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Where’s Aubrey at the Barns of Rose Hill 11/11: Save the Date

September 17, 2023

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Where’s Aubrey will perform all original music from their brand new ninth record, Hole, at a benefit concert November 11th at the Barns of Rose Hill in Berryville.  All proceeds from the concert benefit the Shenandoah Riverkeepers.

Get your tickets now.

Here is a rough mix of track six on Where’s Aubrey’s new record Holes.  The record is currently in final production.

 

About: Local violinist Gary McGraw (The Bitter Liberals) and New Hampshire songwriter Rhine Singleton are Where’s Aubrey.  Where’s Aubrey will be joined at this show by Richmond multi-instrumentalist Charles Arthur (featured at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts) and Winchester jazz drummer Nick Shrenk.  Where’s Aubrey is releasing a new record at the show called Holes.  Where’s Aubrey has performed since 1985, releasing nine records and raising $17,000 for charity. Singleton’s original songs, cloaked and hooded by McGraw’s improvisation on the fiddle and mandolin, range from old-timey folk music to modern jazz.

Gary McGraw has played the violin since he was just three years old (54 years for those of you counting), and has performed at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center and the Barns of Rose Hill. McGraw met Singleton at the University of Virginia and Where’s Aubrey gradually coalesced into existence in the mid-90s and began recording all original music in 2001.  Gary is also a member of The Bitter Liberals.

Rhine Singleton played piano and violin as a teen, before switching to the acoustic guitar. In his time at the University of Virginia with McGraw, Singleton started singing and was inspired to write his own music. Soon after compiling a strong repertoire of original tunes, the duo began recording under the name Where’s Aubrey.

Although McGraw and Singleton regularly write and record music, it’s rare to see a live performance by Where’s Aubrey.

Date & Time: Saturday, November 11, 2023. Doors open at 6:00 PM and the concert starts at 7:00 PM.

Ticket Price: All tickets are general admission. $20 in advance until 3:00 PM on the day of the event. $25 at the door. Children 12 years and below are free when accompanied by an adult.

Ticket Information:

 or by calling the Barns of Rose Hill Box Office at 540-955-2004 (Noon to 3:00 PM – Tuesday through Saturday). When our Box Office is closed, please leave a message. All ticket sales are final; no exceptions and no exchanges.

Program Sponsors: We extend our special thanks to Michael Hobert and Mary Jane Lee for sponsoring this program!

Program Benefits: Proceeds from this show will benefit Shenandoah Riverkeeper, part of the Potomac Riverkeeper Network. A representative will be in attendance.

 

Where’s Aubrey Recording in Wilmington

May 25, 2023

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All work and no music makes gem a dull boy.  So we fixed that.  Music refactoring at the Stick followed by recording in Wilmington.  Here are some highlights.

Where’s Aubrey was joined by the incredible Charles Arthur in the studio.

And yes, we started at the Stick (on Ocean Isle Beach) where we practiced.  Our schedule was tight, and sleep is for the weak.  But first things first.  Since Rhine flew into ILM, we set up an impromptu rendezvous with Adrian and Julie.  Dinner was excellent, and Moonshine made a fast friend of Ralph.

We ended up at the Symphony with those fine people come Saturday.

Practice on the porch.

Industry sour with the last bottle of Green Chartreuse in NC.

Moonshine got in some fine music time.

The Wilmington Symphony played Shostakovich 5.

Moonshine, meanwhile, destroyed the screen door.

Turns out I found a musical sibling (same teacher, Linda Case, as Suzuki kids).

The bassist from NY.  Hella talent.

NC sippy cups for the concert.   LOL.

The after party was a blast.  But then it was time for even more work.

Each night before a recording session we crammed on the music.

There was also some beach time.  Moonshine was a hit at doggie day care.

Studio day one.

Hope in time for sunset and breakfast for dinner.

 

More cramming.  And more studio time.

Followed by more beach and more cramming.  We were very efficient, but the work was intense.

Studio day three (the last).

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And then it was time to get into the Liberals.

