Best three hour commute I ever made...

Andrew, Craig, Will.

What a great show for a great cause. If there is anything I can do for Ritchie Hayward I want to do it. This band has been a part of my life for so many years and the players are all such cool people. Sometimes we all have to band together to take care of the ones we care about. This is one of those times. Nuff said."

I leave you with a few lyrics from my favorite Little Feat song. Thanks Ritchie. Just call it payback for a smile. You really have no idea how much I love this song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12Mz4u_LbS4

Well I'm waitin' for something to take place
Something to take me away from this race
'Round city to city, town to town
Runnin' around in the shoes of a clown
And that desperate, no count, desperado
A thief of love, my business is the street
I be shakin' 'em down
In old Colorado
Texas she's nice, but Georgia's oh so sweet
Steal away with me darlin' your lovin' just can't be beat
So it seems that the world keeps on turnin' but so what
I don't doubt it, it just keeps on the move
You're a dream, and that's all that I ask for
So well now, I'm wonderin' just how I'm gonna tell it to you
Skin it back

Craig Lee Fuller!

Craig Fuller. Until I started talking to him I always used his whole name. He is a really nice guy who I have listened to since the 1970's. http://www.pureprairieleague.com/

I always said to my friends who love Little Feat like I do that I thought Craig was the best vocalist to handle the songs Lowell left behind. When he was in the band they recorded some great songs and he was always the best person to sing "Willin." I guess I could ramble about Craig and Little Feat but there is no point. My advice is to watch the tour schedule and go see these bands perform. They still rock as well as they ever did. Two Lane Highway, Amie...on and on. Craig Rocks!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDW_MraaKi4&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4xp2lgiAjY&feature=related

I remember this one from the juke box in the pool hall in Madden, Mississippi...what a great song! I still love it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioMQent_Ca0&feature=related

Craig and Patrick on the Stage....

Jamming. Craig and Patrick Fuller on the stage with the guys making the fund raiser happen. There were so many talented musicians playing Little Feat songs. I was impressed with all the talent at this event. Sort of like the old school guys coming out to help a friend. And they played it well. I remembered the moment they played "Cold Cold Cold." I was sitting beside Patrick in the seats and I heard Craig hear the opening two drum beats...he leans over to Patrick and quietly called the song "Cold Cold Cold." Nice. Lowell at his best...but in my mind Craig can sing this as well as anyone ever did.

This is a great video and yes that is Ritchie playing drums. Awesome. Go watch.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmG8sdaeCYk

The Ritchie Hayward Benefit...

The morning after working at Merlefest and getting in bed at 3:30 AM I got up and headed east to Chapel Hill or even more correctly Carrboro which is joined to Chapel Hill at some point which I will probably never understand. At any rate I was on a mission to add myself to the body count at the Ritchie Hayward benefit closest to me. http://www.littlefeat.net/index.php?page=news&n_id=615
I knew Craig Fuller was going to be there and some cool local bands. I stopped at Starbucks to have a triple shot of espresso to lift my spirits and then sipped a red bull to clear my throat. I was ready for some Feat tunes. Oh yeah.

Oh I should mention that is WIll McFarlane on stage. http://www.willmcfarlane.com/. He played the opening set and rocked! I should mention he toured with Bonnie Raitt for like six years and he rocks on guitar. I really enjoyed watching him play.

More Elvis and the SugarCanes...

Elvis and his crew rocked the house. It was great. So much talent, so many great songs.
Not to mention I got to pack up all those great guitars into their cases. He has some great old Gibsons. The J45 rocks...

Elvis' encore was the Rolling Stones' "Happy." A personal favorite of mine.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTsrjJbI870&feature=related


Well I never kept a dollar past sunset,
It always burned a hole in my pants.
Never made a school mama happy,
Never blew a second chance, oh no

I need a love to keep me happy,
I need a love to keep me happy.
Baby, baby keep me happy.
Baby, baby keep me happy.

Talent.

There was a TON of talent on this stage. What a great show.

Elvis Costello, Jim Lauderdale, Jerry Douglas, and others. A great show. Did I say that twice? Yeah, it was an awesome show.

http://www.elviscostello.com/

http://jimlauderdale.com/
http://www.jerrydouglas.com/

Elvis and his band

http://www.elviscostello.com/

A nice moment. Elvis in the dressing room hallway. His band is warming up before going on stage. They rocked the place. It was the last night of their tour and he was flying back to London. So his band was heading back to Nashville. This was sort of the goodbye moment I guess.

Sam Bush!

http://www.sambush.com/

As I write this I am listening to the Little Feat "Join the Band" cd. Sam is all over this cd. http://www.amazon.com/Little-Matthews-Jimmy-Buffett-others/dp/B0019OP0KG I really like this guy. Even though he is the premier mandolin player on the planet he acts just like the rest of us. It seemed even though we were both pretty tired we never even felt it. There was too much good stuff going on around us. Positive vibes in all directions.
Sam was having some serious fun with everyone off the stage and on. He told me some stories but the one I will share is his message of how much he loved Merle Watson. You could see it in his face when he said it. I guess the consolation is we all have a wonderful festival in his honor with awesome music. He lives on. 'Nuff said.

