Our room at the Rose had two queen beds and was more comfortable than it might have been, but my bed kind of listed so much I had to lie diagonally, and the air conditioner just had two settings, on and off. So it wasn't the best night's sleep, but who cares, we were soon up and hanging out with our friends on the veranda, eating weird stuff and drinking tea, coffee, and fruit juice. As I say, my spreadsheet was praised and we planned for another busy day at the Festival. Highly anticipated were the Wonder Women of Country and Mdou Moctar, and kind of dreaded were Fleet Foxes ... that was about right as it turned out.
Sarah and I took off before anyone else at about 10:45, there was no line when we got up to the Fairgrounds, and we got a spot on the Main Stage not quite as good as Friday's but still excellent. More touring of the vendors, and then it was kind of a toss-up whether to start on the Deans Beans Stage or the Back Porch, since I'd rated both acts as "maybe."
Off to the Back Porch first for Love Crumbs, and I really liked them for a few songs. They have two women singers up front and they sang well together, the hippie on bass took a lead, the nerd on piano had another good lead, and then the biker on lead guitar ripped off another one. But by the time they started a fourth song I got bored and left. All their songs were about bad sex and/or bad lovers.
Hurried over to the Deans Beans Stage for Prewn, whom I'd classed as "moody, reverb-y folk rock" in my spreadsheet. And I loved them! This is a small band fronted by Izzy Hagerup with a guitar, bass, and drums, and not too many people were there. They were doing an innovative, goth song about ticks as I walked up, how they dig into your flesh without you knowing and poison your blood. What's not to like? Their guitarist sometimes made a spooky drone sound on his electric with a bow, and all of their songs degenerated into feedback jams. I love this stuff!
It was starting to rain lightly and Izzy said, "Oh no, here it comes again!" The humidity, the wind, and the approaching electricity made her long and unkempt hair frizz up, and the lights lit this like a purple halo. That was a great visual, or maybe that was the gummy kicking in. But suddenly the heavens really opened and I realized I'd better make a dash for the raincoat I'd left over at the Main Stage. By the time I got there I was absolutely soaked from head to foot, and they were calling again for everyone to shelter from the lightning.
So, back in the car again with the cooler of beer. Sarah joined me and this time we were there for a long time while the skies just dumped water on us. Our car was soon sitting in a mid-shin-high lake. Some of our friends had left the hotel, but were stuck halfway into the parking lot and then were told by the volunteers to just wait there. They eventually broke into a nearby port-a-potty though.
Eventually the Festival re-opened, and we'd missed Willi Carlisle, though Tommy Prine and Trousdale apparently did abbreviated acoustic sets under cover, which we missed too. And this was another day that really didn't qualify as a hot summer day, though it was long. It wasn't cold, but the temperature never took off, I was chilly for the rest of the day from being sopping wet and kept my raincoat on and zipped, and our feet were beyond soaked and developing blisters from our sandals.
OK, time to get some food (the delays and the shortage of food vendors meant long lines most of the time), and then I went right over to the Back Porch Stage for what was the act of the weekend, as far as I was concerned, the Wonder Women of Country. This is an authentic super-group of Brennan Leigh, Kelly Willis, and Melissa Carper and they sure had me riveted in place for their whole set. Brennan is a fantastic songwriter and played a crackling lead guitar, Kelly has one of the purest country voices I've ever heard and played backup on her acoustic, and Melissa twisted the doghouse bass into knots while wearing her emotions on her sleeve with her cracked voice.
They swapped leads and alternated some originals by the band members with classic country. Brennan sang Carole With an E and Fly Ya To Hawaii, Kelly did Another Broken Heart and A Thousand Ways. And they closed with Melissa singing I Have Met My Love Today from John Prine's last record. During one song she sang, my mind was trying to classify her (this was the first time I'd seen her), and it came to me in a flash: Melissa Carper is the Butch Hancock of the band, Kelly Willis is the Joe Ely, and Brennan Leigh is the Jimmie Dale. OK, none of my friends knew what I was talking about when I told them that, but it's the truth.
Whoah, I could have listened to them for hours, but they took off after getting as thundering an ovation as I heard at the Back Porch all weekend, and then it was time for me to take off, back to the Main Stage where Bonny Light Horseman had already started. I considered going up front, but stayed back at our seats on the now-almost-hot day. I want to like this band better than I do, I consider Anaïs Mitchell a world-class talent as a songwriter, and a genius singer. They do English folk, which I love. And Josh Kaufman can play the kind of surprising and eclectic stuff I really like (he played a weird steel banjo-guitar on one song). But while Eric D. Johnson has his moments and sings well with Anaïs, he's often a liability, they shouldn't let Kaufman sing, and their arrangements are too quiet, non-catchy, and not always there. For instance, they did an excellent song about a mandolin, but did not have a mandolin in the band, which was problematic. I should mention that they had an excellent bass player in Cameron Ralston, and a good drummer.
OK now, *back* to the Back Porch Stage for Willi Carlisle, who's earlier set had been rained out. He's a large, unclassifiable, dynamic, multi-instrumentalist Arkansan, who will keep you guessing from one song to another. In the half-set of his that I saw he played guitar, banjo, bones, accordion, harmonica, fiddle (on an offbeat cover of Richard Thompson's Beeswing), and hambone of course. He had a large crowd, he's a very entertaining force of nature.
But ... it was past time for me to get something for dinner and I wanted to see Joy Oladokun, who's an immensely talented young musician who reminds me of a young Tracy Chapman. She played some songs with a small band and some solo on her acoustic guitar. There were no instrumental flashes, just her singing her hypnotic songs, sampling her guitar, and staring into the sky, or alternately talking directly to the audience. She dissembled too much and called herself nothing more than a "queer Kermit" when she did a sunny, Sesame Street-like song. Hopefully, she'll be around for a long time.
Sarah was there for her set too, and we did the smart thing of leaving her set a little early and I took our chairs back to the car. We knew there was only a slim chance we'd stick around for the Fleet Foxes set, and we didn't want to repeat the mess we'd found ourselves in yesterday, where we couldn't locate our chairs in the crowd!
Ack, it was then time to hurry down to the Deans Beans Stage for the incredible Mdou Moctar. I have never seen anyone play guitar like that, be it Derek Trucks, Molly Tuttle, Stanley Jordan, or whomever. Moctar is a lefty and played a gray Strat, accompanied by the best bass player of the Festival, a rhythm guitarist who's arm almost fell off he was strumming so fast, and the best drummer of the Festival. But Moctar is phenomenal and you couldn't take your eyes off him! I couldn't believe that he could be so fast and dexterous without a pick, with just his fingers and his thumb, which he used most often. And seeing his other hand work the fretboard was like watching someone from outer space, it was so unreal. He played African blues/jazz, but it was beyond description. I don't know what else to say about him, you need to listen to this guy! All of my friends gushed about him, he's incredible.
Whew, that was quite an experience. I texted Sarah and we met up at the actual Deans Beans coffee truck, where she was buying a cup for the next morning. Fleet Foxes had started the last set on the Main Stage and we stuck around for a few songs. My synopsis of them had been, "atmospheric prog-rock by relatively overrated veteran band," and that's what it was. We liked what we heard but the other guys told us that after we left they went downhill. Oh well.
OK, back to the hotel and soon everyone showed up, we all went out to the picnic tables, got the party lights lit, brought out the snacks and a few adult beverages, and talked and talked in the finally dry and almost chilly night. Everyone had experienced the wet and cold I did that day, it's a good thing I had my shoes and socks and my sweatshirt!
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