September 14th - 16th, 2007 September 14  Cleveland, GA Universal Chevrolet       We were invited back this month by my dear friend Mitch Simpson to play with the Isaac's.  Mitch always puts on a first rate show and is one of the biggest supporters of bluegrass ever.  He's one of our biggest sponsors as well.  Anyway, I got down early and sat around with Mitch and played mandolins for a couple hours and watched the rain.  We were a little worried about all the rain but  a little before showtime it stopped and a big crowd came in.  We played for an hour and had Mitch up to play a couple tunes.  He's an awesome picker, by the way.  The show went great. The crowd was very responsive and so very nice as always! The Isaac's were sounding great as we left to get to Tennessee for the festival the next day! September 15   Kodak, TN  Dumplin Valley Bluegrass Festival      We got a few hours sleep and arrived at Dumpling Valley a couple hours before showtime.  What a beautiful place and great folks!  I think was the best crowd I've ever seen there.  The lineup included the Grasscals and The Circuit Riders as well as other great groups.  The lineup here is second to none.  We got to see a lot of friends we hadn't seen in a while and are looking forward to going back to one of the best festivals anywhere! September 16   Danbury, NC  The Stokes Stomp      Again we got even less sleep and headed down to my home county of Stokes(hence the name "The Stokes Stomp") for a great day of music.  This event is put on by the Stokes County Arts Council and what a great job they do!  We made it down an hour or so before our first set at noon.  We played to a great crowd the first set and I was off to do a mandolin workshop at 1 with Ralph McGee(a great mandolin player and friend).  We had a ball playing and talking to all the mandolin students! Also at the festival was fellow Stokes County native Lou Reid and his wonderful group Carolina!  They sounded killer as always and the crowd really loved them. In between our sets we were able to see a lot of folks I had went to high school with and hadn't seen since then(which has been at least 15 years!!haha).  After another set for us and Lou we had both our groups up onstage as well as a lot of other pickers from Stokes County for a Grand Finale!  What a great time!  Thanks again to eddy, Dallas and all the Arts Council.  There's nothing like getting to come back home and play!!   Alan September 6th - 9th, 2007 On Thursday, September 6th we headed up to Williamsburg, KY to play the Old Fashioned Trading Days Festival. This is a really cool town festival. They shut down the city square and have music, food, crafts and lots of cool things. The whole town comes out for this. This makes my 4th time playing there. I had a buddy named Gerald Mullins who was one of my best friends in elementary school. Around the 4th grade, he and his family moved away. I never heard from them again until a few years back when we were booked to play the festival. Gerald had relocated to Williamsburg, and was now the guy doing all the booking for the event. That is pretty cool stuff. Gerald has his own band now and plays banjo. Neither one us us were pickers at the time he moved away. Great seeing him again! There were lots of great bands at the festival. Lots of old and new fans. It was a great night in Williamsburg! On Sunday, September 9th, we played at the Tennessee Valley Fair in Knoxville, TN. This place brings back great memories. Every year when school would start back, my family would take us to the fair. Lots of specials times there. We played at The Homer Hamilton Theater which is a 5,000 seat amphitheater in the fair. I last played there in 1980. Funny how much things have changed since then. 27 years ago....That is pretty wild! It was great seeing many of my old friends at the Fair. Lots of people from high school. Lots of old picking buddies. Several great bands there as well such as Lone Mountain Station with my buddy Chris West filling in on mandolin, as well as Cumberland Gap Connection with my long time buddy Greg Hodge on fiddle. The sound was great with Darrell Puett on the house sound. We all had a great time at the Fair!!   Phil August 31st - September 3rd, 2007 Had a great Labor Day weekend. We started out on Friday at The Down Home in Johnson City, TN. Had a great show there, and got a chance to see allot of our good East Tennessee friends at the Home. Brother Dave is looking well, and was in great spirits. Many of you may know that Bother Dave has been pretty ill as of recent months, but he told us the doctor has gave him a clean bill of health. That is such awesome news! Keep Brother Dave in your prayers. On Saturday, I had my very first trip to The Mandolin Farms BG Festival in Flemingsburg, KY. They have a great facility there, and they do an awesome job with this festival. Great crowd there, and I think we made allot of new fans there. Great seeing Lowell and Alisa, and having some late lunch with them both. Alisa has some cool dogs. Great to see them both! Monday we went to a brand new event in Max Meadows, VA called Grahamfest, USA. I was very impressed with the facility there at Grahamfest. It was as nice as any I have ever seen. The staff was A++. The crowd was off, but this was their first year. Its going to get better. They are doing things right! Great seeing our buddy Greg Luck and a few of those Circuit Riders as we were leaving. Another great weekend. It just keeps getting better every week. We are having such a great time! All for now until next week. Phil August 22nd - 25th, 2007 We had a great time this week. We had shows in Gettysburg, PA and also Ozark, AL.  Me, Steve, Alan and Jamey went up a day early to tour the battlefield at Gettysburg.  We also met up with a buddy of ours, Greg Pirtle.  I have been on that battlefield about 8 times, but this time we hired a personal tour guide who rode with us in our vehicle.  I have never seen Gettysburg quite like this.  It was the most awesome tour I have ever been part of.  We learned so much, and saw so many things that we wouldn't have noticed without this guy who was named Jim. He knew everything, and every inch of the battlefield.  We spent 4 hours on the tour.  Probably one of the best things I have ever got to do. On Friday, we played the Gettysburg Bluegrass Festival.  Had a great time there, and got to see lots of friends that we hadn't seen in a while.  We had a wonderful time in Gettysburg.  The next day was a travel day, and we had nearly 1000 miles to cover, so we headed out for Ozark, AL which is right above the Florida Panhandle (almost to Panama City).  After a long travel day, we played on Saturday at the Ozark Civic Center which is an awesome venue.  Met lots of great fans there, and had a wonderful time.  On Sunday, we headed home.  It was one great week! Phil August 21st, 2007 We had a great time over in Cherokee, NC this past weekend. Norman Adams does a great festival. This one is also close to home which makes it nice! I don't ever remember it being any hotter than it was this past Saturday, but the music was great!! Del, Rhonda, The Lewis Family, Kenny and Amanda and many others were there as well on Saturday. It's always fun playing with The Lewis Family because you know at some point....Little Roy is going to be messin' with you. Well, the 2nd set was the time. Here comes Little Roy to join us on stage for "Train 45". He was dressed in some weird costume that was just hilarious!! The crowd loved it. It's always a pleasure to see Little Roy. We had a huge turnout at the CD table, and also had lots of fans donating this weekend to the Ernie Thacker Fund. This thing is getting huge!! So many people out there who are concerned about Ernie and his family that really want to help. The support has been unreal. I think we are getting more out of this than Ernie. It is just so humbling for us each time a fan comes up to donate. Ernie has allot of friends out there, and bluegrass has allot of great fans who have huge hearts!! It was also great to have Darrell Puett running the sound for us at Cherokee. He does an awesome job!!! Well, this upcoming week we are off to Gettysburg, PA and Ozark, AL. More next week in our new "Road Journal" segment. Phil