Prairie Home Companion Contest

I met the fiddler in the Prairie Home Companion (PHC) House band last week when I played at Retrofret. His name is Andy Stein. When he mentioned that PHC was coming back to New York City in April to record shows at The Town Hall, I became really excited. I love live radio. I went to their website and what ho! a national duet contest.
Connecting with the right person or persons to play music is complicated: personality, location, instrument choice, skill, experience, respect for the art, willingness to rehearse and perform all have to align, along with other qualities that I have probably not even thought of.

So this is my version of how the Manhattan Valley Ramblers came to be and how we threw a song the we do into the mix of the PHC duet contest.

The son of oud player and singer Richard Hagopian, Harold Hagopian, is a fantastic musician and record producer (Traditional Crossroads). Some years ago he invited me to hear a band that recorded an album on his label, the Klezmer Mountain Boys. They were (are) amazing. When I decided that I wanted to learn mandolin, I emailed Harold and asked for Barry Mitterhoff's contact information. I had heard Barry playing the night of their performance. I took a couple lessons with Barry and asked him if another band he plays in, the trio Silk City, would consider playing at the reception for my wedding. Barry ended up not making it but two members of Silky City, Danny Weiss, and Larry Cohen did with Bob Greene on fiddle and mandolin. At the end of the wedding reception, I was lamenting the fact that I couldn't find a person on the upper west side to play music with. Danny said, Bill Christophersen. I said what? He said Bill Christophersen. When you come back from your honeymoon, call me and I will put you in touch.
Getting to play with Bill is a great joy. The Manhattan Valley Ramblers' first public performance was in June 2007 for Make Music NY. We get gigs about once per month and have performed at places like the P & W sandwich shoppe, the PostCrypt, WKCR, the Hudson River Museum and a handful of self-hosted house concerts. The album that we are currently recording features about six duets and six banjo fiddle breakdowns. As soon as I heard about the PHC contest, I contacted Jon Gordon. Jon is a fantastic musician whose recording studio is in Chelsea. He helped Bill finish up his last album Hell and High Water and he is helping us to record the current project. Jon cleaned up one track for us over the weekend and emailed me a crisp MP3. I know that performing on PHC is a long shot, but it would be a real thrill.