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Peter Rowan, Thomas Point Beach Bluegrass Festival, August 2007
Here
are two pictures from the Saturday evening closing set of the 2007
Thomas Point Beach bluegrass festival. I was fortunate to be asked to
fill in on banjo with Peter Rowan's band when Tony Rice cancelled his
appearance. The rest of the band was pretty good too: Mike Bub on bass
and Ricky Simpkins on mandolin. It was maybe the most fun I've had on
stage - I smiled through most of the set, but unfortunately these two
pictures didn't catch that. Thanks to Marla Singleton for taking these
photos (and the other 200-odd she took during the set.) She's a
talented stage photographer - you can see more of her work at her flickr.com site.
Louise and Earl Scruggs, Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival, July 2004
It
was a great thrill for me to meet Earl Scruggs at the 2004 Grey Fox
festival. Thanks to Todd Wright, then the Artist Relations manager at
Gibson and now with the Deering Banjo Company, I got to spend 15
minutes alone with Earl and had a couple of days to figure out what I
was going to ask him. It's rare to be able to talk to someone who has
been such a profound influence.
The first thing I said to Earl
when we sat down was, "Thank you for changing my life". I've since
found out how many other banjo players have said the same thing on
their first meeting with him.
Natalie McMaster, Ossipee Bluegrass Festival, July 2002
OK, try
to follow me here. I once had a banjo student named Amelia. She
mentioned to me once that a friend of her parents had written a
contradance tune and named it Amelia's Waltz, after her. I went out to
learn the tune, and found a version of it by Natalie McMaster. A couple
of years later, I used the tune to win the 2002 New England Banjo
Championship at the Ossipee Valley Bluegrass Festival. Part of the
prize was a two song set on stage Saturday evening. When I went
backstage to get ready for my set, Natalie was warming up for her set
immediately following mine, and I took the opportunity to thank her for
recording the tune. She graciously offered to play it with me.
Unfortunately,
Amelia had stopped taking lessons by then, and I never got the chance
to thank her for starting this amazing circle of events.
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