It was a real treat performing at the annual Minnesota Bluegrass & Old Time Music Festival last weekend, one of the best run festivals in the country IMO (IBMA “Event of the Year” nominee multiple years). Of course, I had an amazing time playing with the Mark Kreitzer Band on Fri. and Sat. (we were really warmed up after the previous weekend in SD), but I also had some great adventures far from the main stage as well.
The highlight of the weekend for me was performing in the bluegrass banjo showcase with Bob Black, one of Bill Monroe’s Bluegrass Boys (as well as one of the best melodic, “Keith Style” banjo pickers out there today), what an honor! Other great offstage experiences included: hanging with my new friends in the Foghorn Stringband for another weekend in a row; teaching an advanced banjo workshop to a really nice group of pickers; playing drums at a drunken, country-fried, Ranch House afterparty (Clay Hess being among the pickers!), and, it was my first time crossing party lines and camping with the Old-Time folks in “Sherwood Forest”– very hospitable people I must say (of course, I kept my finger picks in the case). All this and I got to see a bunch of great music on stage and off.
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