Hi Jim, hope we didn't get started off on the wrong foot. Here's a quick history of our little Civil War band. We were originally a brass quintet with percussion. About 17 years ago, a string band hired to play at a local reenactment cancelled at the last minute. One of our quintet members was a reenactor, too, and the organizers asked if he knew of a band they could get on the spur of the moment. He volunteered us.....we showed up at the site, changed into some loaner uniforms, and played the 9 or 10 Civil War charts we had on our modern instruments. It was a hit, and we decided to persue it further. We aquired some old state trooper pants and white colonial-style shirts that had been used as costumes in a loal musical production. We played a number of jobs with those outfits and modern horns (and added another drum). Now, that was farby for sure. We played cheap, but not for free, and pooled the money we made from those gigs and eventually bought real coats, pants, hats, shoes, shirts, etc. We played on modern instruments for years, though. One of the members (the reenactor) decided to collect old horns, and became friends with Mark Elrod, who is a great source of information. He (our guy, not Mark) owns all the cornets in the picture I posted, except for mine. In fact, he owns all the brass instruments the band plays but mine. We eventually earned enough to buy other uniform parts, so we can portray blue, gray, or civilian bands. Two of the guys have researched the music quite extensively and sell arrangements of hundreds of period songs. We also pooled earnings to record and produce 3 CD's so far, with a 4th in the can right now.
Anyway, we were lucky to start when those instruments were still reasonably priced. I posted that "history" to possibly give you some ideas to get your group off the ground. It took us years to get where we are with this, and none of us would have envisioned the minor success we've had with it. Good luck with your group. PM me if you want to ask any questions - I'll be happy to answer them if I can.
