A Fabulous Time At The Clearwater Festival
I am burnt to a crisp, still a little mentally fried, and still physically exhausted. It was totally worth it and there's no way I'm not doing it again next year.
To start with, I have to go back to the Beacon Strawberry Festival, which I went to last weekend. I went to that mostly because I wanted to hear Pete Seeger perform. Unfortunately, I managed to miss his performance. But while I was there I heard that he'd also be at The Clearwater Festival, which was coming up soon. I'd heard of it before, but never when or where it was. When I got home I looked it up online and discovered that there would be over a dozen artists there that I love, and bunches of other performers who I wasn't familiar with.
I waffled for most of the week whether I should go or not. Finally I was talking about the festival and my indecision with the gang over Thursday night dinner and they convinced me I sounded too excited about it to not go. Thanks guys! After Tom & I got home from dinner I bought my ticket and then found a hotel room. Because I had left it so late I ended up a little further away than I really wanted, but it worked out OK.
Friday I went to work as normal, then came home and packed. Tom & I had dinner then I hit the road. My first stop was Walmart to pick up some odds'n'ends I hadn't had in the house. That took a lot longer than I wanted, so I didn't actually head south until almost 8pm. The drive down was fine for 95% of the way, but I had trouble finding the hotel at the end. The sign wasn't at all visible from the road. The first room they put me in had a unpleasant musty smell, but not so bad I couldn't live with it. Then I discovered that the reason for the smell was a wet towel left in the in-room fridge. Ick. They moved me to a new room across the hall, which had no problems at all. I had a hard time getting to sleep that night.
Saturday I meant to get up by 8:30, and be showered and out the door by 9:30. Instead I turned my alarm off, closed my eyes for a moment, and woke to discover it was almost 10. I got moving as quickly as I could. Traffic got really bad a couple of miles from the concert site, and it took most of an hour to get the last mile. When I got to the parking area for the festival there was a huge line for the shuttle buses to the performance area. Somebody near me said it was only a mile, so I decided to walk in. Bad idea. It was really hot, I didn't have any water on me, and I was carrying a chair, a full day bag, and my purse. When I got up to the ticket booth I was in bad shape. But, I got my ticket, got a glass of water and went in search of a place to set myself up.
The first thing I heard as I got the the ticket booth was Billy Bragg taking the stage. By the time I was looking for a seat his act was half over, but I still heard "Help Save The Youth of America", his version of Bob Marley's song "One Love", and several other songs.
Next up was Janis Ian. Her song "Society's Child" is still beautiful and unfortunately relevant, and she told a wonderful/horrible story about what happened to her one of the first times she performed it in public. The other song she did that really hit me was "At 17," which I wish I'd heard when I was 17.
After her was David Bromberg. I'm pretty sure I'd never heard him before, but I really liked him. Very bluesy folk. Good stuff, but none of the song names are sticking in my head.
After him came Martin Sexton, another act who I enjoyed, but have lost the details of.
The second to last show Saturday night was Arlo Guthrie. He did "Coming into Los Angeles" (after telling a very funny story about having to go retrieve his wife from the airport after she broke the rules). He also did "Union Maid," but I'm blanking on the rest of his set. It was amazing, though.
The very last set of the day was the "Clearwater Generations" supergroup version 1. I'll copy from the website - Pete Seeger & Tao Seeger; Arlo Guthrie & Sarah Lee Guthrie; Bernice Johnson Reagon & Toshi Reagon; Jay Ungar & Ruthy Ungar Merenda; Lyn Hardy & Ruthy Ungar Merenda. There are no words for how great it was. Tao Seeger was the MC, and each family got up and lead the whole group in a song or two. My second favorite was Sara Lee Guthrie's performance of "Sailing Down My Golden River." My absolute favorite was the very last song of the day: Pete Seeger leading the crowd in "If I Had A Hammer."
After the music ended for the day I took the shuttle back to my car, and then drove back to the hotel. I was utterly fried. I'd been sitting in the sun all day, and had done a rotten job keeping myself hydrated. The drive was a blur and when I got back to my room I just sort of sat there drinking water for an hour until I had the energy to get my pajamas on and go to bed.
