A day in the life of a performing family

~ Le Mars Bluegrass Festival, Le Mars, Iowa ~

After driving for several hours, we made a quick stop at Walmart before our first performance.

It's always good to arrive with plenty of time to spare beforehand! You never know what might happen on the road. Our van has over 230,000 miles on it. We are praying it holds out until we can get another vehicle!

Studying the performance schedules for the many different stages... 10, I think.

After lugging all the equipment across the field (We made it in ONE trip!!), through the people (hey! it's good promo!), to "back stage" behind this building before our first set, our next job is to get everything as ready as possible for a quick and smooth transition onto the main stage for our time slot.

At festivals, everything is timed and the more time spent setting up, the less time you get to play. Soooo... get ready to FLY! Everyone has a job, and things are set up in a jiffy.

After our first time slot, everything must be hauled all the way back to the van.

Then it's time for a watermelon break. :) Hot and tired, we rested for a while.

Then it's off to jam with some friends, listen to other musicians perform, and talk to many people - old friends and new.

 After jamming and talking, it's back to the van to grab the rest of the equipment before our second time slot. 

Unpack. 

Play.

Pack up.

After that performance...

Daddy treated us to Culver's. Thank you!

Then it's back to the van to get the equipment, unpack, play, and pack up once more.

Then it's.... ice cream time!!!

 At Blue Bunny.

Le Mars is the ice cream capital of the world.

See that huge bowl of frigid goodness? If you can eat it all by yourself in 15 minutes, you have conquered the Goliath! (Plus, you get a free T-shirt.) Any takers? 

This is only SOME of the grand array of flavors they offer.

One of our family favorites is huckleberry, only available at ice cream parlors.

Need the time?

Talking to friends and fixing the world over ice cream.  :)

~ Back to the van for the hours of driving. ~

And we're home!

And that is one day in the life of a traveling musical family.

Come back next week to hear about more of our adventures. Life is never dull around here.

A Surprise!

(Two surprises, actually!)

1. We are going to record a new CD in January/February!!! We are all so excited and have been waiting and saving for quite a while! It has been a long time since we recorded our fourth CD (WAYYY back in 2011!) and we have been practicing like crazy since then. Just yesterday, we logged about 3 hours as a group and then did a concert last evening. This time, we will "take you with us" in the long journey - all the steps it takes to produce a CD. You'll truly get the inside scoop! So... stay posted!

2. Luke is designing a totally new, amazingly revamped and updated website! I've had a glimpse, and it is going to have lots of fun new stuff.

3. All of this means that I have a marvelous excuse to do a full Johnson Strings portrait session! (Pictures coming up soon!) It has been a while since we did a set of group pictures and we definitely need some new ones. Can you believe it? The poster we use on our CD table is from 2010. Silas was 8 and missing his front teeth.  :)

4. Our Christmas season has started! Yesterday was our first Christmas concert. We are doing tons of practice as we prepare for our next 16 Christmas concerts! We'd love to see you at one of them! Other than this next Saturday, all the rest of the concerts this year are Christmas concerts. With a bunch of new Christmas music (Karen and Abigail have been working hard arranging it all) it's going to be a wonderful season.

~ Two random photos of our family dog, Toby ~

Sneak Peak Behind the Scenes and a Whole Day of Concerts

After playing at our home church in the morning, our next engagement was at Antique Acres.

In our spare time, we enjoyed looking around at all the working old machinery on display such as this one where they were making boards. I can totally understand how so many people were injured in the old days! This thing is dangerous! If you aren't careful, your hand could be sliced off.

Quiz Question: Know what this thing is?

Answer: It's either an old thresher, or a combine, or a different old piece of machinery... anybody know for sure?

Horns can be annoying things I'm sure! It looks like the weight of those horns would make his head off balance. 

 To boost our energy in between concerts, Daddy got us some ice cream. Go Daddy! It certainly helped.

Our next stop was in Readlyn, Iowa to give the concert at their special Farewell to Summer event in the park.

 Both the band shell and park were very nice. As you'll see later, the one downside was the heat and the sun.

 Making the jump.

Rosining bows before the concert.

That sun was powerful and it was shining straight into our eyes, reflecting off the walls, and generally making it an oven on stage. Thankfully, our audience could sit in the shade and enjoy refreshments while we played.

In fact, it was soooo hot that my chin rest cushion melted and turned into a gooey mess.

 Over half of us ended up wearing shades to cut down the glare.

It was a good day. In fact, some heat would feel pretty good now, wouldn't it?

"In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you."

P.S. Some of you may wonder what we do behind the scenes on our concert trips. Here's one example of the things we figure out to entertain ourselves with. Believe me, we have a hilarious time!

You're invited!

Join us as we celebrate the high school graduation of

Luke Reuben Johnson

Friday, the 17th of May,

at our barn.

Eighth Note Acres LLC

11389 T Ave.

New Hartford, IA 50660

319-983-9127

Open House: 5:30-8:30 p.m.

Short Johnson Strings Concert: 6:00 p.m.

To see more of Luke's senior pictures, visit my website: http://www.photofasttrack.com/people/seniors/ or go to http://laurasphotographyfasttrack.blogspot.com/2013/05/lukes-senior-pictures-by-cedar-falls.html and read how I created the images. 

Hope to see you there!

New YouTube Videos!!!

Hey everybody! If you want something to watch or some music to listen to, why not check out a few songs I just uploaded to YouTube?

Here are the links:
Hopefully you're not tired of Christmas music!


I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day with Ding Dong Merrily on High

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6epbuhMvRE

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uyk8ExfMgaw


Here's a video taken way back in March of 2011! It just never got uploaded until now:
The Old Rugged Cross
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ccuex6XPps4

New Promotional Video!

Watch! Listen! Be entertained!

Click here to watch the video, The Johnson Strings in Concert - A Family Making Music!, on YouTube.

Click here to listen to a preview of our second CD, Heal the Land.

Click here to hear a bit of our first CD, Vision.

"Let every thing that hath breath praise the LORD. Praise ye the LORD."

Psalm 150:6