Cindy Grayson: News

I know I haven't been as frequent in my updates but please hang in there with me. It's the beginning of winter and the music is slowing down. I'm still playing and will keep you posted.

Don't have any special places to play lined up except the Nine Flags Fest down town in Nacogdoches on the 22nd of this month. Things have slowed down a lot but I've met a few new friends and we've started getting together on the weekends and cooking dinner and playing around the fire in the fire pit. It's fun. I'll be playing at the Christmas lighting ceremony on the 22nd at 6:15 in the evening downtown on the main stage in Nac. Hopefully I can make a quick getaway and run to Jacksonville to Roland's Next Door to hear " Beyond the Pale" with Randy Brown opening. I'll miss the opening set but I'll catch Beyond the Pale and they are the best in Celtic in this area.

I'm alway looking for people to play music with unfortunatly, I can't afford to travel too far unless it's going to bring in at least a little money. I'm looking forward to playing in Little Rock this weekend. I'm developing a new couriosity ( can't spell) for old folk and traditional music ,which I think my voice is more suited for any how, and the history behind it. Would love to share some music and ideas with anyone who's interested. Meantime , I'll keep playing and post more pictures.

I took the songs that Stan & I worked on and put the best of them on a Cd and have designed the cover to it. I've been selling it along with my 1st Classic Folk Cd and the responce has been great so I will get it on here asap. Probably shortly after I get back from Little Rock for the Pinnacle Festival. Thank you to thiose who check in here to see what I'm doing. I try to keep new things happening and hope you'll hang in there with me. I'll get the new Cd to you asap.

I'm always glad to get feedback from guests in my guestbook but please 1. keep it clean - please and 2. please understand that I only speak and read english so if you enter anything in another language, I won't be able to understand what you wrote. If you don't speak english, I hope you enjoy my music anyway.
Thankyou.

Tomorrow we will welcome in October 2008 and I can already feel the chill in the air. This Friday I will be down at my friend's tourist shop in downtown Nacogdoches with a glass of wine and my guitar. Folk music seems to be in here so that's what I'll probably play. Saturday I'll be at the Farmers Market in the morning helping out and in the evening, I plan on driving to Crockett to see what the Camp Street Cafe is all about with a friend. I hate going places for the first time alone. I'll let you know how it goes.
Sunday morning, Amie & I are headed to Gatesvillt to see my Mom & Dad.
Hope you all have a great weekend.!

Clyde's friend, Janet, writes from Arkansas --Hey, just wanted to thank you again for singing with Clyde in the concert! I also wanted to give you the dates for the Pinnicle Mountain Festival..... Oct. 18th and 19th. It is such fun and we play all day on Sat and 1/2 day on Sun. We play at the entrance of the festival under some big shade trees. People are out to have fun, the weather is usually great and fall out there is wonderful.
Everyone in the festival is in costume, there will be indians, mountain men and women, civil war sholdiers , etc.... It will be a full, fun , music weekend.

We made it through. I got my electricity back about 2 days ago and all my clients and neighbors have all wanted me to come help at once - not to mention I have two trees down in my own yard. It's ok. I'm happy to help. What goes around comes around.

I'm sitting at my house listening to the news and weather. There is a tornado warning and flash flood warnings out. I went to Walmart yesterday evening and the bread section was empty and the place was crawling with people fillinf their baskets with food and things that were easy to cook. We're not on the coast but Ike is headed straight for us if it stays on the path that it's on. Last time, I lost about 10 trees on my property and was without electricity for about 2 weeks and had to go stay at a friends house down the road.
I've been watching the clouds move in and now there is no blue to be seen . The winds are picking up and I've tied down and covered everything I could. The temp has dropped from 92 to 82 in the last hour and is still dropping.The weather channel is predicting winds of over 50 mph possible tomorrow and rains up to 5 inches. We'll wait and see.

