Every Wednesday evening, about 12 of us get together at a rowhouse in the Remington neighborhood of beautiful Baltimore, Maryland. We eat a potluck (usually vegan) dinner. We drink scandalous amounts of Pikesville Rye, our whiskey of choice, Troegenator and Lancaster Milk Stout and Natty Boh beer, and then we descend to the basement for COUNTRY MUSIC NIGHT.
The instruments involved usually include, but are not limited to, several guitars, banjos, mandolins, fiddles, violas, ukuleles, bass, drums, washboard, tambourine, clarinets, saxophone, various flutes, kazoos, and the guitarron.
Because the lovely and talented Miss R.A., one of our regular singers and strummers, leaves on the late September tide for Oxford (no, not Mississippi, and no, not Maryland), we decided to go up to Mr. R.W.'s family house in the Catoctin Mountains, at Thurmont, to make a record.
The process was pretty much the same. We made a big dinner (not vegan, this time), drank obscene amounts of Pikesville Rye, then Mr. J.L., our resident mad scientist and bull-fiddler, set up the lodge in stereo, popped a few meters of tape into his 4-track, and we recorded until about 5 am. The only differences between THE THURMONT SESSIONS and your average COUNTRY MUSIC NIGHT were the fact that Dr. F.W. was present playing banjo, with his wife M.F., Esq. by his side, Liffey was there chewin' on some sticks, and there were two half-nekkid French physicists, and at least one of them was in an altered state. Oh, and we smoked a pork shoulder and consumed pie at a rate of at least 5:1 compared to the normal.
Hope you enjoy the SESSIONS. If you'd like to book us to play some bluegrass, country, or gospel at your bar/party/festival, I'm sure something can be arranged. Drop an email to thethurmontsessions@gmail.com and we'll see what we can do.
