Old News:

January 2007

Gotta write some news...gotta write some news.....ok here goes...mostly SSS has been hibernating and appreciating not having gigs when the snow flies, (and boy has it been flying), and missing it when its not. For better or worse we decided to take the winter off from traveling. There’s still plenty to do and everybody is keeping busy...Rob is booking away and its looking like he'll have our summer as booked as we want it soon. If you are thinking of booking SSS, do it soon!

The December 21st issue of Denver’s "Westword" Magazine has Sweet Sunny South listed as one of the "Movers and Shakers" of 2006. Backbeat writers sound off on the year’s best releases in the local music scene. Sixty four bands were named and Sweet Sunny South is one of them. Referring to SSS's release, "Live From the Radio Room", here’s what Nick Hutchinson said...

“Paonia-based Sweet Sunny South had tongues wagging in Telluride this year with its standout brand of traditional sounding bluegrass. Reeling off hot ones including "Two Dolla Pistols," "Me and My Old Still,” and "Four Eyed Boy.” South shines brightly on this live recording, like a new moon over the high country.”

We are pretty psyched to have a mention in “Westword” for sure. Our buds "Halden Wofford and the Hi Beams" also had a spot with their release "Midnight Rodeo." The only other Bluegrass or perhaps I should say bluegrass-ish band on the list was Yonder something or another...oh yeah, "Yonder Mountain String Band."

We recorded a new CD in November that we titled "Showtime". We think you are going to like it. It would be done by now, but we were thwarted by the piles of snow in Denver in mid December. We just returned from mixing it and you can listen to one of the tracks on our myspace page called “Satisfied”. The CD will be available June 1st, 2007! We had an excellent time in the studio thanks to having some dang mellow band members a great producer with an ear like a one-eared walking ear and our favorite engineer...a monkey that we named Colin Bricker. Oh and another engineer called Mario....sans his brothers.

We will kick our season off again in early March with details coming soon. Until then we will be working on the CD release and summer prep...and we have a CD design that is a Hatch Printshop original that can also be seen on our myspace page at: (www.myspace.com/sweetsunnysouth).

Cool things that have happened lately...hmmmmmm...well a couple of month ago we were accepted as a showcase band for the Folk Alliance in Memphis, TN this February. We were and are honored, of coarse, but since we can be as honored as we can be, but still have to pay for it....we had to decline...perhaps next year.

New Belgium Update...looks like the postcoasters should print in February. We’re not sure when they will get distributed but we will be psyched when they do come out. I can hardly wait to point to our mugs at bars all over the west to anyone whose attention I can gain and say HEY!....that’s us there....and all those folks will say GOL-DURN--let us be the first to buy you and yer posse a round of New Belgium Beers! This all leads inevitably to drunken debauchery, pirate songs, spontaneous wrestling and life long amigos and fans.......or something cool like that. We still haven’t seen the photos they are thinking of using...ok, ok, enough already....

Also a cool photo of SSS may end up appearing in National Geographic’s "Traveler" edition. It was taken by our good pal Steve Huntley--who, BTW, shot the super cool looking and sounding video of SSS at Eckerts' "Crane Days" last year. You can watch a video performance of the tune "Mississippi" on our myspace page or on Robs YouTube site (www.youtube.com/user/paoniarob). Search for Sweet Sunny South on YouTube and you can find all kinds of fun live performance video as well as some other killer videos from various Pickin’ Production Shows such as Heidi Claire and Attagallop. So, good job Rob and its hard to believe Steve...thanks you guys! Go look at em! (It really isn’t hard to believe but it rhymed.)

I should take this quick moment too to address something...I mentioned to my dad to check out our myspace page for the video...he said he hadn’t before considered going anywhere near myspace because he isn’t a child molester or stalker or sexual predator...well that was really good news to me! He figured he'd end up on a list to be fast tracked to a life prison sentence in Somalia. Well I told him that it really is ok to go check out myspace. It’s a great networking tool for musicians and bands and is only as seedy as the surfer. So anyways, its ok mom and pop, you too can check out myspace and it doesn’t make you even slightly a criminal. So, now you know....

SSS is getting closer and farther all at once to a new web site...but it will happen eventually. It will have among other things a place to check out the lyrics to all the tunes from our CDs and a place to order the super-duper, way-cool, totally rocking posters that have been made by the likes of Rob Miller and Justin Hess....press a button, get a poster....amazing!

The site will feature our older t-shirt designs as well as the new ones. Yes! We have new t shirts! You just can’t see them yet until we get that new site up. Unless you swing by Cory's house---they are in the garage. I don’t know the combination but just tap 3 times on his bedroom window, pause, then tap 3 more times and finally smash the window pane and holler at him to wake up and open the garage so you can get a t-shirt...he'll probably be so happy to see you that he'll give you a sticker too....

