Robert Burns and the elusive Haggis

It's coming up on January 25th, which means Robert Burns Night is fast approaching. To celebrate, go out and recite your favorite poem to someone, and keep an eye out for the wily Haggis!


Also keep an eye out for men in kilts! Maybe check in at Little Prague on Friday, January 28, as Riggity Jig rocks the house, along with emcee Tom McKeith (all the way from Clyde Bank!) and piper Erik Leiken. More info at the Little Prague site. Check the comments for links.

Blog post

Just finished from playing for a rainy 39th Street Halloween Street Party. Great neighborhood, great spirits (living and dead), despite all the wet. Thanks for having us!

Now back home to dry off all those sound cables . . .
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Re-sale Shop Re-visited

Riggity Jig returns to the Yolo County SPCA Thrift Store on Saturday, September 25. We'll be recycling our old material and making it new, all in the the spirit of the day's Re-Cycle, Re-Use, & Re-New Festival! Last time we played there I saw no fewer than four plaid kilts on the racks. All were in the women's and girls' department--and a few certainly belonged there--but a fellah's got to start somewhere, eh?

You can show a bit o' knee, or just show up. You're sure to find something that'll surprise you or bring back fond memories. Maybe both, if it happens to be that hideous family heirloom from your Great Aunt Zelda that vanished from the mantelpiece last week, thanks to your significant other. Won't she be surprised when it shows up at home once again!

P.S. Look for a subset of the band on Saturday morning from 9:30 to 11:00 at the Woodland Farmer's Market in Freeman Park on Main Street, between 4th and 6th Streets. Fantastic local produce, and plenty of free parking on the Court Street side of the park. Yum-yum, eat 'em up!

Not Your Grandmother's LGM

Somewhere on the far side of the sun, there's a land that's never green on a little piece of floating space junk no human eye has ever seen. This nameless shard follows the same orbital path our dear Earth, but six months ahead of us, give or take a few days (or six months behind us, depending on how you look at things).

And on that bit of debris, the result of some cosmic collision or engineer's miscalculation, there's a small cadre of little would-be green men like this fellow who are doing their best to celebrate, on this very day, their own March 17, and the sainted memory of he who brought Christianity to, and expelled snakes from, a lovely green island on a planet they themselves will never see, but only sing of in sentimental, sappy ballads, rasped into the thin, dry atmosphere of their tiny, rocky home.

In honor of these stalwart, possibly misguided, and almost certainly nonexistent revelers, we call on you to join Riggity Jig for our umpteenth-annual Half-way to St. Pat's celebration, starting at 6 pm on Friday, September 10 at Little Prague Bohemian Restaurant in Davis. We'll be playing a festive assortment of jigs, reels, and other Irish favorites till 9 pm.

Call Little Prague at 530-756-1107 to make sure you get a table close by the band!

Remembering Pat

Pat "Kelsey" Olson, longtime drummer for Riggity Jig, passed from this life in the wee hours of morning, June 28, 2010, at age 56, with her dear husband, Jouko, by her side. A memorial is planned for early August.

To say only that Pat put up a valiant fight against cancer since her diagnosis four years ago would be to miss a huge part of what made her the person she was—since during that time she sought out and experienced so much more than the dramatic ups and downs of chemotherapy, optimistic prognoses, and crushing setbacks.

Pat brought her own brand of "reality check" to the prescribed life of a cancer patient—the reality that life's worth living for the sake of joy and discovery, pure and simple. She did her best to share that joy with her network of friends and colleagues. Pat found love with one Jouko Salo, her shining knight who rode up on a gleaming Finnish smart phone, and she married him at the Sacramento Horsemen's Association in a warm, outdoor celebration on a warm summer day, then promptly walked over to the paddock fence and kissed her horse on the mouth. So nobody would get jealous. Pat and Jouko had their third anniversary a few weeks ago.

Before her illness Pat travelled extensively, both for pleasure and for her work with the California Department of Food and Agriculture. She loved dancing and playing the bodhran with our band and Thistle Glen at restaurants, parties, and Scottish dance events. Her love of the outdoors prompted much of her short- and long-haul travelling as well as stints working at Yellowstone and Grand Canyon National Parks. As the cancer advanced, Pat's need for frequent medical treatment kept her closer and closer to home, but she still managed to make the most of life, performing with the band during those lulls of good feeling between chemo treatments.

Good drummers are rare and precious, and all the more so when they add so much to the party even after they set the instrument down. Pat had them all beat. Set aside your jokes of drummer ridicule and remember this terrific woman, Pat Olson, with whom it's been our pleasure and deep honor to share the music for so many years. If you close your eyes and listen, I think you'll hear the harpers in heaven are playing today with a steadier beat. Drum on, Kelsey!

Starbuck's in Davis

Good coffee, live music, and a wireless hot spot? Talk about overstimulation! But yes, it can all be yours on Tuesday, June 8 starting at 7 pm, when Riggity Jig plays at the West Davis Starbucks. That's at 2038 Lyndell Terrace, just northwest of the Covell Boulevard / Highway 113 crossing.

So drop by for a half-caff, lo-fat, no-whip, iced macchiato on Tuesday night, and give music a chance to sooth your savage inner beast -- or is that "breast"? I can never remember.

RJ @ URC 5/14/10

We're very happy to announce that Riggity Jig will take a turn on the stage at the University Retirement Center in Davis this May. We'll be playing the evening of May 14, 2010, and promise to give the folks a show to remember, with jigs, reels, and strathspeys that will set toes tapping, along with vocals that will bring a smile to the face and a tear to the eye.

Meanwhile in April a number of us will be sitting in on fiddlers' jam sessions at the 134th Annual Sacramento Valley Scottish Games & Festival the weekend of April 24 and 25. It's a terrific gathering for those who love the skirl of pipes, the swirl of kilts, and the fine scent of a well-made haggis. Also, there's the opportunity to participate in any of a number of sporting events that have the potential to hurt you really bad: the caber toss, hammer throw (featuring genuine hammers), and the aptly named "weight over the bar," in which participants take turns attempting to throw a 4-stone weight over an overhead bar (you get extra points if you can avoid having your skull crushed by the weight on its way back down).

Also attending the Games are clan representatives to help you hook up with distant cousins -- to whom you can offer the traditional greeting ("Say, can ya spare a few bob till payday?") -- as well as vendors selling loud musical instruments, books of fine poetry, Scottish comestibles in the tin, roll, or packet, clan tartans and badges, and such breezy menswear items as traditional or Utilikilts!

And, of course, MORE!