quote:
Originally posted by Texas Flatpicker
With so many so close, we should get a pickin together. I go over to Montgomery on the 1st Saturday of each month regularly and play but not sure where Pearl is.
Pearl is about 70 miles north of Austin....not quite 40 miles almost straight west of Waco (where the Shiners live). Here are a couple of links to get you started:
First, the official Washburn Texas Washies thread, all about Pearl (with acceptable thread drifting allowed [
]):
http://forums.washburn.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=10896And, then, there's the official Pearl website:
http://www.pearlbluegrass.smugmug.com/Don't let the Pearl Bluegrass website fool you, this is WAAAY more than a Saturday afternoon event. The pickin' 'n' grinnin' usually starts somewhere around Thursday evening, when the RV's start rolling in (I camp out in a tent, quite comfortably). The building is opened up on Friday (there are restrooms with showers) and the jam rooms can be full or empty, depending on who's there, during the day, but they are all full on Friday evening. Saturday the local long-timers show up in the morning and the 4 jam rooms are all busy pretty much all day, as is the stage starting around 1 PM. After the stage acts are over (usually around 6 or 7 PM, depending on how many there are) everyone takes a break for dinner, then we all find our way back to the jam rooms and the jams usually break up somewhere between 10 PM and midnight. Anyone who arrives AND leaves on Saturday afternoon and thinks they have experienced Pearl is in for a HUGE surprise once they find the time to stay for the after-dinner jams. The jams are not limited to the 4 classroom/jam rooms, there's a large covered area outside where some of the best play (it seems to be the preferred location for the tobacco addicts, as there is no smoking allowed inside the shcool house). Impromptu little jam groups spring up everywere outside if the weather is good (you'll see our little Texas Washies group in that Washburn thread), and if you make it a habit to go you'll get to know the regulars pretty quickly. They are not cliquish at all....every one of them is gracious and readily welcomes strangers to the circle.
How about telling us more about the monthly event at Montgomery? There are monthly events at Dickinson and League City (both near to Houston) and Belleville has an annual festival in September (I think), maybe October....plus they have monthly events for SOME of the months, not sure which ones, but certainly not the winter months.
If you're interested in performing onstage at open-mic nights in Houston, here are two that I've played, they both have a very accepting attitude toward different musical genres as well as skill levels:
http://www.mcgonigels.com/The Mucky Duck has a great kitchen and a fair selection of beers on tap.....and they have a GREAT lineup of entertainers (almost all with cover charges) during the week....open mic is Monday night.
http://www.jphopshouse.com/JP's is a bit less formal than the Mucky Duck....no kitchen, but an incredible range of brews, both imported and domestic. Their open-mic night is Sunday. I feel a bit more comfortable playing there, the atmosphere is more like Cheers with a large group of regulars who inhabit the same table every night (well, every night I've been there, anyway) and every Wednesday they do a cool Hard Times Soup Kitchen in which a few of the regulars bring a crock-pot of soup and anyone who wanders in can eat for free and listen to the Hard Times Troubadors quartet and a separate Guest Troubador without any cover charge....AND, most of their stage acts don't have a cover charge, either. The only one I can recall having a cover charge was Shake Russell....and well worth it.
Both venues emphasize acoustic music, have PA systems into which you can plug you D56SWCE, and can mic an acoustic-only instrument, too.
Mucky Duck is downtown Houston (very near Kirby Dr. and U.S. 59) and J.P.'s is west Houston (very near Westheimer and TX Hwy 6).
If you decide to give Pearl a try, I'll see what I can do about rounding up the usual partners in crime....Pappy, the Shiners, DTOM, along with whatever others they will bring. We haven't heard from Strumsalot for a LOOOONG time on the forum, but I might be able to get an email through to him through the forum, we'll see. Casting calls usually show up on the Texas Washies thread if one of us is planning on going up there.
Bring your guitar with the R string......just don't bring an electric guitar, as Pearl is no amplifiers allowed territory.
Cheers!
Dugly [8D]
YerDugliness, Esq./Post No Bills
Guitar Playin' FOOL, retired & attempting to age disgracefully!!
Washburns: WD32SW, D61SW, and C124SW
Other fine acoustic guitars by Breedlove (custom shop Revival Series 000), Darren Hippner (#506), Takamini (2005 LTD), Epiphone (Masterbilt AJ500RC), and Yamaha (G231-II) 