Bill Powers

Thanks to everyone who

helped make IBMA's a

success for

Sweet Sunny South

IBMA

California Bluegrass Assoc.

Colorado Bluegrass Music Assoc.

Northern Indiana Bluegrass Assoc.

Grey Fox

Planet Bluegrass

Colorado Case

Americana Tonight

The Wilders

Anne & Pete Sibley

The Steep Canyon Rangers

Brickhouse Production

Russ Chapman

our Friends and Families

and many more....

Thank You!

OCTOBER 2006

Well folks we wound down and came back up for a gasp and now we are gearing up for an exciting week and a half or so in November. We start the run with a special (aren't they all?!) show at Steves' Guitars in Carbondale on November 10th. We are reviving the Lounge party show we did a couple of years back. Its a show, its a party, and its a time to play--sure, but also a time to hang with our friends over the hill (Carbondale is just a jump over McClure pass from Paonia if you didn't know). Justin Gordon will be doing  some tunes to start off or maybe in the middle..who knows, whatever feels right..go check out his new CD on his myspace page myspace.com/justingordon--its good stuff--we've been enjoying the CD..."Ten Dollar Guitar". There is bound to be a visit form  the feisty "Fiddle Kitten"Andrea Early-Cohen as well. We'll have martinis and madness-- a perfect mix.

The next night, Saturday, Nov 11th we will be at Paonia's Paradise Theater for our 5th Annual Fall Throwdown. Lately we've had folks importing themselves from far off spots to come see us on our hometown stage--thats been pretty cool and there is something special about playing our home town--we try to keep it to a minimum tho so we don't wear everybody out.  Come see the renovation that Jason and Regna, the new owners, have done to the place. Its swell, really it is and the seats are nice and comfy--if you feel the need to sit. They are now serving with a full bar too!
The next day has the band heading down to Denver to meet up with Aaron Youngberg and Colin Bricker at NFA studios. We're recording our 4th CD during the week and Aaron is producing. We will wrap that up with a show at the Rialto Theater in Loveland Co on Friday night and a show at the Steamplant Theater in Salida, Co on Saturday.  We're not sure what to expect in Loveland but The Steamplant sold out last time we were there. Salida will be just SSS but the Rialto will have a great group of musicians from the Loveland and Ft Collins areas opening for us. The band is Caleb Roberts,  Aaron and Erin Youngberg(congrats to the newlyweds!) and Dave Richey. They will be doing what they've been doing together lately and if you come you'll be one of the first to hear what that is. It ain't bluegrass, but it'll be great you can bet.
Even if you know you can't attend a show maybe you can mention it to someone you think would enjoy it.

In other news, The IBMAs were a blast and we did a thorough job and accomplished what we had hoped to do there. Nashville was really fun. Our hotel Room overlooked the Ryman. We spent a lot of time at the Grey Fox Suite making friends. Thanks to Betse Ellis of the Wilders  who took us up there and introduced us around. We had one particularly cool night at that suite where we played some tunes, Anne and Pete Sibley did the same and the Wilders rocked out too--Ike Sheldon knocked us all out with some great vibe accompaniment. Vibes? I don't know why or how they got there but Im glad they did!  Another night in the same room somewhere around 4 am we sat with one of our favorite singers, Dan Paisley and made requests and sang along with him. We ended that morning/night with a ridiculously expensive breakfast buffet at our hotel with most of the Steep Canyon Rangers.(Awarded Emerging Artists 2006! Well deserved!)

Rob spent a bit of time at the Hatch Printshop in Nashville. Hatch does and did all the posters for the Grand Ol' Opry back in the day and they are still doing it the old way. Our posters for our upcoming show at the Rialto are Hatch originals. I think some will be available for purchase through our website--eventually. Actually many of our posters from the last number of years will be available soon. We hope to get that project done this winter. Rob and Justin Hess from here in Paonia have made some great posters--just you wait!

Our IBMA Showcases all went well. A couple were sparsely attended but that was the case for a lot of great groups so we didn't take it personally. There just weren't a ton of folks around the first couple of days. By Thursday, though, the crowds were showing up for Fanfare as well as a lot of the bands scheduled to play it. Some highlights for us was seeing David Bass and Co with his new band the Forge Mountain Diggers. They very much rocked! Right after our set at the CBA stage we caught some of the Wilders. I saw a little of Heidi Claire and Atagallop. Ed Snodderly  plays w Heidi in her new band. He is one of my new favorite songwriters. We definately missed a lot more music than we saw. Rob checked into a string sponsorship with Black Diamond Strings. I saw Johann Brentrup and let him visit with the mandolin he made for me a few years back. He was happy with its progress. It really is sounding better every year its alive. I also got my Stelling refretted and fixed up nice. That was unexpected but it worked out great. Shelley did some jammin at the CBA suite with Larry Kuhn and a young girl with an amazing voice named Angelica. I busted my lip wide open an hour before our first two late night showcases--I managed tho--I opened a car door onto my face. OUCH. We had a great time playing a super cool bill at the Douglas Corner Cafe called Americana Tonight. We played along with John Cowan, Cadillac Sky (when we first got there Ricky Skaggs was in the audience--he just signed Caddy Sky to Skaggs Family Records. For some strange reason he didnt stick around to hear SSS.) Also on the bill were our friends from Jackson Hole WY, Anne and Pete Sibley, Loriana Matera (I really liked her and her band was Rob Ickes, Andy Leftwich, Dave Pomeroy and Randy Kohrs--Holy Crap! Thats nashville for you) We followed the Wilders--me and Cory joined them for a tune and Betse and Phil joined us on our set. That  is always a highlight for me and the Wilders set was a rager too. They can split a lot of atoms in 20 minutes!

