THE upright bass smells like hand sanitizer.

We’re hoping that you’re doing as well as you can during the protests, quarantine, cancelled xyz, and at least for us here in Southwest Colorado, forest fires.

This year was shaping up to be an interesting one for Six Dollar even before the ‘Rona situation. We knew that Tony was going to be moving to Virginia with his wife. Somebody smarter than me figured out that our local gig schedule would need to feature Brendan on fiddle to make sure we could hold it all together with some hard-driving fiddle to keep the train running. I’m happy to say—so far, so good.

Trying to play music as a string band since the initial re-opening in Colorado has been a little more frequent than we expected. I was ready to write the entire year of 2020 off, but that’s not seeming to be the case, so far. Things are always feeling super in flux, though, as we were reminded by a gig in Silverton, CO being canceled a couple days ago.

With some reasonable precautions and a whole lot of hand sanitizer, Brendan, Robin, and I have been able to squeeze a few gigs in a socially distant manner, though. First, was out in Ignacio, Colorado for the good people of Porky’s Smokehouse for the last couple of weeks, which were a total blast. Cody Tinin and Jimi Giles joined the band last week, which was super kind of them. It was good to hang out with our super talented music buddies and bump elbows.

The Animas City Night Bizarre was also kind enough to have Brendan and myself come out to play for their inaugural Passagiatta last week. Brendan and I sang and played behind our masks on the steps of historic Animas City museum. It felt so good to see people out, strolling the streets. I hope that we can rediscover and help reimagine our neighborhoods even during this time of solitude and prioritizing safety. It felt like we were able to be a part of that, even in just a small way, and that was awesome.

The formula is pretty simple. #1 Outdoor gigs for no more than 2 hours or so. #2 Masked, socially-distant guests and people helping to make sure that’s happening. #3 Pee before you come. We’ll see how it goes from here, I suppose.

So, let me say thank you and give a huge shoutout to the folks that are trying to figure out how to reopen and reconnect responsibly and even support musicians through this massive disruption. We see you and appreciate you. Thank you!

Lord-willing, we are going to be playing a handful of local outdoor private events over the Summer and Fall. We’re even booked for a small outdoor performance in Cuchara, Colorado in a couple of weeks. But, at the end of the day, it’ll be a relatively quiet 2020 for us in terms of gigging, which we will manage one way or the other!

As a parting gift, please enjoy this version of “All In Down and Out Blues” by Uncle Dave Macon. Tony brought this tune to us awhile back and we worked it up for our new record, but more on that another time!

That’s it for today, folks. Y’all take care!