GOOD MORNING EVERYBODY!! I'm back with high speed wireless internet, YAY! Yesterday we drove to a campground in KS City area that has the highspeed, boy is it great.
Last report from the festival: Friday and Saturday were a blur of activities as usual. Saw some excellent talent both on stage and off. Stayed up WAY too late playing music. As usual.
So what was the "magic moment" this year? In addition to the stage areas and campground jams another location that provides a good deal of "entertainment" especially at night, is the gravel road that runs through the campground, . People congregate under the street lights in walk-up jams, others walk the road to listen, dance, sing along or otherwise participate. The area often becomes street theatre with costumes etc. We saw a fellow carrying around a tuba (sans mouthpiece and keys) that was somehow attached to a banjo so that presumably the sound of the banjo came out of the tuba horn. He called it a "sousa-jo". Weird stuff. Usually the road holds little interest for me other than the amusement aspect because frankly, sometimes those who've imbibed a bit too much frequent the area.
Our friends have a 9 year old son who is learning to play fiddle. He knows one tune, Angelina Baker, that he played over and over and over all weekend and stumbles a bit on the timing especially the 2nd part. Matthew is a bit precocious and decided he would go stand on the side of the road Saturday night and play his tune. Soon he had a crowd of about two dozen people standing around watching him. He seemed completely unphased by the crowd and just kept fiddlin'. In fact he played the tune the best I'd heard him play it all weekend, especially when the crowd started clapping in time. Some were dancing.
Then somebody walked up and put a dollar in Matthew's case. And somebody else did. And another and another. Before he quit the kid had $18 he'd picked up on the Walnut Valley road. It was the funniest, most special moment of the weekend. Matt is now a bona fide Road Toad, LOLOLOL!!
Sunday morning brought the usual clink-clink-clink sound of camps being taken down. By early afternoon our friends were starting to head out for home. Hugs, kisses, warm wishes, promises to come again next year and tears quickly wiped away. The usual Sunday balance of sadness at parting to a weekend filled with fun and excitement. It was an especially good year at Walnut Valley.
Oh, thought I'd include that those who saw our young guitar-playing friend compete in the National Contest all said they thought he'd nailed his pieces. But, as so often happens in competitions, he didn't make the final cut. So, a good experience for him and one that may spur him to keep trying.
It's wonderful to be posting to you all and FReeping today. Not sure how long we will be in KC.
Prairie
Good morning.