Merlefest…this is the life.
We pulled into Wilkesboro, the band van packed to the gills with instruments, dresses, button down shirts, boots, and anticipation about the long weekend of Merlefest appearances. John Adair and the Merlefest organizers put together a great smattering of sets on some of the best stages for us, including the Americana and Cabin stages, as well as some of the smaller and more intimate stages. We started at North Wilkes Middle School auditorium, perhaps our most challenging sound environment and audience for the weekend. The middle schoolers liked the fast songs and generally enjoyed being out of class for the afternoon, were excited about music and about having visitors, and knew that violins were “fiddles” and that our band was missing a vital component of the bluegrass sound: a banjo! So, basically well-educated kids.
We spent Thursday evening getting our bearings and figuring out that, unlike most festivals where you have long walks to parking, concessions, and stages, that we could simply call a phone number and a golf cart would come whizzing over to drive us where we needed to go! This was quite a revelation and probably the person most appreciative of that service was our bass player, Stig. And I’ll tell you, watching Merlefest from the stage, from backstage, and from the golf cart was an experience I’ll never forget. So many incredible musicians to see, so many music lovers, so many of our die-hard fans, and the circus that it all was absolutely overwhelming and delightful at the same time.
For us, the story of Merlefest was mostly that of getting up early and trying to get awake and together enough to be ready to play and sing before 10am. We’re early risers in general, but it is a challenge to get that focused and sharp so early in the morning! Early sets on the Americana and Austin stages kept us from staying out too late and, although crowds swelled by afternoon, we had great enthusiastic crowds for those early sets as well. Possibly the most fun we had was an afternoon set indoors at the Lounge to a packed audience who either wanted a break from the heat and sun or just really wanted to see Dehlia Low. By the end of the set we were just cruising through and having fun.
All of our sets benefited tremendously from the help of Norm, our sound engineer, from Norm’s River Road House in Nashville who ran sound for all of our sets. Still recovering from a week-long cold and suffering from the residuals, I was amazed that Norm could get the mic just right to help me get the vocals full and strong even though my voice wasn’t at 100%. And the blend that he was able to achieve among our instruments allowed us to play at our best. A good sound engineer is such an important element, and with decades of experience, Norm knows just how to get sound right.
Aside from seeing friends and family who were cheering us on the whole way through, meeting and watching our idols on stage and in the artist hospitality area, and performing with some of the best sound equipment and staff we’ve ever worked with, the true highlight was 30 minutes on the Cabin Stage on Sunday afternoon. This was a set we had been anticipating since October 2009 when John Adair sent us our performance schedule. We had timed out the set to be within the rigid time limit and had been practicing the set for a month.
The Cabin Stage is located adjacent to the main stage with the same audience that occupies a lawn about 2 football fields in size and can accommodate tens of thousands of spectators. The performers on both stages are broadcast onto the Jumbo-tron screen by the main stage. We arrived early and were actually able to do a line check. We hung out in the “backstage” of the cabin waiting for our set, jumped up and down to calm the nerves, ran through some raucous bluegrass standards at top speed, pondered the significance of the “Jerry Douglas Doorway” (did he hit his head there once?), drank water and coffee, (and then of course) visited the bathroom, and finally, FINALLY, it was time to take the stage.
I couldn’t watch the Jumbo-tron and tried to pretend it wasn’t there as we launched into “Yellow Mountain” and I just tried to focus on ANYTHING but the thousands of people milling around on the lawn. Our closest friends had gotten the front chairs and were providing an excellent line of familiar faces and loud, spirited cheering. Sweat poured down our bodies in the hot sun as we squinted at the crowd. I sang my heart out in Ola Belle’s “Undone in Sorrow” just absolutely amazed to hear my own unaccompanied voice wafting across the field, in disbelief: how is this happening? As Aaron and Bryan took out the set with the last notes of “Tellico” I tried to savor the final moments on that stage and performing at such a wonderful festival.
The Cabin Stage performance finished, we floated through the rest of the day just relishing the last of our experience at Merlefest and reflecting on our marvelous fortune of having been asked to be a part of it. For those of you that were there to share it with us, it meant so much to see you there and we sincerely thank you for all the support, we couldn’t have done it without you. Keep in touch!
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