Holy Water & Whiskey - what's fit to print:
1/2/08 Happy New Year!! - we had some fun parties in December. Thanks to all the folks who showed up in Socorro just before Christmas and for the Michael Martin Murphey Christmas Show that we opened at the Kiva (how cool is that?). Then, as if it were possible, we had even more fun New Year's Eve! Thanks to Pete and Catherine and all the people at the Black Range Lodge for a GREAT New Year's Eve party. There was lots of local talent in addition to yours truly. And, some famous dancers from Albuquerque showed up to help out with the Virginia Reel. Honestly, I don't think I've ever seen so much good food. Let's see how many pictures I can get below. Thanks, Ted, for the pictures.
12/18/07 Whew - what a great time this weekend at O'Niell's. Thanks to everyone who came - and to the front-row dancers who managed to get everyone dancing at the end! Here are some pictures Brent Bolton took of the event. They are a great reminder of a wonderful time and the great family group we have - including that handsome pair - Doug and Betty, who always liven up a show! The show ended with a big conga line around O'Niell's. It was slowing down towards the end and just as we hit our last notes and Clif and Trish danced by, John and Gladys came around the corner. John - you are such an amazingly positive person - thanks for loving the music! I don't have any pictures - but we had a great time opening for Michael Martin Murphey's Christmas Show. We have to thank everyone who got us that gig. As always, we met some really great people - both musicians and fans.
11/13/07 Hard to believe it is almost Thanksgiving. My (Maggie's) sister Adelaide came to town last week with some new keyboard licks for the band. It was fun having her play with us. She came to the Smokehouse and during one of the breaks, I was talking to someone we'd met a year or so ago. I guess we'd mentioned something about being from Iowa -and it turned out he'd grown up in one of the nearby towns. We started realizing we knew quite a few people in common - and then I mentioned my dad was Dr. Werner. Well, it turns out my dad had taken his tonsils out! That just seemed too amazing. By the way, we will be in Fort Madison Iowa next July 25. Now it might be a little hot and muggy, but it would be fun to have some New Mexico people there. FM is a struggling town right on the river - where all the kids are above average! We are going to have a great, old-time reunion there - so everyone is welcome!
We are playing for the VA Memorial this Sunday. It is for all the veterans who've died in the past 6 months. We are always honored to be asked to sing for this. By the way, we'd like to sing for some churches in Santa Fe - so if you know anyone up there, let them know. Most of the people we meet there don't go to bars but they love the music, so it is fun for us to get to sing for them.
10/30/07 Hi, John, sorry you were sick Sunday and couldn't make it to O'Niell's. I'm glad your mom and dad could come. We had a very nice crowd there - a big group of dancers and other people who'd seen us in other places, as well as old friends. I hope you can make it to the Smokehouse or somewhere we are playing in the near future. We went to Prescott, AZ weekend before last and it was a lot of fun. Nicole, who designed a beautiful Nature Center there -and her husband Steve invited us. They were such great hosts. The Nature Center was great - and, amazingly, one of the people there was someone who knew Bruce and me in Hawaii and was at our wedding 28 years ago!! She sent some pictures (one of which I will add below). We played on Saturday for the Westside Unitarian Halloween Party! There were some great costumes and the ice cream sunday bar was absolutely perfect. We are working to set up our songs for the studio time we have in Feb. Fingers crossed, we can get the CD done before summer. We are playing in my home town, Fort Madison, Iowa next July - and a couple of motorcycle riders on Sunday were mulling over the idea of driving up for the weekend. It's a little town - hard hit by the depression in the midwest - but with lots of history and heart. It would be great to have some ABQ people join us.
Guess who this is back in 1979? We are wearing traditional Hawiian leis. There was lots of music and dancing - and people said that I looked either like a salad or a National Park!! Everyone figured that Bruce had just won a race.
Thanks to Nicole and Steve and to Faith Roelofs, for figuring out who we were and having some pictures of that day - in jpgs, no less!
