"We're gonna do a song about a little town in Georgia," said Gregg Allman before tearing into a blistering version of Statesboro Blues for the second song of the Allman Brothers set. I'd been able to gradually work my up to some twenty or thirty yards from the stage and it was pretty astonishing to watch those guitars blazing. Worth dealing with the crowds.
It was a sampler sort of a day. Marian & Josie came along, and we parked the chairs near the children's area. While the girls played I went wandering around the festival grounds, catching a bit of gospel over here, and a fine closer by the Alabama Blues Women Showcase over there, and a couple of songs from Alexi Murdoch (who I'd never heard of) that were intriguing enough for me to buy a CD. High on the fun scale was seeing Taylor Hicks with the Little Memphis Blues Orchestra on the homegrown stage. It was the first he's played with his band since all of the American Idol stuff happened and he was clearly having a great time, as was the hometown crowd.
I stayed for just a few Allman Brothers songs before heading back to the classics stage where Lynn was bopping to the Grassroots, Herman's Hermits and the Beach Boys. The Beach Boys were into their set when I got back, and Marian asked me to walk Josie to sleep, so I picked her up and danced around the fountain with her for a long time until she finally crashed. And then we packed her into her wagon and made our way back to the car.
If last year was the year of the 'cello at City Stages (how many did we count up?), this year it was blues guitars -- from Luther Dickinson on Friday night to Derek Trucks & Warren Haynes last night, I saw some incredible guitar playing. James McMurtry did a fine job as well and watching him, I could almost see my way toward playing some of the lines he was after. But these other guys? They're doing something else altogether and all you can do is close your eyes and let it wash over you.
Of course I missed as much good music as I saw, but that's the way of it with this festival. Next year's can't come soon enough.
Comments