The others were going to gather for the World Cup final, but we were bound to do the old thing of getting a top spot in line, waiting it out, and then setting up our chairs in our normal spot, halfway between the soundboard and the stage. And that's what we did!
Packed up all our stuff (with the great help of the hotel luggage dolly), checked one last time in the microwave, and hit the road for Massachusetts by about 9:30 and were pulling into College Road by 10:00 or so. We felt we were sufficiently early, and it was creepy how we were able to pull right up to the circle at the start of the parking lots without being challenged. Turns out the staff and Greenfield cops were surprised that anybody besides vendors and volunteers would show up that early! We were smart and let Dave out to wander in as soon as possible, though we didn't have time to get him out a chair before: a) they realized we weren't vendors or volunteers and b) the cop started waving angrily at us and being as firm as possible.
He told us with a little edge in his voice, "Only vendors and volunteers are allowed in before 11!" We started to tell him that yes we understood that, we just needed to pull over for a second to get out a chair for our son who was going to wait in line. Dave smartly started walking towards the line at that point so he was not in the "conversation." The cop replied by saying a little more slowly and with a little less edge in his voice, like we were simple and just hadn't understood, "Only vendors and volunteers are allowed in before 11." We shrugged and drove around the circle and then pulled over where there was no question that we were out of the way and I got out so I could open the back and get out a chair for Dave. The cop ran after us, waving, and shouted, "Only vendors and volunteers are allowed in before 11!!" I walked up to him calmly and said, "I'm sorry, I'm only trying to get out a chair for my son who's in line already." He said, "Only vendors and volunteers are allowed in before 11!!!" I wanted to say, "Just turn around and look 100 feet behind you and you'll see a line to get in, those people are not vendors or volunteers," but I decided I shouldn't burst his bubble. This guy knew how to say only one thing apparently. I tried one last time, "But my son is in line already." He actually went off script and said, "Is he a vendor?" I said no. "Is he a volunteer?" I said no. He raised his eyebrows like he had won the debate and almost shouted, "Only vendors and volunteers are allowed in before 11!!!!"
Anyway, maybe it was I was the dumb one after all. Probably what he was trying to say was that, "My instructions are to only let in vendors and volunteers until 11 but if people walk in and stand in line it's not my issue and I don't know anything about it but I'm not about to let you give them chairs! I'm just doing my job, sir." So we pulled down the road just enough so we were out of his line of sight. Then we pulled over and Sarah got out with two chairs and walked in to join Dave in line. Jeez, now I just had 50 minutes or so to kill.
That was fine with me and I drove around a bit to check the surrounding area and then tried College Road again. By that point the volunteers had figured out what they should be doing is to coach the early arrivals into forming a discrete line of cars, and I was about 10th in that line. I called up the World Cup on my phone and realized it wasn't starting until 11 itself! Oh well, they finally let us cars in well before 11 and I grabbed our favorite parking space (minus one), checked in with Sarah and Dave in line in the sun, and then went back to the car in the shade to watch the game.
Dave texted me that they were about to move and I joined the line, though this was a false alarm. The fact was, they were a little more organized than in the last few years, but were just not ready for the crowds or how soon they'd be arriving. Not like this should have been new to them, but I've never gone to a music festival where they did things perfectly. But the GRF again is a nice mellow experience, and we were all talking and joking in line. I shared news of the first half with our line neighbors, including the oddity that France had only one shot on goal but was currently leading 2-1.
OK at last it was time to get in and we had no problem grabbing seats at our favorite spot between the stage and soundboard, in the bright sun. And P&D joined us soon. We were in the beautiful GRF for the Sunday set one more time and life was great! One thing I should mention was that we were really impressed with the lushness and subtle colors of the Greenfield Community College grounds, looking their best in the first month of summer and holding up well to the amazing crowds. Don't know if Sunday sold out, but it sure seemed as crowded as Saturday.
Checked out a few vendors, talked to some volunteers, looked at merch, and then joined the mellow mash of people in front of the stage at 12:45 for:
Molly Tuttle - Molly is the reigning IBMA Guitarist Of the Year (the first women ever nominated for the award), and there actually was more of a crowd up front to see her than there had been for the first Sunday performer in any other year I could remember. I guess her reputation preceded her. And it didn't take long before we were all gobsmacked by her talent, her fingering, and her tone. There were plenty of bluegrass whoops and hollers even with her first few songs, she was so impressive. When Dave joined me after one song I gushed to him, "She's playing lead and rhythm and I can't even see her pick the lead she's so fast!" She did her great cover of John Hartford's Gentle On My Mind, which was just surreal it was so good. But the most gobsmacking thing for me and Dave was when she closed with the first Grateful Dead song of the day, Cold Rain and Snow. This is actually a traditional murder ballad, though the murder itself is not talked about, just hinted at. In her womanly arrangement, she was the one who was walking down the stairs combing back her yellow hair, and it was she who murdered the no good (I presume) man.
