06/24/08 JUNE UPDATE...It has been a busy month here in Rafter-land...June has been spent preparing the next CD and getting ready for the next run of shows.

New CD: We finalized on the songs for the CD and recorded scratch tracks for them all and sent them out to other musicians who will surely make them shine. Drumming on this CD will be Tom Booth (East of Autumn, Mr. Wednesday Night, my old college roommate and band mate for 10 years!), Ray Clough (Electric Sugar, all around great friend!), and the one and only Rob D'Amico (come on, you know Rob by now!). The tracks I have gotten back so far are great and we look to spend July doing our parts. Still shooting for a FALL (October-ish) CD Release!

SHOWS: Wow...probably too many shows coming up, who is up for some babysitting??!? Come on you know you're out there...just ask Jodi (Miki's sister) we treat our babysitters right...a nice Vegan Dinner perhaps? Oh, you want meat??? Chicken? Beef? You tell me.....I'll join you! Couple of notes on the July shows...

JULY 4th: BOLTON CELEBRATES. An all day throw back to the way 4th of July's used to be in New England. Small town charm, dunk tanks, food, parades, and music. We go on at 12:30 (rain date July 5th). Bunch of other great acousticians playing as well!

JULY 5th: CHERI's HOUSE CONCERT. So Cheri holds these house concerts...and she gathers a group of people who love music and there is this great sense of family and friendship going on. So to be asked to come to her house and play was humbling and awesome! To throw the jar of cherries on top we were asked to open for MICHELLE MALONE!!! D'oh! Ok, relax calm down...everything is going to be alright...for those who are unfamiliar with Michelle she is a life long professional musician who has toured all of the world many CDs etc...she is great. The first time we saw her was (ok no dates...) but at the Newport Folk Festival and she joined the Indigo Girls on stage (you know how that could make us tingle!)...Anyways...it is going to be awesome just to see her perform, maybe we will just leave the guitars in the car! Thanks for asking us Cheri!

JULY 26/27 LOWELL FOLK FESTIVAL: Our favorite weekend of the summer LOWELL FOLK FEST! Last year the weather was perfect, let's hope for that again....SAT at the Old Court, and SUNDAY we added post-fest hangover afternoon show with our good friend G.S Picard and Elizabeth Lorrey at SANGRIAS.

JULY 30th YANKEE HOMECOMING FESTIVAL: On the main stage on Market Street, 2 sets 12 - 2...I know this is a Wednesday, but come on out and be a part of one of the coolest week long festivals in New England!

See you around...seriously, any babysitters? =)

Dave & Miki

05/12/08 NEW VIDEO...New video from the GIRLS PLUGGED INN SHOW in RI up...check it out!

05/07/08 MAY UPDATE...A crazy April led us right into our first show in May...Woooohhh...slow down buster, too much coffee this morning, Mik what are you putting in my cup'o'Joe?...I am feeling quite scattered, let's see...hmmmm....ok, I wrote up a long blog on the ole Myspace page you can check out about the April shows. The sum of it is we have allot of people to thank for getting us some great gigs...Nancy B -Indian Hill, Denise and Jean - Lancaster UU Earth Day, and Steve - Westford CATV...THANK YOU!! All of the shows were unique, interesting, and inspiring. Of note we had our first Television Appearance on LOCAL MUSIC ROCKS. We could get used to the "star" treatment Steve and his staff provided =) It will broadcast to over 20 area towns check your local listings, unfortunately not to our hometown so if anyone sees it on invite us over so we can watch it! We'll bring the popcorn, drinks, and the 6 and 1 year old!

