Fan Mail

 

To Randy and all the New Christy Minstrels,

 
What a show you and your wonderful group put on for us Quartzsite snowbirds!  It was a thrill to see and hear you perform some of that wonderful music that I loved way back then and still  do now.

  I was truly a folk-music fan back in the 60's-70's,  moved more toward country western ("old country") after we started coming to Quartzsite and I learned to play guitar and got brave enough to sing at the jams, but folk is still my favorite, and the songs I love best to sing are ones like Sloop John B., Roseville Fair (as a duet with my husband) Banks of the Ohio, This Land is Your Land, etc.  (In fact, my "signature song" is another Woody Guthrie number, "Roll on Columbia" and I get more requests for it than any other song I do.

It's one of the songs I sing on a CD we made a couple years ago.)
 
Awhile back my daughter (now 46 years old) e-mailed me with an exciting revelation: she'd just realized the Hi Jolly song was about Quartzsite!   She and one of her good friends sang it long and loud during their school years (Marshfield High School in Coos Bay, Oregon, Class of '79) when they'd go on bus trips for debate tournaments or for out-of-town sports events.
 
I think we had two LP records of your group.   Lord knows what ever happened to them through several moves between then and now.   I remember some of the titles, like Railroad Bill, In the Pines, Goodbye Suzanne Don't Cry Suzanne, and of course the Hi Jolly song. 

  Do you have some of these and/or your other oldies on any CD's thatwould be available now?    I bought your "Recycled" CD at the Quartzsite show, and LOVE it----so far haven't been able to get Green, Green out of my mind and find myself humming it all day long.  But--I would really like to re-learn the Hi Jolly song as well as some of the others among my old favorites from those by-gone years if you have other CD's for sale.
 
 
Seeing your great show was the highlight of this winter season.   Thank you all for making our little town of Quartzsite a stop on your tour this winter.   We know it's sort of strange and funky ("normal" people probably would not choose this place for their winter home!) but we do love our music and that's the reason we're here in the first place!
 
Sincerely,    Lois Hall

Response:  (Yes Lois, if you'll go to THE STORE on this site, you'll see the CD's that we have for sale).

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Randy et. al,

Enjoyed your show 6/28/08 in Bayfield, WI. You said to write if we wanted you to come back so I am and we do! Hope to see you in 09!

Best wishes,

Michael (and Judith) Peyton

Washburn, WI

Michael D. Peyton

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Hey Randy and all,
Tom and I really enjoyed the show at Big Top Chautauqua and hope that you will come back again. It appeared that the NCM were enjoying the show as much as the audience. Hope this was true. Hope to see all of you again. Tom and Sue Kuziej, Hayward, WI

PS We are Royal Caribbean cruisers so if you are on a cruise again--we'd love to see you on one of RC cruises.

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We who heard you last night at the Big Top in Bayfield, Wisconsin, hope you come back next summer! It was great fun to sing along with you on all the old songs. Thanks for being here!

judith peyton


Judith V. Peyton, Ed.D.
Educational Consultant
A Natural Branch of Learning
80765 St Hwy 13
Washburn, WI 54891
(715)-373-0688

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So now you know where Big Top is and I and everyone else that was in attendance hopes you find your way back there next year and the next- etc- although we all remembered you guys from the 60s, your energy and commitment to the music is unsurpassed- and believe me- we have seen several of the retro groups over the years- you guys are not retro- you are contemporary-now- you are the music!
Glen and Cheryl Grady
209 W. 14th St
Neillsville, Wi 54456
715-743-6310
ggrady@tds.net

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Here's what I wrote to Warren Nelson at Big Top Chautauqua, hoping they'll have "youse guys" all come back next year:

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It was a great night at the Big Top on Saturday when the New Christy Minstrels entertained us. No fireworks, no jumping around, no yelling non-words, no stupidity. Just good music, sung by wonderful voices by nice people who treated the audience well. Thanks for having them on your schedule; we hope to see them again next year !!!???

Anne and Emmett Keller, Chippewa Falls

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