All in all a great experience.  We bonded as musicians and friends.

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Easton Wedding

May 25, 2023

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Here are some pictures from Maybelline’s first road trip.  She missed Romey who was watching Taylor Swift in Boston with 85,000 of her closest friends.

Adolfo and Katie were married in a Quaker meeting house from 1684 and celebrated on the Claggett farm.  Many Chileans were present.

 

 

Rhine and I drive up from Virginia with Maybe navigating.  Lunch time beckons even on the road.

Maybelline was the star of lunch.  This little girl loved the puppy.

When we arrived, Maybelline explored the farm and met lots of people.

Two chicken nuggets and their leader.

At 92, Rain is in great health and limber enough to pat the puppy way down by her feet. Goals.

A puppy of the human variety loved riling up Maybe (sometimes too much, but that’s how it is with puppies be they human or dog).

Yours truly over the puppy.  This was a familiar site over the weekend.  Maybelline careened all over, and then crashed under the chair.

The reception on the farm was gorgeous.  Table 6 dominated the proceedings from our corner of insignificance.

The tequila ran dry.

The 11 year old puppy was well spoken and well dressed.

But he was still 11.

Dancing until 2am.  Great party, even with some rain.

 

 

 

 

 

First Music of 2023

January 10, 2023

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An important new year’s resolution for me this year is to play more music.  We started things right with a session on January 2nd.  Rhine came into town for a day.  Clark popped by for some music.  Our best audience was lulled to sleep.

Playing in the living room.

We had some Scot Toddy’s in Romey’s xmas cups and kept the bar open late.

 

 

Porchfest in Bridgeport

August 28, 2022

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Lets play music in Connecticut.  The Greyhounds welcome you to the house.

But first a dip in the pool.

And then it’s off to the porch.

George, gig one of three…

Sound check

And then another dip in another pool, between gigs.

Gig the next.

All we’re missing is the drummer.  George, gig three…

 

 

Lets Get COVID in New Hampshire!

July 22, 2022

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We thought we had narrowly escaped COVID with our collective departure from Italy.  But it was not to be.

Everything was looking good, from the could-have-been-worse schlep through the Zurich train station with the enormous guitar case (no carts?!  no humans who help?!), through wine tasting in SwissAir First Class, to smooth arrival in Boston.

My trusty ally and friend Spoolia was there to scoop me.

And driving into Newton it was as if we hadn’t even left Italy!  Heck, dinner even was Italian, but pronounced incorrectly.

Mabel was impressed, and this is a dog not really impressed by much!

So it was off to New Hampshire for some music.  And a side of accidental COVID.

Oopstock has been going strong for 29 years.  Many of the usual folks were in attendance. But get this: there was a professional sound guy, and there were high school kids manning the grill.  Holy cow, so upscale!!

This made my life much easier (not to mention Rhine’s).  Here are my feet on the table where the sound board USED to be positioned way back when I was the sound guy.  The hombre to the right is Steve.  He ran great sound.

The usual instrument pod.

The East German Gold Medal Swim Team Captain.

New blood with high charisma.

Where’s Aubrey did an iteration of the Into the Unknown game.  We all missed Sogol’s dancing.  But here is the picture that April made.

 

The Moose Hut guys also got whacked by COVID.  Chris was down and didn’t make the party.  As a result, a game of musical chairs around who plays what instrument resulted.  Zack played drums?!

Everybody missed Romey.

There was, in deference to Italy, a Negroni session mid-day.

The sun set.  The babies went to bed.

And the bands came out under the actual light show.  FWIW, LED lights still attract shit tons of mosquitos.

Guy Ferrari played some original music.  Tight.

Moose Hut became Moose Nut or maybe Moose Butt.

And then it was the Grayhounds (a quasi-iteration on Splatterfoot with a new guy named Paul whaling on guitar).

Sadly, Rhine was infected the whole time.  He started feeling symptoms Sunday.  And I got it from him.  I am pretty sure this all started with the Italian villa art collective (and I secretly wonder about their self-reported negative test results before our performance).  So many years of top notch risk management come tumbling down when you change your risk stance.  WHOMP.

