The Sound of Unwinding
Ahhhh. Today was the BOMB. An absolutely butt-kicking, barn-burning night of music last night at The Kent Stage totally and truly DID turn my spirits around -- despite being completely mentally baked I could have gone on with those bee-loved Bee-Liners and that collection of bluegrass deans, Blue Highway, 'til well into the wee hours. Oh! And the bonus of the night was to see Casey Henry step out with the Bee-Liners! She stepped in for banjo player Sam Morrow for the weekend and did him proud. The crowd was terrific and the show was really phenomenal, one of the best in a good while. I am so grateful that both those bands took a chance on Northeast Ohio and turned out for us. And it was refreshing to see a closer-to-full house with lots of happy bluegrass fans! We had a good time all the way around.
Something did happen overnight. Part of it must have been the music and the laughter -- Brandi and Buddy Beeliner and Friends kept it pretty lively with a clever set of their best plus a few rarely heard old standards, and I have to say, Blue Highway's Tim Stafford does a pretty mean Slingblade impression, and a downright spooky imitation of Ralph Stanley -- he also does a few variations on Stanley's well-known (thanks to the flick, "O! Brother, Where Art Thou?") "Conversation wtih Death". I woke up early, at around 7, and just got on with the day. I felt like the person I remember a few weeks ago who had energy and some kind of a game plan. By noon I had paid bills, worked out, changed all the beds, dusted, cleaned the laundry room, pulled weeds, washed the kitchen cabinets, and gotten the bad news about the new furnace likely in my future (not that bad, really, but necessary). The rest of the day was really all mine, and I spent it intermittently playing a little music (hoo boy am I RUSTED), playing out side when it wasn't storming, grocery shopping, making myself a delicious dinner, reading during my brief visit to the pool, and barely catching up on the blogs of my other pals. Somewhere in there I even got a little nap, more than I can say for those artists who were all on the road bright and early today.
I feel I am beginning to unwind a little. So much has been on my mind about work, and we've been constantly on the go. A day like this, when its "Gee, I think I'll sort clothes and then watch it rain for five minutes" is such a pleasure. The phone didn't even ring. It was perfect.
Must say, I loved our visit to Milwaukee last weekend and to Summerfest, and I have a fun story about that I'll share some other time. I'll also have some fun stuff to share about a project my son and I have taken on -- we're officially addicted to ancestry.com. But right now, I'm just hanging out. Time to soak my toes and play a tune. Tomorrow I'll treat
myself to my weekly Sunday iTunes acquisition, and I think it's going to be Blue Highway's 2005 release, Marbletown. From that effort, here's one called Nothing But a Whippoorwill. A damn fine tune (which we all enjoyed in an extended jam version) but also reminds me why it's good to be single. ;-)
For those who still perform a little Sunday quiet time, I recommend this. Sometime I'll post about the history of this hymn tune for me personally and about how my jaw was literally hanging open at the end of this number.
Happy tails, happy trails, clip your nails, don't eat snails.
MM
Something did happen overnight. Part of it must have been the music and the laughter -- Brandi and Buddy Beeliner and Friends kept it pretty lively with a clever set of their best plus a few rarely heard old standards, and I have to say, Blue Highway's Tim Stafford does a pretty mean Slingblade impression, and a downright spooky imitation of Ralph Stanley -- he also does a few variations on Stanley's well-known (thanks to the flick, "O! Brother, Where Art Thou?") "Conversation wtih Death". I woke up early, at around 7, and just got on with the day. I felt like the person I remember a few weeks ago who had energy and some kind of a game plan. By noon I had paid bills, worked out, changed all the beds, dusted, cleaned the laundry room, pulled weeds, washed the kitchen cabinets, and gotten the bad news about the new furnace likely in my future (not that bad, really, but necessary). The rest of the day was really all mine, and I spent it intermittently playing a little music (hoo boy am I RUSTED), playing out side when it wasn't storming, grocery shopping, making myself a delicious dinner, reading during my brief visit to the pool, and barely catching up on the blogs of my other pals. Somewhere in there I even got a little nap, more than I can say for those artists who were all on the road bright and early today.
I feel I am beginning to unwind a little. So much has been on my mind about work, and we've been constantly on the go. A day like this, when its "Gee, I think I'll sort clothes and then watch it rain for five minutes" is such a pleasure. The phone didn't even ring. It was perfect.
Must say, I loved our visit to Milwaukee last weekend and to Summerfest, and I have a fun story about that I'll share some other time. I'll also have some fun stuff to share about a project my son and I have taken on -- we're officially addicted to ancestry.com. But right now, I'm just hanging out. Time to soak my toes and play a tune. Tomorrow I'll treat
myself to my weekly Sunday iTunes acquisition, and I think it's going to be Blue Highway's 2005 release, Marbletown. From that effort, here's one called Nothing But a Whippoorwill. A damn fine tune (which we all enjoyed in an extended jam version) but also reminds me why it's good to be single. ;-)For those who still perform a little Sunday quiet time, I recommend this. Sometime I'll post about the history of this hymn tune for me personally and about how my jaw was literally hanging open at the end of this number.
Happy tails, happy trails, clip your nails, don't eat snails.
MM
posted by Mando Mama @ 8:42 PM
3 comments
3 Comments:
That Wondrous Love, what a great job they do on that one.
I went to Summerfest in Milwaukee once myself. It was for the Moody Blues.
Howdy,
Yeah, it took me by surprise, partl because of all the levity and when bands say, "How many of y'all out there like gospel quartet" you figure you'll get some old standard, you know. Wondrous Love kind of grabs you because it's got that modal thing going on, too.
Did you ride that stupid Sky Express thing over Summerfest, or were you smart and stay on the ground? You can guess which way I went...then again, at least you can kind of focus on the bands to keep your mind off the fact that you're however many feet in the air. Oyvehmaria.
I was definitely on the ground. Had a close seat. One thing I will say about the show I attended there is that they had the most unreasonable security goons I've encountered for many many years, maybe even in memory.
For this band, it's typical that people will keep their seats for the whole show (maybe a little standing, not that much), and then for the one song encore, at least toward the end of it, the crowd will get up and move toward the stage. Here they were threatening to eject all of us 40-something troublemaker ladies or do something else forceful on their part unless we went all the way back to our seats -- which I should add was not even possible at that point, given that the crowd had already gotten up and moved down. So we spent the entire encore song having an unpleasant and unnecessary discussion with the security guards. It was only one song, the last one, and most of us had come there from other states.
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