And I promised Carlton to add his blog to my blogroll, HOWEVER, he's in blog-death now. So Carlton, my boy, you'd better blog a little if'n you want to see your name on my site! :-P

Larry, did Gillian play drums on said Stones cover? Did they play it like "Country Honk" off the Let It Bleed album? Sigh. I wish you could project your memories onto a little screen for me to see/hear. Or a big screen. Whichever.

Listen, you. I did NOT wimp out on talking to Peter Blackstock. I jumped up to talk to him after the show, figuring it was (a) too loud and (b) too rude to yap at him during it, but I decided not to chase him since he had notebook in hand and clearly was hustling after an interview.

So. There.

SO rad to meet you and your very cool friends and family at the fest. I plan to blog about the whole thing tonight. Right now, just trying to get through my first day back at work. Ew.

Wow, it is a bit weird seeing pictures of places I was over the weekend and knowing I was there same as you all. I didn't take my camera; I was busy wrangling my baby. :) I caught the end of Mindy Smith's set while I was waiting for Nickel Creek ... was it me or did she have a wee chip on her shoulder about NC? And speaking of that, from the sound of it you don't think too much of them either, Larry ... I love them, though. :)

Valerie - Yes! Gil did play drums! Or well, a snare with brushes, but she played them very enthusiastically! I wish you and Kip were there! You'll have to go next year! (Emphasis on HAVE TO!)

As for "Country Honk", I haven't heard it. Isn't that the "funny" one they did, first? The very ironic country song? If so, then no... OCMS and GW/DR did it in 100% OCMS style. Dear God you have to buy the Old Crow Medicine Show CD, Val. No question.

Stacy - You did too wimp out! I said, "You wimped out!" And you said, "Yes, I'm wimping out." Period. :-P Miss Revisionist, indeed.

And you should thank me for not posting the booger-picking pic of you! (It's waiting to see daylight, at any minute, so don't piss me off...) ;-)

And it was SO great ("RAD?!?!?") meeting y'all too. I can't wait till next year to party-hardy-marty with y'all again. I may have to trek up to DC to see y'all before then. If Lyle plays up there you better damn well get the couch ready. And the floor for Ben/GodzillaMD too...

Cindy (Anwyn) - I was there for the Mindy Smith show before Nickel Creek. (When you said "NC" I instinctively thought "North Carolina", being a resident and all.) ;-) Yep, everyone has a little chip on their shoulder about Nickel Creek. They're pretty popular whipping boys and girl at traditional music festivals since they make so much money and are so popular so young.

And to be 100% honest -- I *do* like Nickel Creek. I love going to their shows. However, I find their songwriting to be trite and superficial. It's not their fault, really. These kids just grew up incredibly sheltered, with no real hard life experience, and so their music is just not bluesy -- no soul. They're INCREDIBLE musicians (and Sara Watkins gets hotter every year... holy shit... I was about six feet away from her at one point behind the Hillside Stage... DAMN), and Thile just gets better and better. They'll be important for years and years to come, musically.

I kinda hope one of them develops a drug habit or has a bitter divorce or something, and then they can suffer for their music a little bit and get some soul. ;-) (Isn't that the most awful thing in the world to wish on someone!)

An interesting side-note to the whole Nickel Creek/Wisechild thing -- those two albums both have a song in common - "The Beauty and the Mess", written by Luke Bulla from Wisechild and Chris Thile, and it's a great song. Strange. Sometimes it still works out, eh?

And Cindy, thanks for reading! I'd actually read a little of your stuff on TheOneRing.net before. Not very seriously, I'll admit, but I did recognize your name (Anwyn) when you posted. What a quaint little Internet it is, eh? Anyway, welcome to HickoryWind.org!

Oh, it's on now. I said "Yes, I'm wimping out .... because he's clearly on assignment and I don't want to mess with a man while he's working." Way to quote me out of context, jerkface. ; )

I ain't skeered of the nose-picking photo. Everybody knows that's staged. Who the hell picks their nose with their thumb? Nobody answer that ...

Yes, do come to DC. Lyle's coming July 6 if you're interested. Mi casa es tu y Ben's casa.

I can see your point about Nickel Creek--and can see that they'd be whipping children at traditional music festivals because I suspect it's their departure from strict tradition, much as Alison Krauss's, that has made them popular outside that specialty. Dry Branch Fire Squad's lead guy had some comments about the general public and the bluegrass audience--to the effect that a few years ago the GP was saying "Who are those gomers?" and now it's "Who are those gomers over there with Alison Krauss?"

I'm kinda glad they haven't lived a hard life; even at almost 30 and rather cynical, I still have a little bit of the fairy tale thing going and am glad there are those for whom it's worked out. I like the happy ending and all, and so their stuff works for me. And I'd add that James Taylor had both drug addiction and a presumably bitter divorce and his music hasn't shown much darkness as a result ... so that might not be the magic formula. ;) In any case, while I like Johnny Cash, I've been trying to slog my way through some of his later recordings and find them just way *too* dark for me ... death and dismemberment everywhere you turn!

Can't speak to Sara's looks, but her voice sounded like she'd spent the previous night yelling at somebody. Other than that, their show rocked--Chris and Sean fit my definition of hot (read: amazing musicians who are cute and personable into the bargain), and I just think they're all too sweet (which, again, probably just adds to the general whippingness). Did you see Mark O'Connor, Chris Thile, and Bryan Sutton earlier Saturday? They were absolutely steaming (both literally and musically). I caught Chris briefly as he was coming offstage into the sea of waiting mandos and Sharpies ... cute cute.

Excuse the length of this post! I'm completely new to blogs and may need a little etiquette schooling. And if I'm pretty Nickel Creek-centric, it's because my Merlefest attendance was limited by my baby, so I went heavy on the NC and Thile. I also saw Bela Fleck (though I largely agree with you about the Flecktones, he and Edgar Meyer together were wonderful), Meyer, Barenberg & Douglas, Dry Branch, and Doc Watson in his Thursday set with Richard and ... some other guy. Also, because my baby fell asleep during that, I saw the people who came after them--the duo from California.

I will desist now ... mercifully.

Larry, I wil take a listen to the Old Crow people. I would recommend a Country Honk listen-I love the fiddle on it, "kicks my ass" so to speak. My standards might be a little different than yours though :). And Mick is always a little "funny," tongue-in-cheeky monkey- you can't let that stop you from hearing a good song...

Just in case you didn't know Nickel Creek hails from the great Republic of CALIFORNIA and reside in it's finest city San Diego. There you go more uselesss info from your source on all things obscure and trivial.