Hey All y’all!

Yep, we’ve been spending some time in the south. Can someone remind me what it’s like to have a shower and not feel hot and sticky 5 minutes later? It’s been a hot summer in more ways than one so far… And the humidity has been outrageous – I have been enduring hair issues (frizzy on my head, loose on my bow). But I have been having so much fun despite all of this that I really don’t mind. I can endure nearly anything for music and excitement like we’ve had the past few weeks. And summer’s only begun!

The Blue Ridge BBQ & Music Festival in Tryon, NC (where we kicked off our June tour) was great! We heard some great music there and ate some mighty tasty ribs. We hung out in Lake Lure for a couple of days beforehand with Marc, Marie & Clay’s family which was swell. Clay’s neck of the woods is purty darn nice and we love spending time there. We went swimming between practicing and eating (more eating…I know…we seem to do a lot of that!)

From there we headed to Independence, VA for the Peach Bottom Farm Fiddle & Strings camp. I’ve done this camp a few times now and each year it just gets better and better. I was especially thrilled to spend time with my good friend Shane Cook who was also teaching there. The instructors were first class, students were keen, jams were great, the scenery is amazing there – the camp has a real family vibe to it. I was sorry to see the week end. You should all come there next year – it’s really growing and will fill up quickly so stay tuned for their 2011 dates!

I had to duck out of camp immediately when it ended at noon on Friday because that night I had a special gig in Nashvegas! As some of you might know I was honoured to perform at the Station Inn with the John Hartford String Band at their CD Release Concert for “Memories of John”. It was a long drive to TN and then back to VA, but 10 minutes in the green room with those musicians made it all worth it before we even stepped on stage. What a thrill! And so many touching moments in tribute to John. There are some videos on my youtube channel you can check out, featuring the JHSB and other special guests as well, including Casey Driessen, Alison Brown & David Grier!

The next day we drove back to Virginia, to Elk Creek, to visit with wonderful fiddler and great friend Jerry Correll & his lovely wife Donna. We had a jam session and went fishing in the New River. It was my first time wading. I caught 3 fish (and Jerry let me reel one of his in so I’m not counting that one!) It was amazing. I can’t wait to do it again!

From there I flew to Minnesota for my first time at Brian Wicklund’s fiddle camp – Lake Country Fiddle Pal Camp. There are so many amazing people in this world and I feel so lucky to do what I do and get to meet so many of them. Everywhere I go there are people I feel so fortunate to meet and get to know and my week in Marine on St. Croix was no exception. This is another exceptional camp with truly fantastic teachers (I learned a bunch from them) and I highly recommend you check it out if that’s your “thing”.

My friends Bill & Kate Isles picked me up after camp and I’m hanging with them for a couple of days until I fly to WY for the gig we have there this week (on Canada Day actually! Happy Canada Day everyone!) Last night we played a gig in Falcon Heights at Coffee Grounds, tomorrow we’re doing a TV spot at 6 AM (yikes!) and some other promo stuff. I’ll be catching up on emails and work and getting a bit of rest before I leave on Wednesday. And I won’t have to say good bye to them for long as I’m joining them for a bunch of dates in July after the Swannanoa Camp’s fiddle week! 

And that my friends is the report from Bill & Kate’s deck.  Until next time, take care and have fun!

Hi everyone! Okay, I admit it…I’m a bit of a slacker in the blogging department. I know, I know – it’s not the first time I’ve confessed this. You see, if you know me, then you know that I work hard and I do get a lot done. I rarely procrastinate and I am fairly on top of things most of the time. But for some reason my blog just doesn’t get updated as often as it should despite my best intentions. And I feel badly about it. How might I fix this? Here is one thing I was thinking. I really want a new laptop. I have a Dell. I want a MacBook. If I got a MacBook with the built in camera I could video blog – which takes less time and is exciting and then maybe I could keep my blog more up to date. I’m just sayin’… It’s another excuse to get my MacBook. So, now that “blog” will be stroked off of my to-do list I think I will add “buy MacBook”. We’ll see.

