Yee Haw.

The South and West of the U.S. come to Tokyo.

On Friday night, we joined some other international school teachers in playing for an art show opening in a downtown club. The five of us had a blast playing a mix of bluegrass, folk, and even an interactive version of When the Saints Go Marching In (cooler than it sounds). Who knew that a couple songs played with guitar, banjo, and a wooden box drum could bring the house down?

This link isn't working very well (and so far our performance isn't on there), but here's the telecast of the various bands that played that night: Pink Cow Performance. First, you'll see Brad playing drums with a larger teacher band and another smaller group. Then, a professional Celtic duo stopped by after returning from a tour in Memphis. Our group, called the Tuques (Canadian word for a stocking cap, which we all wore) followed them.

We've already had a night of bull-riding in a cowboy-themed restaurant, so this new bluegrass kick wasn't as much of a surprise, but there's no way we could have expected any of these things when moving to Japan.

And finally, we'll be flying to Oklahoma City and Texas in about six hours with our school's top choir, the Varsity Ensemble. They'll be singing at the ASCD conference in OK, and then we drive to Baylor University in Waco for some workshops and performances. It should be a great week back home in the U.S. of A. Maybe we'll bring back a couple of cowboy hats for our next performance.