A view from the stage.  We played electric until 10 then shifted to the campfire where this year’s highlights were a complete treatment of one side of the Pink Floyd Animals record, and a coveted iteration of Hangin.

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Then it was off to Spain to become a vector.  Unknowingly. Alas.

Special thanks to Spool for making this all possible and to Rhine and April for persisting with the music party even in a summer crammed with art and fun.

 

 

Play for Your Dinner

July 21, 2022

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The thing about Italians is that they love live music.  And they love Americans too (in spite of our recent proclivities for absolute dumb shit behavior).  Rhine and I took advantage of this by dragging around our instruments and playing for our supper where we ate.

The first great restaurant run happened after our worldwide debut as Into the Unknown in Campiglio Cervo.  The crowd converged and decided we needed a reservation subito subito.

In the end, I was spirited off with Santa Mariela so I could see the restaurant and meet the owners with my own eyes.  That’s because Ruers above Piedicavallo exists past where the road ends.  So you have to walk there once you ditch your car.  Incredible views await.  And the kindest people.

On the same fact finding mission, we also had to make a quick trip to visit Dick (a local Scott of great flare) and his cat, and catch up with pretty much everyone we encountered.  This was fun, but it made us late late late.

My scouting expedition revealed this view (that is Biella down there somewhere).

We returned (very late) in the Fiat 500, parked at the edge of the world, and proceeded to have an excellent dinner replete with local wine house made cheeses,  polenta, roast beef, and even gluten free stuff for Matt.

 

After dinner we got out our instruments and played a little music.  Here is part of the “first song” (a song by Bob that we always play first so we never have to figure out what to play first).

Then we entered the kitchen to play for the cooks.  This was a blast, and the staff was most appreciative.  Lets just say we are welcome back any time, forever.

Check out the face on this guy.

This kind of experience is what makes a trip to Italy an amazing, humanizing experience.  And to top it all off, the Signora would not let me pay all that I owed.

Of course, once we did it once, we had to do it again.  That’s just how it goes.

Rhine and I scouted out a restaurant run by the slightly pazzo Roberta in Sanctuario San Giovanni.  The moon was almost full, and the werewolves were awakening.

The local Barbera was outstanding.  This was one of the best simple meals we had on the trip.

Top of the world to you.

If you look closely, you will see Rhine.

Roberta recognized us as part of the concert crowd from Campigliano Cervo and asked if we had brought our instruments.  Since we rushed to arrive by 8:30 the answer was no.  Roberta asked us to return the next evening after our big opera, and a plan was born.  We promised to arrive a punto by 8:29pm.

She sent up home with a 100 year old plate for April and some goodies for breakfast.  We shared some grappa.

It took some doing after the big opera performance, but we did make it.  The moon was full.   Everyone else arrived shortly thereafter.  I played my violin at the edge and made Mariela cry.

And, once again after dinner, we played in the kitchen for the cooks even as the vegan meal was blitzkrieged on the massive stove.  The floor was sticky, but the love was palpable.

We stayed until the grappa ran out.

And we will return.

 

 

 

 

 

Performing in Campiglia Cervo: Into the Unknown

July 21, 2022

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The stadium in Campiglia Cervo is scaled to match the interstate highway system that blazes through the center of town.  We packed the stadium to the gills with what I am told was 65 people, including the vice mayor who introduced us, but not including the mayor himself who had more important things to do like look at himself in the mirror.  Just so you know, this was a much bigger show than the show Metallica put on at the same stadium!

The show was actually very good.  Intimate. Interesting. Tight.  During the rest of our time in Rialmosso we ran into lots of people who either attended or heard through the grapevine about our performance.  That was both really cool and very gratifying.

So what happened, exactly?

First we invented the idea.  And we practiced.  Then Matt arrived and things got remarkably much better.  in the end, the performance included:

April Claggett, realtime art

Gary McGraw, violin, mandolin and vocal harmony

Matt Savage, piano

Sogol Shirazi, piano and dance

Rhine Singleton, guitar, dobro, vocals, songwriting

The road crew set the stage after arriving the day before to check electricity levels and make sure all of the seating was available.  We have nothing but admiration for our intrepid road crew.  They work so hard so we can do what we do.