We’ve had a great spring and wonderful start to our summer. Heck, when I think about it, 2010 is kickin’ some major arse! So much excitement! Our April tour of the Midwest was one of our best of that area for sure – other than it ending with me jamming my finger in an old farmhouse screen door (it’s STILL blue & purple and bumpy but it plays just fine!)

At the end of April into the beginning of May I taught at the Fiddle Star Adult Camp for Megan Lynch at her beautiful home in Goodlettsville, TN. I got to hang out with a bunch of great fiddlers (the ones making funny faces in this picture) and had a great time! I was also there for the unexpected and devastating floods. I have witnessed snow and ice storms but never the power of water in a flood before. My thoughts are still with all of those recovering from the damage in and around Nashville.

After camp I hung out in Nashville for a couple of days and got to visit my ex-AVB’ers Chris Jones and Jon Weisberger and even did a little song writing. That’s right. Songs with WORDS! Our audiences on the May tour got to hear some of these new songs and I’m excited about them and about doing more writing… Go me go!

Our May tour was around the Northeast – NJ, NY, CT, MA, ME, PA. We had a few days off in the middle the tour which we spent in Kennebunk, ME working on new material for our upcoming recording. We are hoping to record again early in 2011 (Can’t really be sooner or later than then cause we’re all booked up! Yayayay!) We worked really hard and have started road testing 6 new arrangements and have plans for a bunch more. It feels really good to be working on new stuff and we are getting stronger as a band (as evidenced in this picture). Old-timey, old country-ish is the trend so far. I love it! We also got to see our dear friends Mac & Rae Ann McLanahan (of Rose Garden Coffeehouse and Nashville Clippers fame) for a brief time while we were in MA. They are super people and we miss seeing them, so even a brief visit is a much needed retreat. (That’s all of us in their backyard for breakfast after our gig the night before).

I got sick at the end of our last tour. Food poisoning. Not from anything to do with gig or festival food. But my thanks to Cody & Clay for pulling all of their weight and all of mine for the long drive from MA to PA and throughout that festival weekend while I tried to get by on Pedialite & Crackers. It worked. Thanks again guys!

We all got home about a week ago and are enjoying time with family and friends. My sister is getting married next weekend! Then we’ll be back out on the road to really start our summer touring as of June 9 (not home again until July 31). Headed to NC & VA first – a couple of my very favourite places to go! And I’ll be part of the John Hartford String Band CD release concert at the Station Inn on June 18 in Nashville…

See you along the way I hope – have a good one!

PS: We recently started a band page on facebook that we all administer. Guess what?! It’s under “April Verch Band”. Be our friend if you want to! Please?!

Woah!  So much has happened since I last wrote.  I can’t keep up.  And I love it!

We toured California, Oregon & Washington at the beginning of March and had a wonderful time.  We got to see some old friends and met some new ones which is usually the case, but we have some dear friends in those areas and so it was extra special!

Then we toured Alaska.  Oh, Alaska.  We knew it would be beautiful, we knew it would be special.  But really, we had no clue.  It was spectactular.  People are always asking us “of all the places you’ve been, what sticks out in your mind”.  And it’s always hard to answer that.  But we have a list of special things that do stick out, and our debut tour of Alaska is definitely at the top of that list these days.  Thanks to the many people who made it so special for us – we can’t wait to return!

Here are a few pictures from that tour of Alaska.  If you’re my friend on Facebook there are a whole bunch more to look at!

We went home for a few days after our March tour…and then it became my month!  Yay!  I kicked it off with a Bowfire performance at Sir Sean Connery’s “Dressed to Kilt” event.  A star-studded charity event in NYC (see pics below!)  Then it was my birthday!  I am 32.  I know, I know!  And then we started our tour of the Midwest.  We have been in Minnesota for a few days.  (I love you Caribou Coffee!) and next we head to Iowa and Wisconsin.

We are busy.  Life is good.  Music rocks. xo

Well as a lot of you know by now, I had the experience of a life time recently when I performed in the Opening Ceremonies of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games.  I have been super busy ever since and it’s taken me a little while to get to this, but I really wanted to share some of my fantastic memories with you here and give you a bit of the background and scoop on the whole deal!  And let me say thank you so much for the notes of congratulations and support from so many of you.  I tried to reply to as many as I could but you were all so kind that I didn’t quite make it to everyone, so please know that you have my heartfelt thanks for being so great!

