september 24 , 1:30-4:30 - huntsville traditional music ... september... · ws.pdf ), here’s a...
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HTMA President’s Notes
September 2017
Dear Friends,
I am looking forward to a terrific HTMA Gazebo
Festival at Burritt Museum on September 24th.
We have an outstanding program of HTMA
musicians coming out Sunday and I am hoping
that even members who aren’t on the program
will come on out to support the ones who are
performing.
The Gazebo gig is a lot of fun. You can bring
children or grandkids, a picnic blanket or folding
chairs and sit out on the lawn enjoying the breeze
and great live music. For this event the Burritt
Museum waives the normal admission fee, so if
you haven’t been to the museum before, this is a
great chance to take a look around. What else
goes on at the Burritt? Check their webpage at
https://burrittonthemountain.com/ .
(Continued on Page 3)
NO HTMA Monthly Meeting or Coffeehouse in September
Instead we are having the annual Gazebo Concert at
Burritt Museum
September 24th, 1:30-4:30
Volume 51 – Issue 9 www.huntsvillefolk.org September 2017
Inside This Issue
1 - President’s Notes
2 - Area Events and HTMA
Contacts
3 - Gazebo Concert Program
4 – Positions Open!
6 – Special Thanks
to Karen Newsum
8 – Changes Coming for
Retirement Home Gigs
9 - HTMA Classifieds
1 Jerry at the 2015 Gazebo Concert (photo by Bill Cassells)
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HTMA Executive Board
President -
JERRY LECROY
256-880-6234 [email protected]
Vice President & Public Service
Chairman
JIM ENGLAND
256-852-5740 [email protected]
Secretary/Treasurer
PAT LONG
256-539-7211 [email protected]
Publicity Chairman
BOB HICKS
256-683-9807 [email protected]
Performance Chairwoman
KAREN NEWSUM [email protected]
Operations Chairman
GEORGE WILLIAMS
Webmaster/
JERI ANN PAYNE [email protected]
Acting Newsletter Editor
Jerry LeCroy (Position open!)
The leadership of HTMA invites YOU to be an active part of our great organization, whether you play an instrument, or want to share in any other way, we welcome you and thank you for your support!
Calendar of Upcoming Events
*SATURDAY September 2nd
ELMCROFT ASSISTED LIVING - Starting 3:00 PM - 8020 Benaroya Lane, Huntsville AL
*SATURDAY September 9th
HARBORCHASE RETIREMENT HOME
Starting 10:30 AM - 4801 Whitesport Circle, Huntsville AL
*SATURDAY September 23rd
REGENCY RETIREMENT VILLAGE Starting 3:15 PM 2004 Max Luther Drive, Huntsville, AL
Sunday September 24th
HTMA Gazebo Concert! At the Burritt Museum Gazebo, starting 1:30
This concert will feature fine music from HTMA
members. This Gazebo Concert replaces both the
monthly coffeehouse and regular membership jam.
* Retirement home dates can be subject to change.
Please ask Jim England to put you on his mail list if
you’d like to receive schedule updates and
reminders.
Karen Newsum with Chris Kidd and Dan Charles at last month’s HTMA Coffeehouse
(photo courtesy J. LeCroy)
For more information about HTMA or
current events, you can visit our website at
www.huntsvillefolk.org
You can join up or renew membership using
PayPal at
http://www.huntsvillefolk.org/paypal.htm
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[President’s Notes, Continued from Page 1]
I’d be grateful to have a few members volunteer
to help George Williams and me on setting up and
loading out for this show. The HTMA PA system is
not anything like you’d see at a big rock concert,
but it seems to get a bit heavier every year George
and I load and unload the gear.
I hope to see lots of HTMA friends at this gig.
Cheers,
Jerry LeCroy
Gazebo Concert Program
for Sunday September 24th The HTMA Gazebo show will feature a
number of association members playing solo
or with their bands. The program this year
looks great. All the performers are HTMA
members who volunteered to take slots this
year.
Do you wish you were on the program? Pay
attention next July when we ask for volunteers
in this newsletter. The Gazebo slots are
generally filled first-come-first-served, and it’s
unusual if the program isn’t filled in the first
couple weeks.
Burritt Gazebo Concert 2017
Jerry McGough with Shady J Band
Karen Newsum
Steve and Lynne Edmondson
Jeri Ann Payne (and friends)
John Keller
Dan Charles and Rick Russell
Jerry LeCroy
2 Jonathan and John LeCroy warming up at a family gathering. (photo courtesy J. LeCroy)
3 Grace Wood and Jennifer Sloan opened the August 2017 HTMA Coffeehouse
(photo courtest J. LeCroy)
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POSITIONS OPEN! (and help needed)
By Jerry LeCroy
The Huntsville Traditional Music Association
has always relied on the hard work of
dedicated volunteers to continue operations.