My best friend from high school in Poplar Bluff, Mo hung out with us some and took us around Nashville and treated us to a late night dining experience at a joint where the big boys and girls cut a lot of music deals right down on music row. Scott knows his way around the business in Nashville and shared some of his knowledge with us. That was cool and we learned some good things to learn. We also saw Paonia Alumni Russ Chapman, and hung out with him too. He came to Douglas Corner with us and met us for breakfast one morning. It looks like he and his family are moving back to Paonia! Great news for us in Paonia. They were well liked and much missed. It'll be good to have Kit and Bug back in the fold again.

The flights were interesting.  We had no trouble with the bass on the way there but we had some trouble with it on the way back. For the record, its really not worth trying to take a bass fiddle on a plane. They don't fit well....duh! Our fellow passengers were good sports about it all...

So we have one more push and then we will really have some time off through the winter. Come on out and say hello or send us an email or visit our myspace page  (www.myspace.com/sweetsunnysouth)   We'll soon be adding photos and videos--Rob is digging in to YouTube lately. We also have some new t-shirts available at these upcoming shows (not available on the site yet, but coming soon)

Thanks for sharing a great summer and fall with us.

Take care everybody,  bp

July 2005

Sweet Sunny South is about to spend some time over in Grand Junction—4 days this month—we hope to gain a few more fans that will welcome us next time around and maybe connect with some we’ve gained in previous appearances at the Old Blue Festival. Friday we will play live on KAFM community radio for the Grand Valley-3:30 is the time so lissen up! (not sure if they stream on the web) We have two nights at the Fruita Brewery—Fri and Sat (kinda like a two night stand at the Fillmore…but not.) and later in the month we will be at the Botanical Gardens in Junction (Fri Aug 29th).  

Also this Sunday we are doing a free show in Crawford Town Park thanks to Crawford Country Bank. Come have a snow cone and a burger and chill in the shade of the trees.

We are doing another free show in Delta at Confluence Park on Sunday Evening Aug 7th.  That one is thanks to a whole bunch of great folks including- The DCI, Hellman Motors, Wells Fargo, Delta Hardware, Delta Hospital, Delta Public Arts and DMEA. Bring Lawn chairs and blankets and snacks and friends, family and children….its free!

We are looking very much forward to playing the Carbondale Mt Fair coming up next weekend and we will get wild and swingin’ at Steve’s Guitars that night---If you’ve caught us at Steve’s before, you know what we are talking about!(8:30)

We’ve had a good time criss-crossing the state lately—played for the waltzers at the KHEN benefit in Salida at Bongo Billy’s. We had a wild west show in Ridgeway. Treated the folks on top of Aspen Mt to fresh hometown cherries. Hooked up with our BMW buddies in Paonia Town Park, and had a great crowd for the Paonia Cherry Days 4th of July celebration.

Congrats to Angus and Lisa—we played their solstice wedding party and really enjoyed ourselves wicken style baby (not really, but sorta).  Last weekend we duked it out with Bluegrass Patriots in a “battle of the bands” at the Crested Butte Music Festival….what a bloody mess! And then we had a perfect morning of coffee and old-time tunes with Andrea Lecos at Camp 4 Coffee. Thanks for the Java Al!

Yesterday we played in Delta for the Main St Market where Rob, Shell and Cory all got new hats and we got a picture taken with Jr. Teen Miss Colorado who is from Delta—go girl! Today we get to complete a circle that has been a long time coming—two years ago we played a gig on the deck of the Cirque in Snowmass, Co in February—it was about 20 degrees. Today we play the Grand Junction Farmers Market where it is expected that GJ will have a record high temperature of 106. Awesome! This is approaching the temperature at which bluegrass melts.

The new CD Wild and Swingin’ is hitting radio stations around the country at this point and the feedback is good. Our producer Mark Nanni got us on the Radio up in New York and we took care of a lot of points between here and there. Besides playing keyboards and accordion with Los Blancos, Mark has a new jazz piano cd we’d like to draw your attention to. You can check it out and buy it at Nadeau Music.

