Songs from the wood

Sunday, July 12, 2009

Favre, a purple headed warrior, pt. 6

Check the headline from this article on ESPN today: SOURCES: Favre to Throw for Vikings. I *Cannot Wait* to buy my official Team Color Vikes jersey with F-A-V-R-E stenciled on the back!! Mitby will *LOVE IT*.

Friday, July 10, 2009

Tommy V. at SKA!

Check it out!! Old Buddy Tommy V. and new friend Willie T. throwing down on the badn tent at Ska! The lovlie ladies at Ska took good care of us all. The sun was warm, the tunes were killer, and the beer was nice n' cold. Here's Willie:

If you havn't, check out his band the "Good Luck Thrift Store Outfit". Hopefully I did enough sales work to get them and tom up to Telluride next year! The axe he's playing is a four string number from 1929. The tone was superb.

Tom took the stage next and ran through a bunch of tunes that I hadn't heard before, and some old favorites.

We asked for a couple together and they obliged.

Thanks for coming to Durango, fellas!!!! Hope you'll come back some time!

Monday, July 6, 2009

Backpacking in the Weminuche Wilderness

We grabbed the packs and headed for the hills on a short 3 day trip into the backcountry. The beauty of this was that the trailhead (Vallecito Creek) is 15 miles from the house. We went in Thursday morning and pulled off 8.5 miles, camping within a stones throw of the Johnson Creek bridge. Prior to this we had to ford the Mighty Vallecito Creek (video coming soon).

There's nothing like a hot cup of coffee in the morning at a place like this!!

This is the trail marker for the Johnson Creek trail. Due to the bridge being out, not a lot of folks come back this way. Johnson creek was one of the best trails I have hiked for overall beauty. I can't wait to get all the way up into the Vallecito Basin next summer.

All of the creeks were running strong and balance came in handy. The new set of Danner Boots are all that I'd hoped they'd be. In them, out there, I am a force of nature.

I believe these to be early season Agaric mushrooms. Fatties!

This fella was packing in gear for three hikers. They rallied the horses and rode right across that creek. I wish I had four wheel drive.

Sunday, June 28, 2009

Yacht Rock!

There is nothing I can add to the awesomeness of this video.

Saturday, June 27, 2009

Yarmonygrass info!

Telluride Bluegrass, Sunday

In the previous three festivals that we have attended, we never hung around for Sunday's sets (burning rubber back to the front range). This year, I was determined to stick it out. This is no easy task. On top of physical and mental exhaustion, the sun was burning HOT again. This guy was, of course, inviting this with his shirt. Why not, we are totally solar powered!

The dude on the left is an excellent metaphor for the average mental condition of the crowd on Sunday. Arrgh!

~FESTIVAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLL~ !!!!

I *CAN'T WAIT* for next year...

Telluride Bluegrass, Saturday

Friday was pretty intense in the sunlight. We cut out during Elvis Costello with the intent of coming back 'round for Railroad Earth. Costello must have made the mistake of his sound crew taking over the sound from the Telluride house crew (same mistake Ryan Adams made last year). His set was tinny with muddy bass. The house sound crew has the town park set DIALED. These national acts come in and screw it up every time. suckers. Anyway, after all day in the blazing sun, we retreated to our "Fortress of Solitude" (the van) where I promptly crashed and slept right through Railroad Earth. Oh well.

These are the band contest finalists. The band that won, The Hillbenders, are a high energy unit out of Springfield, MS (far Left). You'll hear about them again.

Here is Greensky Bluegrass kicking ass. Anders Beck on Dobro in the rain. The cover of Hendrix's "Wind Cries Mary" *KILLIED IT*. Just bought tix yesterday to see these guys again up at Yarmonygras in Del Rio in August.

This guy was still rockin to the David Byrne set two days later. This was his impersonation of Billy Idol covering "Girlfriend is Better".

Then the pulled a long segue into, " Wind Cries Mary". ~EPIC~ !!

Greensky Bluegrass is my new favorite up-and-coming bluegrass band. I can't wait to see them with Billy Nershi up at State Bridge!

Musical proto-genius Chris Thiele put together a single mic unit, The Punch Brothers, and ran down covers that aptly summarized the history of bluegrass music. It was FANTASTIC! The cover of Sammy Bush's "Spider John" was repeated by Sam later on, which was pretty cool.

Here's the boys from Yonder kicking ass. Nothing to say other than the 3 day extravaganza in Oregon is gonna be GREAT!!!! I can't wait. They ran down the version of "Girlfriend is Better" that they have been doing for years, causing flashbacks to the David Byrne set.

After the Yonder set, we headed out to chill for a few minutes, and watched the mists break over the mountain, and saw the rainbow. Rainbow's are, after all, just excess bliss.

Doesn't get much finer than this.

This photo acurately captures the energy of Sammy Bush's set. Pete Rowan is onstage here, throwing down. I've seen Sammy Bush play a bunch, and this was my favorite set that he has played. Killer!

Telluride Bluegrass, pt 2

After an *EPIC* Thursday, we took it slow on Friday morning and enjoyed the beautiful setting and weather.

The view from the creek trail was perfect. I think the next photo is a good one.

Hey - free gondola rides!

Mt. Wilson from the top of the gondola.

Chillin' by the creek again.

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Broeckero's new gig

Check this. My old boy, Broeckero, has been MIA for some time now. Yesterday, while browsing the NY Times online, I realized why. With his modeling career taking off, all I can say is, "He's so HOT right now"!