Whew! What a weekend!

Friday
Oolenoy was fun Friday night. I jammed with Don Delillio, Oregon Lawton, Matt Oglesby, Will Clark, and a few others came and went throughout the night. I played mandolin once again, and was thrilled when most of my breaks were not bad. Every time I pick with Don, it's not long before he asks me to do "Back To The Barrooms". I don't mind that, except I don't want it to get old. Of course, I always oblige, and generally get a grand response from it. I tried a song that I haven't done in a while, later in the evening. "Big Spike Hammer" is one of my favorite songs, and I used to do it a lot with one of the many versions of Big Iron. I certainly didn't do the song justice, but it was so late that it really didn't matter. I tried another new one for Don, which was "Them Blues" (LRB). It worked much better than I expected, mostly (I think), due to Will playing the guitar and Matt on the banjo, and both of them knew the song.
Saturday
Oregon asked me to play a show with them on Saturday up in Dacusville. He said that there would be several other Bluegrass bands playing throughout the day, so I wanted to hear them. I ended up getting there around 2 pm. There was a country/classic rock band playing and the singer was terrible. The music was great, but the vocals just weren't there. I hung out for a bit, but soon left since there wasn't much else to see. There were about 15-20 cars on display and the band, so once you had your eyes and ears full, there was nothing left to do, but leave. I drove around and made my way back to Easley, where I walked in Lowes and looked at some dishwashers. I eventually made it back to Dacusville around 4. According to Oregon, he was going to be there by 4:30. About one minute past 4:30, they were calling for the next band. Nearly all the cars were gone and the only folks left were the previous band and the people working to produce the event. Oregon, Don, and Terry and Patricia all rolled into the parking lot about 10 minutes later. We played to a practically empty field, but still enjoyed ourselves. Hunter showed up about 15 minutes later and joined us. We left and headed (separately) to Brazeale’s store.
I arrived a few minutes before them and we stood around the front porch and talked for a while, waiting (once again) on Hunter. While we were picking, I noticed someone on the other side of the porch from us. I couldn’t remember his name, but I had met him up at SPBGMA. Once he did make his way over to our jam, someone else called out his name, which gave me a reprieve of embarrassment. It was none other than Glenn Pace. Now Glenn is one of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet, and a great musician. He wanted to pick a little, but Don wanted to take a break, so Oregon took the bass and I stayed on mandolin. I convinced him to play “Twister (Devil’s Dance”. He wrote that song, and it was recorded by Mountain Heart. He has written some really good songs, and I hope to write with him one day. I got his number so that if I ever get into a good jam, I’ll give him a call. About 20 minutes later Don called us to go up on stage, where we did our usual stuff, then all of them left. I hung out for a few minutes because I wanted to play Glenn’s bass. It was an awesome bass. It fit well in my hand and even though the action was low and easy to play, it was loud and rang true on the lower end (the real test of a good bass). I hope that I can someday find a bass that’s as good as or better than that one. Whew! What a weekend!