Looking Ahead

Depending on where you are in the WayGood World, you may be enjoying summer like our fans down in Australia or still battling the last bits of winter like Sir George Philip and Switchback fans up in Scotland (Hang in there, George!).  Here along the upper Mississippi, we have experienced a little of both.

Mother Nature seems a bit confused, and that was best illustrated as we drove south of Lynxville, Wisconsin, on our way from some shows in Minnesota. Outside that town a big pond adjoins the river and half of it was frozen. On this half were crammed about 20 or so ice fishermen, all sitting patiently on pickle buckets, holding tiny fishing poles and watching their holes in the ice. The other half of the pond was ice-free and on that side were about three john boats, each with about two fishermen working together. The temperature was fairly warm and we wondered what the fish were doing on either side of the pond. From the look on the fishermen's faces, the fish must not have been biting.

It's a funny part of the year. We stoic Midwesterners reluctantly bid farewell to winter and accept the greening of the land. And with that comes the restless anticipation that summer will not be too far behind. For Switchback, it means our schedule starts getting busier. We have some excellent opportunities in April for people to see us in some very interesting destinations.

For the first time ever, we will play at a yoga studio. We're calling it a "Holistic Hooley" and it takes place at the Dancing Cranes Studio in Forest Park near Chicago on April 13. The room has great acoustics and we promise to rock everyone's chakras with an extremely intimate, somewhat unplugged, performance.

On April 14, the Steyer Opera House at the Hotel Winneshiek of Decorah, Iowa will be host to a benefit for that amazing radio station KPVL, the "Voice of Postville." Postville is a very historic city, known lately for its amazing cultural mix of South American, New York Hassidic and "Iowa-wegia."  Eating at their restaurants is a trip around the world in itself! The radio station's eclectic mix is perfect for this part of northeast Iowa. We're on board to help raise some funds for them as we continue to support stations that promote live, local music.

We have arranged a unique concert for just 50 people at the beautiful Four Mounds Inn in Dubuque, Iowa on April 21. You can still purchase tickets, but they are going fast. This will be a Nashville-style songwriters in the round program with James McCandless and Scott Momenthy sharing guitars and reaching into their song-bags for some amazing tunes. This is part of our Songwriters Weekend and we have only a few slots remaining for the workshops. We limit attendance to 16 as we create a very hands-on, exciting, and music-filled weekend for our participants.

The annual Spring Planting Concert at Oak Center, that great mercantile music destination in the middle of Minnesota, takes place on April 28.  For us, it means spring has officially arrived. Anyone who has climbed the narrow stairs to that wood-paneled room will attest to it being one of the best listening venues in the Midwest. On break, one can open the fire escape door and take in the smell of freshly turned black soil. It is a smell that is every bit as invigorating as the smell of the ocean or a mountain forest.

We will next head toward Des Moines and a new venue for us called The GrapeVine on Sunday, April 29th at 7 pm. This too is an exclusive show with only RSVPs being accepted. Once the room is filled, that's it. We haven't played central Iowa in a while and so we anticipate a great response. You can lock in your RSVP by emailing afinetime4wine@aol.com.

We keep heading west and onto the high plains of Kansas for some other new venues to play. We will appear at The Barton County Arts Council gallery in Great Bend, Kansas after we present a master class for college students on songwriting.

These are just some of the highlights and by no means the only shows we have coming up for you.  Please check our schedule for the full list of concerts and shows.  Also, please check our Road webpage to see where we've been.  Throughout the season, we continue our mission of reaching into communities and presenting outreach concerts at various churches, retirement homes, and schools.

~ Marty and Brian