9/16/07 We are working on a new song - it is about the Goodnight Loving trail that went from Texas through New Mexico to Colorado. The song is sung about a cook on the trail. It has been fascinating to learn more about the history of this trail and the two men, Charles "Chuck" Goodnight and Oliver Loving. Their lives were the basis for "Lonesome Dove". In any event, this has gotten me thinking about the history of New Mexico and the Southwest and how many different perspectives there were of each historical period. When we pick up a new song, if we like it, it goes around in our heads constantly. I have to stop myself from humming in the middle of conversations! I think you'll like this one.
9/03/07 What great gigs we have been having lately (one picture below). A few weeks ago we played for the convention of Blind Veterans of America and it was fabulous. Each song would tickle a different part of the group. It was an honor to play for these vets - and the new vets are finding this organization - which is very good news. We played at several churches in August - each time finding many people and ideas to inspire us. Thank you all for inviting us!
Saturday, we played at Solid Grounds. There were over 110 people there, so it was a big crowd - and lots of fun. Unfortunately, Scott's capo broke in the second set, just when his wireless monitor also cut out. We are always lucky to have so many old and new friends with us, so we didn't become absolutely terrified. Many of you may not have noticed this - but we got to do some old tunes that I haven't done in a long time, like Deep River Blues.
On Sunday (yesterday), we were scheduled to play in Mora for the Cleveland Millfest (31 year anniversary!). We were tired from the night before but enjoyed the ride up to Mora. When we arrived, we noticed the electricity was out in town and that there were piles of what looked like snow - but turned out to be hail - by the side of the road. They'd had a huge storm overnight. We got to the Millfest and it was so great - lots of local arts and crafts booths and wonderful local food. However, there was no electricity there, either! We loaned one of our guitars to Arsenio Sandoval's guitar player (who was trying to play his electric guitar acoustically!) and waited. Time passed and there was no sign of power. The 12 noon singer was solo and didn't think he could be heard, so we set up our stools and played for a group of people (Alta and Rob, Russ and Roxanne, Jim and Mary Ruth included) underneath a big shade tree (see picture below - thanks to Alta). We've often wanted to invite people to our practices and that's what this was like. Several people whose ABQ friends told them we were there also came. It was a nice, mixed group that enjoyed listening to our music in the rough or a la naturale. Scott's voice was grand and we got a lot of tears with our new song "Always Trust Your Cape."
In thinking about all the gigs I have mentioned in this list, I have to say that you all are why we do this. Well, we love the music, but seeing your reactions, playing in different situations, and making new friends is what this is all about. Spending these great times with my sister Maria, Scott (brother-in-law) and Bruce are just the whipped cream on the cake. Oh - I forgot to say that, when we were doing our next-to-last song, who should show up but Syd Masters, who sat down and sang Tumbling Tumbleweeds with us! We finished with Will the Circle Be Unbroken - as we did Saturday night - with such a sound surrounding that tree. It was the perfect ending. So, thank you to everyone who came, told their friends to come, and had a great time. We are grateful to all of you.
By the way, I just saw that someone is trying to sell our CD at Amazon.com for almost $40! We sell it for much less than that - so don't be fooled. Buy our CD in New Mexico, where God meant it to be sold! Well, I am not positive about that last statement, but Bill Richardson told people in Sioux City, Iowa that God meant for Iowa to have one of the first primaries, so I thought maybe I would extrapolate on that sentiment.
7/27/07 Thanks to all my high school classmates who wrote to thank me for my round of drinks for the toast to our late, good friend Tony Hoel. I couldn't get to the reunion, so I tried to buy a round of drinks at the clubhouse where the party was, but they didn't know how to take a credit card over the phone, so I had to enlist the help of my foster brother, Ray Delgado, to get a check over to some classmates. It was an accidently brilliant idea, because I've gotten to hear from a lot of friends that I haven't talked to in as long as 40 years!!
We played Tuesday on the Plaza in Santa Fe. We had a great time, even though it rained. We met some musicians that I hope we see more of and the mayor was there for the party with a bunch of grade school kids from Santa Fe. We want to thank Candice and Kevin and Margaret and Keith for putting the whole day together for us. I think we have many friends we haven't yet met in Santa Fe. We didn't manage to get a notice sent out about this job - but, hopefully we'll be there in the future. Margaret plays with a gospel group every Sunday from 11-1 at the Cowgirl Hall of Fame in Santa Fe. We're going up there tomorrow to do a few songs during their break.
