Long Time Passing

Yesterday we got the news that Mary Travers, of Peter Paul and Mary, passed away due to a side effect of the chemotherapy she had undergone to combat Leukemia some time back. She left us with a legacy of beautiful folk harmonies and music, and I think that everyone who does folk or celtic music was in some way influenced by her.

As a tribute to Mary, we're going to be doing a medley of Peter, Paul & Mary songs during one of our shows (maybe more) this weekend at the St. Louis Pirate Festival in Wentzville, MO. The website for the faire is at http://www.stlpiratefest.com and it's at Rotary Park in Wentzville, MO, same site as the St. Louis Renaissance Faire.

So, we're not at KCRF. Those who read this blog, or who know us know how heartbreaking that is for us, and we hope someday to return and treat our fans to the wonderful music again. Rowan has performed at that faire for 33 years, and I've been there every year since 2002, the first year I picked up the guitar at Renaissance Faire. But "show business" consists of two separate entities, "Show" and "Business", and the budget of KCRF wasn't sufficient to get us out of having to pay to perform. We are on good terms with management of the faire, and hopefully we'll be back next year. But, we're at Wentzville for two more weekends!

This year has been eventful.. the CD Release Parties, playing O'Malley's for St. Patrick's Day, visiting Scarborough, Performing at OKRF and having a blast. Then White Hart, and now Pirate Festival. Hoping it continues so! --theBruce

Castle - Queen's Side and Conestoga...

The CD release parties in Kansas City and Tulsa were wonderful successes, thanks to our friends, and we even made new friends of some passersby who happened to hear the pretty music and sit for a while!

Next on the agenda, this coming weekend, is Conestoga, the Tulsa Science Fiction Convention, which is April 24th, 25th and 26th. The website for the con is http://www.sftulsa.org. Queen's Gambit will be performing at 10 p.m. Friday night, then again at various times on Saturday, most notably right before the "Play" at about 8 p.m., and then giving a final concert on Sunday at 3:00 p.m. in the Regency room. The whole convention takes place at the Radisson near 41st and Garnett in Tulsa, OK, and we hope to see a lot of our friends there! Oh! We'll be nekkid in non-faire clothing!

Castle - Queen's Side To Be Released!

After many arduous hours of recording, editing, mixing and mastering in studio, our 6th CD, "Castle - Queen's Side" is finally shrink wrapped and ready to go! Thanks to all of you, our fans, friends, family and all, for supporting us in this effort.

We're holding CD release parties on Saturday March 28th at Crescent Springs in Overland Park, KS from 2-4:30 p.m., and on Sunday, March 29th at Border's on 21st St. in Tulsa, OK from 2:4 p.m.

Please come join in the festivities! Fun for all!

--Bruce

Another Year Passes....

Since I last posted to this blog, just before White Hart started, a *lot* has happened, musically speaking, as well as with QG, and in our personal lives!

White Hart, you'll be glad to know, broke dead even in it's 3rd year of existence, which is a highly unusual thing for a Renaissance Faire (it usually takes about 5 years), and that despite a pretty much rained out Saturday of the 2nd weekend! We're proud of our Faire family and friends who have contributed to this success, and it's going to be even better in 2009!

Then we had a lot else going on; Conestoga, the Tulsa Science Fiction convention, was a great success for us, as was the Parsons, KS "Concert in the Park" series we played the Thursday night before Conestoga started. For the first time, we got to play through a completely professionally run sound system of rock-concert quality, and it made a difference. Even Butterfly Bill, whose opinion I respect greatly, loved this sound system. We had a good 300 people gathered there in the park to listen to us play for around 2 hours (counting the break), and it was a wonderful time.

Then, after an all-too-brief respite began the Marathon of KCRF. We shared a stage with the lovely Sally Tenpenny for the entire run, and had a wonderful time. All too soon, it was "Cover Monday", the Monday of Columbus Day Weekend at Pub Sing. Nikki had come up with the idea of working up "Seven Bridges Road", the Eagles version, and we enlisted Tullamore to help us out with that. The crowd took their cue and went wild right after the first phrase of the song, just like in the Eagles YouTube video, and it was a magical music moment once again.

