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Re: Thanks to all for Y2K8



I was just discussing something with Luis over email, which I wanted to share. Those of you who were staying with Rick and/or Bill were fortunate to be able to engage in informal jam sessions outside of the festival.  That is one social element I miss from most of these festivals, including my own (yet, Rick and I did get a chance to play together in my garage, along with Rainer in a club in Germany, which was a real hoot).
 
Many of us go to the event, watch people perform for several hours, play our 1-2 sets, and then go home, but we never get much chance to cross-pollinate the artistic love, man. We are all together at the event, but not really together in the personal sense. There are many musicians who I would have loved to play with at prior festivals (Luis, Matt D., Per, Matthias, Dan S,  Chris C, Leander, Erdem, Arild, Michael K, just to name a few), even record with to lay down material for potential CDs.  It would be cool if we could setup a back room playing area and a sign-up list, so that musicians playing at the festival could play and record with each other.   Just think of the potential for collaboration. Amazong. I may even decide to to this at my next festival here in Boise.
 
Kris
 
----- Original Message -----
 

   Well another year and another great festival is in the books. In spite of the late start on organizing and the economic woes that trickled down in various ways to us, I thought that this was as strong a year as ever. I was lucky this year to be able to catch most everyone and I was impressed by both new artists and artists that have been here before. Musical evolution before my very eyes, that’s what I’m talking about!   I was lucky that the gear gods were smiling down on me this year and with the exception of 4 o5 false starts to begin a tune Friday night, I had no gear snafus. The Friday night set with Rick was very enjoyable with a highlight being Kevin “Kalimba man” Curtis joining us for some vocalizing. It was great to play with Rick, who played killer hand drums and ghatam, and it was the first time I’ve performed an entire set using just lap steel guitars. This was very gratifying as it is the instrument that I am having the most enjoyment playing these days. I also had my Sunday night solo spot switched to Saturday evening to accommodate a scheduling conflict which in hindsight was a lucky break for me, as I wasn’t too tired from the weekend to stay focused. As great as the Music was, it was the interaction with new and old friends that makes this Festival so worthwhile. Getting to know new friends like Roberto Z, Luis A, James B, Kevin C, Jim G and Darrel S and also getting to spend time with old friends like Hidecki “Mandoman”  , and Ryusei, who stayed with us during the festival was beyond great. Many thanks to Krispen H, Ted K, Chris C, Rodent, Jeff Sloan, Mike J, Gretchen M, Bob B, and  all of the artists, you know who you are, and lastly but not leastly thanks to Rick, who puts a ceaseless amount of time and energy in to making this happen, and manages to bring together an amazingly diverse group of artists to play, hang out, swap war stories and information, and generally have a blast doing so. I was marveling today that, where else can one go and be able to see, such diversity and creativity in music?  We had vocalists, an enormous variety of guitar styles, a Theremin player, turntablists and beat boxers, lap top users,  sound collage artists, a guy playing a shovel, singer/songwriters. Bass players of  4 5 and 6 strings, percussionists,  keyboard and synthesizer players, a Kalimba player, an electric mandolin player,  a mad scientist or two, and multi instrumentalists galore.

Thanks again to all involved, it was fantastic..

 Bill