I should also let you know that some people up at the Circle A Ranch are putting together AppleFest for Sept 29. It will be a benefit for the Cuba Foodbank, which is supplied by the Road Runner foodbank. Anyone who wants to help with is, please let us know at mwernerw@aol.com or write to Walter at circle_a_hostel@yahoo.com.
7/17/07 I cannot believe I haven't written here since Feb, but that is the way things have been going. I was teaching in the spring - so just getting that done, helping out with a bioengineering grant, etc. - well, you don't want to hear me whining. The big news was that in late May, Scott and Maria tied the knot. It was a wild few days, but we are grateful to everyone who helped out - especially all our good friends in Cuba and all of our family who came. It is great to finally be a real, family band.
Bruce and I just finished a 2 week vacation in Cuba - you get the idea we like it there. We went mountain bike riding, read, went to Kayenta - in the middle of the rez - for a film festival, met some great folks in Shiprock, and showed Smoke Signals on the homemade screen on the side of our barn. The nights are really cool there - which, as I sit here in 90 degree heat, sounds pretty darn good. We got a huge rain and hail storm on the 4th and it has been raining up there off and on since then. One of our neighbors, who shall remain anonymous, seems to always get his hay in just before the storm - but the rest of us aren't quite so lucky.
True story. I ran into an older veteran the other day in the car wash. Since Bruce works at the VA, I am always making sure these guys are getting their benefits. I told him that Bruce coordinated services for blind veterans in NM, and he let me know he wasn't blind - yet. Then I said that Bruce helps a lot of vets from Cuba and Santo Domingo and he replied that he was from World War II. It was quite a conversation, I tell you.
I am going to quit now because the keyboard on our computer isn't working - it doesn't let you get capitals with the shift key - which means I can't get any question marks - so I can't ask any questions - and, well, if you can't ask questions, what is the point - oh darn - I'll add in a question mark next time.
2/26/07 Breaking news from the mountainous north. I wish I had a picture! Bruce went up to our place in Cuba last weekend and was thrilled and delighted to see what he thought were elk tracks everywhere. There are a lot of elk around the area and the herd does move through our farm from time to time. But Bruce was most amazed that the elk had been all around the house and had gotten into our barn/garage. We went up yesterday and it was almost overwhelming. There were tracks everywhere in the mud. Our road up to the top of our property was almost unrecognizable. When I told our neighbor that we'd had elk around the house, he corrected me that they were cows and he'd seen them this week. Okay, cow and elk tracks look very similar. After several years around both, you'd think we'd know the difference. We can talk about this at a gig - but if Bruce and I don't get this straight pretty quickly, we are not going to be taken as serious farmers up there! We found the fence where they'd gotten through and Bruce (with help from a friend, Gail, and me) built a really beautiful gate that should keep the cows out - unless our other neighbor in the next valley doesn't feed them and they decide to come and check out our fridge again. Anyway, the mountain has a lot of snow on it and everyone is bracing for a big runoff when things start melting. We just put in (well, Bruce did it) 400 ft of pipe so we could bypass a nightmare of an acequia (irrigation ditch). While we were doing that, the gophers have had a heyday with the rest of the ditch. We hope to get a neighbor in with a back hoe in the minutes between when the ground is solid enough for the back hoe and all heck breaks loose with the water. This is a lot more fun that grading papers!
