In attendance were: Strainger (me), Chuck (a friend of mine and Diane’s boyfriend), and Diane (a friend of mine and Chuck’s girlfriend)
Y’all missed out on a damn good time! I’ll skip the details of the trip on the way up and on the way back and just start with…
Friday, 9/15
After stopping off at Bob’s (a friend of mine who has a cabin in Dolores) cabin, Ron’s (a friend of mine who also has a place in Dolores) place (where Chuck and Diane stayed behind to help out with construction for a few hours), sitting through about 1/2 hour total of road construction delays between Dolores and Telluride, finding a campsite, unloading my stuff, parking my truck about 1/2 mile down the road, walking back to the campsite, setting up camp (including finding a spot where I could get the @#!!* tent stakes to go into the @#!!* ground. I hate driving tent stakes.), and exchanging tickets for wristbands, I walked into the festival during the break between the North Mississippi All Stars and Little Feat. (You should think of signing Little Feat, Satan. They were really good.) I was dirty and sweaty from setting up camp, but I fit in fine with the rest of the crowd. The beer lines were very easy to spot; they were the four long ones leading to the same tent. After spending about 20 minutes in line, I purchased a pitcher of beer – not a cup – because: a) it was more economical and b) I didn’t want to stand in the beer line again for a long time. Just as I was walking toward the sitting area, I heard the MC announce, “Ladies and gentlemen, from CMC records, please welcome Little Feat!” (I realize that my prior joke at Satan is now null and void.) As Chuck and Diane can attest, I was hell-bent on seeing the Little Feat performance, so the timing was perfect. I was not disappointed. Little Feat’s music is very upbeat with a Southern feel, so you know I enjoyed it, and the group gives a great performance. I started off sitting on the ground and watching the performance from a distance. This quickly grew old so I moved up to the standing/dancing area in front of the stage. This vantage point was much better. The “last” song of the set was “Dixie Chicken,” which is one of their most popular songs. Heeding the audience’s demand for an encore, they came back out and performed, “Let It Roll,” which was a hit of theirs in the 80s – very upbeat, fast tempo. They didn’t perform “Oh Atlanta!” like I’d hoped they would, but I’m OK with that. Overall it was a great way to start the festival.
Next up was the Rebirth Brass Band, which was a band consisting of two trumpets, three trombones (only one of which had an F attachment), a sousaphone, a snare drum, and a bass drum/cymbal combo. These guys were powerful. I wouldn’t say that they were a blues group so much as a fast, powerful jazz combo. After a while, I decided to grab a gyro, evacuate the pitcher of beer I had drunk, and drop the Little Feat tank tops I’d bought for Martin and myself (they were the only tank tops sold all weekend, Martin) at the tent. I could still hear the RBB quite well. When I got back to the tent, Chuck and Diane were already there. What really surprised me is that they found the campsite without seeing the note I had left them on the message board. They were eating dinner so I arranged to meet them later back at the festival.
They showed up for the Robert Cray performance. I enjoyed Robert Cray although he was a little more on the mellow side.
After this, we tried to get tickets for the late-night blues club performances, but they were sold out. We were told that we may be able to buy tickets at the clubs, but we soon found out there was no chance. I think they could have handled the blues club thing much better: make the tickets available for advanced purchase by phone or online, announce that unless you buy tickets NOW you can’t get into the clubs, etc. Chuck and Diane gave up on trying to get into the clubs before I did; it was an overall CF.
At this point, I must interject, they had a guy by the name of Stephan George playing between sets at the festival all weekend long. He’s from Tucson and a damn good blues performer – does a lot of the classics. All three of us agreed that we need to go see him if he ever performs in Phoenix, or travel down to Tucson if need be.
Saturday, 9/16
After having breakfast and running into town for camera batteries, food, postcards, etc. we went to the Brew Fest portion of the Blues and Brews Festival. There were a number of tasty beers to sample, and I was able to collect a lot of microbrewery posters. The lines weren’t bad at all until about 45 minutes before the end of the Brew Fest where several microbreweries ran out of beer – something I hope is corrected next year. Even so, the lines moved rather quickly.
After this we went back to the campsite to drop off our Brew Fest souvenirs and change into warm clothes. I ran out and bought postcard stamps, then came back to the festival and filled out some postcards while listening to Mohead and Walter Wolfman Washington.
