So Part 1 left off with Friday night's performer Carsie Blanton, and our Saturday morning kicked off with Molly Healey (yes we missed two acts but we don't camp there, and had lunch before we came at the wonderful Cracker Barrel). If I walked away with musical finds of the weekend, The Burney Sisters and Molly Healey will top the list and it seemed very appropriate to pick up Olivia's selfie she posted on their Facebook page as Missouri girls.
1) Molly Healey: I as a musician who has tried and failed to work a looper, I am always curious to watch masters at work. Molly truly is at a Professor level, with her tech beautifully covered in folky blanket. The night before between stage change overs, Molly had played a song and I was instantly intrigued, plus the Burney Sisters pointed her out during their stage performance.
Well we got there maybe close to her set starting and I did a quick 30 second taste, and later amazed at how much more was added, I did another 30 seconds.
My Facebook friend April Burney Shafer did comment on my video,
"Molly E. Healey is one of the hardest working musicians in the business. Not only is she an accomplished soloist and looper... She also collaborates with SO MANY pristine artists for various band projects, just got back from the Grand Ol Opry as THE fiddler for The Ozark Mountain Daredevils, duets with her super talented daughter as another amazing side project, and has an incredibly creative full band. She has also curated her first festival this year to raise awareness toward environmental responsibility which is near and dear to her heart..... the list of accomplishments keeps going and going..... She's truly been an inspiration and mentor for all of us at The Burney Sisters and if that's not enough, she's the kindest person you'd ever meet.
All I can do is repeat what I said at the beginning... a top two finds of the weekend. BTW on Sunday I walked up to a woman I thought was Molly and told her she was great and I ironically had just bought a OMD vinyl the day before downtown Effingham. The woman politely told me she wasn't Molly but agreed with me that her music was special.
You all know my love for Bandcamp, and here's my favorite song of hers from her most recent release:
I don't know too much more about her yet, so we'll close it with her closing song a cover of Ben E. King's classic; "Stand by Me".
Greg had a following at the fest, and I believe had a song covered the night before by Trout Fishing in America, so he had street cred immediately. He had a great set of music and I did end up buying a vinyl of his that had this "Kristofferson" song that he played; and poof I found someone had recorded it and posted to YouTube. (right you know I'm now subscribed to her channel)
3) Mary Battiata
Mary was just nice music and truly love the addition of my favorite emcee of the weekend and her husband joining her on stage.
Lori and I skipped the next acts to take a walk and visit the local bar for a boat drink... ha. Next up for us and one I was looking forward to:
I worked on booking Robbie for the Great River Folk Fest of 2020 only to have it cancelled because of the pandemic. While I had one old release of his, I truly never had seen him or had the appreciation of his stage skills a different member of our committee (Doug) had told me "He's good try to get him" Now I have a tremendous admiration for Robbie, and did buy one of his vinyl's too. The only thing else I knew about Robbie is that Chicago Farmer immortalized him in his recording of $13 Beers.
Again, I'm not sure if I walked away saying that there is one or two songs I have to have of his, but more if I get a chance to see him again, I'm there. Plus when I find 30 minutes of sitting time, I'm going to watch this video:
John was another person that I was convinced to follow by another member of the GRFF Performers committee (Matthew), he said "he's like a Greg Brown in a way he tells stories in his songs." Good enough for me to buy a cd back a few years ago, and I tucked him away to buy more in the future. This young man from Oklahoma is dang good. He stayed on keys all night because he had a great band to support him. I will be buying more of his music unfortunately he's not in Bandcamp but I did find this free download. Have at it:
Of course the song I remembered him for and he played in his set is of course in my favorite YouTube channel Music Fog:
Readers of my blog know my love for Karen and Clint in Stone & Snow and we had to wait until the second to last performer on Sunday. They didn't disappoint, and I was sad more people didn't get a chance to hear them. Four days and Sunday is a travel day for most of us... we didn't get home until after 11:30 but we're retired.
Back to Stone & Snow, I really wanted to talk to them because they are on my list to book for a house concert in Spring of 2023; now Lori knows why. Here's a song I recorded.
And if you liked that taste, here is the studio version that you can BUY... you know you should support musicians right?
For FLASHBACK Friday... I put the video up on YouTube, hiding the part that I tried to get balanced at the beginning... Ha.
7) Bill Poss (Passalacqua)
I couldn't write a review without mentioning the organizer of the fest 7 years earlier; this was my first time meeting Bill and I do want to thank Cody for the nice words he described me to Bill. As a former fest chair for a few years I do know the unwanted stress in booking (friends or no friends) (pay too much or too little) (I love them but will the audience)... Truly nothing I'm missing, and then the fest has to happen and sometimes it's the little things like toilets and rain you need to contend with. Bill and his wife, (loved that they cover a song Lynn and I do, "Another Like You") his brother, and his local friends were all top notch entertainment. I didn't give them a lot of write up in these two posts, but it's mainly keeping things efficient.
I'm publishing this on his birthday too, so here's to Bill and the song that people screamed at him to cover, Jackrabbit. Good song btw... I didn't find him in Bandcamp... we'll keep you posted.
Frankly I will not hesitate to go back to this festival every year, it's not one you have to stand to see; and while I'm sure they want to grow 20-30% and have the space, I loved the size they were; so relaxing.