In case you have never taken a look at the
Association operating charter (which you can
read at
http://www.huntsvillefolk.org/HTMA%20byla
ws.PDF ), here’s a list of the volunteer
positions we need to keep filled:
• Officers – President, VP, and
Secretary/Treasurer. Each of these positions
has been manned by one person for ten years
or more. Fresh leadership would be welcome
by all incumbents.
• Programs – This chair is responsible for
planning and presenting HTMA music concert
and coffeehouse performances. I feel that the
coffeehouse series is the most important
function that the association performs, both
by supporting local and travelling artists, and
by giving HTMA members a stage for their
performances. Karen Newsum took over this
position late in 2016, and has done a yeoman
job this year booking artists for the
coffeehouses. Unfortunately, Karen will not be
able to continue this work in 2018, so we
desperately need a replacement to keep the
coffeehouses running. Please contact me if
you can help in this area. We need to have
this position filled before December 1 to be
able to continue the coffeehouse series in
2018, so this is truly a critical need.
• Publicity – The publicity committee is
ably chaired by Bob Hicks. Bob sends out
emails to remind members and friends of
upcoming events like meetings and
coffeehouses. Bob does a great job checking
event details, and frequently corrects me
when I get a date or time wrong. Like almost
all HTMA positions, the Publicity committee is
one-person deep. Bob could really use a
backup.
• Publications – This committee is
responsible for creating and publishing the
monthly HTMA newsletter. Sadly, the
publications committee has been chairless for
the past several years, and I have been filling
in as interim newsletter editor. I would love to
have an HTMA member volunteer to take over
the newsletter. It should be easy to find
candidates amongst our membership with
better credentials for writing and editing.
Actually, I’d be delighted to have a volunteer
agree to tag-team the newsletter, each taking
alternate months. Any takers?
• Operations – George Williams has been
carrying the torch for the operations
committee for over ten years. Operations is
responsible for maintenance, upkeep,
inventory, and transport of the PA and lighting
equipment that is used during HTMA
performances. George does a great job every
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month manning the mixer board at
coffeehouses. We could really use a backup
for George. For the past several years I have
been acting in a supporting role for this
committee, schlepping sound gear to and
from our gigs. I’d love for any member with a
van or small truck to take over this side of the
performance production.
• Special Programs – Jim England mans
this position as well as the vice-presidency.
Jim schedules several public service
retirement home gigs for HTMA each month.
Residents at the retirement homes really look
forward to our visits, and the cadre of HTMA
musicians who come out to play all have a
good time at every show. I think all the
members who support these gigs get a special
benefit from the experience of playing for a
live audience. Nothing sharpens performance
skills like live practice. The Programs chair
could really use a backup, though. Jim has
been carrying the entire load for years, and if
you can work as a backup that would be an
immense help.
• Membership – Though this position
deserves an independent chair,
Secretary/Treasurer Pat Long has been serving
as the ad hoc chair. The Membership chair
needs to keep track of who the active (dues-
paying) members are, as well as work to
recruit new members. I’d love to see a
member volunteer to take up this position.
Maintaining our membership base is critical to
the ongoing existence of the association.
• Finance – We have actually never had
an independent Finance chair, relying on the
association Treasurer to manage our finances.
That said, if you’re game, the position is open.
If you think you can help with any of the open
positions, please contact me or any of the
other officers. Our contact information is all
listed on the second page of this newsletter.
4 Pretty Fiddle scroll (photo courtesy J. LeCroy)
5 Former HTMA Operations Co-Chair Steve McGehee (photo courtesy JA Payne)
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A Special Thank You to Karen Newsum By Jerry LeCroy
Karen has done an amazing job this year leading the restart of the HTMA coffeehouse series (following 2016
when we had no coffeehouse shows). Karen’s contacts in the songwriting community have brought an array of
serious talent to the HTMA stage, and provided opportunities for many members to perform for our
coffeehouse audiences. Karen was able to make the giant transition from no coffeehouses in 2016 to a full
schedule in 2017, and her productions have all been top-grade. 2017 is the first year we have collected an
admission fee from attendees, and partly as a result, this is the first year in my memory that the coffeehouse
program has not been a financial drag on the association treasury. Great Job, artistically and financially!
The coffeehouse booking might look like a simple assignment to the outside observer, but Karen learned to
manage a number of brand new skills to make these shows happen. She has booked both feature artists and
openers, negotiated artists fees to stay within budget, collected publicity information, and obtained the
information we need for staging – like microphone counts and guitar stands needed. At most shows Karen has
worked as the master of ceremonies. Accomplishing all that took a tough learning curve for a retired
kindergarten teacher, but Karen was totally up to the challenge.
