Old and In The Way // Catfish John

I decided to make another fan video. This is Vassar Clements, Jerry Garcia, David Grisman, John Kahn, and Peter Rowan recorded in 1973. According to the album notes, Jerry sings lead on this, and on the choruses Peter sings tenor above him and Vassar adds a high baritone part above that, in a style often associated with the Stanley Brothers. All in all, it's five stellar musicians working together perfectly, laying down some sweet bluegrass. I hope you enjoy it!

Suwannee Springfest 2013

Springfest 2013 notes:

It was a wet and cold Springfest at times this year, but we still had a fun time and saw lots of killer music.
Gnometown was out in full force with Nate, Phil, Cody, Jessie, and Lucas joining us in camp.

 The 2013 Springfest lineup stayed true to its roots and we couldn't have asked for a better weekend of music. Just maybe, better weather. Hey, it happens. At least our little popup stayed dry. I bet that was the exception and not the rule, I saw lots of wet tents out there! It's about the live music for us, and we were not disappointed.

Black Betty and I did bow out of a couple of shows due to the excessive thunderstorm activity on Saturday night, so we missed a few of our favorites, but what we did see was right on.

I got lucky this year and won the Tie Dye hanging in the LOMAF raffle. Nice!

I cooked up a big dutch oven full of my infamous Pineapple Express for our Gnometown dinner on Friday evening. Somehow, we missed out on our regular nightly servings of Sweet Revenge apple crisp and ice cream.

The river was flooded and the beach was closed, so we did not get a swim in this year. It was pretty cool over the weekend though, with night time lows dipping down into the high 30's to low 40's so the water may have been pretty cool yet. I did however, get a nice bike ride in on Friday with Nate and Phil and we explored the old highway and closed bridge area across the road from the park.

Due to the storming on Saturday afternoon and evening, Black Betty and I ventured into Live Oak for supper and found some delicious fried oysters at the Dixie Diner. It was our first visit.

As always, the Sunday Donna The Buffalo Jam was as hot as it gets and I was in jam heaven with the return of Peter Rowan to Suwannee Springfest after his conspicuous absence last year. Peter seemed to be everywhere! He was having a fantastic time playing with many of the bands that were there. I know we were having a great time listening to him.

I was lucky enough to capture some special moments on video and I still smile every time I watch Peter and DtB buring it up on "Burningman".

Some of  the bands/artists we were fortunate enough to see: 

Applebutter Express   Tornado Rider   Scythian   

Hackensaw Boys   Dangermuffin   Dread Clampitt

Elephant Revival   Leftover Salmon   Keller & The Keels   

The Travelin' McCourys   Mamajowali   Grandpa's Cough Medicine   

Larry Keel & Natural Bridge   Jim Lauderdale   Peter Rowan   

Darol Anger    Bobby MIller   Jerry Douglas   Donna The Buffalo

Phil "Free Mexican AirForce"

Lucas

Cody

Hometown and Black Betty

Jessie

Nimble Nate

Wayne

With Sam and Mary and girls.

Gnometown

Amphitheater stage.

 Raffle win!

Gnometown Camp.

Bobby Miller with Jeb Purveyor.

Hackensaw Boys.

Salmon! Vince Herman.

Sythian

Jim Lauderdale.

Peter Rowan with the McCourys.

Moon from the Porch Stage area.

Larry Keel and Keller Williams.

 

Lucas and friends playing in the meadow on Saturday.

And really, can it get any better than Keller, The Keels, The Traveling McCourys, Drew Emmitt, and Vince Herman doing "Born To Be Wild"???? I think not.

Here is a link to all 15 of my Springfest videos: Springfest 2013.

See you next year!

 

The best of 2010 - Suwannee Springfest

Your Hometown Hiker: Suwannee Springfest 2010 Report: "We are back home from a 798 mile round trip to a scaled-back and down-sized Suwannee Springfest. Black Betty and I arrived Thursday afterno..."