And that was Saturday. I think I'll do a separate post for Sunday. I did a separate post for Sunday.
To start with, I have to go back to the Beacon Strawberry Festival, which I went to last weekend. I went to that mostly because I wanted to hear Pete Seeger perform. Unfortunately, I managed to miss his performance. But while I was there I heard that he'd also be at The Clearwater Festival, which was coming up soon. I'd heard of it before, but never when or where it was. When I got home I looked it up online and discovered that there would be over a dozen artists there that I love, and bunches of other performers who I wasn't familiar with.
I waffled for most of the week whether I should go or not. Finally I was talking about the festival and my indecision with the gang over Thursday night dinner and they convinced me I sounded too excited about it to not go. Thanks guys! After Tom & I got home from dinner I bought my ticket and then found a hotel room. Because I had left it so late I ended up a little further away than I really wanted, but it worked out OK.
Friday I went to work as normal, then came home and packed. Tom & I had dinner then I hit the road. My first stop was Walmart to pick up some odds'n'ends I hadn't had in the house. That took a lot longer than I wanted, so I didn't actually head south until almost 8pm. The drive down was fine for 95% of the way, but I had trouble finding the hotel at the end. The sign wasn't at all visible from the road. The first room they put me in had a unpleasant musty smell, but not so bad I couldn't live with it. Then I discovered that the reason for the smell was a wet towel left in the in-room fridge. Ick. They moved me to a new room across the hall, which had no problems at all. I had a hard time getting to sleep that night.
Saturday I meant to get up by 8:30, and be showered and out the door by 9:30. Instead I turned my alarm off, closed my eyes for a moment, and woke to discover it was almost 10. I got moving as quickly as I could. Traffic got really bad a couple of miles from the concert site, and it took most of an hour to get the last mile. When I got to the parking area for the festival there was a huge line for the shuttle buses to the performance area. Somebody near me said it was only a mile, so I decided to walk in. Bad idea. It was really hot, I didn't have any water on me, and I was carrying a chair, a full day bag, and my purse. When I got up to the ticket booth I was in bad shape. But, I got my ticket, got a glass of water and went in search of a place to set myself up.
The first thing I heard as I got the the ticket booth was Billy Bragg taking the stage. By the time I was looking for a seat his act was half over, but I still heard "Help Save The Youth of America", his version of Bob Marley's song "One Love", and several other songs.
Next up was Janis Ian. Her song "Society's Child" is still beautiful and unfortunately relevant, and she told a wonderful/horrible story about what happened to her one of the first times she performed it in public. The other song she did that really hit me was "At 17," which I wish I'd heard when I was 17.
After her was David Bromberg. I'm pretty sure I'd never heard him before, but I really liked him. Very bluesy folk. Good stuff, but none of the song names are sticking in my head.
After him came Martin Sexton, another act who I enjoyed, but have lost the details of.
The second to last show Saturday night was Arlo Guthrie. He did "Coming into Los Angeles" (after telling a very funny story about having to go retrieve his wife from the airport after she broke the rules). He also did "Union Maid," but I'm blanking on the rest of his set. It was amazing, though.
The very last set of the day was the "Clearwater Generations" supergroup version 1. I'll copy from the website - Pete Seeger & Tao Seeger; Arlo Guthrie & Sarah Lee Guthrie; Bernice Johnson Reagon & Toshi Reagon; Jay Ungar & Ruthy Ungar Merenda; Lyn Hardy & Ruthy Ungar Merenda. There are no words for how great it was. Tao Seeger was the MC, and each family got up and lead the whole group in a song or two. My second favorite was Sara Lee Guthrie's performance of "Sailing Down My Golden River." My absolute favorite was the very last song of the day: Pete Seeger leading the crowd in "If I Had A Hammer."
After the music ended for the day I took the shuttle back to my car, and then drove back to the hotel. I was utterly fried. I'd been sitting in the sun all day, and had done a rotten job keeping myself hydrated. The drive was a blur and when I got back to my room I just sort of sat there drinking water for an hour until I had the energy to get my pajamas on and go to bed.
And that was Saturday. I think I'll do a separate post for Sunday. I did a separate post for Sunday.