Whoo, boy, am I behind in making this update! Last one was posted from Helensville, New Zealand, just outside Auckland. I'm writing this one sitting at home in Largo, Florida. Tomorrow morning I will head out on a tour, the first show being in Alabama, with Terry Smith. Then I'll be going to Louisiana, and on to Texas.

After I left New Zealand at the end of Janaury 2005, I took some time off. Then in March played the Will McLean Festival at Sertoma Youth Ranch, in Florida. This has become the best festival in Florida, and I have participated in every single production of it from the beginning years ago. I am honored and pleased to be a feature act in this fine event. This year I put together a fun band that included among other fine musicians Jenny James, a great flute player, and a guest appearance by the very talented singer-songwriter Joey Errigo, who did Wild Side of Life/It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels with us.

In April I flew the Atlantic Ocean again to England, for shows at the Royal Oak Pub in Dorset, and the Bluebird Club. At the Royal Oak I had the great pleasure of working with top professionals Matt and Val Ditchburn. That was a great gig. At the Bluebird I was accompanied by the Bourne Valley Drifters Band.

Highlights of this latest trip to England included visiting with my very good friends Gerald and Ann Brown, who, with their usual warm generousity ran me all around England to sight-see. This trip I was determined to see Stonehenge, and we did visit that mysterious site. It was a cold windy day when we were there, and about a hundred French teenagers were there when we were there, but the amazing power in those stones was clearly felt. Among other things, we also visited a cathedral and the ancient Roman bathhouse at Bath, England. That was a wonder to see. A very knowledgeable and well-spoken guide brought the site to life. Gerald and I also climbed ancient fortifications built in prehistoric times and we all attended a real English horse fair. Went to some authentic English pubs and poked around Bournemouth, where Gerald grew up. Big fun, all of it.

Leaving England I flew up to Scotland once again to visit my good old friends Ken and Katie Allstaff, in their almost unbelieveably beautiful home town of Aberfeldy, Scotland, located in the central part of the country near Edinburgh. I love Scotland and the Scots, and I love Aberfeldy. A thrill for me was hiking up into the Birks of Aberfeldy to a site where Robert Burns wrote some of his immortal poetry. I sat on the same stones where Burns sat, and felt his spirit in the air! The hike was fairly steep and difficult, but it was so enjoyable I did it twice while I was there. Made music at the Riverside Inn and the Taybank pub while in the area.

Following my time in central Scotland, I took a bus to Inverness to to record some mandolin tracks on one of my friend Duncan's Fergusons fascinating CDs, to visit with Duncan, and to do a lot of touring around northern Scotland with Duncan. He is a very well informed history buff and a wonderful tour guide. We visited Loch Ness and Loch Lomand, the battlefield at Culloden where Bonnie Prince Charlie was defeated by the English, the Isle of Skye where Prince Charlie hid out after his defeat, and much, much more. Duncan was born to a crofter family in the mountains outside Inverness, and he took me to where he spent his childhood. It was great to visit there.

Probably the most interesting thing I saw in Scotland this time was a Pict site--constructions made many thousands of years ago by the Picts, inhabitants of Scotland before the present Scots came across the sea from Ireland. The religious and astronmical/astrological site is amazingly well preserved and very, very, very old. I spent quite a lot of time there, in the quiet green Scottish countryside, walking though those ancient buildings.

I'm a book nut. In Inverness I discovered Leaky's book shop, which has to be one of the most wonderful book shops in the world. It has everything: The rickety dark wood shelves, tens of thousands of volumes new and used, a little guy at a raised desk in the middle of the main room who knows where everything could be found, a fine teashop upstairs. All the best stuff. I spent many hours in Leaky's.

Of course Duncan and I made a lot of music too. He and his lady Marina were very, very kind to me and we had a great time together.

At the end of April, I regretfully boarded an airplane at Inverness for the short flight to Gatwick airport near London, and then boarded another plane for the long, long flight home. No sooner did I get back home than I played a private party celebrating my friends Frank and Maggie Cinella's wedding anniversary. I took a piano and played a lot of jazz, accompanied by Jim Davis on bass fiddle. We were very well received. It was fun to play for such a receptive audience, and it was fun to play jazz again with Jim Davis. All good!

At the end of May I travelled to White Springs, Florida, to particpate for the 23rd consecutive year in the big Florida Folk Festival. Had a great time and a good Saturday feature spot with a fine band on the Marble Stage, which is the best stage at the festival. I did my customary ragtime piano show also. This festival is like a giant family reunion for those of us who have participated for many years. Lots and lots of good music happened over the weekend!

On June 2-5 I was in Georgiana, Alabama, playing the Hank Williams Memorial Festival. This was my second year at the festival, and I was pleased an honored again this year to have, in addition to lots of sets on smaller stages, a nice spot on the main stage show with Terry Smith. Headliners on our day were the Oak Ridge Boys. Other headliners at the festival included Gene Watson and George Hamilton IV. This festival was great fun and was not marred as it had been last year by antics and inappropriate music by Marty Stuart.

There's more to come in this update: Shows in Missouri; a concert in Davenport, Iowa; a great festival in Nashua, Iowa; the wonderful country festival at Wahoo, Nebraska; the Woody Guthrie Festival in Okemah, Oklahoma, where I got to meet and get to know Mary Jo Edgmon, Woody's surviving sister; a flying trip to Ohio; the Flod Fest in August; a festival in Blair, Nebraska; the National Traditional Country Music Festival in Missouri Valley, Iowa; festival with the Clay Vessels group in northeast Texas; and on and on. Time prevents me from writing in more detail right now...but I'll get to it!

As always, 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, seriously--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