Fellow Wanderers:
Well, they, came, they conquered, they left…. Band went on the run this early Sunday morning –except for the Nave –who remained behind to catch some much needed Z’s and help with the aftermath. It was an extraordinary week with my good ol’ boys………………….
We got settled in last Sunday just in time for the Monday arrivals- Mitch with daughter Rachel and Granddaughter Supreme, Lil. Then Brother Al with his have- bass- will –travel- kit-from the land of Desantis, and finally The Nave after his long day’s drive, from the Heartland. We all made it to folk club on Monday night, which was quite the surreal event and The Bunties passed the musical baton around the sacred drum circle. Tuesday brought Brothers Phil (Jersey) and Johnny 99 (Outer Space) to complete the Bunty arrival contingent. We managed to find a bed for all with brothers Phil and al sharing some heavy duty quality time in the big cozy, king bed…you go, boys….
The week was filled with long dirt road walks, long hoe-down practices with our added local Vermont musical siblings, Marty, Amazing Mike, John and Fiddler Bob…all amounting to a giant Country and /Eastern orchestra.
We ate a lot, we drank a lot, we did other things we shan’t mention……and we played a lot of music…a lot of music.
After 2 practices we were primed for our first show on the Belmont Green, Thursday night. Got set up a-did a sound check, were mixed perfectly for a roving band of 10-11……… and just as people arrived for the splendor in the grass…the storm from hell descended on us ……our first rain in over a month, and only for the hour we were to start playing-and-…………….only where we were -apparently with a thin line of major t-storm action,….leading to a frenetically berserk hour that had us scrambling to find tarps and garbage bags for the electronics and a dozen of us huddled under the tiny gazebo, hoping for a pass, while indeed, we were the center of the hurricane….eventually succumbing to our higher power and giving up, moving our mountain of equipment into the library –sanctuary across the street. Wound up playing a truly inspired set of tunes to a tiny audience of around 20, who were wildly enthusiastic, once everyone got dried off.
After a day hiatus on Friday, we hit our stride at our 23rd annual Tie Dye to honor the retiring Empress of GE on Saturday, and amazingly, despite all kinds of threatening reports, it was just dam hot, but no rain. We did a wildly passionate three plus hour set, that had the local diva gentry dancing in the streets, that more or less made up for the Thursday debacle.
So- what did we learn this week:
- People can actually live in our bunkhouse as Rachel and Lil proved
- Long-boys can handle a week together in close quarters and still consider coming back again
- Apparently (according to a source, I will not name), Indian people have legs to wobbly to ski
- Sometimes smaller is better (sometimes not)
- It is good to pay in sanctuaries
- Plastic Jesus and Cardboard Elvis can live harmoniously
- We should always be careful in invoking the Soggy Bottom Boys (see the pix)
- The Queen is the absolute hostess with the mostest…and tireless
- There is some benefit to having the Festival on someone else’s property and not have hosting duties, while getting appropriately, cosmically prepared for long music sets
- We will never run out of set list tunes
- Our Vermont friends are priceless and our local-musician buddies beyond compare
And the Bunties-Chops keep moving after 45 years…we are the Band of Brothers.
So- the opening quote from our friend, John Manning: as he was drifting away after the show at closing time of The Fest……in a feel-no pain state of clairvoyance-“Imagine that you’re driving down some dirt road, as you are wont to do, and you come across this thing……………………… you are doing” ………….…and you say…………………..…“WOW,….THIS IS The Best of America”
RIP-Sonny Corleone and Bill Russel- two great Godfathers……
Every picture tells a story, story……
Worn out in The Greens.
Ferlin’
