GRF 2026, Sunday

 Had another good night’s sleep … the temperature in Western MA was perfect and the air was clean, no need for air conditioning.  Woke up to another mostly sunny sky with a Western wind, though not as strong as yesterday.  Bagels and iced tea, then chatting with friends as we all packed our cars, and off to the Festival again at about 10:30.

Got another great parking space in the shade, and we were about 50th(??) in a rapidly growing line that started moving right at 11:00.  Set up our chairs at about the same place at the MS, and then started wandering around.

First up was Deloyd Elze (four syllables, hard ending “e”) at the BPS.  Though he also had the same old guitar, guitar, bass, drums, keyboards band as everyone else, his instrumentation was a little more eclectic with his rhythm guitarist playing a tenor guitar, and both Deloyd and the keyboardist set up with effects boards.  In fact, the keyboardist really didn’t do much besides twist knobs and gyrate.  Pretty good set though, some gritty songs and heartfelt vocals.  Angela Autumn (next up on that stage) sat in for a few songs.

Wandered over to the MS and was captivated by Tyler Ballgame.  I went right up front for him.  He had a keyboard accompanist but the astounding instrument on stage was his voice, just incredible range, control, and technique.  He could slip (seemingly) effortlessly into falsetto, back to baritone, and back to a tenor that was higher than his falsetto.  He did all originals (at least, songs I didn’t recognize), and was just a perfect, mellow act letting it all hang out before the crowds arrived.

Swung by the DBS for a few tunes from Nour Harkati, who has a nice voice, plays North African rock on the guembri, and had a frame drum player.  Then back over to the BPS for a few tunes from Angela Autumn, who plays a bit of country rock and had another band consisting of guitar(s), bass, and drums.  Then after a beer and food break, back to the MS for Hooray for the Riff Raff, more enjoyable folk punk rock with guitar, bass, and drums.

OK, time for a bit of a change and got over to the DBS in time to get right up front (next to Scott, who was there already) for Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek.  Derya had an electric bassist (who played electric guitar on a few songs), a keyboardist, and a drummer, but the main instrument was her on the bağlama, a fascinating instrument.  And her keyboardist was pretty out of the ordinary himself, taking many leads on a spooky, warbly setting.  They’re based in Germany and played music from the Turkish diaspora, none of which I recognized but that I loved.  She got such a surprising, bright, nimble sound from her bağlama, which looked like it only had three strings, but some of them may have been pairs or trios??  And she got such great volume from it over the PA, though it was mysterious how it was miked.

Back to the MS for part of the set from Lucius, a veteran pair of singers who intertwine voices on pop blues songs (accompanied by another Festival 2026-standard backup band), making a complex, layered sound.  They’re very hit or miss.

But then I hustled right over to the BPS to get up front for the act I most wanted to see, Ken Pomeroy.  She (McKennan) is a young (23) folk/country singer/songwriter from Oklahoma who plays an acoustic guitar and was accompanied by her partner, Dakota McDaniel, on lead acoustic.  She’s written some wonderful songs (Cicadas, Flannel Cowboy), has a surprisingly glib stage presence for a young folkie, and plays a beautiful guitar.  McDaniel played a fantastic lead, taking Ken’s strong images and wafting them away into the wind, and then winding back to the next verse.  And the best part is her voice, which is smoky and hesitant, but also catchy and at times as strong as her lyrics.  The crowd had really filled in at the BPS, elbow to elbow again, and she got many whoops and hollers when she hit the crescendos of her songs.

Several of our friends were there for Pomeroy’s set … I had recommended her … and we all gathered and gushed about her for a while.  It was about time for us to wrap things up, though there were a few sets left on that Sunday, including J Mascis, who was already setting up on the DBS while we talked, and whom I regretted missing.

Got some dinner and then sat at the main stage and enjoyed most of the set from Wednesday, a country-ish band that features a pedal steel and some nice singing.  But after a while it was time to take off.  Folded up the chairs, stopped by our friends’ tent to say goodbye, and then stuffed everything in the car and hit the road back East, where our kitties were waiting.

So how was the GRF this year?  The weather was perfect, mostly sunny and warm with enough wind to take the edge off (there was a short shower one day).  It was great seeing our friends again, staying at The Rose, and enjoying some fine food from the vendors.  But it got alarmingly crowded in the Fairgrounds, on one of those roasting days it may have gotten beyond alarming.  And for the bands you really want to see you have to get to the stage early, not the way it used to be.  The sound was as great as ever, and there were a few great acts.  But the Festival no longer features the variety and quality it used to.  There was not even one bluegrass band!  Almost every band played some variant of rock and featured guitars, bass, keyboard, and drums.  I like rock, and I like this instrumentation, but I also like banjos, mandolins, fiddles, etc.  So I had a good time and will do so again … there are good things about the Festival but there’s a lot they could do better.

GRF 2026, Saturday

 Slept well and woke up to another great day, but with an already strong West wind.  Had some bagels, tea, and orange juice that we’d brought and traded notes with our friends about what to see that day, and what not to see.  We packed up and got going around 10:30, got a parking space in the shade when we got to the Fairgrounds, waited just a little bit in the line until the gates-open at 11:00, and then got a fine space to the left of the soundboard, back about 8 rows from the Standing Room section.

Wandered around a bit and got a nice tie-dyed shirt from one of the vendors, then grabbed a beer and headed over to the DBS for The Animeros at noon.  They’re a Latin rock band with a guitarist and bassist on vocals, a keyboardist (who also played the kind of melodica that has a hose) and drummer, and a conga/bongo player who looked just like Sunny War’s drummer, though he probably wasn’t.  Great start to the day, and the highlight of their set was a cumbia-delic (new word!), instrumental cover of Ghost Riders In the Sky … very spooky but danceable.

Over at the MS was Greg Freeman next, whom I had panned in my spreadsheet, and so everyone (except me) wanted to see.  I was elucidated when the texts started pouring in that he was as bad as I’d described.

Got some late lunch, waiting for what I really wanted to see, which was Sally Baby’s Silver Dollars back at the DBS.  They play a New Orleans standards/funk/space mix with Sally on lead acoustic and vocals, a keyboardist, stand-up bass, and an incredibly talented horn section.  Enjoyed their eclectic set very much (I love Scarlet Reef Hermit Crab), though unusually they were a bit tamer live than in the videos I’d seen.

The next few acts were “maybes” on my spreadsheet, and so I went back to the car and got a nice nap in.  The day had started off perhaps more chilly than expected because of the strong wind, but the weather was just perfect at this point.  But at the same time, the Fairgrounds had become kind of oppressive!  The Saturday crowd had filled in with a vengeance, and the entire area was packed with people, there seemed to be barely a square inch left where late arrivers could set up their chairs or pitch their tents.  Every vendor featured a long line, and it was impossible to stroll around, you had to concentrate on where you were going or you wouldn’t get anywhere.

Anyway, made it back to the MS for Kurt Vile and the Violators, who were another very entertaining rock band with a guitar, bass, keyboard (who also had a trumpet), and drums backing up Kurt on lead guitar.  He’s an extraordinary player, and his techie brought out a new guitar for every song, it seemed.  They do some pretty simple rock and then Kurt takes over and plays very unexpected and complex leads.

Pushed back through the throngs to the BPS to see Folk Bitch Trio after that.  I was looking forward to seeing them, but you could barely get anywhere near the stage because of the elbow-to-elbow people.  Caught a few songs anyway.  They’re a trio of Australian women (as their name hints at), but for once the sound was just not done right.  They do very reverb-heavy, moody songs and their sound was turned up so loud it was almost distorting, adding to the feeling of antsiness the crowd was bringing.

But … the most anticipated act of the weekend was up next at the MS, The Beths from New Zealand.  They wowed the packed Fairgrounds with their kaleidoscope of indie pop rock sound and excellent songs, all written by their “front-man,” Liz Stokes.  They opened with Straight Line Was a Lie and did their great No Joy (with recorder break).  This was my first time seeing them, and I was so impressed.  Besides a great guitar sound (Liz plays rhythm acoustic, Jonathan Pearce is on lead electric, Ben Sinclair is on bass (and writes a fun blog, and Tristan Deck is on drums), their vocal mix is extraordinary.  Liz is an alto, and the guys back her up with psychedelic, overlapping high harmonies.  Every second of their set was a delight, and their recorder launches showed a lot of practice.

The crowd was finally starting to thin out a bit, and I was able to find an ok place to stand over at the BPS for Ratboys, another guitar/bass/drums rock band.  They’re led by Julia Steiner on vocals and rhythm (she played a string of flying-v electric guitars) and vocals, and were definitely good, would have liked to see more but …

I had to grab some dinner and then get back to our seats at the MS where the night’s headliner, Spoon, was about to start.  Believe it or not, they’re another rock band that featured basically the same instrumentation as I’d been seeing all day, but this time they had three guitars on stage and were playing some good, crunchy songs.  But wait … one guitarist switched to keys and then another one did, and gradually they changed to an atmospheric, prog-rock sound and went downhill.

Oh well, that was enough and it was time to fold up our chairs and get out of there to beat the traffic.  Back to the Rose and we gathered down at the picnic area, Aldo delivered us a pile of firewood, and we talked and talked.  I took off around midnight, but the party was still going strong and I think some of our group must have been there for another couple of hours.

GRF 2026, Friday

 Time for the Green River Festival again!  It was another fun weekend and the Festival is now seemingly very settled into its new digs at the Franklin County Fairgrounds.  They’ve adjusted the placement of the stages, vendors, and activity/cool-down tents and have gotten everything pretty much exactly right, minimizing the sound bleed from one stage to another and maximizing crowd flow and comfort.  Here’s an article from the local paper.

One thing we didn’t like but that is understandable is that they keep moving back the line where you can set up chairs in front of the Main Stage, for the sake of expanding the standing room area.  The line is now well behind the sound tent, but we were still able to see ok, and the standing room area still wasn’t big enough for the crowds wanting to see the major acts.

