Are You a Floofy Doofer?

There are no wrong answers here. Oh! Also, I'm Back in the D, Upcoming Gigs, Neat Videos, AND MORE

May 24, 2025

I got home from tour a week or two ago, simply overflowing with all the love and joy that was shared with me. I have so much gratitude for the people who welcomed me and created the spaces where these beautiful connections could happen! I fell in love with everyone, and everywhere I went I thought, “What if I stayed here? How soon can I come back here again?” And now I’m back in Detroit, where I plan to continue sharing these positive feelings and creating spaces for audiences, artists, dancers, and lovers of all kinds to connect further.

In this email:

How’s Recovery Going?
Upcoming Gigs
A Couple of Neat Videos
That’s All, Unless I Think of Some Other Stuff
I Know, I Can Add the Mammoth List of Links to All the Stuff I’ve Done!
How’s Recovery Going?
I’m pretty much back to 100% as far as brain and body are concerned, I just have to keep taping my right eyebrow up and zapping it with a TENS machine to help the nerves and muscles regenerate where the surgery happened. In other words, I feel great and I look weird a lot of the time. That’s actually nothing unusual.
Spring is here yall! Here’s a pic from The Great Meadow of Mount Desert Island, Maine, on a beautiful day off. Wow it was nice to get back there and hard to leave. Took me three days to drive home from there but I did get to visit some really good old pals on my way, and also while I was there, e.g. Nancy Andrews
Upcoming Gigs
Brethren, MI - Saturday, June 21, I’m playing a duo set with my dear friend and collaborator Alex Belhaj at Spirit of the Woods Festival — Our set will be 3:30-4:30pm but the festival goes all day from 12-8pm and it’s FREE!
Ann Arbor - Mondays June 30, July 28, and August 18 I’ll join Alex for Music Mondays at Detroit Street Filling Station - 6-7:45pm, FREE!
Detroit - Wednesdays in July (EXCEPT 7/23, so 7/2, 7/9, 7/16, and 7/30) my Ragtime Banjo Revival Trio hosts jam sessions at Detroit’s historic jazz club Cliff Bell’s — Two 75 minute sets: 7:30pm (concert) & 9:30pm (jam session) with a 45 minute break. $25, No Cover for musicians who bring their instruments to jam
Detroit - Saturday, July 5 - QUEER POTLUCK & SQUARE DANCE at Vámonos! 7-11pm, $20 suggested, No One Turned Away For Lack Of Funds (NOTAFLOF) — More info at Detroit Folk School Substack, DFS website and for the Meta users, on Facebook — We also have a Detroit Square Dance Society Instagram account if IG is your preferred poison ; )
Peninsula, OH - Friday, July 11 - GAR Hall with the Michigan edition of the Corn Potato String Band (including Lindsay McCaw and myself, plus Alex Belhaj and Rachel Pearson!) TBC
Here’s a pic of the four of us playing an actual concert last summer. Most of the time we’re the Detroit Square Dance Society Band, with Lindsay calling dances, but in concert I play banjo and Lindsay and I can play our hot double fiddle material. Rachel and Alex are sweet singers, too!
Fennville, MI - Thursday, July 24 - Fennville Summer Festival with Ragtime Banjo Revival Trio, 6-8:30pm, FREE
Paw Paw, MI - Friday, July 25 - Ragtime Banjo Revival Trio at The Lucky Wolf TBC
Three Oaks, MI - Saturday, July 26 - Ragtime Banjo Revival Trio at Three Oaks Summer Music Series, 6:30-7:30, FREE
Dearborn, MI - Sunday, July 27 - Ragtime Banjo Revival Trio at Greenfield Village, 12:30pm-1:15pm, and 1:45pm-2:30pm, FREE
Sharon Center, OH - Wednesday, August 13 - Ragtime Banjo Revival Trio at Music in the Circle, 7-8:30pm, FREE

And that’s all the public gigs I have to share for now — contact me directly you’re interested in booking me or one of my bands for a private event (e.g., a WEDDING SQUARE DANCE is always a hit, and we’re doing a couple of those this summer)

A Couple of Neat Videos

Here’s where I get to brag on my dear old pal Lindsay McCaw and her partner in puppets, Jason Hicks, because THEY WON A KRESGE FELLOWSHIP with their puppet company, Flying Cardboard Theater! This is a really big deal for Detroit artists and they deserve it 100%. For the piece they’re sharing in the winners’ exhibition they used a piece I recorded with Ben Belcher for our Dos Senoritas album (Free to download, by the way, and limited 10” vinyl and CDs still available) — Check out the video in the exhibition!

Here’s another neat video, featuring Appalachian clog dancing and a ripping hot solo version of that classic fiddle tune, Whiskey Before Breakfast — This one comes from 2019 (Remember 2019…??) and I shared it to my Patreon, which you can JOIN for free or you can even pledge a monthly contribution for less than the price of a cup of coffee. You know that the warm feeling that you get from helping me continue this cultural work is priceless.

While I’m at it, here’s a YouTube playlist of videos I made for some of my fiddle students — This will not be fun to watch or make much sense if you’re not taking fiddle lessons with me! — But I shared it on Patreon and I figure why not share it here as well, in case it may reach a past or future student. I do have some limited availability for serious and dedicated fiddle and banjo students of all backgrounds; respond to this email for more info if you’re interested.

That’s All, Unless I Think of Some Other Stuff

Many of you have been with me long enough to remember the three-month retreat I did last winter, and I may as well let yall know that I plan to do that again this year, exact dates TBD. I’m also doing shorter retreats here and there between now and the winter time, as my schedule allows, and in general I am slowing down a bit. I’m no longer trying to fill my schedule with gigs and lessons or trying so hard to make things happen, more allowing things to be as they are and trusting that everything will work out on its own, without any extra effort on my part.

“But Aaron,” I can hear you thinking, “ You have so many gigs this summer!” Ah, but do I? “So many” is a subjective term, and compared to past years I have far fewer gigs this year than ever before. Quality over quantity, my dears!

On that note (pun intended), actually, does anyone remember when I got to bring my Ragtime Banjo Revival Special Programs to the New England Conservatory or to Ohio Northern University a couple years ago? Well, whether you do or not, and despite funding cuts to higher ed, I would love to find more opportunities to bring this deeper level of ragtime banjo engagement to music students anywhere in the world — Respond to this email if you know anyone in education who may be interested!

I Know, I Can Add the Mammoth List of Links to All the Stuff I’ve Done!

I have done a lot of stuff in my career, and although I’m not done I do intend to slow down a bit, at least for the time being. So if you’re just joining me here or if you’ve been with me since the beginning, I may start closing with this (incomplete) list where you can explore my work in greater detail at your leisure. So, for now I’ll say

FAREWELL and AU REVOIR, my dear friends, fans, family, and floofy doofers. Until we meet again, and I hope that will be soon. Be kind to everyone you meet, especially yourself.

OK, now for that list:

🎶 YE OLDE GRANDE LISTE OF BANDCAMP LINKS 🎶

Ragtime Banjo Revival: Frog Legs Rag

Thomas Bailey & Le Remede: Terra Incognita

Ragtime Banjo Revival Maple Leaf Rag

Dos Señoritas: Classic Banjo Duets with Ben Belcher

Lindsay McCaw & Friends: No Spaghetti Arms

Mozart of the Banjo: The Joe Morley Project

Pet Portraits In Sound: Lefty Frizzell The Dog

Aaron Jonah Lewis & Ben Belcher: LIVE, Mostly

Joe Troop & Aaron Jonah Lewis, You Bring Out The Hamster In Me

Corn Potato String Band, Good Job Everybody