The hurricane in the gulf is suppose to be here by tuesday. I've already had a few friends call to make sure I'm going to be ok ( thank you). It's been so hot here in Texas that I haven't been able to do a lot of work so I may have to use the money for my granddaughters next month's piano lessons to stock up on lamp oil and wicks and some easy to keep food items. Last time we were without electricity for two weeks and it was too hot to even sleep on the back porch. I stayed for a week at a friends house down the road who still had everything.
I don't have any chickens any more. The raccoons and possums have killed them all and I can't seem to get any help fixing things around here so it's just me and Amie and the cats - and my guitars. Hopefully it won't be as bad as the last time.

I spent a few days in Gatesville at my parents farm. Mom lost the copy of the Classic Folk Volume 1 I gave her so I guess I need to get her another one. I do all the productions myself so I'll ahve to wait until I make enough to make more. It will have to be before I go back to Little Rock in October for the Pinnacle Festival or I'll be in big trouble. I mowed the large lawn and put am ac unit in the window for my Mom. The woman can afford to be comfortable but refuses to spend the money. I don't understand it! if she wanted a new car - she'd write a check but she won't pay to be comfortable! Go figure!

I was talking to my sister-in-law, and she said she thought that what I had done in recording the rough draft for the CF vol 2 " Celtic Seasoning" sounded good enough to put out as it is ( minus one of the songs that my brother said wasn't old enough ). I'm toying with the idea. I already have the cover and inside design done. I'm thinking about it. I've already had requests for it. I'll post it when I decide.

My brother, Clyde, and I were a hit at the RackenSack Concert in Little Rock and I've been asked to come back as often as I can! YEAH! I had a blast too! I've been asked to come back and spend the weekend of the 18th of October when they do music all weekend. I promised I would so I'll post all the information as soon as I get it.

My brother, Clyde, called and said he had a really bad cold and didn't think he'd be able to sing but he could still back me up with his guitar or his upright bass so I've decided to leave Saturday morning and be there to play that evening at the Rac & Sac concert but I'll head back home after breakfast Sunday morning. I know it's a lot of driving but I'm really excited about finally being able to play music with my brother. It will be our first really planned performance ever. It's just a shame it's taken us this long to get around to playing music together. I wish I lived closer.

The second Saturday of every month, at the Unity Church, they've started having an open mic and this next month will be the third one. The first two were fun and I want to thank Lee for calling and reminding me as I have a tendancy to get distracted. My brain runs faster than I do and I forget things. I hope more and more people show up, bring a dish for the pot luck dinner they have tables set out for and add to the audience if not the show. It's been a lot of fun so far.I'm all for supporting it.

I'll be leaving Saturday morning for Little Rock. My brother, Clyde, called and said he had a bad cold and probably wouldn't be able to sing but I said I'd come, do my one song, The Blacksmith" and if he wanted to back me up on one of the other two we'd planned on doing ( Gypsy Rover & Old Marrow Bones) I'd be glad to but it all depends on what he feels up to. I enjoy playing the old folk songs but he's feeling awful so I'll play some that evening and then head home to Nacogdoches the next morning so he can go back to bed. I'm so glad I found out that he doesn't really live that far away. I don't get to see my brother too often.

I'm here at my cousin, Barbara's house and have been here for a couple of days. It's great!, It's beautiful and I'm seriously thinking about working on moving up here as soon as I can work out a few more things in Texas. The place is beautiful! It's a little piece of heaven.
I'll add some pictures when I get back home. At the moment, I haven't left yet and it's a 29 hour drive home so it may be next week before I add photos but I have some great ones!

