When the site opened up for the Savannah Music Festival volunteers to select their shows to work, very few slots were available by the time I logged in. I knew I wanted the Friday night opera and I was the first to volunteer for it. Amazing!
But I also wanted to be at all of the other SMF shows at the Lucas Theatre. As fortune would have it, none others were open.
Well, what else was open?
How about some bluegrass, baby?
Okay. But which ones?
Well, which of the shows have openings for volunteer staffers?
Let's give this one a try, I thought.
In memory of Daddy, and his
Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs album
that I heard growing up, I signed up for one of the still-open spots.
Good idea!!!
Here's the opening stage for
the Earls of Leicester
at the Trustees Theatre.
The name is in honor of Earl Scruggs and Lester Flatt.
(Get it? "Leicester", an English town, is pronounced like Flatt's given name.
Nice inside joke!)
Dark suits, crisp white shirts, and string ties,
that's one sharp-lookin' bunch of guys!
We had founding father Jerry Douglas on dobro, Shawn Camp on lead vocals and guitar, Tim O'Brien on vocals and mandolin, Charlie Cushman working the banjo, fiddler Johnny Warren, and bassist Barry Bales.
Nothing but air to run through those strings and make music. They did a mighty fine job of that, too!
Some of the songs I knew by heart. "Roll in My Sweet Baby's Arms" is a kicky little classic, done by country and bluegrass bands the world over. Good to hear that again!
Others were from their brand-new, Grammy-winning album. "I'll Go Stepping Too" was a bright warning to a straying spouse and was quite fun! I very much liked "Till The End Of The World Rolls Round", a perky love song with some great imagery! Then, for the lovelorn, we had "On My Mind" and "Dim Lights, Thick Smoke".
Don't forget: there's some blues in bluegrass! "Big Black Train" rolled them out, too! "Black Eyed Suzy" showed us those "Ayes" and "Ohs" definitely make a shout-style refrain work. Aye! Oh!
There were some good gospel tunes, too. One of their last songs was "Who Will Sing For Me?", about the passing of friends - such a good song!
All in all, most excellent, with plenty of toe-tappin' tunes and usher-mate Betsy to dance with me!
What good fortune led me to this show!
Thanks for the nudge, Daddy!
2 comments:
I'd like to claim the title of this post as having arisen from my own mind... but that's not so. I actually quoted something Jerry Douglas was saying at some point on stage. It struck me as such a GREAT PHRASE that I made note of it.
Thanks, Mr. Douglas!
03/28/2015 2:01 AM
Hello Faustina.
We are very thankful that you signed up for 2015 Savannah Music Festival . We had a lot of volunteers on Mar 21, 2015, and we are glad you were a part of our success. By serving with Savannah Music Festival on their project Earls of Leicester: 3/21 6:00PM-9:30PM you helped us make our community a better place. Please come back to United Way HandsOn Savannah to check out more volunteer opportunities in our community.
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