thanks so much to everyone who came out to johnny d's on
january tenth!!! I REALLY appreciate it....and i'm grateful
for your support....we had a great show with mark tolstrup and
alastair moock......it was great to hear them play, and to hear myself
try to keep the 12 string in tune........because so many of you came out
we are going to do another show there sometime in the future....keep your
eyes peeled at the upcoming events page....

i was supposed to start a new page for 2006, but my computer has
been having trouble running this funky old web program, so, i will
have to use this page for now....

and say WELCOME TO 2006.....

got some real BIG shows coming up in january and feb. , opening for Harry Manx and Johnny
Winter........go on over to the gig page and check it out......

2005

more gigs on the gigs page............. always looking for dobro students....email me....

i always threaten to write more here, and never do.....the time just goes by...there are so many songs
to learn and listen to, and music to play and try to write......and that doesnt leave much
time for the computer, or the internet and it's 'culture'. i guess i shouldnt complain, because
if you're reading this, well, you're on the internet, so.........
been listening to a lot of great music lately, a lot of old timey banjo stuff, .....i have been taking
clawhammer lessons, but it's going kind of slow.....it's sort of the opposite of guitar or dobro,
because you keep your thumb in a clump, and it's sort of just dead on your hand....but i
really love the sound of it, and it's fun as heck to play.......still working my way through the box sets
of the carter family and cliff carlisle, some roscoe holcombe, hobart smith, and a little harry partch for
good measure.....i was out in l.a. recently and stopped by ameoba records....if you've never been, it's a
pretty amazing store.....picked up a 1972 mike auldridge album on takoma for three bucks.....amazing stuff.....
i've also been working with some recording lately, trying to get stuff set up at home, and hopefully, i'll
have some new material out next year.......i dont want to talk about it too much before it's actually going....
but hopefully it will be more than one cd.
got some really great gigs coming up in the next few weeks, a big one a johnny d's on jan 10th that i hope you
can all come out to, with bill mcquaid and mark tolstrup, and a week later, on january 18th, i'm splitting a night
at passim with harry manx......how great is that!!!?? i hope you can all come out and pack both those shows
because i sure nuff will need your help.............
i''m also really happy to be involved with a benefit show for , who many of you in the Boston area
know as a great songwriter who recently has been battling cancer. On January 7th at passim.....not
sure of the details yet, but if you can come and help out, it would mean a lot......ok, i guess that's it for now....
thanks a lot to the state of maine for being so kind to me...i'm grateful that you have been enjoying the music....

big heart is now on iTUnes..........so if you are cash strapped and dont want to buy the whole cd, you can just pay
a dollar for a single song.......

also part of this nov. 5th weekend was a GREAT SHOW at the lizard lounge in cambridge....i was fortunate enough
to be the opening 'soul low' artist from 8-9pm before danielle miraglia's cd release show.....it was a great night, and danielle's cd
is really great too. you should go to her website, or to one of her shows and pick up a copy. i'm not just saying that because
i played on the cd......it really is great. really.
we had a lot of fun that night, and even though the sound guy spontaneously combusted, things went pretty well
and i introduced some people to lap style twelve string.......this was followed

by

a great few days up in portland maine, playing at ACOUSTIC COFFEE, and also on CHRIS DARLING's USFOLK RADIO SHOW on WMPG 90.9FM,
university of southern maine radio.....chris has a great show, and was definitely the most prepared of any interviewer i have ever encountered. it was a real
pleasure being on his show....tune him in on line friday mornings 8:30am to 10:30am est.....http://www.wmpg.org/
chris took some cool pictures which are on his massive site here.....http://www.flickr.com/photos/kikisdad/sets/1303012/

been doing a little booking lately,, and actually got a show at JOHNNY D"S in somerville on JAN. 10th with my pals BILL MCQUAID
AND MARK TOLSTRUP. .....it's a ways off, but mark your calendars......it's a big show for us, so we hope you can come out for it....

just started DOBRO LESSONS at the MUSIC EMPORIUM in lexington mass. really grateful to be teaching there.......drop
me a line if you would like to take some lessons, all levels welcome.......even if you've never played an instrument!!! email
info@lloydthayer.com

here's a pretty typical shot of my playing at the Boston Folk Festival taken by Karen Larsen in late sept 2005.

