!Change of Plans!

Hey Everybody!

I know this will come as a great shock to many of you, but I have decided to stop traveling. After a trip to a music festival this weekend I realized that I have seen it all. Don't believe me? I witnessed a middle-aged, traditional country band - with a washboard - sing & dance (yes, dance) to Beyonce's "Put a Ring on it/Single Ladies." Plus....there's Twiggy, the world famous water skiing squirrel. No way to top this stuff!

I am SO sorry I don't have a pic of the Beyonce number. It was a quite a surprise & I was not prepared. Had I known how close I could get to the stage this past weekend I would have brought a real camera!

Back to the festival.....I spent the weekend in Maryville, TN for their annual Foothills Fall Festival. It's ranked as one of the best festivals in the country, but that had nothing to do with my decision. After being there, I concur it's an excellent festival. It runs so smoothly and efficiently.....hard not to be impressed. Everyone is friendly. And the weather was as close to perfect as one could hope - probably the last 70* temps for me this year. Some locals said I traveled further for the music than anybody else. No idea if that's true, but it was totally worth the trip.

I meet a lot of people and always learn something in my travel adventures. One of the things I have learned is that giving up concerts for travel is NOT easy. My music addiction needs to be fed on a regular basis. More than once I seriously considered changing (ok, canceling) my plans to see a show, but I stuck to my travel goals - just kept telling myself it would be okay :-). Sure, I travel with some music but it just ain't the same. After nearly 7 months (that's a lot to me!) I jumped at the chance to take in a variety of local/regional and national bands this past weekend, along with a songwriter circle.

It's like Nietzsche said: " Without music, life would be a mistake."

The songwriter circle....

My impetus for the trip (in order of appearance):

Gary Allan - another California native - who does stunning lyrical work. I often think of him as a modern day Zarathustra

&

Train!

Ok, so they aren't CA natives.... But they are definitely a CA band!

These guys are just cool & it makes me happy that they exist.

But there were other good reasons to go.....including more surprises. Not only did Thompson Square put on a great show as the opening act for the artist formerly known as Hootie.....

Darius Rucker

....but also they sang Dobie Gray's "Drift Away" - one of the greatest songs of all-time. Years ago I was lucky to hear Dobie Gray (now deceased) sing that song in Nashville & it's always good to hear it live one more time. Train....if you're listening....I think you guys would do a sweet live version :-) Please!

Thompson Square

Another surprise was a diverse band, The Farm. I didn't think I knew who they were, although it turned out I had heard their first two singles on the radio. Their performance was excellent - unique, high energy & quite flawless. Pretty sure this group is going places!

Another nice surprise was Train throwing part of The Rolling Stones song "You Can't Always Get What You Want" into the show. I have begged Mick to sing this when I've been at Stones shows - it's like he doesn't hear me! Go figure.....

One last thing....all of the above is true except for the stopping part. I can't quit now. I leave for Antarctica in about TWO weeks!!!!!!!

I know the blog hasn't been updated for a couple weeks. I will try to post some Antarctic tidbits before I leave because it won't be easy to blog from the white continent. Hope all is well at your end. I appreciate that you keep stopping by & I promise to start posting way too much about the Antarctica trip as soon as I am able (hopefully around Thanksgiving). And I promise to try not to reference Nietzsche twice in the next post...although that would be fun for me.....

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