Now – back to the beginning!  I was contacted by VANOC in early June 2009.  They informed me that they wanted me to be a part of the opening ceremony but before they could discuss anything with me I had to sign several different confidentiality agreements.  Even after I had signed the various agreements, I didn’t know much about the segment and I didn’t know who else would be involved in my segment.  After a few months I received some short snippets of music to learn and I was asked to pre-record my fiddle parts (which I did with Damon Criger at his studio in Pembroke) and send them in to VANOC.  A couple of months after that we had our first conference call with David Atkins (Executive Producer of 2010 Olympic Ceremonie), Drew Anthony (choreographer of Olympic Ceremonies) and various other members of their team.  It was during that call that each of us learned the details about our segment: who else was involved, what the set would be like, what costumes would be like (they were designed by Anne Seguin-Poirier of Cirque du Soleil).  After that phone call details started getting confirmed bit by bit and things got more involved and detailed the closer we got to the Opening Ceremonies on February 12, 2010.

One of my favourite parts of being involved with the ceremony was working with my fiddling peers Daniel Lapp, Sierra Noble, Samantha Robichaud, Andre Brunet & Ashley MacIsaac.  They are all fantastic musicians and the most wonderful people to work and hang out with.  Not to mention all of the dancers (including Brock Jellison!) and all of the other VANOC personnel we had the pleasure of getting to know.  Everyone was so postive and motivated to make the show the best we could and it felt so great to be a part of a team like that.

Performing in this event was an amazing experience.  There were more than 50,000 people in BC Place when we performed and the estimated viewing audience on TV (from what I’ve heard) was over 2 billion people.  I can’t imagine doing anything in my lifetime that will have as big an audience as that.  That’s a bigger viewing audience than the Grammy’s, the Super Bowl, probably even the World Cup.  It’s not every night you get up to perform and look at your peers and say “we are performing in the biggest show in the world right now and know for certain that it’s true!”  I was nervous, but in a good way, just really excited and thrilled to be a part of it all.  The best part was thinking about how fortunate we were to be bringing Canadian fiddle music to the world stage.  And I felt really good about how we were doing it – various regions were represented (the best they can be in a limited time) – and I felt honoured that the Ottawa Valley had a fiddler amongst the crowd.  I felt responsible to do the best job I could in representing us, and fiddlers everywhere.  I couldn’t help but think of all of the fiddlers who have influenced me in my lifetime and the ones that came before me and just how proud I thought they would be to have Canadian fiddle music heard in that way.  It was really emotional in that way.  It was a once in a life time amazing experience.

Our segment was called “Rhythms of the Fall: Fiddle Nation”.  It was written, arranged and choreographed specifically for the ceremonies.  Some of the tunes we played were written specifically for the segment by Calvin Vollrath of St. Paul, AB, some were traditional tunes and some were common Canadian fiddle tunes like Ward Allen’s famous “Maple Sugar”.  We gathered in Vancouver for initial costume fittings, to learn the choreography and rehearse for several days in late January, both in practice tents that were set up to replicate the stadium as well as in the stadium itself, which was still under construction at the time.  Then we all returned to Vancouver on February 5^th and rehearsed daily through until the opening on February 12^th.  In addition to learning our parts there were rehearsals for lighting, cameras, technical elements, staging, etc.  It was amazing to see the scope of such a production.  There were teams of people that took care of everything – props, in ear monitors, safety belts (BC law requires the performers who are staged above a certain height be tethered to the stage – which we had to build in and out of the choreography!), hair, make-up…it was endless.  And everyone we encountered throughout the process was friendly, professional, positive thinking and first class.  It was such a learning process on so many levels.

