China bound!

Howdy there folks,

WOW! Ironweed Bluegrass Band is goin’ to China! I feel like the four of us have drunk way too much moonshine and somehow dreamed this whole thing up….but no, it’s true. We have our visas/passports and are packin’ our gunny sacks with great gusto.

To catch everyone up, if you haven’t heard our good news…back in March, the Columbia Friends of China invited all local bands to fill out an application for review by their committee. Their plan was to send a band to represent the city of Columbia and Mid-Missouri to our sister city in Laoshan, China. Laoshan is in the district of Qingdao in the Shandong Province. Well, we were honored by their choosin’ and we will be playing at the opening ceremony of the Qingdao Beer Festival on August 11th .

We are on the “Chinese Dumplin’ Sponsorship”. This fine not-for-profit group hosted a Chinese Dumpling Festival last fall and raised enough money to send a band as part of a cultural exchange program.

We will leave Columbia this Tuesday, August 7th. A translator will meet us at the airport and we will be hosted by the Laoshan District Cultural Bureau, Director Wang Bao Sheng and Qingdao Municipal Beer Festival Vice Director, Wen Yuan Sheng.. After five days at the Qingdao Festival, we will travel to Jinan, the capitol of the Shandong Province. In Jinan, we will be hosted by Liu, Jie, Deputy Director of Shandong Provincial Bureau of Foreign Experts where we will have television gigs, etc.:

Aug 9-12 Qingdao
Aug 14-17 Jinan, Shandong TV station
Aug. 15-16 Lalchen performance
Aug 18-20 Yanta performance

We are unsure what this fine country of folks are going to think of the likes of us. We don’t know if they will be more frightened and /or confused at the sight of giant hillbillies, my photo album of not one but five youngin’s, or the banjo..which has been known to frighten and concern many countries, cultures and heck, even our own families here at home.

Well, I could go on and on and I will in the days and hours to come but I want to close my first blog with many, many warm thanks to many, many fine people.

Thank-you!! To:

The Columbia Friends of China- Hsiao-Mei and Ray Wiedmeyer, Mary Jo Herde, Hung Chiao, and all of your great folks in your organization

Caty Smith-an awesome photo journalism student that has patiently followed us around the past couple of weeks and taken amazing photographs. www.catysmith.com

Clyde Bentley-an associate professor of journalism, UMC, for setting up our blog, coaching us through everything and telling us wonderful tales of his own China travels. www.missouri.edu/bentleycl www.mymissourian.com

Justin Glow-my sweetheart nephew, our Ironweed webmaster, founder of Como Music www.comomusic.com, and online travel blogger. www.gadling.com/bloggers/justin-glow


Mansion Studio-thank-you Bruce, Adam and Wes for your wonderful expedited service of our CD duplications and clever, creative designs. www.mansionstudio.com

Steve Jacobs-my radio partner, dear friend and peace activist that will host the whole show while I am roamin’ about…. www.kopn.org

To our many friends and businesses that have donated beautiful gifts to our new friends in China.

And of course, my sweet family, thank-you for not tossin’ me into the creek and just being done with me..

All for now, we will all try to stay in touch and give you a good ol’ taste of China…
The hillbilly mama… www.ironweedbluegrassband.com

Jane Accurso
Photo by Caty Smith