A Sapsucker Update from Soldiers Grove

RADIO LOVE, TOUR EXCITEMENT, AND SONG STRIDES: NEWS FROM SAPSUCKERVILLE
Howdy folks! January is upon us, and we figgered that it's high time to bring you up to date on our doins' as a band and as people.
JANUARY TOUR: Our biggest news and most important current project is our upcoming Frozen Solid tour). This tour will take us and our friends Sandler, Kendra and Shawn of A kin up to the blustery wilds of northern Minnesota, where we hope to get many frostbitten toes a-tappin'. We continue, daily, to plan and publicize for our impending adventure. Though we're beginning to question our judgement in traveling to even colder climes at this time of year, we know we'll get a warm reception from friends old and new! All dates are posted on our DATES page.

KUDOS FOR THE RECORD: News that has us busting our buttons with pride comes from music blog, Ear To The Ground. They were kind enough to review our album, Ocooch Mountain Home, back in September, and have more recently named our track Kiss Away as number 17 on their list of top 20 songs of the year. We couldn't be more tickled.

Likewise, KDHX radio DJ Kelly Wells, from our home-away-from-home in St. Louis, named Ocooch Mountain Home as one of her top 10 picks for the year! We're very honored, and feel a lot of gratitude for all the props and promotion Kelly has given us over the past couple of years. We're looking forward to heading down there to play the KDHX Folk & Roots session on Feb 12!

Finally, American Roots UK has chosen the record for its list of 2015 Albums of the Year. We are so honored to be included in all of these lists and accolades, and don't forget you can listen and purchase the album right here.

MEANWHILE, BACK AT THE RANCH.... Last Saturday, we rolled on down to our local community radio station, WDRT, to appear as guests on the Driftless Weekend show (listen to it here). We played a few tunes and yukked it up with our buddies Mike and Genie Nordskog, and went out to breakfast at the Viking Inn afterwards. Good times had by all!

This week we have also been holing up in our cozy home, making some exciting progress on new musical material. Nikki has finished 2 new fiddle tunes, The Dump Run Rag and Pass The Buck. The former is a straight-up, rollicking fiddle rag with a jazzy twist or two.

Dump Run has been giving poor Joe a run for his money--it is chock-full of tricky key changes and rhythmic bugaboos. In desperation, he enlisted Nikki's brother, Cory, who is a professional cellist and composer, to transcribe Dump Run as Christmas present to Nikki--and as a tool to help Joe figure out what the heck to play on the guitar! Cory, after valiantly facing and conquering the Dump Run challenge, was heard to remark that his sister's head should be examined. Or something along those lines.

Joe has penned a charming song that is currently operating under the title of My Flower Girl. Originally intended as a Charlie Poole-style vaudeville-esque love ballad, it has taken on very subtle flavors of Kris Kristofferson and Merle Haggard as well. It should be ready to trot out on our Frozen Solid tour, along with a handful of other new offerings!

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QUILTS, ANCESTORS AND SNOWSTORMS: A PEEPHOLE INTO OUR WORLD
We've been having a warm, wet, brownish-green time of it so far here in Soldiers Grove, Wisconsin. Until this week, that is, when the sky opened up and dumped several inches of snow on us! We have plenty of projects to work on inside, and didn't let it worry us overmuch when we were unable to get the car out of the driveway for a day or so.

Nikki has been plugging away at one of her favorite winter pastimes--sewing projects. She does all her sewing by hand, because she's inept at using sewing machines. She finished a baby quilt for her nephew, Adam, who was just born on December 16th! She got to meet him last week when she went up to visit family for the holidays. She's also on the home stretch of finishing a quilt for Joe, which she started making about about 3 years ago. The top is all wool fabric, and the borders are made from an old, worn-out Hudson Bay blanket from Joe's childhood. It should be done within a week or so, finally!

You may or may not know that we are expecting a baby in March! Nikki and baby are healthy and doing fine. We are pretty sure, based on compelling evidence, that it's a girl, and we've even got a name all picked out, after Nikki's great-grandmother and great-great aunt on her Dad's side. Nikki's parents gave her a very special Christmas present of a beautiful photo of those two ladies when they were little girls.

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