Another Walnut Valley Festival has come and gone. As usual, Dakotah and I spent plenty of time eating, listening and relaxing, all in the name of journalism. OK, occasionally in the name of journalism.
Anyway, the festival seems like an event that deserves its own list. And, so, I give you my take on the most interesting tidbits and fabulous moments from this year’s show at the Winfield Fairgrounds.
If you disagree, or have your own two cents to add ? and I know you will ? just leave your thoughts in the comment section below.
Here we go:
THE MUDHOLE INCIDENT ? I was strolling through the Pecan Grove near Stage 5 Friday night, when a mudhole jumped up from a ditch, grabbed my ankle and brought me to the ground.
I know what you’re thinking ? had I had anything to drink? Well maybe just a little bit. 🙂
But even stone sober I’d have been doomed to a face plant. It was dark, and the mud was that really silty, slippery kind that’s no good for anyone’s balance.
As a testament to the fact that my wits were still about me, I popped back up fairly quickly and gave a quick scan of the Stage 5 crowd to see if anyone was pointing and laughing. I think most people missed it.
On a positive note, the mud that dried on my leg acted as an exfoliant and has provided me with super soft and supple skin ? if only on part of one leg.
GONE FISHING – Among the many tales floating around the fairgrounds this year was the story of a 9-year-old boy at the festival who brought in a fish from the Walnut River bigger than he is.
I’ve got calls out hoping to track down a picture of the behemoth. I’d like to see it.
BACKGROUND CHECK ? If you were paying attention on Stage 1 then you no doubt noticed that the normally elaborate, painted stage backdrop was missing. In its place was a wooden, guitar pick-shaped 39th sign held in place by a couple two-by-fours. It seemed pretty basic.
Well, the wind and rain took their toll on the usual sign and roughed it up Wednesday night. Rather than spend a ton of time on repairs, festival spokesperson Rex Flottman told me, organizers decided just to save the little piece that could be salvaged and move on.
Which is why I think the rudimentary backdrop was symbolic of what makes the festival tick. Rain, wind and a handful of other potential downers never get organizers bummed. They bounce back and keep the show going. It’s a mentality that rubs off on festival goers and helps make for a good time every year, adversity or no adversity.
FAREWELL DRIFTERS ? Sure, one or two of these 20-something fellas appeared in desperate need of a hair wash, but hey it’s the festival. That can wait.
The Drifters’ set on Saturday night was solid and they were among the first-year groups I really enjoyed. Mandolin player and vocalist Joshua Britt ? who has a distinct "is-that-guy-stoned?" style ? is deceptively talented at recounting stories and providing banter that adds to the music.
The group can really harmonize and we swore we heard hints of the Beatles and Simon and Garfunkel in their Bluegrass offerings. Here’s hoping they’re back next year.
YUMMY ? We spend a lot of time at each festival sampling the many delectable foods available on or near the midway. This year was no different.
New favorites include the ultimate Reuben sandwich and a lamb gyro that was seasoned perfectly. That doesn’t mean there wasn’t room for old faves, including a pork burger and two for $6 pulled pork sandwiches.
Dakotah was partial to the homemade ice cream and hand squeezed lemonade.
TK IN TIE-DYE? – It’s no secret that in there mingling with all the part-time musicians, recovering hippies, and wanna-bes, are Winfielders looking to get in some serious relaxation time. I talk to so many locals who have found a way to do less work and more Bluegrassing, during the third weekend in September.
I know I’m going to see former city commissioner Mike Ledy every year and there are scores of other local faces I recognize, even if I can’t recall a name.
But I had to do a double take when I saw Winfield’s Teresa Krusor ? vice chairman of the state Democratic Party and wife of judicial candidate Mark Krusor ? walking down the midway in a tie dyed shawl.
Given her reputation for dressing to impress for nearly any occasion, seeing Krusor go all Jerry Garcia on us Friday afternoon was the last bit of proof I needed to know the festival spirit had seeped into every conceivable nook and cranny.
