Gyspy Caravan was conceived at a contra dance festival way up in the
mountains of Colorado called the Moonfestival in the fall of 2009. Ed Secor
and Lucia Thomas had just met and were playing some Balkan tunes, passing
around 'the hairy eyeball', when they realized that they both had an itch
to play in a contra dance band. Their instruments seemed to already agree,
and after driving away Lucia couldn't get the thought out of her head. She
and her friend Aeryk Parker often defiled the pristine halls of their music
school with raucous Irish tunes, bringing up apologetic professors asking
them to please not stomp so loudly. Lucia asked Aeryk to join the band,
knowing that the wailing of his saxophone would add even more to the mix to
which his bodhran already fit so snugly. After struggling to find a good
rhythm player, Keegan Boyle came in as our knight in shining armor only a
week and a half before our first gig. After frantically searching and
auditioning different rhythm players, a local caller insisted that we give
him a try. His playful attitude towards theory and chords with his love for
high energy dancing made him the perfect fit, and Gypsy Caravan came
into existence.
Our top goal as a band is not to get the minimum of wrong notes, but to get
the maximum of hoots! We love to watch the balances turn into jumps, to hear
the hays echoed by "HEY!!!" and when dancers will use petranellas to clap
their hands, high ten their partner, or even get the whole square to slap
the floor, bouncing back up for the next move. Signs such as these let us
know you are having as good a time as us... almost! The drive from our band
comes from the love of playing together. Whether on the melody or in the
rhythmic drive, each of us will have copious amounts of fun.
We are ecstatic to play for you, and hope you will do us the honor of moving those
feet!