Wednesday, June 08, 2011

Banjo Hell

When you get married, life becomes a series of compromises....sometimes a little sometimes a lot. Jeff and I were married for 36 years...he decided in 2008 to join the band of angels but prior to that...He talked me into Banjo Hell.... Ah, the things we're driven to do by love....

This week (march 26 2001) I attend a bluegrass festival in Zimmerman with Jeff and 5,000 other banjo players.

This time love drove me craze....

Just Jeff and me and mini-me CoCo..... in a tent among 5000 banjo players. And as if that wasn't enough...we camped out in rough camping...and it rained one of the nights, and every night there was music being played all around us all the time (by music I mean banjo or guitar that wasn't tuned but that didn't stop them from being played really loud).

Jeff (a banjo player) loved it, he jammed all the time...even Coco jammed with her fiddle. I mostly tried to keep my ear plugs in, avoid the rain and pretend I wasn't there....

What was that smell?
I spend most my time standing in line at the showers.
The place advertised that they had showers. And they did.... Two of them (however one was broken and didn't work). So unless you showered at 4 am, you waited in line for hours.

I'm not making this up! (okay do the math here, 1 shower, 5000 people....)
Needless to say, some of the banjo players didn't just stink as musicians!


A double latte of nothing
The foods available was terrible, one communal kitchen with water down, over cooked spaghetti, and fried cheese curds. But there was also a Java Joe's that seemed to open later and later every day...so we (caffeine fiends) would stand in line longer and later every day.

Once while waiting in line with the other caffeine junkies waiting for Java's to open, & rumbling, grumbling about needing a coffee fix quick before the next off tuned banjo strums....
Well, an hour later the booth finally opens up amid the numerous taunts and we move up in a semi comatose orderly fashion, ....some lady in front of me orders a double caffeine free latte

At first I thought I misunderstood.
.... It's early, I haven't had my fix yet, my hearing is compromised by the sound of 5000 banjos playing all night long...But NO... She waited in line with us for over an hour just to receive...no caffeine!?

When I offered to spit in her cup and save her the bucks, she politely passed on that and put her purse between us I suppose servicing as a barrier. I directed the barrister to make mine first as mine actually called for coffee. He chose to ignore me after all... he was hired for his ability to ignore major coffee jones.

My last thought before gulping down my double latte was how she paid for a double nothing...only in America!

15 seconds of fame
Everyone here has a dream of being a famous...banjo player? Well famous something player.My mini-me, Coco took her fiddle everywhere. At a moments notice and with any encouragement she was willing to play. Heck, if you accidentally made eye contact, she would whip out her fiddle and start playing.

She told me next year she hopes to enter the talent contest. I'm not sure we wants to compete...she just wants to be on stage. Famous...

Jimmy Martin
Jimmy Martin was the headliner. He's from the 'good ole boys' school of music.
Want to know where Jimmy will be when he dies? Just click.
http://www.findagrave.com/pictures/6832.html . BTW, Sunny Side of the Mountain is a fav of mine...good ole boy or not, he had talent...and seemed to always play in-tuned unlike the 4999 banjo players that also attended the festival.