We should be able to post some reviews soon and maybe some comments. There is talk of a t shirt design in honor of the new cd so be on the lookout for that. We have a great summer to look forward to and we sure hope to see you when we are in yer neck o the woods—please sign the mailing list if you get a chance and help spread the word of Sweet Sunny South—we appreciate it…

Lets talk about something else real quick---we need your help! We need folks willing to poster areas we are playing before we come. If you or someone you know has interest in this, please contact us and we will hook you up however we can. Thanks y’all and let’s get together real soon, eh?……bp

June 2005

WILD N SWINGING, our 2nd CD, is out as of Friday, June 10th just in time for the North Fork Bluegrass Festival. We're thrilled to share with you these new tunes, including Four Eyed Boy and Chuck's Blues... Our good friend and producer Mark Nanni is found playing accordion on a few tunes, Aaron Youngberg from Hit and Run lends his hand (and some of his fingers) to Cochotopa Ropadopa, and there's a suprise at the end thanks to our electronic master studio guru Colin Bricker. There's even a .mpeg video shot by our good friend, Stu Carlson.  Wait till you see the artwork created by our new friend Andrea Lecos. It's a fun CD and we think you'll enjoy it. Now you just have to buy it!

REDROCKS GIG UPDATE - the Redrocks show on July 16 has been changed to September 24th. With the support of our faithful Paonia State Bank, we've been able to rearrange our schedule and make it to play on this most exciting stage!  We'll be playing early (2:00pm) so make sure you get there early too!  And then plan to stay for David Bromberg, Bela Fleck and Frank Vignolla! 

Here are some upcoming events:

Main Street Market    Delta, Co July 20

Grand Junction Farmers Market  Grand Junction, Co July 21

Fruita Brewery Fruita, Co July 22 & 23

Crawford Town Park Crawford, Co July 24

Botanical Gardens Grand Junction, Co July 29

Carbondale Mountain Fair  Carbondale, CO July 30 @ 12 noon

Steve's Guitars  Carbondale, CO July 30 @ 8:30pm

Another exciting addition to our schedule is Four Corners Folk Festival in Pagosa Springs on Labor Day Weekend.  This is an awesome festival in a beautiful location and we've been asked to open the show on the main stage!  We are very excited and hope to see you there! 

Visit our calendar for our full schedule and we look forward to seeing you all out boogying down to the old timey sound of Sweet Sunny South!  Have a great summer, drop us a line and pickup a new CD while you're at it!  As always, it comes with a moulah back guarantee!

MARCH 2005

Howdy folks.

Wow, after a relatively slow winter, we've entered the season at full speed.  We started things off in a big way, opening for Psychograss at the beautiful Wheeler Opera House in Aspen.  One of the perks of playing a gig like this is getting to hang out with your heroes and act like a big shot.  Mission accomplished.  A couple of weeks after that, we headed south for the Durango Meltdown.  If you've never been to this festival, you owe it to yourself to check it out next year.  It's a great way to kick-start your festival season and throw off those winter blues.  Besides having an outstanding lineup every year, they also know how to lay on the hospitality.  It's always one of the highlights of our year when we get to play the Meltdown.  We also finally got to put on the Laura Ingalls Wild N' Swingin' Ball at Steve's Guitars in Carbondale, complete with martini's & lounge attire.   It's hard to decide which crazy moment will stand out most from the night, but it's either the spectacle of Bill's fez flying off his head & through the air at the end of "Gray Cat on a Tennessee Farm", or special guest Andrea "fiddle kitten" Earley clogging to "Jawbone" in a slinky dress & a beehive hairdo.

We're also immersed in the final stages of getting our new CD released.  It's been said before & it's true..."The devil's in the details".  We're not making any promises, but it's looking possible that we'll have it for our June 2nd show at the Paradise Theater in Paonia.  This show will close out the highly popular Pickin' Productions Acoustic Concert Series.  The series started in February with our pals Open Road, and continued in March when we got to open the show for one of the best bluegrass bands performing right now, Chatham County Line.  Then in April, it was Caroline Herring coming thru town, with openers Anne & Pete Sibley winning the hearts of the Paradise audience. We're looking forward to seeing them again when we play the North Fork Bluegrass Festival in June.  Some other highlights of our summer that we're excited about include:

May 20th-The Turn of the Century in Montrose. This venue is decorated like, well, the turn of the century, complete with antique bar.

May 28th- Moab Arts Festival, This is going to be a great eclectic festival right in downtown Moab.  Fun in the sun! 

June 26th-Silverton Jubilee.

July 16th- Red Rocks, opening for an as yet unnamed headliner.

July 31st- Carbondale Mountainfair.