Our friend Greg Csikos, "The Shantyman", formerly of the Corsairs, had blogged about his recent wedding to Susan H. aboard the J&E Riggin, a ship up in New England. Jimmy Hancock had been there for the wedding and performed "Beggars to God", a lovely song written by Bob Franke. Now, I'd heard the song a few times; 3 Pints Gone put it on one of their CDs, and I'd heard Jim, "The Burley Minstrel", perform it at pub sing at Scarborough Faire. Well, Greg made a YouTube slide show of his and Susan's wedding set to the music of Jim's recording of the song. Now, we had considered working up and performing the song several years back, but we really weren't ready for it. But now, with four strong voices in the group, and a few hundred more performances under our belt, I began to get a vision. I felt moved to ask the Universe if Queen's Gambit was ready to perform that song, and when I worked out the chords on my guitar one evening, I got the answer in spades. Rowan and I worked it out in a day, even enlisting Amber for a brief moment to see what it would sound like with the high part (Nikki's) in it, and the old familiar feeling of hair standing up on the back of my neck, goosebumps all up and down my arms, and tears welling up in my eyes told me that the answer was a most emphatic "yes". We immediately called Becky and Nikki's attention to the recording on a Thursday, sent them the lyrics and arrangement notes on Friday, and on Saturday morning of the second-to-last weekend of KCRF, between opening gate and our first show, we went backstage and worked it up. We put it in the first show, and I think we've played it at all but about 3 of our performances ever since.

After KCRF was done, we drove down to The Colony, just north of Dallas, to perform in their "Pirate Days" festival, which was a very nice little event. There was only one formal performance venue, a huge stage, where we were (for the *second* time ever) miked and amplified by a professional sound crew. We also busked a bit in the main Pub Tent between times, and we had a wonderful time. Hope we can do that again! A lot of our Scarborough friends were there, and then several that couldn't be met us at "The Londoner" for dinner and drinks on the Saturday night. It was amazing.

The following weekend was our "Professional Development" weekend at O'Flaherty's Irish Music Retreat. We've been coming down to the DFW area for this ever since its inception in 2004, and we always very much enjoy the opportunity to network with other Irish/Celtic musicians, and a lot of wonderful Irishmen and women who play their hearts out on stage. We see a lot of good friends there as well. This year, I had set myself a couple of goals: One was to go the entire weekend, or as much of it as I could, without playing my guitar in standard tuning. I'd signed up for all of Jeff Moore's DADGAD guitar classes, and all the "slow sessions", where some of us who are more experienced in Irish session tunes go and play these tunes with beginning and intermediate musicians at a slower pace. The other goal was to find the lyrics to "Buchaill on Eirne", the Irish language version of "Come By The Hills". I considered both goals accomplished. I could write an entire book of all the fun and music and networking and tears of joy that happened over the entire weekend, but I'll sum it up and say that we, Queen's Gambit, as a band, shall attend O'Flaherty's for as long as it is humanly possible to afford the time and expense.

At the "last minute" we took a gig for a private party for a credit union "Gold Club" from up in Bartlesville, and that took place out in Woolaroc, OK, a gorgeous ranch donated by the Frank Phillips (Phillips 66) family. We played an hour or so and it was amazing. One thing that came out of that, though was that we needed to do some work on our own sound system. Seems that having been exposed twice in one year to a professional sound crew and what they can do for our sound actually spoiled us a bit!

So, immediately after that gig, first weekend of November, I started ordering stuff to make our own sound system more like what the pros use. And got it all in for Boare's Head Feast on Nov. 15th at the Castle! Went out early and set it up, and it was so very worth it!

Weekend before BHF was the very first Faire A La Carte gig at the Shawnee Renaissance Faire down in Shawnee OK. That was a wonderful adventure, and I'll post a funny story or three about it later.