TURNING 21 ? The best people watching almost always happens at the nameless little 24-hour breakfast spot at the south end of the midway. And among the most entertaining people to watch are those who’ve had one or two too many adult beverages.
Such was the case of one young guy who wandered in and out of my life without me getting his name. He provided plenty of entertainment.
My good friend Tyler Gaskill and I watched in amazement as the dude ordered a couple plates of grub, salted them down and then very precariously made a beeline for a picnic table. That he weebled and wobbled to his seat without dropping even a morsel of food, still seems miraculous.
Sometimes he appeared to be talking to us, other times he appeared to talk to others around him, who weren’t even there.
But, he was after all, turning 21 at the festival. What better way to celebrate turning legal?
BLANKEYS AT STAGE 2 ? Yeah, I said blankeys, so what? 😀
Ordinarily Dakotah and I are folding chair people, but lugging those things around can get annoying after awhile.
This year we opted for the bleachers on Stage 1 and used a blanket to sit on the hill when at Stage 2. Blanket time was incredible. We could sit up and watch the show or kick back and catch a snooze under the stars. I was very relaxed.
Until the bozos with the cell phones and Marlboros rolled up briefly to put a hold on my blankey bliss.
Blanket plus the Wilders plus the Greencards, equal a good time.
SPEAKING OF THE WILDERS ? Boy, every year the Kansas City-based honky-tonk quartet seems to get better and better. I catch nearly every show and normally think their late-Friday, early-Saturday midnight show on Stage 5 is tops.
But the Wilders closed down the Main Stage Saturday night and I have to say, everyone who stayed got a treat.
Festivities included band member Phil Wade raffling off one of his retired Dobros.
While Wade rounded up all the tickets, front man Ike Sheldon crooned out a rendition of the old Olivia Newton John hit, Please Mr. Please. I vaguely remember that song on the radio in my younger years and he certainly did it justice.
The Wilders mixed in a number of original tunes and Betse Ellis went to work on the fiddle.
The performance got so intense at one point that Sheldon stepped back after a particularly lively song, tripped backward over a monitor speaker, fell and lost his hat. Unfazed, he inspected his trusty guitar, put his hat back on and the set continued.
The group wrapped with the retro sounding Goodbye, the last track on their most recent album. The Wilders have a new recording coming soon and are already signed to return to Winfield for 2011.
Not bad for a group of musicians who started out in the campgrounds here as the High Strung String Band in the mid 90s.
LSD, REALLY? ? One little tidbit making the rounds at the festival was the news that someone out there got busted with some LSD. Every year there are busts for weed and booze, but LSD? That seems so thirty-five years ago.
The cops confirmed to me that the hallucinogen is pretty rare these days but said one person, a woman, was found with a substance thought to be that drug.
Which really causes me to wonder if the Pecan Grove is a portal to the 1960s through which ghosts of old hippies emerge for one weekend a year. Hmmm….
AKI TANAKA ? I’m always looking for a new guitar showman to help replace some of the void left by Aussie Tommy Emmanuel ? who hasn’t performed at the festival since 2007.
Twenty-four-year-old Akihiro "Aki" Tanaka, of Kyoto, Japan, appears ready to take on that challenge.
Tanaka got second in last year’s International Finger Style Guitar Championship. He showed up this year and took first, besting festival regular Pete Huttlinger, among others.
Winners of the contest get a chance to play on the Main Stage Friday afternoon and Tanaka made the best of it. In very broken English, the guitarist thanked his friends, the crowd, his family and cohorts at Picking Parlor, the camp where he stayed while in Winfield.
A thrust of his fist and an enthusiastic "thank you very much" into the microphone became his trademark tool for pumping up the crowd.
Then he played the guitar ? and it became clear Tanaka was fluent in a language everyone immediately understood.
A fan of Emmanuel, Tanaka plays with the same slap, tap and knock style that adds a percussion element to a one-man guitar show.
He’ll be back next year as an entertainer and even met up with NewsCow to play a song before hopping a plane back to Japan. There’s a video of the song above.
A private session listening to Tanaka record the video was the highlight of my weekend.