But speaking of acts, the quality of the lineup continues to go down IMO.  They had a couple of great bands this year and several very good ones, but it’s still nothing like the past, when the lineup featured many acts I was excited to see.  And they actually had *no* bluegrass bands this year and only a few alternative acts, most bands played some flavor of rock.

Dave drove up on that Friday, the 19th, and we threw everything in the car and headed West on a beautiful late Spring day.  Made it to Greenfield and had lunch in an over-air-conditioned People’s Pint, and then cruised out to Shelburne and checked into our room at the Red Rose.  Unpacked and got geared up for the Festival, and then back to the Fairgrounds, where we got a parking space in the middle of the field, but still close to the entrance.

Though I complain about the quality, they did have a large number of acts this year and actually started at 1:00 on Friday, but we showed up at our normal time (about 2:00) and missed the first few.

After setting up, I hurried right over to the Back Porch Stage (BPS) and caught some of Luke Tyler Shelton’s set.  He played some good folk/rock tunes with just a drummer and a bassist.  One thing the GRF has always done well is sound, and I was surprised to see only a couple of dinky speakers up on stage, though the band had sounded great.  After the set I talked to the sound guy and he pointed out that they also had large stacks of speakers behind the curtains flanking the stage.  He told me there would be no problems with sound at that stage, and for some later acts they even had it cranked up too loud!

A live radio show had taken over the Main Stage (MS), but what I really wanted to see was Southern Avenue over at the Dean’s Beans Stage (DBS) next.  Got up pretty close for them.  They’re a blues rock, family band consisting of three sisters who got their start singing in church, a husband on guitar, and a brother-in-law on bass.  Two of the sisters were up front singing, while the third played drums.  Their energy was very high, their mix was great, and their songs were infectious … a great opening act.

Over to the MS for some Southern rock from Kashus Culpepper after that.  Though his bass player dominated the sound too much, Kashus has an excellent voice and a mellow guitar, and was very enjoyable.  I moved up front for a few songs and then was about to peel off when they started on the intro to Whipping Post.  They kind of flubbed this classic, but at least they tried!

But what I really wanted to see was Sunny War back over on the BPS.  Got there in time to stand up front and was joined by Dave.  I had seen some videos of her and was amazed, and live she was just incredible.  She plays a punk folk blues on her acoustic and was accompanied by a drummer.  She picked with her thumb and occasionally forefinger, and her left hand was mesmerizing, moving all over the fretboard like an octopus.  Part of her talent was that she could quickly pick and then damp each string with her right forefinger or her left thumb, coming over the neck.  And her voice was remarkable too, she sang with such dedication that her face distorted, forming each note perfectly.  Besides her technical talent, her tone and volume were just so impressive.  She gets an A+.

That was a gem, then back over to the MS for one of the big acts, The War and Treaty.  They’re a husband and wife who croon R&B/soul tunes to each other, backed up with a great band that included a small horn section.  Very good range of sound from some ballads to some stompers.

Caught a few tunes from Swamp Dogg over on the BPS on the way out to the car for a break.  The crowd had really filled in by then and the BPS area was packed tightly.  He had a good band, but I didn’t find him that focused.

So I walked over to the DBS for Lila Iké, who plays textbook reggae, and I was very impressed by this band.  She has a wonderful voice that she controlled well.  She had a strong guitarist, bassist, and drummer whipping up the reggae sound, and a keys player with a whole array of keyboards/switches who was filling in the background with a pleasing variety of riffs in a wide range of tones.

OK, it was starting to get dark, but we were still in the gloaming when Charley Crockett came on at the MS with a full, big league, Nashville presentation, including his name up in flashing lights and big hats.  The Friday crowd was maxed out for this, and the standing room area was full.  Charley played his hits, including $10 Cowboy, and the crowd ate it up.  I did too, nothing to complain about here, they had their act together and their sound was mixed very well.  He was accompanied by an acoustic lead guitar, bassist, drummer, and dobro/keyboard player who also picked up a trumpet, sometimes playing the keys with his left hand while he played the trumpet with his right, very well done!

We screwed out of there to beat traffic before his set was over.  Back at the Red Rose the usual suspects assembled around the fire pit.  There was a group already there who were in the area for an annual Tai Chi event, but they were about to go to bed as we started arriving.  What fun to see friends who were just kids when we started going to GRF 17 years ago, and are now grown up.

Grahame Lesh and Friends, 2026 part 3

Not the best hotel sleep, but still above average, and we gathered in a nook of the chaotic breakfast room.  They had pretty good food, but must have hired a consultant to make it as impossible to navigate as can be humanly done.  The plates are here, the eggs are there, the silverware is hidden, the coffee urn is perched up dangerously high, and they have granola, but just a few teaspoons.  And don't get me started about the tea.

Anyway, we played a game and then our outside excursion was just a walk around the neighborhood, checking out the abandoned-in-the-seventies Histogenetics building, and the local residential blocks, which really are just blocks, though colored "gaily."  I would not want to live in this place, where the rents are astronomical, you're surrounded by highways, the apartment buildings are plug-ugly, there's a massive Wegman's down the street with constant traffic, and the only recreation is gyms filled with sweaty people.  They advertised Vitamin C showers and Contrast Therapy.

Anyway, I say again ... time for a mellow lunch of the last sandwiches, a nap, and then another game in the room.  Finally got to be time to go ... show was at 7:00 as opposed to 8:00 that Sunday night, the 15th (Phil's birthday).  And we saddled up and headed down to Kiosko for yet another excellent meal.  Hopefully not our last one there, but who knows?  Current favorite dish there is the Veracruzana Sea Bass.

Up to the balcony and this time we had the best seats of the weekend, slightly to the left of center and just a few rows up.  Thankfully, I don't think Sunday was sold out and we had room on each side.  But jeez, this was the lineup to die for!  On keyboards it was Bowling again, but this time paired with Steve Molitz.  In the guitar slot (and also playing fiddle) was the world-class Larry Campbell, with his wife Teresa Williams joining him on vocals.  Amy was still there, and this night it was Tony Leone and the incredible Cody Dickinson on drums.  Grahame led the band on rhythm guitar of course, and to his left was Dave Schools, who alternated on some songs with Sam Grisman on electric bass.  Kanika Moore was also back, and to her left was the phenomenal Stanley Jordan.

We couldn't figure out Jordan's setup at first, but when he came out and sat down with his guitars it became clear.  He's the master of the "tap" style on electric guitar.  So he had one guitar on a stand that he could tap or strum with his right hand, and one on a strap around his neck that he could tap with his left hand, and sometimes soloed on with both hands.  God, that guy is incredibly talented and he could have filled the whole theater with the sound of just his guitar(s).  Many times that evening it sure looked to the casual viewer as if he had four (or more hands), like a Hindu god.

And Bowling was back, this evening a little more subdued but still pairing incredibly well with Molitz.  She's such a great solo performer, but is also incredibly dynamic when adding to a band.  Again, this was an embarrassment of riches, and maybe there were too many great musicians on stage.  Dickinson for one never seemed to mesh with the ensemble, Jordan was on another planet, and sometimes seemed not to be aware that there was a full band just to his right.  And Larry's sick Telecaster (he actually had two of them) is such a dominant sound that when he winds that baby up, everyone else has to take a back seat.  But though you could criticize, this was amazingly excellent stuff.  Sunday was the night of the weekend.

Here's the first set:

• China Cat Sunflower>
• I Know You Rider 
• Ship of Fools 
• Till The Morning Comes 
• Deep Elem Blues
• Tennessee Jed
• Friend of the Devil 
• How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)

We'd discussed what they had left to play, and I'd called China Rider, which was excellent and got us off to a running start.  I can't describe how awesome it was to have Larry F. Campbell on one side of the stage (with Holly F. Bowling right behind him), Lesh playing the song like he'd been hearing it since he was two months old in the middle of the stage, and Stanley F. Jordan to the right, nodding his head and tapping his dual guitar setup like a bizarre science fiction movie.

Kanika led the group in an excellent Ship Of Fools, and then Larry and Teresa stepped up for Till the Morning Comes.  Cody sang lead on a rambunctious, filthy Deep Ellum, and then Larry did the "Levon" arrangement of Tennessee Jed, as Dave had called.  Sam Grisman then came out and sang FOTD, not best but his bass playing sure was.  Who knew he could play an electric as well as he plays the dawghouse bass?  And then it was Teresa's turn to lead the band in How Sweet It Is, accompanied by her husband on that stinging Telecaster.

What a band!  This was just fantastic, and though it was our third day on Lesh Island we were jumping around like everyone else in the crowd.  Time to sit for a bit, hydrate, and time the squirrel again, and then the guys came back out for the final set.  And quite a set it was:

• Dark Star
• Over the Rainbow
• Here Comes Sunshine
• Pride of Cucamonga
• Bird Song
• The Other One
• Stella Blue
• Cassidy
• Not Fade Away

Dark Star was a little disjointed vocally, but this seemed to be the effect they were going for.  No one seemed to know who was going to sing what part until it came around, and this worked fine.  This was a long one, and eventually the song wound down and what emerged from the dark interstellar night was Stanley's trademark take on Somewhere Over the Rainbow.  This was beautiful, what a song that is.

And this was just the beginning of another long set.  We've heard some excellent covers of Here Comes Sunshine at the Cap, and this was another one, with five people singing the choruses.  At one point, Kanika was hopping around exuberantly, and Stanley was so moved he sidled over and started hopping in time with her.  We've seen him do some acrobatics on that stage.

I'd hoped for Pride of Cucamonga and here it was, such a great country song.  But perhaps the song of the set was next, a surreal Bird Song coming out of a long jam, sung by Kanika in an operatic style, and again the choir on backup.  Then they got down, jammed some more, got even further down, and then Dave Schools let loose with the excellent bass run beginning to TOO and we were off on that psychedelic bus, riding to never ever land, which is somewhere over the rainbow.