Suwannee Springfest 2010 Report

We are back home from a 798 mile round trip to a scaled-back and down-sized Suwannee Springfest.
Black Betty and I arrived Thursday afternoon and were soon set-up in Gnometown and reunited with fellow friends and Festivarians. A rain blew through the area for a few hours on Thursday evening but otherwise the weather was perfect for a weekend of camping and live music.


Thursday night we walked down to watch the Tornado Rider spectacle at the Ampitheater stage and then discovered that the Dirty Dozen Brass Band was moved to the Music Hall stage. We decided that we really didn't want to fight the indoor crowd in the little Music Hall, so unfortunately, we missed the DDBB.

Friday morning, storytelling blues singer Roy Book Binder started us out with his great tunes and insightful tales of the classic blues masters. Crowd favorites newgrass band Dread Clampitt and the fabulous Mosier Brothers, with fiddle-monger David Blackmon, got the crowd rocking.  Next, the jazzy Belleville Outfit, featuring the talented Phoebe Hunt on violin, introduced themselves to the Springfest Friday afternoon crowd and gained lots of new fans with their unique style of Americana roots music.

Friday evening we caught Texas song writer Robert Earl Keen (first time live for me) and then danced the night away with a turbo-charged Donna the Buffalo. I must say, at this point, that keyboardist Dave McCracken has totally fired this band up. They are playing HOT HOT HOT right now inspired by McCracken's jammy-fueled organ engine!

The show I was excited about on Saturday morning featured songwriters Jim Lauderdale, Shawn Camp, Peter Rowan, and Verlon Thompson. Jim and Verlon had us laughing, Shawn had us crying, and Peter had us all flying high in the Free Mexican Airforce. These four guys are all master song craftsmen, and it was, a pleasure and an honor to hear them share their music.



Saturday night we were introduced to the bluesy and soulful Ruthie Foster during a disappointingly short one- hour set. It was a shame to have such a talented heavy-hitter on stage for such a short time. We were just getting to know her.......

Slam grass, boogy band Leftover Salmon performed the big show on Saturday night. They didn't disappoint either. Vince Herman, Drew Emmitt, and the band were totally fired up and burned down the house. It was a great finish for the day, and we returned to Gnometown exhausted and ready to sleep.

Somewhere in there we manged to see the wonderful Turtle Duhks and Jonathan Edwards (I seem to know every word to all of his songs).  Disappointingly, we missed 18 South who received rave reviews by everyone to whom I spoke. Also, we were bummed that Jessee Havey was unable to attend due to the current border skirmish with our neighbor to the north, Canada. Somehow we also managed to miss Scythian this time but did get a great photo of Black Betty with Josef. We'll catch them next time.

We couldn't stay for the Sunday show. We had to head back to Cackalacky. Bummer!


Sweets: kids and families, Boogie Cat, friendly, good vibe, small crowd, one damn hot Donna the Buffalo,
the apple crisp at Sweet Revenge, great primitive camping.

Sours: The Meadow stage is bye-bye; the tiny Porch stage with its laughable 30 minute tweener sets is not even a close substitute.  A $20.00 extra charge for a Saturday night midnight jam (did anyone even attend)?

Overall : A great little festival!

Two Weeks to Suwannee Springfest

The Vernal Equinox on March 20th this year may mark the start of Spring, but Suwannee Springfest has been our official start of Spring for several years. In two short weeks we will be back down south, looking for The Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park and all the great music and sweet vibes of our Festivarian friends.

The lineup this year includes the legendary Texas singer-songwriter Robert Earl Keen, a reunited Leftover Salmon (celebrating 20 years of slamgrass), and the world famous music machine from the Crescent City, The Dirty Dozen Brass Band.
Springfest favorites; Donna the Buffalo, Jim Lauderdale,The Mosier Borthers, Peter Rowan, Joe Craven, Sythian, Tornado Riders, Dread Clampitt, and many other 'mighty fine' pickers will of course be there.
We hope to see you too.

                                                                    Peter Rowan