Lowville Cream Cheese Festival...NY Roadtrip!

We were so fortunate to be invited to perform at the

9th Annual Downtown Lowville Cream Cheese Festival. Here's our photo diary:

 (several different photographers are represented - many thanks to all!)

Hitting the road! "Quiet car" leading the way and the "Party Van" following behind...



Morgan & Tamala settle in for the 14 hour drive...



Brad had a little trouble curbing his excitement...

Lowville is farther North than Toronto, Canada. Fall has arrived...

Yep, we were in the North Country...

The winds were blowing strong off Lake Ontario. We're chilly but so happy to be here...

Beautiful setting at Ridgeview Lodge...

Barns dotted the landscape everywhere you look...

Downtown Lowville is filled with gorgeous old buildings and homes...

Note the sign in the upper floor window...

Chef Duff Goldman from Food Network's Ace of Cakes, helped create the Guiness World Record Cheesecake. At 6900 pounds he needed a mighty large slicer!

Congrats Lowville on holding the new world record...

And now, the stage! You can tell it was pretty windy. Something was blowing in...

Graymatter getting set up...

We hear that 20,000 people were in attendance. They came from all over

to enjoy and celebrate...

Vendors galore and so many yummy food options...

But it started to rain, then we were faced with a tremendous downpour. The sound equipment and stage filled with water, making it too dangerous, if not impossible, to play the main stage. Graymatter huddles, deciding what to do...

So combining some of our equipment with another band's small PA system, we moved to the firehouse, along with 1000 of our newest friends...

And we sang our hearts out. It was a joy to look out and see so many people enjoying our set, most of them singing along with us...

Friends, both old and new, enjoying a cold one at the firehouse. We love our NY friends...



Was the rain going to put a halt to the festival? No way! The fun continued on...

Yep, this is a cream cheese dude, looking a little worse for wear following a good drenching,

but still in character...

Let the after-party begin!...

Dave, Barry, Brad and Bev, all natives of Chatham, NJ

reconnect with dear childhood friends Charlie Merrick and Skip Zimmerman...

 

Charlie and wife Kathleen join Graymatter for Bad Moon Rising and Here Comes the Sun...



special guest Eb rocking with us on The Chain...

special guest Rick belts out Dead Flowers...

We worked up a really pretty version of You Can Close Your Eyes just for Skip and urged him to come sing with us...which he did! It was a special moment...

The weekend had come to an end and it was time to pack up and head back to NC...

We just had to make a stop for photos of the Maple Ridge Wind Farm on Tug Hill.

Covering 12,000 acres over a 12x3 mile area, 195 wind turbines stand 260 feet tall and have blades that are 130 feet long. Taking advantage of the winds off Lake Ontario, the power generated from these towers placed on family farms add to the commodities produced in this area,

along with milk and maple syrup.

This is the largest wind farm east of the Mississippi. The sight of these silent giants was just awesome...

A look at the buildings below gives a perspective as to

 just how large these wind turbines are...



So we continued on our journey home. Only 14 hours to go...

The ride was just gorgeous through mountainous New York State,

Pennsylvania and northern Maryland.

Then over this bridge spanning the Susquehanna River and into DC

and down the highway that led us home.

Yes, this is what it looked like after 14 hours on the "Party Van." 

We had an amazing time, renewed friendships and found brand new friends.

We're so glad to have been a part of the Lowville Cream Cheese Festival

 and meet the fine people there.



our digital scrapbook

We're just loving our event promo posters this year - so much so that we've created a digital "scrapbook" so we can keep our collection all in one place and can admire Dave's work whenever the spirit moves us. It's a real thrill to see our promos picked up on other websites and to get such great feedback from the venue and webpage owners! Thanks for making us look so good Dave!

To see our growing collection, just hit the "scrapbook" tab on our webpage or click here: http://graymatternc.blogspot.com/p/travelog.html

A day at WCOM and an evening with Big Ron Hunter

Graymatter played the songs of Barry Gray....LIVE on the radio. Performing and being interviewed on the radio is pretty different from a live stage performance. Kind of nerve-wracking but fun! We heard afterwards that the internet broadcast was glitchy which is disappointing,  but we also learned that our families were sitting in cars around town listening to the radio broadcast. Talk about support! A podcast of the show is available so you internet listeners can enjoy it at your leisure.

Warming up in the yellow "green room" before going on the air.

Making sure it all comes out right!

The show's host: Kirk Ridge

 Yes, Bev was there too - but someone had to take the photos!

Then it was off to the Depot at Hillsborough Station where we played to a lively audience of all ages. I think that we saw more dancers under the age of 4 than we've ever seen moving to our music before!

A real joy for us was the enthusiasm coming from the group that followed us on stage. Big Ron Hunter and his band arrived at the Depot so they could hear Graymatter before their own set. Big Ron led the crowd, clapping in time to our songs and we could see him singing along with us when we hit on one of his favorites.

"Ron is called the world's happiest Bluesman. He owns a voice that gives people chills. It’s the kind of voice that carries warmth and tenderness, a voice that is unmistakably his own and embodies everything that’s raw, pure and beautiful about the blues.

Ron Hunter was born in Winston-Salem, NC. His father, who was a sharecropper, taught Ron how to sing and play the guitar at a young age. Mentored by the legendary Guitar Gabriel and versed in R&B, Rock & the Blues of BB King, Now touring with the Music Maker Revue, Hunter has entered the Blues scene at full speed.

The Music Maker Relief Foundation was founded to preserve the musical traditions of the South by directly supporting the musicians who make it, ensuring their voices will not be silenced by poverty and time." 

“What is worth keeping is worth passing on”

You can learn more about The Music Maker Relief Foundation at
http://www.musicmaker.org/about-us/our-story/

A run-through and a new venue!

It was a busy weekend for Graymatter! Saturday night we headed to Doodad Farm in Greensboro to do a mock-interview in preparation for our upcoming WCOM radio show that's coming up soon. We performed 8 original Barry songs and he got to practice fielding questions...and he did a great job. We were grateful to our audience for being there for feedback and to help us get ready. 

(thanks to Laurel Driver for these mock-interview photos)

Then on Sunday it was off to the Blue Note Grill in Durham for our first gig there. We were happy to see people singing along at the bar and of course, were thrilled to see friends who traveled quite a distance to support us. We love our Graymatter Groupies! We're looking forward to coming back to the Blue Note. The owners and staff are wonderful, the venue cozy yet accommodating and the food was yummy!

 Brad & Dave prepping pre-show

And of course, we're oh so grateful that we have the support of these two ladies. It means everything to us to see their smiling faces at our gigs. We know that our busy performance schedule isn't always convenient for them but they're always there to cheer us on! Love these ladies!

New Posters

Look for our new posters, coming to a wall near you soon.