What a great night we all had with the Western Swing crowd. Once again we gathered at the Logan County Fairgrounds and had a great time dancing and listening to Leon Rausch and all his supporting cast. Leon is a former member of Bob Wills' Texas Playboys; he can still sing those old songs just great and has a good time doing so. Smiley Weaver, another former Playboy, joined in on his steel guitar. He still plays as good as ever and is quite the showman. There's never a dull moment with Smiley on the stage.

Billy Joe Foster is feeling much better, and it really showed as he looked and played very well. Greg Burgess and I teamed up with Billy Joe on triple fiddles and Billy's old pickin' friend, Bill Dubry, played guitar and did a fantastic job. Dennis Borycki sat in on the piano - he just seems to get better all the time. Once again we had a special treat as Johnny Baier played tenor banjo with the crowd of us. Johnny is the banjo museum curator here in Guthrie and an incredible talent on the 4-string. That museum is a must place to visit if find yourself sometime in Guthrie. The rest of the stage was filled by our band members who play at the Fiddle Shop and Music Hall: John Hickman, banjo; Richard Sharp, bass; Steve Short, drums; Jim Garling, guitar; Barry Patton, bones.

It was fun seeing everyone there having a good time. It was also nice to have Duffy Martin and his entire immediate family there to help celebrate his 90th birthday. Duffy loves this music just like the rest of us.

A special thanks to all our volunteer helpers who see that everything gets set up, runs smoothly and gets cleaned up promptly: Richard and Gussie Chappell and their granddaughters, George Wilkinson with his unlimited energy, and all the band wives. If you didn't make it, you missed a great evening, and we hope to see you here next year around the same time.