We met back up and went to see Original P, the funkadelic group who either used to be led by George Clinton or who just plays the same style of music. (I don’t remember and I don’t really care.) They were all right – they definitely got the audience up on their feet – but they didn’t really thrill me. I, for one, could have done without the guy wearing the thong and the see-through pants. Chuck wasn’t that thrilled with them either although Diane seemed to enjoy them. Original P was actually a last-minute replacement for Government Mule, whose bass guitarist, Allen Woody (not to be confused with Woody Allen) passed away recently. After a couple of songs, we decided to grab dinner at the Floradora. We didn’t even try to get into the blues clubs that night.
Sunday, 9/17
This was the best line-up of any day so far. I started off the day with a shower, which I hadn’t had since Friday morning, not that it really mattered around there. The showers cost $1.50 and only took quarters (that’s 6 for you math whizzes). So I went there with my stack of quarters, got in the stall, stripped down (try not to visualize this too much), and put the quarters in – clunk, clunk, clunk, clunk, clunk. “Shit! Did I just count only 5 'clunk’s??” I turned the knobs on the shower and got no water. I checked my jeans, but there were no more quarters in my pockets. At this point I yelled, “DOES ANYONE HAVE A QUARTER I CAN BORROW?” Fortunately, someone obliged. He handed me a quarter over the stall door and I thanked him profusely.
After a shower and breakfast, we headed on down to watch Otis Taylor. He was pretty good and did a lot of the old standards, but he was a little mellow for my taste. Plus, I was still trying to wake up. After he was finished, we diverted from the festival and drove up to Bridal Veil Falls, which is a 365 foot waterfall above the town.
After stopping at the store for stuff to make sandwiches, we came back and caught the majority of Elvin Bishop’s performance. This was a fun group to watch – upbeat, fast tempo – my kind of music. I had never heard Elvin Bishop before, but was glad I was able to catch him. I ended buying his Greatest Hits CD later.
Next up was the Jeff Healey group. You may have seen him in “Roadhouse.” My God, this guy was awesome. Jeff Healey was blinded by eye cancer at age one. Because of the cancer, his eyes had to be removed and replaced with artificial ones. He has a “trademark” method of playing the guitar where he lies the guitar across his lap, or a stand, and places his hands on it almost as if he were playing the keyboard. The first couple of songs were kind of mellow, but he really picked it up afterward. Jeff Healey plays some hard, ass-kickin’ guitar. Usually he sits down to play but occasionally he jumps up and starts dancing and getting into it, sometimes knocking equipment over. He has a great sense of humor and has excellent rapport with the audience. You can’t help but like the guy. The Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band had their bus break down outside of Denver, so they were late. No problem; Jeff Healey just kept playing until the KSW Band got there.
Kenny Wayne Shepherd was awesome, as usual. Unfortunately, I’d seen them in concert earlier this year so the performance was kind of a repeat. Still enjoyed the hell out of it performance, though. The best part to me was when Jeff Healey got on stage with them and jammed on a few tunes. And yes, even though they were late, the KSW Band played for at least the two hours they were originally allotted, so the performance ran later than scheduled. No complaints here.
After the concert, we caught the gondola up to Mountain Village. It was a fairly long trip up the mountain with an impressive view of Telluride’s lights. I also got a good view of several houses that I’ll never step foot into, much less own. I’m sure Chuck and Diane were thinking of me as a third wheel at that point. Let’s just say that if I have a girlfriend with me next year in Telluride, we’re getting our OWN gondola – wink wink, nudge nudge. (If this gondola’s a-rockin’, don’t come a-knockin’.) At the top we went to Poacher’s Pub for $2 Red Lady Ales and appetizers. I strongly recommend keeping this activity in the schedule for next year.
When we got back to Telluride, Chuck and Diane went back to the campsite while I went to an Irish pub, where Red Lady Ale costs $4. The trombonist for Elvin Bishop showed up there. I shook his hand and told him what a great job I thought they did. After chatting with the locals for a while, I walked back to the campsite…in the rain. The next morning Chuck and Diane were all wet. I was dry – ha ha.
I had a blast at this festival. Telluride is awesome. I thoroughly enjoyed spending the weekend listening to good blues music and sipping cold brew while surrounded by beautiful scenery. I hope the lineup is just as good, if not better, next year. Looking at previous years’ schedules it’s apparent that this is the best lineup they have had so far. As much as I missed having some of you Dopers there, I was glad I made it.
And yes, I saw Robert Cray and you didn’t – neener neener.