We arrived in Wilkesboro around 4:30PM on Friday. We pitched out tent, got some grub from the Firemen's concessions at Sewerfest, and jumped on an old school bus to be shuttled to Merlefest.
As Merlefest newbies, we soon discovered our first mistake. We arrived at the main stage, and realized that we should have brought chairs rather than a blanket. We found a good spot but the field is not sloped. 95% of the audience is sitting in chairs. It is impossible to see the stage when sitting on the ground. "It will be OK" I said. "Everyone will be up and dancing during the Doobie Brothers." (Remember that quote.)
The Emmitt-Nershi Band started playing soon after we arrived. Apparently anyone who follows Bluegrass knows who Emmitt and Nershi are, but I'll admit that I had never heard of them. They are from two very well known bands, Leftover Salmon and String Cheese Incident. Emmitt-Nershi were excellent and a good band to set the tone for Rachel and my next two days at Merlefest. My note from their performance says "I love the way a Bluegrass song can seemingly ramble on".
This is a video I found on YouTube from of the Emmitt-Nershi Band performing "Down in the Hollow" at Merlefest this year.
Finally the Doobie Brothers came on, so everyone stood up to dance. You have to dance around to the Doobie Brothers. Don't you? Apparently not. Dancing does not appear to be part of the culture of Merlefest. As the evening gets chilly folks huddle down under blankets in their woolly hats and fleece blankets. I love the Doobie Brothers but that was the most uncomfortable first half of a concert I've endured. Nobody stood up. In order to see and not block the view of the bundled being behind us we kneeled and shifted our weight so as not to do permanent damage to our 40 or so year old knees
The Doobie Brothers sounded fabulous. They played all of their old hits plus a few songs from their new album. Their first release from the album "World Gone Crazy" is called Nobody (click for video). It sounds like another Doobie Brothers song and doesn't knock my socks off, but the official video has some ancient and entertaining footage of them. The new song I really like it called "Far From Home" (click for video). It's just a quiet and sweet song.
This video from YouTube is what the concert looked like to me, kneeling way in the back.
Finally I'd had enough of the kneeling and decided that I don't give a hoot about obstructing the view of the huddled masses. "Blackwater" was the straw that broke the camel's back. I jumped up, sang my heart out, and danced around for the rest of the concert. The Doobie Brothers are one of those bands that have so many great songs, they do one encore and you say, "That must be it, they've sung it all." and they pull another hit out of the archive.
I had never heard of Merlefest until my friend Rachel asked me to go. Merlefest is a four day music festival that takes place on the campus of Wilkes Community College in Wilkesboro N.C. It focuses on Bluegrass, Folk, Roots, and Americana and is a fundraiser for the college.
Rachel wanted to attend because she is a huge Lyle Lovett fan. Lovett played on Saturday. We noticed that the Doobie Brothers were playing on Friday night and as I love the Doobie Brothers, we bought tickets for Friday as well. We bought tickets for both days before we found out that there really aren't any hotels with availability nearby, so we decided to camp. I am a camper. Rachel is not. She was putting all her trust in me.
After looking at our camping options on the Merlefest website, the one that caught my attention was called "Sewerfest" as it's located on the property of the Wilkesboro wastewater treatment plant. It is run by the Wilkesboro Fire Dept. as a fundraiser. They said they have plenty of hot water and don't stink. I read some reviews that raved about Sewerfest, so I booked a campsite.
The view from our campsite. It felt very private.
At Sewerfest there is a crowded area of campsites near the plant with it's large brown lagoon and the office, and then there are some remote sites up on a hill above it all. We had one of these remote sites. The benefit of being a bit farther out is that Sewerfest is a festival in and of itself. There are crowds of banjo, mandolin and guitar players picking away into the early hours of the morning. (click to watch video) We stayed up on Friday night past 2am in an empty garage listening to a bunch of pickers jam. On Saturday night we could faintly hear the party going on late into the night but we turned in early, around midnight. We were pooped.
The negative is the bathroom facilities. You would think that being a wastewater treatment plant, this is the one thing they'd have down pat, but alas. They have two bath houses in the main camping area and they were dirty. I am pretty sure that the bathrooms and showers were not cleaned every day, if at all, and one of the toilets was clogged. Nobody fixed it while we were there. Out in the remote camping areas there are portapotties that were OK, but they also got pretty gross by the end of our stay. When we arrived and realized that we only had portapotties near our campsite I feared Rachel would become despondent, but she handled it all like a trooper.
The portapotties nearest to our campsite.
When it's all said and done, I'd consider staying at Sewerfest again. Besides the fact that whenever we told someone we were staying at Sewerfest we got a nod of respect, they had convenient shuttles to and from the concert and we didn't need to cook at our campsite. The firemen sold very good food. If next time we are friendlier at the late night jams, we'll probably have a great time there.
