What: A retreat from the night of Friday, Aug. 25th (We'll be there at around mid-night Thursday) to Sunday, Aug. 28. (Come for any or all of it.) The Niobrara Sanctuary has two self-catering homes for rent, and the Lazy Easy Ranch House would be perfect for this group. It features four bedrooms and plenty of camping space for a dozen or so tents. We'll take one day and go tubing down the river, and spend our nights playing music by a campfire. We'll record a song or two from each musician who wants to perform, and produce an acoustic album whose proceeds would benefit both the Sanctuary and Hear Nebraska. We expect a three-night stay would cost less $50/person (about $16/day). Tubing is $35/person, if you want to come. Bring your own food and drinks. We'll be grilling.

Who should come: Anyone who plays, captures, hears or supports music; and artists of all genres; photographers; videographers; and journalists. You'd be hard-pressed to find a more peaceful, gorgeous country in the state than this scene boasts ? it's the perfect place for creating, performing and documenting art.

How you can help: We need volunteers to record and mix the album. We need a Nebraska Music Retreat logo. And we would love to find a local sponsor or sponsors who could help offset the costs for the contributing musicians, for the album production, and for T-shirts.

Note: You can come for all or part of the trip. There is a hotel in nearby Bassett that you're welcome to stay at, if you don't feel like camping. If there's interest, we may hold an impromptu concert at The Corral bar in Basset.