Kerrville Day 2 & 3

Okay, it’s time to play catchup… Yesterday sorta slipped away without an update. New Folk Day 1 and some great Kerrville moments that turned into Kerrville hours and all of sudden, it’s Sunday morning!!

Day 2 : I Spent a good part of the afternoon over near the Energy Tree in a circle with Matt Meigan and others. It was a good one and wound up not attending the University Songwriter Finalists concert, but you just can’t do everything.

I caught the last half of Joe Crookston’s set, ditto for John Flynn. Joe was edgy and if you didn’t know it was just part of his persona, you’d think he was nervous. John had a lot of new songs, but really I sorta wanted to hear his old ones. Sara Hickman was great. by the end of the set she had kicked off her high heels and pulled the fake ponytail out of her hair, and had a dozen or so friends and fellow artists out on the stage in a vocal jam session that had to be seen and heard to be appreciated. She’s really something else!! (and that means in a very good way)

Chris Rosser only did about 20 minutes since he was part of Tom Prasada-Rao’s band in the following somewhat extended set. For me, those 20 minutes were probably the highlight of the night. I’m not sure I remember why, but I was must have been making the rounds or shooting the breeze with folks and I didn’t really see TPR’s set.  Randy Rogers is a pretty big draw down here in Texas, but I think his fans may have been disappointed that he didn’t have his full band and do a raucous party set that he normally would be doing. He did a lot of slow country songs and I sat on the steps of the Hospitality Booth shooting the breeze with Scotty and Thomas and others who stopped by.

I bought the live CD of the “Big Wide Grin” set. Haven’t listened to it yet, but probably will sometime before the weekend passes by. I also picked up a requested 2XL T-shirt for Dylan… geez… 2XL!!! The “D” is more a man than a boy these days..

Dan and I played after closing over at Jim and Deanne Dirden’s where Jeff and Rena (Jeff’s an old friend of Thomas’s  here for the first time) were hanging out. Dana Swift and his lady walked up behind us and said hello. Always great to see Dana! He’s a great guitar player and luthier as well as a dear friend. After that we were bushed and turned in.

Day 3: First day of New Folk so my plans revolved around that, but you know, at Kerrville plans can change. After breakfast Scotty and me took our chairs down to Threadgill for New Folk and then went on over to Camp on This since Jack Motley had arrived and I hadn’t seen him yet. Steve Fisher was there and made my day. He was a 1989 New Folk Finalist and a 1990 winner and I had heard about how good he was for years and never met him. He just sat around and played about 4 songs. The last 2 were the opening and closing tracks of his new CD and all 4 songs were just magic. I WILL HAVE THAT CD BEFORE I LEAVE!! After that he passed the guitar around and I heard Jack’s dying song which he wrote when he was facing the definite possibility that he would not survive the cancer he had been fighting and it was one of his best ever songs… He’s still cancer free now and returning to his normal strength and we’re all rejoicing in that! Scotty and I sang one too. Steve really liked “Hard On Me” and might want to do the song so I gave him a CD. New Folk had been going for about 15 or 20 minutes when me and Scotty left Camp On This so I missed all of the first artist and half of the second, but it was really okay… my day was already made!

First half of New Folk seemed sort standard issue with nobody except Chris O’Brien (Woodyfest regular and a really nice guy) catching my ear, but it was probably because the rest of the day’s songs would be compared to Steve’s. By the second half maybe that wore off because there were two or three that and one in particular that I thought might be winners, but you know, I’m quite often wrong about that.

Had to catch all of BettySoo’s set cuz she is going to be a star!! She had one hell of band (Jeff Plankenhorn and Will Sexton on guitar!!! That’s right, Kerst, I said Will Sexton!!) Her new record was produced by Gurf Morlix so I’d say me and Scotty are not the only people who believe she’s gonna make it. She’s a new folk winner from a couple of years ago and her sense of humor, great songs and beautiful voice will take her a long way. I won’t say much about porterdavis, but they were good at what they do. I guess I like my roots music not quite so loud and a little more rootsy. The Burns Sisters had a great set in spite of the fact that one of the girls mics was not up in the mains. I thought to myself their three part harmonies weren’t quite as good as they usually are. Once that was fixed the rest of the set was a winner. They had Andrew Hardin and Jon Inman on guitar as well as Rad (Radoslav Yorkovic) on keys and accordian so that was one hell of a band too! Eclectica was good, but not to my taste so I didn’t really see them. I came back in time to catch LaFave’s closing set and, well, you know, it was Jimmy LaFave!! it was definitely up to standard. I’m never disappointed in Jimmy’s sets. He had his regular band (as of late) with him including Rad and Jon Inman. He closed out the night in style!!!

