Kerrville Folk Festival 2005 Ramblings -- First Hand Reviews and Photos
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2005 Festival Reports
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Catching up thru day 5 | ||
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It's Tuesday 12:30 AM end of Day 5 at the 2005 festival and it's oh so good to be home again..
Wherever you turn, smiling faces exude "Welcome Home".. From mixmaster to old friends to new ones we just met..
It's all Welcome Home..
I'm sitting at the song circle at Camp Coho. In the circle are the malvinas, Jack Williams Ronny Cox, Zoe and Ellen Bukstel. It's a cool clear sky, peaceful night, with most people in long sleeve shirts and/or long pants. In the foreground are the harmonies of the malvinas, and in the background are the tree frogs, a most beautiful sound i've missed dearly over the past 2 years.. It's been a long day and very emotional night The day began at 9AM at threadgill theatre with an touching memorial to Bruce Rouse. A full theater enjoyed a wide range of bruce anecdotes, along with funny, sad, and emotional songs all consumed along with hundreds of bagels, cream cheese and coffee served up by family and friends. Bruce was a shining light and bundle of energy who will be sorely missed in the community. (alternating comments about mainstage and the song circle follow.. Follow along with the bouncing chigger) Mainstage started with a wonderful performance by small potatoes including a new song of their's which you can think of as abbott and costello's Who's on first meets hee haw's the farmers daughter.. (songcircle) - Ronny Cox is singing about voodoo in new orleans.. what a great line.. "Don't matter who do voo doo in new orleans" Small Potatoes brings a wonderful sense of humor and an exceptional type of songwriting to the table.. Their 1000 cranes and waltz of the wallflowers matches up against anything you will hear anywhere.. If you allow yourself, they can bring tears and laughter to you at the same time.. Their closing song Forever Young, was a great segue for what was to come. The highlight of the night was the tribute to rachel bissex. You knew it was going to be emotional, when dalis couldn't get through the introduction without crying. During the entire performance, from Ellen Bukstel opening with a haunting For Florence, To Annie Wenz, Amelia Spicer, and Mary(W?)... To Matt and Emma, Rachel's kids, coming on stage to thank everyone for all their efforts, good thoughts and support, To Stephanie Corby pounding out Oh Jackson, to Tom Prasda Rao, Cary Cooper Johnsmith, Tom Kimmel, and many others paying tribute to the beautiful music and spirit that we saw and felt in rachel, to Kristin Dewitt dynamically closing with Here Now, accompanied by what seemed everyone in the community, everywhere you looked friends and strangers were either wiping away tears, or giving in and completely breaking down on neighbors shoulders. A change of ambience was welcome, and Modern Man filled that bill, with their typically hilarious shtick. Sonia and Disappear Fear closed out the evening with a rousing set that had them dancing in the aisles. The mainstage hours were spent up close for most of the sets, and back by the vendors to get some food, and see friends too long absent from our lives. It's unfortunate that life interferes with being able to spend more of our existence in the company of these wonderful folks.. (songcircle) Ellen Bukstel does a pair of songs sending up her sweetie (me). My only comment is: (insert sarcastic jewish accent here) This is a love song ?? For those of you on-site, remember, it won't 't take much arm twisting to have ellen play 'em for ya..' David Lamotte joins the circle. And Jack Williams just noodles along. Whoever invented the guitar must've had the genius that is Jack in mind.. If he started playing now and continued non-stop, the festival would be over before he'd exhaust his song list. (/songcircle) We drove to the festival this year.. With all the hassles and restrictions on flying, we figured this time we'd try driving.. It was wonderful.. Ellen slept, I drove.. Ellen woke up, I still drove.. Ellen went back to sleep & I just kept driving. We left Fort Lauderdale at 7:30AM Saturday morning, stopped for about 30 minutes at a rest stop just west of tallahassee. We spoke with Nic Annis around 1AM, and he told us that there was very heavy rains that night, mainstage had been cancelled due to the terrible weather right after Eric Schwartz finished his set (think of it as: "Eric brought down the wrath of god").. When we hit the bad weather around 2AM, rather than fighting through it and arriving in the middle of the night in the mud, we decided to pull over at a rest stop (songcircle) Mike Duffy just started a song.. I'll be back after it's done around mile marker 690 (give or take a few).. We slept for about 4 hours, and, with the song of the ranch getting ever stronger, we pushed on.. (actually, i pushed on; ellen slept) We arrived at the ranch at 7:30.. a total of 25 hours on the road.. Why is ellen tired ?? She just slept for 18 hours!! (songcircle) The malvinas are singing a lullaby for Ronny Cox who just called it a night.. Getting to the ranch at 7:30 turned out to be perfect.. It gave us enough time to set up the camp before the day's heat kicked in.. Trips to storage, albertsons, lowes, walmart, and the hotel completed the day, and allowed us to crash early that night.. (songcircle) Jack has called it a night.. I can feel the tent calling.. Unfortunately, i can also feel the bathroom calling... Ah, to be back on the ranch, contemplating the wonderful outhouses. I wonder what words of wisdom have been posted there so far this year.. Surveying the landscape on the way to the bathrooms, Singkerrnicity has just broken up, camp nashbill has a nice group of friends sittin' round, and Nashville was really rolling.. Johnsmith, stephanie corby, Caroline Aiken, Annie Wenz, Freeebo, Jay Mankita, Ellen Bukstel, Peter Yarrow, and many others not clearly seen in the dim light were holding court with 40 - 60 onlookers.. Jay has a great song called They Lied (i think that's the name) catch it when you can.. before someone in the government decides it's not patriotic enough and bans it.. A great night's sleep followed.. love to all.. |
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