Merlefest 2006: Saturday Evening

Merlefest 2006: Saturday Evening

Mental note: Bring one of those "lean-back" camping/hiking chairs next year.

Guy Clark & Verlon Thompson have Shawn Camp with 'em this year playing mandolin & fiddle. He had two false starts on "Desperadoes" -- first because he mispoke the words, and a second because a Sani-Can sewage truck deive behind them.

Guy has (or had) cancer, and he was being very quiet about it. I don't know the details... but he's doing great on stage today. He's a little pale, ghostly in a white Stetson over a chemo-bald head. It hasn't affected his stage prrscence at all, though. Here he is commanding the crowd and band with ease. He's fucking Guy Clark, after all.

They were playing "Old Friends" when the Sani-Can truck came back
by. Verlon pointed it out saying "here's our old friend..." The crowd laughed, and as it was Shawn's turn for a slow, sad fiddle break, Guy leaned over and said -- on mic -- "Play the shit out of it." Like I said, "It's fucking Guy Clark."

He said that "Sis Draper" is about the old woman who taught Shawn Camp how to play fiddle. I freaking love that song.

God... anyone that can make me this sad on such a beautiful day in Merlefest... Whew... goddamn "Cold Dog Soup" and "Dublin Blues..."

Wandered around a bit and ended up in the Chip Taylor and Carrie Rodriguez gig over at the Creekside Stage. Not bad at all. Some very nice Country.

After that back over to the Hillside to see the Waybacks. Bob Weir and then Sam Bush got up to play with them, and when Sam Bush got there they James Nash said, "I'm going to go out on a limb here and say this song haa never been played at Merlefest..." They then come in with the "duh-duh-duh duh-duh-duh" of "Kashmir" by Led Zeppelin! The crowd is going nuts!

We ended up staying too late at the Waybacks to see Nickel Creek. The Waybacks seemed to have pulled us into some time-warp where we didn't notice Nickel Creek starting. (Gillian and David came out to jam and we just got sucked in.)

We walked in right at the end of the Nickel Creek show while they were doing their "everything but the kitchen sink" version of "The Fox" including snippets of Allman Brothers songs, "Cluck Old Hen," and Chris Thile doing some flat-dancing. I'm sorry I missed almost all of the set, but I'm gearing up for the Midnight Jam.

We bailed after Nickel Creek to get some dinner in Wilkesboro and rest up for the Midnight Jam. I don't know whose bright idea it was to put the Woody Guthrie tribute at 8:30 on Saturday night -- usually considered the "top billing." Everyone left. We listened to the tribute on the main stage over the radio as we were driving away, and I have to say -- it sounded extremely sucky.

There were some people in the tribute that I like, and I like Woody Guthrie, but dang? The top bill? Anyway, it gave us a chance to go out to get some real (non-festival) food.

Here's hoping my tired ass will be able to stay up through the Midnight Jam!

[Posted from my Treo 650 phone. I am ALL that is geek.]