2/12/07 Well, it's almost Valentine's Day. We had a great time playing at the Smokehouse and the Covenant a few weeks ago and the last weeked at Solid Grounds and O'Niell's. Thank you to all the great (and very cute) people who have made us a part of your fun. We heard that one fan tried to get us nominated for a Grammy award! That seems a bit over the top, but we are grateful anyway. We have our fingers crossed that our CD will be the first from John Wall's recording studio to show a profit. I feel like I need to put a little thermometer on the side of this page to let you all know how close we are! Thanks so much to Dave Straub who has made DVDs of 3 of our performances. I can't wait to see the one from Solid Grounds when all three of us forgot the last verse in Canaan's Land. I want to see our pathetic faces! Well, it was a weekend of laughter and good company and you can't beat that. Life is short! As we get older, we'll give everyone song sheets so you can remind us when we get lost. If you were there Saturday, I'll bet you'll agree that Bruce and Scott have never been funnier. I was really laughing when they got going about tuning a banjo with wire cutters and digressed from there. Have a great February. We have to be happy for our day jobs that support us so we can keep doing the music we love!
1/8/07 I apologize to anyone who actually reads this for taking so long to add the news. We had a great December. Thank you to everyone who came to our various gigs and parties. The CD release party was a wonderful event, with special thanks to Brent and Pam for providing the delicious food. We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas/Holiday and have a New Year that brings you great joy.
I am putting a picture of our CD release party below. On the right, next to Scott (red arrow) are two dear friends, Parker Davidson and Linda Gilkey. You may have seen them at the release party or the Range or elsewhere. Once you met them, you would not forget them.
On New Years morning, they were killed on Carlisle at I-40 while driving back home. (ABQ Journal.) We were planning to play for a surprise birthday party for Parker on the 20th. Today, both families had funerals for Linda and Parker. It was a day of heartfelt tributes to two amazing women. Each of them was an inspiration to live each day to the fullest, care for those who need help, and find a path with heart. There were so many people and everyone talked about how much Parker and Linda loved each other. We played at the Celebration of Life after the funerals. It was hard, but it was so healing to have so many friends and family together. Both Linda and Parker came from large, loving families and were blessed with many friends. Linda and Parker were astounding people and wonderful friends and we all look forward to seeing them again. They worked miracles in their lives and in their passing. They also added a lot to our music and we will miss them profoundly. Today, singing Parting Glass and remembering that the last time we sang it, they were with us, made each note a prayer for them, their families, their friends, and all those who are suffering and in need.
Picture courtesy of Brent Bolton
11/26/06 The CDs arrived and we had our first party at the Circle A. Thanks to Janice and Gail and others, the big room was filled with warmth from the fireplace and stove and great food in the kitchen. There was a good showing of people from Albuquerque who wanted a great ride on a beautiful day. Next gig is at Rockin' Bills and then our CD release party! I hope a lot of you come to the Press Club for that on the 9th. Let Bruce know if you are coming so we can get the food set up. Arghh - Brent if you read this, I am sorry I forgot to call tonight about the food - I will do it tomorrow. Anyway, come and be ready for a good time - this is part of our holiday celebration with everyone - and YOU are invited.
11/10/06 The election is over and we are waiting for the CDs to arrive - and quite excited. We hope you like them. We've got the Press Club reserved for December 9th. The room for the band is sort of small, but we'll make sure there is some room for dancing and hope that many of our fans can get there to celebrate with us. We've been working on a fiddle tune, Whiskey Before Breakfast, that a friend of ours, Warren Nelson, had written words to back when Maggie and Bruce were in Wisconsin. We hope to see you all in December and that you have a wonderful holiday season.
10/11/06 We had a great time playing at the opening party for the new CERIA building at UNM. We had a whole season of weather in the fews hours that we played and I am thrilled the rain didn't cause more havoc than it did. We had our set lists down on the ground, as you can see. When we looked down, we could see the next song was LTMYBDT in a big smudge of red! We had a good time anyway. Here's a picture (below). The CD is getting closer - should be done easily by Dec. 1. We'll be at the Range in Dec, but we are looking for some more places to have a CD release party. I hope we see many of you at O'Niell's on the 22nd. We miss you all!