Plus, I got some of the best sleep I've ever had camping. The roar of the fountain in the middle of the large brown lagoon drowns out the crunch of leaves from a passing critter or the hoot of an owl. Only those pesky early morning birds were loud enough to wake me up.
Country Kibitzer at the Ty Herdon show, Wake Forest, NC
The other day my new friend Jenn, aka Lovin' Lyrics Promotions, asked if I wanted to go see Ty Herndon at Crossroads Entertainment in Wake Forest with her and a friend. Never one to turn down an invitation for some country music fun, I said, "Sure, It's a date."
I am not embarrassed to admit that I had no idea who Ty Herndon is. I missed almost everything that happened in country music in the 1990s and early 2000s and have a good excuse. I lived in Israel for most of that time and then moved to NYC where I listened to NPR's coverage of events in Israel. It took me a few years to re-assimilate into American life.
To prepare for the show I bought his 2002 greatest hits album. I recognized one song on the album, Living in a Moment, and was swept away by the rest. He has a some beautiful love songs. In the two days before his concert, I became a fan of his past country hits.
His show was poorly attended but that was definitely due to the venue's lack of advertising. Crossroads Entertainment of Wake Forest closed a few days later. Hopefully they will reopen later under new and better management.
Despite a very small crowd in a very large room, Herndon sang his heart out and gave us an energetic performance. His keyboard player also appeared to be enjoying himself, but the guitarist and drummer looked a bit unhappy for most of the show. It was a treat to be so close to the stage, yet as an audience member it's also uncomfortable to watch a band perform for such a small group. Perhaps it just goes with the territory for an artist making a comeback after 8 years, but I imagine a small audience, if the performer doesn't expect it, can be demoralizing. Hopefully it wasn't and they felt their effort was worthwhile. I enjoyed the show and am very glad I went.
I'm going to share some Ty Herndon music with you, just in case you are as in the dark as I was a few days ago or have simply forgotten.
My new favorite old song (1998) is "It Must Be Love". This fan-made video with lyrics is a little distracting but it's the best I found. He apologetically sang both his and the backup singers' parts during the show but the song was still lovely. The conversation that goes on in this song is so sweet.
The other song I adore is "What Mattered Most" (1995) which, according to Wikipedia, was his first song to make the country charts.
His new gospel album "Journey On" was nominated for a Grammy this year. Obviously I'm not in the target market for contemporary Christian music. I have only heard the the title track, which he performed at the show. If you listen to Christian music, check it out. It's probably very good.
I hope that Ty Herdon does a new secular album, now that he's recording music again, but if not, I'll be happy to enjoy his old country love songs.
Friday night, March 18th, Jason Michael Carroll, our local country music star, appeared at Crossroads Entertainment Complex in Wake Forest, NC. Mary Selvidge and Will Guyton, two emerging local singers, opened for him.
There was not a huge crowd on Friday to see JMC, but the ladies were enthusiastic. Jason Michael Carroll is the handsome hometown hero with bambi eyes, a big white smile, and a deep manly voice that can send shivers right down to the knees, so who can blame them (us)? The enamored women, ranging in age from 12 to 120 and of all shapes and sizes, crowded around the stage, passed him notes, money with requests on it, and had him sign autographs. In return they received friendly and occasionally intense eye contact, handshakes and the occasional hug or kiss. He is a very energetic performer and as much as I'm sure the admiring eyes of all those women must feed his ego, he gives back to his audience.
The two hour performance was wonderful. He sang his hits, some new material, and a few covers. Any criticism that comes later in the article should be read in the context that I really like Jason Michael Carroll. When he sang "Where I'm From" and "Alyssa Lies" it drew a tear. When he sang "I Can Sleep When I'm Dead" we all laughed, shouted out the lyrics and jumped up and down with him (this is silly but rather fun). He did a memorable cover of Garth Brooks "Much to Young to Feel this Damn Old". He is talented and I'm looking forward to seeing him again at Rapids Jam (Roanoke Rapids, NC) in June. Video for "I Can Sleep When I'm Dead" He said (maybe as a joke) when he started the show that he'd take requests on $20 bills. I didn't see any $20s go up there, but I sent up a request on a $5 for "Meet Me in the Barn" a perhaps cliche but rather sexy song he had intended to release as his first single from the new album. According to a blog post by Billy Dukes, a DJ at 94.7 WQDR, Carroll saw that Trace Atkins was releasing a barn related song at the same time, "Brown Chicken, Brown Cow", and didn't want to compete with the blond powerhouse for the attentions of country radio. As anyone who is paying attention knows, "Brown Chicken, Brown Cow" is a huge flop, Trace Atkins actually apologized to fans for it and lamely blames the songwriters for telling him it is a surefire hit. I can't predict whether "Meet Me in the Barn" would have been a hit, but it would not have been an embarrassing flop. My friend and I saw him perform "Meet Me" at the Country for Kids concert in November and enjoyed it. When he played it again on Friday, we remembered the words from November. It's a very catchy song. I hope it's at least on the new album.