We were able to meet and cheer on the athletes outside our dressing room as they passed to make their way into the stadium.  They were very friendly and excited and many of them wanted to take our picture!  We took lots of them too!  I saw Clara Hughes at that point…  I met a few of the other performers that were in other segments.  Everyone was thrilled to be a part of this event and there was a great camaraderie.  Each person in my segment received one ticket to watch the Opening Ceremony, and my husband, Marc Bru was seated in the VIP section which was really exciting, since Donald Sutherland, Wayne Gretzky (and his family), Julie Payette, Barbara Ann Scott, Romeo Dallaire and Rick Hansen were all seated just a row or two in front of him!

I was on tour for several weeks before flying to the Olympics and then I returned to touring immediately after, but we were able to stick around for a few days following the Opening Ceremony and we enjoyed attending 2 women’s hockey games, a men’s curling game, and the men’s ice hockey game.  We saw Canada participate in all of the events we attended.  I wore my Canadian Olympic gear with so much pride!  There iwas an amazing amount of excitement in the air in Vancouver!  We were enjoying the men’s moguls in a restaurant with giant TV’s when Bilodeau won his gold medal and the entire place and the streets erupted – it was so much fun to be there for that.  That evening we had tickets to the Victory Ceremony at BC Place and we were there when he was awarded his medal.  That was something I’ll never forget!

All in all it’s hard to put an experience like this into words.  I might not ever be able to convey what an honour it was to be a part of it all but I won’t stop trying every chance I get.

We had SUCH a GREAT tour of the midwest & southwest!  Thank you to all of the new friends we met along the way for coming out and supporting live music – and us!  It’s the first time in a while that we’ve had to overnight more CDs and then still ended up selling out before the last concert.  And I can’t tell you how incredibly lucky we feel to be traveling around making music with each other and for you.  We saw some amazing scenery, ate way too much incredible food and met some of the nicest folks around on this tour.  Can you tell it just left me feeling warm and fuzzy and loved?  Well it did! 

Can’t wait for the Midwinter Bluegrass Festival in Denver in a couple of weeks…  Lots of excitement before then that I’ll tell you about really soon – check back in a few days!

Hey everyone!

We’ve had a wonderful kick-off to our current tour.  We started out in Fayetteville, AR at GoodFolk.  Let me just say that they lived up to their name – what an amazing audience, we couldn’t have asked for a better first night!  It was also our first gig with our new vocal condensor mic which we were super excited about and we are loving it so far. 

Then we played at the Tulsa Performing Arts Center where an amazing crew helped us put on our best show.  We had some new video footage shot there as well which will be available for viewing soon – stay tuned! 

After our day in OK we headed to Hesston, KS and had another intimate setting (sold out show!) and another perfect audience!  We have felt so loved on this tour!  We stayed with Cody’s folks just outside of Onaga, KS on our day off yesterday and they have spoiled us rotton.  Great food, wii games, visits, and a sauna in the woods.  The perfect day off!  I have to go and get ready…  Photos in this post are from our concert in Hesston and are courtesy of Don Shorock – thanks Don!

See you down the road!

April

And we are sooooo excited about 2010.  So many good things have happened already and it’s only going to keep getting better.  Highlights?  Touring, touring, touring of course!  We hope to see you along the way.  As I type this I’m waiting with Clay in the Wichita airport for Cody to arrive.  Once Cody arrives our Midwestern tour will have officially begun!  We’ll be in AR, OK, KS, OH, MI, NM, CO in the next 2 weeks!  Yep, we’re folk stars!!!  (Okay, sometimes we just like to call ourselves that, but reading this back to Clay it made him laugh, so it was worth it!)  At the beginning of January we did a little run in DE, PA & NY.  A couple of photos from the green room at the Steel City Coffeehouse in Phoenixville, PA below…  Stay tuned for more updates.  I’m going to get better at keeping this up!  (I hope!)

Okay, so I’ve been meaning to make this blog entry for quite a while.  You know how it goes, long to-do lists, and limited internet time on the road…  These posts get pushed back sometimes despite my best intentions.  And now when I finally got around to it I checked the date of my last entry and I can’t believe that was only a month ago and how much has happened and how many places I’ve been since that tour!  And that it’s nearly Christmas!  And it’s nearly 2010 already!  This year has flown by.  And it’s been a great one.

