Time for another update! I posted my last instalment from Prague in late July 2004, when I was doing some recording with some excellent Czech musicians in that beautiful city, capitol of the Czech Republic. When that work was done I flew back across the Atlantic to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where I was met by my very good friends Carla and Bill Ammeter. Carla helps me a lot with booking in the USA, and both of the Ammeters are like family to me. A summer on the midwestern festival circuit followed.

Following a couple of weeks of work doing promotion for a concert in Cedar Rapids, I drove to Nebraska to perform in the National Country Music Festival at Ainsworth. August 12-15. I had a great time there, and won an award for guitar picking! It was a pleasure to work in Ainsworth with Larry Dean (from Kansas City); Jay Kelly (Nebraska); the great South Dakota flash, Perc Washenberger on bass fiddle; and my old friend Tex Schutz (Dobro, guitar) and his wife Mary (vocals, bass fiddle), from Texas. Of course I did a lot of jamming with other fine musicians like Bill Craven, Sharon Kenaston, on and on. Big fun.

After the National Country Music Festival I travelled to the Kansas City area with my friends Larry (Dean) Inman and wife Rosie, where Larry and I worked on a duo act we are putting together to play the Kansas City and area markets. Larry and Rosie were wonderful hosts and we had lots of fun. Of course we went to all of the fine music stores in the area, checked out the acoustic music scene in general, and just had a lot of fun.

While I was at the National Country Music Festival, Elton Flodman, producer of the Flod Fest music show at Central City, Nebraska, booked me to appear in the show the following weekend. Talk about a last-minute booking! I had great fun and was booked again for next year. Talked to someone at that festival, too, who put me in touch with a music booking agent in Berlin, Germany. Networking

From Flod Fest I spent a loooooooong day driving back to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and then on to Cedar Falls, Iowa, where with Fiddle George Kralik and his Rowdy Rascals Band, on tour in the United States from Czech Republic, I did an hour-long live radio broadcast on Public Radio from the studios of KUNI-FM in Cedar Falls. The show, "Live From Studio One", hosted by Karen Impola, is carried on a number of stations in midwest USA--and worldwide, on the internet. The KUNI studio was first rate, and the production thoroughly professional. I think we did a good show. My dear friend Carla Ammeter has been urging me to do more of my own compositions, and so I included a couple of my own ballad songs that I don't perform often.

Halfway through the show, I realized that although one of the uptempo instrumentals we planned to do--"Texas Doubleheader", a combination of "Beaumont Rag" and "Raggedy Ann", both Texas tunes--is something I play on mandolin, I had left my mandolin several floors below in my van in the parking lot of the studio! I think the band members were wondering what I'd do about that! Fortunately, I can play that medley equally well on guitar... something the musicians in the band didn't know until I did it. I had not played it on guitar for a long time, but I'm happy to say it worked out well.

Things like that make life interesting!

Next on my schedule after the KUNI show was a concert I promoted with Faye Dudley, a great singer and entertainer headquartered in the midwest; Fiddle George Kralik and the Rowdy Rascals, from Europe, playing bluegrass; and my own show with backing by George and band, in an auditorium in Cedar Rapids, August 29. George and his band did some very nice work with me--country, swing, folk. I am very proud of that show, which went extremely well. A lot of first-rate music was made, and the audience was very appreciative. Sound and light work were *excellent*, and that's very important.

From Cedar Rapids I travelled west to the National Traditional Country Music Festival, which I play annually, in Missouri Valley, Iowa, near Omaha, Nebraska. This huge festival features entertainers and audience from all over the world. In addition to my own shows, once again this year it was my pleasure to work with the great songwriter Terry Smith ("Far Side Banks of Jordan", many, many others) whose songs have been recorded by Johnny Cash, June Carter, the Oak Ridge Boys, Roy Acuff, Chris LeDoux, and a host of other stars. I also worked with a dynamic young singer from Texas, Megan Beninson, and her dad, Wayne Beninson, who form the group Clay Vessels. They have a great old-time acoustic sound, with both singing, Megan on mandolin, and Wayne on guitar. I infected the Beninsons with swing a while back, when I was working with them in Texas. Now in Iowa they presented me with their new CD...and on it are a couple of swing tunes I taught them! I love to pass the music along. At the NTCM festival I also played some shows also with my friends Jimmy and Shirley Longfellow from Arizona. I love to visit Jimmy and Shirley in their mountain retreat near Black Canyon City, Arizona, on the edge of the Bradshaw Mountains. We take four-wheel-drive trips up into the mountains, and just hang around and relax. I am blessed to have very good friends in this world.

