Merlefest 2005: Thursday

First off, I spent most of Thursday stressing out in our Jam Camp about practicing for our performances. We performed as a small group for all the Jamcampers, and then the entire camp got up to do two songs on the Cabin Stage. More about that later, but suffice it to say, I got to sing a verse of "Angel Band" and take an "emergency" fiddle break. ;-)

Thursday was Thursday. It was fairly low turn-out, mostly just the Merlefest die-hards catching up with their other die-hard friends. The shows were pretty good, but definitely a warm-up for the better stuff to come.

I liked listening to Uncle Earl even though Tony Rice was originally slated for that spot. I liked trying to identify their songs since many are my favorite songs from other bands including "Winter's Come And Gone" by Gillian Welch and "Kiss Me Quick Papa's Comin'" by the Reeltime Travelers. I'm pretty sure of that last one, but it's a fiddle tune and sometimes fiddle tunes run together in my head. (I'm pretty sure, though... I love that one.)

I was glad to see Jerry Douglas' fiddler, Gabe Witcher, playing with the Waybacks. I was really excited for a while, thinking he had joined them fulltime, until a friend let me know he was just standing in. Oh well, it was great while it lasted. I wish I'd gotten to hear their version of "Jerusalem Ridge" better, maybe get a recording. Sounded great!

The Tim O'Brien show was good, but I didn't hear many of my favorite songs. I guess there just wasn't enough time. Casey Driesson was awesome, of course, but didn't quite seem warmed up yet. Neither did Bryan Sutton. Oh well, they sure got warmed up later!

I've never seen Loretta Lynn before, and I enjoyed her show despite for constant apologizing for "having no voice." I thought she sounded alright, not up to snuff perhaps, but she definitely tried to give it her all. It was sweet watching her struggle with it for us. She really cares. (She was very sick.)

The Wayfaring Strangers flat out sucked. I was not impressed at all. Let's see... let's get three women who can't sing on-key soloing, nevermind having any chance of harmonizing. The rhythms and the music were fair, kinda got your toe tapping, but the vocals just killed me. I caught the last of their show on the Merlefest radio station on the way back to the cabin. I heard their fiddler berating all the fiddlers at the festival to come to the stage to play "Cluck Old Hen" with them. I think he ended up getting Tim O'Brien and Rayna Gellert to play with them, but then proceeded not to feature them. WTF? Be crazy aggressive about getting fiddlers to come out on stage for several minutes ("We MUST have ALL the fiddlers out here! We HAVE to!"), but then not feature them? Instead, feature your lousy singers? I thought it was tacky and was glad my radio lost the signal soon after that. It was time to put on some Ralph Stanley greatest hits anyway.

It was overcast and cool Thursday, but pretty nice. It got chilly in the evening, but I was well-prepared and wasn't affected by the temperature. I know some other folks weren't so lucky, especially some little kids.