Oh, did I tell you? DJ is back with us! Queen's Gambit is now 5 members, 2 Fiddles!!!

Next day we played the Oklahoma Grand Shindig, for Firefly and Joss Whedon fans, also at the Castle. Both BHF and Shindig with two fiddles!! An amazing event, as always!

There's a lot more, including...wait for it.... A NEW CD! We've just started recording tracks for "Castle - Queen's Side" which will be released in April. We have a recording schedule that we shall stick to, and a list of amazing songs and tunes to do!

My fingers are tired and I need sleep, so, MORE LATER!!

--theBruce

On the Eve of White Hart

Those who know us from Faire or in our mundane lives have come to understand that we invest a lot of heart, soul, and sometimes even money into the faires where we perform, and that is perhaps more so of White Hart Renaissance Faire" than of any other. This coming weekend finds Queen's Gambit (sans Queen, she's actually the Queen at WH!) performing as a trio with theBruce, Niniane and Eliza entertaining patrons and having fun in Hart Grove.

Please come join us. This faire is special. There's a wedding bower where our dear friends Eric and Julie were married last year, and there will be more ceremonies there this year. In that bower is a tree (no, we don't do the "Rattlin' Bog") that has been dedicated to the memory of Charles Taylor, who founded WHRF. Charles passed from this life on February 13, 2007. Two weeks ago I took a walk alone to the faire site, placed my hand on the tree, and promised Charles we'd carry on, as we promised then.

Sadly, it's not my promises or our determination as a group of performers, or even his wife Di's hard work and sacrifice that decide whether or not that faire continues, but rather the patronage of the public, and their willingness to come to White Hart and spend money. We of Queen's Gambit sincerely hope that you, our fans and visitors to this website, will come and do just that.

Last Fall, Rowan got the idea to produce a compilation CD that would help to raise funds for the continuation of White Hart. So we got together with Cedric of the Bedlam Bards and recorded a few songs, and asked all the musicians of WHRF to donate a track or two from their CDs. It finally all came together this Spring, and we've just finished "An AfFaire of the Hart", which has tracks from Cedric, Queen's Gambit, Cedric *with* Queen's Gambit, Ezra and Dilly, Seymoure, Lady Nancy, Thistle Green, and a new group formed of WHRF cast members, "The Sea Dogs" playing some faire favorites, and a couple of tunes you may not have heard before. All of the groups will have "An AfFaire of the Hart" available at their shows, and there will be some for sale at the ticket booth as well, so come and get one! $5 from each CD sold goes directly to White Hart.

Thank you, and bless you all!

--theBruce

...And Into The 2008 Season!

Greetings, and welcome!

Our 2008 faire season got off to a shivering start with temperatures in the 20 degree range for the Scarborough Academy of Performing Arts (SAPA) Renaissance Character Camp in Mexia, TX in January. It was cold, but we camped out and played until late in the evenings for our Scarby friends, and got some good professional development done. As always, we love interacting with and performing for SAPA, and the friendships we've developed there will last a lifetime.

The following weekend, the last weekend of January, Scarlet's Mid-Winter Renaissance faire got our attendance, and at full strength! We spent a happy weekend singing and playing, and visiting with the folks that we only get to see in Oklahoma City, and had a great time, as always, with Robert and Angela.

After Scarlet's, we had a bit of breathing room, allowing us to help set up the Joplin and White Hart Renaissance Festival academies. Rowan managed to get drafted as entertainment director of Joplin, and of course that means almost weekly trips up the Will Rogers turnpike to keep up with her duties there. Meanwhile, rehearsals were happening at Becky's in Parsons, which happens to be midway between where Nikki, our new whistler, lives in Olathe, and the place where we live in Tulsa.