9/12/06 We are taking off some time - (fingers crossed) to make progress on the CD and to get some other work done and, hopefully, to learn some new songs and, by request, some new jokes! We had a great time at the Range last Thursday. Such nice people who came - John and his parents, Gladys and Gary, all the way from Belen in that rain after hearing us at the ABQ Folkfestival! We had a table full of Doug and Betty Jo's friends - who always welcome. I'm not going to name everyone who was there, but you are all appreciated. Ken and Laree (I know I am going to get that spelled wrong!), we missed you! I hope we see everyone in October when we get back to the great fun of hauling the sound system around! Yes, that is the glory of playing music, you know. Hi to Ken and Brent and Charlotte and all our new-found family members who, like us, enjoy this music. Parker and Linda, we expect to see you back from Montana and ready for some music in October!
9/5/06 NEWS FROM CUBA, NM - Hazel and Bruno have opened a new restaurant at the old Tastee Freeze in Cuba. They have the old menu and only a few tables - but it is cozy and so great that they could get a kitchen put together so quickly after the fire (see below).
I wanted to let you all know that we have had such a gret time playing lately. This past week, Friday, at the Smokehouse in Rio Rancho and Sunday at the new O'Niell's on Central. Thank you to everyone who came out to hear us. It makes the music so much fun for us. We are still surprised when people stay the whole evening!
We play this Thursday at the Range and then we have some time free. We enjoy playing, but it is also nice to have some quiet time to learn some new songs and just hang out. Our day jobs can all be pretty challenging - and, of course, we keep hoping our CD will be such a hit that we can break the first law of music "Don't quit your day job!". Honestly, once you listen over and over to the same recordings, it is hard to know whether it is decent or not. We have our fingers crossed. This may be sick, but my standard is whether it is a CD that I could clean house to (don't tell Bruce)!
Get in touch with Bruce (bdwashburn@aol.com) if you are interested in having us sing at your Christmas or other party. Also, we are trying to think of places to have our CD release party, we hope, sometime between Thanksgiving and Christmas (if we can get everything put together this month). Let Bruce know if you have any good ideas for a place! We'll probably have at least one party in Cuba!
8/27/06 We played a nice political gig today - out in Moriarity. It was a beautiful day. After almost 2 months of rain, it is amazing to see the grasses and all the sunflowers. Apparently, that area used to produce beans without irrigation and was very green most summers. New Mexico is amazing, really, in the adaptation that is required of all the organisms that live here.
We are continuing to work on the CD and having many discussions about what to put on the first CD, etc. From what our producer (John Wall) says, most of the local CDs that are made never break even. We are hoping this is a first! We just hope that people like it. You can only imagine, after you hear something so many times - and from speakers that are much better than those in our car - it is hard to make decisions. Bring this down, bring this up, redo this part...it is amazing, really, to see how this whole effort moves forward. We went out to Cuba a couple of weeks ago to shoot some more pictures for the CD.
8/7/06 Wow, it has been a long time! We took a much-needed vacation to Cuba, NM and California and then got back to piles of work. Maggie headed out to Princeton, NJ for a yeast meeting (very strange colleagues, indeed) - actually the researchers at this meeting don't look like yeast, but they do down quite a bit of beer and wine, so you know they really love their work. Maggie got held up trying to get back, spent one day helping people in the Newark airport and made it to Albuquerque just in time to race to Madrid to the Mine Shaft. She was worried - with almost no sleep - whether this was going to work out. Bruce had told everyone that the gig was 2-5 PM, but in fact it was 2-6! Maggie held together for most of the job until the last set. It was a confluence of events that led to her wireless monitors dying at the same time she realized that she couldn't remember the words or chords to the song they were playing. Have you ever had a moment like that? It was like one of those dreams where you find yourself in school with no clothes on! Fortunately, only the truly faithful were still in attendance and they were more than kind. Actually, it reminded them how much they could still remember!
We are making good progress on the CD and we hope to have it ready to sell by Thanksgiving. The process led to a set of songs that we love, but that includes only one gospel song (and several spritually inclined songs like Mystery and Parting Glass) - so as soon as this gets packaged, we are going to start on an all gospel CD that we are tentatively calling Holy Water & Whiskey - Hold the Whiskey.
