The Road goes Ever On...

It's a rainy day on the Iron Hill, and Autumn has arrived. I sit in the living room, staying out of the way while all around me are stacks of totes, instrument cases, music stands and laundry bags, bedding, books and other random items to be loaded into the Van, which will soon be taking my Boys and Meali west and south, away from the approaching Winter weather and into a new season of Music and Adventure on the Road.

It has been wonderful having Mark and Ehrich Home for the Summer, sharing music and stories, laughing until tears came, sharing hugs when the tears came with pain. It has gone by far too quickly, and I find myself wanting time to stop, and to give me just a few more days with them. My too-wise children tell me, though, that I gave them Roots and Wings... and Summer is the time for Roots. In Autumn, they stretch their Wings. Like the birds in my woods, it is time for them to follow the sun. The call of the Road is impossible for a Vagabond to resist.

So off they will go this afternoon. They'll be visiting family and friends along the way to the Central Kentucky Celtic Festival and Highland Games this coming weekend (September 24th and 25th). From there, they will head to Troup, TX, and the Four Winds Celtic Festival on October 1st. And, when they are back at the Texas Renaissance Festival, their brother, James, will be there as well.

So, here I will be, at home in my Burrow on the Iron Hill, shouting to you, our friends, about the escapades of my Boys, moving flags on my wall map so I know where my children are, filling you in on upcoming events and looking forward to next Summer, when we're together again on the Iron Hill.

Have a Wonderful Autumn!

Hello Vagabond Fans!

I am Bonnie, aka “Mad” Ma Dooley, Mark and Ehrich’s mother. I’m the one who will be Shouting from the Hilltop from now on, which, I suppose, is appropriate, since I am the one actually *on* the Hilltop (although, of course, I rarely “shout”)!

I’ve been enjoying having my boys home on the Iron Hill for the summer, and we’ve been working on some exciting new stuff!

First, we’d like to invite you to take a look at our updated website!! This is the best place to learn about upcoming shows, buy cd’s, music and merchandise, watch video and listen to music. And be sure to go to our Facebook page and find out how to download *free* music!

All our Friends in New England should come join us at Medieval German Festival 2011 on August 20 and 21! We are looking forward to playing with our friends from Phoenix Swords, Jack Salt, The Guild of St Moritz and others! Hope to see you there!

If you’d like to see the boys somewhere a little different, come see them on August 31, in Brookfield, CT at The Room! This is a great new venue, run by our long-time family friends, the Nickerson Family!

For other upcoming events, you can go to our event calendar, and keep an eye on this space for more news and updates!

See You at the Faire!
Ma Dooley

Gearing up and Counting down!

Hello out there in internet land, and welcome to another exciting installment of Shouting from the Hilltop. We've added some new internet presence, in an effort to bring Iron Hill Vagabonds to the huddled masses around the world. We've also added some shows, changed some dates, and updated our travel schedule, in case anyone was planning on buying us lunch, or maybe seeing us perform, over the next few weeks... read on!

Internet Updates:

Well... I've been busy! As many of you have already seen, we have another new website at http://www.ironhillvagabonds.com. This latest one is probably going to stick for a while, but I am certainly always open to suggestions! We've got music to listen to, pictures to look at, video, and a complete tour calendar. I'll be adding new things all the time, so keep checking in!

Also, check us out at http://soundclick.com/ironhillvagabonds. Soundclick.com is "the leading free music community featuring signed and unsigned bands..." Since I posted our music there, our version of "Kilgarry Mountain (Whiskey in the Jar)" made it up to #21 in the Traditional Irish category out of 1101 songs, and that's without me even announcing it! I'll keep you updated here as more music becomes available. Also, as a special gift to people who actually read this feed, (I know you're out there...) I've made "(Fiddlin' on a) Cool Spring Eve" available free to download at this site. You know the Vagabonds love you!

Oh yeah... and did you know you can sign up to get these updates in your email? Just go to our blog at http://ironhillvagabonds.blogspot.com, type your email in the box on the left, and follow the simple instructions. It's convenient and secure, and you can unsubscribe any time!

Show updates:

To view our complete calendar, click here.

For those of you packing up your caravans/station wagons/mule carts/bindles/etc. to follow us on our travels, we have made some changes...

For anyone lucky enough to be a Friend of the New York Renaissance Faire, we will be performing at the Friends of the New York Renaissance Faire Annual Meeting, at NYRF, Labor Day weekend. I'm sorry to say that this is a private function, so most of our fans will have to wait to see us down the road, but we are thrilled to be performing at the event which began our love of Renaissance Faires!

Also, we've changed the date of our appearance at the New Through the Looking Glass Tea Shop in Shelbyville, KY. We'll be playing there from 6-8PM (or thereabouts) on Wednesday, September 15.

After that, we'll be making our way to Texas, stopping in to see our friends at the Four Winds Faire in Troup, TX for their Celtic Festival on Saturday 9/18. We're really excited to be performing with our friends Jed Marum, Tim Glennon, Dublin Double and Willow! With Highland Games, delicious food, and great celtic music, this promises to be a great day for the whole family!

Then, join us for the next two weekends (we just added the weekend of 9/25-26) at the Middlefaire Renaissance and Medieval Festival in Hillsboro, TX.