This was such an incredible set.  Next up was Amy singing a crystalline, heartbreaking Stella Blue, another highlight of the weekend.  And then time for a rocker, and the seabirds flew on a neat, perfectly timed Cassidy.  What was left for the band, but to start us clapping along to the Buddy Holly beat and end the set in traditional fashion with Not Fade Away.

Time to sit for a bit, and then hop back up when Grahame came out for yet another donor rap, and to acknowledge his Dad's 86th birthday.  The band straggled back out too, still a little pumped up from such an inspiring set.  We figured they had to play Box Of Rain, and we really wanted to hear the foursome of Larry, Teresa, Amy, and Grahame sing Attics.  So they did both for an encore, just exactly perfect!  They even got Sam back out there for Box Of Rain, so they had twelve people on stage for the final encore, and the final bow.

Wow, this was quite a capper to an excellent weekend of music.  Got out of there for one last time, onto Westchester Avenue, up to the car, and back to Harrison.  As much as we were looking forward to returning to Massachusetts and seeing our kitties, this had been a lot of fun and we were sad it was over.  Oh well, maybe it'll be even better next year!

Grahame Lesh and Friends, 2026 part 2

Got a good night's sleep in, and we all made it through the chaotic breakfast room unscathed.  There were a lot of Deadheads infiltrating the place.

Spent a mellow morning and then went out for an excursion to the  Edith G. Read Natural Park and Wildlife Sanctuary, next to Playland Park in Rye.  It was very windy on the LI Sound coast, but the visibility was great and it was not too chilly.  Parked in the Playland lot and walked into the Sanctuary, where we followed their trails counter-clockwise, onto the shore (where we could see as far as the Throgs Neck Bridge to the West, up to their spooky bamboo grove, past their apiary, and around through March mud and bare trees, past the tidal lagoon separating it from the shore, and back to Playland.

The morning was warming up a little, so we took a left into Playland, around their promenade, and out onto the nearby city pier.  It was a nice walk and the deserted Park was entertaining, probably would not be at all though, when crowded with screaming kids.  Back to the car and we debated going somewhere for lunch, but ended up going back to the hotel and eating sandwiches I'd brought along in our suite.  A game of Parks in the hotel's lounge, while a gaggle of 40-something Deadheads had a pizza party.  A nap somewhere in there, and soon it was time to head back to Port Chester for Saturday's concert.

Had another great meal at Kiosko and, as they'd done the year before, they surprised us with complimentary desserts.  It's such a great place!  Though my answer to most places that ask, "Would you recommend us...?" is a straight no, I'd recommend Kiosko to anyone.  Up to the balcony after that and this time we were pretty far up and on the right side, not too far right though.  And on Saturday night not only was it sold out again, this time everybody showed up.  Though the chomping was not too bad, the guys in front of us, and many people around us, were more interested in having a good time than in paying attention to the concert.  Oh well, we've experienced much worse.

On Saturday the 14th, the left to right lineup was: Holly Bowling and Crosby on keys (Jason alternated on fiddle), Rick Mitarotonda on guitar, Nathan Graham on drums, Helm and Rose on vocals, Lesh on guitar, John Molo on drums, Kanika Moore on vocals, Burbridge on electric bass, and for several songs, John Kadlecik on guitar.  Here's the setlist:

• Jam >
• Shakedown Street 
• New Speedway Boogie 
• Row Jimmy
• Jack Straw 
• They Love Each Other 
• Tangled Up In Blue
• Mountain Song
• Brokedown Palace 

More fantastic stuff, they started with a Jam (and debatably stopped) before going into a mega-funky Shakedown, sung by the very talented Kanika Moore.  Another vocal highlight was Row Jimmy, sung by Rose.  The girls were again shining, though the male vocals were below average.  Crosby actually took the "Shannon" part on Jack Straw, but did not add to the song.  Just the opposite for TLEO, which the girls sang the shit out of.  JK came on for Tangled Up In Blue and we were really glad to see him back on stage.  He did a decent job singing that long and tangled song, and was as good as ever on psychedelic guitar.

But the high point of the set was Mountain Song.  Grahame mentioned that he might be playing songs written by his brother, Brian.  This song has a long pedigree, but the version they sang was the one Brian contributed to, performed by Furthur without the definite article.  AND, the sound of the first set (not to mention the second) was Holly F. Bowling on piano and organ, as augmented excellently by Crosby.  Those two seemed to be having as much fun playing keyboards with each other as we did listening to them.  Bowling is just jaw-droppingly good.

OMG, halfway through the weekend already!  That had been a fantastic first set, and we hunkered down to wait (and time the squirrel) while the crazy, packed crowd seemed to cramp our space more and more.  Oh well, I say again.  The crowd was late-arriving and the concert had started a bit late, and then that was a really long first set.  The break was not bad, and the guys came out and did:

• Jam >
• Unbroken Chain
• Estimated Prophet >
• Eyes Of The World 
• Terrapin Station
• Scarlet Begonias > 
• Fire On The Mountain 
• Days Between

They *had* to play Unbroken Chain at some point, and they did a fine version of it.  Dave and I have commented that Grahame and Rick have very similar guitar sounds and play some great stuff together, and on this they really jammed out there, finally bringing it back to the end of the song, on which the female vocalists again shone.

Eyes was sung by Amy (who was really dressed up, with a fluffy hair-do and heels, which she took off at some points) and this was definitely a highlight of the set.  Another highlight was Scarlet Fire, with the latter sung by Kanika Moore.  We think that Lavon Helm came out and banged on Molo's set for a while, but may be wrong.  This was another long, long set with a lot of jamming.  And the keyboard playing was simply surreal, with long stretches of Holly just eating everybody's lunch, egged on by Jason, grinning like a banshee.  She started Eyes on organ and you knew she was going to move to piano during it, but Jason wasn't about to give it up until she pushed him out of the way.

The band finally calmed down to do a closing ballad, and Oteil stepped up and sang a heartfelt tenor on Days Between.  It's such a delight to see him hopping around in his bare feet and to feel that bass beat.  He's always one of the most talented people on whatever stage he's on.

Jeez, how late was it?  We were already almost past midnight and the show was not yet over.  Thankfully, Grahame leapt back out for his donor rap after not too long, though the band was apparently too tired to leap behind him.  They gradually came back though, and settled down for a long encore: One More Saturday Night of course, on which Maggie Rose did an excellent duet with Rick, and then The Weight for a closing sing-along.

Whew, that was quite a night!  We drank our water and weren't out of there yet, but we finally made it down to the lobby, out to the street, back up the hill to the Kiosko lot, and then drove the few miles back up to Harrison.  Had to decompress some, though we were exhausted, and finally made it to bed by 1:30 or so.

Grahame Lesh and Friends, 2026 part 1

Grahame Lesh announced another set of "Unbroken Chain" concerts this year in the classic Capitol Theatre venue in Port Chester, and then elsewhere in the country, centering on California.  How lucky we are that this tradition continues in the Northeast.  We've been doing a more or less annual pilgrimage to Port Chester for years and it's gotta stop sometime, but not this year.  We got tickets (to nights 2-4 of the four dates he announced) as soon as they went on sale, booked a suite at the hotel in Harrison where we'd stayed last year, and waited through a long, cold Winter.

Finally beginning to hint at Spring and we hit the road, picking up Dave at his place, and then heading down the Pike, 84, 91, and the parkways over the line into New York ... a less painful trip than some other times for sure.  Grahame had announced an extensive array of musicians, and they'd added a few "special guests" also.  We were really looking forward to seeing Bill Payne particularly on that Friday the 13th, as we'd never seen him before.

Trying to keep this short.  We hung out in our ground floor suite and played a game of cribbage, then headed down Westchester Ave to Kiosko, where we had another great Mexican meal and a few drinks.  We've done this before.  Over to the theatre for the 8:00 show, checked out the merch table but nothing caught our eyes this time, and up to our left balcony seats to time the squirrel.

This was a sellout, but some seats around us were not occupied and we had room to spread out a little and dance.  And the sight lines and sound at the Capitol are just amazingly good.  It's a great rock theater and if we lived nearby we're go there more often.  The band came out about 15 minutes after the hour and lined up across the whole stage like this:  Bill Payne on organ and pianos, Jason Crosby on organ, pianos, and violin, Daniel Donato on guitar, Tony Leone on drums, Amy Helm on vocals, Maggie Rose on vocals, Grahame Lesh on guitar, Adam Minkoff on drums, Oteil Burbridge on electric bass, Laura Cwass on guitar, and Mikaela Davis on harp.  Phew, what a band!  Cwass was only out for the second set, Amy played mandolin on Atlantic City, and she and Maggie were not out for all songs.  Here's the setlist:

• Jam >
• Cosmic Charlie 
• Sugaree
• Brown-Eyed Women
• High Time 
• Passenger
• Atlantic City
• Samson & Delilah
• Born Cross Eyed 

The "and Friends" bands assembled by Phil and these days by Grahame can be a mixed blessing.  Fantastic talent on stage but sometimes not enough space to let everyone excel, sometimes a lack of practice, and sometimes less than excellent parts.  On these nights I was never that impressed by the male vocalists (with the exception of Oteil), though the female ones turned in some great stuff, particularly Helm and later Kanika Moore.  But the instrumental arrangements were uniformly great, there were some fantastic individual performances, and the set lists were far from repetitious.

Highlights of this set were opening (after the Jam) with one of my favorite songs, Maggie Rose's vocal on Sugaree, Oteil's on High Time, and Amy's on Atlantic City, the electricity of Passenger, great combo drumming on Samson, and the totally unexpected excitement of the closing Born Cross-Eyed.

