Chad Elliott, Weary Ramblers, Guests 12/3/23 Byron’s Bar, Pomeroy, IA

photo by Byron Stuart
photo by Byron Stuart
photo by Ree Irwin
photo by Ree Irwin

So a funny thing happened the other night. Byron had to cancel a show due to the performers backing out very late and he thought he didn’t have enough time to line up another act, and he posted that on Facebook.

Chad Elliott, who has recently moved to within striking distance of Pomeroy, replied, aw darn it, I was going to attend that show since I would be in town to deliver a painting. I was packing my bag, ready to walk out the door, and flashes of brilliant white light and loud classical symphony exploded around me.

Um, duh.

It took just a few minutes of classic social media exchange on Facebook and everybody put it together and there would be a show after all.

Super hardcore trooper Marie Farrell, who occasionally scares me 🙂 managed to coax her musician friend Walt Peterson into coming and he brought a case of harmonicas. This was promising to be a “different” kind of spontaneous night that can only happen in magical places.

Chad got started solo and unless he’d just written a bunch of new songs (inevitable) or wrote one as he played it on stage, I didn’t need to take a lot of notes, so I ducked into the back room where I can indulge in my dirty little tobacco habit. There was Kathryn. She has to travel farther than Chad, and was waiting for the right time to join him. Nobody knew she was there yet. Fun when that happens.

Except for the part where I had my input set for mp3 rather than wav (a reason for using two recorders) (and I think I got by with it anyway), the night proceeded to have its way with all of us.

Chad and Kathryn both took advantage of the situation by road testing some new stuff. And making a few mistakes. Human. Real. Priceless.

Without succumbing to the urge to review, here’s the night in three sets. Kathryn joins in set 2, Walt joins in set 2, and Walt and Marie join in set 3. This is the “raw” version, the edited version will eventually appear at Archive.org.

Hear Set One Here:

Hear Set Two Here:

Hear Set Three Here:

To access all of our Elliott recordings (so far, they’re not all up yet), click here:

rainy day rain drop
recording by RDM







Rewind: Brandon Santini 2/26/23 Byron’s Bar, Pomeroy, IA

New software enables us to quickly upload full shows. This is three sets of Brandon Santini, Byron’s Bar, Pomeroy, IA, 2/26/32 PLUS a twenty minute encore. This is everything straight out of the recorder without any edits or track separation and will differ slightly from our future upload to Archive.

Set 1

Set 2

Set 3

20 Minute Encore

Poster: Mark Gerking