ON THE ROAD WITH IOWAN’S BOB & SHEILA EVERHART JULY 9. 2012

ON THE ROAD WITH IOWAN’S BOB & SHEILA EVERHART

 
     Fonda, Iowa…..”We’ve sure been on the road” says
Sheila Everhart, wife of Smithsonian recording artist Bob Everhart.  “We
just got back from Fonda, Iowa, where we did two shows for the Arts
Center there.  What a completely pleasant experience it was for us. 
We’re working so hard on our show for Florida, and the Smithsonian now
calls it a “Traveling Museum of Music,” and that’s pretty much what the
Arts Center in Fonda called it too.  We did two shows, one on Saturday
night which was sold out, and one on Sunday afternoon which also sold
out.  Mind, it’s not a huge theater, but it was an extremely pleasant
experience to perform in this Arts Center where the acoustics are so
vibrant and so good.  Now you are wondering, what is ‘acoustics?’  For
musicians it’s how well they hear themselves in a room, and how well the
sounds they create travel through the room.  If a room is nothing but
cement and hard floor, not much acoustics.  When the room has a lot of
carpeting, curtains, soft hanging cloth baffles, what a difference.  Bob
really enjoyed it.  He needs to hear his 12-string guitar when he is
doing what he calls ‘dancing on the strings,’ which in reality is
picking specific strings at the same time he strums, like a rhythm
guitarist would play.  The folks in Fonda certainly enjoyed it, and our
hosts Del and Annie Reiff were just super.  They invited us to stay at
their house for the night, and we had such a wonderful time talking late
into the night about the various places on planet earth that we have
all visited at one time or another.  A real treat for us.”
     “I thought Fonda was a neat place too,” Bobbie Lhea
(the Everhart’s 15-year old daughter) added.  “Del took us to the local
museum, which was just unbelievable.  This museum is so full of antiques
and wonderful wonderful ‘Iowa” history it just blew me away.  Mom and
dad were particularly attracted to it, we must have spent three hours
looking at the many items on display.  Restored automobiles, some dad
said he’d never heard of before, a restored tow truck, even a 78rpm
juke-box.  Dad had never seen one of those, and was absolutely
enthralled when the owner played some of his old 78rpm records, and they
sounded great.  I liked Spike Jones, and then he played some music by
the Firehouse Five.  It thought it was all really neat.  Dad also picked
a good budget lunch for us too.  On the way back home we stopped at an
A&W Root Beer stand in Carroll and had a nice lunch.  Double cheese
burgers for mom and dad, and a chili cheese dog for me.  We all had root
beers and onion rings, and dad even bought a half-gallon of the root
beer to take home with us it was so good.
     “We’re really going to be busy next weekend,” Bob
added.  “It’s off to Minnesota on Thur-Fri to perform on the Bluegrass
Festival there.  Then it’s back home, load up the sound gear and do the
Carroll County Fair in Coon Rapids, showtimes 1pm and 3pm.  All of our
regular Oak Tree performers will be on it.  Then it’s rush to Remsen to
do a show there at 7pm.  This one is at Juhl’s Farm not far from
Remsen.  They have it in a beautiful tree arbor, it’s a lovely
experience.  We’ll stay over there and do another show on Sunday, so
we’re staying busy.  The next show at the Oak Tree Opry is on Tuesday,
July 17, featuring the Roys from Nashville.  Dale Eichor will interview
this great brother-sister act on KWMT radio, so be watching for that. 
In the meantime, pray for a little rain, we could use it.”

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