Dan and I played at Joe’s (from Georgia) place just down RV road and renewed a few acquaintance and caved in about 2:15 – So I got about 6 hours of good solid sleep last night…

I better close it out, finish breakfast and haul a chair down to Threadgill for New Folk. Maybe will post pics and more about day 2 & 3 later…

Kerrville Day 1 Evening

Happy Kamper

Things are so much better today! I hit the sack right after the show to get some much needed rest and slept 7 hours so I really feel chipper. It’ll be a lengthy post with lotsa pictures today. I don’t know if I’ll continue with this much intensity, but there’s simply a lot to say about last night! btw – It was about 63 degrees outside this morning and I considered going into town to run, but by the time I’d finished considering it, it was already 70 so I decided that could wait. I hooked up the sewer line instead… I haven’t put out the awning yet… I may not, but I did lay out the rope lights to help find the trailer when it’s late and dark… Last night was a very good opening Thursday. Almost everyone I talked to commented that this was one of the best attendances for an opening night they could remember.

My buddy Scott

Dalis Allen welcoming the crowd on opening night

Standing in the wings is Ana Egge (say ‘eggy’), who first came to Kerrville when she was 15. I didn’t get the whole story, but she wasn’t a new folk finalist. Not bad, but the lyrics were hard to pick out… maybe her voice was a little thin, or they just had the guitars up a little too much in the mains. The lead player played a B-Bender (if you need me to explain that, let me know) and he used a little more than I thought was necessary. He’s a very good player and was probably the thing I enjoyed most in the set.

George Ensle

George had the 2nd slot and did a great set. I’ve met George and talked to him on the phone and he’s a really nice guy with some GREAT songs. The picture above is a bit blurred cuz I zoomed in to get a good shot of his mustache for Scotty, who also knows him and evidently rags him a bit about his mustache… 😉 One of George’s best is a song called “Cantos con tu Corazon” (Sing With Your Heart). I might have to find it and learn it. It’s a beaut!

George’s guitar man was simply one of the best acoustic lead players I’ve ever seen on the stage at Kerrville!! As you might imagine that’s out of quite a few.

Greg Whitfield and George Ensle

Greg was super clean, fast and quite tasteful on slower stuff too… Here’s his MySpace page: Greg Whitfield – I plan to spend some time there to hear some more when the pace slows.

Next was Big Wide Grin and they sure put a smile on my face. Three part harmony is the name of their game and the songs they did were widely varied in style and genre.  I’m definitely picking up a copy of their live set which should be available tonight or tomorrow. I think there are at least two or three songs that cry out to be “Happenstanced” – Dalis said that all the artists on opening night consented to the release. I might get George’s set too.  Big Wide Grin on MySpace

No pix for the Austin Lounge Lizards… I watched the last part of their set just out of nothing else to do. I’ve seen them so many times before and to be blunt, they aren’t what they used to be. Still Enjoyed their closing number though (Jesus Loves Me But He Can’t Stand You)

Micky and the Motorcars

Micky and the Motorcars is really the two guys on the left. They are Micky and Gary, the two younger brothers of Willy and Cody Braun (Reckless Kelly). According to Scott they predictably sound a lot like Reckless Kelly, but since I didn’t know that, I thought Micky sang a lot like Steve Earle. They were very good and their lead player was solid (I would have liked him a little better if he didn’t consider distortion as a major part of his sound), 😉 as was the bass and drums, but toward the last I started getting that feeling that the songs all sounded a little too much alike…

How 'bout a Bud, Bud!

I was a little surprised to see an open container on stage. Probably not the first time, but it’s the first time I noticed. Backstage Hospitality usually supply them with cups. A few years back I saw Charlie Robison smoking on stage and I thought that was verboten…. these rebels… you just never know what they’re gonna do! As I was making my way out, they did a unique cover of “Mrs. Robinson” and I sorta wished I would have turned around and gone back in, but I was ready to lay my body down.

I’m expecting a phone call from the RV repair guy today. Looking forward to having that issue completely resolved, but I’ve got a couple of weeks to take care of it so… What? Me Worry?

More later… I’ll probably try to make it up to the ballad tree today and find some folks I haven’t run into yet…

Kerrville Day 1 afternoon

Well things are looking a little brighter since I talked to the guy from Mobile RV Service. He crawled under and got the model/serial number off the axle and said he’d give me a call Friday, but felt there would be no problem getting it and replacing it where it sits!! I won’t know til tomorrow what the cost will be but from what Scott and Thomas say, it might not be too bad… bad would be if I had to drag the trailer to town to get it fixed!! The trailer brake controller seems to have stopped working and the bathroom vent fan gave up the ghost, but I hope to get those things fixed while they’re out working on the trailer.

