Notes from the Road – Folk Alliance Day 2 Thursday, February 21, 2008 – This was a pure work day. No showcases, just networking and exhibit hall work throughout the day. The weather has turned very cold and nasty. Staying inside today was a very good thing. Like most mornings, I spent some time reorganizing and looking at the schedules. Once I went down and got my exhibit booth ready for the day I headed up for the Folk DJ’s reception. I was one of many sponsors for this annual event “honoring†the folk DJ’s from around the country. In reality, it is an invitation to all the DJ’s to come have some food and liquid refreshments so that all the artists can bombard them with CD’s, press materials, etc. It is a mad house. As usual, the room was too small and no one could move without bumping into someone else. The main advantage of sponsorship (other than signage at the event) is a special table reserved for CD’s of the sponsors. Consequently, even if you don’t meet every DJ face to face, they will likely pick up one of your CD’s from the table. Once again, Florida Folk Radio was well represented by Michael Stock, Randy Wynne and Rick Pietrzak. It is time well spent, but it’s exhausting – it is what I’d imagine speed dating is like. My exhibit booth location this year is excellent. I have a lot of traffic and and getting great exposure. The only problem is that I’m also out of my chex mix “goodies†already – very popular. So, I had to make a Walmart run this evening to pick up some generic stuff to use once I run out tomorrow. I spent a couple of hours tonight putting together another 75 packages. I hope that gets me through tomorrow and Saturday. I’ve made a lot of new music pals including a trio called Wild Blue Yonder who have the booth next to mine – nice folks from Knoxville and a great folk / new grass sound. I spent a few minutes with John McCutcheon this afternoon – I’m a big fan of his and he’s a truly gracious “big name†on the circuit. I also spent time today with Jack Williams (and his lovely wife Judy), Cary and Susan Taylor (who are backing Ronnie Cox this year in his shows), Susan Werner and an old buddy of Dell Hoyt’s, Hank Wiseman (Dell, you reading this? Hank said to give him a call!!). It’s truly a small world. Tonight I sat in on showcases by Nick Annis, Wild Blue Yonder, Si Kahn and a couple of others whose names won’t come to me this late at night. There is just so much great music here that it’s a daunting task just to decide what to listen to and make yourself go to bed when you know it’s all still going on. Well, tomorrow’s a busy day so I’ll quit here. Three showcases tomorrow, plus the exhibit hall, SERFA meeting and more. Sleep!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!