Robin and Linda Williams: June's Honeymoons

Dear Friends,
Yep, June is the month for weddings and honeymoons. We woke up yesterday morning, looked at each other and exclaimed, "Thirty eight years! Can you believe it?"

That's right. At 3:00 on June 2, 1973 we got married at a Presbyterian church in Nashville, TN. Robin's dad married us and Linda's brother and Robin's sister sang at the ceremony. It was a small affair with just a few old friends and family members attending, but folks traveled from South Carolina, Texas, Arizona, Georgia, Michigan and Minnesota. Afterwards we went to some friends' house for the reception, a rousing affair with a lot of our Nashville musician friends. It was a hot June afternoon and there was plenty of food, champaign and music. Several of our friends, we found out years later, didn't remember being there, That's how much fun we had. But we have the pictures to verify their attendance. Later that night about ten of us went to a taco place and the waitress, looking at this dubious and devil-may-care crowd asked Robin, "what's going on here?" Robin, standing there with a harmonica rack around his neck, said "Oh we were all just at a wedding." "Oh, yeah, she asked, "who got married? Robin said, "I did." She said, "get out of here" - and she walked off. We did manage to get our tacos.

The next day we drove to Dallas where Robin had lined up a week long gig at a great club, The Rubaiyat. Linda got up and sang each night. After The Rubaiyat gig we drove to Aspen, CO where we spent several weeks with a friend named Bronco Newcomb who ran a stables. We hired out as hands for Bronco and played gigs in town, most notably at Jake's Abby. There are a couple of honeymoon pictures on our Facebook page. We had played a few gigs before as a duo but our honeymoon was where we got serious about this whole thing, about not only being Robin and Linda Williams personally, but also professionally.

And thirty eight years later it's hard to believe we've done it. Through thin and thick, and, believe us, there was a lot of thin, we've kept music as a dominant portion of our lives. We've stayed in gigs, we've kept our business straight, we've strived to answer each and every call and we've had a heckuva good time. We're still having a heckuva good time.

Speaking of which, this summer is chock full of good stuff. We'll be in the midwest and close to home for several gigs with The Fine Group. We'll be in Michigan with Garrison Keillor and A Prairie Home Companion. And we'll once again brush up on all we learned at The Chump School Of Acting and go for two weekends at the Lime Kiln Theater in this year's production of our musical "Stonewall Country." Jim Watson will, as usual, be lending his invaluable assistance in the production and our old friend and veteran of stage and screen, Tom Conway, will be directing. It'll be a fine show this year, we're sure. If any of you are near Lexington, VA on the play dates, you should come see it.

While all gigs are special, we'd like to give a shout out to the Birchmere benefit on June 19. Dave Giegerich was a great musician and friend who died too soon back in December. Several wonderful musicians are gathering to raise some money for his kids' college fund. Those of you close to D.C. should give this one a try.

Our new CD,"Stonewall Country," will be released on July 12. We really appreciate the support of Red House Records on this project. We've always felt that many of the songs from this musical could stand on their own, away from the producton, and the folks at Red House have gone out of their way to make sure that we understand that they agree. By the way, the cover art looks great.

The cruise in July, 2012 is taking shape. Mostly what we know now is that we'll leave Vancouver, BC on July 1 and cruise the inner passage through Ketchican, Skagway and Juneau, ending up in Anchorage on July 8. Our friend Lynette Miller at www.travelingtroubadour.com will be glad to answer any questions you may have.

Bumper Sticker Of The Month: Honk If You're Amish

This has gotten long. We'd better stop in order to be sure you guys to read all we've written. We know your email boxes get full and we appreciate you taking the time to peruse our monthly missives. Here's hoping you're enjoying sunny days and sunny spirits. Come see us if we're near your town.

Your pals,
Robin and Linda

BOOKINGS:
George Balderose, Music Tree Productions
(412) 323-2707
tradfolk@music-tree.com