Whew, again just the first set was worth all the planning and the treacherous drive down there.  Hit up the funky men's room and it was not a long break before the band came back on.  Here's the second set:

• Jam >
• Uncle John's Band > 
• Playing In The Band >
• Morning Dew
• It Must Have Been The Roses 
• Saint Stephen >
• William Tell Bridge >
• The Eleven >
• Casey Jones

More incredible quality from such a large band!  Morning Dew was of course a highlight, with Grahame singing the "male" part and Amy and Maggie Rose duetting on the "female" part.  Great chemistry between those two, and they followed it up with more ensemble vocals, including Mikaela Davis, on It Must Have Been the Roses.  After that tune, Grahame called over stage manager Brian Rashap for a panicked request, after which they started into a majestic St. Stephen ... and then Rashap came running back out with a piece of paper which he put on Grahame's music stand.  We realized it was an emergency printout of the complicated lyrics to The Eleven, on which Davis did an excellent backing vocal.

Great playing by Payne and Donato (and maybe Davis, but she was not miked well), great fiddle from Crosby on UJB, crackling lead on Casey Jones from Donato, but perhaps the most amazing parts of the set were the totally unexpected electric guitar leads from Cwass ... got to hear more from her.

Again, wow!  We had paced ourselves well and sat down for some water during the short break, and then Grahame came out for a nice donor rap and band introductions, after which they encored with a fine Truckin', which delightfully broke down into an extended Feedback exercise.

Great first night for us and not a long journey back to the car and up the Avenue to the Hyatt House in Harrison.  That had been a long two sets and we had to decompress some before bed, but lights off by 1:00 or so.

Eilen Jewel Returns to Shirley

 ... for a last time?  Eilen suddenly has been around for a long time, we first saw her in 2008.  And this has been long enough for there to be several phases of her career, pre- and post-motherhood and divorce.  She made her fame and wrote most of her iconic songs while living in Massachusetts, but then moved back to her native Idaho and now tours rarely.  But she announced another tour, and that she'd be at the Bull Run on March 12th, and since then has hinted that it may be her last tour ever.

We were too late to get seats at the front table, but got the center one in the second row.  Sightlines in the Bull Run can be terrible, but this was pretty good, and just about perfect for the sound.  Eilen came on with her longtime guitarist Jerry Miller (who played seated for the whole concert), her ex-husband and manager Jason Beek on drums, and Matt Murphy on bass.  She started off with a couple of her newer songs, but then covered the whole span of her career in one long set, including some classic covers, and didn't seem to get tired at all.

Here are some songs I remember her playing, though this is by no means complete or in the right order!

• Mess Around
• Winnemucca
• Rich Man's World
• I Remember You
• Rain Roll In
• Dusty Box Car Wall (Eric Andersen)
• One of Those Days
• Mess Around
• The Pill (Loretta Lynn)
• Where They Never Say Your Name
• Heartache Boulevard
• Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos) (Woody Guthrie)
• Sea of Tears
• Green River (Creedence Clearwater Revival)
• Bang Bang Bang
• If You Catch Me Stealing (Bessie Smith)

The band walked off stage but not very far, and it didn't take much coaxing to get them back, where they surprised me by encoring with another great cover, The Doors' Soul Kitchen.  Out of there quickly after that and an uneventful drive home.  This was our 12th time (and last??) seeing Eilen play, and our 44th(!) concert at Bull Run.  Off to Port Chester tomorrow.

Tim O'Brien With Grisman and Furtado

We hadn't seen the great Tim O'Brien for many years.  In fact, the last time we saw him he was playing guitar for Sturgill Simpson!  But he was booked at the Bull Run for a January 15th show, with Sam Grisman and Victor Furtado backing him up (billed as "Tim O'Brien & Sam Grisman with Victor Furtado").  We delayed getting tickets for long enough to not get one of the best tables, but we got a pretty good one shortly, the table to the left of the stage where we'd sat when we saw Asleep At the Wheel in 2014, and also Steve Kimock in 2016.

Got tickets for Dave too.  He'd never seen Tim before and was psyched to see Grisman after we'd gushed about the show we saw him at in Beverley.  He was over for the day and we headed out to Shirley at the tail end of rush hour.  And when we got there a little over an hour before the show was supposed to start, the place was already packed with as noisy a crowd as we'd ever heard there!  One thing we love about the Bull Run is that the fans are generally knowledgeable and have driven a long way to see and hear the band.  The performers had put out the message that this would be an acoustic show that would reward listening, and we were all ready for that, though loud conversations preceded it.

The overworked wait staff finally took our drink and food orders and the few empty seats were soon filled.  The guys came out with Furtado to our side of the stage with his banjo, Grisman center stage with his bass towering over him, and Tim a bit to the other side of the stage.  The guys all had mikes for their instruments, one central mike for ensemble sound, and a vocal mike for Tim.  And though they have an incredible array of speakers in the Sawtelle Room (Tim mentioned how pleased he was to play a room named after his old friend, Charles), they kept it quiet so we could hear the sound on stage.  This took a few tunes to straighten out, but was soon fantastic.

Tim sang lead on all except one song, I believe, and Sam chimed in with some very spare and lovely harmonies.  They opened with a couple of mid-career Tim songs (Let's Go a-Hunting and Turn the Page), then did a couple of John Hartford tunes, and then played some from all over.  Furtado was pretty good on banjo, sticking mainly to the background but stepping up for a few leads.  Grisman was as great on bass as we remembered, trying not to upstage his hero, Tim, but leaning toward the common mike for the harmonies and waltzing with his bass partner.

And Tim was as amazing as ever, starting on mandolin and then switching to guitar and then fiddle.  He did his great version of Jack Of Diamonds/Drunkard's Hiccups on fiddle and tore the house down.  We were all silent during the songs but the crowd roared at the end of each.  They did a few Dylan songs (Sam gushed about how Tim's Red On Blonde meant so much to him), and Tim almost made it all the way through a *fast* cover of Subterranean Homesick Blues before stumbling on the words ... there's lots of 'em.

Most of us were probably aware that Bobby Weir had just passed away, and they did a couple of songs that the Dead had covered, such as I've Been All Around This World.  But their real tribute to Bobby was a cover of the song Tim had won a talent contest with, singing with his sister in their teens, Morning Dew.  Grisman had a great bass line on this, but the thing is that Tim O'Brien is one of the best musicians I've ever heard.  The quality of his voice sneaks up on you (Dave said, "Now *that* is a bluegrass musician"), and his mandolin playing is awesome, fast, inventive, and perfect.  But his fiddle playing is absolutely some of the best I've ever heard, amazing tone and subtlety.

They did two sets of pretty good length, and closed the second with Working On a Building.  The trio all bowed to the very enthusiastic crowd, then did a short encore. They were heading up to Portsmouth the next day and then Waldoboro Maine, though Tim had to be told what state it's in.  All done by 10:00 and then not a bad drive home. 

Documented Prejudice Against the Bruins

 You can sort NHL statistics year by year at (e.g.) https://www.espn.com/nhl/stats/team/_/season/2026/seasontype/2/sort/penaltyMinutes ... and find documented proof that NHL referees are prejudiced against the Boston Bruins, who annually rank in the top 8 (at least) of most penalized teams.  This can't be written off as team style because there have been very different coaching styles and player personnel over the time tracked by this site.

Oteil and Friends at the Opera House

We're sequestered up in Maine this end of Summer/beginning of Fall, and loving it.  But the outside world has a way of creeping in, and one good way it did was that we realized that Oteil Burbridge with a "and friends" band was scheduled for the Waterville Opera House on October 1st.  So we got GA Orchestra tickets and got ready.

Drove over there on a beautiful Wednesday after a stop at the Penobscot Narrows Bridge Observatory and a couple of errands in Searsport and Belfast.  Checked into the room we'd decided to go for (it's a long drive back after a concert, and he went until almost midnight!) at the Holiday Inn in Waterville and after relaxing a bit, drove downtown where we got a great parking space on Main Street right across from the Opera House/City Hall/arts complex and moseyed over to the Proper Pig for dinner.  They're a very brand-conscious and popular restaurant that we found ok, had to try it once.  Then climbed up the stairs in the arts complex and were around numbers 25 and 26 in line, about 10 minutes before the doors opened.

Oteil had assembled a great band for a short East coast tour: Steve Kimock on guitar and son Johnny on drums, the estimable Melvin Seals on organ, Lamar Williams, Jr. on vocals, Tom Guarna on guitar, and Jason Crosby on piano.  We were psyched and so was the Waterville crowd.  When the doors opened there was a rush for standing room in the orchestra pit and for the first few rows.  We grabbed seats exactly where we hoped (I think exactly where we'd been for Molly Tuttle last year), third row just to the right of the center aisle.  And it's a good thing we strategically hung back a few rows.  They're very liberal about "general admission" in the Opera House and not only let people crush into the pit, for this concert they let people fill the aisles and walkways, many of them dancing very vigorously.  Sarah and I eventually traded seats because she was getting crowded by dancers in the aisle, but in all we were in a great spot, fantastic sound and we could see everything on stage, to say the least.

Here's the first set:

• Hillbillies on PCP (Steve Kimock, though I called it a Mystery Train jam)
• My Brothers and Sisters
• Way We Rise (I called it, It's Always Something)
• Sitting In Limbo
• Reuben and Cherise
• Mother's Song (Johnny Kimock)
• That's What Love Will Make You Do

Lamar Williams with his smooth baritone was the lead singer, but Oteil sang harmony and took a few leads.  Seals sang That's What Love and brought the house down, great stuff.  Besides that the highlights of the set were the vocals and funky bass on B&S, and group dynamics on R&C.  They were a very tight band.  We hadn't seen Guarna, and he was a fresh delight.  He mostly stuck to guitar but did a couple of numbers on a five-string banjo that had a body kind of like a strat, I called it a banjocaster.  He didn't seem overly familiar with some of the songs but seemed to realize, "wow, this is a great song, listen to my take on it."  His leads on Limbo and R&C were fantastic.

