It was supposed to be rainy, but in the end, it was a beautiful day, with temps about 80 and a nice breeze along side the water. Couldn’t have been better! I love playing music where we’re not dripping in sweat from 95+ and high humidity! Makes for a better show, that is for sure. So this was just a perfect outdoor event.
We were not too far from the water, and that was nice. We played two sets with our other band mates, Ottawa County Bluegrass and Lonesome Meadow. (Well, each band played twice, is really what I mean…) In bluegrass, that seems to be the way we do it. We play one set for about 40 minutes, and then the next band or two, with a little hour break inbetween for folks to go and shop, eat, stretch their legs and then the line up begins again. We got to go first so that we could leave earilier in the day, which is nice, since we had a bit of a drive ahead of us.
I just love playing with my guys. They are all wonderful and I like hanging out with them as well. We sat around and listened to the other bands play and did a little picking on our own as well as looking at all the artists and their offerings. Jeff and his folks went to lunch at a little cafe and brought Tim, Rob and I back some of the best pizza I’ve had in a long time! Awesome good… (We were invited to go, but we’re all the broke part of the band at the moment! haha… so we stuck with a hot dog and chips from the boy scout troop… great deal I might add, $2 for lunch!) Of course, when they brought back extras from the pizza, we really enjoyed the gift of GREAT pizza!
Thanks to Jeff’s Mom for snapping a few pictures of us playing! I usually bring my camera and hope that I might find someone to take a few shots for our scrapbook of gigs, but it doesn’t always happen! That’s okay, after 1500 pictures of us playing on a stage, it does get a little monotonous, I suppose. (haha) But it’s always nice to see us playing and how we might look with different mic configurations and such… We played with a main mic and two side instrument mics this time, which is becoming the mainstay of bluegrass, it seems. I like it, but it does make for some funny dancing on stage as different people have to weave and bob in and out for the main mic area.
Our band is rather unique in bluegrass, because everyone of us is a lead singer! All 5 of us! So we take turns and rotate in and out of the mic and who is singing lead. And to top it off, we all sing other parts for the most part. I usually end up tenor, but Wilson sings good tenor too, and the guys are all working on learning tenor parts here and there. Jeff sings mostly baritone, as does Tim and Rob. Jeff and I have been singing together, the longest, well over 6 years now, so we have a few duet parts we do, since we’re comfortable with that. But usually all our songs are three part harmony. We’re not perfect, but we’re sure getting a whole lot better at it, working hard to find the parts and perfect our sound. It’s hard work, but it’s so awesome when we actually hit a good blend… it makes your head buzz and the hair on your arm tingle!!!! That’s some mighty fine bluegrass when that happens!
Lonesome Meadow is a fine group that we’ve had the privledge of watching grow up! They were one of the first groups to play at our Glass City Opry over 4 years ago! And they have some very talented young people in their family band. And Dad plays a mean bass!! They are really nice folks and we always enjoy spending a little time chatting and visiting when we meet up with them!
Love playing with the Ottawa County guys… all of them are really good guys, wonderful gentlemen and they play some down and dirty good traditional bluegrass! They were the town representatives from Port Clinton and were the organizers of the music program for the chamber’s event. Archie is good at putting on a show, he had all the bases covered. We sure hope that next year they consider music at their event and that we might have a chance to come play again! Nice day for sure!
Well, I snapped a few pictures of the booths and art that I liked… and a few of the sites… it was a really nice day for sure. The girls went with me to Toledo and I dropped them at their Dad’s for the day to visit and hang out with him. They like the fact that he has unlimited internet as opposed to our slightly unfriendly measured service out here… so they had fun catching up on all their YouTube videos and other things that teens like to do online. We got done picking around 4 in the afternoon and after the drive back, I picked up the girls and we did a little shopping and grabbed chinese takeout for the trip home! I was surprised, it was still nice and warm after the 45 minute trip home! We miss a few things like our favorite chinese restaurant, but still, living out here is way better. We just learn to appreciate those things like favorite foods and shop even more when we do get a chance to go and visit and shop!
The dogs were sure happy to see us when we got home, and the chickens were a little puzzled as to our daily whereabouts, but in the end, everyone had a nice day away from the farm and the work and projects going on. We had to leave super early in the morning… up at 6 and out the door by 7 am, but that’s okay! Today is going to be a day of rest and a little organizing and probably a bit of mowing… mowing is a nearly every day event around here!
Hope you all are having a blessed Sunday!
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