I'm very glad to be a part of the rebirth of the Farmers Market in town. Last Saturday we had about 24 venders and it's going so well, we're also open on Wednesday now. Last Saturday, we had open mic and no one came up to the mic so, since I set up the P.A. and was there all morning to manage it, I took out my guitar and played most of the list I've been doing at the Cafe two nights a week, still had a lot of old folk songs I would have liked to do and only did a couple of the 49 original songs of my own and played 3 hours, nonstop! I think I could play close to 6 hours if I had to. It turns out that my playing fits the atmosphere and people even came and sat down in the chairs I had set out in front of me and stayed there the whole time. I guess my delivery is getting better. I especially love it when you can see them singing as they shop.
It will be almost the end of August before I get to slow down. Next weekend I'll be in Ithacca, New York visiting my family and playing music. The weekend of the 16th, I've sent off my registration to play in the annual Rac & Sac concert in Little Rock. My brother and I will play a couple of old folk songs together and I will sign up to play one by myself. The Rac & Sac group is a group who's purpose is to keep the old folk songs alive so I won't be doing any of my own but Clyde ( my brother) and I will be doing " Gypsy Rover" and " Marrow Bones" and I plan on doing" The Blacksmith" for my solo number. It will be only the second time in our lives Clyde & I have played together. I'll have to make sure I don't make any mistakes.
Clyde says " The Unicorn" song isn't old enough and I shouldn't put it on my Celtic CD I had planned on doing so I guess I'll save it for performances since most everyone else I've talked to who use to do it is tired of doing it but the audience isn't tired yet. It still leaves me with 10 chosen songs but I think production on that project is at a standstill due to a lack of funds. Without a financial sponcer, I can see the next three projects I had planned will not be happening for awhile. That's ok. It just means more time to perform and practice and so far, my audiences seem to like what I have to offer better and better every time I do it and it gets easier so I'm having fun - and I'll keep having fun.

I have no idea what I did but I'm back on my computer again.
I took the day off to putter around the house. The edges of Hurricane Dolly are suppose to touch down here today in the afternoon and I couldn't wake up this morning - even with my cats' new batch of kittens right undwer the head of my bed. The sky is clear at the moment and the temperature isn't too bad. The cover over my back deck is still only 2/3rd's done and when it heats up, I won't be going outside if I can help it. I'm due to leave for Ithacca, New York next friday and will be gone for about 6 days. The weekend after I get back I promised I'd go see my friend, Joe Vega, who plays music in Austin. His parents tried to get me to go the last time they went but Amie was finishing up her last day of school before the summer and I felt I really needed to be there. This time I'll go. Joe is a very talanted musician and very good friend.
After that, I promised my brother in Little Rock I'd come up for the annual Rac & Sac concert. I still have the registration papers to fill out so I can play. I just haven't figured out how we can each fill out a registration so we can play as much as possible. There are limits on how much a solo act or a group or duet can play. We'll figure it out.

I still can't get onto my computer. I have to calanders to design anmd lots of pictures to load onto my gallery here and an art show coming up at the Lamplight Player Theater here in Nac and I'm still locked out of my computer. Hopefully it will be fixed by next weekend. Hang in there. I've lots of music news to tell you about. Next month I'll be in Ithacca , New York, then back here and to Austin , Tx.and then back up to Little Rock, Arkansas. More to tell you about later on this week.

The entry for " Frankshaven" has been removed. I have been informed by email that although I've been conversing with Frank for quite awhile, it is another scam. Sorry. I have removed it.

I have several more pictures of Kerrville and several of the Rac & Sac Players in Little Rock to put on here but at the moment, I'm having to use my son's computer and since a friend helped him hook up to my computer connection, I'm having trouble getting my pictures to load so I'll do it later.. sorry.

I went up to Little Rock for this last 4th of July to visit with my brother and sister-in-law for the first time. They took me touristing around Little Rock and on the 7th, I went with my brother,Clyde, to listen and play with the Rac & Sac Players there that he's been playing music with for many years. They're a wonderful group of musicians and Clyde and I got to play and sing together for the first time. We did " The Blackest Crow", The Gypsy Rover" and " Somewhere Along The Road" and they must have liked it because I got invited back for their concert on the 16th of August,2008! Guess I haven't lost my touch!

I have more pictures but my dailey work in the flowerbeds is wearing me out. I'll put more in asap. This last weekend was the Blue Berry Festival here in town and I played for about an hour in the sweltering mugginess. There were lots of things to do and things to eat but I ended up at home in the afternoon asleep on the couch and haven't laft yet. Monday is back to work and I'm taking it easy until then.

I just got back from the Festival today. Boy! Do I wish I had the equipment to get the next two Cd's finished! I got some great ideas and met some really great people. Learned a lot - and plan on going back next year. It's late but I'll be back on here Monday and get as many of the pictures loaded as I can. I'm sorry I'm always behind the camera but I got lots of other people shots. Those who's names I don't remember, I'll find out and fill in as I get them. Check back in later on this week.