"Dear Old Illinois" -- misc. links about this classic collection of regional fiddle tunes ** UPDATED w/ a memorable tracking notice

D R A F T

• Audio clips at http://drdosido.net/fiddleclub/tag/genevieve-harrison-koester/. "A selection of tunes from Dear Old Illinois (both a place and the life work of Genevieve’s father, Garry Harrison). Gena plays with her dad in the New Mules, a band featured at the Old Town School’s Trad Fest in January 2008. The first of these tunes is from the David McIntosh collection of folksongs from Southern Illinois from the middle of the last century. The next two are tunes Garry collected from downstate fiddlers 30 years ago."

• Pride of America -- CD by The New Mules at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/newmules. "... Fiddler Garry Harrison learned the local music of his native downstate Illinois the old-time way, from his father and in person at the homes of elderly players from the area. Just as those folks learned and as Garry learned from them, Garry's daughter Genevieve in turn learned to play the fiddle in the old style, her first guidance being from her father.

  "Garry and Gena joined with some of the area's finest players to form the New Mules. Abby Ladin plays the bass, Smith Koester the banjo, and Andy Gribble the guitar. Their music is from authentic traditional sources and includes both rare and obscure old gems and previously unheard versions of better-known numbers. The group brings renewed life to this music with their own unique arrangements and performances, and no one has more fun in doing it.

  "The New Mules were honored with the award of First Prize in the Traditional Band competition at the Appalachian String Band Festival, Clifftop, West Virginia, August 2, 2008."

UPDATE: So when I order Pride of America from CDBaby.com, the online record store that caters to independent artists, I get this shipping notice in my email:

Thanks for your order with CD Baby!

* * *

[tracking details omitted]

(1) The New Mules: Pride of America

Your CD has been gently taken from our CD Baby shelves with sterilized contamination-free gloves and placed onto a satin pillow.

A team of 50 employees inspected your CD and polished it to make sure it was in the best possible condition before mailing. Our world-renowned packing specialist lit a local artisan candle and a hush fell over the crowd as he put your CD into the finest gold-lined box that money can buy.

We all had a wonderful celebration afterwards and the whole party marched down the street to the post office where the entire town of Portland waved "Bon Voyage!" to your package, on its way to you, in our private CD Baby jet on this day, August 11, 2015.

We hope you had a wonderful time shopping at CD Baby. In commemoration, we have placed your picture on our wall as "Customer of the Year." We're all exhausted but can't wait for you to come back to CDBABY.COM!!

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Sigh...

We miss you already. We'll be right here at http://cdbaby.com/, patiently awaiting your return.

--

CD Baby
The little store with the best new independent music.