The annual Coopers Glen Bluegrass Festival is coming and the Detour crowd is looking forward for a terrific weekend of performing, workshops, and jam sessions.  We've had the opportunity to play this great festival a couple of times before and the audiences were fantastic.  The sponsors, our friendsat the Great Lakes Acoustic Music Association, provide space for jam sessions at all playing levels.  Even better, it's inside the Radisson Hotel in downtown Kzoo, so it's play, play, play, snow or shine (and it's snowing a lot over there this time of year).  We go on stage at 10.15 PM Friday, February 15 right after the big 35th anniversary celebration for Grassroots, WMUK's folk and bluegrass radio program (hosted by Detour pals Lorraine Caron and Mark Sahlgren).  So it should be a blast.  Bring your axe and join in!

Our friends at Hope River Entertainment compiled some stats on the rockin' chart success we've experienced this past year and stuffed it all into a press release that's making the rounds.  All of this is pretty exciting as well as humbling when we consider the great company we're joining on the charts, the wonderful appreciation expressed by fans, the loyalty and support given us by radio DJs who spin our songs.  For a bluegrass band that hails from Up North, it's a lot to contemplate and inspires us to look forward to this coming year with great anticipation.  The calendar's filling in with terrific festivals, so we hope to keep the streak alive!

Reflecting back on a marvelous year, the Detouristas have a lot to be thankful for. Our latest CD enjoys healthy sales, hit the charts with a bang, and stayed right there. Two of its tunes have been getting constant exposure on SiriusXM’s Bluegrass Junction, out on the internet, at radio stations across the world. We ventured away from home base to play the marvelous Gettysburg Bluegrass Festival, making many new friends. Then there was the meeting of minds that brought us together with the indefatigable Jim Roe, of Roe Entertainment. And what a trip to Nashville for a week’s schmooze and music: showcasing at the International Bluegrass Music Association’s annual conference, meetings with record companies and publicists, live radio shows on WAMU’s Bluegrasscountry.org and at the Ernest Tubb Record Shop, and interviews with our good friends at bluegrasstoday.com.  Heartfelt thanks to Jim Roe, Penni McDaniel, Kimberly and Blake Williams, Kyle Cantrell, Chris Jones, Chris Teskey, Greg Cahill, Terry Herd, Leigh Gibson, Mark Sahlgren, Martha Moore, Gene Skinner, Mike Kear, Donna Ulisse & Hadley Music Group, Mark Hodges, Lindsay Lou & the Flatbellys, Mike Sumner, Lee & Elaine Roy, David Morris, Marty Raybon, Brooke and Darin Aldridge, Wayne Taylor, Keith & Terri Grannis, Prescription Bluegrass, and legions of DJs and friends who have spread the word about our music and welcomed us into their musical worlds.  Perhaps the greatest highlight of all was our opportunity to present the first check of $1000 from sales of "Homeless of the Brave" to the great people at Northern Michigan Goodwill Industries to support Patriot Place, a transitional community for homeless veterans.  You could do us and them no greater honor than to give generously to this compassionate and generous organization.

And of course, we are blessed with such a loyal, dedicated, and enthusiastic crowd of families and fans who encourage our creative spirit and fortify our love of a great musical tradition. Here’s lookin’ to an even greater 2013, from Team Detour -- Jeff, Jack, Scott, Missy, Peter, Kevin, Jimmy.

Jimmy Kittle is a pretty familiar figure at Michigan bluegrass festivals. His ready smile can be seen at the sound board for most, if not all of them, and we’re darned happy that he makes our sound a regular project. We not only get terrific sound out front, (so our audiences tell us), but we also get some good, edgy advice about our music, our stage show, our presence, delivered with the man’s trademark candor, honed, I first suspected, by years of working night shift, where one is surrounded by hard-working people who leave nothing unsaid about one’s performance.

But in fact, Jimmy’s pragmatic, yet artful, approach to life has been sharpened by an experience very different, very close to home, very real, very life-and-death, the specter of cystic fibrosis that has haunted his family.  Nothing concentrates the mind and sets priorities with more cold and deadly earnestness than a crippling and life-shortening illness that strikes down the ones you love. Well, Jimmy doesn’t wear his emotions on his sleeve about all this; instead, with typical Kittle aplomb, he has tackled it head-on by assiduously raising money for the kind of research that extended his son’s life through a near-miraculous double-lung transplant, enabling Josh to embrace life to the fullest the way his dad does.

So a week from tomorrow we head down to the KC Campground near Milan, MI for our annual appearance at Jimmy’s Pickin on CF festival. We’ll be joined there by some wonderful bands, including Darin & Brooke Aldridge, our old pals from Hardline Drive, Berachah Valley, Wendy Smith, Lonesome Meadow, New Outlook, Lonesome County, New County Grass – (and lots more, see the schedule here) – many of whom are repeat performers like us. We just can’t stay away – the cause is too important, Jimmy is too good a friend, the music is too good to be missed, and the camaraderie is too all-comforting to be left for others to enjoy without us. We hope to see you there!

Thanks to our inimitable booking agent, Jim Roe, we slipped onto the roster at the Gettysburg Bluegrass Festival at the last minute.  That sure was our good fortune, because our visit there turned out to be a wonderful experience.  The crew piled into a caravan of vehicles and drove ten hours through the spectacular Allegheny Mountains to arrive in time to set up, rehearse, and enjoy some splendid back-stage fare provided by the promoter.  The festival actually is held in May and August -- this was its 34th year -- and wizened veterans tell us that usually the weather in August is steaming hot.  Well, all those gospel tunes we sing must've struck a chord upstairs, because the weather for our day there was near-perfect, upper 70s, glorious sunshine, dry ground and light winds.  It was a relaxing day of music, networking, and marketing our wares.  Peter got a chance to get a few pointers from the great Mike Cleveland, and to try out his five-string fiddle.  Mike hit the stage for rousing sets not only with his own great band but then sat in with J.D. Crowe's band, filling in for Dwight McCall.

Our sets felt wonderful.  This festival has a new, spacious stage, a powerful sound system, and a broad expanse of grass for a large and appreciative audience.  This was our first outing since Missy's "Lovin' Liza Jane" made #2 on the Bluegrasstoday.com weekly chart and we got a warm reception from the audience.  The festival also set up a nice workshop tent where we did a "Detour Drive-by" performance and answered questions from listeners.

This was one of the best -organized and -equipped festivals we've played at, and we sure hope we'll be back again!