At set break we realized what a long first set it had been, 1:45 or so.  The intermission wasn't that long and they were soon back out.  Steve Kimock is such an understated but excellent guitar player, I wondered again why he wasn't more prominent in post-Jerry bands.  Oteil was very much the band leader and was taking everything entirely seriously, as opposed to his joker role with DeadCo.  He wanted everything just exactly perfect and the rest of the band had a lot of waiting to do while he fussed with details of the setup.  And I have to say, everything about the sound *was* perfect, though he perhaps didn't let it all hang out the way he can.  First night of the tour, got to give him a break.

Here's the second set:

• Cats Under the Stars
• Love and War (Lamar Williams)
• untitled original (I called it Hush)
• Run For the Roses
• Turn On Your Lovelight
• Gambler's Conceit (Jason Crosby)
• Every Hungry Woman
• Standing On the Moon
• Ride Mighty High

They've recently recorded an album, and mixed in a number of originals that presumably are on it.  The set started out at a very high level with a JGB song, and just kept getting better and better.  I was ecstatic when they finally did an ABB song, and it was as tight and growly as the Brothers at their best.  At one point Kimock walked over right in front of Guarna and tried to get a guitar duel going.  Guarna looked at him like, "This is fun, tell me when it's my lead."  Kimock looked back at him sternly like, "It's twin guitar time man, we're Duane and Dickey."  Guarna looked at him like, "We're *what* and dickey??"

I was hoping for Stella Blue as a late-set ballad, but instead Oteil walked up to the mike and did Standing On the Moon, which Molly Tuttle had done for us last year.  His bass playing all night really was incredible, leading the sound with an almost guitar-like tone at times.  And then Ride Mighty High was a great ending sing-along, with the Waterville crowd going nuts and dancers in the aisles swinging elbows left and right.

That was the end of the setlist, and after fumbling with a few ideas for an encore, Oteil just mumbled into the mike, "That's the best we can do."  And they all trickled off, Melvin Seals with a portable oxygen tank last.  Disappointing that there was no encore, but we all had to agree that we'd just seen a great concert.

I checked the time as we left and it was 11:50, the car was right outside, and we were back in our hotel room by 12:00.  Wish every post-concert trek was as short!

 

Green River Festival 2025 - Sunday

Sunday, June 22

Woke up on Sunday after a pretty good sleep, and it was raining steadily outside on a refreshing, cool morning.  This was fine with us, especially when all forecasts agreed that it would clear up soon.  And it did, the cloud cover slowly moving East and becoming thinner until the sun started peeking through.

Had a peanut butter everything bagel and some iced tea out on the porch, and the others started getting up.  No fishing this morning but lots of plans for the day and the Summer to talk about.  Michelle laid out a breakfast buffet on her card table, and we all ate bits of stuff.  We eventually got our clothes and gear packed back in the car and took off at about the same time as we had yesterday.

Got another nice parking spot in the shade, and Sarah got in the “bags” line while Dave and I, with just chairs, were almost first in the “no bags” line.  They let campers set up their chairs before those in line (they’re already in the fairgrounds), so we did not have our pick of spots, but we set up in almost exactly the same place as the last two days, which was great.  Got some more morning iced coffee from the Dean’s Beans truck and started wandering around.  The ground was just a little squishy from the overnight rain, and it was already turning into a hot, humid day.

First up for me was Truman Sinclair at noon on the Back Porch stage.  He’s a skinny 22-year-old who looks younger than that, has one album out, has bangs down to his nose, and plays some very good bluesy and folksy originals with his trio (drums and bass), who look just as young.  He’s got very nimble, long fingers and a good sound on his acoustic, nice songs with nice chord changes.  Sinclair has lots of talent, and he gets out the harmonica rack and does a very credible job of accompanying himself, but he needs a good lead player.

Left his set a bit early and got up to the front of the main stage for Chaparelle, along with several people who were very excited to see them.  I hadn’t been right up front at that stage yet and I was very impressed by the dozen or so huge speaker boxes they had lined up there, to go with the speakers on stage and the ones hanging from the scaffolding.  It was no surprise I’d been able to hear every note from the main stage in the parking lot yesterday!  One great thing about GRF has always been their sound and this year was no exception.  There were no glitches or drop-outs, everything was mixed very well, and the quality of the sound was top notch.  The rare frantic scrambles by the musicians were because of their filters misbehaving, the PAs at all stages were flawless.

Chaparelle is fronted by Zella Day (looking amazingly sexy in a skin-tight dress and high heel boots) and Jesse Woods, and they also had a bassist, drummer, and lead guitarist.  Can't say I thought much of them though, all hat and no cattle.  They have some slightly catchy originals but sing and play just for drama, no sincerity ... not a real country band even though they’ve got the optics.  Their arrangements are pretty simple and rely on a loud lead guitar and a thumping, repetitive bass.  But they did a nice cover of Why You Been Gone So Long, and one of their originals really stood out, Bleeding Hearts.

Time to go get a spicy ahi bowl from Hometown Poké and Bubble Tea, which was *very* spicy!  Then over to the strangely (relatively) empty Dean’s Beans stage to catch Chicha Libre.  They’re a Brooklyn band that plays mostly Peruvian music, and I was really looking forward to seeing them, but they left me a little flat.  They feature Olivier Conan on lead vocals and cuatro, Vincent Douglas on rhythm electric guitar, Nick Cudahy on bass, Neil Ochoa and Karina Colis on percussion, and Joshua Camp playing leads on keytar and accordion.  Several elements of their sound were very interesting, such as the keytar leads and Ochoa’s large guiro.  Nice, danceable beats but nothing flashy or catchy.  I went back to the car for a quiet break towards the end of their set and missed their cover of the Clash’s great Guns Of Brixton, but I could hear it fine in the parking lot.

This meant I missed the beginning of the set from Grace Bowers & the Hodge Podge, starting at 2:30 on the main stage, and I was sorry I missed a note of it!  I thought Truman Sinclair was young, but she’s just 18, based in Nashville, with a mop of frizzy hair, was wearing short shorts on that hot afternoon, and is an astounding blues guitarist.  She had a keyboardist, another electric guitar, a drummer, a vocalist, and a bassist, and they were a very good band.  Bowers has great control of her guitar sound, playing non-stop like a Derek Trucks and dueling with her other guitarist on some tunes for almost a Duane Allman/Dickey Betts sound.  She does some vocals but doesn’t have a great voice, but her female vocalist sure picked up the slack and belted out the dirty blues and the aggressive ballads, great range and expression from her.

Out to the car after that for another attempt at a nap as the hot afternoon stretched on.  Then back to the Main Stage eventually for MJ Lenderman & the Wind, another pretty good band who’s runaway popularity puzzles me.  They were pretty tight and had good arrangements with two guitars, drums, bass, keys, and pedal steel/fiddle.  They also produced some interesting sounds, such as the pedal steel player using a bow like he was Mickey Hart on The Beam.  But Lenderman is a perpetually sad and whiny musician, who even when he starts off an upbeat song with a smile soon starts complaining.  Some of his lyrics: “I ate too much at the fair,” “I got sick … at the fair,” “It falls apart, we’ve all got work to do and bad arches.”  I may have some of these a little wrong, but you get the idea.

But I took off before he depressed me too much for one more beer and to get a good place to stand for Futurebirds at the Back Porch stage.  Good thing I got there in time because the crowd filled in quickly and this was a very popular set, the crowd loved this band, as did I.  They’re a bunch of guys from Georgia who met in college 15 years ago and play energetic, fun, country/Southern/surf/roots rock and throw in a few ballads and tearjerkers.  They came on stage to Alan Jackson’s Chattahoochee (“a pyramid of cans in the pale moonlight”) and that set the tone.  They have a great mix of telecaster (Thomas Johnson), big Guild bass (Brannen Miles), stratocaster (Carter King), and Gibson acoustic (Daniel Womack) with a dynamic drummer (Tom Myers).  I could have watched these guys play for hours, but with the amount of jumping around and goofing on each other that they do on stage they must have been pretty worn out after an hour and a quarter packed with guitar music.

OK, time for the last act of the weekend.  I got another plate of rice and beans with guacamole from La Veracruzana, navigated back to our seats at the Main Stage without spilling it, and sat down to enjoy Sunday’s headliner, Waxahatchee.  They’re yet another good but not great band that somehow is very popular and has been around for a while, and they played a very enjoyable set.  The band is led by Katie Crutchfield who IMO has a nasal, limited voice, but she uses it well, it fits comfortably with her songs, and her band has a rich, bassy, indie rock sound.  She played with another guitarist, a bass and drums, and two musicians who alternated between keyboards, pedal steel, banjo, and electric guitars.  Crutchfield asked MJ Lenderman out for a song (they recently collaborated) and it didn’t take long for him to start complaining.

And at that it was time for us to leave.  Didn’t want to get stuck in traffic and we wanted to get home and see how the kitties had been holding up to the heat.  We got back to the car and thankfully cranked the air conditioning, it had been another long, hot day, and we were all sticky with sweat, sunscreen, and who knows what else.  No trees blocking route 91 and then route 2 on the way home but a lot of bad drivers taking up more space than they should.  Still made it straight back with not much trouble.

So how would I sum up GRF 2025?  One thing that really stood out was that it doesn’t take a big band to make a big (or good) sound.  The largest band we saw was Thee Sinseers, which had 10 great players, and a couple of bands had six.  But most of the bands were basic quartets or even trios … the average size of the bands I saw was 4.76 people.  Another thing that comes to mind about the weekend was it was filled with great guitar sounds, from Zac Sokolow, Sully Tuttle, Grace Bowers, and many others.  What a fun weekend, though exhausting!