Since my last entry, we finished our crazy busy tour of the south – something like 12 shows in 10 days!  It was so much fun.  Then we played the Canadian Folk Music Awards in Ottawa which was a real honour!  I spent a couple of days in MN with Bill & Kate Isles (not long enough but at least I got a little Bill & Kate fix!)

I’ve spent the last few weeks on the road with Bowfire.  It’s been a blast playing in so many interesting places, and having days off in places like New Orleans & Vegas!  We’ve been performing a brand new holiday show which was challenging to get together and fun once we got it down! 

Right now I am excited about finally getting home for over a week.  And I am trying to keep up with getting everything ready for our winter tours.  It’s going to be non-stop from January through to the summer months, and we’re hoping we’ll have a bunch of festival stops lined up soon for then!

Since this may be my last post of 2009, I want to take a minute to thank my agents: Mike Green & Associates and Near North Music for their devotion and hard work in keeping the AVB going down the road.  I want to thank Clay & Cody – they rock so hard.  I thank my husband and my family for putting up with me and this crazy schedule (252 days on the road this year).  And I thank you for your support!

Happy Holidays everyone!

Love,

April

Hey y’all!

Okay, we haven’t been here long enough yet for me to start saying that for real again…but man do we love touring in the south!  This tour started last night in Bedford, VA where the locals came to see us on a Thursday night despite their football team playing and being broadcast on ESPN – we felt the love!  And tonight we played at Down Home in Johnson City, TN – such a cool venue with a lot of history and character (and Matt is a great sound engineer!)  Tomorrow we head to North Carolina!  We’ve been running into old friends along the way which is really exciting.  And thanks to all of you who seen us and came to the website to sign up for our email list.  Your support means so much to us! 

These are a couple of pictures of us in the green

room before the show tonight…  See you again soon -

April

Hey y’all!

I’m out with Bowfire now.  So much fun!!!  We are having a great tour.  It’s a pretty extensive tour with lots of driving on the bus, good thing we all get along!

The shows are going really well.  And in between everything else we’re spending our spare time preparing for our Christmas show which will start at the end of November and tour until December 16.  Today we bought some more Christmas costumes – it’s all about looking good really…(evil elfish grin!)  Actually, I have a pile of music to memorize.  So I’ll sign off for now and get back to work.  Catch you later!

April

We are having great tours everyone!  So good that I haven’t blogged too much…  As usual we’ve been busy touring, keeping up with business and life on the road and getting ready for next year!  We’re really excited about our fall tours, especially our extensive southern tour in November.  And I’m looking forward to returning to the cast of Bowfire for a bunch of dates too!  Other highlights include our performance at the Canadian Folk Music Awards and my guest appearances with Bill & Kate Isles, all at the end of November…  Enough said – all of that info is on the tour dates page as you know – so take a gander at your leisure!

Below is a picture of Clay & Cody dining with the Gallery family in Augusta, WV.  They hosted our concert in Romney, WV at the Bottling Works (check out their great series here) last week and we had a great time visiting with them and eating waffles on their beautiful deck before we headed to our next gig.  It really is the people we meet along the way that make what we do such a blessing!  Hope to see YOU along the way sometime soon!  Take care!

April

How can it be the end of August already??!!

This summer has flown by so quickly.  It’s been a very busy, extremely enjoyable and just recently much too hot for my taste summer!  Since my last entry we’ve toured in Washington state (with stops in Kenmore, Coupeville and Mt. Vernon – a fabulous little mini tour!)  I joined “Strung” for an appearance at one of Canada’s greatest folk festivals in Canmore, Alberta.  The AVB had the pleasure of kicking off the Canadian Open Old Time Fiddle Championships with a Thursday evening concert in Shelburne, Ontario.  I  spent the remainder of that weekend there judging the competition – a tough but enjoyable job!  And just now I’m in Boston.  We performed for the Prescott Park Arts Festival last night (Portsmouth, NH) and I’m flying home today, getting set to take a few days off before the next tour starts.  I am super excited for this weekend which is the only weekend I’ll get out camping this year, and it’s “family camping weekend” which is an annual event in my family and if I can only camp one weekend I’m sure glad it’s that one!  

