The Pipipickers

World Famous in Rodney District

jenine — Sun, 11 Mar 2012 07:54:35 +0000

So, the photo they took of us with our Pickin’ Parlour at the Auckland Folk Festival ran in the Rodney Times not once, not twice, but THREE TIMES. It was starting to get a bit strange! All the same, I was mightily disappointed when I opened my Thursday Times this week and we weren’t in there.

Here’s a link to two of the articles featuring our photo:

http://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/local-news/rodney-times/6352949/Celebrating-our-national-day

http://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/local-news/rodney-times/6389442/Folk-festival-fun

The third article wasn’t long enough to make it to the website, it was just a short announcement about the start of autumn and our upcoming appearance at the Kaipara Flats Harvest Festival.

Pipi Pickers at the Auckland Folk Festival having a good time. Photo Credit Jill Guillemin.

Only a bit more than a month before we head off to Australia for the GAP! Yay!

Auckland Folk Festival

jenine — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 19:12:18 +0000

After a lot of hemming and hawing, Nat, Barry and I went to the Auckland Folk Festival. We set up our “Pickin’ Parlour” and invited folks to come on and have a jam. It was a really great time. We met a bunch of new interesting musicians, and maybe made a couple of new fans. I need to remember to start circulating mailing list sign-ups so I can keep in touch with these folks.

Anyway, we heard heaps of great music, and we jammed with new friends and old until well into the wee hours both nights we were there.

Look for a photo of the three of us in an upcoming Rodney Times! And we’ll post new photos here as well. Unfortunately we didn’t get any video worth posting. I thought I had a good one of Nat and Dave Alley jamming together, but it didn’t turn out so great. Darn!

Doin’ it wrong

jenine — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 07:59:06 +0000

I’ve had the unenviable experience recently of having to explain to multiple people why they should NOT have us playing at their event. It’s a shame, we always prefer to be playing over not playing, but the last 5 years have taught us many lessons. There are just some times when the Pipi Picker brand of bluegrass entertainment is not what you’re looking for. Current case in point: indoor Christmas Gift Fairs. In fact, we tend to be very nervous of any indoor event. We’re great outdoors. If you’re having any sort of outdoor event and you need a band, CALL US. We’re for you. And we’re so non-festive. I mean, how many people want to listen to rape-murder ballads about trains and whisky while they’re shopping for Christmas Gifts?

Here’s one promise we can make to you: if you look to hire us to play for you, we’re going to make darned sure we’re actually what you want before we sign on. The last thing we want to do is make someone unhappy and ruin their fun. If we don’t think we’re going to add the right touch to what you’ve got going on, we’ll tell you!

Sad thing is, now we’re looking at NO upcoming shows, which is very sad. So e-mail me NOW and let’s see if we are right for you!

A whole new approach

jenine — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 17:47:16 +0000

Having grown tired writing html for this site by hand, then wrestling with the vice-like restriction of RapidWeaver, then trying and rejecting Drupal we are now giving WordPress a try. So far, I’m really liking it. All I gotta do is figure out where all the buttons are and what they do, then press ‘em til it breaks. I can do that!

In other news, work on the first Pipi Picker album got underway in October of this year and will hopefully be done by January 2012. Fingers crossed. Working titles are “Limit 50,” a reference to the bag limit for pipi and cockles in Whangateau harbour or “700 Squirrels,” which is a little harder to explain, but trust me, it’s HILARIOUS. Oh ho ho.

Jenine