Summery

After our sizzling summer preview earlier this month, it's been especially delightful to enjoy this past week of low- to mid-eighties and atypically low humidity. As we mark the solstice tonight and enjoy our annual swarm of fireflies down by the river, I need to acknowledge a couple of very special nights last weekend. A refreshing breeze and the first comfortable temperatures in a while greeted the sizable crowd gathered to witness the Waybacks return to the Science Museum of Virginia Friday night. The boys delivered old chestnuts and most of the tunes on their new Byron House-produced album, Loaded. They were joined, to serendipitous effect, by banjo buddy Danny Barnes who stepped in to fill Jim Lauderdale's spot on the bill. Jim is out in California at a meditation retreat resting his healing vocal cords and sadly will miss all his summer gigs. We sincerely wish him a full recovery. But the versatile and impressively improvisational Barnes brought much to the table in his own solo set and in extended jams with the Waybacks. He reminds you a lot of John Hartford without the derby hat on stage, especially in his between-song patter. And he's a spot-on songwriter...check out his "Get It While You Can" on the Infamous Stringdusters eponymous new CD. It was a great night of music as evidenced by the audience evolution for the second set...everyone moved up closer to the stage and the chatty party atmosphere that marked the early hours faded to rapt attention to the music being made. Thanks to Jim Napier, Gary Gerloff and Patrick McCarty for the cameraderie and for pulling together another meaningful event for the Massey Cancer Center.

The next night saw a the culmination of another few months of weekly practices and delectable stew pots at George Turman's Hanover County retreat. It was the tenth reunion for the Among Friends bunch at Ashland Coffee & Tea and thanks to a nearly full house of supportive friends and family, the ten of us fortunate enough to share this loving experience forged our way through two meaty set lists and did our best to keep our powder dry under the wilting stage lights. One of the coolest things about playing AC&T, the well-timed train punctually arriving during a song referring to trains, was precluded on this night by some out-of-town drunk in an SUV who tried to drive across the tracks where there was no crossing, got stuck, and then abandoned his vehicle to get rammed by a northbound freight. No more trains made it through for the rest of the night. So songs like "Wagon Wheel" may not have been fully realized, but we sure had a wonderful time and are seriously looking forward to our September reprise at Shady Grove Coffee House in Glen Allen, when we'll get to hear ailing Sheryl Warner's unsung songs like Patty Griffin's "Florida" and a bunch of others. And a special thanks to Friends' photographer Charlie Dunton for his flattering images over the years.

The Tuesday after the Graves Mountain festival saw the Seldom Scene invited to play a picnic on the lawn at the White House for a thousand of POTUS's closest pals. The gig was rained out and postponed until the following Thursday...the Scene was unavailable but word is they might be invited back for something similar in September. At least Scene founding father Ben Eldridge had the chance to share a knee-slapping banjo joke with the Bushes (as seen in this White House photo) before Secret Service agents whisked him away to Fredericksburg.

The following has little to do with music, save for Bruce Springsteen's moving tribute at Wednesday's memorial service at the Kennedy Center, but I'm still grieving over the loss of Tim Russert. I was a faithful watcher of Meet The Press and found myself lured into coverage of this historic election year by Tim and his MSNBC colleagues. But as the the reality of his sudden death sunk in and the heartfelt reaction rivaled the loss of a head of state, it became clear that this was no ordinary newsman. The depth and sincerity of the tributes from every corner of this land revealed a good and honest human being who exemplified the virtues of integrity, enthusiasm, hard work and love of family. I think the extent of the coverage of Tim Russert's life and death underscores our yearning for role models who can inspire us and restore our faith in humanity. We will surely miss his reasoned analysis during the rest of this pivotal election year and his even-handed Sunday morning grillings of the nation's power brokers, but we will always have his shining example pushing us to make the very most of our lives in our own remaining days.
Thanks Tim.


TT