The show consisted of three parts as shown on the billboard above.

Here is a stage floor view of the set list for those of you collecting bootlegs.

And a view of the nosebleed seating in the back before anyone was in the house.  You can see the dancing props professionally built by our dedicated construction crew.

Publicity was run by our crack PR team who were able to put up a poster with the last of the tape.

Fortunately that poster was all it took to fill the space to the gills.  When we started (only 5 minutes late), people were standing because the seating was gone.  Even the reserved section for mastiffs and toddlers was full.

We sincerely appreciate the willingness of the locals in the area to support our art with enthusiasm and love!

The stage is set.  The weather is perfect.

And we’re off. Sogol and Matt play Bach together.

Dancing to Vivaldi Concerto in G major for Two Mandolins, Strings and Continuo, RV 532 (re-re-arranged for violin, guitar and piano).

Realtime art during We Will Float Away.

Then the game.

Here is a (raw) video compilation of the show, barely edited.  This is six minutes of an hour long show.

A complete properly-produced video will be available someday (or so we believe). We are told it is being edited by the BBC in cooperation with NPR.

Another view of the Finale from the audience.

We had so much fun inventing the game and performing it that we want to do it again.

 

 

How many paradises are there, anyway? A visit to Terzo Paradiso in Biella, Italia

July 20, 2022

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You might die, but if anything is noted as the cause of death, it will be loneliness.

There are no people doing art or even visiting Terzo Paradiso unless you count our unruly bunch.  Here’s what we saw (and what we did).

First we explored random spaces.

And then we found some art to see (but only after getting lucky).

After a short nap in the hammocks near the circles, we found the projector and those glowy rocks from Land of the Lost.

There were no Sleestaks. So here are two for good measure.  They covet the glowy rocks.

There was dirt.

There was also very silly science.  But it was arty.

Not surprisingly, the room was better than the dirt.

Watch this video. Really.

Rhine took pics too.  It was hard not to.

We got lucky and found another human who told us how to cross the highway, go down the stairs and find even more art.  Or rather more art places with not much art.  Something like that.

Rhine woke up from his long nap, dreaming of Sleestaks and late 1970s TV.

The space rang a long cool echo of lost civilizations and the empty planet to come.

So there was dance.

And reflection

We climbed back down to reality using a ladder that was too short to reach the sky.

And then we left.

 

Creating a New Art Form

July 8, 2022

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Eight of us have convened in Rialmosso, Italia to create some art together.  Sadly, three of us were almost immediately infected with COVID from the trip across the ocean.  So far, the other five of us are healthy and working together to create, well, something.  Here’s how that is going.

We have a movement artist, a painter, and three musicians.  For one section of the show we are performing this Sunday we’ve decided on an art form where we pass a token between us, one after another (and sometimes to a group).  The idea is for each artist to improvise in their medium given what the artist before them came up with in another medium.

This set of videos shows our second attempt at this performance game.

It all starts with April Claggett

 

Who passes the token to Rhine Singleton (uncharacteristically playing the dobro).

 

Who passes the token to Sogol Shirazi.

 

Who, uh oh, passes the token to me (Gary McGraw).  Fortunately, I was unable to film myself playing the violin.  (Though you can find some video on Rhine’s blog Blame it on Sally.)

Now that Matt Savage has joined us on the piano, we have five players.  This is an interesting experiment that we’re having fun with.

 

Ready…

Set…

Go…

We are also performing some classical music.  Here is some Vivaldi being worked up.  Sogol will dance to this once we figure it out.

A more pedantic video of the Vivaldi sessions.

There is Bach being worked up, and Chopin too.

 

And we’re spicing up some Where’s Aubrey tunes with simultaneous art and dance.

The incredible result of one of our improvisations

Our time together at Villa Emma has been filled with ideas, collaboration, and the joy of creating something together.

 

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