Sunday, March 18, 2007

18 March 2007 Yeee Haw




We finally made it to the Bluegrass.
Today we stopped looking for cars ad things and took a day at a local Bluegrass Festival.
It was quite a small affair, but great fun.
There was a big top tent, five bands and about 200 people (that we saw).
Most of them had stayed in their RV out back of the tent. The festival had gone from Thursday until Sunday (last day).
Today consisted of a band performing for about 45 minutes and giving way to the next band. Each band did 2 sets. Finally the top billing,
Goldwing Express, gave a performance.
You have to imagine the whole event as being a bit like a small family circus. Big Top, members of the family, granny taking ticket money, girls selling T-Shirts and CD's, boys sorting the sound, and handling the gear. Daddy being the Emcee, promoter and agent. Most of the bands seemed to be from a single family. It was a great sound, but a small and friendly atmosphere. On the Campground people seemed to get on well with each other, most people seemed to be selling something, BBQ, snacks, CD's, magic stones, read your fortune, ice cream. It was a cross between new age travellers and The Ridings Folk Group meetings. At the end of the weekend they all get underway and go to the next venue, looked like fun.
The music was great, each group had different strengths, and combinations of instruments chosen from guitar, mandolin, banjo, fiddle and slide guitar. All with a rhythm guitar and a bass. All the instruments were played acoustically into microphones. And could some of them play!!
The weather started chilly (in the 60's, but finished up in the high 70's), but bright blue and clear, not a cloud all day.

Our personal favourites were a band called Larry Gillis And Friends, the fiddle player was s... hot. Although the Dixie Bluegrass Express had a really good mandolin player.
We had a great time, came home and stopped at a Cracker Barrel, with it's All American Home Cookin', Like Momma Used To Make, complete with roast apple slices in cinnamon sauce (as a vegetable with the main dish), biscuits (scones, complete with butter and jelly (jam), before the main meal), a box for the half of the meal we could not eat and about 30 rocking chairs on the front porch where we could all 'set a spell' in the evening sun after our meal. Very hokey, very commercial, still we gotta get with the programme.

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