Last weekend we played our first out of state show in lovely Rhode Island. The prestigiousGirls Plugged Inn first event. Wow, what a turn out. Chelsy and Jess who put on the show did a fantastic job of promoting. It was encouraging to see the support and they were able to fill the club. The gig was at the Sunset Bar and Grille in North Providence. I got down there early (~6:45) and walked into the bar not knowing what to expect...Chelsy Lau band was sound checking...well, they were trying to sound check, but the club PA was not behaving...after about an hour of running new cables and various sound experiments (and one huge blast of feedback that scared the bee-jee-sus out of everyone there!), they ditched the idea of the club system and luckily enough between the bands there was enough equipment to cobble together another entire system...the incredible thing is it sounded great! Miki and I went on first. We were introduced by a very funny comedian Amy T. Small things like this make a show feel more like a show...anyways...This was the first show that I played electric guitar at...sweet. We felt both comfortable and launched into an 8 song set...the addition of the electric guitar we both felt was "a good thing" (you need to say that like Martha Stewart...). We played a bunch of new songs as well...we ended the set (as we often do) with U2's "Still Haven't Found" with the awesomeness of Russ (the drummer from the Chelsy Lau band) playing with us. Fun, fun, fun!!! Overall we left the gig feeling we played well, and we made a bunch of new friends. The other acts that played were Keturah, Chelsy Lau Band, and Wendy Collona (from Austin TX). I will have a video of the show up soon...These gigs are rare and I would travel to RI for a gig like this any day of the week...Thanks Jess and Chelsy for inviting us to play! Ohhh, and Kerri and Beth and Beth's super cool camera shooting husband for making the trip out special for us!

What's coming up...well, we have great news about a summer festival which I will dedicate it's own entry for in the next few days...let me just say, wow, we are blown away to be playing at this years Nashua River Folk Festival...again...more on this later...much more...

We are also finalizing plans for this years Lowell Folk Festival Weekend! We have added a Sunday show 7/27 at Sangria's. Sangria's is new and improved from the days of old...this will be a great show with our good friends G.S. Picard and Elizabeth Lorrey...CD is moving along slowly, the scratch tracks are done, now need to carve out time to get the drums started...Ok, that's probably enough for now...Have a great Spring! come on out and say hello!

~dave and miki

. . . . . . . . W H A T ' S • C O M I N G • U P . . . . . . . .
MAY 15th, DEVENS GRILL, Devens MA, 7:00pm
MAY 27th, SWEET BITES (feature), West Acton MA, 8:00pm
• M Y S P A C E •
Check out our myspace for updated song tracks and other current happenings: www.myspace.com/fromtherafters

03/20/08 RAFTERS ON THE SMALL SCREEN...We have just been added to play on a local cable show "Local Music Rocks". The show airs across the greater Middlesex County! We will tape the show on April 21st and it will air through out May. More details to come!

03/15/08 Lancaster & Groton...Wow. Hard to put into words the impact of playing at the Lancaster Coffeehouse has had on us. I am in the process of collecting my thoughts on it and will post a summary soon...For now I have posted video from both out Feature performance at Skip Jacksons 5-Star Open Mic and the Lancaster show on the MUSIC page. Check it out! We would like to thank everyone who came out over the weekend to see us, it means more than you know! A special thanks to Kerry for coming out and helping in Lancaster...that was huge for us!!! More on the shows later, we hope you enjoy the videos!

Dave and Miki

03/05/08 We are here...The big weekend at the Lancaster Coffeehouse is upon us! We have been working hard through late nights and burpings to get ready for this weekend...We start on Friday at the Groton Stage Coach Inn and then Saturday in Lancaster..Allot to do before then, for more information see the SHOWS page...For Lancaster click on the pic below!

02/22/08 Late FEB Update...Ahhh, another snow storm is upon us...I LOVE IT!!! Just kidding...I am not a skier or a shovel-er so the snow is just something in way for me. So what's up...Hmmmm....a couple of things to update on.

I (Dave) played a solo show over at the Main St. Markets and Cafe in Concord this week. Miki was home being her mom-tastic-self with the kids, and I made the trip down RT 2 to historic Concord MA. I love driving into downtown Concord and seeing the houses (mansions?) and all the history of the town etc...The night of the show there were two very big astrological events going on: 1. a total Lunar eclipse & 2. the U.S. was shooting down a satellite in outer space. The stars were aligned that's for sure... I got set up, grabbed a Harpoon IPA, launched into some old and new songs I had written, mentioned Miki about 50 times, and played 2 sets of music. Overall it was a very comfortable and quiet evening which made for a relaxing set. I met a few very cool people who hung in there with me and listened. We even came up with a new saying "Me and You Folk". I was on the road in time to watch the Lunar Eclipse happen right in front me on my drive back out RT 2. The night could not have been clearer for it...When I got home flipped on Fox or Cnn and saw that yes indeed one shot got the satellite! A pretty successful Wednesday night! Well, the next time Miki is going solo...Mik, I should probably start teaching you how to set up the PA!

