New England Folk Festival 2022 Is LIve

 

The New England Folk Festival is Happening Now!!! Live! on Zoom!

 

Tomorrow morning (Saturday, April 22) at 10:15 am I will be doing a solo clawhammer banjo show and The Homegrown String Band™ will be doing a concert on Saturday night at 7:30. Here's the link to register and see the schedule grid.

 

https://www.neffa.org/folk-festival/schedule/

The festival is Free (donations accepted and encouraged)

HGSB - April 23, at The 2022 New England Folk Festival

 

Once again this year's New England Folk Festival will be an online virtual event viewable via Zoom. Rick will be doing a solo clawhammer banjo demonstration on Saturday Morning, and The Homegrown String Band™ will be doing a concert on Saturday night.

 

https://www.neffa.org/folk-festival/schedule/

Montville Township Public Library - March 10th - 2022

 

Finally!!! Our first show of 2022! A rare midweek afternoon show on Thursday, March 10th at The Montville Township Public Library.

The show is free and start time is 1 pm.

 

Twenty-Five Years of Homegrown Acoustic Americana

 

 

Our first "gig" as a family band was at a LITMA (Long Island Traditional Music Association) members concert in January 1997. Since then we have recorded six CDs and played over a thousand live shows at venues from Maine to Missouri. The past couple of years have been trying, but we are still plugging away and hope to get back to a regular performance schedule soon. If you know of any coffeehouses, libraries, or festivals that might be a good fit for "The Family That Plays Together" let us know or better yet contact the venue directly and recommend The Homegrown String Band™.

Thanks and Happy Anniversary to Us!

"Rooster" Rick

www.homegrownstringband.com

Sugar Time In Rock Hollow

 

Makin' maple syrup and waiting for the world to open up again. We have a few shows coming up this spring but still far from what we'd like to be doing. 

I tapped six of my maple trees on Tuesday February 8th and was able to collect a little more than 20 gallons of sap by Saturday the 12th which was a beautiful day where the temperature was close to 60 degrees. I spent about eight hours boiling the sap down to nine cups of Rooster Rick's World Famous Rock Hollow Maple Syrup. Hopefully I will get at least one more day of boiling before the trees start to bud. This is my tenth year of backyard maple sugaring and it seems like the sugaring season is getting earlier and shorter every year.

Our next gig will be on March 10th at the Montville Township Public Library, in Montville, NJ. after that we will be performing. virtually, at The New England Folk Festival on April 23rd.
 

Maple Sugaring 2022 - Day 2 - February 21st

Another beautiful day to boil sap and work on my winter tan. My primitive maple sugar evaporator celebrated ten years of active service today by boiling down 20 gallons of sap to give me another half-gallon of Rooster Rick's Famous Rock Hollow Maple Syrup.
 

Maple Sugaring 2022 - Day 3  March 7th

Up at 5 am and out boiling sap by 5:30. I wanted to get an early start because the afternoon forecast called for heavy wind and evening rain. By 1 pm I was out of wood, I had about 4 gallons of sap left, but still manged to get another 7 cups of syrup. All told for this year i did 23 hours of boiling and netted 23 cups of syrup, 1 cup short of a gallon and a half.

Merry Christmas From The Family That Plays Together!

 

 

2021 Hudson Valley Garlic Festival

The 2021 Hudson Valley Garlic Festival returns to Cantine Field in Saugerties, New York this weekend after a year lost to COVID. This year's festival takes place on Saturday and Sunday, October 2 & 3.  There will be three music stages, with six bands performing plus a fourth stage for The Arm of the Sea Theater.  The Homegrown String Band™ will be sharing the Pavillion Stage with Bells and Motley. We will each be presenting three sets each day.

The festival starts at 10am and the music begins around 11am each day. Other bands performing include Annie and the Hedonists, Luminous Crush, Mark Rust, and Sundad. 

Of course there will be plenty of garlic provided by food vendors as well as the forty garlic growers that will be representing farms from around the northeast.

The Hudson Valley Garlic Festival