4/12/2005 02:37:00 PM|||Garnet|||

We had a wonderful time in Durango! The seven hour drive up there was fun with me, Honey and Dobby in our car, Dad and his girlfriend in their car. We communicated via walkie-talkies which dad and I got a kick out of (probably because we're both only children and rarely had the chance to play "walkie-talkies" when we were growing up!).

After we checked into our hotel, we headed back downtown to see the beginning of the weekend-long live performances. We saw two great bands and then had some dinner and too much to drink. We stayed at the Comfort Inn which was inexpensive and comfortable! Dad's room was right next door to ours. And on the other side of their room were two rooms, housing members of the Coal Creek Bluegrass Band. Those guys were awesome!!! They jammed with us on Friday night: me on the guitar with my three chords, Honey on the banjo, Dad on the harmonica and Kat on the spoons. It was a riot! Dad taught me how to try acquiring a taste for Jack Daniels whiskey. Needless to say, I was severely hungover and had whiskey burps all the next day. Alas, when in Rome...

Saturday, Honey dragged my hung butt out of bed and back downtown for more live performances. We saw Coal Creek do a set of great songs like "Salty Dog", "Hot Corn, Cold Corn" and "Barefoot Nelly". Those dudes can really pick it! After a couple of awesome bands, Dad, Kat and I left Honey and drove a few miles out of town to visit Harley (the stud Pixie-Bob cat that dad had sold to a great breeder up there last fall). Harley is actually Merlyn's dad. We hung out there and played with cats and kittens for a couple hours. Then returned to the hotel rooms for a little nap. We met up with Honey again, who had been simmering in Bluegrass music all afternoon, and enjoyed some more performances. That evening they took all the names of the band members of three or four different bands and mixed them up. They pulled names out of a hat and gave each new grouping of people (band) a few hours to practice three songs together. Then they would perform and be judged by members of the audience. That was an incredible sight to see different people at vastly different levels of performing working together on stage. Later that evening was the Celtdown at the Meltdown: a Celtic band called Beltane gave their last live performance. It was interesting to hear Celtic music performed live and certainly a change of pace from the bluegrass that permiated the rest of the weekend!

Sunday was more performances. In the morning they had the participating bands playing Gospel tunes which were lovely. Everyone dressed in their Sunday best! I went shopping for a while with Honey and then, later, with dad's gf. I love bluegrass music now but I really couldn't sit and listen to it for 6+ solid hours like Honey did! Sunday evening we saw the final performance of the Meltdown, another band out of Boulder called Hit and Run. This was by far the best band I saw all weekend! They were young (around 30), two women and three men. Great stage presence and well-polished musical performance. Honey bought a trucker hat with their logo and had them all sign it (in case they make it really big some day!). I bought a Coal Creek T-shirt and had all but one of the band members sign it, too. We jammed some more with them on Sunday night since we were all staying another night to wait out the snow storm.

I never thought that I would be a fan of bluegrass music. But here I am! Honey and I have discovered that we can actually jam together with his banjo and my guitar. We mostly just play "She'll Be Comin' Round the Mountain" together right now but my goal is to someday play "Pig in a Pen" REALLY REALLY FAST!!!!

I love road trips but I'm always happy to be back home again. And now I must catch up on all my fellow bloggers!

|||111334020522629657|||The One About The Bluegrass Festival