ON THE HORIZON

Its a slowly evolving project but we are working on the next recording, which will include the "All About Me" band as well as several special guest performances. Bandmate Topher Gayle and Janet are working together to engineer and produce the as-yet unnamed CD, which will hopefully be completed in early 2007. The CD will include lots of great harmony work by Janet Lenore and Amy Friedricks as well as contributions from "the boys," bassist Jeff Davis and multi-instrumentalist Topher. Sure to be included are some of our most popular original compositions such as "Procrastinate," "HoneyDo Man" and "She's Hot" as well as some cover tunes that we've made our own. Best thing is that it will have a lot of stylistic variety and a provide a lot of laughter for listeners.

November 17-19, 2006 -- Janet will attend the Far-WEST Conference where she will twice showcase. This is an event put on by the Folk Alliance's western branch.

During October 2006, Janet had some very successful gigs. These included a "Janet Lenore Band" evening at The Bistro with Janet singing her little heart out on a Saturday night gig. Backed by Topher Gayle on screamin' electric guitar, Jeff Davis on bass and Rich Dorffi on drums, the crowd responded very favorably to their brand of 'dinasaur rock.'

A week later Janet and Topher were joined by Amy Friedricks at an acoustic rock gig for a caregivers weekend retreat. This was an extra-fun gig as the twenty or so audience members all got up to dance halfway through the show. When we were booked, it wasn't clear to us whether they'd wanted more of a dance band or a gentle, acoustic band. Pretty soon we realized that they wanted to get up and dance! We took turns banging out the backbeat on the still-new cajon - which we'd brought as a "just in case." Shoulda brought the bass player too! And it looks like they will have us back in the Spring for more.

Winter 2006-2007 will most likely include some of the same highlights as in recent years. For the third or fourth consecutive year, Janet plans to manage the Annual Winter Reunion and Retreat for California Coast Music Camp (CCMC). She's been a member of the Board of Directors for this non-profit organization for the past four years, if memory serves. She is instrumental in putting out the quarterly newsletter and helps to organize and operate the two week summer program.

WHAT'S BEEN HAPPENING

Summertime has evolved into a happy pattern of camping, gathering with friends, and playing music with people from near and far. For each of the past three years Janet attended and helped produce two week-long sessions of California Coast Music Camp in July. CCMC was sandwiched between two long weekends (Memorial Day and Labor Day camping with great folks at the Strawberry Music Festival near Yosemite Valley. As in the past five years, Janet managed a the Webster Street stage for the 25th annual Palo Alto Art and Wine Festival. This year's Palo Alto was the best-ever in many ways. The marine battery-driven PA ran smoothly both weekend days, the weather was balmy and perfect, we felt incredibly supported by our friends within the CCMC community who came out to support, perform,listen, set up, clean up, and enjoy the street party. Our dear friend Nancy Cassidy hosted a wonderful potluck/jam and generously welcomed us into her home for the weekend. Major kudos for the success of this event go to my on- and off-stage partner, Jeff Davis, bass player extraordinaire.

Janet had a particularly fun gig in Spring, 2006, with Royan, in which Janet performs with fiddler/singer Sharon Carl. Sharon and Janet are working up some songs where both sing with harmonies, Janet plays guitar and Sharon plays fiddle. For this gig, Sharon's husband Jaya Carl made Royan into a trio, adding whistle and bodhran (Irish hand drum) to the mix. Jaya plays a very beautiful bodhran that was crafted by Del Eckles. Janet says, "Our coolest gig so far was at the St. Patrick's Day event in Antioch where we had the priviledge of 'warming up' for a John Wayne movie with an Irish theme,"The Quiet Man." What made the event special was not John Wayne but the magnificent stage at the historic El Campanil Theatre in Antioch, CA. I'm thinking that had to be the biggest stage I've ever set foot on!"

Janet Lenore is deeply involved in the California Coast Music Camp (CCMC), an annual summertime event for adults. Over the course of attending 14 weeks of music camps in eight years, Janet has enjoyed the opportunity to share the stage and study with a long list of acoustic music luminaries. She has studied guitar with Stevie Coyle, Sylvia Herold, Ron Peters, Mike Dowling, Dorian Michael, Pat Donohue, Nina Gerber, Mike Wollenberg, and Kay Esternazi.

Janet has studied mandolin with Paul Kotapish, Robin Flower, Tom Rozum, and Radim Zenkl. She's taken classes in both clawhammer and Scruggs' style banjo with Cathy Fink and Avram Siegel.

Janet enjoyed other classes with: Carol McComb (harmony), Laurel Bliss (dobro), and Michelle Kiba (ukelele). Janet has taken songwriting classes and workshops with Linda Waterfall, Clive Gregson, Keith Greeninger, and Brian Joseph.

She's shared the stage at camp with Kristina Olsen, Ed Johnson, Alice Stuart, and Missy Raines among others. Even outside of music camp environments, Janet has had the opportunity to record and/or share the stage with Steve Baughman, Danny Carnahan, Chris Grampp, Libby McLaren and Robin Flower. In addition to CCMC, Janet has attended two other camps, Puget Sound Guitar Workshop (PSGW) and Women's Hearts and Hands.