Homegrown Yarn Band?

We're really looking forward to our show at Caffe Lena in Saratoga Springs, NY, next weekend. I'll be writing more about that next week. But I want to share some of the happenings leading up to the big show. While arranging details for the show with Caffe manager Sarah Craig, Georgianne mentioned that Erica had written the cover story for the October issue of Yarn Forward magazine. When Sarah heard that Erica was a rising star in the knitting world, she suggested having a knitting circle before the show. We thought that was a great idea! To give the knitters an extra incentive to come out to the show, Georgianne and Erica came up with the idea of, at sometime during the evening, having a drawing for a knitter's basket. The basket will be filled with goodies, including a brand new, original, Fiddleknits hat pattern along with the Knit Picks yarn, and set of handcrafted pewter buttons, (made by me!) needed to complete the project. We didn't want the non-knitters to feel left out so we thought we should also give away a non-knitting basket. The second basket will include, among other things, some Homegrown String Band merchandise and a sample bag of our favorite organic fair trade coffee. A few weeks ago I wrote a blog about fair trade coffee from Dean's Beans; I can't say enough about the good people who run this great company! When we called to order the coffee, the good folks at Dean's kindly offered to donate a full pound of freshly roasted, shade grown, fair trade, organic coffee beans. We received the coffee today. So the lucky winner will get The Homegrown String Band CD "Ragged but Right" featuring our almost hit song "The Man Who Dressed in Black" and a pound of "Ring of Fire" coffee: "A dark, smokin' blend of high mountain beans from the active volcanic soils of Indonesia, Timor, and Papua-New Guinea. Eye-opening!" So come see us at Caffe Lena on Saturday, January 23rd, and enjoy a great evening of knitting and acoustic roots music at America's longest continuously operating coffeehouse.

P.S. Here's a link to Erica's latest post on her Fiddleknits blog: 

 "Help for Haiti"  

Photo by Rick Jackofsky

Praying for Haiti

Our prayers and well wishes go out to the people of Haiti suffering from the effects of a massive earthquake. This catastrophe deals yet another blow to the people of one of the poorest countries in the western hemisphere. Hopefully the U.S. and other neighboring countries will hasten to their aid; extending a helping hand to the people of Haiti in their time of need.

Donate to the

American Red Cross Haitian Relief Fund

Photo by Rick Jackofsky

Praying For Spring

Baby it's cold outside! If this keeps up we're

gonna get a ton of snow this year! This early winter weather reminds me of the year I wrote "Praying  for Spring." It was getting pretty deep into a particularly hard winter, cabin fever had set in and I was dreaming about summer festivals and homegrown tomatoes. With the downturn in the economy, this song has taken on a new significance, offering hope to people who have been struggling through hard times. In response to these hard times we, The Homegrown String Band, have slashed prices on all our CDs. The new recession busting price is just $10 each!

To hear "Praying For Spring" and other HGSB streaming music
click here

To download a FREE Mp3 version of "Praying for Spring"
click here
Sleeping Gnome photo by Rick Jackofsky

Goin' to Mt. Laurel With My Banjo Pickin' Girl!

Free Show!
Sunday January 10th 2pm 

The Homegrown String Band Live at the

Mount Laurel Public Library

"The Family That Plays Together"

This show will mark the band's 13th anniversary!
Our first public performance as a family was on
January 10th 1997

Mount Laurel Public Library
100 Walt Whitman Avenue
Mount Laurel, NJ  08054
856-234-7319
Sunday January 10, 2010 @ 2pm
Band Photo by Wade Turpin

Support Live Acoustic Music in 2010

So much of the world today is contrived, manipulated, digitally altered, and cliched. Seeing acoustic music performed live in a listening room environment is a timeless experience that should be cherished. These days so much recorded music is overdubbed, computer generated, auto tuned, looped, sampled, and enhanced; good old live acoustic music played by human beings is often viewed as quaint and obsolete. When recording technology first came on the scene 100 years ago, the goal was to recreate a live music experience. In recent years the tables have turned and more and more listeners expect live musicians to recreate the sounds manufactured in the studio. It's not uncommon to see live musicians utilizing synthesizers, drum machines, tape loops, and backing tracks. For some, the computer has become the instrument of choice. But lovers of real organic music need not despair. There are still bastions of traditional music out there, musicians and presenters who are keeping the flame burning by performing and presenting bluegrass, celtic, blues, and various forms of modern and traditional  acoustic music. But acoustic musicians and venues need your help! Get out and see some live acoustic music in 2010. A good start may be going to The Homegrown String Band's January 23rd appearance at Caffe Lena in Saratoga Springs, NY, or perhaps our January 29th show at The Buttonwood Tree in Middletown CT. Nonprofit venues around the country, like Caffe Lena and The Buttonwood Tree, are struggling to keep their doors open and need the help of dedicated acoustic music fans who still value the art of handmade music.

