Notes From the Cabin: June 25, 2025

caffe lena (also streaming!) // ticonderoga! // and more shows tba...

Hey, pal!

I’m writing this while listening to the constant whirr of hummingbirds fighting over the feeder right outside the window. I know I’ve remarked on it many a time, but I will never get over what rage-filled little beasts they are. Their battle maneuvers can be startling, especially when the conflict spills over into the cabin. Nothing like a feathery ball of fury flying at your face to keep you on your toes! (The jury is out on the health benefits/risks of hummingbird-induced cortisol spikes.)

After a few weeks of nerding out on our own little music trips—me over in the bunkhouse looping on fiddle tunes and KK in the cabin doing his usual listening and noodling—we’ve started playing together again. Good news: it’s still fun! Which is indeed a blessing, as we’ve just booked a couple more shows…

SHOWS

Remember how last summer KK and I couldn’t stop reading about the Revolutionary War? If so, you may understand just how psyched I am that we have added a show in TICONDEROGA, NY! Yeppers, on July 18th we’ll be playing Don Sheldon’s lawn concert series on Lake George. You best believe historic sites will be visited.

Here’s what’s coming up:

• July 5: Caffe Lena / Saratoga Springs, NY (and also livestreaming with great sound and video!)

• July 18: Heart Bay Lake Concerts / Ticonderoga, NY

• Aug 22: Tompkins Corners Cultural Center / Putnam Valley, NY [ticket link coming soon]

PLUS we have shows in PA and NY in early September that we hope to be able to tell you about very soon…

Shoutout to

Troubadour Concert Rooms

for putting some cool venues on our radar!

painting by Kieran Kane

YET MORE ABOUT VOLUME 4

• This sweet blurb from Amos Perrine at No Depression

• Kevin Slick’s review in Bluegrass Unlimited

• Someone in Australia really got it

You can order the new album directly from us (if you live in the US), or get it at your local indie music store, or download it from Bandcamp, or stream it on any of the streaming services.

WILDLIFE REPORT

In addition to the hummingbirds being all up in our business, we’ve had plenty of other cool bird activity. Lots more eagle action (it’s always dramatic to witness an eagle doing anything, really, but extra thrilling to see them fishing), a very vocal loon, a merganser mama all loaded down with tiny chicks, plus all the usual neighborhood visitors (woodpeckers, phoebes, etc). While out for a jog the other day I surprised a family of turkeys that were hunkered down in a roadside ditch—I had NO IDEA that turkey babies could fly like that! They were still quite small, but were able to go shooting up into the trees with impressive speed.

On the four-legged front, the deer are plentiful and healthy looking, and groundhog babies are as cute as ever. Have been seeing turtles galore, especially snapping turtles. Check out this miniature one I came across on the golf course the other day:

RECOMMENDED VIEWING

The Prowler • We rewatched this 1951 movie the other night and hot damn that’s a good noir! It’s deeply creepy and beautifully shot. And you have no idea where it’s going. (Even though I’d seen it before, I was still surprised!)

Act of Violence • I’d never seen this one, KK had seen it eons ago. We were both totally astonished. Every aspect of it is great—the cast is stellar (just wait till you see Mary Astor-!!), and the story is darkly of-the-moment (shot in 1948, released in early 1949). It left us wondering how its depictions of WWII veterans made it past the censors.

Based on just these two films, we’ve decided this is going to be the summer of Van Heflin.

Oh, and—alongside our reading River of Doubt (as mentioned here)—we watched the Ken Burns PBS series on the Roosevelts, so maybe it’s also the summer of Roosevelts. Particularly Teddy, aka “TR”. (Fun fact: I went to Roosevelt Elementary, and we were the “Roosevelt Rough Riders”—the significance of which I definitely did not fully understand at the time.)

Shoutout to the Southern Adirondack Library Network for keeping us in great viewing all summer!

STAY TUNED

That’s it for today!

Thank you for reading, listening, caring, and sharing.

Till soon —

xo rg & kk

PS: I know I’m slacking on our “folk golf” reportage—I’ll do my best to make up for it next time!

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A lovely Adirondack view, with rainbow