Stan Stough and his wife Jane for caring for me during this seige of illness.

By June 22 I had recovered enough to get back on the road and travel to Wahoo, Nebraska, to perform in the Kenastons' Wahoo Country Music Show, one of the very best festivals anywhere and an event I wouldn't miss playing unless I just could not get there. Once more, old friends, new friends, kids, old folks, lots of performances, lots of jamming. Wonderful fun. Later people told me I looked like walking death during that festival, and I felt like walking death some of the time too--but still I had fun. Got to do a few piano tunes on the main stage because the Kenastons provide a good electronic piano. Most festivals don't.

After Wahoo, feeling much better, I headed west to Laramie, Wyoming, to play the Freedom Has A Birthday celebration in Laramie on July 4. Also had a great visit with friend and high school classmate Janet Noel Webster. Janet is a high-quality person in every way, and I really enjoyed my time with her. We hiked in the mountains, talked of cabbages and kings and a wide range of other things, ate in some cool cafes, and generally had a good time.

I liked Laramie, Wyoming. It is a college town. There is a lot going on in Laramie, a lot to enjoy. Great people. I found a good internet cafe, and a very good bagel shop.

In the evening after our July 4 concert in the city park in Laramie, there was a fireworks display in town. Appearing before the fireworks was Nashville performer Mark Chestnut. The dreary thumping of Chestnut and his band was an example of why I don't like much of the current corporate music coming out of Nashville.

Leaving Laramie, I travelled to Devil's Tower National Monument in Wyoming, where I spent a great day enjoying the park and hiking around the giant rock pillar that is Devil's Tower. Great fun. I may have an opportunity to do one of my one-man shows at Devil's Tower next summer.

Travelling east from Devil's Tower I went to Mount Rushmore, which was impressive only in illustrating how small and insignificant the works of man can appear when contrasted to a spectacular natural setting around them. Then I went on to Deadwood, South Dakota, a town which has sold out. Deadwood could have been a wonderful historical center. Instead it has become a collection of sleazy tourist traps and automated gambling casinos. I was deeply disappointed to discover that the very saloon where Wild Bill Hickok was shot has been turned into a computerized gambling pit. What has been done to Deadwood in the name of greed is an example of the kind of abomination that makes one wish there really were laws against some kinds of exploitation.

Passing through Rapid City, S.D., and on across the Redbud Sioux reservation (more gambling and some of the worst driving I've seen in the United States) I passed south back into Nebraska, where I stopped at Valentine on a day in early July when the temperature downtown was said to reach 116 degrees fahrenheit. Heat notwithstanding, I spent a great day at the Niobrara National Wildlife reserve, where I saw bison, elk, and other animals close up and just enjoyed the beautiful scenery. I spent the night in Valentine, and in the morning visited my friend and talented western singer and storyteller Wally Bayzn. Wally was very surprised to see me in Valentine!

From Valentine I journeyed down to Ainsworth, Nebraska, for a visit with friends Bob and Lois Keim. Bob and I played a few small gigs together around Ainsworth (he plays piano). Musician friend Jay Kelly, a first-class fiddler and guitarist, visited and we greatly enjoyed making music together in the Keim living room. The day before I had completed writing The Lois Waltz, for Lois Keim, and Jay and I were able to put some elabarations to it that afternoon. (Little did I know that by that time the next year, The Lois Waltz would become one of my audiences' favorites, played around the world by me and other performers. Keith Herbert's Cimarron band, of New Zealand, plans to record it this year! You just never know...)

In mid-July, I travelled to York, Nebraska, where I played the Java Hut Coffeehouse on July 18 with Larry and Karen (The Mellow D's) Doran. That was lots of fun. Visit Larry and Karen's web site by clicking HERE. Use the [BACK] button of your browser to return to this page.

We had a full house of very supportive listeners, in a very nice coffeehouse environment. Unlike many coffeehouses, this one has a dedicated concert room---kind of like music pubs in Europe. Good fun! Good coffee too. If you're in York, don't miss the Java Hut!

From York, I travelled to Kansas City, Missouri/Kansas. In DeSoto Kansas, just out of the city, I had a great visit with Larry and Rosie Inman. Larry is a fine picker and singer who tours the festival circuit as Larry Dean. Rosie is a cutie. Good friends!

Every year, at McBaine, Missouri, hard by the Missouri River, and not too far from Columbia, Missouri, I meet up with musical cohort and former road musician Dale Palmer, and we play a night or two at Lucy's, a great old funky tavern where we just sit down in a duo format and go to it. On July 21 and 22, and then July 28 and 29, 2006, we did just that! It was great. Place was jam-packed to the walls a good part of the time. We played everything from Ernest Tubb to Duke Ellington to Muddy Waters and went in a multitude of directions in between. Dale is a fabulous entertainer and a mighty good guitar picker and singer. We brought back the old days and brought on some new days, as we do whenever we get together. Life is good!

