Hi all,

This is just a quick update for all you bones-players out there.

Steve Brown's workshop at the New England Folk Festival went very well, with
several folks performing and helping teach the basics. Kudos also to Adams
Klein and Constance Cook, who have created something of a monster,
apparently, in Brockton, MA-- back in February, more than a hundred
elementary school kids were playing bones (Steve Brown was also witness to
this feat). Several of these kids showed up at the folk festival and did
themselves proud, playing along with the Reiner family band (whom some of
you may remember as the back-up band from Bones Fest V). A couple of my
special memories include Rob Rudin's accompaniment of some out-there jazz,
and one courageous and persistent young man who must have stood next to
Steve's bones booth in the crafts room for about an hour until he finally
got the hang of a tap, then a triplet.

Steve is in Ireland at the moment, and will be participating (along with
several other North Americans) in the All-Ireland Bones Championship. Power
to all of them; I wish I were there, but my schoolwork says otherwise.

Steve is also thinking about trying to organize a North-east Regional Bones
Fest Gathering, on June 22 (if I'm not mistaken). Mel Mercier (who's on
this mailing list and on the board of the Bones Society, and who is a
fantastic player) is finishing up a week of teaching bodhran and bones in
Boston, and it would be a great chance to meet him, since he doesn't get
across the water all that often. So think about it, folks, if you live east
of the Hudson and south of New Brunswick-- a great chance to see some other
bones folks even if you can't make it all the way to Kentucky in July
(although I know you all want to). Pencil it in, and we'll keep you posted.
Feedback and ideas and volunteerism will certainly be appreciated--
especially spreading the word to other bones players who aren't on this
mailing list.

Finally, I'd like to direct your attention to the www.rhythmbones.com
website, which has continued to grow. There are now something like 60ish
bones events on the calendar for the remainder of 2003: see
http://www.rhythmbones.com/calendar.html . If any of you know of any
classes, festivals, workshops, concerts, performance art, or whatever, that
involve bones-playing, please let me know, and I'll add them in. It doesn't
even have to be exclusively bones oriented, but we should have at least a
solid chance of seeing some bones playing there. (As an example, I just
added a bunch of gigs for Le Vent du Nord, which is a new Quebecois group
that includes Benoit Bourque. Now, Benoit mainly plays accordion and
dances, but he always breaks out the bones once or twice in a show, and his
playing always invokes religious awe in me.)

Also new is the collection of bones tutorial reviews, gathered from various
issues of the Rhythm Bones Player: see
http://www.rhythmbones.com/video-reviews.html . The last two remaining
videos are supposed to appear in the autumn issue this year, and then I'll
add those, as well.

Also, if you sent your bio and/or picture long long ago, and still don't see
it on the web site, send it again, please, as it has gotten lost during the
passage of years. If you've never sent your bio for the players page
(http://www.rhythmbones.com/players.html), go ahead!

Hope everyone is finally enjoying the Spring (for us in New England, it was
a long, cold winter compared to most years).

All the best with the bones

Jonathan Danforth