Jerry Douglas

http://www.jerrydouglas.com/

Did I mention Jerry Douglas was in the house? Man what an awesome player and yes he is a nice guy. I asked him to pose for me and he did without hesitation. There is nothing I like better than a down to earth great musician. This guy has won twelve grammy awards and so many other honors I don't have web storage to tell you about them. He has played with anyone who is anyone. He is just that good. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Douglas

Anyway in the next few pictures you will see him playing with Elvis Costello and others. Did I mention he was a nice guy who smiles all the time? Very cool.

More Steve Martin & The Steep Canyon Rangers

http://www.steepcanyon.com/

http://blog.oregonlive.com/celebrity-outsider/2010/02/steve_martin_and_the_steep_canyon_rangers_to_play_bonnaroo.html

Steve Martin Tuning Up

Steve taking a quick break to tune up. He was very focused on his playing.
I can say I have always been a Steve Martin fan. His TV and movie work is pretty damn awesome. I think he even holds the record for hosting Saturday Night Live. It was a bit surreal being that close to him all night and hearing him talk. For some reason I never expected to be that close to him in my life. Anyway. He did a great job on the stage and I can say that the backstage crowd for him was HUGE and a bit overwhelming. I got concerned about getting him into the van when he left. It took six sheriff's deputies to clear the hall to get him out. There was never a larger crowd back there for a performer. Anyone who had credentials was back there. Wild and Crazy to be sure. And yes he did "King Tut." Very cool.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XePWgs43eOc

Steve Martin's Banjos

Steve Martin was in the house. Here his banjos are open waiting for him to tune them up.
http://www.stevemartin.com/

Dierks Bentley

http://www.dierks.com/
So a couple of days ago I was in a bar talking to this 22 year old as I waited out the rain to get to my car. It was a really random meeting of someone who I never even asked their name. Somehow I started talking about my adventures from Merlefest and the name Dierks Bentley came up. I am thinking this girl will never know who he is. But yet she goes on to tell me she is a huge fan. I then told her 'I have never heard of the guy until I walked past him going on to the stage." Too funny. Well I guess you can't be great at everything.

The Hillside Album Hour Crowd.

http://www.waybacks.com/

This event has become a tradition at Merlefest. The Hillside Album Hour crowd was HUGE and very loud. We estimated 8-10,000 people on the hill sitting on the grass. The Waybacks played the Beatles "Abbey Road" from start to finish. Elvis Costello came on and added his vocals at one point. The crowd was so large I never even got close to the stage. Matt, my new friend from Athens, Georgia and I just soaked up the show from the side of the stage. It was great. Very cool. I am hoping to find a bootleg of this audio on the internet. I would like to hear it again.

Dusty Ridge Jamming...

The cool thing about Merlefest is there are people jamming everywhere. You cannot see all the music. There are too many stages and too many jams going on day and night.

Here I was sitting in the shade for a few minutes and I look 20 feet away to see a group of players who I know from Eden. In fact the one playing banjo is in my family. These kids are very talented and still very young. They can play some bluegrass music! In fact they had two gigs two hours away on this night and had to go right after I took this picture.

More sights at Merlefest.

http://www.wncw.org/

Advertising some good radio...

A big pile of sand...

Melefest 2010. There is so much going on in this place!

http://merlefest.org/

More Feat.

I just liked this picture. There is nothing like enjoying good music and being close to the performers.

Feat!

http://www.littlefeat.net/
Feat rocking the stage. Very cool...even Sam Bush came back on stage to play with them. It was a great night! I love to hear Craig sing Willin.

'http://www.sambush.com/

Lowell George

I been warped by the rain, driven by the snow
I'm drunk and dirty don't ya know,
and I'm still, willin'
Out on the road late at night,
Seen my pretty Alice in every head light
Alice, Dallas Alice

Patrick & Craig Fuller

http://www.pureprairieleague.com/
Craig and his son were backstage for the Feat show. Craig was the vocals behind Little Feat in what I consider the best period after Lowell George died. My thought is he came as close as possible to making you feel the soul of the Feat music as anyone else could. I still feel that way. They made some great recordings in that brief era. I am really happy he is back singing with them at times.

Craig is now living with his family in Pinehurst right here in my state of North Carolina. I like that. He has a great history with his Pure Prairie League days and of course I think his work with Little Feat was top shelf. Craig told me he did thirty five dates with Pure Prairie League last year across the United States. He still stays busy on the touring circuit.

Patrick is going to UNC Chapel Hill. More on him when I post on my adventure two days later from this night. Stand by.

I still love Two Lane Highway...it reminds me so much of the 1970's.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4xp2lgiAjY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioMQent_Ca0

Fred Tackett

http://www.littlefeat.net/index.php?page=bioft Fred. I really like this guy. He is so damn good on guitar and other stuff too, even horns and mandolin, he is quite the musician.