Coming up we have (02) great shows in one big weekend:

MARCH 7th (Friday): GROTON STAGE COACH INN. We are the featured act at Skip Jacksons 5-star Open Mic. This night will see our good friend Skip Compagnone on Keys and Guitar with us!

MARCH 8th (Saturday): LANCASTER COFFEE HOUSE SERIES (opening for the LAWS). A true concert event and the biggest show of our musical life!

We are working on the 2nd CD each night as well. The problem is we keep writing more songs!!! So we really have to focus on which ones to record.

Ok, maybe we will see you out at one of the shows? That would be great! See you soon...

Dave (& Miki)
The Rafters

01/31/08 Groton Stage Coach Inn...We had our first show back from our "winter-break" at the Groton Stage Coach Inn last Friday night (01/25/08). It felt like coming home in many ways as there are always allot of familiar faces and the Stage Coach is the place we had our first "official" show as the Rafters at. Skip Jackson runs a great Open Mic on Fridays and we were happy to be slotted into the Special Guest spot. As the special guest we were able to play a 6-song set. Which was: Helicopter, Our First Year, Don't Lose Yourself (*new song), These Days, Amazing (*new song), Patriot (cover). Overall the set was comfortable and relaxed. It is always a slight challenge to get the sound proper (on stage and in the room) when you are put on inbetween different acts, and in this case allot of different acts as it was an open mic. But after the first song we adjusted to mix and we were on our way...other than this crazy hair on Miki's microphone which kept bothering her! We debut a new song that Miki wrote "Don't Lose Yourself" and overall I think we did it justice....Well you can see part of it for yourself on the Music page as I got a quick video put up. Unfortunately, the battery died after the third song so that's all we got! Check it out!

Let's see...we are narrowing down the songs for the next recording. It looks like we are going to record a 5-song CD this time. We are up'ing the anty and bringing in some hired guns to help out with it, should be fun...I will update you on that as we go...In MARCH we have the biggest show of our young lives (young meaning band-life!) at the LANCASTER COFFEEHOUSE opening for the LAWS. If you attend one show this year, this would be a good choice! =)

Ok, more later, got to see if the video works now...

~Dave (& Miki)~

01/10/08 HAPPY NEW YEAR...We made it to 2008! After the incredibly hard partying night Miki and I had I can't believe we are still here!!! OK, so it wasn't that wild...Take out food, the kids, and NBC! It was fun to just hang out together and avoid the noise...Looking back on '07 we have a lot to be thankful for...Tilly & Chloe, family, friends, music...But now we are looking forward to '08 and have already started coming through on some resolutions...Here they are not in any particular order:

1. Spend more time with each other doing couple things...Get your mind out of the gutter! This is the year that Miki and I will will spend an evening at some fine restaraunt that does not offer crayons with the place mat!

2. Exercise. Everyone has this one down...Miki, who has been in a gym her whole life, has already logged many hours early in this New Year on the old elipse and pilates and all the other exercise she does...me, well, I have shoveled the driveway...does that count?

3. Eat better. We get into the (bad) habit of ordering food from the various (and very few!) take out places around our town..You know you have had take out food way too much when you are litterally sick of every possible choice there is!

4. Reduce. Our attic and basement (maybe a few closets!) are overrun with "things". Ok, so a lot of these things have to do with my obsession with audio cables and gear, but whose counting! We got an early jump on this in the last week of December and purged 6 full bags of "things". It is a special feeling one gets when going to the dump with "things" and watching them go away.

5. Music. Our goal is to complete the next CD, dedicate more time to promotion of the CD (we are terrible at that! Anyone want to help?), and find some other musicians to create and be inspired with.

So, that is about it...We both have some unique resolutions that I won't bore you with. Writing it down and posting somehow puts some sort of extra pressure on us to deliver...I guess I should get out the running shoes or something when I get home!

We have our first gig of the year coming up at the end of the month FRIDAY JAN 25th at the GROTON STAGE COACH. We go on early at 7:30pm. Come on out and say hello!

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