...And Here's One From Bill Monroe

....seems like every band of the festival said that at least once or twice during each set. Apparently the rules of a bluegrass band are that 1) you can only have stringed instruments, 2) you must have a mandolin, a banjo, a guitar, and a bass, fiddle is desirable, but not necessary, 3) sing glorious harmonies, 4) you must play a song by Bill Monroe, father of bluegrass music. Not one band broke these rules the whole weekend.

LOVE the guitarist's expression!

Seriously serious banjo

IIIrd Generation--These guys have the best stage banter ever. We laughed ourselves silly after each song. 

The evenings are filled with little campfires (wood provided by the festival), where musicians sit around and jam together. There are all-you-can-eat breakfasts and evening dances and quilting shows. I laughed to see that a vendor had left all his CD's out in the open all night--he knew no one would bother stealing them!

Sunshine and bluegrass. I heard more gospel music today than I've heard in my whole life. We saw some great bands that we've never seen before, in particular Blue Canyon Boys, Monroe Crossing, and Copper Mountain. Three full days of camping and music for $70/each--I'd do it again next year.

Perfect Weekend

How often is something "perfect?" Well, this weekend qualifies in my mind. For most of the day on Saturday we had the beach on the east shore of Lake Tahoe to ourselves. In the evening we climbed up on the lifeguard station and ate our dinner while the sunset. Perfection!

We had plans to see one of the very best young musicians, Jackie Greene, both Friday and Saturday nights. Yes, he's that good. He is gifted with the ability to write complex lyrics in wide variety of musical styles. He is a mesmerizing stage performer, and oh yeah, his voice is shear joy. He is the real thing.

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass 2009 Report

Luckily we arrived before the majority of the people (around 10AM) on Friday, and got a good close up seat to see Poor Man's Whiskey. I love these guys! They get better and better every time I see them. We'll ignore the Tom Morello set and pretend it didn't happen, because it was just a time killer until John Prine came on. As always Prine's set is too short for me. But he filled his time well and invited Hayes Carll as a guest. That must be a big moment for a singer/songwriter, eh? We stayed through half of Lyle Lovett's set. Even though we were loving it, we had places to be and people to see.

Namely, Dave Alvin and the Guilty Women at the Mystic Theater in Petaluma. Their very lovely, talented fiddler, Amy Farris, died this past week and the band's emotions were raw. Dave tried three times to say her name and each time had to step away from the mike. When Christy McWilson sang, "Bury Me in Potter's Field" there wasn't a dry eye in the house. Candles and a mike stand wrapped in black where she would stand served as a memorial to her. And then they turned those feelings into a barn-scorching two and a half hours of stunning musical prowess.

We settled on the Arrow stage and had a nice wide patch of our own. On Saturday, we got to see Hayes Carll (a new favorite of mine). Tim called him the Todd of Texas. Austin Lounge Lizards have added two women, who compliment the band fabulously. Reckless Kelly next, they're known as a rock-n-roll band with a fiddle. Cody Braun also sat in with Billy Joe Shaver, who is as much a character as a singer. I loved his whole attitude, giving it his all. Also saw Rosie Flores with Jon Langford & the Sadies. And The Flatlanders closed out the day. Okay, I'll admit that we went sneaking over to the Banjo stage a few times to see Laurie Lewis, Tim O'Brien and Steve Martin too ~ we couldn't resist. Not too bad for one day. We headed out and went straight to bed to rest up for Sunday.

I am absolutely sure the crowd doubled in size this year. The SF Chronicle reported that they closed 19th St. and knocked out AT&T cell coverage. But, undaunted, we know how to work a crowd ~ arrive early and defend your territory. After that it's a piece of cake. We did get trapped at the Steve Martin stage, because who wouldn't want to see Steve Martin?

What could top Saturday? Well, Sunday at the Arrow stage was not too shabby either. Moonalice in the morning, followed by Booker T & The Drive-by Truckers, Rodney Crowell (oh wow!), and Aimee Mann.

