[Dixielandjazz] Playing Banjo in the Cold Weather

[Mike Woitowicz]

Katie Cavera's reminisces about playing banjo in the cold are just the norm here in Wisconsin and Illinois.

For the last several years, my Banjo Barons Ragtime Band has been hired for an outdoor Halloween party at the end of October by a large shopping mall in Illinois. It's a nice paying gig, lots of receptive people, and we can play whatever we want since we're background music for a bunch of kids running around in Halloween costumes, riding ponies, playing games for prizes, etc.

It's always a gamble with the outdoor temperature. The first year we played it, I had similar a experience to Katie's with keeping my fingers warm. In subsequent years, I purchased some of those chemical hand warmers for everyone in the band. We activate the warmers, put them in our pockets and then in our hands between tunes. It keeps the fingers warm enough to be able to survive the 3-hr gig.

We've had similar situations playing outdoors for opening day at Miller Park, our major league ballpark. For a number of years, we played opening day or for some of the exhibition games just before opening day in early April One time is was about 40 degrees and they positioned us in the parking lot at the bus stop. Every time a bus would drop off a few passengers for the game, my Dixie Barons would play a few rousing choruses of "The Saints" or "Take Me Out to the Ball Game." Then, when the bus left and the fans went into the stadium for the pre-game activities, we would put our collars up, break out the hand warmers and shiver until the next bus came. 

Oh, the things we do for our art!!

(Necessary musical tie-in -- "Let It Snow, Let it Snow").


Mike Woitowicz
The Banjo Barons Ragtime Band
The Dixie Barons Dixieland Band
Solo Banjo Shows
www.banjomusic.biz