Wow, that was a great start! Got some food and water and watched the late-arriving crowd, they already missed one of the best acts of the weekend. But it wasn't long before the next main stage act came on:
Ballroom Thieves - Wasn't at all familiar with them but the writeup in the program convinced me that I'd like them and I sure did; this was just the kind of genre-straddling, quirky act I love. They're a college band themselves (they met at Stonehill College and called themselves "from Boston"). Drummer Devin Mauch kind of sits on the floor with sticks and mallets and plays a djembe and a bass drum, as well as a small kit and assorted percussion. Martin Earley plays a traditional acoustic guitar and sometimes a shiny electric, but it's Callie Peters who really defines their sound. She started off on a big red bass more shiny than Earley's but soon switched to an even shinier, spotless gray cello which she struck and sawed on with her bow. This was an incredible sound! Her cello seemed to be set so that she could either get a ringing viola sound or a raunchy growl out of each string when she switched a pedal, or maybe it was the strings were rigged alternately through different filters. As with Tuttle, it was beyond me how she did that and it was enthralling.
Well! Dave and I were were already pretty toasted and a trip to the car and a sojourn in the shade had mixed effects itself. We both headed for the porta-potties after that and just as he asked me, "Who is this Chris Smither guy anyway?" and I was about to say, "Who is Chris Smither!?!?!?" ... there he was, doing his small set at the Green House. We stopped to watch him and suffice to say that Dave immediately made up his mind to catch Chris's full set later that afternoon.
And I want to talk some about my "theme" of the festival. As loyal readers will recall, I commented that the festival two years ago had the theme of great guitarists (Derek Trucks, David Hidalgo, Sonya Kitchell, David Littleton, etc.) and last year it was great drummers such as Joe Russo and Mike Calabrese. Took a stupid guy like me a while to figure out the theme of this festival ... it was incredible woman performers! Just that day we'd seen Molly Tuttle and Callie Peters dominate the show already (see below about I'm With Her). Saturday it had been Ruth Ungar who dominated my attention with The Mammals, Alicia Aubin with Big Mean Sound Machine, the incredible Allison Russell with Birds Of Chicago, and of course Karina Reykman with Marco Benevento. On Friday it had been no less than Amy Helm, and the two great singers with Twisted Pine, Rachel Sumner and Katherine Parks. Geez, though the last couple of bands that afternoon consisted of all guys, the men could have stayed home (or in the audience) that weekend and we'd have all just gone nuts over the talent these women brought.
By that point, as mentioned, the relentless heat and humidity were really affecting me, and I thought I should sit down for the next act with a little food and a lot of water. Tried this for a while but two things happened: a) I couldn't take the sun and had to move out of the seats as soon as I finished eating and b) the next act cast a spell on me something serious.
I'm With Her - I had caught a bit of them up at the Green House Stage and of course have seen Aoife O'Donovan many times and think she's great. I'd also seen Sarah Jarosz and she's an incredible talent. I'd never seen Sara Watkins, and was possibly more impressed with her than the other two. And I've heard their excellent new record as well as the things they've released on Spotify. BUT ... I was not prepared for the level of excellent musicianship I saw. I thought they were another one of those super-groups who get together and have fun but basically take turns playing each other's songs and are not really a band. I was wrong, they just blew me away with how well they melded not only in their harmonies but also in their ability to accompany the ensemble's vocal sounds on instruments: O'Donovan on guitar (better than I've ever heard her play guitar before), Watkins on incredibly tasteful fiddle, guitar, and mandolin, and multi-instrumentalist Jarosz on fiddle, mandolin, banjo, and whatever else she could lay her hands on. They had to swap instruments a few times, there was not room enough on stage for all of them.
As I say, the spell had me good and after I couldn't take sitting in the sun any longer I crept up to the stage and got pretty close, though there were hundreds of others up there. I wondered a couple of times if I was about to fall over, but my legs held up, I concentrated on breathing calmly, and I had what started as a full bottle of water but soon was gone. Perhaps it was the extreme conditions to some degree, but the emotion of their singing almost had me in tears at various times.
They finally neared the end of their set and Aoife and Sarah turned to Watkins, who picked up her guitar and did her excellent new song, which is just a great road song about wanderlust and how we Americans still can dream, Overland. And then they were scratching their asses a bit, wondering what song they'd close with. A woman just to my left was trying to hold it in too, but then dropped her cool and shouted, "Are you *ever* going to cross muddy waters??" And just as she got out the last syllable of her exhortation, that excellent trio started into their great cover of John Hyatt's Crossing Muddy Waters. The woman who called it went into paroxysms of ecstasy or something, we were all at least a bit outside our normal selves because of the weather. Anyway, I'm With Her knocked the place down, all of them smiling beautifully and trying to look cool in the shade up on stage. Wow, what a set this was!
Yikes, we were all of a sudden getting close to the end of the festival, but I realized I needed some time in the shade immediately if I was going to enjoy it. I went directly over to the Parlor Room Stage, and hundreds of other people had apparently had the same idea. Chris Smither had already started his act in the tent, with a lap steel player and also his excellent partner/producer, Goody Goodrich, on guitar. Dave reported later that he had closed with the second Grateful Dead song of the day, Sitting On Top Of the World. I'm told that Michelle was in that tent for one of her favorite artists, great that she could get away for her set!
