Harvest Jazz and Blues, Day 3

Over to Hammertown for breakfast again today. Dave insists it's the best diner he has ever been in, and I'm pretty sure he's right- so off we went to eat like road dog kings once more! It's a cold, rainy day as we made our way back to pick up gear and get over to the Voodoo stage for the harmonica workshop that Dave is to host. Under the big tent things were pretty dry, all things considered. Our first surprise was that neither Mark "Bird" Stafford or Watermelon Slim was there. Bird was listed in the program as being the host, and although we knew that had been changed, we sort of expected him to be there. Actually, we totally expected him to be there. Dave gave me the "Doc I'll get even, you so and so" kind of look, because I'd signed him up to do the workshop. Now he was to be hosting it, solo, for the next hour and a half!

A good sized crowd was in the tent as John Campbelljohn finished up his slide guitar workshop and Dave stepped up to the plate. He had the crowd from the get go, blowing his cool, rack harp, to some Jimmy Reed tune. After a while he called me up to demonstrate how he'd back up another player. I had a chance to play 2 or 3 numbers, and then John Campbelljohn took my place to jam a little. I was backstage getting my guitar back in it's case when Bird and Slim arrived together. Dave had chosen this moment to be playing "Dixie" on his little, ornamental harp. Bird looked at me and said, "how long has THIS been going on?!" Slim came out to play a couple of numbers with Dave and John, while Bird climbed up on the drum kit to finish a great, crowd pleasing set. Big ovation for Big Dave. Things worked out well after all!

As it happens, it was good that we got to play at the Voodoo. After our Delta gig we rushed down to our night concert- it was a "TBA" in the program as we were a late add to the festival. But the stage was empty! No stage techs, nothing! Apparently we were rained out. Nobody had told us, so we humped our gear back to the street, called another cab, and took it all back to the hotel. Well, now we had the night off. It was no longer raining, it was warming up outside. We headed out to visit around with everybody. Here's a snap of us with some Festival volunteers. That's Dr. John's stage switched on behind us.

First stop was the Rogue to catch Matchstick Mike for a full set. This was a cool show as Mike called up two of his young guitar students to play. "Johnny Cash" was great, as was the young teen gal who got up and played a note perfect T-Bone shuffle to bring down the house. Good on you, Mike! Here's me with one of the Chain Smoking Alter Boys. Next we went around the corner to see Morgan Davis, met Slim, and Ross Neilsen. Ross and Slim sat in for a few tunes, and then we went over to catch the Dr. John show. Security would not let us in the backstage, so Dave and I bid Slim good night and headed back to our hotel. Not a bad day!