Previously reported but still-interesting news and information about the activities of Hot Soup and its members in 1997 - 2001:                                                                                                                                                                                                        

Once again, thanks to winner Gloria Holloway for her "Bowls ya over!" hook suggestion (and all her help with how to think about this hook dilemma). We've already used it several times in press releases. We'll be sending Gloria an autographed Soup Happens T-shirt and a copy of the fancy new Hot Soup promotional demo CD On Stage.

In preparing this newsletter and reviewing all your emails, we've discovered a "sleeper:" Bonnie Maidak sent us a note telling how she felt "so jazzed up" about our concert -- and as happens in many brainstorming situations -- this is the concept that ended up rising to the tip-top of the pile. We're about to attend the Northeast Regional Folk Alliance Conference, and we'll be testing the phrase "Hot Soup: It's Folk 'n' Jazzed!" or maybe ". . . Folk 'n' Jazzy," or even "Get Folk 'n' Jazzed by Hot Soup!" Feeling "jazzed" is another way of talking about the energy as well as implying some of our musical diversity (while still being stylistically somewhat specific). And the "Folk 'n'" part conveys the humor and mischievousness. So we'll be sending Bonnie an autographed T-shirt and CD, too. Yay!

Thanks again to all of you who contributed ideas -- they're great, and they all help. We'd like to offer special thanks for the following ideas -- we'll be using them in upcoming PR pieces (these folks -- listed in no particular order -- also will receive a copy of our new demo CD).

• Rebecca Richards: Hot Soup makes you smile inside
• Kathy Schaafsma: Hot Soup: A delicious blend -- full-flavored and spicy!
• Nicholas Wootton: Transcendence
• David Johnson: Music in more flavors than Campbell's ever thought of
• Paul Koehler: Go for the smiles
• Deb Nixon: Harmonic Stew
• Two Fans in New Bern, NC: Brainy Whimsey
• Bobbie Stone: Everything from Soup to Nuts; Harmony, Humor and Honesty
• Melissa Banno: Hot Soup dishes up something feisty! and You'll lick your chops, snap your fingers and beg for more!
• Joyce Hertzoff: Music like a warm hug
• Janet Saadian: Mmmm Good! Hot Soup -- it's not just for lunch anymore!
• and Pat McGee, for an entire haiku:
       Soup is not one thing
       Mix all the music I like
       Stir, you get Hot Soup

Did you hear us on your public radio station on September 30? Sound and Spirit (a program from Public Radio International) used about two minutes of "Soup" on a show themed around homemade cooking songs. Clever of them, huh?

We just put 4,240 miles on the van, in a little under three weeks. We soon began to call the trip "The Hot Soup 2001 Route 94 Tour" because we went back and forth across Michigan so many times. ; ) But the drive was gorgeous -- we hit it right when the leaves were in their full autumn glory, and then we followed the color home to Maryland. Perfectly timed!

We kept watching for signs reading "Chicago, 200 miles" that we could photograph in honor of Jennifer's new song "200 Miles to Chicago." However, after we'd driven through Chicago a few times, we began to consider changing the name of the song to "200 Miles to Chicago -- 40 Cents, Please." We have 21 receipts for 40-cent tolls, plus five for 50-cent tolls, and a few others that total about $12.50. Toll-takers have one heck of a union in Chicago-town!

And then there was the night in Bloomington, Indiana, when Christina reached out and caused Sue to TOTALLY lose it at the end of "Dead Egyptian Blues." Bum, bum, bum, bum . . . .

We're all hearing reports about lower attendance at venues around the country since September 11th, and we experienced some of that as well, but mostly we were very, very pleased with the numbers. (The only really difficult night was the Sunday that the U.S. began bombing in Afghanistan, which unfortunately was also our night at The Ark in Ann Arbor.) We came away from the tour feeling as though we've again made and renewed many friendships in the upper Midwest. We look forward to returning in 2002!

The non-profit Children's Music Web (CMW) presented its second annual Children's Music Web Awards in a grand online celebration October 14, 1999. The organization's goal is to recognize quality music for kids worldwide. Among the winners was Maryland-based performing songwriter Sue Trainor, who was voted "Best New Artist for Young Children." Also named "Best New Artist" in a tie vote was the Hong Kong-based duo Scotty and Lulu.

Trainor's debut CD for kids, Under Tables, Out Back Doors, was a Finalist in the category of recordings for young children (ages 4-7) which include both songs and spoken word pieces.

The Children's Music Web Awards are the world's first internet-based music awards for children and the only kid's music awards truly decided by kids. The CMW website address is www.childrensmusic.org.

The Children's Music Web Awards are decided in a two-round system. Entries are assigned randomly to volunteer judging groups comprised of adults and kids. The applicants are rated quantitatively according to specific guidelines. The top five entrants in each category advance to the second round as Finalists.

