Pictures from the Quebec mini-tour. Enjoy!

We've had a great summer playing locally in New England, but we're starting to itch for some more road time. The Muellers will be appearing in northern Quebec this weekend, in West Virginia the next weekend, and then we'll be all over the place for a while. Look for us in Virginia and Tennessee in October and September. Hope to see you all down the road!

Also, we're going to be going into the studio after we return to New England to record our fourth album. The band is still batting around song choices at this point, so if there's a song that you REALLY REALLY like, and want to see on the new CD, you should tell us what it is.

I've got a couple of great live mp3s from some of our spring/summer touring that I'll be posting on our website and Myspace, so check back here often to make sure you don't miss anything!

Hi everyone! We just rolled back into town after spending almost all of May and June on the road. It's good to be back home. Everyone is relaxing and recovering from the thousand-mile drive back from Bean Blossom, Indiana.

I woke up to a picture in the local newspaper of the girls and I singing at the Blistered Fingers festival, down in Sidney, Maine. They've got some great acts coming through this weekend, and I recommend heading on down there to check it out. You won't be disappointed!

The Muellers are now on iLike and Facebook, so please consider adding us as friends on those sites. Every little bit of help is appreciated--we couldn't do it without you guys!

While getting the pictures for the Facebook site, I stumbled across some great pictures that had somehow never posted anywhere. Hope you enjoy!

(this is the picture from the newspaper)

So this one time (actually, on Sunday) we were leaving Maine on I-95, and stopped at the southernmost rest stop to stretch and use the facilities and pour more coffee. As we were walking into the building, we heard someone shouting "It's the Muellers! It's the Muellers!" Turns out, a student from Colby College in Waterville who had seen our coffeehouse show back in April was traveling back to Boston, and had just happened to be listening to a copy of our latest CD, Branching Out, before stopping at the very same rest stop. She happened to see the logo on the back of the van (as you can see in the picture) and flagged us down. Needless to say, we were pumped! We took some pictures of everybody posing around the van and autographed her copy of the CD.

Thank you so much for listening and supporting us, Sonia Booth and parents.

Hi everyone,

Just a quick note to let you all know that we made it safely to Missouri after leaving Maine around 1 P.M. on Sunday. (The reason I know that is because they drove the van across town to pick me up from a car repair place, and the half-time station ID break for Prairie Home Companion had just come on the radio.) The only reason I'm still awake at this moment is the cup of coffee that I chugged at a McDonald's somewhere east of Paducah, Kentucky; I can't remember the name of the town, and I think that the reason I can't remember the name might be the same as the reason that I chugged the coffee in the first place: SLEEPY.

I've got a couple of great photos to post tomorrow. Highlights include an impromptu autograph-and-picture session with some fans that we met at an interstate rest stop, a Biscuit House sign in West Virginia, and a roadkill bat that we found lodged in the grille of the van, prompting a lot of Batmobile jokes.

But first, I'm going to sleep. More tomorrow!

Tom M.

_____

Part 2:



The Muellers are honored to be the subject of a recent documentary produced by a group of senior students from Colby College in Waterville, Maine.

Kristen Barnico
Paige Clunie
Kara Dalton
Jess Egan
Brett Wagenheim

Brett, Jess, Paige, Kara, and Kristen did a great job, and it was a pleasure to work with them.

I've posted both sections of the documentary here; in total, it's about 17 minutes long. Go make some popcorn, make yourself comfy, and enjoy!

Greetings from Hagerstown, Maryland! I had intended to write a travel update last night while attending to our last-minute packing issues, but managed to forget almost everything on my to-do list after realizing that neither of my guitars were in travelling shape. But, now that my guitars have spare G strings and capos tucked into their cases, I’m free to update you on our situation!

I’m not sure if this made the national news this week, but Maine has been absolutely inundated by the aftermath of a major rainstorm that came and melted the remains of last winter’s snowpack. There were a couple of tense moments last night when we were wondering if the bridge near my parents’ house was going to hold, but we woke up to a beautifully clear sunrise, and left Maine around 6.30 this morning.

It’s great to be on the road again! A lot of you have been praying for Karen’s health, and I’m glad to report that the new decaffeinated version of Karen is holding up very well after our first day out. (Travelling is surprisingly restful when compared to the chaos of the Muellers’ packing process.)

We are currently on our way to Chickamauga, Georgia, where we will be staying with some old bluegrass friends in between our sets at the Boxcar Pinion Bluegrass Festival in Chattanooga, Tennessee. I’m also looking forward to attending a night of Fat Shirley’s Trailer Park Opry, a bluegrass musical in two acts that was written by my songwriting buddy (and good family friend) Tom Brown.

I’ve been taking lots of pictures of sights along the way, but realized during dinner that I left my digital card reader on my desk, so pictures will have to wait until next Monday, when we arrive back in Maine. They’ll be posted on Blank Page of the Road, the official Muellers blog, which you can always find at http://blankpageoftheroad.blogspot.com/.

