So many highlights, but one of the biggest was having some tunes with John Paul Jones​ at Kings Place in London on our last night. Thanks, John! 
And thanks to Jonathon Cuff for the photos.  . .

The amazing community at  Rockygrass made for a fantastic week for Molsky's Mountain Drifters. 

Allison joined me my "Guided Tour of Old-Time Fiddle" in the Wildflower pavillion.

Molsky’s Mountain Drifters CD Release today Sept 9! MMD first hit the streets a few months back. Now it’s become a bit of an obsession - playing with Stash Wyslouch and Allison de Groot is making me look even deeper into why I love old time mountain music so much. I love this trio. 

The big news now is our first CD, releasing this week! We’ve included a bunch of old tunes played our way, plus a few more current bits like a Billy Bragg song and a little waltz I wrote. And we’re celebrating with some CD release concerts this fall. The first one is at the new Oldtone Music Festival this weekend (very soon, and what a lineup!) in Hillsdale, New York, followed by shows in Virginia, New Jersey, Ohio, Massachusetts, Vermont and onwards. We’re stoked to be hitting the road! 
Here is a clip from our CD Pre-Release Party at Clifftop last month: 
https://www.facebook.com/mountaindrifters/videos/288894764805167/

I hope everyone’s resolutions are in place for 2016. Mine is to keep in touch more! I’ve added concert, workshop and camps dates to the new website and there will be reports from the road and whatever musical items of interest pop up. But what I am most excited about . . .
  
There’s nothing like the anticipation of a concert coming up . . . especially when it’s the first show ever with a brand new band. Molsky’s Mountain Drifters (MMD) played its first a few weeks back, and we’re happy to have some video here! MMD has been coming together for months now, in rehearsals jammed into busy schedules, emails about what to play and how to play it.   
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The Trio! 
Many of the old players I met years ago said that each person should play their own way, have their own voice, even when playing old tunes and songs. I want to see where traditional music is headed through my own eyes, and have been pounding away at the possibilities. And I’ve been lurking and listening to newer voices emerging around me, and want to be part of where they’re headed, too. 
  
Allison de Groot sees it that way, with fresh approach, huge abilities and her own voice, no doubt. She does almost all of it on clawhammer banjo, through her own groups like The Goodbye Girls, Oh My Darling and others. She jumps into jam sessions and on-stage mashups, and the energy just blossoms; you can see it on everyone’s faces. 
  
Stash Wyslouch comes to traditional music through some mysterious creative vortex, with metal and punk at the top, then the transition to acoustic music and finally into the barrel of tradition. His evolution includes the ground-breaking Deadly Gentlemen plus his own groups. His songs simply kick ass. I don’t know how to play them yet, but would like to. 
  
Allison and Stash have agreed to dive into the possibilities with me. And so we’ll be playing concerts and festivals and growing ourselves as a musical unit. In March we’ll be making our first recording, once again stoked at the possibilities of such a snapshot in time. 
  

I hope that Molsky’s Mountain Drifters will always be an old time band steeped in possibility. The journey finding out just what that means is going to be it’s own reward.