One day I’m touring Chris Abell’s shop and then having lunch with him (burritos), and then a few days later I walk into the local session, and who’s playing Banjo? None other than John Doyle, former Guitar player for Solas.
I wonder what tomorrow will bring…
Loren
Welcome back, Loren! Thanks for sharing your journeys with us!
Cheers, 
serpent
John Doyle is God.
Very cool, Loren. It’s a lot cooler than here, that’s for sure.
A hell of a lot cooler than here, too. I went to a performance tonight that was supposed to be followed by a session. I saw THE WORST whistling I have ever seen. John Sindt would be horrified to see his whistles played so badly! The same guy, who had a nice voice but used it without any emotion or enthusiasm, also played bodhran worse than anyone I’d ever seen. He was fine on the banjo. Anyway, no musicians showed up for the session, so it didn’t happen. I have to get out of here. Geez.
J
I grew up a few miles south of Asheville, and it was a very nice town then. Left in essentially 1963. Much different now, but still very nice… Just different. No Chris Abel then, no ITM so far as I know, but what did know? Not much. Still get back up that way often.
There’s a guy who owns nearly all the surviving orginal Gibson AJ’s in the world, and lives in Asheville, NC…Garry Burnette. He’s God of the Holy Grail.
Cool??? Asheville is downright COLD this time of the year…
Ken
Cold? It was in the high 50’s Low 60’s today and yesterday…You call that cold?!?
Just found out tonight that Flook and Lunasa will be playing here within a few weeks of each other this spring…Gotta love that! None of those bands came anywhere near Tampa during the, oh…12-13 years I was there.
Loren
Loren,
I am an honest to God flatlander. Tried living in the mountains once, one of my legs got longer than the other one. I am comparing Asheville to the Raleigh area (about 200 miles east) Yes, Asheville can get about as cold as an ex wife’s kiss.
Ken
Kenith is right; the 50s-60s were an aberration. Lows should be in the 20s tonight, with a bit of snow coming later in the week. But the four seasons are why all those former flatlanders (such as I) are moving here! …and yes, as noted above, Asheville is developing a very civilized music/concert scene these days. Hard to understand why so many kids say it’s “nowhere” and leave (albeit, later in life, many of them come back). It’s a great place! Come visit! Spend lots of money! 
(P.S. When one leg starts getting shorter, you just rotate 180 degrees )
I dearly love Asheville, always have. The arts scene has been very active there for as long as I can remember, but it was sort of underground, so those who wished to make a living with their dream had to go elsewhere. Now it seems to be opening up, which is a wonderful thing.
Asheville had a high today of about 45 maybe. Those 55 and 60 degree days are probably close to record breaking. Not normal.
I’m about 2 1/2 hrs north of there and we got in the 50’s that day. I WISH that was normal winter temperatures.
Unfortunately, winter is due back , along with snow(ugh) in a couple of days.
Well, I’ve only been here a month or so now, but the temperatures have been all over the place, with plenty of “warm” days. I was talking with some folks the other day, and they tell me you can pretty much rock climb all year if you stay in the sun, so to me, that’s warm.
Loren
Loren, is Jimmy’s Pizza still in business?
Haven’t seen Jimmy’s, what street was it on?
Loren…if you run into a box player in Asheville by the name of David Gloor (goes by “The Blarney Pilgrim”) tell him “hi” from the La Grande days.
Lorenzo,
I’ll keep an eye out for him, although I don’t know that I’ll be here much longer 
So far the only box player I’ve met is Jeff…can’t remember his last name., nice guy though. He plays concertina and helps out over at Chris Abells shop. Jeff is a regular at the Asheville session.
Loren
It’s been years… Jimmy was once a Miami guy. The only ‘Jimmy’s’ I could find is:
Jimmy’s Italian Villa, 1903 Asheville Hwy, Hendersonville. I guess that’s about 10-15 miles outside of Asheville.
At the time he moved there, the only Italian food in NC was Chef Boyardee!
Probably 'cause they called it ‘eye-tallion’
