Blogroll – BlashillAudioVideo.com

10 Jun

Morning Bro James. Just a short one to let you know that I’m back home safe from my trip up-north to Beaver Island this past weekend. Three gigs in a 2 day span, with all expenses paid including food, drink and a 2 night stay @ The Christian Brother’s Monastery. Lots and lotsa pictures, but Ken Kline (Drums) brought his drone w/camera and captured some marvelous video. But hey, why should I try telling you the what nots of this vacation of sorts, I’ll let Dylan Cook (Banjo/Guitar) describe everything, as was posted elsewhere about this awesome excursion to Beaver Island Michigan…

Sugarbush was blessed with a long weekend together on Beaver Island; part of an archipelago out in the middle of Lake Michigan. It’s a seductively slow place where people take time to visit with each other in passing and the only paved roads are right in town.

The weekend consisted of us playing for our meals on porches and in bars. They closed off Main Street on Friday night and set up folding chairs on the pavement for our first show.

We had the chance to live in close quarters; riding in a borrowed mini van and pouring out of it like clowns every time we got to our next destination. We stayed in an old monastery called “The Brother’s Place” where we all had our own tiny rooms along a creaky corridor that smelled of Murphy’s oil soap.

We shared a bathroom. We shared our drinks and our silverware. We swam in the harbor. We had coffee made for us every morning by the caretaker who corrected us when we didn’t put our chairs back in an orderly fashion. We had the good timing of being there in town for the high school graduation of this year’s three seniors, followed by the parade and subsequent parties of each one.

Every car that lives on the island looks like one of mine; dusty and dented and needing a few parts. I caught a glimpse of the one deputy that serves the island pushing a baby stroller.

The Sunday morning departure on the ferry found us standing up on the bow, basking in warm lake air when someone pointed to the figure of a feral island girl we’d met the previous day, standing out at the edge of the harbor in shin-deep water. She gave a big, outgoing wave and then turned and dropped her pants, mooning the bunch of us.

I think I found my people. I might be relocating.

John Babij
June 9 2025