Monday, October 26, 2009

Bill's Visitation

The visitation for Bill will be on Wednesday, October 28, 2009, at Moll Funeral Home in Mascoutah, IL. The time will be 4:00 - 9:00 p.m. Funeral will be private for family only.

Thank you all for your condolences. It feels like I have lost a member of my family.

Bill's Passing

Bill Barttelbort passed away Sunday, 10-25-09. His passing will be mourned by many. Bill played in The Chris Talley Trio for the past 5 years and made two CDs with us. He was one of the kindest and most talented persons that I have ever known. Bill made a personal commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ and is in Heaven.

I will post pictures and arrangements soon.

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

23rd Annual Greater Downstate Indoor Bluegrass Festival

We don't want you to miss out on this great festival! If you have been wanting to get lessons or attend a workshop with me (Chris Talley Armstrong), this is your chance. Terry Lease has asked me to teach the fiddle & banjo workshops every year for some time now. Saturday is the day, and there will be other workshops as well taught by other folks. This is a great opportunity to learn and then put your skills to the test while jamming later on in the evening.

The Bluegrass Shack will be setup in the vendor room (they call it the "Guitar Show" even though there are all kinds of other instruments and accessories there). When you walk through the conference room where we are set up, look directly to your left and you'll see us! We will be having a sale on books & DVDs.

You can jam all night long in the jamming area, or you can watch some great entertainers in the bluegrass showroom. Come Saturday morning for the Talent Showcase/Contest and cheer on The Pickin' Chicks. The festivities start at 10:00 a.m., but since the order of performers is determined on Saturday, I can't tell you exactly what time they play. You'll get to hear lots of other good talent, too!

There will be a mandolin workshop taught by Roland White all day Friday. If you would like to take part in this, be sure to let them know you found out about it from The Bluegrass Shack. You can sign up for the workshop or get more information about the entire weekend's festival by clicking HERE. We hope to see you there! You'll have a great time!

We Will Be Closed November 6-7

Just a note to let you know that The Bluegrass Shack will be closed on Friday and Saturday, November 6 & 7, 2009. We will be loading up the store to drive to Springfield, IL for the 23rd Annual Greater Downstate Indoor Bluegrass Festival. Come see us in the Guitar Show room. We will be set up there as vendors with fiddles, mandolins, banjos, guitars, harmonicas, accessories of all kinds, books, DVDs, and more! See my other post for more details!

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Win a Gift Certificate or Vintage Fiddle for your Donation!

In preparation for our Annual October Fiddle & Banjo Contest, we are offering a chance to win a free $100 gift certificate or 1890's vintage Neuner & Hornsteiner fiddle. For every donation of $1.00, you will get one chance to win. For $5.00, you will get six chances to win. We will hold a drawing at the contest for the winner. You do not need to be present to win. Your donations go 100% towards the cost of our contest, which is generally around $1500. This allows us to pay for the hall rental, judges, trophies, medals, and prize money.

By the way, our last fiddle winner (from July) will be entering this contest! Make sure you come to the contest and watch first-time contest player Courtney compete in the Junior Division. We just love it when our supporters decide to play music, too!

Sunday, October 18, 2009

Expansion Ahead!

We are happy to announce that The Bluegrass Shack will now have more parking effective immediately, and that we will eventually be able to expand our building. On Friday, we closed on our purchase of the piece of business property to the right of our current property. This was what used to be a landscaping business. You may now use this lot for additional parking! Yippee!

Monday, October 12, 2009

Pickin' Chicks Website

Just wanted to let you know that The Pickin' Chicks have their own website now. There will still be some updates to it, including more pictures of the girls individually and some more performance pictures. Now you can keep track of where they are playing! Just go to www.pickinchicks.com.