Lucas Ashby

Many thanks to for this snap from our performance with and at — we had so much fun!

Really looking forward to this hit at with dear friends and — October 4, not to be missed!

Just finding out about some cool snaps by from Highland Games with — more tour dates to announce soon!

We’re back! at once again tonight! 7 & 9 pm shows :)

I’ll be joining and her all-star band for an show at TONIGHT. If there are any tickets left, I doubt that will be the case for long. You know what to do!

As ever, this is a nice view. From last night’s show with & co. — doing it again next Thurs at !!

Meditating again this morning on how lucky I am that music is my job. Is it always glimmering light shows and huge crowds or stunning sold-out concert halls of grateful and attentive patrons? Nope. Sometimes it is and that’s nice. Sometimes (pictured here) the job is to shuffle some giant potted plants around, drop a drum rug and ‘clock in’ to play uncontroversial music that won’t cause anyone to look up from their holiday-themed canapés for a few hours. Often enough, living and working in the DC area, I have my car swept for explosive materials; my cases and body go through scanners. I sign non-disclosure agreements occasionally. Whatever, man! The GREAT news is, while I have some predictable, stable work like teaching, I mostly wake up ready to wear several professional hats every day, and the work is constantly changing. And I get along with all of my coworkers! Pretty neat way to make a living, and it’s always getting better.

3-6-5 — my rug showing me the number of days I’m supposed to be making music this year :)

Always great to be back at and wonderful to perform for the first time with masters of their craft- and .marxer - and on bass and harmonica!

Set 1 of 3 down with in the books at

Playing with the Seán Heely Celtic Band this weekend at ! Always a blast joining .music and

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Choice sticker placement. X

Really looking forward! Tomorrow night back in Ithaca! OTS at The Range, Ithaca, NY

Big Mean Ithaca Family, come out to The Range this Friday 10/14 to catch Klein’s new band On The Spot Trio supported by Lucas Ashby’s Brain Trust featuring Daniel Blair Frankhuizen!!! It’s the only show in town Friday night, don’t sleep on it!!! Event link in comments

Pumped to open for tomorrow night at with ft. + SPECIAL GUESTS!
See you there, fam!

Prepping for Friday night opening for — I love when gigs with musicians I miss dearly just fall into place. See you there friends!



ft

I am extremely lucky that I get to play music for a living. Pretty often I’m so stuck in the cycle- scheduling, learning material, rehearsing, executing on the bandstand, repeat- that I forget to look around and acknowledge the absurd luck that I happened to be born into an entire family that’s dedicated to this craft in a place where it’s even possible to attempt to feed my family with performing (and yes, some teaching and some other art-based side hustles). Basically, where I live it’s possible to be a working-class musician. I’m not a virtuoso, I’m neither young enough to be a phenom nor old enough to have achieved unc-status. Just out here bustin’ ass as a utility player, trying to serve the music. I had a colleague ask me recently if I have a system of ranking gigs based on effort or some other similar external factors - and my honest and knee-jerk answer was basically absolutely not. I have some prerequisites (fair compensation, interesting material that I might have some reasonable hope of playing well are a good start). And I’m either available or not. But if I can make the date, you’re getting my whole-ass effort on that date. I might fall short. But, I will have taken as many measures as I can to ensure at least that the statements I make on stage feel true to me and convey that to the rest of the musical support structure involved. Here’s to more of that!
Ever grateful,
Lucas

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Sometimes I can’t believe we actually sent out these absurd invitations to our wedding. But, like a lot of things we’ve undertaken over the last 6 years of marriage (11 total together), it didn’t really need to make sense to anyone but us. Consensus reality is a negotiable, malleable substrate on which to culture one’s dreams- and my wonderful wife has been and continues to be my proof. We commit daily to busting ass in work, school, on stage- to home where we’re focused on laughing, cooking and sharing our love for our kids- I’m grateful to continue this life one day- or birthday, anniversary, holiday, milestone - at a time.

Tomorrow night at .henrys.dc the tremendously gifted .mesfin & band! Can’t wait.

Back at tonight with .rosenblatt and !

Forgot about this quick snap I grabbed from the other night with at — always amazing to share the stage with legends like and and great to play for the first time with and and — as always, great fun was had with !!

looking pretty and sounding great as always.

Gratitude in the driver’s seat!

Back at tonight with and his stellar quartet!

fam- a couple of fun hits with this week, starting TONIGHT at — swing through!

fam! Ridiculous lineup this Saturday night at ! this is going to be fun! Ticket link in my stories

Really looking forward to a string of local shows the next couple of weeks! More details to come on all of these:)

Fun hit this afternoon at 81st with .bass and !

Great fun tonight with at alongside and the venerable

Switching hats again.. percussion world tonight with

First time hitting with the Ashby Family Band at Ellsworth tonight!

About to hit again with the amazing in !

Hilarious sticker that arrived with my friend ’s new book— can’t wait to dig in. In the meantime, gotta figure out where to put this that it may garner the appreciation it very much deserves!

My view as I dip into some music for a show tomorrow night at .dc with and — looking forward!

Gearing up for yet another night at — tonight with for the second night of
Shows 8 & 10pm
Looking forward!

Playing in VA with ’A this evening! Cool music, good people.

I’m way behind but just want to thank everyone for all the birthday wishes last week! The love and support is a little overwhelming, but welcome. Grateful for my mission: figuring out how to work harder and smarter on a hugely diverse range of music every single day (necessity truly is the mother of invention!) AND spend ever more time with my very favorite not-so-little-anymore humans. Love you all.

Stage is set for at tonight!