It’s been a big adjusment touring without my husband, Marc.  We miss him in the band and I know our fans do too!  But since his retirment from music in MayI’m glad to report that he’s built a massive deck and a screened-in porch onto our log home!  I’m hoping to catch up on work and prepare for the next tour on the new deck!  A lot of you have been asking for updates on Marc’s brewery.  I’ll keep you all posted when there’s important news, but in the mean time you can find info here: Square Timber Brewing Company.  Stay tuned for an opening date and be sure to pencil in a stop at Square Timber for your next trip to the Ottawa Valley!

The fall is going to be extremely busy and I’m looking forward to all of our tour stops.  More updates to come on all of that, but until then, I’ll be camping, you’ll be enjoying the end of this great season and we’ll connect again soon!

Thanks for stopping by…

April

Hey there!

I am on week 4 of 4 of my current tour and landed in Seattle today!  But let me catch you up a bit on our recent adventures… 

This tour started at the wonderful Palisade Bluegrass Festival in Colorado where everyone shared and enjoyed music amongst the magestic cottonwood trees.  We enjoyed listening to sets by our friends Danny Barnes, the Dixie Beeliners and Cadillac Sky to name a few.  The audiences were spectacular and it was the perfect way to kick off our first official tour of the summer.

Then Cody and I headed to the Peach Bottom Fiddle & Strings camp (Independence, VA) where we connected with old friends (thankfully including my favourite Virginian fiddler, Jerry Correll) and made some new ones too.  I am always in awe of that beautiful part of the country and once again left refreshed and inspired. 

Next we picked up Clay again and spent a few days touring in Maryland and Maine where we enjoyed fresh crab and lobster!  Cody celebrated his birthday on this leg of the tour as well.  We bought him deodorant as a gift.  No – it wasn’t a hint, he asked for it!  We played some great venues on this neck of the tour – some of the best in the country really – and enjoyed immersing ourselves in the local culture and delicacies along the way. 

 I was thrilled and honoured to spend the next week in Los Angeles, teaching at Mark O’Connor’s inaugural UCLA Summer String Institute.   It’salways amazes me how Mark can bring people together in unexpected and spectacular ways.  I enjoyed sharing music and time with Rachel Barton Pine, John Blake, Sarah Caswell, Tashina Claridge, Yale Strom, Mike Block, Becca Albers and of course, Mark!  I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know and work with the amazing students that attended the event and can’t wait for next year.  (Check out my performance with Mike Block here!)

On Friday night I took the red eye flight from LAX to Toronto.  I landed just in time to have a shower (thank goodness!) and start our shows at the Mariposa Folk Festival.  It was a fantastic time – great line-up, perfect weather AND my Mom & Dad came to visit me and brought lettuce and strawberries from their garden!  Our band enjoyed some Tim Hortons stops as well (3 in 2 days!)  What more can you ask for from a summer festival stop?  A slot on the Sunday night main stage before Buffy Sainte-Marie perhaps?  We had that too!

After just a couple of hours sleep and no chance to catch up on the time-zone hopping I caught an early morning flight back to the west coast today.  I have a couple of days to catch up on work and rest (and update my blog!) before our mini-tour of Washington commences.  Tomorrow I’m going to fit in a hair cut and some shopping too.  Tonight I had amazing sushi with my friends Michelle & Ben who are letting me crash at their beautiful home in west Seattle.

I am truly blessed!

Our cake at Stone Mountain Arts Center!

Hey everybody!

Welcome to my brand new site!  I am really excited to launch my newly designed home on the complicated series of inter-connected tubes and pipes we call the internet…  I want to thank Dana Whittle of Vizou for her sharing her talent, expertise and time in designing this site and bringing it to life!  And thank YOU for visiting!

This is my very first blog post and I’m doing it late at night in my dorm room at UCLA in Los Angeles, CA.  I’m here teaching at Mark O’Connor’s inaugural UCLA Strings Conference.  It’s a thrill and an honor to be here and I am super excited for the remaining days we have left together here.  The weather is perfect, the students are amazing, the instructors are unbelievable…let’s just say I feel like one lucky girl!

And since I have to teach in the morning I’m going to hit the hay…  Talk again soon!

April