Then came Norman. We were in pretty good musical shape for the faire, and our physical conditioning was challenged by a very-early-morning TV promo that the director of Norman Medieval Faire asked us to do. So after getting settled in to the hotel late Thursday night, we arose at 4:30 on Friday morning and drove up to Bricktown to do an interview and play some music for the News 9 viewers. It was very much worth it, as we had at least a couple dozen folke come up to us during the weekend and mention that they'd seen us on the news. The eaerly morning made for a long day on Friday, but Saturday went quite well. Sunday we all remembered what it's like doing a 3-day-weekend of Faire when you're outta shape....still, we held together and had a successful run!

This coming weekend Rowan and Bruce are going to visit Scarborough Faire, and visit with our friends there.

The weekend after that, 26 and 27 April, is the debut of Joplin Renaissance Festival, which is promising to be a very big deal. They've got nearly 60 vendors (for a first-year faire!) and have hired the Limey Birds, the Bedlam Bards, The Musical Blades, and Queen's Gambit, among other acts. It promises to be quite the faire debut. We've helped hold the performer academies for the cast, and this faire seems to be well on its way.

After that comes the Four Weekends of OKRF at the Castle of Muskogee!

More on that later!

After Somewhat of a Hiatus....

Seems our blogging has taken a longer pause than I'd hoped! 2007 has been a very busy season for us, with some amazing musical successes, and Yet Another CD!

So let me get the newest news out first: We've finally got "Fianchetto" up on CDBaby.com!! We only had a few left. Julia worked her magick late of nights and long of days and we managed to get it out the last weekend of OKRF, and sold them at our shows through White Hart and KCRF, without even having had time to get them shrink-wrapped! Which is about how busy it's been!

Ok, so what else... ah, there was OKRF, then there was White Hart, then there was Conestoga, which was a very pleasant Sci-Fi Con debut for QG. That turned out to be pretty much a final performance for Amber and Julia as members of Queen's Gambit, both of them having stayed on clear through White Hart! We were very grateful, and sad to see them go, as they both added so much Beauty and Music to the group, and that's really what it's all about for this Bruce.

New members....Lady Niniane (Becky) had been with us off and on for several months since OKRF last year, playing Viola, and Nikki, who we've known for some years from KC and Sedalia, have joined the group full-time! Becky moved from St. Charles, MO a bit closer to Tulsa, and it turns out that her home is now midway between Kansas City, where Nikki lives, and Tulsa, where Rowan and I are, so that may be our new rehearsal headquarters! Anyway, Becky and Nikki did it all for the run of KCRF, and the Boare's Head Feaste, and are continuing to spin up on the repertoire for the group. They're doing a wonderful job, and have even added a thing or three to what we were doing before! Becky's picked up a 5-string violin and has been playing the fiddle parts to just about all the tunes, and Nikki has learned just about all the whistle parts we're gonna need. Nikki's voice, believe it or not, is a step or two *higher* than Amber's, so that's an interesting addition of range to work with, and Becky's adding a low alto and some good lead vocals as well. Come hear the new lineup and see if you agree!

And then Bruce and Rowan got married opening weekend of KCRF! Many thanks to all of our fans who came to visit, many from far, far away. Our friends of Tullamore and WhirlyJig and the SAPA (Scarborough) cast...I can't say enough good about our loving friends. Bless you all! We were a-huggin' people for a solid two hours at the end of the Reception, and loving every second of it. Again, bless you, and bless all our dear, sweet friends that put the ceremony and reception logistics together!

Now I'm planning out the QG calendar for the year, and it looks to be a busy 2008. The tentative schedule is up here, and it looks very similar to last year. We haven't been booked for St. Patrick's Day yet, and we're hoping to make another run to the Tipperary Inn in Dallas followed by another Sunday morning at Scarborough, but that's all in the "thinking about it" stage at this point. Twenty weekends on the road....ye gods, we know what Bob Seger was singing about with "Turn the Page".

So enough of my ramblings...
I'm making an early New Years Resolution to keep this blog up a little better. Meanwhile, anybody that wishes to can send pictures of QG performing, and I'll get some newer photos
up on the Gallery. Just use the "contact" link from our homepage!

Love you all and see you soon!

--theBruce