Carroll singing "Meet Me in the Barn". All videos I found were fan recorded from shows. This one captures his energy and had the best sound of those available.
Carroll sang his newly released single "Numbers" and there were already people singing along. I know many JMC fans will strongly disagree, but I don't like the song "Numbers". It is pleasant to the ear, but don't find anything to connect to among all of those numbers in the lyrics. Is it a love song? He gives a girl a ring. Is it a Christian song? It has references to the Book of John and the Second Coming. Is it about Kabbalah? (Just kidding.) I do hope that Jason Michael Carroll becomes famous enough sometime soon to be Elmo's guest on Sesame Street. The chorus of this song is only a few word changes away from being a perfect children's song. This may seem like a mean thing to write, but you never know. Maybe Carroll will make a wildly successful children's album all inspired by what seemed at the time to be a snarky comment by a nobody blogger.
"Numbers"
In addition to songs we already know, he sang a couple songs that are in the works for the new album. I thought the one called "My Favorite" was too sappy, but the song he sang before "My Favorite" was interesting. He didn't give us the name of this song. He said that he is debating whether or not to include this title unknown song on the new album. I gave a resounding hoot when he asked the crowd to weigh in. I liked this song because it is a little more sophisticated than the other three songs I've heard from the upcoming album. The only thing, apart from the words George St. and New York, that I remember about this title unknown song is that I want to hear it again.
I know I've hit that age where even the most sighted of us take a trip to the optometrist, but Dierks Bentley and Billy Currington really look alike. Last night I was watching the Kenny Rogers special on GAC and Billy Currington came on. He was talking and I said to myself, "What's up with Dierks Bentley's suddenly strong Southern accent?" It took me longer than I care to admit to realize my mistake.
I'm a bigger Dierks Bentley fan so when I see either one, I automatically think it's Bentley. They don't sound alike, but my eyes take over for my ears when there is visual information. So I did a google search expecting to find many references to the curly doppelgangers. I did find a few, but the most ridiculous (before I wrote this post) is the FB group Billy Currington and Dierks Bentley are both DEAD Sexy with it's odd spelling of "gurls", use of lowercase letters and combining of the sacred and profane?
While perusing images on Google of the two singers, I learned another way to tell them apart. If the Currington/Bentley character is shirtless and pumped, it's Currington. I didn't find a Bentley photo with more than two buttons worth of chest. Currington does usually wear a shirt though, so this test only works if the subject is shirtless.
Don't bother ordering the back issue if you missed it. Apparently Currington kept his shorts on.
What would really be helpful is if one of these guys (preferably Currington) got a Brazilian blowout, but then we may confuse him with Keith Urban or one of the guys in Rascal Flatts.
When you see Dierks Bentley or Billy Currington, which do you think it is?
I was watching GAC's Kenny Rogers: 1st 50 Years special last night with a big grin on my face. I laughed, I cried, I got goosebumps, but mostly I went down memory lane. I am not a Kenny Rogers "fan" in that I don't own any albums, nor have I attended any concerts, but I've always liked Kenny Rogers' music. What I didn't realize is that I love it. Quite a few of the songs that I heard as a child and set me on the path to a country music obsession some 30 years later are Kenny Rogers songs. The Gambler has been one of my favorite songs since it came out in 1978.
I'm not sure I'd even heard all of these important old songs in their entirety until last night. Some of the songs that crossed over to onto pop stations I know well, but I remember a few from clips on those TV advertisements for "Country Hits" albums in the 1970s and early 80s, the ones with the still shots of the artists and the song titles rolling down the screen. One song that I thought I knew, but really didn't is "Lucille". Billy Currington sang this during the TV special. I am not ashamed to admit that I had no idea what "Lucille" is about until last night. No wonder they only played a short clip of it on those commercials. Here is a recording of Billy Currington singing "Lucille", with lyrics.
There were a lot of excellent performances in this concert, but the ones that stuck with me were Kenny Rogers and Lionel Richie singing "Lady", Kenny Rogers singing "The Gambler", Billy Currington's "Lucille", and Tim McGraw singing "She Believes in Me". Dolly Parton sang quite a bit in the beginning of the show. She was fabulous. She's always fabulous.
The other day I was listening to the radio and "Who Are You When I'm Not Looking" came on. I sang along, not giving it much thought. Then it came on again, and I scratched my head. Waaait a minute, who is singing this? This isn't Joe Nichols, it's Blake Shelton!
Compare and contrast. I'm putting both versions of "Who Are You When I'm Not Looking" up here. Please listen with eyes closed, so you aren't swayed by Blake Shelton's professional video, or by the unprofessional but well intended fan tribute video for Joe Nichols. Side by side, which version do you like better? Please let me know.
Joe Nichols
Blake Shelton
Wow. They are really similar. Joe Nichols has a deeper and sleepier voice. Blake Shelton's version is slightly livelier, but even he sounds like just woke up from a nap.
