The rose-colored pictures are on our business blog right here. But the real story can be found in the pictures on my Blackberry. . .
The set up started on Wednesday. . .
We set up as much as we could before a big evening storm came through. We took shelter in the barn and waited for it to pass. One of my favorite things about this festival is that we have a comfortable place to take shelter and set up "house-keeping" right there on-site. It makes everything much easier. Zach would agree I'm sure since he read four (yes, 4) books over the course of the five days we were in Roseberry. . .
The other nice thing about this festival is that they provide rooms for us at a near by hotel in Donnelly. After a (mostly) good night sleep, we were back at the barn in the morning to finish the set up. There is quite a bit to do but we've been doing this long enough now that it's not especially difficult. That's easy for me to say since I mostly just set up the microphones. . .
I usually don't relax until after the audio is up but, even then, Rob never seems to be happy with what he hears. It's hard to tell from this picture, but this is Rob and TWO GROWN MEN and he is making them walk- with their eyes closed- toward the speakers as they listen to the audio. . .
Here is a crop of the same picture. I don't think they had any idea what they were listening for. . .
Gloria was a little clingy since there didn't seem to be anyone else around close to her age so I took little breaks here and there to keep her entertained. She has a thing for scary stories lately and feels certain that there is a ghost around every corner. The old houses in this historic town site lent themselves very well to her active imagination. . .
This was taken from the middle landing of a creaky staircase leading to an upper room. Access was blocked to visitors but I manged to hold up my phone and get a picture of the room. Gloria was sure it was haunted. . .
And she loves that she looks a little ghostly in this picture:
ANOTHER of my favorite aspects of this festival is the view. Big open spaces and beautiful blue skies. Except when a storm comes through. Which is fairly often. . .
Thursday night is Locals' Night and we're never sure what we'll get until musicians start showing up. We set up mics for everyone we can- as long as we have enough channels - and then he rest set up before they play. There were a total of 6 groups that played and we managed to get them all on and off the stage in a timely manner. . .
The last band was one we worked with last weekend at Lake Fork so they weren't overly worried about not having a sound check before they played. It's nice to be trusted. . .
When they had about 15 minutes left to play, I started to hear rumblings about other musicians joining in for a final song. When the groups that played earlier in the evening left the stage after their time slots, most of their mics, cables and channels were pulled in order to accommodate the closing band. When they all decided to go back up for a big jam session, I don't think they realized that it wouldn't be as simple as plugging their instruments back in to where they had been before. After a little bit of creative thinking, we managed to get most of them back on for the final jam. . .
On Friday morning we had a little time before we would need to be at the stage to set up for the evening bands. We drove into McCall and spent a little time at the lake. . .
Even though it was a little chilly, Gloria swam and played in the lake like a true fish. . .
Zach, on the other hand, sat in the sand and constructed Minas Tirith . . .
It didn't take Gloria long to make a new friend. . .
It was a nice start to the day . . .
Again with the "perks" of this festival: time to smell the roses and hang out on the tree swing in front of the hotel. . .
. . . and play with the funny kitties that try to climb our legs every time we exit the building. . .
Eventually we had to get back to work. I expected Friday night to be the "difficult" night of the festival but it was probably the easiest. The headlining band was Bonerama from New Orleans. I hadn't heard of them before but in my research I've found that they are pretty well known back east. They played a pretty big part in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
Even though we were set up and ready for them according to their stage plot, I still expect things to change when the artists actually arrive. In this case, the band pulled up, looked around, gave a nod of approval and plugged into the lines we had set up for them. Good sound check. No issues.
The band that opened for Bonerama were our good friends, Jeff Crosby and the Refugees. They must trust us way too much because they just showed up and played with very little time for a sound check. No issues. Great music. . .
With Rob at front of house and Kurt very capably managing the monitor board, I get to wander around and take pictures. . .
You would almost think my job was cushy. Almost. . .
On Saturday, the supposedly "easy" day, I had time to walk around and look at all the old buildings with the kids. We pulled Zach away from his books long enough to explore the area. I took a bunch of pictures and will put them up in another post.
We were originally told the opening band could be there as early as 2:00 and then the headliner would be there at 4:00. 2:00 came and went and no one showed. 4:00 came and went and no one showed. We weren't concerned since the opening act was a 5 piece string band and the headliner was a self-contained one-man-band. Keller William and his crew showed up around 4:30 and, for some reason, I expected him to be a Diva. He wasn't. He was professional yet personable. It was Keller, his front of house guy, Lou, and his stage man (can't remember his name but he was great to work with). They went about setting up their stuff without needing much assistance from us.
In the meantime, we were told the opening band was somewhere in Montana.
I think they were somewhere in between Idaho and Montana but obviously they weren't going to be starting their set at 6:30, much less getting in any kind of a sound check.
From what I understand, Keller Williams is a pretty big name and he could have sat in the barn and waited for his scheduled time. An artist such as himself deserves to have an opening band, right? He could have treated the situation that way and it probably would have been acceptable but instead he offered to do an acoustic set until the opening band arrived. Essentially, he offered to open for the opening band. And the crowd LOVED it. . .
Another issue on this "easy" night was the weather. A big storm was brewing and the clouds were threatening to rain on our parade. Keller kept playing and the crowd kept watching. . .
We were keeping a close eye on the Doppler and the skies. We were also watching and waiting for the van with the opening band to show up. We had set up their mics earlier in the day and then took them down again. And then set them up again. And then moved them out of the way. Again.
The skies were ominous. . .
Keller entertained the crowd by singing about rain and ad-libbing words to fit the situation. . .
He eventually started singing about electricity and not wanting to die. The he trilled, "Good-bye" and ran off the stage. It was a great exit!! By this time we had heard that the opening artists were less than 15 minutes away and the storm seemed to be passing by. Keller went back out with the intention of letting the string band join him on a song, as seamlessly as possible, before he took his leave and they started their own set. We pulled out the openers mics. Again.
Keller sang a couple of songs, the van pulled up in the parking lot, after a quick discussion about the plan, Town Mountain took the stage and joined in with Keller Williams as if that had been the plan all along. No issues. As far as the crowd was concerned. Rob and Kurt did what Rob and Kurt do and everyone was happy. . .
I was a little busy so I didn't take one single picture of Town Mountain (this picture is from their website). They turned out to be very nice and professional and this was the first time in their careers that they had been late for a show. No one held it against them. Well, there was this one guy in the front row that shouted, "It's about time you got here!!" but other than that, no one seemed to care that they got an extra dose of Keller Williams. . .
While I wouldn't call it an "easy" day, it was certainly one to remember. . .
Sunday came too soon and it was time to take it all down. . .
Gloria finally met someone her age as we were tearing down and spent the morning and afternoon riding quads with them. Turns out they are from Boise so she'll get to see them again. . .
We were back in Boise before 6:00. While I wouldn't exactly call this event "fun and easy" it was a far cry from last weekend's events. . .
PS I just found this picture on Face book- Town Mountain with me looking a little haggard in the background!!
Here's an even better one! Gotta love social networking. . .
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