Fellow Travelers' Advisory from Anne Feeney - MAY 2006, VOLUME TWO, # 2

IMMEDIATE DESTINATIONS:
Haledon, NJ
Pittsburgh, PA
Detroit, MI
Chicago, IL
Champaign, IL

and then TX (maybe), Washington, DC, and the great left coast summer tour with Dave Lippman.... we could still use some help with a couple dates... any ideas for the 4th of July in southern Oregon? how about the 30th of June or July 1st (my birthday...) near Portland... how about Wed July 26th near Sacramento? and the last four days of July are still wide open on the left coast... check it out & make some suggestions... and if you'd be willing to put up some of our very very cool summer tour posters at one of the towns along our route, email me and i'll send some to you.

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CDs at http://cdbaby.com/all/unionmaid

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IN THIS ISSUE:

Happy MayDay!
April Adventures
The New CD
Organic Bouquets for Mothers' Day
Colbert KOs the Bush Administration
Family News
Tour Dates

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HAPPY MAY DAY!

It's May Day - the real Labor Day... all around the world people will sing The Internationale... and while most people in the US couldn't hum the tune, we'll be singing it in Haledon New Jersey at the Botto House National Labor Museum. I'm writing this month's Fellow Travelers' Advisory from Chicago-- less than 5 files from Waldheim Cemetery where the Haymarket Martyrs are buried.

I'm glad that this month is a little more tranquilo than April - I don't think I've ever had a busier and more exciting month. I'll spend most of May at conferences and in the studio recording a bunch of songs that have already become audience favorites. After I get the new recording off to the duplicator, I hope to end the month in Texas, but I'm still not sure. If you've got some work for me in Austin or Houston or San Antonio, let me know.

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APRIL ADVENTURES

April was way too action-packed to describe in what I promise to keep short monthly newsletter. So many of you wrote to say how much you liked my Florida tour diary (http://www.annefeeney.com/news.html) that I promise to have the April tour diary up on the same site soon. Many many thanks to my fabulous hosts in San Diego - Carolyn and Joel Henderson -- in Madison, Sue Vilbrandt and Willy Lanier -- in Toronto Jonathan and Sara Marlowe and in Portland, OR -- Connie and Kenny Cohen


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THE NEW CD

I postponed the new recording until my guitar is out of the hospital (soon, very soon, I hope....). I'll be going back into the studio in mid-May. A very talented engineer has opened up a great studio within walking distance of my house and I intend to start recording there on May 8th. If you can send me $100 to help underwrite the considerable costs of producing a new CD, I'd be extremely grateful. Send it to me at 7206 Michigan Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15218 - and let me know if you'd like to have your name in the THANK YOU section of the CD liner notes.

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HAPPY ORGANIC MOTHERS' DAY!

This year send Mom an organic bouquet. The floral industry is laden with pesticides and unsustainable agricultural practices, as well as worker abuses. Now you don't need to inflict pain on the planet or other workers when you send Mom some flowers...
Check out:

http://www.organicbouquet.com/Info.aspx?pid=176


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STEPHEN COLBERT SKEWERS W


This is where you can watch Stephen Colbert do a brilliant and hilarious job of taking the Bush administration to the woodshed as W and Laura sit less than 10 feet away at the White House Correspondents' Dinner. This aired on CSPAN last night and I watched it with my wonderful friends Sue Vilbrandt and Willy Lanier. This is truly MUST SEE TV!!!

Here are a couple Colbert quips:

"I believe that the government that governs best is a government that governs least, and by these standards we have set up a fabulous government in Iraq."

"When the president decides something on Monday, he still believes it on Wednesday - no matter what happened Tuesday."

And turning his attention to the White House correspondents themselves, Colbert says:

"Let's review the rules. Here's how it works. The president makes decisions, he’s the decider. The press secretary announces those decisions, and you people of the press type those decisions down. Make, announce, type. Put them through a spell check and go home. Get to know your family again. Make love to your wife. Write that novel you got kicking around in your head. You know, the one about the intrepid Washington reporter with the courage to stand up to the administration. You know--fiction."