I woke up at 3AM this morning and at that time calculated that I had three solid hours of good sleep… unfortunately that’s all I would get… I guess I couldn’t stop thinking about the axle and whether or not I had overloaded or something. Albert (from Mobile RV) said he definitely did not think that was it. He said it was probably one of the two significant potholes I hit after I got off the freeway. He said it’s fairly common. I made a sincere effort to get a nap this afternoon, but I think I’m gonna have to keep going til I hit the wall. Dan should be pulling in pretty soon and we need to meet with our Artist Rep Charlie Stewart sometime tonite.

Here you can plainly see the bow in the axle

The 2nd picture shows the wear on the inner tread… Scott and Thomas both think I can move both tires to the front axle and not have a problem so I can get some more wear out of the tires… I’ll just need to keep an eye on them.

I’ll post something tomorrow about tonite’s show – maybe take some pix… maybe go to bed early too… 😉

Quiet Valley Ranch on Wundermap

If you happen to be curious about the weather at the Quiet Valley Ranch, here is a link that will center a Wundermap Radar view: (Wundermap/QVR)

If you want to see it in motion, page down to Map Controls and push the animate slider all the way to the right. You can zoom in and see the trailers and the meadow and the stages and buildings…. 😉

Kerrville Day zero

Okay… I wasn’t going to post anything cuz I’m tired and sleepy, but I decided to have one more beer before hitting the sack and I thought: “I could post something while I drink this beer!!”

So I’m here! I got the trailer parked pretty easily and then Thomas and Scott noticed one of the wheels on the trailer looked like it was leaning in a little bit. At least two of the tires are worn pretty bad and I’m just glad I made it here before they gave out. It looks like one of the axles is bent. I’m not gonna let it get me down though. I’ll deal with it.  The first thought I had was I was overloaded but I always make sure and put the heavy stuff in the truck… of course that may not matter if there’s enough light stuff to add up to a few pounds too many…  Answers will come soon enough.

After getting the trailer parked, and water hooked up (sewer can wait til tomorrow) I hung around with Scott, Thomas and Janie, and Bill for a bit before Scott and I took a walk around to renew old acquaintances and see who was here. Wound up at Bill Nash’s place and a song circle soon ensued. After a round or two I started yawning and since I was still in shorts and it was starting to get chilly I made a run to the trailer. Once I got here I figured out that 1) I never got around to eating lunch/supper 2) I needed to get the inside of the trailer squared away at least enough to get through the night, and 3) that yawning thing probably had something to do with being up since around 3 AM this morning….

so… I finished my sandwich and the beer is almost gone so good night!!

more tomorrow.

Bird Identification site

Wow!  Great free website to help identify birds. Recordings of their calls and lots of pictures available for each bird. Nature Instruction

I didn’t register, since I really didn’t want another userid/password set to keep track of, but the guest version seems to be quite adequate and really spiffy!!!

:-) obituary (Chuck Lorre’s numbered blurbs)

Chuck Lorre must be some sort of strange genius… a la Steven Wright:

Mr. Smiley Face Obituary

He’s the executive producer of several hit sit-coms. I had noticed those little things that appeared at the end of The Big Bang Theory and/or Two and a Half Men, but tonight for some reason, it intrigued me. I used the DVR to go back and look at it in slow motion. I think it only appeared on the screen for around one second.

Tonight’s was #286:

• In public bathrooms I will sometimes use the “children’s urinal” in order to feel like a giant.
• If no one’s around I’m likely to sing along with Aretha Franklin’s version of “You Make Me Feel Like A Natural Woman,” but not the Carole King Version.
• I’ve never understood why anyone would bother making a porn movie that lasts longer than ten minutes.
• I often pretend that the person standing next to me in an elevator is an unwitting carrier of a deadly airborne disease unleashed by terrorists who hate our freedom. This, of course, forces me to hold my breath until the doors open.
• Forty years ago I measured my penis with a wood ruler. The irony was lost on me.
• Sometimes sex just seems like a lot of work.
• There are mornings when for no perceivable reason, I turn into a teenage girl and repeatedly change my outfit.
• Even when asked, I’ve never been able to “talk dirty” to someone without feeling like a complete idiot.

too much!!!

I think I need to look at the complete archives – one at a time… 😉