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

OKRF 2007

This year at the Castle of Muskogee will be an exciting one! Queen's Gambit will be there and playing each day of the Oklahoma Renaissance Festival, on the Burns stage near the Maypole.

We're looking forward to seeing all of our fans and friends, and making some new ones!

This run of faire, all the weekends of May including Memorial Day, will be your last chance to see this configuration of Queen's Gambit, as Julia and Amber will be leaving the band after the end of faire. Julia's following her husband, who's landed quite the nice job on the east coast, and Amber will be moving down to Edmond to pursue her collegiate career.

Come out and see us, and you'll never feel pressured to pay money at our shows, because we don't pass a hat!

Blessings,

--theBruce

And Into the Spring Season....

Norman Medieval Faire was a blast, as always! QG was at full strength for the event on the first weekend of April, and we even had Amber-Bob to hawk CDs for us while we were up on the stage playing. The three-day event suffered from a truncated Friday as strong thunderstorms nearly flooded Reaves Park in Norman, but Saturday and Sunday were business as usual, and a good time was had by all. We shared the Gryphon Stage with the Rogues, Harmless T. Jester, Arabesque, and on Sunday with Oklahoma-based Calliope House, and it was a wonderful atmosphere.

The following weekend found us in Dallas for our gig on April 7th at the Tipperary Inn, just south of SMU. We were really nervous, as this was our first "real" Irish Pub performance, and we wanted to make a good impression. We got there fairly early, set up our own mikes and stands for the existing sound system, then took a break to eat....and realized we'd left the CDs in the hotel room! A flying trip through unfamiliar territory to get them, and then back for sound check! Our friend Shadow, who runs sound for Spriggan, who are some of our Ft. Worth-based friends, balanced us out perfectly, and away we went....4 hours and no repeats! Great crowd there, and we really enjoyed the company and the chance to play in front of people who really know what they're listening to! Hope to be able to do it again someday soon, and thanks to Tim, the owner, for hiring us pretty much sight-unseen, or should that be "sound-unheard"? And of course to Mark Clavey for suggesting the gig to us and recommending us to Tim! And to Montgomery and Theresa, the barkeeps who kept the water flowing for us all night! And to Gypsy, who sat in on Bodhran for a set with us!

Next morning, April 8th, we dragged our tired bodies out of bed to make the drive down to Waxahachie for Scarborough Faire! Even though they didn't hire us this year, I emailed Coy, the Entertainment Director, and got performer's passes for the band and permission to busk the street for the day. We spent the morning and early afternoon renewing acquaintances with our dear, dear friends of SAPA, the cast of Scarborough, and playing the morning jam, and the morning Country Dance, and then busking the Pepper Lady's booth...then went over at noon to help our friends from Stonhenj, who lost a member to a tragic accident this Spring, perform at their first show of the day. We even managed to squeeze in a "Fields of Athenry" at the woodcarver's booth, and then sat in for a song with Queen Anne's Lace at the Brothers' stage. We sat and enjoyed a masterful performance of Stunny Fories from Terry Foy, and then called it a day. Long drive back home, and we returned fully contented.

Then on Monday night, April 9th, we went to Arnie's bar in downtown Tulsa, and played for the annual gathering of the Ancient Order of Hibernians. We were fortunate enough to make aquaintance with Chad of the local group "Larkin", who stayed for all our songs. It was a free gig, but it got us in front of a local crowd and we ended up getting a booking for a wedding out of it! More good friends made, and a nice evening of "ceol agus craic"!

After we were done at Arnie's, we went with some friends to the "Center of the Universe" up on the overpass by Union Station, and stood there, all four of us, and sang a few songs acapella, just to hear what they sounded like....ya had to be there. Beauty......

So, what's next?

....to be continued.....