A stout drive from central Missouri to the tiny town of Garden Grove, Iowa, next brought me to the Garden Grove Festival, a small country festival I love and support. There are just a few acts, on the village green, and a nice crowd of area folks to enjoy them. There's a car show, lots of good food, good friends, good times, good music. It's a wonderful day in the country. Garden Grove was August 4-6 in 2006.

An August highlight is the National Country Music Festival, held in Ainsworth, Nebraska, August 12-13 in 2006. New director Chris Gudgel did a first rate job of presenting the festival, I thought. I did a couple of shows, and also won an award in the guitar picking contest. At this writing I can't remember exactly what it was, but it doesn't matter, really. It was fun to play. Jay Kelly backed me up and we had good fun.

August 18 found me back across Nebraska to Anita, Iowa, where I appeared with the group Recycled at Bob Everhart's Oak Tree theater. At least as much fun as doing the performance was meeting and jamming until all hours later at a cafe across the street, which stayed open late just so we could do that!

A few days later, in Council Bluffs, a crowd of us did a small festival at a Crackerbarrel Restaurant. I met an excellent drummer there, and spent a few hours later listening to his band in an area bar. That's one way to find good musicians. As soon as I heard this fellow play, I knew I could use him in the future!

Onward down the music road, I came on August 26 to the Homestead National Monument, in southeastern Nebraska, where one of the nation's last areas of real tallgrass prairie is located. I had visited Homestead and hiked the trails the year before, and in conversation with one of the park rangers had mentioned that I am a musician. She was interested, and booked me to appear in a concert series at the Monument. As it happens, I was honored to have the final concert of the series for 2006. Very cool.

Hiking the Homestead trails, one can feel almost transported back to another era in our country's history, when I think life was tough but, at least in some places, simpler. I love to get way out in the country.

From August 28 until September 3 2006 I played the National Traditional Country Music Festival at Missouri Valley, Iowa. I've known producer Bob Everhart for more than thirty years and over those years have played a great many of his festivals. This one, like all of them, was big fun. One of the best things about this one for me was getting together for a few shows with my "dream band" (Perk Washenberger, bass fiddle; Art Peterson, accordion, Jay Kelly, guitar and fiddle; Terry Smith, guitar; and me on guitar, mandolin, vocals). Man, oh man, is it fun to make music with those guys. We did country. We did swing. We did jazz. We did blues. We made music!!!! YES!!!! I did NOT want to stop.

Of course it is always wonderful fun for me to do guitar and mandolin leads for the very popular Terry Smith on his shows at the NTCM Festival. Terry is one of America's master songwriters, a consummate professional onstage, and a really, really nice person to boot. He and I have done "a million of 'em" together around the country and the world.

The first weekend of September found me at Tex and Mary Schutz's Miles of Memories Festival in Hastings, Nebraska, where I did a few of my own shows and enjoyed performing with Bob and Sheila Everhart, the Kenaston family, and Irish singer Greta Elkin. Tex and Mary are old friends, and in addition to producing their own festival they have one of the most popular traditional country acts on the American festival circuit. Tex and Mary's web site can be accessed by clicking HERE. Use the [BACK] button of your browser to return to this page.

It is worth noting that Mary Schutz has designed and published this web site by herself. I have made lots of web sites, and I did one for them a while back. Mary is one of those people who wants to be able to "do it herself", so she has studied and learned and now has now put her own web site work on the internet! Congratulations, Mary; good on ya!!

On September 10, back in Anita, Iowa, again, I did another show at at Bob Everhart's Oak Tree theater, this time with the Irish singer Greta Elkin and my good friends Rick (guitar) and Harriette (bass fiddle) Anderson, and others. I understand this one was broadcast worldwide by internet. Lord knows who all heard us going to it in Bob's theater! Once again the jamming across the street at the cafe afterward was at least as much for for me as the shows. I must be nuts. I work at music for a living. What do I do for fun in my time off? Yeah... play music, don't I? Hmmm...

Okay, back to Nebraska (can't seem to stay out of that state for long!). On September 16, I once again played the Java Hut in York with Larry and Karen (The Mellow D's) Doran. Once again, we had a full house of supportive listeners. I was able to do a number of things I would ordinarily not do at festivals, like some of my impressionistic alternate-tuning guitar instrumentals (Spanish Fandango, Black Range Tales, and the like).

This time, I picked out a pretty woman to chat up in the break between our acts, sat down with her---and discovered that her last name is Groth, same as mine! Wouldn't you know it! Charming lady, very nice looking, all good...and she turns out to be my cousin (maybe). Ah well...sigh...

