Weekend ramble: I love live music ...
Submitted by Leslie H on Sun, 07/15/2007 - 8:20am
Last night found me and a buddy at the Flip Side in downtown Clayton for The Clayton Community Cookout . The event was a fund raiser for the Johnston County Schools, produced by Earth Productions.
Caitlin (my daughter) and I had helped Mom & Dad set up a booth (Mom's an artist) earlier in the afternoon with a number of other artists from the JoCo Artist Guild. I had gotten to meet Bob Delong (who lives here in Clayton) from Earth Productions earlier in the week and liked what I heard so I checked out the website... a friend and I had plans to swing by the Flip Side after dinner to listen to music anyway.
All the pics on the website showed each band with a mandolin and banjo or fiddle or bass or all of the above. That did it. I didn't know the show was bluegrass. In my mind there is nothing in this world better for a weekend night than live music of any sort with a few beers, but both my friend and I love bluegrass, so after dinner we headed over to say hello to my folks and listen to some music.
Oh. My. God. The $15 we paid to get in was not nearly enough in exchange for what we got. We missed the first bands but caught the last three ... they were all excellent and all of them play around Raleigh. Check out the links at the Earth Productions website and go have a listen when you can.
The last band, Barefoot Manner ... y'all, seriously, you have to go see these guys if you ever get the chance. The lead singer/mandolin player is from up around Kenly (that's a little place up in northern Johnston County). These guys were just awesome in a very eclectic, bluegrass funk fusion sort of way. They did some traditional bluegrass tunes we recognized and tapped our toes to and they did some hot southern funk (stevie ray vaughn, etc.) that had the old ladies dancin' in our seats. Then when the drum player came out from behind his set and put on a washboard and played, grrrls & boies, the party went up another notch. I told my friend that I sure hoped he wasn't getting paid 'cause that boy was having waaaayyyy too much fun for work.
Thanks to the Town of Clayton for letting them play long. Good on 'em.
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Wow . . . sounds like great fun!
Good for Clayton . . . and good for you for writing such an inspired post.
It was ...
live music is just wonderful but when the bands are having so much fun and have so much character it just makes it all the mo' betta. :)
Glad you had fun ...
heh.
Everyone needs a break now and then. :)
Hey ... free concert coming up, U.
This Thursday, the 19th at 6:30 in downtown Clayton on the Town Square (...that's what we call our large patch of grass and trees near the Clayton Center. :o) ) Nantucket. You and Rain should come out and enjoy. It's free, for real. The Downtown Development Association sponsors it.
You need a break!! Bring lawn chairs or a blanket to sit on.
Sounds like a blast!
Sometimes small towns get the best live music!
They do!
And it's even better 'cause when it's so good everyone is just so pleasantly surprised! :)
We had fun last night too -
at the 7th Annual Sunrise Blues Crawl in Southern Pines.
It started with these guys - the Nighthawks. Unbelievably awesome blues that rocked out of the historic theater into the streets. Then we headed to one of the pubs (the one with no smoking!) to hear a little more. The my old lady butt was too tired to party any more, and we headed home. But I'm telling you - SoPines was rocking last night.
They sound great!
Southern Pines must have been hoppin' last night! Good stuff.
It was indeed.
And - if anyone is close enough and free enough on this Tuesday night (July 17), I'd like to invite you all to come and support 4 young (teenage) local musical bands - one of which my son plays in - for ROSSFEST. Ross is the drummer in the band Commercial Quality. His mom has been battling breast cancer for the past year. During that time, his father has had to take a job in Florida, and has only been home every other weekend. Ross' older brother has been away at college, so it has been up to Ross to care for his mom while she goes through chemo and radiation therapy.
Ross is 16.
Now that the school year is over, Ross and his mom will be moving to Florida, so this is the last concert the boys are playing together. It's named ROSSFEST because of that, but it stands for Rocking Out to Support the Society - the American Cancer Society.
The concert will be held at the same Sunrise Historical Theater that rocked so hard last night. It's a 350 seat venue - the most our boys have ever played. Tickets are $5.00 each, and there will also be raffles and excitement. Music starts at 6:30, goes till about 10. If you think you might like to come, email me at lindacloud at g mail dot com and I'll give you directions, cell phone number, etc. It's a great cause, and will be a fun show. :-D (My son is the one to the far right in the large photo - which is only where he's standing in the picture, not his political beliefs.)