But you know I had waited three days to see Todd Snider so I jumped right up and grabbed a hold of the railing and didn't let go for his whole set. We had the bonus of Great American Taxi as the backup band. Todd came out bundled in a jean jacket and a green hat. I was impressed with the intensity of the crowd, many, many thousands, all standing and singing along. Believe me, I was very happy to be in the front row in that crowd. My favorite part was when he sang the last verse of Easy Money twice, so we got to yell, "she never saw that f***er again" twice. I don't think he even noticed.

Only seven songs and he was gone! But it was the best way to end the festival for me, so we packed it up and headed out before the mass exodus. I was sad to miss Neko Case, because I really intended to see her, but there were so many people it was pretty scary. After a short way of powering through the bushes, we navigated through them easily and were out of there fast.

The size of this festival is starting to become an issue. I thought it was bad at 200,000, now they are saying close to 750,000. Since both of my guys are major strategizers, we had a beautiful weekend, with incredible music and good weather and food and drinks. We are good a weaseling around and outsmarting the crowd. I doubt most people there had that much fun.

Positivity

This was our first experience with High Sierra Music Festival and I have to say I was impressed by the quality of the music, the venue, the location, and especially the atmosphere of goodwill among the participants.

Things Burning Man has that High Sierra doesn't have: dust storms, all night drum circles, nudity, high ticket prices, cops, amazing art.

Things that High Sierra has that Burning Man doesn't have: grass, shade, trees, vendors, food, water, showers, flush toilets, half the cost, great music.

We will be going back.

John Smiles

(John Prine, Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival 2007)

When this popped up on my screensaver this morning, it made me smile too.

Northern California Music Festivals

Time once again to look ahead to the shows that we will be attending this year. I put an asterisk next to the ones we are planning on attending.

*April 19 -- Horsemen's Club -- Michael Burks, Tommy Castro, Roy Gaines

*May 9 -- Metro Fountain Blues Fest, San Jose -- Derek Trucks, Tommy Castro, Chris Cain, Kandye Kane, others

May 23-24 -- Santa Cruz Blues Fest -- BB King, Joe Cocker, Keb Mo, others

May 24 -- Avila Beach Blues Festival -- Kenny Wayne Shepard, Susan Tedeschi, Shemekia Copeland, others

*June 6 -- Coloma Blues Fest -- Kenny Wayne Shepard, Joe Louis Walker, Rick Estrin, others

June -- Fair Oaks Blues Fest -- cancelled

June 18-21 -- Father's Day Bluegrass Fest, Grass Valley -- SteelDrivers & others

June 26-28 -- Kate Wolf Fest, Laytonville -- EmmyLou Harris, Richard Thompson, Dave Alvin, Mavis Staples, many more

June 26-28 -- Monterey Blues Festival -- Neville Bros, Lucky Peterson, Elvin Bishop, more

*July 10-11 -- Solar Cook-Off, Taylorsville -- unknown

July 11-12 -- Hayward Russell City Festival -- Zac Harmon, Vasti Jackson, others

*July 31-Aug 2 -- Mammoth Blues Fest -- Kenny Wayne Shepard, Rod Piazza, Eric Sardinas, Javina Magness

Aug 1 -- Sonoma County Fair, Santa Rosa -- unknown

Aug 8 -- Fire on the Mountain, Sonora -- Coco Montoya, Johnny Winter, Paul Thorn, more

Aug 29 -- Petuluma Wine, Jazz & Blues -- Charlie Musselwhite and others

Sept 12 & 13--Northern Calif Blues Festival, South Sacramento

Sept 13 -- Russian River Blues Festival, Guerneville -- unknown

*Sept 19 -- Delta Blues Fest, Antioch -- unknown

San Francisco Blues Fest has been cancelled this year

*Oct 2-4 -- Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Fest, San Francisco -- unknown

Welcome 2009!

Let's give 2009 a chance to turn around
and make our lives a little better.