Of course there was also *lots* of jamming at this event. I was involved in several really top-flight jams. One that stands out in memory featured another good friend, Dobro-playing wizard Max Cooley, a terrific guitar flatpicker and banjo picker whose name I didn't catch but who made the smoke roll of his instruments, and a number of other fine pickers. Of course I also had a chance at this one to pick a lot with the Kenaston crowd. I think the Kenastons backed me up on one of my shows, too. We did swing.

A bright highlight of the week at the National Traditional Country Music Festival was a reunion with dear old friends Jim and Val Zeigler of Illinois. Jim is an ace Merle Travis/Chet Atkins-style guitar picker. He makes wonderful music. I had not seen Jim and Val for many years. It was great to sit around their campsite, talk over old times, and play guitars. They remain super people and we plan to get together much more often in the future. Jim played shows with me years ago...and I got him up to play a few with me at this festival too!

The weekend after the National Traditional Country Music Festival I travelled to Hastings, Nebraska, for the first edition of the new Miles of Memories Festival produced by my friends Tex and Mary Schutz. I had my own shows on the program, in which I worked with Fiddle George Kralik, Rick Anderson on guitar, and Harriette Anderson on bass fiddle. I also had the pleasure to work again with Terry Smith in all of his shows. I always enjoy working with Terry. If you haven't caught his show, try to do it. He is a world-class entertainer. The Miles of Memories Festival was unusual in that it was held inside, in a large auditorium. The entire festival area was enclosed and air-conditioned. The event was kind of a cross between a festival and a series of concerts, in that it did not have the multiple stages usually found at festivals, but did have workshops. Production was excellent throughout. Miles of Memories was a huge success !

After Miles of Memories, it was onward to famed steel guitar player Curt Shoemaker's festival in Nebraska. Curt is of course a stellar musician. We love to do shows together, especially when I can find a good piano to play. Then we do a lot of that old "swang"! I enjoyed doing some shows with him, with some of the Kenaston family of fine musicians, with 8-string Dobro and sax man Charlie Reece, and others. Good fun. Many of the performers on this festival were good friends of mine, so we had plenty to talk about and a lot of music to play!

The final festival in this long string of gigs was the Kenaston Flying V Festival at Utica, Nebraska. The Kenaston band is a powerful country/swing/traditional band involved in many acoustic music projects in the midwest. Sparkplug of the group is Sharon Kenaston, a very talented singer and player of guitar and bass fiddle and drums and... well, you get the idea. Her husband Roger is a great all-around musician too, perhaps best known for his outrageously good guitar and Dobro work. Roger's sister Vanessa as a wonderful singer and bass fiddle virtuoso. Roger and Vanessa's parents, both still play as well...Pop on fiddle, Mom on steel guitar! They do great music. They are great friends too.

The festival was held in an ENORMOUS dance hall near Utica, Nebraska. There are about a gazillion acres of hardwood dance floor, and the many performers kept the folks up and dancing all weekend. One of the shows I loved doing involved the hot muted trumpet playing of Kenaston drummer Jerry. Can't remember Jerry's last name for the life of me, right now...but believe me, he is great on that trumpet. I think we played "Sugar Moon", that old Cindy Walker classic.

We had a great small jam the night before the festival actually started, with Roger and Sharon and me and a few others participating--just sitting outside next to the Kenastons' old blue road bus, as the sun slowly set on the Nebraska prairie. We sat around and ate fresh tomatoes from Roger and Sharon's garden, and sandwiches, talked and joked and made music. That's what it is all about for me. Moments like that are among the sweetest in my life.

There was lots of other jamming, all weekend. You know me. I was in the middle of most of it. I never get tired of meeting and making music with good musicians.

After the Flying V festival I dropped down to Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas, to work on some music for the future with Wayne and Megan Beninson. We played a couple of shows while there, on two different days, at the famed White Elephant in Fort Worth. Had a lot of fun. Made progress with the music work too.

