Walnuts and Pipelines

Dear Friends,
We've been using our free time around the place getting ready for fall and winter and last night had the furnace on for the first time since May. The garden is about finished and we're working today on the last of the produce it provided us in 2014. We are fairly well set with this winter's wood supply and are thinking about 2015/2016's already. The porches are clean and we've painted some of the furniture so it will stand up to the onslaught of winter's rain, wind and snow. And we're thinking about buying hard hats as we're dealing daily with the barrage of black walnuts falling on us in our back yard. If you are a victim of a falling walnut, you don't soon forget it.

There are some updates from last month's email. First, our Bozeman, MT date has been changed from Saturday, November 1 to Sunday, November 2. We hope that doesn't cause problems for anyone. Secondly, the compilation of Jean Ritchie songs, "Dear Jean - Artists Celebrate Jean Ritchie," on which we have a song, has just finished its second month as the number one album on Folk Radio.

We'd like to give a special shout out to a couple of November nights in Bethesda, MD as we'll be joining our friend Mary Chapin Carpenter and several other noted artists in celebrating the life and artistry of our mutual friend, John Jennings. John is one of the most talented musicians we've ever worked with; he has produced two of our CDs and, for those of you familiar with Mary Chapin's career, you'll recognize him as the producer of her first albums on Columbia Records and a long time member of her road band. He is now battling cancer and these nights are to benefit him and to aid with his medical bills. You won't be disappointed if you come to one of these shows.

Bumper Sticker Of The Month: The last thing I want to do is hurt you, but it's still on my list.

We're heading to Georgia this week. On Friday we'll be at the Imperial Theater in Augusta, GA as part of the "True Music Southern Soul and Song" series. We're looking forward to that. As well, we're fondly anticipating Saturday night in Atlanta where we'll share the stage with Caroline Herring for a benefit for "The Open Door," the Atlanta area's first homeless shelter. If you're close by, please come.

And finally, we, with the help of our friend Richard Adams, recently posted a new video on You Tube that we hope you'll check out:

We're involved in some local opposition to a proposed natural gas pipeline that wants to come through our county and run on down to North Carolina. There are some local issues involved: property rights, Eminent Domain, fragile karst geology and water contamination, and the fact that they want to come through the George Washington National Forest. But, after studying the arguments pro and con, and realizing that each side likes to use scare tactics and smoke screens, we've come to believe that the central issue is Climate Change and that it's a real and immediate problem. Everyone has their own opinion on this issue and ours is that Dominion Power is wrong in wanting to spend five and a half billion dollars on carbon based energy when that money, with the future in mind, could be used more wisely on renewable alternatives. So we're acting locally in opposing this pipeline. And we'll try and not "screed" you on any more of our missives.

We hope this finds you all well and busy.

Your pals,
Robin and Linda

BOOKINGS: Trish Galfano, Myriad Artists,
trish@myriadartists.com, 919.967.8655