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FAMILY NEWS

My almost-daughter, Monique Murad, received a fabulous fellowship to go study in Beirut this summer. My son Dan will go with her. I hope to go visit them.

My San Diego adventures included a visit to my cousin Peggy McCahill Duncan. Peggy is the extraordinary mom of four year old Connor and 9 month old triplets Emma, Colin and Tara. They are all completely charming children and suffice it to say that there are *not* enough hours in the day for anyone to keep up with them.

My cousin Mardy McCahill is a family physician and psychiatrist who has developed, secured funding for and implemented a terrific program that, in cooperation with local churches, delivers health care to uninsured people via a $700,000 mobile doctor's office that travels all around San Diego. What a gal!

And her husband Jim is grandpa to these triplets. He provides meals-on-wheels for the triplets on an almost daily basis. (He's a fabulous cook, but I think it may be impairing his Boggle skills -- I whomped him on my too-brief visit with this wonderful branch of my extended family.)

My daughter Amy is a real globetrotter this month. She got back from Hawaii in time to meet me in Portland and drive me and my dear friend Connie Cohen up to Olympia for my show there. We stopped at the fabulous Olympus Spa in Tacoma and steeped like teabags for hours in their many pools. Then Amy closed up her apartment and headed to Oaxaca for a month. I hope to catch up with her in Texas at the end of May.

Unfortunately cousin Bill won't be able to officiate at the baptism of Kathleen and Ross's latest addition - Rosalie - in New Orleans on May 7th -- it's First Holy Communion at Immaculate Conception Parish where he's the pastor. But Kay and Tony Mumphrey are back in New Orleans.

And in Manhattan, cousin Erin McCahill is awaiting the birth of her second son in August - mazel tov!

Cousin Kevin McCahill turns 60 this month - my sister Kathleen turns 53 on May 3rd (she has a mutual birthday with Pete Seeger!).

Mary and Tom Weldon celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary with a family gala at daughter Jill's (& husband Steve Merrill's) beautiful house in Murrysville, PA. The family films and photos are now available on DVD.




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THE DATES............


Monday, May 1st, 2006 7:00 PM
May Day at Botto House
Botto House American Labor Museum
83 Norwood St
Haledon, NJ
Price: free
with the Solidarity Singers, Chris Chandler & David Roe, George Mann & Julius Margolin and more .... come celebrate May Day at the birthplace of the Paterson Silk Strike!

Tuesday, May 2nd, 2006 7:00 PM
CD Release Party for DC Fitzgerald and Bob Beach
Club Cafe
56-58 South 12th Street
Pittsburgh, PA 15203
http://clubcafelive.com
I'll be opening this show, so don't be late!! This will be lots of fun.

May 5th-7th
Labor Notes
Hyatt Regency Hotel
Dearborn, MI
http://labornotes.org/conferences/details.shtml

May 17th-20th
Regina Polk Conference for Union Women
Pheasant Run Resort
St Charles, IL


Saturday, May 20th, 2006 8:00 PM
Benefit Concert for Boilermakers' Local 484
Channing Murray Foundation
Matthews & Oregon
Champaign, IL
this concert will be with Darrin Drda's wonderful band "The Theory of Everything." it will be great!

Coming up in June and July - the great left coast Triple Trouble summer tour with Dave Lippman and his sinister-but-hilarious alter ego George Shrub, the singing CIA agent

.... we could still use some help with a couple dates... any ideas for the 4th of July in southern Oregon?

how about the 30th of June or July 1st (my birthday...) near Portland...

how about Wed July 26th near Sacramento?

and the last four days of July are still wide open on the left coast... check it out & make some suggestions...

and if you'd be willing to put up some of our very very cool summer tour posters at one of the towns along our route, email me and i'll send some to you.