To those of you who attended the first annual Birdsong Gathering, thank you so much and I hope you enjoyed yourself as much as we did! It was great to get to see the looks on Andrew's and Levi's faces when they saw their instruments for the first time on Friday night. We don't get to witness that moment very often... and what an honor to hear the first few notes as well. After the cheese dip catastrophe (which Scott ate up anyway) we played all night as the guys settled into their new strings.

Wyatt and Brady rocked our casbahs on Saturday and we even had a little audience across the river who cheered after every song. :-) Loop pedals are wonderful if you've never tried one. Scott took a few moments to give away some Birdsong memorabilia such as router bits and pieces of our history. It meant so much for us to have the chance to show our gratitude to you all. We wouldn't be here without you!

Lyzz left for Canada that day and said a few words before her departure. It was a teary moment, hugs all around, and then off she went into her wild blue yonder.  She will be missed around here for sure, but she's having her first life adventure away from home and goes with all of our good wishes and support! Thanks to Dax, Millard, John, Wes, Wyatt, Ian (we missed you Chris!) and our friends Ken, Travis, and Shirley. And thanks so much for helping with the dishes Millard!  

The music sharing was awesome and the campfires were a wonderful way to bond with each other in the undeniably large presence of nature. Our trip to Gruene on Sunday was short and sweet - it was hard to get away from the cabin to go out and experience anything else - what could be better than decompressing from the city (some of you) with some good friends overlooking the Blanco with a cold one in your hand? 

But Gruene Hall definitely has some mystique with its ancient wood floors and all the pictures of the Texas greats who've performed there. John Arthur Martinez's band was good, and they didn't take themselves too seriously. They had a lot of contagious fun on the stage... at one point they all switched instruments for an energetic tune. ;-) Lonestar Music gave us free beer and we got some good tunes for the road (I know Millard... ;-). But the river, the fire, and the guitars called us back early to continue what we'd started just 2 short days before - bonding with our new friends, talking about what's really important in this life, and playing music together which communicated without words what we all felt inside.

Thanks again - we can't wait until next year!

Lyzzbot got the cake to commemorate... how cool!