WHAT A MONTH! Goodness gracious. Whoo! By the time you read this it will all be over, and August will have begun! So onward and upward! So much music to see and hear, and I wish I could’ve divided myself once again, but alas, I am but one person.
The first adventure of the month technically took me out of PA. It was Matt Jameson’s first official show on the Rehoboth Beach Boardwalk at Kiwi’s Tiki Hut! Music and beach! I couldn’t possibly miss that! And it was awesome to see I wasn’t the only one. He had groups of followers from all over the mid-state come out to support him. There was a crew from York that was there for the whole weekend of shenanigans, a crew from Stoney Creek, a crew from Flinchy’s, Holly’s friends and co-workers, and of course us! He had Kiwi’s Tiki Hut packed full of familiar faces and tons of fun! What an amazing debut at Rehoboth Beach. It was such a success that they wanted him back! He will be there for a double header the 1st and 2nd of August, and a 3rd show Friday, August 23rd. He also has quite a few shows back home too. You can check out his full schedule in this issue for all of the details.
On a Thursday night I took a trip over to Hops & Barleys in Mechanicsburg for Hank the Buffalo. They had a nice crowd for a Thursday and had people singing and dancing along. I love getting out during the week. If you can’t tell, I don’t like sitting at home. Hops and Barleys is an early show, music is from 6-9, so there’s still plenty of time to get home and get some good rest! Hank the Buffalo is stampeding there way thru the mid-state getting busier and busier! Do yourself a favor and get these guys booked at your venue or private party before it’s too late! Check out their ad in this issue and see where you can go “Be the Buffalo”, or at least get your picture taken with one!
On a Wednesday night I zoomed over to Flinchy’s for Derek Henry. Flinchy’s recently put in access to an XLR cable to be able to hook up to the in-house speakers. Hopefully they can get the kinks worked out and it will help with the sound in there. That place gets so packed it’s so hard to hear the music! Derek had the deck rockin’ for a Wednesday, and good times were had by all!
On a very special Wednesday night I headed down to Hook & Flask Stillworks for their 5th Anniversary Party! It was awesome to see so many people show up for such a momentous occasion. Hook & Flask has always supported and hosted live music, even through the Covid days we would freeze outside listening to music and drinking Hard Warm Cider and Hot Chocolate. So delicious! But they never gave up on the music when the rest of the world was shutting down, and for that many people were truly grateful. The musicians showed up to support the venue that has always supported them. I lost track of how many musicians were in the house that night, but 3 of them were on stage. Colin Alvarez, Matt Jameson, and Dave Gates all shared the stage for this momentous occasion. All night long they were getting requests and jamming to all of our favorite songs. It was a great night of music and celebrating! Congrats to 5 years Hook & Flask! Thanks for all you do for the music community!
On a Thursday night I double-dipped when I had to work at Susquehanna Valley Harley Davidson’s Bike Night as a BRP Representative, I also took pics for the magazine! I finally crossed paths with Little Rock. Rick Bell has invited me out so many times over the years, I can’t believe I haven’t seen them until now! Little Rock is a tight-knit group that plays all of your current and classic country favorites! Stephanie and Rick Bell do an amazing job at switching the lead vocal duties, and they also sing great harmonies. Even though the sun was blazing down on them, they powered through and put on a great show! If you get a chance, check out LIttle Rock, you’ll be glad you did!
On a Wednesday night I headed down to the Open Mic at Blue Sky. The whole night was packed full of talented musicians. I haven’t been down to the open mic for a while, but my friend Megan, from Megan & Dave, texted me that she was going to play guitar and sing solo for the first time in public, and I had to get out there and support her! She killed it! I am so proud of her!! I also saw Floating Gems for the first time, their lead singer, Danielle Farhat, was a student of Dad’s at one point, so it’s awesome to see her talents shine! At the end everyone from the open mic got up there together for one big jam! It’s always awesome to see collaborations and people just having a good time jamming! It was a great night of music, and I’m so glad I went!
Matt had off on a Thursday, so we took advantage, grabbed our friend Derek Alan, and the 3 of us went up to Shy Bear Brewing in Lewistown to see the 176ers Dueling Pianos.The pianists are Dr. Nyce and Cagan Goldstein. I’ve been wanting to see these guys for quite some time, and I’m so glad I finally caught a show! So much fun!! This show is all about requests that they kept passing back and forth, but if they weren’t playing lead they were backing each other up in some way.. Either with tambourine, electric guitar, harmonica, and even playing drums on their keyboards! It was so entertaining. We all had a blast singing and even dancing along! It was awesome to see so many people out on a gorgeous night at Shy Bear! The 176ers play all over the midstate and beyond. Keep an eye out for these guys and get out there and see them, you won’t be disappointed! August 14th, Katz 22 will be playing at Shy Bear. If you want an awesome night in a beautiful setting with delicious food and drinks.. Make your plans and head to Lewistown.