i'm not really sure what it is about the dobro that brings out the best in my facial expressions, but.......it sure does.....
i guess this is the motion that informs the listener: "this is the END of the song....".....throw money. i also appear to be getting
ready to say something that begins with the letter B......or else i have no teeth.....

ok, so i haven't been updating in a long time. common tale. maybe this will make up for a little bit.....
i've seen a lot of really great music in the past few weeks....much of it at CLUB PASSIM.....had the pleasure of seeing Rob Laurens do a set, and make lots of references
to bigfoot.....his cd "The Honey On The Mountain" is really great. you can get a copy here at FOLKWEB http://www.folkweb.com/roblaurens/
it came out at the end of 1999, but you won't find a better group of songs.....i really love the way rob sings,....he really becomes the songs he sings.....it is really inspiring.

i also had a chance to play a little bit with ALASTAIR MOOCK. alastair makes some really great music, and he has a really big heart to boot. we also come dangerously close to sharing a birthday...
alastair is on the road a lot, and he is always playing with other people, and letting people get up and sit in on his sets. musicians like that are rare these days. go and check him out when you can....more
often than not, he can be seen playing with one of the best guitar players you're ever going to see in mike dinallo. you owe it to yourself to see them soon....

Got to split sets with BILL MCQUAID....http://www.billmcquaid.net/....bill is playing some incredibly real blues from the twenties and thirties.....great stuff, which you are just not going to hear anywhere else. go and check him out NOW!!!
we did a couple of tunes together, and also played some with DANIELLE MIRAGLIA, who has a great new cd out, called 'nothing romantic'. i am
grateful to say that i played on the title track of that cd, and it was a lot of fun. danielle plays some great stuff and her cd release party will be coming up in november.....

we are really lucky to be living in this area at this time....(if you're anywhere around boston....) there is some great music being made by some great people.....go and check it out if you can. i know it
definitely does a lot for my soul when i see some of these folks......

PIERCE WOODWARD is someone else who i am a big fan of. his new cd is called "blow them away" and it's really great. his songs are really well written, catchy, and creative all at the same time. he manages
to combine old tymey sounds with totally modern words and angles........he calls it 'multilateralist music from the belly of the beast'...... i call it better than anything i've heard in a long long time. available at cdbaby....

i have finally started teaching PRIVATE DOBRO LESSONS again. this time it's at the MUSIC EMPORIUM in lexington mass. it's really an honour to be teaching at this great store, it's one of the best stores in the
country for acoustic instruments, and i've been a customer of theirs for a long long time.....i even used to take lessons there myself once upon a time......so, i'm really grateful to be teaching there starting in October
of 2005.....drop me a line if you'd like to inquire about lessons. all levels welcome, guaranteed fun.

had a super busy summer.......quit my job blowing leaves, telephone bills, up my sleeves.........did the riverhead blues festival in july which was a lot of fun, and also spent a lot of time in traffic going to gigs up in maine.
hope you can sign up for the blues class which is going to be held this fall at club passim....in addition to the dobro class!!! more to come. promises, promises.....

as always, i'm running behind on my 'news' updates.......did lots of shows in MAY , including another club passim campfire, and started up another dobro class in JUNE......

.

ON APRIL 10TH, I played on WERS 88.9fm here in Boston, and did some songs, and in a freakish rarity, very LITTLE talking.....i like this first shot
because it looks like i'm banging my head. much implied forward motion.

here's a touching shot of alex Giorgetti, me and danny exum, being warm and loving. danny and alex are what the kids call
"disc jockeys" on the BLUESOLOGY show....you can tune them in sunday afternoons between 2pm and 5pm.
i have gum in my mouth, on the lower right side, (my left, your right) which makes it look like my palate is blue.

here's a shot of me playing.......slants on a twelve string. and singing at the same time. i feel
better about myself now. not to mention that i cut the nut myself to raise the strings on this 12 string.........

and last but not least, probably
my favorite photo from the sessions......
note the young man in the window, positively agape at what he is witnessing. i am indeed
causing a traffic jam on the street!!!!

BIG UPs and special THANKS to: TAITANA McCABE for taking the photos,
doing the interview, and being kind enough to send me the photos......rock on peoples.!!!