Well there you have it.  A little taste of where we've been and where we're going.  Be sure to keep checking the calendar since we're always adding new dates.  Oh, and one last thing.  If you find yourself with a copy of Outside Traveler magazine in your hands, turn to page 53.  That's a shot by an outstanding photographer named Ethan Hill, taken last fall at a wedding that we played up in Dunton, Colorado.  We've even commemorated the day by renaming a fiddle tune that we do, "Rocky Road to Dunton". You'll be able to hear it on the new CD.

        See ya'll down the road!

                           Rob, Bill, Shelley & Cory

December 2005:

What an exciting year it has been for Sweet Sunny South. We played some great festivals and theaters, made lots of new friends and are so excited about how our schedule is shaping up for next year. We've already confirmed 2006 festivals in Kansas, Washington, Wyoming and California. We've even received an offer from West Virginia. We're working on some dates with some of our favorite bands including the Wilders, The Stairwell Sisters & Coal Creek. Check our calendar page often as new dates are being added each week. 

New Belgium: 

As you probably know already, we won the New Belgium Brewery contest called, "What's Your Folly". The idea is you send them a postcard with an idea you'd like to see happen with their beer. Well, in the spirit of SSS, we wrote a New Belgium Jingle. Don't expect to hear it on the radio, but it did win us the contest. What do we get for winning? Well, for one they will print our picture on over one million post-coasters that will go out to bars and restaurants across the west. That alone is enough to thrill us and hopefully reach many more people than we could otherwise. We'll let you know more as we find out the rest of the details. Do you want to hear the jingle that won us the contest? Well just click here to listen: New Belgium Jingle

El Grande:

Since we've decided to travel out of state this coming year we figured it was time to buy a van! Yep, Sweet Sunny South now owns a 1993 Econoline Conversion Van. Complete with 4 captain chairs, surround sound and a built in dust-buster. (you can't imagine how messy these boys can be)! We've only taken the van to a couple of shows, but we love it already. 

Live CD:

Our show at KAFM was a huge success. Our first set was broadcast live over the internet and the station received lots of positive phone calls about the sound. We even managed to play pretty well and thanks to KAFM we have a great recording of the night which we are considering releasing as a live CD. Stay tuned for more information on that.

Well, I'm sure there is much more to mention, but I'll leave that to some of the more talkative members of the band....check back soon for more SSS news....

Rock on! Shelley

Winter 2005

Hi there folks.....

The bear is awakening. The slumber has been long enough. With new songs (and a new little baby named Kayla), Sweet Sunny South will soon again be seen on a stage near you. We've got some very cool gigs booked around our area and here's a list of them. Hope to see you this spring!  For a complete list of our shows visit our calendar.

By the way, we recorded our second CD this fall and will be releasing it in the spring - we think you're going to like it.

March 16, Wednesday - Opening for Psychograss (Darol Anger, Mike Marshall, David Grier, Todd Phillips & Tony Trischka - wow!) at the very beautiful Wheeler Opera House in Aspen, CO.  It's a short set, but still a treat to play on such a great stage.

March 23, Wesnesday - Main St. Bakery - Aspen, CO. A small, and from what we hear a very nice little room.

March 26, Saturday - Opening for Chatham County Line - Round 2 in the Pickin' Productions Acoustic Concert Series at the Paradise Theater in Paonia - for more info go to  www.pickinproductions.com

April 8,9 & 10 Friday/Saturday/Sunday - The Durango Bluegrass Meltdown in Durango, CO - one of the best festivals in the country. We're thrilled to be back to it a second time.

April 22, Friday - Salida Cafe - Bongo Billy's in Salida, CO - a great room with very good beers on tap.

April 23, Saturday - The Apple Shed in Cedaredge, CO - we'll be having an intimate concert in the art gallery.

April 29, Friday - Steve's Guitars in Carbondale, CO - it seems like we play 2 shows here a year, and we always look forward to them - we're going to have the Laura Ingall's Wild 'n Swingin' Ball that we had to cancel last fall - that means the dress is formal lounge and martini's are encouraged.

For more details be sure to check out our calendar.

Thanks ~

Rob, Shelley, Bill & Cory

October 2005

Bill's Blab.....

 Sweet Sunny South has been winding down a little lately—it feels that way anyway after a lot of playing all summer long. I’d call it a breakthrough summer for us. We played bigger and better venues and festivals this year and made a strong showing at each one. It’s been encouraging and we have our sites set on more great fests and venues for next year including The Kansas Free State Festival in Lawrence and the Winter Grass Festival in Tacoma, WA which are both on our schedule for February 06. Right now the IBMA’s annual Showcase is about to get started down in Nashville and we’re looking forward to more festivals coming back with decisions after that. Unfortunately we couldn’t make it down for IBMA’s this year but are planning on it next October and I’m excited just to know it’s on our slate.