In Geneva, Nebraska, there is a beeyoootiful restored theater, the Rialto, where I did one of my one-man shows September 17. Larry and Karen (The Mellow D's) Doran opened. I was flattered to find that a couple from faraway Denver, Colorado, who enjoy my music a lot, attended. I'm sure they didn't come all the way from Colorado just to hear me. Did they?

My 2006 summer trip came to a conclusion on September 22-24 at Elton Flodman's Flod Fest, held this year at Covenant Cedars camp near Hordville, Nebraska. This was a new location for the Flod Fest, and I thought it was a great move. Don't miss this one. In addition to several shows, I did one of my Guitar Clinic workshops. Oh yes, and I won a songwriting competition with my song I Wish I Didn't Know. I normally don't enter contests, but this time someone talked me into it.

After Flod Fest it was time to head south to Florida and get ready for my annual Sunshine State Acoustic Music Camp, which is always held the second weekend of October in St. Petersburg, Florida. Our camp in 2006 was a great one. I think it was the 19th annual edition. Look it up at http://www.cgmusicman.com/camp/ if you're interested. We have over 100 classes in one intense weekend, with highly qualified instructors teaching just about everything imaginable related to acoustic music: guitar, mandolin, banjo, fiddle, bass---all the instruments---plus songwriting, singing, playing in a group, on and on. There is a big instructor concert on the Saturday night, often lasting four hours and said by many to be worth the price of the entire camp just by itself. We have a great time. We'd love for you to join us.

The music camp was a great success. I don't like to let any grass grow under my feet, so on October 21, the week after the camp, I did what turned out to be a really nice concert in Wesley Chapel, Florida, near Tampa. In a peaceful country setting near the home of Tom and Kimbo Savino I did an afternoon show, backed by my old friends Doug Travers and Ellie Schwartz. A friend of theirs who was an excellent harmonica player joined in as well. Once again, good music, good friends, good times, good food. What's not to like about a life that includes a lot of those things?

On October 28, I did a similar concert in Titusville, Florida, organized by my good friend Barry Brogan and hosted by the lovely and talented (really good songwriter and entertainer) Sharon Osuna. These small concerts are truly rewarding. People come to listen. You get to visit afterward, and get to know the people. Bigger shows with big stages and lights and all that are fun too, of course, but these smaller ones allow for audience contact in a whole different way.

One of the festivals I love to play happens the first weekend of November annually: the Barberville Jamboree, in Barberville, Florida, north of Orlando. I've been playing this one for many years. This year, new producers Joe and Katie Waller took over. They kept many of the best things about the festival, added some new wrinkles of their own, and had a solid success. I wish them the best in years to come, and I'll be there!

Once more, for me, one of the highlights was the opportunity to sit after our performances and jam with friends: Katie (fiddle) and Joe (guitar and vocals) and many others, including Roger and GailAnne, the Amundsen kids, members of a great family of super folks who are my dear friends.

To see a picture of GailAnne playing her fiddle at the music camp click HERE. Use the [BACK] button of your browser to return to this page.

In mid-November Frank and Jewell Menge, who live near Panama City, Florida, produce a festival honoring and featuring Nashville's great songwriter Terry Smith. Of course I like to be there, as I often am in shows around the country and internationally, to make music with Terry. In 2006 that took place the weekend of November 18. Good fun was had by all, and I think "T" and I made some good music for the people. As usual, I enjoyed very much visiting with one and all. Have a look at Terry Smith's web site by clicking HERE. Use the [BACK] button of your browser to return to this page.

Cape Girardeau, Missouri, was my destination on November 30, 2006. Played a concert there at Auburn Creek, and visited my cousin and lifelong good friend Stanley Stough and his wife in Cape. Stan and Jane have been strong supporters of my music for many, many years. My song I Would Do It All Again, which many of you have heard and enjoyed, is dedicated to Stan and Jane and their wonderful long marriage. They've done it right, folks.

On the second day of December, I performed once again at Michael's Restaurant in the beautiful Missouri Ozarks, where Teresa Carel is music director and a good e-mail buddy. My friend and road band-mate Harold Condray lives nearby, in tiny Ellsinore, Missouri, so I usually manage a visit with Harold and Violet while I'm in the area.

From the Ozarks I drove west and south into Oklahoma, on my way to Dallas, for a visit along the way with fiddle marvel and excellent young fella Jake Simpson and his parents. I drove right into the teeth of a howling winter blizzard, with temperatures so cold the handle of one of the doors of my van actually broke as I pulled it! Had a great warm visit with the Simpsons...but then spent some six hours on snowbound roads mushing my way to Dallas. A little nerve-wracking! In Texas I visited with musician friends Jim Penson, in Arlington, and Mark Wilson in Dallas. Mark is a peerless bass fiddle player who, incidentally, is president of Onboard Research, the company that makes those Intellitouch musical instrument tuners. Mark and Jim and I did some music at a Dallas venue called the Sons of Herman Hall (no kidding), and we recorded some stuff. Participated in a huge jam at Jim Penson's place. Jim plays and builds instruments, and he is one of those soulful guys who likes to think about things that matter. I like that.