Green River Festival 2025 - Saturday

Saturday, June 21

Woke up to a fine first-full-day-of-Summer Saturday morning and had a nice iced tea and bagel breakfast on the veranda.  One of our friends had been down to the river, practicing his fly-casting.  Dave and I realized we’d never been down to the Deerfield by the hotel.  Across route 2, we found a path cut through the Japanese knotweed to the very full and swift river, all rivers in New England are still running pretty high.  The water was clear and bitter cold!  Later that day I picked up a flyer for the Deerfield River Watershed Association at the Festival.  I went swimming in that river many times in high school.

Everyone started waking up, congregating, and discussing plans for the day.  We were the first to take off, as usual, leaving about 10:20 for the 11:00 gates.  We got a great parking space in the shade again, waited in line a bit, and then set up our chairs at the Main Stage area almost exactly where we had on Friday, perhaps a few feet closer to the stage.  I immediately got an iced coffee.

It was a hard choice which band to see for the opening noon set, but I started off by going over to the Back Stage porch to see Olive Klug.  Olive alternated between a guitar, a tenor guitar, and a banjo, and did the vocals for their (preferred pronoun) trio, along with a keyboardist who sang some great harmonies, and a fiddler who was standing on a board and filled in on percussion with tap shoes.  Klug was able to work a bass drum and a license-plate-clanger with their heels.  What had attracted me to Olive’s music was that it all sounded so happy and upbeat … even the sad songs were happy and the trio was smiling through all of it.  It didn’t hurt that they got quite a good reception from the Back Porch stage too.

But I left about two thirds of the way through Klug’s set to hurry over to the Dean’s Beans stage to catch the Funky Dawgz Brass Band.  They were at GRF a few years ago and I loved them, and they were doing it again!  They have a drummer, but no strings or keyboards, just two trumpet/trombone players, two sax players, and a melodic tuba player who sounds almost like a bass guitar.  You have to see these guys when you get a chance, they have such energy and a clean, loud sound.

Time for some food and to settle down at our seats in the hot sun for Thee Sinseers, by far the biggest band of the weekend at 10 people.  From their website: “Straight out of East L.A. and led by multi-instrumentalist, producer and singer-songwriter Joseph Quiñones, Thee Sinseers feature a full brass section led by Eric Johnson (Tenor sax), Steve Surman (Bari sax) and Joseluis Jimenez (trombone).  The line up also includes sweet harmonies and a tight rhythm section consisting of Christopher Manjarrez (Bass), Francisco Flores (Guitar), Bryan Ponce (Guitar/vox), Luis Carpio (Drums/vox) and Adriana Flores (Vox).”  They have a great soul/R&B sound, often dominated by a low, growling trombone, and the sax players on one song both played flutes.  I was afraid the band would be too gooey for a hot afternoon, but they’re all such quality musicians they were a lot of fun to listen to.

Next up was a short break at the car, and then I swung by the Dean’s Beans stage to see young garage rock quartet, Thus Love.  Not much to see there, again a full sound for a basic band but mostly formulaic punk music.

It was 2:30 and it had already been a long afternoon, but now back to the Main Stage for the Illuminati Hotties, another indie rock band and yet another band from Los Angeles.  I had heard some interesting tracks from them and was looking forward to a fun set, but was a little disappointed.  They’re fronted by Sarah Tudzin on guitar and vocals, and were another small group (with matching outfits and pastel sneakers).  They played with a lot of energy but their songs were not that memorable and their sound was not distinctive.  Oh well, still fun and good band name!

BUT, up next was one of the acts I most wanted to see, Leyla McCalla, a Carolina Chocolate Drops alumna who’s recently been concentrating on Haitian music.  I got over to the Back Porch stage in time to get a great place to stand and caught the end of her sound check.  Leyla played guitar, banjo, and of course cello, and was accompanied by an electric bass and guitar, and trap drums.  Again, the whole area was filled wall to wall by the end of her set, and she made everyone happy with some very mellow but at the same time complex music.  She did some traditional folk and blues, but slowly changed over to her Haitian sound, ending with her latest song, Sun Without the Heat.  This was a great set and several of my friends were there and we all gushed about it afterwards.

The schedule had a big hole in it now, a sequence of acts I was not excited about, but this meant it was time to head out to the car for an extended break.  I tried to nap but it was very hot and I could hear every note from Danielle Ponder’s band on the Main Stage (she was actually a lot better than I’d anticipated).  But I got some good dozing in at least and was just beginning to wake up when I got a text from Dave that I should head right over to the Back Porch stage to see Jeremie Albino.  And was I glad that I did!

This was maybe the set of the weekend, at least the most unexpectedly good one.  Albino plays a big, resonating guitar, and is accompanied by a drummer, a bassist, and the fantastic Ian James Bain on lead electric guitar, all from Ontario.  They play heart-on-the-sleeve originals, a mix of early rock and roll, country, R&B, swamp music, and whatever feels good.  Albino was wearing brown polyester bellbottoms, loafers, and white socks, and looked like a rockabilly shouter with his sneer and sudden dance steps.  He’d croon the lyrics, the band would rock together for a bit, and then Bain would take over, what a great sound he got.  These guys were really good, and I told Ian so while he was gathering his stuff.

But it was a very hot and sweaty afternoon, and the forecast wind was nowhere near enough.  I headed for one of their real bathrooms to wash my face thoroughly with cold water, then got a Greek bowl with chicken from The Roadhouse food truck and sat down in the shade to try to cool off.  Kevin Morby was on the Main Stage and I caught a glimpse of him when I went back to our seats to change into my regular glasses, as the first day of Summer began to think about ending.  I was told he was pretty good, but didn’t stop to listen.

Cruised by the Back Porch stage to check it out and it was already very packed for Kathleen Edwards, a veteran edgy folk artist whom I’d seen and would have liked to see again, but … instead it was time to head over to the Dean’s Beans stage for La Lom, who had hooked me when I saw a few of their videos.

This trio is yet another band from LA (their name stands for “Los Angeles League of Musicians”), and they play mainly Central and South American songs, but with a style and energy that gives them a unique sound.  I’d called them “cumbia rockabilly” on my spreadsheet, and as much as they do fast, rhythmic, complicated music they also do ballads, like their amazing cover of Dolly Parton’s I Will Always Love You.

They’re led by Zac Sokolow on guitar, Jake Faulkner alternated between Fender bass and a huge, blonde double-bass (and yelled at the crowd between each song to rile us up), and Nicholas Baker played a funky trap set in which nothing matched.  He usually played with a stick in his right hand and his bare left hand on the conga drum and tom-toms.  As good as the rhythm section was, it’s hard to take your eyes off Sokolow.  He plays with such speed, dexterity, and precision but also with a feeling, a musical quality that can’t be bottled.  I was reminded of seeing Mdou Moctar on that stage last year at about this point of the Festival, though the two play very different styles.  And both Sokolow and Faulkner wear pointy-toed boots to look slick, and also to enable them to constantly fiddle with all their effects and filters.

They stick to the instrumentals, they’re concentrating too hard to sing I guess, but they actually had Jeremie Albino out to croon one song, a great matchup.  I was at the rail for the whole, loud set, being bumped into by dancing fools on three sides while the hillside behind us was covered by excited music fans.  For most of their set, the little area for photographers right in front of the stage was even more packed, as serious people with huge lenses elbowed each other out of the way.  It was a lot of fun, and lots of people hung around to chant for more when the band finally left the stage.

Woah!  Ok, time to head up to our seats at the Main Stage where Courtney Barnett, Saturday’s headliner, had already started.  This rocker from Australia has been around for a long time, but still seems like a youngster.  Maybe I’m getting old.  I’ve really liked some of her songs (like Depreston, which she did towards the end of her set) and really not liked some others, but even at that you have to admire her musicianship.  She’s got a rambling style that sometimes can be fascinating and other times boring, and one thing I like about her videos and was eager to see live was her comfortability with her guitar and her finger picking.  Though she just had a trio (bass and drums), she was able to get multiple guitar sounds from her one instrument, and sometimes played rhythm and lead tracks at once.

Great way to end a day of wildly different styles, and we took off just before the end of her set to beat the traffic.  Back at the Red Rose and all of our crew showed up out at the picnic/party area.  Aldo supplied a wheelbarrow full of split wood for the fire pit, the rain held off (though we felt a few drops late at night), and we all talked and talked about what we’d seen and heard.  Oh, and a few bombs were dropped on Iran that night in the perhaps-more-real world.

Green River Festival 2025 - Friday

Friday June 20

The Green River Festival announced another lineup of bands we weren’t that excited about and/or had never heard of for 2025, and a few we might like to see.  But we’ve always had a good time there, so we sighed, booked rooms at the Red Rose with our friends, and headed out there on a beautiful Friday, this year’s Summer Equinox.  A little rain, a lot of wind, and a lot of sun and heat were forecast, what else is new?

Stopped at The People’s Pint in downtown Greenfield for lunch after being detoured through Turner’s Falls when a tree was down on route 2.  Had some fine beers and Dave had the trout salad, which we others wished we’d ordered.

Drove the 20 or so minutes further West and checked in with Aldo at the Rose, we got room 2 this year.  None of the others had showed up by the time we finished unloading, relaxed a bit, and then left for the Franklin County Fairgrounds at a quarter after 2:00 or so.  Got a nice parking spot in the shade near the gate and waited in line with perhaps a hundred other people before they let us in at 3:00.  They’re now marking off an even bigger patch of lawn for standing room; we set up our chairs almost as far forward as possible, but were still a bit behind and to the left of the sound board tent.  This was fine though, and the bigger patch of lawn was needed for the standing-room crowd they got for the headliners.

