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04/29/2003 Entry: "New Place, Same Fun"

Well, the change from Meridian to Stephenville went pretty well for Larry Joe's 15 Annual Chili Cook-Off and Texas Music Festival.
It didn't feel "Like Home" but no new place does for a while. The bands were great, it was a little heavy on the "Boys from Oklahoma" , Fromholz was of course laid up in the hospital in Waco, Doug Supernaw was "locked" into a deal in Mexico but the bands there did a great job.

I really liked the sets by Michael Hearn & SxSW (Blew the tent away!), Daryl Dodd, Susan Gibson and Slaid Cleaves besides the usual favorites, Davin, Tommy and of course LJ.

The new grounds are more spread out it seemed until I saw it in daylight after the tents were gone, walking it seemed like a zillion miles at night though! The outer spots seemed pretty rustic too, rocks & stumps pretty much every where. The electrical section is such that the RV's/Campers are best able to be hooked up by backing in like a spoke in a wheel, at least in my spot, this led to being quickly being blocked in from all sides by the others that arrived after me.

It will just take a year or two for the folks to get used to the new grounds, the new fires and hot spots and it will feel like home again.

I managed to find some great fires.. (Click for More)

I was camped right next to Hack and the boys from the Texas Music Revue and on Wednesday night Michael Hearn showed up with his sideman Ron, then Joe Pat and Tommy Alverson drifted in, next was Davin and Mike Grahm! They swapped some great tunes with a few others brave enough to play in their presence with the highlight being New Mexico Rain with sweet sweet harmonies. They did this song on stage with most of the same guys but the camp fire version was way better IMHO.

Thursday night found us at John Smith and the Wednesday Night boys camp where things got started with Marvin on the fiddle (that sounds familiar!) who had a guy that had a wonderful voice, Chad kept me entertained every-time I heard him the next few nights, a really great voice and wonderful songs. Tim played the harmonica and we hung around for a hour or so and went looking for the next place.

One of the nice things about running around with my bud Tim is many of the campfires welcome him back after playing last year. Tim's pretty dang good on the harmonica but his best trait is knowing when NOT to play and accenting the songwriter with subtleness.

The rest of Thursday night was spent roaming from fire to fire including the TMR, the Papa Bill Roach Band camp, some kids that had some of the Oklahoma boys ( Jason Boland & Mike McClure) and to bed early (3:00) ;-)