Kate Wolf, Day 1, (and day 2 and 3)

I am at the Kate Wolf Festival... A Folk/Traditional Music festival in Laytonville...  I am camping... for a couple nights... for three days of music...

My fellow campers, my fellow music fans, are an eclectic bunch... A group likely identified as hippies... A now lost tribe... A community...

I am camped among them...   It is a welcoming community...  I am doing the festival solo... The lovely Ms. T is "doing" the Olympics Gymnastics trial, Steph the daughter is studying for finals...  So I am solo...

Not completely... The festival has a Yahoo group... Vicky from San Francisco needed a ride... I gave her a ride... I am now camped next to Vicky, her brother Brian and wife Laura... Susan, a teacher from Lake county is next door... She has friends in a RV next to her...

Camp is set up... A shade awing.. The tent... The tail gate of the truck is my table... A chair, a cot as additional seating... For the weekend, home.  Music is starting... But, I am content to sit in camp and listen from afar... I am tired and the sitting is good...   The music is better... But sometimes more intense... Just camping and sitting is good...

I had hoped for phone and data access, but he phone says "no"... This blog post is likely to chronicle the full three days...

First band (that I saw) was the Good Time Thrift Store Outfit...  Possibly my new favorite band... But there are contenders... Some here...  Back at camp... Blogging (you may have figured that out by now) but soon headed back to the music... It is mostly about the music... But also about the community and not being home... Being away...  Camping with other music lovers...

Band 2..  Rita Hosking...  A fusion of Blue grass, folk and other influences not yet identified.... I was happy...

I listened to Texas Tornadoes for a bit...  Blame Sally is playing, but I never found the right stage...   Back in camp... A snack of chips and salsa... And beer... Never forget the beer... Beer is important....

Music is breaking out everywhere...  Dylan in circles in front of motor homes... Banjo from an old VW bus... A guitar circle under a tarp in front of a tent in riverside camp... Tyedye is much in evidence.

Sitting in a small circle of light from a Coleman lantern,  under my tarp, in my little piece of camp... Music waiting across the camp ground... My Ipad playing, The sound of trucks passing on the highway 100 yards off to the east...

It is time to return to the festival grounds... There is music there... I will soon be there ...

At this point, we have left my firsts post, at least as conceived... But here at the festival grounds, several hundred yards from highway 101, I have no phone service, no 3G or any other kind of data sevice... I am off the grid... Last month, 50 miles east of Carson City, 10 or so miles off Hwy 50 (aka  America's Loneliest road, while driving 10 or so miles off the nearest paved road, I had 3 G...  Here near the most important Pacific Coast highway,  The major road, nearest the nation's left coast,nothing...

So, the post, so far un-posted, continues... On to Day 2...

Saturday, 7:30 am or so... I have been up for an hour, now on my second cup of coffee... Around me, in camp, folks are starting to stir.  The camp is mostly quiet, with bird making the most noise... Except for highway 101, a couple of hundred yards off to the east...  of special note are the occasional trucks with Jake brakes... The highway is flat here, and the Jake brakes not needed, so I can only assume that the truckers are making a statement.

I am camped in Meadow camp, with my truck next to the tent (and awning) , are the "quiet" end of Meadow camp.  There are a wide  variety of camping styles found about the festival, ranging from recent RV's and an occasional Airstream to tents, most with an awning, many awnings decorated with peace flags, Tibetan or batik print sheets.   Others are sleeping in the back pickups...  one strange soul is sleeping on the ground,  rolled in a worn oriental carpet next to his car… Everyone has a cooler, (except the guy in the carpet) but few are cooking anything.  There is also Riverside camp...  (in truth, Riverside camp is the main camp… Willow camp, with cars and trucks and RVs and trailers is the secondary camp) Tents only, no vehicles allowed (except for setup... They write the time you go in on your windshield, and enforce the time limit.)

For me the music started at 11:00 with Rita Hosking... She is not doing Kate, instead her own music, but she channeling her spirit... Rita was followed by Ferron... Folk in the we can fix you and the world style... Then, I headed to an alternate stage for Blame Sally... Spectacular as usual,  but more relaxed, and less serious... More jokes and a couple of little mistakes... I had to leave before the Sallys were done, to catch Broke down in Bakersfield...  Tim, Nikki Blume and friends channeling Gram Parsons, Merle, and California country, circa 1970... They are weirdly, a cover band, with each musician having their own unique (not cover band) projects...  I don't like. cover  bands on principal, but I love Broke Down in Bakersfield...  Likely the high point of the weekend was Broke Down in Bakersfield doing Luxury Liner, with Nikki channeling Emmy Lou Harris.

Afterwards, it was Poor Man's Whiskey, doing Kate 's songs... Again, a cover band, for at least this project... Half way through their set, I tire, and head back to camp, phone nearly dead, to recharge electronics, and myself...  Dad's truck, now my truck, and the vehical of choice for this trip has an inverter, and a three prong plug, and can serve as a 400 watt generator... My phone is pluged in, along with the IPad, and my neighbor's two phones...

Back to the music... Nikki and Tim .... Went up afterward, talked to Nikki...  Maybe a new favorite musical muse...  Sorry Emmy Lou...   She shook my hand with that look that suggested she was either moved by my remarks or was hoping the crazy old guy would go away... I like to think the former, but...

Afterward, Justin Townes Earle... The musical heir to Townes Van Zant, via his father Steve Earle...  The music is good...

Back to camp... Now barefoot... It feels good... The volunteers are commenting, cheering on my lack of footwear...  I am becoming accepted by the community (likely as the old barefoot guy)

Back to Good Time Thrift Store Outfit... A smaller show, more intimate
 Great music... I ended up in the first row sitting with mostly family members... I like the band more and more...

Afterward, up to the main stage... K D Lang... The Bar B Que place finally had ribs... Worth the wait... For both...  KD Lang's set is tight, well produced, not what people expect, but welcome, talked about afterwards, great.

Back to camp, now, in the dark with sandals on...,back to,camp to,blog, to,sit by lamp light, maybe read... To relax...

Without connectivity, I continue to blog...

Day 3... Up a bit after the sun, before most of the others... Coffee... Siting, reading, then, sadly, breaking camp...  By 10:00 the camp, tent, awning, kitchen are all packed... I sit with neighbors Vicky, Brian, and Laura and talk, then off for a last day of music...

This time I set a chair, a home base... I continue to move from stage to stage... More Rita, more Blame Sally...  I go to a secondary stage to see Laughton Wainwright III's daughter,  Lucy Wainwright Roche preform... She is good, the stories between more important than the songs...  But the songs are good...

Eventually, I leave, I head south before the music, the festival is over... Home is 4 hours away... I need to be home before dark, or at least before really dark... I head south...

Susan, my next door neighbor is heading south as well, she has a early flight to Seattle, we talk... Apearntly, I snore... ( this I knew, but I did not know you could head me three tents away...). Anyway... Home where my snoring is Ms. T.'s problem...

Best quote of the weekend, "World Peace through smoking Jello..."  Wavy Gravy... (there was a story associated with it, involving dry ice and a bus belly bin full of cherry Jello… With those minor details you can create your own story… )

Best weird sight (this was tough) A Ron Paul bumper sticker on a pick up from Oregon, parked among the Hippies...