I’ve been touring with the wonderful women of Anonymous 4 and my old cohort Darol Anger for a couple of years now. Gigs have been a little less frequent recently and it looks like our next concert in Portland, OR, on Wednesday will be one of our last. The Anonymettes have a few new recordings/programs in the works, but it looks like they will all be sans strings. Sigh.
Well, it’s been a long time since there was a Scott Nygaard Band, but I’ve finally found the right group to play all the odd new tunes I’ve been writing–Joe Walsh on mandolin and Lauren Rioux on five-string fiddle/viola/violin. They’re both residents of Portland, ME (conveniently located a mere 3,222 miles from my San Francisco home), they’re fantastic young musicians, and they seem to like to play my tunes. At least they’ve only complained a bit, and those complaints dissipated once we actually got together to play–at a marathon rehearsal in Portland last month. The new stuff is a bit of a departure from my usual old-time/Celtic/jazz stuff, this time with a bit of a Swedish accent, some odd meters (Joe says we don’t play in 4), and with a little more of my inner Thelonius Monk showing. At any rate, we’ve given this band a name–Scott Nygaard and Crow Molly–and we’re headed into the studio in January for the long overdue follow-up to Dreamer’s Waltz. Here’s a photo from our first real gig, at One Longfellow in Portland last month, with the wondrous Natalie Haas sitting in. (Hmm, it looks as if Joe and I are listing a bit to port). 
It looks like I’ll be teaching at 5 (maybe 4) guitar workshops next summer.
The first is a new one, Kluane Mountain Bluegrass Festival and Music Camp, way up in the Yukon Territory–in the village of Haines Junction, 100 miles west of Whitehorse on the Alaska Highway.That’s June 8-14.
A week after that one ends I’ll be back at Steve Kaufman’s Kamp (June 21-26).
After a week of rest (or more likely a week of editing/writing/bike riding), I’ll head up to Mt. Shasta again for the biggest party in the world. This title used to be held, in my book, by the Shetland Folk Festival, but after attending the Mt. Shasta Fiddle Camp last summer, the torch has been passed.
Then I’ll be at another Northern California guitar bash, the California Coast Music Camp, in Sonoma County, July 18-25.
And if that’s not enough, it looks like I’ll be trying to work the British Columbia Bluegrass Workshop into my August schedule.
Roger Tallroth (the smiling guy above right) just sent me rough mixes of our album. It’s all recorded, just needs mixing now. I’m very excited–a lot of guitar playing but also some great fiddling by the amazing Emma Reid. A bunch of my tunes, some of Roger’s, and a few traditional Swedish, Irish, and American tunes. It might be the best thing I’ve done since Dreamer’s Waltz. Can’t wait until it’s all shiny and boxed and ready for public consumption.
Scott Nygaard 