Leaving Texas, I hit the long road home to Florida in the first week of October. I arrived home on October 5, to find hurricane damage repair and cleanup required at my place in Largo, Florida. I had at it and am still working on it. The worst is passed. I'm glad I was not in Florida when the big winds struck.

On October 7, I played as feature in Pete Gallagher's music evening at the Ka-Tiki, a grand old funky beach bar on Treasure Island, Florida. Good fun was had by all, and the pay was very generous. Can't beat that. If you're living in or visiting Florida, don't miss Pete's musical evenings every Thursday at the Ka-Tiki.

I couldn't help thinking as I played that job how different my surroundings were from those in, say, Utica, Nebraska, or in Prague, Czech Republic, or in Norway, where I played a festival earlier in 2004. I sure have a great time travelling the world and taking my music to all the places I take it. Life is good and life is fun, for me.

After the Ka-Tiki gig came the second weekend of October and my annual Sunshine State Acoustic Music Camp. Once again this year the camp was a great success. We offer about 100 classes in a very wide variety of musical instrument playing, songwriting, singing, and related subjects. In addition to the many, many classes regularly offered, this year Sandy Meloon taught folk dancing, which we had not had before, and Marg Chauvin, our harp instructor, led a group in some Asian stretching exercises in the mornings. Our Saturday evening instructor concert lasted four and a half hours and included over twenty acts. Some of the very best acoustic musicians in the country performed. I enjoyed doing a swing and country set with the strong backing of Bill Hansen on fiddle, Doris Sotirellis on bass fiddle, Doug Travers on guitar, and Joe Reina on harmonica. All of them are instructors at the camp in the instrument they played with me, except for Bill Hansen, who teaches advanced guitar subjects but is a wonderful fiddler as well! I think the music camp is one of the best things I do all year, and I'm planning to open a Texas version of the camp in the Austin vicinity next year. For more information on the camp, click on the bottom button of the web site introductory page at http://www.cgmusicman.com

When I was playing at that festival in Norway, I was interviewed and had some of my music recorded for broadcast on Dutch radio by Loek Lamers, a prominent Dutch radio host. Loek and his lovely wife Hanny are great people. We became friends at the festival. Now I am preparing to go on tour in Germany, Scotland, and then Holland, where I will visit Loek and Hanny, do another radio show, and more music.

Interestingly enough, Loek and Hanny have just visited here at my place in Florida! They just left this morning heading back to Amsterdam. They were here for visiting and to attend the IBMA convention in Louisville, Kentucky. Like a lot of Europeans they are world travellers. I enjoyed having them here. It will be fun to be in their home many thousands of miles away from here in just a few weeks.

Well, that just about brings me up to date. Next week I'll fly out of Tampa to Frankfurt, Germany, and then go on by train to Weimar, near Leipzig, where I'll meet the organizer of the upcoming German tour.

Next update will tell how the trip went. If things come to pass that I hope will come to pass, future updates will tell of tours in South America and Australia. I'm working on both.

Also, by the time I write another update my new album, REMEMBER ME, will be out. There will a lot of good music on that album, ranging from bluegrass and country to blues to swing, fingerpicking guitar Piedmont style, jazz, and some songs and tunes of mine that have not been recorded before. Included will be the playing of amazing European fiddler Jiri (George) Kralik, and some mighty fine dobro, mandolin, and banjo work by pickers from places as widely separated as Europe and Fort Worth. Stellar bass fiddle player Jim Davis appears on one cut. My Easy Street Band is featured also. I think you'll like this new album. It should be released by Christmas 2004--and if not, then certainly in time for the early festival season next spring. Anyone wanting to place advance orders can contact me at rainbowpr@juno.com

Okay, enough for now. Time for bed. Tomorrow, final final final mastering of the album and, I think, the start of work repairing my screened porch--the west end of which was disassembled by one of the hurricanes.

I enjoy writing these updates, and it pleases me greatly that so many of you have let me know you enjoy reading them! More to come!!

I'd like to hear from you, so please, dear friends, send me a few lines of e-mail to let me know how's by you.

Choose to be happy!

Charley Groth rainbowpr@juno.com