The last weekend of April was a busy one for me. Friday and Saturday evening I played down in Sun City Center. There was a 2 night Bluegrass Concert series with the Bluegrass Parlor Band and Southern Star Bluegrass. Then on Sunday I played out at Sweetwater Farms with some friends and that was also a blast.

Down in Sun City I was playing mandolin with Southern Star and the kids handled the Parlor Band on their own. I thought it was a great night of music and the crowds seemed to agree. The Parlor Band keeps getting tighter and tighter. I am really enjoying seeing them sounding so good and working the stage so well without any "grownup" supervision. And I had a blast playing with Southern Star as always. Those guys are such great musicians and true professionals to work with. I do not think you could have out together a better combo. Also want to say thank you to Kelly Emerson for his part in putting the concerts together, and for doing a great job managing the evenings. I am hoping to have some video to post in a week or so fro the event so check back in about a week or so. Also you could sign up for the email newsletter on the right side of the page and receive a notice in your inbox when I post an update to the site.

The Sweetwater gig was much more laid back. I agreed to play out there 6 or so months ago and thought it would be fun to do something a little different. To assist me I enlisted the help of my sister Jana Jones on the bass, Phil Myers on the mando, and Kevin Deemer on the fiddle. I have known Jana for quite a few years but had not had a chance to play any music with her in a while so it was fun to be picking with her again. Phil and Kevin were both people that I met through the Thursday evening Jam session. Anyway it was fun, some of our tunes went smoother than others but the crowd seemed to enjoy it and so did we.

I wound up with quite a few pictures from the afternoon and you can see our group and some of the open mic participants. Charley Groth and Carl Wade picked a few tunes together, Jana did a Gillian Welch tune, Matt(Jana's boyfriend)did a couple tunes, and Steve and Leigh Humes borrowed my mandolin and guitar to do a few songs.

Thanks to my dad, Carl Wade, and Steele for the pics.