Meet us at Lake Farm County Park, Shelter #2 at 1:00 on Sun, Sept 19. This is a farewell-and-thank-you event for our friends, families, and fans who have been our caliComrades for the past 5+ years. We’ll be picnicking and playing a variety of songs, along with musical friends of ours. Family-friendly atmosphere, so invite everyone you know; we are!

Bring your own food and drinks; alcohol is permitted. Lawn chairs, blankets, anything picnic-related (except water balloons which aren’t exactly a good combo with electronic equipment!) We’ll have CDs for sale: 1 for $5, and 3 for $10, and Sue’s gonna bake up a bunch of chocochip caliCookies. Let’s see, what else? Leashed dogs are allowed at the park with a Dane County Dog Permit; $5 for a daily pass, available at the park or online:

https://www.reservedane.com/permits/purchase.aspx

Tentative performance schedule:
1:00 calicoDrifters
1:30 Bill & Bobbie Malone
2:00 calicoDrifters
2:30 Keith Heimforth & calicoDrifters
3:00 Graham Webster
3:30 calicoDrifters

Directions to the park: The park is about five minutes south of South Towne Mall in Madison. Exit US Hwy 12/18 at South Towne Drive and go south. Cross the RR tracks/bike path and turn left onto Moorland Road (Moorland will turn into Lake Farm Road). Campground entrance is on Lake Farm Road. To reach the shelters, go past the campground entrance and in about one block, turn left (east) onto Libby Road. Proceed 0.5 miles on Libby and turn left into park. Shelter #2 is the second shelter on the right. For a map and more info about the park:

http://www.countyofdane.com/lwrd/parks/lake_farm.aspx

Hello caliComrades:

Just a quick update on what’s goin’ on in our little, teeny-weeny world – a world that sometimes intersects with other teeny-weeny worlds such as yours, hence this update.

1. Last week we performed at a benefit House Concert on Madison’s East Side hosted by Susan Webster. The event raised over $750 for Haitian relief. To donate to or learn more about Susan’ project you can visit her website: http://haitiproject.org/

2. We had to cancel our next show at Tuvalu Coffee House in Verona which was scheduled for April 24. But we added a show on May 6 to make up for it (see number 3)

3. (see number 2)

4. (just kiddin’ about seeing all those other numbers… this is just the kind of stupid stuff we here at calicoDrifters think is really, really, really funny)

5. On May 6 we will be performing another House Concert at the Cambridge Historical Museum (http://www.cambridgehistoricmuseum.org/) in Cambridge Wisconsin. We’ve played in Cambridge before – at a House Concert at the Oscar Hanson House (http://www.ohhanson.com/). The Hanson House is moving their House Concerts to the Museum and we’re kicking off this new venue from 4pm to 6pm. Kids are free… There is a $5 suggested donation at the door.

It should be a lot of fun… and, as you may have noticed, we are spelling “House Concert” with both a capital H and a capital C. This is due to the fact that we hold them in such high regard (see numbers 1 and 5… well this is already number 5… so finish this one, then see number 1…).

6. Lastly, we have been nominated for a MAMAs award (http://www.themamas.org/) for best album of 2009. No kidding! We didn’t even campaign during the primaries. C’mon! We tried to make it clear in our last fun-filled, news-packed, near-documentary-format Upcoming Events email that we have no illusions about winning this prestigious award. As a matter of fact, due to the number of times we have been nominated and lost over the years, it is becoming something of a comfort to know that it won’t be us walking that red carpet, grabbing the award and the microphone, thumping our chests and pointing up to heaven, then gushing over all the support we’ve received from Jesus over the years with ticket and CD sales… (as well as how he helped us out in the third inning of our last home game). So… darn it… if you do feel compelled to go out there and vote, do it for all the right reasons – whatever those reasons might be… I can’t even think of one and, heck, we’re the ones being nominated! Though that may not be entirely true: if you yourself are being nominated for a MAMAs award in the same category, the previous statement doesn’t apply. So, do yourself a favor and vote for yourself. We did. I mean… you know… we voted for ourselves… we didn’t vote for you. We might have voted for you in other categories… Ok… that’s enough of this. Do what you want, we’ll still love you.

7. We’ve been meaning to get some new music up there on the website… we’ll try to get something up there this weekend… Don’t hold your collective breaths.

8. See you next time…

9. Sincerely,

Thomas and Sue

Hello caliComrades:

Two things:

1. On February 20th calicoDrifters will be at Mother Fool’s Coffeehouse on Williamson Street in Madison to celebrate our 5-year anniversary. We’ll be playing all the stuff we’ve liked to play the most over the years; giving away free t-shirts; selling CDs at special event pricing; and just plain having a good time in a nifty, cozy environment. The show starts at 8:00pm. Come on out. It’ll be fun!

2. We have been nominated for a couple of Madison Area Music Awards (MAMA). To be honest, uh… we nominated ourselves, but that’s how this thing works. Shamelessly but without hope; optimistically but with a clear conscience, we put forward our small but self-important musical productions and then wait as the community goes out and thumbs them up or down. We’ve never won anything with the MAMAs – though we’ve nominated ourselves for many years (see “5-Year Anniversary Show” above). We don’t expect to win this year, because we clearly don’t have what it takes to be a MAMAs winner. But that doesn’t seem to dampen our spirits! (Here, the music swells…) It doesn’t keep us from misting up ever-so-slightly at the very thought of someone liking what we do – and saying so! It doesn’t keep us from trying to solicit votes from you, General Public and Loyal Fans! It doesn’t prevent us from carrying the torch of MAMA-Pollyanna throughout the voting season! Because we, calicoDrifters, (here the orchestral music builds to a fever pitch) believe in these things with all our hearts! We fervently believe that we will nominate ourselves again next year regardless of this year’s outcome! And we are so convinced of our inability to win this year that we are already planning our nomination ballot for next year! That is how dedicated we are to the cause of local awards and shameless self-promotion! We are figuratively carrying our nominations like a worn-out, helpless little hairy-footed halfling on our backs up the side of Mount Doom and stumbling eagerly and fearfully into the red, glowing passage; tears streaming down our faces as we prepare to drop our votes into the ferocious lava flow like some powerful, mystical, shiny something… thereby… uh… oh my goodness… ok… ok… never mind all that… Cut the music! This is just a ridiculous metaphor. But the music sounded so LOTR-like there at the end, didn’t it? I mean… I got all sucked up into it…

So, here’s the thing: Go out here and vote for us: http://www.broadjam.com/mama/. We’ve been nominated for Album of the Year in the Folk/Americana category for our 2009 release, “Turning Home”. In addition to that, Sue has been nominated in the Vocalist – Female category because she is a female vocalist. Needless to say, if she doesn’t win in that category, she will still be a female vocalist, however, she will not be able to publicize herself as such. That’s right. It’ll have to be an unofficial designation. She will be adding an asterisk to her name which will read “Unauthorized Vocalist – Female” until she wins. But that’s not all! Sue’s last name is spelled ‘Prodell’ (and pronounced “fee-meyl voh-kuh-list”), but this year she is listed in the MAMAs as “Sue Preodel” (and pronounced “dohnt hohld yohr breth”).

Any questions? Comments? Donations? Cynical rebuttals? Send them along… we entertain just about anything. And to the small handful of you who are still reading this (Mom, this means you!) thanks for sticking with it all the way to the end even though you may have skipped several paragraphs on the way like you usually do with the first fifty or so pages of Lonesome Dove every time you pick it up.

Let’s see… what else? That’s it!

See ya soon
Thomas & Sue