HEY, i got a REALLY COOL anthology thing i wanted to tell you about...it's called: "Living Country Blues- An Anthology"

and it's on the Evidence record label. it came out in 1980, and it was put together by two german guys, alex kustner and siegfried christian.....i guess they came over to the U.S. in the late 70's and recorded all of the country blues they could find. the result is 3 cd's worth of awesomeness!!! there is some really great stuff on this cd, so if you can track down a copy, i would recommend it more than highly!!! some people have said it's out of print, but i am not positive about that....amazon has a listing for it, but it changes pretty regularly, so perhaps the best thing to do is search your friendly local record shoppe.....

APRIL....05 NEWS.....well, you can see how things are going in my life since it's the second week of april and i'm just starting to write about the stuff that's going on this year......! one thing i forgot to put in LAST year was that i got to open up for JOHN HAMMOND at the bull run in shirley. it was awesome. i'm really grateful. man, he put on an incredible show. he played for over two hours straight, no break, and he really went for it. all out, sweating all over and wrangling the guitar like you read about. just the way i like it. and he was incredibly nice to me as well.....he is a really good person, and not just in terms of music, where you can get away with being a tool and you look ok because everyone else is so self centered and awful.....:-), no, john is pretty awesome in human terms, like in real person terms. check him out if you can.....! i learned some stuff at that show, i can tell you......thanks john.

went to some new venues in March, and sadly, said goodbye for now to ol lisa bastoni, who moved to austin texas. lisa and josh kantor and i had the last bob dylan club™ for a little while. bittersweet. got my street performers permit in march, and got ready for a new season....!
well, i'm not THAT ready, but i'm getting there......that other font was WAY too foofy. let's get back to 'normal'. really though, i do hope to play out in the street more this year......indoor gigs not withstanding........

FEBRUARY's highlights included a WINTER CAMPFire at club passim......got to share the stage with owen plant, kara brown, and ol' jon svetky!!! i've known jon for many a year, from back in the late eighties during the great folkscare of the northeast....it was great to see jon again, and to hear him play....it's a great feeling to know that we are still at it, after all these years, hopefully older and wiser.....got to sit in with everyone and was even brave enough to do stevie wonder's "living in the city" on the banjo, which has NOTHING to do with the fact that they cancelled stevie wonder tribute night. in fact, they cancelled the night DESPITE the fact i played the song, not BECAUSE of it.......
sat in with my friends in 'hot day at the zoo' when they were at passim, and had a blast doing that, snow or no.they are great band. you should check them out if you have a chance.....they're playing out like hell these days.
also started up yet another DOBRO CLASS at club passim school of music.....! this one even had TWO women in it, and they are now proud graduates of the lap style guitar class!!! as usual, we had a lot of fun, everyone took solos in the FIRST class, and we conquered a lot of new dobro territory.

last but not least, in FEbruary, i got to do a set with the legendary JOSH KANTOR at ye olde zietgiest gallery in cambridge as part of the circus of the shattered monkey.....go figure. we got to do some pretty cool piano dobro duets.

january was a good month....it was the month of benefits.....for the benefit of all beings, and for the benefit of NoMaSoNHa magazine, who's website i can't find now....they were kind enough to review one of my cd's, and favorably even. i think that review lives on this site somewhere......here's a nice photo of me playing at the benefit, with the usual disturbing dobro expression

but the second benefit i actually HAVE information about!! it was for the Harvard Square Homeless shelter. http://hcs.harvard.edu/~hshs/ .....tom bianchi was the brains behind this operation. tom is a monster bass player, incredibly funny guy, and perhaps even nicer guy than that.....he plays all over, up and down, and you may have seen him in the subway or on the streets. tom organized a bunch of local street performers, including danielle miraglia, lisa bastoni, ari, brian webb, rachel mccartney, lisa housman, dave falk, and probably some other people i am forgetting right now. they all have websites, so you can google them. google and ye shall find --anyways, tom put this show together last year, to raise money for the shelter, at a time of year when people need it most....club passim was kind enough to give us the space and we had a great night on January 31st and raised some money for the shelter. i played my debut of some lap style 12 string...that felt gooooood too....big ups to sunrise pickups........a good time was had by all. i even brought my own guitar....