Still coming up this month, SSS will do an opening set for Truckstop Honeymoon at Stu and Marla’s here in Paonia, CO on Sept 30th. Mike West played Rob and Rebecca’s wedding five years ago and this show is coming together for their 5 year anniversary party. We are all looking forward to this party as it also celebrates Kevin and Kim and Cory’s birthdays too. The new CD by Truckstop Honeymoon is one of our favorites this summer. Unfortunately, Mike and Katie and their kids lost everything in New Orleans so we’re hoping to try to raise some money for them too. Please come on out to the show and get their new CD!

We decided to hold off recording a third CD in October, which had been the plan. Instead we plan to work on putting together a live CD as we have had numerous requests to do so. Hopefully we can include many of the newer songs that don’t appear on Bell Creek Dance Club or Wild-n-Swingin’. By the way we’ve sold over 1000 Wild-n-Swingin’ CDs since June and we are pretty dang happy about that. Look out for a review of our first CD, Bell Creek Dance Club in the upcoming November 2005 issue of Bluegrass Now. We are also working on putting together a DVD for next season from some of the footage we have gathered in the last couple of years.

Don’t forget to mark your calendar for Nov 19th this year for our 4th Annual Fall Throwdown at the Paradise Theatre. We are looking at having a “sweet” light show this year and who knows what else—we always try to make that show extra special.

Although our calendar is winding down for the fall, we have a number of private engagements and a couple more festivals....I'll give you a quick recap of the second half of our summer season.

Last weekend we made it down to Denver for “Cletusfest” at Invesco Field—We were psyched to see Open Road, Mike and Amy Finders, Slipstream, Blue Canyon Boys, Hot Lunch and a number of other bands from the Front Range. We're looking forward to two more front range trips this fall.

Mountain Fair was a treat this year—I spent a number of years living in Redstone, Co so Carbondale is an old friend and I saw quite a few old friends that weekend. They have the coolest backstage anywhere and the crowd was great. Steve’s Guitars was excellent once again and we had a couple that came all the way from Kansas to see us. Andrea Early Cohen joined us on Fiddle and Andrea Lecos joined us on banjo too so it was the attack of the Andreas that night.

We had a most excellent time in Salt Lake. We played at the Pyranha Kayak booth at the OR show on Friday then hit the town with the Pyranha folks. Saturday we started the day with an interview and a few tunes live on KRCL. Later that day we had one of our best sets all summer at the Gallivan Center Folk and Bluegrass Festival. We barely got to see any of the Lonesome Sisters’ set before rushing off for a show up Emigration Canyon at the Sun and Moon Café. We had a great time and plan on going back to Salt Lake this winter. News brief: Shelley found a 1949 Kay bass in SLC as a result of that trip making her one bass-happy chick—She hasn’t taken it off any sweet jumps yet, but in Napoleans’ words she says, “It’s Incredible”.

The rest of August had us all around Western Colorado..... Montrose, Colbran, Delta and Crawford. We hosted a concert at the Paradise Theater with Jeff and Vida and their band (Will Downes) and did a couple of tunes as “Sweet Jeff and Sunny Vida South!”

Four Corners Folk Festival was most excellent. Great setting, great hosts, great hot springs, great bands and super kid friendly all the way around. We highly recommend this festival! Here’s what Rick ”Bear” Bolhouse (Security Chief of FCFF) had to say about our performances there this year…

“Let me take this opportunity to say how much I, and from the looks of it, a few thousand other folks enjoyed your performance at this years festival. It was an excellent way to kick off our tenth anniversary. Your late night performance was perhaps the best attended in the history of our festival. Very enjoyable! I hope to see you again in the near future.” 

Gee, thanks Rick! We hope to see you too and all the others too!

Unfortunately we had miss seeing Del, but had another very fun show at the Creede Repetory Theatre to close the weekend. What a beautiful part of this amazing state. “The Silver Thread Byway” Awesome! (like Napolean says it….)

Oh yeah, we had a nice show at Dan Wilgings place in Denver—our first house concert. Out of that came another House concert coming up on October 9th at my old friend Ty Meltons’ house in Boulder. House concerts—the wave of the future! Now if we can only figure out how to get to them without using gasoline…Check our calendar for info.

Well, that’s more than plenty of info for now. Remember to check our schedule for updates and be thinking about our CDs for Christmas presents this year—it’s really easy to purchase them right from our website and it gives us a chance to thank you via email! Thanks to all of you that come to see us and sign our mailing list and turn others on to SSS—we couldn’t do it with out you!

Thanks ya’ll, Bill Powers

Fall 2004

3rd Annual Fall Throwdown a sold out success!!!

Thanks to all of you who came out to the Paradise Theater for our end of the season celebration.  The raucus evening came together with the help of a lot of fine folks.  Thanks to Stu & Marla, everyone at KVNF and Jack Young for helping us with our vidoes.   We have video of the videos which looks pretty cool and we'll get it on the website for you to see soon.  Thanks also to the sponsors, BlueBird Bycicles, High Country Printing & Graphics, Homestead Market, Sundragon Services, Starr's Guitars, Gusti Granzella, New Belguim Brewery and Paonia State Bank.  Click Here to listen to the PSB jingle.  A big thanks to Ryan & Curtis and Kelly for joining us on this side of the divide and helping us create an old timey hoedown, complete with saw and all! 