6/30/2006 We played a nice gig in Basalt, Colorado last Sunday - near Aspen. On Saturday, we went to Carbondale with family and enjoyed a great, community lobster dinner. Carbondale looks like a wonderful little community - lots of music - in fact, everyone who was in line with us was a musician or dating a musician! Steve's Guitar is an interesting shop - feels like you are in a musician's Christmas dream or an art-guitar gallery! We played for a small group Sunday night at a ranch house - horses in the pasture, beautiful snow-capped mountain behind us, and good food. John Denver, where are you? Everything was great until the middle of our second set when 15 mares decided to break out and raced down the road and up into the mountains! Nothing like a good emergency and running around in sandals after a bunch of horses to bring a community together. All the horses were back home by the next day and the people said it was an evening they wouldn't forget! (Priceless)
The band is taking a summer break - trying to recoop brain cells from too many days of actual day jobs and wanting to just play music. If anyone sees John Wall, ask him how our CD is going (joke) - we'll find him later. We miss seeing everyone - let us know if there are great places that you think we should be playing - like your living room!!
Eat well, enjoy the summer and the rain. We'll be back online after we get our acequia put back together! Abrazos, Maggie
6/22/2006 What a nice folk festival that was! Thanks to all the folks who worked so hard to put that together. We hosted a jam tent - a little singing and playing songs that most of us could follow - and then we played at the second stage. We had a great crowd - nice to see everyone out there smiling and bouncing with the music. Welcome to all the people who signed up for our email list.
That afternoon, we went up to Cuba to play at the Circle A. It was such a nice party - if you haven't been to the Circle A, you should go. Everyone we knew who was there for the first time was planning family reunions and vacations there in the future. Thanks to all the people on our mailing list who showed up - your presence was greatly appreciated by all. There is nothing like good food, great company, and music under the stars.
Our pond in Cuba dried up, so we did one last fish rescue and took a bunch of little gambusia (mosquito-eating fish) to Marion's pond at the Circle A Sunday after the party. We head up to Aspen this weekend to play a party. Should be fun - wish you were there!
Here's a picture from our gig at the VA 
6/12/2006 -Well, first of all, I'm going to make this print large, 'cause none of us is getting any younger. Second, I want to say that last week was nothin' to write home about, so I am going to try to forget it but I feel I should mention one thing.
We all lost a wonderful thing last Friday, when El Bruno's in Cuba, NM burned down. Bruno's was one of the highpoints of Cuba. It was really a cultural center. Hazel and Bruno put their hearts and souls into that restaurant - and so the artwork by Miguel Martinez (see below) was as good as the food. It is hard to think of all those paintings gone. It was an oasis for a lot of people who were passing through and who lived there. We all hope that Hazel and Bruno decide to rebuild and I personally hope that we can all be there to help. It was Hazel who put together the world's largest burrito when Highway 550 was finished and I know she was part of the big tree celebration last year when one of our own Santa Fe National Forest trees gave its all to go to DC and remind Congress about Christmas. You can write to Hazel and let her know how you feel about losing El Bruno's.
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The Virgin, by Miguel Martinez
If you don't live here in NM, we are in the midst of an amazing drought. Every day, I think it can't get any drier, but it does. Ghosts of dustbowl days are seen floating over the desert. I had a dream the other night in which I heard the grass and trees crying. It seems hard to believe that clouds wouldn't be drawn to this place just to see our smiling faces in the rain.
We've been working on a CD at John Wall's Wall of Sound. We hate to mention John's name because it's already hard enough to get time with him - but he is a great guy and an amazing sound engineer. We hope to get this darn thing done by fall - so we can sell 5 or 10 for Christmas presents. If we get lucky, we might just do 2 CDs (we aren't getting any younger either). We've thought about doing an all gospel album called "Hold the Whiskey!" Holy Water & Whiskey, Hold the Whiskey - get it?
I'm going to insert a picture of us practicing and a blurb from the Wilderness Alliance page and I'll write a bit more as interesting things happen. Send us some ideas for new songs! Currently, we're going to start working on "Westward wind" and "Man of constant sorrow" - and I have a Spanish tune I want to try called "Gratias a la vida".
Stay healthy, write to Hazel, keep a song in your heart, and pray for rain!
See you soon, Maggie