"Caffè Lena is widely recognized as the oldest continuously operating coffeehouse in the United States. It is an internationally renowned cultural center and an American treasure. Opened in 1960, the café has helped to launch many of America's best loved songwriters, including Bob Dylan, Arlo Guthrie, Ani DiFranco and many more."

"The Buttonwood Tree is a community-based nonprofit arts organization serving central Connecticut with music events, bookstore and the performing arts."

John Fahey " The New Possibility "

My all time favorite Christmas recording has got to be the inimitable John Fahey's slide and finger style solo guitar instrumental album "The New Possibility." Originally issued in 1993 on the Tacoma label it is now available in CD and Mp3 formats. (I'm listening to my 16 year old cassette as I type)  "The New Possibility" is a tasteful, unique, laid back, non commercial soundtrack to the holiday season. Give it a listen. Hope you enjoy it as much as I do. - Rick

 The New Possibility: John Fahey's Guitar Soli Christmas Album

The New Possibility: John Fahey's Guitar Soli Christmas Album/Christmas With John Fahey, Vol. II

Merry Christmas From The Family!

Rick, Georgianne, Erica, and Annalee  

The Homegrown String Band 

New Homegrown String Band Web Pages: Are we addicted to the Internet?

When we released our first CD (Blind Dog Thumpin' on the Porch) in 2000, we decided it was time for The Homegrown String Band to establish a presence on the World Wide Web (that's what we used to call the Internet). In July 2000 we registered our domain name and began selling CDs on Amazon.com. Our first website was a primitive one page html document built using Adobe Page Mill and posted using AOL's Hometown free hosting. Since then we have added an EPK, a Myspace page, (I've yet to heed the call of Facebook or Twitter), a Youtube channel, and this blog. Our website has grown to twelve glorious pages and I spend way to much time on the internet. Once these sites are established they have to be maintained and monitored. I do my best to keep our website and EPK current and up to date; Myspace and Youtube. . . ahh, not so much. A lot of bands use Myspace pages as their band website—we have had a page since 2005—but I've always thought of it as an add on to our website and have invited all our imaginary Myspace friends to check out our concert schedule, come to a show and become a real friend. A couple of weeks ago, while checking in on Myspace, I found some of the photos had been deleted by our photo hosting service due to the fact that we hadn't logged in for more than six months. Well, I couldn't remember the user name or password so I just deleted the photo links. Then last week, while checking the site again, I noticed that the music player was not loading. I made a comment about it and my daughter said "Myspace is so passe." I always found the long load times and ads on Myspace to be very annoying, but lots of people would ask about the site and go there to hear samples of our music even though it is all available in a more accessible form on our EPK. Now that Myspace is passe, (will the last person to leave Myspace please turn out the lights), I felt free to move the link to a less prominent spot on our website. So, last Thursday I decided to do some remodeling. I spent the bulk of the next four days adding three new pages—a photo page, a video page, and an Mp3 player, as well as updating and cleaning up the other pages. By Sunday night I had a most heinous headache, the wife (the lovely and talented "Mother Hen" Georgianne) suggested—no make that ordered me—to stay off the computer for a day. It was hard but I did it; 24hrs without touching a computer.  The little beast kept calling me (am I addicted to the Internet?) "check your e-mail," "track your packages," " see if you sold any buttons or Navajo spindles , "read some blogs," "It's Hot Stove time better check the MLB trade rumors." Well, guess what? My packages were delivered without me tracking them, the Mets didn't make any blockbuster trades, and most of the e-mail that accumulated in my mailbox was junk and the rest was not particularly urgent. Maybe I can live without the Internet..... Maybe. I did sell a spindle, which is winging it's way across the country, via Priority Mail, as we surf.