We've also taught and performed at the Common Ground on the Hill Workshops and Festival in Westminster, Maryland (July), and at the Augusta Heritage Workshops and Festival in Elkins, West Virginia (August). We taught Harmony and Arranging during both of these week-long festivals. We had huge classes (30-something) and we were delighted to meet and have the opportunity to sing with so many interesting and talented folks.

We've just returned from our first appearance at the Philadelphia Folk Festival, one of the biggest (if not the biggest) festivals on the east coast. We opened the festival (see our "we've opened for" list grow by several pages!!!) on the main stage on Friday, then did four more sets on workshop stages during the course of the weekend. We handed out lots of "Soup Happens" buttons, caught up with many old friends, and made lots of new ones.

The Midwest tour was fantastic! We started on Friday, April 23, with an in-store show at Elderly Instruments (and did not escape with our bank accounts intact!), followed by a concert at the Ten Pound Fiddle Coffeehouse in East Lansing, Michigan, where we had an enthusiastic audience who promised to spread the word about the joys of Soup. We were joined in this show (and the following night in Kalamazoo) by Christina's Mom, Ann Mayo Muir. Ann played Celtic harp and sang a Bob Franke song solo, then we backed her on a tune of her own called "Two Fine Friends." On Saturday morning we performed a children's concert for the city of East Lansing, then we headed to Kalamazoo for a Saturday evening show with the K'zoo Folklife Organization. We had a big crowd, partly as a result of a great article in the local paper. The crowd seemed happy: they bought lots of Hot Soup albums! Thanks to Pat Powers of the Ten Pound Fiddle for his help in organizing the tour, and especially for his good company while we were there.

On Sunday we headed to Chicago, where we got stuck in traffic on our way to attend John McCutcheon's show at the Old Town School of Music. We tiptoed into the theater while the opening act was on stage, and we found John sitting right next to the door. He jumped up, pulled us backstage, and ran us through a couple of songs so we could back him up. We had a great time performing with John, and several people in that audience came to our show later in the week. We were even asked to sing a song, after John's show, while we were greeting people in the Old Town School lobby!

On Monday, we put Sue Ribaudo on an airplane and sent her home, while Sue Trainor and Christina went to Indianapolis to hear Chris Proctor and check out the music scene there. Tuesday we drove back to Chicago, where Bob Janis interviewed us for over an hour on his show on WDCB-FM (90.9). On Wednesday, Christina toured Evanston on rollerblades, while Sue T found and explored the thrift stores. Then we headed out to the Fox Valley Folk Society's sing-around, where we enjoyed the talents of a dozen or so of the area's musicians. On Thursday, we were treated to supper at JoAnn and Lee Murdock's, where we were joined by our new friends Bob Janis, George Brown (of the Maple Leaf Chapel Concert Series), and Tim and Cindy (whom we met at the Fox Valley sing-around), and by our old friend Alan Shaw (of Folk Era records). Friday, we performed a concert at the Two Way Street Coffee House in Downer's Grove. We had a great turnout, and George Brown video-taped the show for the local cable TV station (so we'll be seen by people who didn't get to the concert in person!). Dave Humphreys, the producer of Two Way Street, told us he was "blown away!". We are grateful for the generous hospitality of Valerie Mindel and Mike Miller during our Chicago stay.

Saturday we drove about half way home, stopping in Cleveland to begin making introductions there. We visited with Deborah Van Cleef (vice president of the traveling musicians' Local 1000), and Joanne Laessig, another local music mover-and-shaker, and an extraordinary bead artist (Sue T will be happy to show you her new jewels!). We got a good buzz started, and we had a great time. Finally, on Sunday, we made the last leg of the 11-day trip, arriving home in the early evening.

The Washington Area Music Association (WAMA) has nominated Hot Soup as "Best Contemporary Folk Group." Other nominees for this year's contemporary folk honors include nationally touring artists The Kennedys and Eddie from Ohio. Last year, Hot Soup was nominated as "Best New Artist" overall.

The members of Hot Soup are Columbia resident Sue Trainor, Towson resident Sue Ribaudo and Annapolis resident Christina Muir. Performing a wide variety of acoustic selections, the trio blends sweet, inventive harmonies on original and collected songs, from ballads to blues and nostalgia to novelty tunes. They have released one CD, called Hot Soup!, on their own SOUPer Music label. Song selections can be played and recordings purchased at the SOUPer Store.

For the last 10 years, Souper Sue Trainor has devoted extensive amounts of time and energy to nurturing the local folk community (in the Baltimore-Washington area), the regional community (through the Northeast Folk Alliance), and nationally (through the North American Folk Music and Dance Alliance). Just this June, Sue joined the Communications Committee of the AFM Local 1000 to help musicians better understand the programs and benefits available through the union.

"I believe that our individual projects will be more successful if each of us pays attention to the health of our acoustic community as a whole," Sue said.

In 1988, Sue began volunteering at concerts for the Howard [County, Maryland] Folk Society. Soon, they became the hosts of the HFS open mike. In 1989 Sue founded The Folkal Point concert series with Joyce Sica (now proprietor of the Mays Chapel concert series in Timonium, Maryland). At the same time, Sue joined the British-American folk band CornuCopia and began doing publicity work for both the group and the coffeehouse. This early hands-on training became the basis for a small but steady business doing publicity for other artists and venues.