I was finally home on a Friday night, so I decided to run out to Jimmy Jaxxx to catch Megan & Dave’s last set. The crowd was small but the fun was mighty! Megan & Dave were playing fans’ requests and everyone was loving it! I even saw Megan pull her guitar out and she played solo in front of strangers! I am so proud of her!! She’s really hoping to get more confidence and practice so Dave can have more fun playing guitar leads during songs and she can hold down the rhythm. I’m sure she will be rockin’ along with Dave in no time! Check out Megan and Dave’s ad in this issue, and get out there and support live music, you won’t be disappointed.
This past month I also was invited to an amazing private party at Mother Ocean. It was a Margaritaville Madness party, and man those Margaritas were so tempting! But alas I packed a bunch of NAs, and I was a good girl. The best part about Mother Ocean was the friends, the music, and the pool! I was literally floating in the pool alllllll day! All while listening to fine talents of Crash & Cross, Hank the Buffalo, Matt Jameson, and Nate Myers and the Aces. Thanks to Scott and Kim Braasch for the invite! It was truly one of my favorite days of the Summer! Crash & Cross kicked the party off at 12 Noon. It’s awesome watching Crasher get more and more comfortable on stage. He’s starting to get some fancy dance moves, and he has some cool percussion instruments to be able to fill in their sound. These guys are fun to watch and sing along with. Their schedule keeps growing! Get out there and check out this awesome duo! Next Hank the Buffalo took the stage. Chris brought out his old 1962 12-string Gibson for the occasion. It sounded as beautiful as it looked! Stephen and Chris have really grown as musicians and also put on one heck of a show. I was babysitting Hank while they were on stage, so he went swimming with me! He loved every minute of it! Especially going down the slide! Matt Jameson always opens up the stage to other musicians so pretty much his whole set was a party! He definitely is Never Not Having Fun! He had Dave Garry joining him on bass and back up vocals, Crasher came up for a couple to sing, it truly was a party for sure! Nate Myers and the Aces ended the night, and man was that fun! It was hard at first to get my back porch swinging under water, but I managed! The super cool part about all of the entertainment at this party was that they all advertise in the magazine! It’s awesome to see so many bands supporting the magazine and each other. The central PA Musician family keeps growing, and we are always ready to welcome new people into our Funnel of Fun! Even when you don’t have a show, come out and support other musicians, get to know each other, and share info and ideas, like Rob Rutz says, “Music is the Bond”. Thanks again Scott and Kim!! I’m already marking my calendar for Mother Ocean Day next year!!
This month’s music journey ends on a Sunday with a trip to Appalachian Harley Davidson for DMC Duo playing inside Redd’s Roadhouse with some delicious BBQ! I haven’t seen DMC Duo for a while, so the first thing I did was scooped up their debut EP “Walk, Not Run”. They now have 5 original songs that they rock the stage with, and have also rocked plenty of nominations with as well! Their nominations are coming from everywhere! One of the ones I think is the coolest one is USA Single of the Year for “Getaway”. They won this nomination through the International Singer-Songwriters Association. Sounds amazing to me! DMC Duo are definitely rattling some airwaves and getting some attention around the world. It’s truly amazing what power the almighty internet has with music streaming on all of the different platforms! As a musician you truly never know what will click at the right place, and at the right time. It was an awesome afternoon sitting back listening to these two play. They play all over the place! Get out there and check them out, and if you can’t, you can at least stream their music.
Last but not least was a trip down to the Quentin Tavern, Grammy’s old stomping grounds, for Matt Jameson. Quentin Tavern has an amazing deck area all built around a giant Catulpa tree! It was so beautiful and a perfect Sunday afternoon. When I got there I saw my good friends Bob and Cathy from the Falls Crab Shack shows, we had a blast clapping and singing along! It was truly a beautiful way to end the month and an amazing weekend!
August is another busy one. Lots of zooming around to different places, but I’ll be out there catching music wherever I can! We are truly blessed here in Central PA to have such a tight music community. Again I’ll mention Dave Gates’s Solo Musician Podcast, if you can’t get out to other musician’s shows to catch up, share ideas, etc.. you can listen in to these podcasts. Dave shares so much awesome information to help guide and grow anyone’s musical career, and trust me, it’s great advice! I think it’s truly a beautiful thing to see so many collaborations between musicians. Plus if someone gets sick or needs someone to fill in, they have no problem reaching out to each other and doing whatever needs done. We got a magical music community here, and I’m so thankful to be part of it!
That’s all for this month. Don’t forget to check out the whole magazine for lots of schedules, shows, fun, and of course other articles! You can read it all online at www.pamusician.net, or get out there and grab yourself a hard copy! See ya Out & About, supporting local music!