There were some small changes this year.  They not only searched bags but then wanded you for metal before letting anyone in, fine with me.  They had moved all the craft vendors to assigned stalls in the livestock exhibition buildings, which made them a bit harder to browse but was a great idea that worked out for everyone.  It was just a little cosier and more secure for the customers and the vendors.  They had more of an emergency equipment presence and lined them all up in a fenced off area where the vendors used to be.  Another great move was they shifted the Dean’s Beans stage a bit more away from the Main Stage to take advantage of the natural amphitheater on the slope over that way, and probably to minimize sound leakage.  This made more room for the food vendors too, and tents to eat at.  They also had a much better beer selection this year and more beer tents, though it was all cans rather than draft.

Another change was they went totally with a staggered schedule this year rather than an endlessly overlapping one.  They alternated between having the Main Stage and the Round House stage going, or else having the Dean’s Beans and Back Porch stages going.  This was much better for sound leakage and gave the performers a real chance to do sound checks right before they went on.  This made it a bit harder to dash around and see a little bit of everyone, but that isn’t necessarily a huge loss.

Anyway, I wandered around and checked thing out and ended up right in front of the Dean’s Beans stage for the Gaslight Tinkers at 4:00.  They were a folkie two-some on guitar and fiddle when I saw them several years ago, but now are a full band with a drum set and a bassist that plays all over the musical map and also features a dynamic conga player on vocals.  The conga player did a great hambone that morphed into Cluck Old Hen.  They also did Woody Guthrie’s I Ain’t Got No Home, adding another verse to the great lyrics, this one about the horrible number of people who live in our country but are suddenly finding themselves without a home.

Saw all of their set and then hurried right over to the Main Stage for Torres at 4:40.  They (preferred pronoun) played with an electric bass, keyboard, and drums and succeeded in having a very fleshed out sound for such a small combo.  Torres really self-challenges with some complicated guitar parts and vocal parts, but usually it works great.  Not anything I'd call country (Torres has been dabbling with country sounds in their recent partnership with Julien Baker), but a very fun opening main stage set.  One song I really liked was a long litany of complaints about things her “baby” was doing wrong.  It was like Positively 4th Street, updated for this decade.

But I left their set before the end so I could be sure to get up front for AJ Lee and Blue Summit over at the Back Porch stage at 5:30.  I actually caught the last bit of their sound check, which was a light-hearted romp on I Wonder Where You Are Tonight.  She and her band were very impressive.  I haven't been a huge fan of what I've heard from her, but on seeing her sing live, I really liked her non-aggressive alto.  Her mandolin work is very good, funny that's not featured more.

But the knock-you-over part of the set was the work from her two guitarists, Scott Gates and most of all Sully Tuttle (Molly Tuttle’s brother).  Gates did the neo-traditionalist leads at a twangy setting, but Sully Tuttle did the distinctive ones, playing his guitar so fast and so delicately it sounded like a gut-string or maybe even a sitar.  They feature Jan Purat on fiddle and a bassist (Sean Mueller??), who made some great train sounds at one point by rubbing his bow downwards on the bass strings.  They then lit into the big song of the set, a great mashup of the New Riders of the Purple Sage's Glendale Train, into and out of Orange Blossom Special, and back to the last verse of Glendale Train.  They also did a cover of Neil Diamond's I'm a Believer (The Monkees hit) as a country ballad.

Took a short break to quiet down out at the car in the shade after that.  The Back Porch stage had been as jammed as I’ve ever seen it by the end of AJ Lee’s set (she got a very good crowd reaction, especially to Tuttle’s breaks, which were just awesome).  I then grabbed some food from La Veracruzana and took it back to our seats at the Main Stage, where I caught the second part of the set from Mo Lowda & the Humble.

They’re another interesting indie rock band with a small but full guitar/guitar/bass/drums lineup.  Lowda played a telecaster but managed to create a great atmospheric sound with it, and the other guitarist doubled on keys.  Mo switched to bass for the song Beachtown, which was very good.  Wish I’d seen more of their set!

Next up were two bands I wasn’t that interested in seeing, but this was a great time of the evening to get another beer, check out the vendors, and wander around some more.  Saw a couple of songs from Ocie Elliott on the Back Porch stage, and concluded they’re as not-to-my-taste as I thought they’d be (friends who’d seen them were in accord).  I also saw a short bit of textbook reggae band Kabaka Pyramid on the Dean’s Beans stage, who don’t have much going besides a punishing bass sound.

Ok, back to our seats with a chicken burrito to enjoy the evening’s headliner, Mt. Joy.  They’re a suddenly very popular indie rock band from LA with a seemingly devoted following (by the number of people jamming the lawn and screaming in unison), and gave us a really enjoyable set.  The small band is fronted by Matt Quinn on lead vocals and acoustic guitar, and includes Sam Cooper on lead guitar, Sotiris Eliopoulos on drums, and Micheal Burns on bass (he seemed to have a different electric bass for every song).  But the part of their sound I really liked was Jackie Miclau on piano and organ.  She had a wonderful-sounding Yamaha upright piano, which she played very well.

We were getting pretty tired and wanted to avoid the probable traffic jam after their set, so left a few songs before it was over.  Fine drive back to the Red Rose, but the party/cookout area they have was taken by another group!  Dave and I wandered over there as they were dispersing however, and they were a nice bunch of touring bikers from Rochester.

Then our group started showing up and we had a fine turnout this year.  Don’t know how late everyone partied, I had to bag eventually and was in bed by 11:30 or so after another fine GRF Friday.

Peter Rowan and Sam Grisman Project at the Cabot

We're not going to as many concerts as we used to these days, we're perhaps more selective.  And one that immediately caught our eye was "Peter Rowan and the Sam Grisman Project doing Old and In the Way" at the Cabot.  I've really enjoyed the few Peter Rowan concerts I've been too, and this sounded like one that shouldn't be missed, especially when we were able to get seats in row K in the center of the orchestra at the Cabot, a great theater.

Ate a quick dinner at Gulu-Gulu in Salem on Saturday, June 14, a busy day with the No Kings demonstrations that morning.  Then drove up to a crowded downtown Beverly and were able to get the last parking spot in the municipal lot.  Got to our great seats a little before show time.  The crowd was late filling in but eventually the place was packed (except for the two seats right in front of us!) and the show started a little late.

Well, what we saw wasn't the recreation of Old and In the Way that we expected, but was fantastic.  Rowan shuffled on stage by himself first, an old man with a big (Panama?) hat and Hobbit pants, looking a little like a pumpkin.  He spoke/sang an introduction for the Sam Grisman project, and they came on and all opened with Woody Guthrie's This Land Is Your Land, before Peter left the stage.  Sam told us that you never know what to expect from his introductions, sometimes he does a song, sometimes he recites a poem, sometimes he makes up a ditty on the spot.

Anyway, the Sam Grisman Project then did almost the whole first set by themselves and they were great.  They're led by Sam (David's son) on vocals and a double-bass that has a body that looks like it's been through a war but a beautiful neck, nut, and scroll that makes it look like a classical instrument.  They also had a fiddler, a guitarist, a mandolinist, and Victor Furtado (another legacy) on clawhammer banjo, and a dobro player came out for a few tunes.  I didn't try hard to remember the names, thinking that they'd be on the website.  But the only names on the website were not there on the night we saw them, I guess it's kind of a rotating cast.

Anyway, this band had some great strengths.  Sam Grisman is a fantastic, melodic, technical bass player and has a pretty good voice.  He has a unique style, hunching down and almost looking up at the bass while he plays, moving it around a lot, looking like he's doing a funky dance with it and just doing some incredible bass runs.  At one point the guy behind me couldn't help himself and said out loud, "Holy Cow!" when Sam did something on the bass we'd never seen done.  The rest of the band was very good too, though they weren't mixed particularly well.  They featured an excellent fiddle and guitar, and the mandolinist had a very good tone.

They played a set of neo-traditionalist bluegrass featuring songs like Going Up On the Mountain, and I'm Troubled.  Rowan came out for a few songs before the set break, doing some of his older stuff including The Free Mexican Air Force.  When we was with them the band stood back and filled in, while Sam almost duetted with Peter, who IMO is one of the best bluegrass guitarists ever.  He seemed very old and didn't bring his fastball, but he was consistently right around the plate and his change-up could not be touched.  Rowan strolled off-stage again and the band closed the first set with a smoking cover of Big Railroad Blues.

Surprisingly, very few Old and In the Way covers!  In the middle of the first set they did Vassar's Kissimmee Kid, on which the fiddler shone.  They later did Old and In the Way itself, which was written by David Grisman.

After a pretty short set break the band came back out and Peter joined them after a couple of numbers.  He'd shed the hat, letting his white hair fly, and seemed to now be taking this thing seriously.  They did a lovely cover of Carter Stanley's White Dove, with four/five part harmony.  And the song of the night was a haunting cover of The Walls of Time, written by Rowan with Bill Monroe.  His golden voice was at its best on this.

They did a few more numbers, including Midnight Moonlight, on which Peter invited the crowd to sing the chorus, and a great cover of Charlie Monroe's Rosa Lee McFall.  The last song of the set was another patriotic Guthrie number, All You Fascists, which Sam dedicated to Stephen Miller.  They came back out for an encore and Rowan mentioned the recent deaths of Sly Stone and Brian Wilson.  He finished the night with a spoken word and then sung cover of Wilson's late-in-life masterpiece, Love and Mercy.  By the end of the song he was leading the audience in a singalong, and then he closed it with one of his vocal flourishes.

Another great show at the Cabot, and a pretty quick journey home.

Amazing Washington - Back From the Forest

June 3

Got up before I wanted to and got organized.  I had time to shower, exercise, and eat a granola bar, then we got everything together and took off at a little after 6AM.  We had to leave some of our food there, no way to take it on the plane and no room in our bags.  They had told me at the car rental place to allow two hours between returning the car and our flight time.  And we figured during morning rush hour it might take two hours to get to the car rental place.  So we were on schedule.