Sue took over booking The Folkal Point in 1992 and continued work toward uniting concert series and coffeehouses into an organization that made it easier for presenters to think of themselves as a community rather than as competing entities. The resulting organization, The Mid-Atlantic Coalition of Folk Music Presenters (MACFMP), published an annual directory of venues for artists to use in booking, presented a New Artist Showcase annually, and formed the basis of the local committee that helped plan the 1996 Folk Alliance Conference in Washington, DC.

"The information I try to convey is this," says Sue. "Whatever your task (performing, publicity, emceeing, presenting), try to understand and visualize what the receivers (audience, editors, performers, volunteers) want and need from you. The better you do at that, the more successful your project is likely to be."

In addition to serving on the Boards of The Folkal Point and MACFMP, Sue has been privileged to serve for several years on the Folk Alliance's Performing Rights Organizations Committee, the Advisory Board of Common Ground on the Hill, the Northeast Folk Alliance Program Committee, and most recently, a Maryland State Arts Council grants evaluation panel.

Although much of her attention these days is devoted to Hot Soup and to her children's music performances, Sue believes she'll always have time to volunteer for the music community, "because," she says, "it's the neighborhood I hang out in."

Hot Soup was a hit at the North American Folk Alliance Tenth Anniversary Conference in Memphis, Tennessee February 12 to 16, 1998!

Once a year, musicians, dancers, presenters, scholars, agents, record labels, and fans from all over the world meet to do business, make music, and just visit with friends and peers. This year, Hot Soup's conference week began on Tuesday night (February 10), with Sue Trainor joining other Folk Alliance volunteers in the traditional pre-conference tote-bag stuffing ritual. Sue headed to Memphis early, because she was slated to teach the Wednesday pre-conference "Crash Course" on publicity and promotions, with Anne Saunders (Falcon Ridge Folk Festival) as her invited guest speaker.

The Conference began officially on Thursday (February 12), with Hot Soup the acknowledged hit of the exhibit hall! Having snagged display space just inside the exhibit hall entrance, our "neon" Hot Soup sign quickly became a landmark. Presenters were charmed as we inquired about the color of their kitchens when we handed them Hot Soup hot mitts stuffed with our recordings. We gave out more than 400 splashy "Soup Happens" buttons, which colorfully decorated conference attendees throughout the week.

As the conference drew to a close, music business publisher Diane Rappaport presented herself at our table and announced she wanted to do a spread on our display in her upcoming book! We scooted through the exhibit hall and engaged photographer Robert Corwin to take some pictures, including the one on the left.

Our website also got some attention in the workshop on Using the Internet As a Publicity Tool. Alan Rowoth (of FolkMusic.Org) thoughtfully projected some of these pages on the screen for workshop participants to view, as general conversation about cyber-promotion took place.

Hot Soup enjoyed well-attended, sanctioned showcases on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights, sharing the stage with other up-and-coming artists D Squared, Tanglefoot, Jamie Anderson, and Deidre McCalla, who will be joining us at Common Ground in July. Hot Soup's versatility was ably demonstrated by Soupers Sue Ribaudo and Christina Muir, as Sue Trainor's vocal chords were buried deeper and deeper in convention center dust. (There are now folks all over the country who think she sounds like Fred Koller.)

As far as business is concerned, the conference was a huge success. We heard strong interest from folks in the US northwest (Seattle area), from Memphis and Arkansas and Texas, from Michigan, from Florida and North Carolina, from a number of places in New England, as well as from Canada (including an inquiry from the Mariposa Festival!).

Ingredients: (serves 8)

• 2 eggs
• 1 cup sugar
• 5 squares unsweetened Bakers chocolate
• 1 tsp. butter
• 1 pinch salt
• 1 box Social Tea Cookies
• wax paper
• small bread loaf pan

Melt chocolate over low heat or in a double boiler being careful not to burn. When half way melted, add butter and salt and stir it around a couple times. While waiting for melting to be completed, mix sugar and eggs together at high speed until almost foaming: about 3 min. This mixing is best done in a 2 cup Pyrex measuring cup or small, rounded, upright container.

When chocolate is melted add it to the egg and sugar mixture and blend on low speed.

Have prepared a small bread loaf pan lined smoothly with wax paper. Leave enough extra to fold over the top of the cake. Spread a layer of chocolate mixture on bottom of pan (between 1/8" and 1/4"). The chocolate mixture spreads most easily while warm so don't dawdle when it comes to layering. If it gets cool, a short reheat in the microwave works well.

Place 6 cookies on chocolate layer, pressing in firmly, but not so cookies press through layer. Then spread another layer of chocolate (1/8") and place 6 more cookies on top, repeating this until you build up 6 to 8 layers, ending with a final topping of chocolate mixture. The thinner the chocolate layers and the more cookies the better!