I am sad to report that Karen will not be able to continue her service to the HTMA music community next year.
We are in desperate need for a volunteer to step into the breach so that we can continue the coffeehouse
series in 2018. Please get in touch with me if you think you might like to give this job a try. It is really
rewarding, I think, to be able to bring musicians that you want to share with our audience to our artist-friendly
venue. If you have never been involved in event production, you will definitely have some learning
opportunities. Pat Long and I will be discussing the budget for 2018 coffeehouse productions over the next
month. I’d love to have a new Performance Chair volunteer in place to participate in the planning.
If this job sounds like a bit much, don’t be worried. We have been doing the coffeehouse gigs for over twenty
years, and have lots of support to make it easy. We have checklists for arranging/producing shows, lists of
previous artists (and every artist who has played an HTMA coffeehouse would like to be invited back), contract
forms, and planning spreadsheets all ready to fill out for next year. Although the Performance Chair position
takes some commitment, it isn’t a job where you have to start from scratch or figure it all out on your own.
You will get all the help you need from me, from Publicity Chair Bob Hicks, from Operations Chair George
Williams, and from HTMA webmistress Jeri-Ann Payne.
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New Opportunities for Retirement Home Performances By Jerry LeCroy
This year Jim England’s Saturday retirement home performances have been exceptionally well attended by
HTMA members and friends. The August show at Regency Retirement Home featured Ken Hinkle, Collier
Rawls, Al Yancey, Bill Nuessle, Neida Keel, Barney Harding, James Smith, Jim England, and me. Some
recent retirement home gigs have had as many as a dozen members and friends performing.
The member turnout we are seeing is terrific, but it also means that individuals who come out to play
might only get to do one or two of their own songs. Some members may be dissuaded from coming out
just because of the large turnout. At the same time, we have been limiting our performances to three
nursing homes that we go to every month. There are several other venues who would welcome our
support.
Jim England has come up with an idea to try to make more performance opportunities for public-spirited
members, and get us out to a few venues that we have not been to in recent years. Jim’s thought is that by
offering more performance dates, maybe we will reduce the performer count at each to give the folks who
make the effort to show up more time to play.
What we’d like to do is start presenting two sets of coffeehouse gigs. We will maintain the Saturday gigs
the same as we have been doing for twenty years, but add on some mid-week gigs, perhaps Tuesday and
Thursday mornings. The idea is that our members who are retired or have flexible work schedules can
support the mid-week gigs, and maybe leave a little more room for those who are still paying into social
security to play on the weekend gigs.
Please check the event schedule on page 2 of the newsletter to see what dates are coming up. Jim and I
would both appreciate any member feedback on the idea of doing both mid-week and weekend shows at
retirement and nursing homes. Maybe we should come up with an on-line signup for these gigs, so you can
see who is coming?
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6 Former HTMA Production Chair Jerry McGough with his band at a 2012 Coffeehouse
(photo courtesy J. LeCroy)
7 One of the fiddles from last month’s picture, now restored and ready for action (photo courtesy J. LeCroy)
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Do you have an item for sale? Are you looking for an instrument? Are you wanting to acquire, trade or sell musical gear, recordings, books,
get something repaired.... Do you need music lessons? Are you wanting to join or find a new group or band member? This section of our
newsletter is for members to place ads for services or instruments or anything related to music. It will be updated for each newsletter. If
you have an item or advertisement you would like to be published, please send an EMAIL (preferably before the fifteenth of the month) to
[email protected] (Jerry) to have your listing included in the upcoming newsletter. In your email, fully describe what your offering or
looking for, and how you want users to contact YOU, via email, phone or both, etc. Once your listing or item is no longer active, please also
email [email protected] for removal of your listing. Please note that HTMA makes this service available to aid our users in
finding, trading or selling music items and services only - and we are not responsible for the completion or non-compliance of any
transactions between members.
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Vance Sheffield has a number of copies of two LPs that HTMA [then the Huntsville Association of Folk
Musicians or HAFM] recorded in the early 1970s. Vance also has some records produced by TennVale in the
same time period, with collections of tunes by a number of country fiddlers of that era, and other LPs recorded
at the Galax convention. All of the albums came from the estate of Doug Crosswhite, owner of Tennvale
records and the engineer of the 1 & 2 HAFM albums.
The price for the HAFM albums is $15 per set for the AL 1 & 2 albums, free shipping, and $10 each for any
other albums, free shipping. Payment can be made through Paypal at [email protected] or they can send
a check to:
Helen Sheffield,
PO Box 1342
Killen, AL 35645.
Phone #256-757-8370, Vance or Helen.