Started off West on route 706 through beautiful downtown Ashford and then the town of Elbe, where they have a motel with rooms in old train cars.  Then right on route 7 past lovely Alder Lake, and right again on the Alder Cutoff Road, which turned into route 161 in Eatonville.  As we drove North we got glimpses of the bulk of Mt. Rainier off to the right.

We finished the last of the PB&J sandwiches as the trees began to thin and the buildings began to proliferate.  161 joined route 512 and by then we were already in suburbia and crawling in a dueling group of cars from one traffic light to the next.  In Puyallup, 512 became route 167, which is a limited access highway, and the traffic really started.  We jumped into the HOV lane but pretty soon they had dire signs that yes, it was an HOV lane, BUT you had to have the right transponder for it or they’d charge you $15 to use it!  So we crawled along with the rest.

After a while, Google maps started telling us that it would be faster to take local roads, and so we let it guide us left and right and left and right and left and right, etc. on city streets and twisty parkways through residential and factory and high tech neighborhoods through the suburbs South of Seattle.  It was another great day with no clouds and this tactic seemed to be working.  We weren’t stuck in a line of traffic at least.  And we ended up at the car rental area a little ahead of schedule.

No problem dropping off the car, they had the receipt for me in 30 seconds.  We put about 800 miles on her in six days, not that strenuous but a lot of up and down.  Goodbye to Muddy, who may not have an adventure like that again any time soon!  Got on the shuttle bus to the North terminal and we were back where we started, checking in our shared suitcase at an Alaskan Airlines kiosk.

Getting through security took forever though.  The Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, or the North terminal at least, is not scaled to the number of people who go through there.  Even though it was 9AM on a Tuesday, they had to make lines that went back and forth and back and forth through almost the entire terminal.  The line we were in moved relatively quickly though, but when we finally got to the climax, they had to send me back twice to take off my belt and put it in my pack, and then to take off my boots (metal eyelets??) and put them through the scanner.  As Sarah said when I finally caught up in a state of undress, it’s a good thing they didn’t make me take off my pants.

Made it to the gate area and grabbed some of the last seats.  The whole area was just packed with people.  Luckily, they did the same thing they had on our flight West, and announced that people could check bags at the gate for free, since they were afraid the overheads would fill up.  Alaska Airlines 506 left the gate a little early actually, as the plane was full and there was no reason not to.

We had seats together again, right over the wing, this time on the port side of the plane.  As we taxied we caught a last glimpse of Mt. Rainier out the window, and caught our only glimpse of Mt. Olympus right after that.  And when we took off into the Northwest wind and then headed East, we ended up flying over Mt. Baker in North Cascades NP.  We’d ordered a chicken meal for this flight and it was not bad.  I dozed a bit and we again lucked out with the jet stream, getting in to Logan about an hour early.

Back on Eastern time and it was a nice day in Boston too.  Alaska Air got our bags out quickly, and we headed for the cab stand.  Not a bad ride back to Woburn and the kitties were ecstatic to see us, as we were to see them.

So how would I rate this vacation?  I’d have to put it very high on my list as far as seeing many things I’ll remember for a long time: the ocean, the mountains, the waterfalls, the sea stacks, the trees, the ancient forest ecosystem, the glaciers, the wildflowers, etc.  We mostly got where we wanted to when we wanted to, and/or had a Plan B, and our accommodations worked out well.  It’s too bad some of the places we wanted to hike were still snowbound, but if we’d gone later in the year the number of people we’d have to wade through would at least double.  We really should have made the vacation longer, but we knew we were going to miss the kitties.  In all I’d have to call it a short, amazing time!

 

Amazing Washington - Up Along the Ridge

 June 2

Not too many complaints from me about Frenchie’s Suite, though I’m a complainer.  Maybe they could have had freight train whistles in the middle of the night.

Anyway, got out of bed at some point in the morning and managed to get my exercises in on a cramped, wood floor, then we all got ready and walked down the few steps to the restaurant for breakfast … and they were glad to see us!  Got some nice eggs, toast, and coffee, and Sarah had a slice of their signature blackberry pie, which she didn’t find compelling unfortunately.

Anyway (again), we were well positioned and got right back to the Park as soon as we reasonably could.  The target this morning was the Rampart Ridge Trail, from the Longmire area.  I’d had my eye on this, but it looked to be a lot of vertical and perhaps too long a hike.  But the volunteer had recommended it to us for our "long" hike on Monday (this was Monday), and looking at the guidebook we realized it would be 1280 feet in elevation, whereas the Carter Falls Trail we’d just done was rated at 1200 feet, not a big difference.

The Longmire area is not that far into the Park, and has some historic buildings that we should have been interested in but just didn’t have the time for.  We had PB&J sandwiches, granola bars, plenty of water, first aid kit, rope, extra clothes, guidebooks, and some lint in our packs, and were ready for the trail.

Parked at the National Park Inn in the historic Longmire area, and found our way across the road to the Trail Of the Shadows, that we had to start off on.  Saw a couple of big trees and some swamp cabbage, but then got to the UPHILL turn off for the Ramparts Ridge Trail and followed it.  For the next few miles we were going up a steady, steep slope and navigating well-engineered switchbacks up to the ridge between the Nisqually valley and the valley of the Kautz Glacier to its West.

We started off at about the same time as a family group a bit (actually a lot) younger than us, leapfrogged them up the slope, taking rest breaks every so often, and they beat us to the top.  Several other groups also beat us to the top, including some who looked like they were NOT going to stop, and we may have beaten a few as well.  But whatever, it was a wonderful old-growth forest with majestic trees that let very little light find the forest floor, and so were not too bothered by the alder and maple bushes that sprang up where the sun actually shone.  The ferns were as ubiquitous as always, the wildflowers had found their niches, the fallen logs that hadn’t slid down the slope were nursing future growth, and we were taking our time.

We eventually made it to the top of the ridge after 90 minutes or so, but the viewpoint over the Longmire area was pitiful.  We could see our car though!  We’d been advised to keep going and we’d see a great vista of Mt. Rainier, which we did, and we were rewarded with a great view when we emerged on the other side of the ridge at the top of a scree slope.  Rainier was half-masked by clouds, and we kept on going, thinking that we’d have many other views as we hiked along the ridge right towards it.

But no!  We were soon enveloped by trees again for the next several miles and had no idea if we were on a mountain ridge, on a river bottom, or in a video game.  We passed small tree after small tree, and bush after bush, with a few interesting wildflowers and fungi to keep us busy.  But it was a flat walk along the top of Ramparts Ridge with no view out, and we eventually got a little downhill, and there was a large bog on our left.

Help!  We hadn’t ever needed the bug spray we got until that point, so much so that we’d left it behind on this hike.  And suddenly we needed it, these bugs hadn’t been fed in years apparently.  But we zipped up our jackets and hoods, hurried by, and soon got to the junction with the ubiquitous Wonderland Trail and started downhill, getting out of range of those bugs as fast as we could.

We were ready for lunch at this point, but there was nowhere good to stop where we could all sit down … and a view (and a breeze) would have been nice.  But a mile or so down the Wonderland Trail we happened upon a step they’d built into the Trail which we could all three sit down on, and we thankfully settled down for a PB&J lunch.  Trail ambassador Terry came by while we were in the middle of lunch and was glad to see us (he said he hadn't seen anybody all day) and talk for a bit.  But he then hurried on and we finished in our own time.

Great break, but now for more serious downhill.  We could see the trees changing as we descended.  When we saw alders and red cedar mixing in with the Douglas fir then we knew we’d descended into another climate zone, and when we saw a few maples we knew we were almost back to Longmire.  We hadn’t realized how fast we were descending until we had to cross the Park road, and then dropped even further into the Longmire area, ending up right across from where we’d started at the National Park Inn.

That was a great hike, over 5 miles and a lot of vertical, but not as much view as we’d like.  Oh well.  We cooled down, drank some water, and realized there was still a lot of time left in the afternoon.  Another hike that had been recommended to us was the Twin Firs Trail, down the hillside, and so we drove down there and had a very mellow half hour following that loop trail.

This was our gentle farewell to big trees.  Some incredible specimens of Douglas fir and red cedar can be found on this trail, some growing together almost from a single root, but most standing alone and swelling with their accumulated years.  These guys are a thousand years old, give or take a bit, and were there just for us to clamber up the slope and look at them.  Don’t fall over backwards when you look up!

Drove even further down the mountain after that and another thing the volunteer had recommended in his ramblings was to drive up the Westside Road until it was maybe closed and then look around.  So that’s what we did, and it wasn’t much.  But it was a quiet, private farewell to the Park, there was some kind of view at the top, and it certainly was … well, a road up a mountainside.

Ok, time to say goodbye to Mt. Rainier NP and to head back to Frenchie’s.  We’d made a dinner reservation there for 6:00 that Monday night, realizing that we needed to get to bed early and wake up early to get back to the airport.  Left the Nisqually entrance and sped the few miles to Copper Creek.  And we got there in time to do most of the needed packing before dinner.

We then went down to dinner and it was mobbed again … on a Monday at 6:00!  Good thing we’d made a reservation.  Our waitress told us that this was nothing, wait until Summer when they’d have a line out the door and people begging for a seat.  Got another fine dinner that couldn’t be beat and then headed back upstairs, where we did some final packing and then settled down for a last game of Azul.

Soon to bed.  The raucous restaurant underneath us was quieting down, and we were ready for our 5:00AM alarm.

Sarah took pictures of these wildflowers during that day:

• Pacific Waterleaf
• Candy Flower
• Hawkweed
• Carpet Bugle
• Horsetail
• Vine Maple
• Beargrass
• Pinemat Manzanita
• Pink Mountainheath
• Arctic Lupine
• Pipecleaner Moss
• Oregon Boxwood
• Swamp Currant
• Pacific Trillium
• Spotted Coralroot
• Rosy Pussytoes
• Large-leaved Avens
• Columbian Windflower
• Hooker's Fairybells
• Tall Bluebell