You know, folks often ask me what it’s like to do what we do, and what a typical weekend is like with the band. I usually just laugh because it’s hard to put into words how intensely fun and insane our adventures are. Last weekend’s shows just about summed it up for me. Picture this.....
2 pm FRIDAY. The temperature hovered in the mid-90’s with sweltering humidity. Oh boy, another festival weekend! Jim and Rich and I climbed into our fully loaded van (and I mean “fully loaded” - complete sound system, canopy and frame, 5 instruments, inventory, luggage, coolers of food, and a lap top with GPS system). We hit the road just in time for rush hour weekend traffic to New Hampshire. We didn’t mind the traffic, though, because we had plenty of snacks and sandwiches, and Rich kept us updated with the Red Sox score on his wireless hand-held computer thingy. (I have no idea what the device is. All I know is that I’m never far from a Red Sox score. The guys tell me that I’m roadkill on the information superhighway. And that I’m a sportsaholic.)
5 pm FRIDAY. Well, we finally made it up to beautiful Castle in the Clouds in Moultonborough, NH to check out the site where we’d be performing as well as running sound for the next day’s bluegrass festival. The sky was looking ominous, so we piled back into the van and headed 20 minutes up the road to our host’s lovely home on Lake Winnipesaukee. En route a wicked thunderstorm blew over, and in the course of 20 minutes, the temperature dropped 20 degrees. Awesome! Of course by the time we got to our hosts, the power was off because of the storm. No problem! We spent the evening having a cookout and picking and singing. Man, it’s hard work, but someone’s gotta do it! Sure beats sitting home watching videos!
MIDNIGHT FRIDAY Bob, who lives in South Carolina arrived from Manchester airport, wired as usual. He couldn’t believe how cool it was, as it was close to 100 when he left home that evening. He kept us up for over an hour just visiting and catching up on the week. We finally ordered him to go to bed so we could all get some sleep. :>)
SATURDAY 8 AM A quick breakfast out on the patio, (home-made scones!) a quick swim in the lake, and an hour of picking to kick-start our weekend. Gotta keep in shape!
SATURDAY 10 AM. We headed off to the Castle and spent the next several hours setting up our sound system and running sound check. When it comes to sound, Jim’s a magician!
SATURDAY Noon-5 pm. The bands arrived and the audience started to pour in. We had folks sitting out on the grass, folks under the big tent, folks hugging, folks picnicing, kids running around. Even a big friendly dog who promptly ate Jim’s lunch. (Don’t worry, we had back-up!) It felt like a family reunion. It was happy chaos! The festival went without a hitch and audience was awesome. We closed out the show with a bang and nobody wanted to leave! For a first year event, it was a rousing success! Looks like it’s going to be an annual event. Yahoo!
SATURDAY 7 PM. We tore down the sound system, packed up the van and headed back to our hosts for another cookout and songfest, as well as goodbye hugs.
SATURDAY 9 PM On the road again...this time down to the First Baptist Church in Needham, MA to set up our sound system for tomorrow’s service.
SATURDAY 11:30 PM We pulled up in Needham and discovered a huge crowd of smiling teenagers (from the local youth group) to help us unload the van and set up our sound system. The cavalry had arrived! Yippee! We did a quick sound check and headed home to sleep for a few hours.
SUNDAY 9 AM Back at the Church for the morning service. And what a wonderful service it was. Pastor Deborah gave a phenomenal sermon and our music had folks shaking the rafters. Folks were stomping and hollering and kids were breakdancing in the aisles! It was the first time we got an encore at a Church service!
SUNDAY 11 AM A quick lunch with the congregation. Lots of hugs and home-made cookies.
SUNDAY NOON With the help of our teenage volunteers (We’ve named them GRITS: GROUPIES AND ROADIES IN TRAINING) we moved our sound system outdoors for an afternoon concert for the town of Needham.
SUNDAY 1:30 PM Our afternoon concert kicked off with a bang. The lawn was covered with folks from Needham and surrounding towns. And the local cable TV channel was there to film the event.
SUNDAY 4 PM. The last notes were rung and the last hugs were shared. Rich drove Bob to Logan airport. Jim and I tore down the system with the help of our GRITS youth group. We packed up the van and headed home with smiles still plastered on our faces. We had just spent 3 days on the road, performed 3 concerts and we had torn down and set up our sound system 3 times. Were we exhausted? You bet!
We can’t wait to do it again!!!!!
Sharon Horovitch, Southern Rail