Earlier I was in the parking lot with Fred and Paul at the big yellow bus talking. I asked Fred about his work on the Boz Scaggs "Silk Degrees" album. He told me a few stories which I enjoyed. I made sure I told him how much I still enjoy that music. Fred has made some great music in his time. The best part is he is a very nice guy. I always enjoy any moments I can get with the Feat guys.

http://www.paulandfred.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Tackett

Nick Ohl before the Little Feat Show.

Nick in his groove. He is one of the best sound and tuning guys out there. He is very organized. Each piece of equipment has a label with its matching case. Each instrument has its tuning set and labeled in the rack. The set list has the guitars listed down the side. The set is pretty flawless. He can tune an instrument in short order. I have never seen anyone work as fast as he does. The band brags on him and I really get it. Cool stuff.

The Doc & Merle Watson Stage.

Donna the Buffalo on the main stage. This building is pretty large as it sort of sprawls in the back with a full service eating area and dressing rooms for the artists. The loading dock is a pretty big area completely open to the air. The cool thing is Doc has his own labeled parking place right out back.

Tara Nevins!

Tara plays accordion, guitar, scrub board, and fiddle. She was all over stages playing with all kinds of bands. It seemed she was always backstage waiting to play with another band. Very cool indeed. I can't wait for my next Donna the Buffalo show. They rock.

Jeb Puryear

http://www.donnathebuffalo.com/ I was standing at the check-in on Thursday afternoon and the woman in the tent noticed a bus zooming by. She said "There comes Donna." The band had arrived.

In this shot Jeb is soaring on some cool riffs on the main stage. They had already rocked the dance hall the night before for several hours. I got up in time to get back here on Friday afternoon for the 1:30 main stage performance. Can I say I REALLY like this band!

What did Zac Play?

I collect set lists. Here is Zac's list just before I took it off the stage. After all the players jammed before Zac played they skipped though the set list. It made for some tricky production back stage with the video. It was well done with no mistakes.

Before I move on I should mention that Zac played some new songs that were quite nice. He is in the process of recording a new cd. In fact he just recorded a new song with Jimmy Buffett called "Knee Deep." The new album will be called "You Get What You Give" and will be released in August.

So we live out in our old van
Travel all across this land
Me and you

We'll end up hand in hand
Somewhere down on the sand
Just me and you

Just as free
Free as we'll ever be
Just as free
Free as we'll ever be

Zac Brown!

Zac working on the stage. It was a very cool night. It was quite a long show and late-night load out. I think the truck door closed at 2:30 AM. I was in bed by 3:30 and getting ready for another day of Merlefest.

My pal Matt and his friend just before they hit the stage.

I had just finished helping Matt setup his bass rig to play with Zac Brown. I was impressed with his Peterson stomp box strobe tuner which is just like the one I have at home. We were hamming it up and having fun.

The video control console..

Ever wonder how those big screen images are directed? Well this is a close shot of a control board containing many displays of all the cameras on stage as well as the stored footage used as the songs are played. A director sits in front of all of this with his headphones on talking to all the lighting and stage crew. It is like a mini tv studio in action. Quite nice for the crowd in the back as the Merlefest crowd is very large and it can be tough to see from the back.

Zac Brown's Guitar Rack.

http://www.zacbrownband.com/ After Taj finished his set it was time for the Zac Brown Band. Man they had a HUGE amount of gear with them. They were fresh off a tour and there was gear stacked all over the back stage area. Lights, Video gear, a Hammond B3 and Leslie, on and on. As I looked off the back of the stage area I could see the lines of million dollar Prevost buses. It is a rather cold night after a very warm day. The Zac Brown Band had just walked up as a group and were now cutting up in a group right off of stage left.

Oh the guitar strap...notice Zac has his kids names on the one on the right. (You can click on the image to enlarge it) http://www.parentsconnect.com/connect/boards/hot_topics/girls_names/chat_it_up_thread.jhtml?tID=79146

Taj Mahal.

http://www.tajblues.com/
Taj on stage Thursday night. I am already back stage for my first night on the crew. It will be a long one. More on that in a moment. Taj was great. I had seen him before many years ago and I really enjoyed his music. Cool stuff.

Merlefest 2010...

The scene at the main stage upon arrival into the venue which in this case is Wilkes Community College in North Wilkesboro, North Carolina. It is Thursday afternoon and the crowd has already set a record. This festival is growing leaps and bounds. The food tent alone is huge. There are rows and rows of vendor tents, a special tent for t-shirts and cds, as well as a whole tent just for instrument sales. Multiple stages across many acres of beautiful green grass set in the edge of the Blue Ridge mountains, I have arrived for quite a cool adventure.

Here are the links to a couple of newspaper articles estimating the four day crowd at Merlefest to be 76,000. The third highest attendance for this event.

http://www.salisburypost.com/Lifestyle/050910-Merlefest-main

http://www.highcountrypress.com/weekly/2010/05-06-10/merlefest-2010-among-top-three.htm