New CD update

We made it back into the studio early November and managed to track 15 new songs in 4 days with time to spare  (well, not really).  We did have a great experience and could really feel the benefits of our busy summer giging schedule.  We had lots of fun with this project and I think it will show through in the music.  Our good friend and producer, Mark Nanni joined us from New York for a musical reunion of sorts.  Not only did he contribute to the CD with his ideas and great energy, but with his accordian which sounds amazingly similar to Cory's fiddle.  It adds a new twist to our sound.  We've also included a number of surprises that will hopefully entertain and amuse you.  Click Here to listen to a rough mix of one of our songs called Rocky Road to Dunton. We sort of changed the name of the song in honor of the wedding we played in Dunton, Colorado that will be featured in the January issue of Outside Magazine. Stay tuned for more info on that, but don't forget, it's a rough mix and still has lots of potential.  These CDs will be available for sale this coming spring.

Winter Schedule

We're begining to put on the breaks for the winter.  We've got our 2nd annual Laura Ingalls Wild-n-Swingin' Ball which will be held at Steve's Guitars in Carbondale on December 3rd. We will be dressed for the occasion and encourage you to do the same.  To see some pictures of what we're talking about, click here.  After that we'll be taking a break for a few months to learn some new songs, have a new baby (Rebecca, that is,) and get ready for our exciting and ever expanding summer schedule.  We sincerely thank all of you who have helped make this past year such a success.  We'll see you on the musical trail......

October 2004

Walnut Valley Music Festival

Well, we've been to a lot of festivals over the years, but until now, we've never had such a great time as we had at Winfield.  And never have we played on such an awesome stage and for such a rauckus crowd as Stage 5.  It's not possible to explain what Winfield is all about, but sleep is way overrated!  

We enjoyed a slew of great groups on the 5th stage. The Podank String Band was pretty damn original....The Jeff and Vida Band were a treat and will surely be brought to our fair town in the future. Mike West was excellent, as usual.  Whisky Dick rocked stage 7 (The Stage is a Cage!) and The Wilders' 3am slot should have come with complimentary body bags! We made a connection with a fine duo from Jackson Hole, Ann and Pete Sibley who's amazing singing voices gave us chills.  We will definatly be bringing them to Paonia.   Cory saw a great band called The Dewayne Brothers and we all saw the amazing Hot Club of Cowtown at least 2 times and they are on our radar to bring to the valley in the future as well.  Another major yet bizarre highlight of the trip was Bill running into one of the members of the Sucka MCs.  They are a great underground rap group from Iowa we got turned onto a few years ago.....Iowa rap stars. 

Sincere thanks to all of you (especially the Wilders) for encouraging and helping us get to Winfield and on Stage 5. Thanks to all of you who came out to support us and for showing us what Winfield is all about.  An especially big thanks goes out to our most gracious hosts from Camp Dead Head......Bryce, Kelly, Amy, Elizabeth, Dave, Eric, Allen, Chris and everyone else.....You guys rock!  (this is the Emmy's isn't it?  I'm starting to shed tears..)  We also enjoyed meeting and playing for the kind folks at various neighboring sites....Jamie, Deena, Cecil, Paula, Rob, the list goes on.....Winfield folks are the coolest! We'll post pictures (and video clips) of our trip just as soon as we can.   We can't wait for next year.....See ya at Winfield!! 

CD Baby

Our CD's are now available from CD Baby.  You can check it out at  http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/sweetsunnysouth

Colorado Matters

Tune into Colorado Public Radio starting September 24th at 10am or 7pm to hear a one hour long interview with Bill regarding our band, our CD and The Bell Creek Dance Club.  It will re-air twice a week for the next 3 weeks on the Colorado Matters show with Dan Drayer so you'll have plenty of chances to hear Bill doing what he does best.......talk.  For more details you can go to the Colorado Matters website.

Redrocks AmphitheaterSweet Sunny South plays Redrocks - summer 2005! 
We'll know more details soon, but we entered The Colorado Grass Roots Music Festival contest to play next summer at Redrocks Amphitheater in Denver, Colorado and we won!  We'll be a part of a day long festival to benefit the Colorado Childrens Foundation with the headliner to be named.....We don't know when or who we'll be opening for yet, but we're just psyched to get to play on that stage!  We'll post the details as soon as we find out so you can mark your calendars and come on out and help us rock Redrocks!Fall ShowsOur busy summer is winding down.....and we're gearing up for a busy fall which will take us to Kansas, Steamboat Springs, Lake City & Moab, Utah.  We also have big plans for our annual Sweet Sunny South Fall concert at the Paradise.  We're talking multi-media, folks... Check out our calendar for more details.  New Band Member

Congratulations Rob & Rebecca & Sadie on the newest member of the family......we cant wait to meet him (or her) in February!

