We spent last weekend at the Minnesota Bluegrass and Old-Time Music Festival. On Thursday we set up camp. Here's George setting up the solar shower and its enclosure (thanks to our friend who works for Coleman we got it for 10 bucks!). 
We did some relaxing, reading and knitting (Wisconsin Winter Socks) and lounging in the hammock...
Of course Rose only "attempts" to relax! After a few seconds of "snoring" in the other hammock (one of several forgotten items I drove back home to get, after much fighting over the one hammock...), she spent most of Thursday helping to decorate the Family Area of the Festival.
All weekend we listened to lots of awesome old-timey and bluegrass music. Our favorites included the honky-tonky girl band the DitchLilies from the Twin Cities:
Another all-girl band, the Stairwell Sisters from San Francisco, were a huge hit. Their music is old-timey and that's my personal favorite. The MBOTMA August Festival is I guess a bit unique because it goes beyond traditional bluegrass to include a lot of the old-time music too. Some folks get disappointed with the more old-time sounds but we love it at our house! For old-timey think Carter Family Singers, Appalachian sounds, the Cold Mountain movie soundtrack, etc.
The Stairwell Sisters were also loved because of their clogging. Band leader Evie Ladin is an awesome clogger and makes her living teaching the Appalachian flat-footed style of dance. They led several workshops and dances over the weekend. I loved 'em because they're city girls who love old time music, like me! (And they've got their politics right, too, which they aren't afraid to show.)
The band above, Cadillac Sky, is another younger and very versatile Bluegrass band. They did some awesome playing and we loved their leader's Texas twang. They are Christian so for those of you out there into that, you'd love these guys. Their fiddler, Ross Holmes, is amazing!
Mountain Heart above and the Dirk Powell Band were a couple more stand-outs. Dirk Powell and his band's banjo player (forget his name) are two of the main players on the Cold Mountain movie soundtrack. What a treat to see them in person since I love love love that CD!
We also made some music ourselves. That's what people do at the Minnesota Bluegrass and Old-Time Music Festival. As Dirk Powell said during his show, old-time music should make you say "I could do that!" Apparently so, since a lot of people attend this festival not for the main stage acts but so they can get together with thousands of other like-minded folks and sit and jam for four days straight. There is jamming going on everywhere, from the officially sponsored Gathering Place tent and the Family Area to all the camping areas. You can hear the sweet sounds of the fiddle, guitar or banjo 24 hours a day.
George has been torturing us--um I mean, learning to play my mom's old violin--lately. He sat in on several lessons and workshops all weekend and there is some improvement noted. Unfortunately, there's not much flute or Irish whistle playing in bluegrass so he's decided to work on fiddling. He's got some tunes down now and his sound is getting a bit less screechy. One thing I've jealously noticed about musicians is that they can switch back and forth between just about every instrument out there no problem. It kind of makes me sick, ya know! I admire his talent and tenacity...Below is George playing my banjo at the Family Area group lesson/jam:
And Elijah got another instrument of his own, bought partly with his savings. A mandoline. Now we've got a complete bluegrass band of instruments. Unfortunately, Eli ended the Festival being sick and still is so he's not had much energy for playing, though he's already picked up a song or two. Kids learn so quick!
I'll end this post with a photo of Rose and her new friend, Kapresha. They became fast friends on Saturday and we ended up going to the campground's beach area with Kapresha and her grandpa which was a nice break. We had hoped to bring a friend along for Rose but since that didn't work out she made a couple of them while there. That's Rose for ya! The two had a great time running around.
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Namaste,
The Quinces