After a few days in Texas, I was westward bound, reaching Phoenix, Arizona December 19. I played the Encanto Park Coffeehouse on December 20. Accompanying me was my Phoenix friend Wyllow Ravenscroft, an excellent musician in her own right, with a lovely singing style. You can visit Wyllow's web site by clicking HERE. Use the [BACK] button of your browser to return to this page.

I was very well received at Encanto Park, and I met a host of Phoenix musicians and music lovers I had not known before. There was a little jamming too, and that also was fun. On December 22, again accompanied by Wyllow Ravenscroft, and by drummer Kevin Brushes, I played the famed Phoenix listening room Fiddler's Dream. Just about everybody has played Fiddler's Dream, and I was very pleased to be there. There is a fiddle tune called Fiddler's Dream, but I wanted to do something special for the occasion of my playing there for the first time, so while I was at Jim Penson's place in Texas I wrote a slow ballad I called Fiddler's Dream to introduce at the gig. I'm happy to say that my reception at Fiddler's Dream was very warm. Every seat in the house was filled. One of the people who came was a man from Phoenix I had last seen at a festival I played in Norway! That was cool. Everyone seemed to enjoy the new song. I was booked again at Fiddler's Dream. Can't beat that. Life is good.

Here are the lyrics to my Fiddler's Dream.

======

THE FIDDLER'S DREAM
Copyright (c) 2006 By Charley Groth

The fiddler sits and rocks, by the fire in the night,
And he hears her in the kitchen, so it seems;
His good girl's gone away, but in memory she stays;
She's walking in the old FIDDLER'S DREAM.

He plays her favorite tunes; his grown kids don't like the sound,
And they all propose assisted living schemes--
But he remains at home; in his heart he's not alone.
She's with him in the old FIDDLER'S DREAM.

KEY CHANGE TO BRIDGE

They shared their joys and tears for more than fifty years;
Together they defined what true love means;
Now his good girl's had to leave, but he's not left to grieve;
She holds him in the old FIDDLER'S DREAM.

KEY CHANGE BACK AND INSTRUMENTAL TA

The fiddler sits and rocks, with his fiddle in his hands,
And he hears her in the bedroom, so it seems;
The fire falls down to coals, but still she warms his soul;
She's smiling in the old FIDDLER'S DREAM.

KEY CHANGE TO BRIDGE

And she loved the way he played, as they loved away their days;
They understood just what "together" means;
He believes she didn't go, and that's all he has to know;
She's living in the old FIDDLER'S DREAM.

He believes she didn't go, and that's all he has to know;
She's living, and she's walking, and she holds him,
in the old FIDDLER'S DREAM.

=====

Well, whadday think? Let me know!

On December 23 I played another really good Phoenix venue, Mama Java's Coffeehouse, on Indian School Road. This was a classic "music" coffeehouse, with good coffee, good sound, and a very good and very attentive audience. Since the gig was so close to Christmas, I didn't know just what to expect. It couldn't have been better. The crowd was really into the music. I love it when that happens. Makes it all worthwhile, it does!

Christmas is supposed to a time of love and companionship and sharing with people we hold dear. My Christmas in 2006 was exactly that. Near Black Canyon City, in the foothills of the Bradshaw Mountains of Arizona, live two of my dear friends, Jimmy and Shirley Longfellow. They are just outrageously fine folks. Jimmy and Shirley are musicians. Shirley is a world-class and very well-known photographer. Jimmy runs the business end of their photography business. Both of them are the kind of real, true, genuine, sincere friends that constitute one of life's greatest blessings. For a number of years they have been inviting me to spend Christmas with them and their family. In 2006 I did that. It was wonderful fun. The stars are very bright in sky above the Arizona mountains on Christmas night. Thank you, Jimmy and Shirley, for a wonderful Christmas and for your friendship all down the years. It would be great if everyone's Christmases could be as fine as mine was in 2006.

At the very end of 2006 I travelled out to Los Angeles, California, and from there on across the Pacific Ocean and around the world to New Zealand, where a great tour filled with adventures, beauty, and friendship awaited. I hope to get the next update out very soon, and in that one I'll get into all the good things that happened "down under".

You know I enjoy putting together these updates. It makes me very happy that so many of you let me know you enjoy reading them! There are definitely more to come!! I will try very hard to find a way not to get so far behind!

As ever, I'd like to hear from you, so please, dear friends, seriously--send me a few lines of e-mail to let me know how's by you. Note that I have a NEW E-MAIL ADDRESS: charleygroth@yahoo.com

Choose to be happy!

Charley Groth, charleygroth@yahoo.com