August 2004

Thanks to those of you who came out to support us on our first trip to the front range.  Our mini tour was a success complete with new and old friends, music and some rainy old-time fun.....were taking a couple weeks off after a busy summer to gear up for what's looking to be a busy fall.....come on out to see us or drop us an email.  We'd love to hear your comments on the cd, too!

Check us out in July's issue of Colorado Magazine.  You can view the article online at www.coloradomagazine.net

July 2004

Well, were back from Rockygrass and our 2nd time making the band contest finals and getting to play on the best stage in Colorado....except maybe for Redrocks....... We'll be competing to play there at next months Colorado Grass Roots Festival at the State Bridge Resort on Saturday, August 7th at 8:00pm . Come on out and cheer us on since this one is judged on audience response over anything else.  We're playing earlier that day just 20 minutes down the road at Wolcott Market so we should be good and warmed up.  Hope to see you at one or both shows...

Spring 2004

                      Hi there people. 

 Spring has come to the Rockies, and its bloooomin’.  We’ve been real busy around the farms, gardens, and in the ocean –I was at least.  We recorded in February.  Opened up for the Two High String Band in March.  We’re opening up for Uncle Earl on April 24^th at the Paradise Theater.  Pickin’ Productions is working overtime!  We are mixing the SSS CD and will have it all shrink wrapped and ready for you soon. 

 Let me back up a bit.  Recording has occurred.   We went into NFA Studio in Denver and recorded a CD that we’ve entitled, “Bell Creek Dance Club” after Bill’s song (and the actual building located just outside of Paonia).  It will have about 12 tunes, mostly originals by Bill, one by me, with traditional fiddle tunes scattered throughout.  We brought along Adam Burke as our producer and partner in the project.  We couldn’t have done it without him.  He rocks (he rolls, he boulders, he climbs mountains, he is a mountain.)  Colin Bricker is/was, (we still have to mix the CD and master) our engineer and is a wizard on the board.  So, with that team we made it happen.  And you can check it out on June 1^st. 

 In the meantime you can hear some rough mixes of the CD here on the webpage.  Ain’t Shelley doing a bang up job on this website?  She rocks.

 We’ll be celebrating the release of “Bell Creek Dance Club” with back-to-back CD release parties.  The first on Thursday June 3^rd in Paonia at Stu’s place (The Paradise Theater) and the next night, Friday June 4th in Carbondale at Steve’s guitars.  As a matter of fact lets just refer to this summer as our “CD release Summer”.  We’re really excited to be able to share this music with folks.  It rocks. (that is to say, we think so!)

 After the CD comes out, the season starts.  Here are a few highlights that we’ve got on the books so far:

• Dandelion Days, Carbondale, CO May 8^th  (Save the dandelions!)

• W.S.E.R.C. Earthday Celebration in Paonia’s Town Park, DuckDuckGrayDuck   playing after the parade, May 22

• Grand Junction Memorial Day Bluegrass FestivalMay 28^th, 29^th

• North Fork Bluegrass Festival, Hotchkiss, CO, June 11, 12, 13

• Crawford Concert in the Park with the Blue Canyon Boys, July 31^st

• Lake City Wine and Music Festival, Sept 25^th, 2004

• 3^rd annual Fall Paradise Show and Party, November 13^th, 2004

Check out the calendar and come to a show and pickup a CD!  Say hello.  We will be performing numerous times as Duck Duck Gray Duck, so keep your eyes out for those wacky birds.  We’re working on the Duck Duck CD also. Stay tuned for that.  We’re playing a bunch of big parties and weddings this summer also – which means we’ll get to play lots of those good old time fiddle tunes.  Cory’s got some new ones to lay on you, such as Big Sandy Taters on an apple farm, or something like that…. (uh, Bill here, that’s Great Big Taters in the Sandy Land, Rob….; ) and Breaking up Christmas (its actually a nice little tune).  Bills got a handful of new tunes we’re working up – I wrote a little ditty about being depressed around the farm……(uh Bill Here,--it’s a goodn!) and we’re playing around with some tunes we learned from Frank Lee, the Wilders, and Old Crow Medicine Show.  All of which have been floating around from one CD player to the next around here.  And the new Dirk Powell!  Wow.  Awesome stuff! 

 Be well, drop us a line, sign up on the mailing list and be sure to check out the North Fork Bluegrass website.  The mailing list will keep you updated on Pickin Production events as well as SSS and Gray Duck shows. So, please sign up and stay informed.  Hope we meet up a bunch this summer.  You are the ones that make it happen for us.  Thanks for your support.

 Rob & Sweet Sunny South (and Bill…)

          And remember…Bluegrass. Old-time.  ANYTIME!

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