I realized there was no way I could combine "shade" and "Smither," so I went way over to the far side of the hill, sat down in the shade, and concentrated on breathing in time to the wonderful sound of Chris's boot pounding rhythm on the floor. A few songs (including a great reaction to the topical Nobody Home) and I was as rejuvenated as I figured I was going to get, so I headed back up to the main stage. There was already a large group of people crowding in front, trying to stay in the shade cast by the lowering sun. I joined it at the back and was in the sun for a little while, but then a few people shifted so I could move up and the sun set a little bit, and I was soon at least in shade to see...
Robert Earl Keen - I've only been a fan of Robert's for 35 years or so, and most of the others up front with me had probably been fans for a long time too. As Robert has commented about his shows, the fans seemed to know the words better than he did! The first part of his set was mainly "the old stuff," and we all bellowed out every syllable to Corpus Christi Bay, I'm Coming Home, Gringo Honeymoon, Feelin' Good Again, Amarillo Highway, If I were King, etc. Gringo Honeymoon especially resonated so much on that hot day; we were all looking for a cool beer in the shade and Captain Pablo was our guide. He blew a smoke ring and he smiled at us, "I ain't never going back."
It's kind of amazing how often Robert slurred and/or messed up and/or forgot a line or three but how the crowd kept on singing. And he had an excellent band that could turn on a dime from a pure bluegrass sound to textbook outlaw country, but mostly stayed in between in Robert's sweet spot. Again, I wasn't sure how much longer I could take before I fell right over, especially when he went from the great old stuff to his just-good newer stuff that didn't have us rocking in quite the same way. Anyway, he ended with (surprise) The Road Goes On Forever and how can you help but sing along with that and jump up and down a bit?
Oh no, GRF was almost over! The balloons were pretty much grounded again, there had been some thunderheads in the vicinity and even a welcome sun shower or two that afternoon. But the balloons were finishing their tethered rides, the Flying High Dogs were grounded, and the Arts Tent and Arcade were deserted. Everything was concentrating on the main stage uphill. We all congregated at our seats, the sun was approaching the hillside behind the stage, and big chunks of the crowd were peeling off and going home.
Though the weather was challenging, many of the performers commented on what I say above, that Greenfield was looking beautiful that early-summer weekend and it was so much fun to be outside in the real world with the lovely green hills and fields all around us. Robert Earl commented that this was nothing like Lubbock! We texted our friends where we were and they pretty much all came up for at least part of the Sunday closing act, which was:
Old Crow Medicine Show - This was another act I'd never seen, though I've been listening to and greatly enjoying them for years. As with many acts at the festival, they've recently released a new record (Volunteer) and I feel it's one of their best. They did a number of songs from that and a number of their classics, including the third Grateful Dead song of the day, CC Rider. They've got such a large and talented band and were tripping over themselves with their stage changes and instrument changes. It seemed the techs were bringing out new instruments for everybody between each song ... maybe because the old ones were drenched with sweat!?!
Anyway, I say again, we and many of the people in the crowd were reaching the end. We had a long drive back ahead of us and our exit timing was great: we packed our stuff, folded our chairs, made one last porta-potty run, said goodbye to all our friends, and were ready to leave as soon as they started into Wagon Wheel, which we knew would be the dénouement. Excellent song and excellent band and we hated to tear ourselves away, but we were ready for some air conditioning.
Got the stuff stowed, got the car started, got the air conditioning blowing cold air in our leathery faces (and weathered hands), and made it out of the Greenfield Community College lots just about as Old Crow was singing the closing chorus. On the highway soon and the ride back actually went incredibly smoothly. We were home almost exactly two hours after we started packing up to leave.
So how was the 2018 GRF? I think it'll take me a long, long time before my first answer to that question will be about anything but the weather. Maybe the me of ten (or twenty) years ago would have shrugged it off, but the heat and humidity that weekend just sapped me and made me wonder how much longer it will be that I'll be able to go enjoy music in a setting like that.
But enjoy it I did! We expected that the 2018 lineup would not knock us over with its excellence, such as with LSD and JRAD last year or Tedeschi Trucks and Los Lobos the year before (or the old Rubblebucket before that). But we also realized that we needed to concentrate on the acts we knew we would like (see comments about being unsuccessful at this the last few years) and we know the rhythms of the GRF well enough that we were able to do this well. We were in the right place at the right time all weekend and saw some excellent musicianship, as well as having fun with our friends. What more can you want?
And I have to say that my answer to the question of how was the 2018 GRF, if and when I get beyond how extreme the weather was, was that the women musicians I saw that weekend were extraordinary. That was the overriding theme of the weekend and the sounds of Katherine Parks singing Heart Of Glass, Ruth Ungar singing Maple Leaf, Molly Tuttle singing Cold Rain and Snow, and many more will stay with me for a long, long, long time.
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