Brad and I have not been out on New Years Eve since The Grateful Dead closed Winterland in San Francisco in 1978! We just don't do that kind of thing. But when we heard that our favorite singer (Dave Alvin) was going to be in our favorite club (Crystal Bay), we decided that we had to be there, breaking our 30 year old record.

We splurged on a private table, which is kinda funny, since I never sat down. I stood right up front the whole night. We also rented a room at Crystal Bay, which we usually don't do. And they actually did all the NYE stuff--funny hats, champagne, confetti blown out of a cannon, Dave even sang Auld Lang Syne, which I did not expect. It was a night that I will never forget.

Grateful Friday--Alternative Country First

I have to say that I am thankful to have Todd Snider in my life. I truly believe that he will be recognized as one of the greatest songwriters, eventually. I am so grateful for the way he makes me laugh, cry, and think, in his crazy hippie way.

Grateful Friday

Getting together with my newest travel buddies--excitement is building now that it's getting closer.

Thrift store deals--a large Mikasa bowl for $1.50. A pizza stone for $5. A real wool skirt for $4.

Buying clothes for my new grandbaby-to-be (still don't know what it is yet).

Peace Queer--Todd Snider's latest album download available for free on ToddSnider.net (just go to the store, and add the download to your shopping cart for $0--really!)

Looking forward: UNR football and Horsemen's Chicago Blues.

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass

Brad and I have agreed that this was the ultimate music event of our lives. We've seen some pretty incredible stuff over the years, but this topped it all.

I was most excited to see Robert Plant and Alison Krauss. I loved it, Brad loved it, Amy and her friend love it, Tim loved it, and so did the 60,000 people sitting behind us. Yep, we were right up front. We only got there five hours early to get those seats! But a free show in Golden Gate park, we knew it would be phenomenal.

My other favorite moment was when the lead singer of Poor Man's Whiskey, dress in full Mariachi costume, proposed to his girlfriend on stage. It was a tear jerker.



It's hard to write about incredible music because you can't capture the sound and energy of it and you just end up rolling off names of performers. This is something that you have to experience live. I did get to see Earl Scruggs, Ralph Stanley, and Emmylou Harris. The crowd is unlike anything I've ever seen, happy, positive, mellow, just having fun and enjoying this great treat.

I have to mention that this three days of heaven is the brain child of Warren Hellman. He funds the whole thing from his own pocket. And gives it as a gift to us. Simply amazing!

Delta Blues

We went to the Delta for some real down home blues this weekend, not the Mississippi Delta, but the California Delta. It is another obscure, but wonderful, part of California that few people know about. Old towns full up with history like Locke, Isleton, Antioch, Rio Vista. Endless dried corn fields and orchards of super scrumptious pears. Giant wind farms. Draw bridges. Hidden sloughs. Nighttime campfires of the fishermen on the banks. Places to eat like Mac's--wine for $2.5o a glass, dinner of pasta with meat sauce, veggies, soup, salad, and bread $5.95.

We were drawn to the festival in Antioch because of the quality line-up and the fact that it was free. Our friend was there bright and early, of course, to save us a nice area right up front. I was impressed with David Landon, as good as any guitarist with a strong voice. One of the reasons we came, Terry Evans, because I just adore his soulful singing. Mojo Party Band earns their name with enthusiastic shinanigans. Chris Cain will always be our first love. The guy is so incredible that all the performers of the day were lined up, watching his every move. Kirk Fletcher, past guitarist for the Fabulous Thunderbirds, played hard while Finis Tasby did us the honor of singing for us. Once again, the very best combination of music, people, & sunshine.

Sparks Rib Cook-Off

By skipping out on Burning Man this year, we were able to spend more time at the Sparks Rib Cook-Off. This is a big time competition with serious food fanatics from around the world. In spite of the quality food, I go for the entertainment. They bring in some top notch music, for free. We saw The Radiators from New Orleans on Wednesday and The Blasters last night. The maniac in the picture above is the lead singer, Phil Alvin, Dave's big brother. Man, they rock!

Since it lasts until next Monday, you still have plenty of time to get there.