Greenhorn ranch- outside of the town of Quincy, California. That's where we stayed this past weekend while we played the High Sierra Music Festival. The Greenhorn was great, and the festival was even better! There's festivals all across the country that people don't even know about that have this rich, local, not-too-big, family vibe that is simply amazing. I'm guessing they had 10-15 thousand people there, and from what I gathered, that's mostly people who go back every year. It's tradition, and they know that High Sierra is going to deliver great music. It's great the way these festivals develop there own personalities too! High Sierra is akin to Mardi Gras, with everybody dressing up in costumes. They have parades through the campgrounds! Awesome stuff! On the other hand, Strawberry Music Festival is very kid/family oriented, a bit more mellow with the occasional edge. The campgrounds and sites themselves are amazing. Two distinctly different festivals with one well woven common thread: family. Everybody knows everybody even if they don't.
The crowds for both shows were incredible at High Sierra! The band was on and we had a blast! 3 cheers for grassroots festivals!!!
I'm also thinking ahead to our Texas run coming up. We are working on getting over to Cactus Records in Houston and Waterloo in Austin. I think we are going to plan some sort of special thing to go around the Antone's show, because it will be the first time we've headlined the storied club. I think when I was with Double Trouble we played there twice, and then we did SXSW there, but that don't count. It's gonna be a big time in Austin that night, I'm tellin' ya now! We're gonna pull out all the stops in the spirit of Clifford Antone and all that he loved! I'll let ya know what special deals that show might bring. stay tuned. That's it for now. I got two red tomatoes on the ole "Topsy Turvee" (yes, she brought one home..she's ALWAYS on the hook for gadgetry...but this one grows tomatoes, so no complaints outta me..) this week. I'm going to combine those with some fresh basil from the garden and add some awesome olive oil and some vinegar and eat till I can't stand it anymore! Happy summer everybody!
in spirit-
Mike