Left the crowd at the hotel at about the same time and again there was no line when we got to the Fairgrounds at about 11:15 and snagged a great place by the soundboard at the Main Stage. I'm not sure if they sold out or not. The Fairgrounds can definitely hold a lot of people and they'd left a huge area for standing room in front of the Main Stage, which I never saw entirely full. I never felt hemmed in by people, as I had the last few years at the GCC, and that's a good thing.
As mentioned, the 2024 Festival lineup was not that compelling, and Sunday may have been the worst. Up first was another bad choice, and I started with Mon Rovîa at the Back Porch. He played some quiet original songs and accompanied himself on a beautiful tenor guitar, which was almost as small as a ukelele. His name is a tribute to the biggest city in his native country, Liberia, and he interspersed songs with harrowing tales of civil war in Liberia.
I wandered over to the Deans Beans stage where Katy Kirby was leading her band through some of her surprisingly good original songs. One line of hers I loved was, "If the bears set a table for me, one of these days I'll have to sit down to eat." Her bass player had a very pretty-sounding violin bass.
Time for Margo Cilker, a young country musician I was really looking forward to hearing, and she was on the Main Stage. I went right up front and, though it never got that crowded up there for an early Sunday set, there were several very dedicated fans, as well as the Taylors. And I really enjoyed her set! Margo did not have a crackerjack band, she and they were all very mellow and I was reminded of seeing Zoe Muth, another laid-back Westerner, at the GRF several years ago. Margo writes some great songs and has a killer presentation.
Her songs really sneak up on you, and the words pile up and pile up until she's almost rapping, though still with a Western accent. At one time in her song about Tehachapi she was singing about traveling in the Southwest and she suddenly threw in a line from Lowell George's Willin' and her band played a bar of the chorus. In another song she was singing the rote country line about, "If I was a preacher," and she suddenly sang, "I'd tell you how to vote, who to believe, and who to fuck." On of her traveling songs has a shout-out to Singing Beach in Manchester-By-the-Sea MA. Later in her set she switched from electric guitar to a classic, deep, Western acoustic that was as big as a bathtub and had a huge pickguard. Again, I loved this set.
Wow, the GRF was almost over, but still a few things to see. Sarah and I wandered down to the Deans Beans Stage for Dobet Gnahoré, who is an energetic traditional African singer. She had a great electric guitarist, also a bass and drums, and she sang and played congas. The most amazing thing about her set was the number of beads (bones? teeth?) she was wearing. She had them strung in her hair, huge earrings, a choker and two other necklaces, armbands, bracelets, rings, fingernails, and two belts!
Almost time to leave, but got one last plate of beans, rice, and guacamole from La Veracruzana, and listened to a few tunes from Josiah and the Bonnevilles, who is a solo artist with a very strong right hand, an infectious harmonica, and some driving songs.
OK, that's it. We considered seeing another set from Margo Cilker, who was just starting up over at the Back Porch or staying for the traditional Ukrainian folk of DakhaBrakha, but we were ready to head on back. It had been another surprisingly fun time at GRF, even with the weather, and we'd seen and heard some stuff we loved. Time to save our energy for next year!
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