After that... well, it's back to the Texas Renaissance Festival in Plantersville, TX... and boy, are we excited about that one!

So, it is, as ever, bittersweet as we prepare once again to leave the Iron Hill, but we are very excited to be returning to Texas, which has become like our second home.

Keep watching here for more news!

See you down the road!

-Mark Gauvin
Writing from Kent Cliffs, New York

So... it's been a while...

[Warning: I use ellipses an awful lot... probably way more than I should...]

Okay, so... I haven't really kept up with the blog...

If you'd like to know what's been going on, check out our Facebook page. That gets updated a whole lot more...

We have had a great time since you last heard from me here a scant eighteen months ago.

Latest news:
Our CD, Whiskey & Promises is available online here.
We have a new website here. Check it out. Email me if you have any ideas, I'd love to hear them!
We're headed back to Texas in the fall. On the way there, we'll be returning to the Through the Looking Glass Tea Shop in Shelbyville, KY. That'll be September 29.

When we get there, we'll be playing at the Middlefaire Renaissance and Medieval Festival in Hillsboro for their final weekend, that's October 2 and 3. We had a great time at their Texas Pirate Festival back in May, and we look forward to returning!

Then, we'll be playing at the Texas Renaissance Festival from October 9 to November 28 (weekends and Thanksgiving Friday). We'll be returning to the same venues as last year, including TRF's premier gourmet coffee shop, The Pavilion. There may be some surprises in store, too... keep watching for more news on that!

So... I might write more about what has happened to us since we started this crazy trip, but I'm really going to concentrate on posting new stuff as it comes up... I hope you understand...

See you on the road!

-Mark

Introducing Iron Hill Vagabonds

Welcome to Shouting from the Hilltop. I like to think of it as our little virtual cabin on a virtual hill overlooking the glittering lights of the Worldwide Web.

It seems that your meandering Internet path has crossed with that of brothers Mark and Ehrich Gauvin, known to the music-loving world as Iron Hill Vagabonds. Well... maybe not the whole world... not yet, anyway...

I suppose some introductions are in order.

I'm Mark, and it will usually be me from whom you hear here in Cyberspace. I have played guitar for about 16 years, and I have been singing since before I could talk. In addition to guitar, I have been known to dabble on piano, bass, and mandolin. I also have a weakness for strange, unique, and historical instruments, but don't usually have the budget to pursue it. In days past, I kicked around the country playing various instruments and singing with a couple of exceptionally loud (and also exceptionally good, if I may say so myself) rock bands, particularly Frail. After I'd done that for about ten years and was not yet an internationally renowned Rock Star, I figured it was time to branch out. I studied music theory, composition and vocal performance at SUNY Orange in Middletown, New York, and it was this study that brought me back to my first love, folk and traditional music.

My brother, Ehrich, is too busy playing fiddle to post on the Internet too much, but when he does, he will probably have something hilarious or profound to say, so take heed. A fourth generation violinist, Ehrich started playing violin (the same 3/4 size violin our mother learned on) when he was about nine or ten, and has hardly taken a break since. Nowadays, he pretty much only stops fiddling to cook, eat, sleep, sing or play mandolin. He has spent the last few years traveling around the country from Maine to Texas playing fiddle, and I intend to do my level best to see that it stays that way.

As you can probably tell by now, music has always been an important part of our lives. Our biggest musical influences have always been our family members. Our father, Jim "Spider" Gauvin, is a Lake George, NY based harmonica player and vocalist who regularly performs with blues and rock bands in the Adirondack and Capitol regions of upstate New York. Our mother, Bonnie, once claimed to be "just the audience," but we have since uncovered her "checkered past" - a history of accomplishment on piano and violin, as well as an infectious appreciation for music of all kinds. Our brothers James, Richard, Arthur, and Sam are all performers, and numerous members of our extended family have been entertaining audiences for generations.

All that being said, we have been performing, separately and together, for our whole lives. Since 2005, we have appeared together at the Connecticut Renaissance Faire, New England's second-largest Renaissance Faire and one of the most highly regarded Faires in the Northeast, and we have appeared in various combinations at many other Renaissance Faires throughout the region.

Between Faires, we have returned to our 200 year old family home in New York's Hudson Valley, tucked on a forested hillside riddled with colonial era iron mines. It is here that we have sat around the fire and shared our musical tradition with our friends and family, and each other. In addition to the Renaissance, Celtic, and English musical styles drawn from the Renaissance Faires we love, we found ourselves sharing American traditional music, folk and bluegrass standards, original songs and instrumental pieces and pretty much anything else we can pull off with a guitar, fiddle and our voices.

During the dark of winter, in December, 2008, we finally decided that it was time to take our music out of the hills. So, we packed up the van, scraped the snow off of our boots and set off to share our music with whoever would listen.

Next up, we will be appearing at the Four Winds Renaissance Faire in Troup, Texas, weekends from February 28 to April 19, 2009. After that, you'll have to watch this space for more information about where we'll be and what we'll be doing, for updates, 'blogs about the road, video, and, of course, for music!

Don't hesitate to drop me an email, I love to hear from anyone who's interested in what we do!

See you when our paths cross again!

-Mark Gauvin
writing from Boston, Massachusetts