One of the fun things about the trip for me was discovering what good traveling companions Hicks and Craver are. (I already knew how much fun Watson can be from road trips here in the States).  Not only are they great musicians, they are great guys.  Our new friend Mary Lee Porterfield, who is on the Board of Directors of the Piedmont Council of Traditional Music, http://www.pinecone.org, traveled with us over and back.  She was a great help on the trip and a lot of fun to boot.

The perfect ending to the trip came when we were standing at the baggage carousel at Raleigh-Durham International Airport Tuesday night about 11:30 p.m.  A security guard came up and asked us what the difference was between a fiddle and violin.  I told him, jokingly, that you don't spill beer on a violin.  He responded that he had never spilled beer on his fiddle, either.  He introduced himself as Steve Reed.  Steve is the grandson of famed Virginia fiddler Henry Reed, who was the source for a lot of the tunes learned by the Hollow Rock String Band and the Fuzzy Mountain String Band.  We exchanged information, and left for home feeling that it is a small world indeed.

>5:39 AM MONDAY from Bill (USA time)
The folks just left for Dublin, cept for Mike and I (and Joe, but he's staying somewhere different).  Foggy today.  Some talk of going to see the Giant's Causeway and later a session at a pub in town.  Our shows yesterday were fun.  We played acoustic in the park at The Barn, one of many buildings in the park that depict life in the old and new worlds for the Irish about 1850 or so.  Fine audience.  Later we participated with Sister Lena and the Gospel Travellers in a two hour gospel show (also Robin and Linda).  Our friend Declan Forde drove me around County Tyrone for a couple of hours in between.  The Tyrone football team was playing in Dublin and all the county had flags out and were packed in the pubs.  Tyrone won with only seconds to go, which we announced during the gospel show to great cheers.  Declan took me to stone circles left by the ancients from the time of Stonehenge more or less.  Reminded me of Libby and my trip in the SW, where we saw petroglyphs.  Day by day we watch the awful news from Louisiana and Mississippi and the incredible incompetence and worse exhibited by our government.  Heard the situation in NO described as Strom Thurmond's Rapture.  Horribly true.  Well, that's about it from this beautiful emerald isle.  Back to the US in the very very early AM.  --Fiddlin' Bill

We'll fly into JFK from Raleigh Durham International, then hop an Aer Lingus flight that goes directly to Dublin.  We'll meet up with a number of the folks who are performing at the Ulster American Folk Park for the festival, then catch a bus (kindly provided and driven by our hosts) and make the three hour trip to County Tyrone.

The four of us, along with the other featured performers, will attend a reception Thursday night and will do some press stuff on Friday during the day.  Friday night at the Folk Park will feature European bands (all of whom play trad. American music).  We're looking forward to hearing that, for sure.  Then, our duties begin on Saturday morning in earnest.

More about that later...

Our guys will perform on Saturday as well as lead workshops. Besides Craver, Hicks, Watson, Newberry, Robin & Linda Williams & Their Fine Group are along on the trip.  Robin & Linda & Their Fine Group will do another week in Europe after the festival.  Jack Bernhardt, correspondent for the Raleigh News & Observer who has written kindly about the Red Clay Ramblers over the years, is participating as a lecturer.  More details about the festival and its participants are on their website.