Until then, be well, do good work, and stay in touch!

All the best,

Tom Mueller

We're getting ready to go on the road again! We'll be playing two sets down at the Boxcar Pinion next week. If you're in the vicinity of Chattanooga and want some entertainment, I strongly advise you to come on over and check us out. The band will be debuting a bunch of new songs; some of the highlights include a very intense rendition of "Lost John" that Laurah and Sarah sing, a Curt-Laurah-Tom cover of Norman Blake's song "Ginseng Sullivan", and a new gospel song that I wrote over the winter, entitled "What a Glorious Day."

(click for a larger image)

Hiking has always been an interest of mine, and the unexpectedly sudden spell of warm dry weather has finally forced me outside. For lack of more content, here's a little panorama that I took during my last outing to Mount Desert Island here in Maine. Apologies for the dodgy Photoshop job--I didn't bring a tripod that day, and didn't bother to fine tune the exposure for good balance.

This panorama (not 360°, unfortunately) shows the view from the long western slope of Champlain Mountain.

The two peaks near the cirque lake are The Beehive and Gorham (Gorham is, of course, where i took the previous panorama.

The lake itself is called The Bowl. It's technically a beaver pond--there are two major dams on the west side--but it also appears to be a glacial rock formation as well. (A cirque is a bowl-shaped depression scooped out of the rock by glaciers.) You can see the beaver lodges in the middle of the lake, towards the right.

Moving right, you can see the village of Seal Harbor (there's a nice coffee shop there, as well as some sort of little maritime museum that my friend Tom and I checked out last summer during his visit from New Jersey), and the road running up the valley is rt. 3, which runs from Seal Harbor to Bar Harbor in the northeast.

The long ridge on the other side of the road runs several miles from Blackwoods to the top of Cadillac Mountain, which, at 1530' elev., is the highest summit on the entire east coast of the United States. There's a trail that follows the ridge all the way to the top, but I haven't hiked it yet--hopefully I'll get around to it someday soon!

--Tom

Everyone who reads the updates written by the Momma of the band knows that I wait until news is long overdue before a word escapes my mouth. Well, this time is no exception but it hasn't been because I've been too busy, it's because I've been too tired! To all of you who have shown us so much kindness during my illness, THANK YOU! I appreciate your prayers for me and for the family as we get through this.

A lot of folks want to know just what happened and how things are, so let me just put it in the words of one of my doctors—"Even the Energizer Bunny runs out of batteries." Now there is a lot more medical jargon I could throw out there, in case that makes you wonder about the quality of my medical care. Lots of good doctors! Rest was number one on the list of things to do, number two was just getting rid of my big to-do list! So for those of you who have remarked that you've never seen me sit still (and there are a lot of you) well, guess what! I have learned how to sit still and do nothing! And I can do it without coffee! I know that quitting coffee will have a negative effect on the coffee vendors at all the festivals, but don't worry…I'm drinking decaf. Not buckets of it like before (!) but you'll still see me in the coffee line.

All joking aside, this has been an opportunity for our entire family to seriously ponder many things. Number one on the list was thinking about the many, many people who deal with serious long-term illnesses and how it impacts every minute of so many lives. What happened around here was a just a bump in the road compared to the situations of so many others. On the musical side of life, everyone, right down to George, has contemplated what our music means to us, and what it takes to be a traveling family band. While it is fun and rewarding, it takes a lot of work, I'm not gonna lie! And while the children have always been very helpful, and this has always been a group effort, they now know the importance of sharing the work even more. I'm so proud of my children for their commitment and willingness to work. They have a clear vision of where they want to go.

So there has been a re-division of labor, and while I am keeping my job as booking agent, I've been completely relieved of any tasks that have to do with managing the stage clothes, and let me tell you folks, that is huge! The kids are now in charge of the wardrobe department, so if you see George on stage covered in ketchup…well, ok…I'm still going to have a Tide-stick in my purse! Tom is handling a lot of management tasks in the band, and is helping me with booking as well. Curt is busy overseeing the whole big thing...and he is a dad that cooks, thank the Lord!

There's not enough space here to relate all the things that God has shown us about family, music and the limitations of being human. I've learned the most of all. And I'm so thankful to all of you for your prayers, emails, letters and gifts. I am still working at answering every email and I appreciate that you all took the time to write me.

We have a lull in our schedule right now with just a couple of shows here in Maine, but we are playing every night in the kitchen, working on a lot of new material, including some of Tom's originals. We're looking forward to hitting the road again May 1st. I'd like to let everyone know that we are now booking for the second half of 2008 and all of 2009, and it's full steam ahead. So ask for the Muellers by name at your local festival and we'll be sure to be there to play for you! And let me say 'thank ya'll' one more time. ~~Karen