Murphy Henry

As you read this, Red and I are on the road, headed for Nashville and the IBMA World of Bluegrass where we will set up our Murphy Method booth at FanFest. (Friday and Saturday, if you want to make last minute plans to come see us!) Casey, as you may know from reading this blog and the Bluegrass Blog, is already there (since she lives in Nashville anyhow) along with my Fiddle Sister Patty Pullen who is staying at Casey’s house. Which is where we will be holed up also during the hours when we are not tending our booth!
Tonight (Thursday) Casey and Patty and I will be attending the IBMA Awards Show which will feature none other than Steve Martin! Also, the Dillards are being inducted into the IBMA Hall of Fame and I’m almost as excited about that as seeing Steve Martin. (You may know the Dillards best from their appearances as the Darling Family on the Andy Griffith Show. The great banjo player Doug Dillard is also the author of “Banjo in the Hollow”!) I hope we’ll have some pictures to post on Friday!

Now, a word about the Misfit Jam. We had an observer tonight, a former beginning banjo student who has been taking some time off. He stayed for the whole hour so I figured he was enjoying himself. Mark and Susan acquitted themselves admirably on banjo, while Ellen, Bobby V. and I held up the rhythm section. We were having so much fun, especially when we played “Banjo in the Hollow” and “Cripple Creek” FAST, that I declared, “Who needs Logan?” (He had ditched us for College Night at the mall. Can you believe that?)

The quote of the night was from Ellen. She was explaining to our guest that this is a Misfit jam and said that tonight we had “a whole lot of misses and a couple of fits.” I said, “That’s going in the blog” and promptly wrote it down next to Jody Stecher’s picture on the front of Banjo Newsletter.

Ah yes, and the title, Grip Packed To Travel. That’s from the chorus of “Blue Ridge Mountain Blues”: My grip is packed to travel/And I’m scratching gravel/For that Blue Ridge far away."

As I write this, my grip is currently lying open and partially packed on the floor of my bedroom. Guess I’ll go throw a few more things in it, read a few pages about Jamie and Claire, and hit the hay. Oh, yes, and there’s supper to eat. I think I’ll do that first. Hope to see you in Nashville!