I just returned to work yesterday morning after a two-week vacation. Spent most of yesterday sorting through piles of reports then filing them... and deleting emails. (soooo many nonsense emails...) Anyway, today I've got one of those hurry-up-and-wait maintenance projects going on all day long, so thought I'd relive some of the good times by sharing a couple pictures from this music festival I went to.
The Old Fiddler's Convention
http://oldfiddlersconvention.com/ is held on the first week of August every year in the little mountain town of Galax in southwest Virginia, this past year was the 80th Annual. I've now been going for 30 years, since the summer I turned 16 and got a driver's license. It was there, I think that the music bug first bit me, and now I've been a camping contestant for 28 of those years. The whole purpose of fiddler's conventions was to get regional musicians together and pass along the traditional Appalachian music, that wasn't necessarily written down. It's really handed down person-to-person, even multi-generationally now. You kinda' have to get the backdrop... this is 7 straight days and nights of wall-to-wall music, traditional old-time string bands and bluegrass bands come from all over, some very long distances... for instance, this year I met some Australian folks that had come for the first time. There is a jam available somewhere in the park pretty much around the clock, *especially* if you play bass. It's a couple thousand musicians in a melting pot, that often gets unspeakably hot during the day, or impassably muddy in bad weather... you gotta' *want* to be there to truly enjoy it. The one-liner on this hat I spotted sums it up pretty well.
So you get into the park on Sunday morning... they open the gates and start checking folks in at 7:00 am. Since our bunch goes down a couple days early to get a good spot in line, we're usually we're in by 9:00 or 10:00, and our camp/compound is established by noon. The first order of biz is to secure at least one of these power outlets. There are only four of these poles in the park.
(okay, that picture is a little bit scary if you know anything about electricity, amperage loading and voltage drop at the end of 300 feet of drop cord)
Once you're in and set up, it's good to roam the campground a little, get to know your neighbors, meet up with old friends, many that you only ever see once a year at this place. I saw this really cool tie-dye being used as a sunscreen on the next camp up from ours - note the banjo and guitar forms... I don't think it was a print, someone really went to a fair amount of trouble to do this one.
(and if you stare into it long enough, you'll start to see an Alembic Standard Point body. =)
So like I said, the contests are really meant to be secondary to the campground music, but every evening at the stage they have competition in each of the individual categories. Deal is, you get your contestant fee back when you play, ($40) so it creates a cash incentive for the musicians to perform for the audience. It's a long line to stand in... sometimes a couple hours. I always play mandolin, mainly because mandolin is on Tuesday night, so I get some grocery money early in the week, but also because they don't have a competition for bass there. That has always seemed strange to me, since a bass is *required* to compete in either of the band categories. A bunch of us bass guys petitioned the Moose Lodge that hosts the Fiddler's Convention one year to institute a bass category, but to no avail. In response, a few of us began to register in fiddle competition, and play our basses with bows. A new rule against that was issued the following year. Finally, a local artisans group, The Blue Ridge Musicmakers Guild, stepped up and began a new tradition - they hold an independent fundraiser every year, post their own judges in the crowd, and award the best bass player in both Bluegrass and Old-Time bands a prize, which is presented before the awards ceremony on Saturday night. It's done in memory of local bassist Barbara Poole, who died several years ago. Very cool compromise.
One more little poke at the Loyal Order of the Moose... it's a weird relationship we have with our host. We LOVE their festival, and we appreciate and recognize what a logistical nightmare it must be. But they honestly don't have a clue what it is we're trying to accomplish here... to them, it's the primary means their next FY operating budget, to us it's a week-long musical New Years Eve celebration. A couple years ago, in response to some rude, obnoxious folks, all bass guitars were banned from the campground. Can't blame them for trying to keep the peace I guess, but it was kind of a bummer for those of us who do plug in. I figure they'd at least issue a warning before throwing me out, so I sneak my small-room/upright rig in disguised as camping equipment... it's a little Acoustic Image Clarus with an ultralite Flite 12 cab. Also had a buddy to fabricate these totally unauthorized stickers for my Turner Renaissance 5'r... won't be trying this with the Alembic Custom fretless! =)
So here's our band, New River Bound.
https://www.facebook.com/NewRiverBound We've been together for going on five years now, and I'm having the most fun ever playing with these folks. Outside of playing traditional Appalachian string band music, we're also doing a lot of our own originals. Jess, our banjo player is a world-class lyricist, and her husband Brian is an extraordinarily gifted guitar player who arranges our stuff. Our fiddler Caleb, I grew up around his parents, which are just a little older than me... in fact, I met them at Galax. Most often, I'm playing a five-string, fretless bass guitar in this group... I'm very anxious (read- excited) to see how the new Alembic works with it.
A technically clean performance Friday afternoon we felt put us in the running for at least a top-ten finish this year... that was the strategy anyway - play it safe and clean on Friday, then on Saturday night under-the-lights, run the dial up to 11 and break the knob off. Here we are on stage Friday.
(I'm the old guy with a six-foot tall fiddle and an Alembic T-shirt. =)
And here's one of us backstage Saturday night, all jacked-up on some pretty awesome coffee.
(this is the aforementioned awesome coffee... how else could I hang all night with these youngsters!?)
Here's one from the grandstand... we heard later there were about 3500 people watching.
We pounded it pretty good... really left it all out on stage, and when the points were tallied up, New River Bound was scored 7th in Old-Time Band this year - our 4th top-ten finish, and best so far. Here's our triumphant photo-op at the Virginia is for Lovers sign.
Maybe more later...
