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I was just discussing something with Luis over
email, which I wanted to share. Those of you who were staying with Rick and/or
Bill were fortunate to be able to engage in informal jam sessions outside of the
festival. That is one social element I miss from most of these festivals,
including my own (yet, Rick and I did get a chance to play together in my
garage, along with Rainer in a club in Germany, which was a real hoot).
Many of us go to the event, watch people
perform for several hours, play our 1-2 sets, and then go home, but we
never get much chance to cross-pollinate the artistic love, man. We are all
together at the event, but not really together in the personal sense. There are
many musicians who I would have loved to play with at prior festivals (Luis,
Matt D., Per, Matthias, Dan S, Chris C, Leander, Erdem, Arild, Michael K,
just to name a few), even record with to lay down material for potential
CDs. It would be cool if we could setup a back room playing area and
a sign-up list, so that musicians playing at the festival could play and record
with each other. Just think of the potential for collaboration.
Amazong. I may even decide to to this at my next festival here in Boise.
Kris
----- Original Message -----
Well another year and
another great festival is in the books. In spite of the late start on
organizing and the economic woes that trickled down in various ways to us, I
thought that this was as strong a year as ever. I was lucky this year to be
able to catch most everyone and I was impressed by both new artists and
artists that have been here before. Musical evolution before my very eyes,
that’s what I’m talking about! I was lucky that the gear gods were
smiling down on me this year and with the exception of 4 o5 false starts to
begin a tune Friday night, I had no gear snafus. The Friday night set with
Rick was very enjoyable with a highlight being Kevin “Kalimba man” Curtis
joining us for some vocalizing. It was great to play with Rick, who played
killer hand drums and ghatam, and it was the first time I’ve performed an
entire set using just lap steel guitars. This was very gratifying as it is the
instrument that I am having the most enjoyment playing these days. I also had
my Sunday night solo spot switched to Saturday evening to accommodate a
scheduling conflict which in hindsight was a lucky break for me, as I wasn’t
too tired from the weekend to stay focused. As great as the Music was, it was
the interaction with new and old friends that makes this Festival so
worthwhile. Getting to know new friends like Roberto Z, Luis A, James B, Kevin
C, Jim G and Darrel S and also getting to spend time with old friends like
Hidecki “Mandoman” , and Ryusei, who stayed with us during the festival
was beyond great. Many thanks to Krispen H, Ted K, Chris C, Rodent, Jeff
Sloan, Mike J, Gretchen M, Bob B, and all of the artists, you know who
you are, and lastly but not leastly thanks to Rick, who puts a ceaseless
amount of time and energy in to making this happen, and manages to bring
together an amazingly diverse group of artists to play, hang out, swap war
stories and information, and generally have a blast doing so. I was marveling
today that, where else can one go and be able to see, such diversity and
creativity in music? We had vocalists, an enormous variety of guitar
styles, a Theremin player, turntablists and beat boxers, lap top users,
sound collage artists, a guy playing a shovel, singer/songwriters. Bass
players of 4 5 and 6 strings, percussionists, keyboard and
synthesizer players, a Kalimba player, an electric mandolin player, a
mad scientist or two, and multi instrumentalists
galore.
Thanks again to all involved, it
was fantastic..
Bill
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