Hello Sageheads!
I love this season. The way the air feels, the color of the sky at sunset, the way cats seem to take on a supernatural aura, even the 400 kids that come by on Halloween night. We really get into it, too, as our joints make ever-spookier sounds every time we get up or down in the treat distributing process.
Then there’s the way everyone posts videos of Hardly Strictly Bluegrass. I am so grateful to them! I am greatly reassured that the mind in this 69 year old body made the right decision not to attend. You could say I have aged out. You could say I have pooped out. You could say, “Wow, you look really good for 69!” I would say, "I dodged a bullet” by staying out of the fray, but in today’s vernacular, the metaphorical meaning has been stripped from the phrase, and its literal meaning is a real, and horrifying, possibility. I’m not afraid to attend a public event because of that, however. Mostly I just can’t stand walking miles to find the entrance, then crawling through a gauntlet to find somewhere to sit, let alone get back up again. (Although the getting up thing can be quite amusing to observe.) Not to mention taking care of certain other necessities. Just too many people for me, unless of course, one has a place on the stage. Friends and Family passes are nice, but ya still gotta get there. Yes, it must be the Season of the Bitch.
I’d say Season of the Rant, but it doesn’t have the same panache. Also, rants can be a daily thing with me; I try to keep particularly major complaints down to sporadic outbursts. In this case, I am beginning to alter my “music business plan” from playing at Hardly Strictly to a more guerilla-like tactic which entails someone surreptitiously placing my ashes urn on one of the stages, or maybe even scattering them. It doesn’t even have to be an urn. They could be packed into a fake microphone maybe.
All this leads me to a few thoughts:
- I simply don't know how the booking system works and I'd like to know. There seems to be no way to submit your act for consideration. No contact information anywhere that I can find. In the past, you had to be invited by Warren Hellman (RIP). That would be scary now. But it appears to be a very closed system. Maybe someone reading this post can offer some insight?
- How about a few slots for little old lady local singer/songwriters? Just because we didn’t get famous doesn’t mean we aren’t really good. We are. And we bring great players with us.
- Goal for next year: Play a set at HSB. While I can still stand up for an entire set!
All the above aside, it is a nice touch that HSB streams the concerts if you want to see, for instance, Robert Plant, or the Chieftans, or the current flavor-of-the-month bands. But for me, it just reminds me that they are there and I am not.
Maybe there will be brownie points for playing Rocket Dog Rescue’s benefit, or all those Bread & Roses concerts over the years. That would mean Karma is real. So, I dunno…. On the fence about that, too these days. Next month’s subject of discussion: Karma! Write and tell me what you think!
Meanwhile, we’re happy to be at San Gregorio with Jerry Kuhel on Saturday October 12 from 11am to 1pm, and at Chit Chat Café in Pacifica, on Saturday October 19 from 2 – 4pm with Jerry and Diana Greenberg on fiddle. Also recently got to wear the Viking helmet with Big Lou’s Dance Party and that always makes me real happy. Fun is, after all, is an important element to getting through this life. As a matter of fact, fun, mixed in with peace, and love, is about as good as it gets!
Peace, Love, and Fun to you all!
Kathleen “Flying” Salvia