Redlands Bluegrass Festival 2013

Attended my first bluegrass festival a couple of weekends back. It was only a matter of time, really. It seemed like a really long drive to the Redlands, but I made it just as things were starting to fire up. Literally. They actually had the fireplace going in one of the rooms! (Fire? Pfft really?? As if we'd need a fireplace to keep warm, we're in Queensland! As I put my 5th layer of clothing on I began to understand that the Redlands is one of those bizarre little geological pockets that somehow manages to have a weather system completely independent of the city.)

First up was the Friday night concert. It was pretty dark, but I managed to recognise fellow band mate, Anne-Marie, from the back of her hair and she was sitting up front with a few other Hills Bluegrass folks. They'd luckily saved a seat for me so I flopped down to enjoy the concert with them. We were thankful Anne-Marie had the foresight to bring a nana blanket along, even with it spread across us it was still pretty darn nippy. The concert was fun. All bands I haven't seen before (no surprises there, really, considering I'd only been on the Brisbane bluegrass scene for less than a year) but we were all getting fidgety towards the end (c'mon... we want to jam!).

And boy did we jam. We set up our little group in a prime space: the laundry! You may laugh, but the acoustic was quite good, even if it was a little cramped. Here I met some pickers who were new to me but the others knew them from other festivals. Lex, with his beautiful velvety bass voice and Greg, who had an uncanny knack for hijacking other people's songs and taking them over! Everyone had called it a night by about 4am but I wasn't particularly gravitating towards bed yet so I went hunting to see who else was up. Found Milan (another Hills Bluegrasser) in one of the rooms with a fairly inebriated fiddle player and a few other Hills folks lurking in the corner. We tried to play a few fiddle tunes... tried. Someone suggested we move to the room with the fireplace, so we did, then fiddle boy decided to light up a pipe - not kidding, a freakin' pipe! - and passed me a cup of something I can only assume was some kind of moonshine. I politely took a few sips and tried to join in the music making, but by this stage things had deteriorated. I am not a huge fan of music that is out of tune and has only a vague sense of rhythm and unity, so at 5am I decided to take up Kay's offer and kip on the spare bed in her dorm.

A few hours later an obscene noise came from my phone, indicating it was time to get ready to attend a mandolin workshop. At 9:30am! That's just mean... I may have hit snooze a few too many times. And by the time I managed to drag myself into the showers and assess the damage of a very long night, hunger had taken over as being of higher priority. So I missed the mando workshop. Oh well. But breakfast (and coffee) was very welcome.

Just pickin' and singin' away at one of the outdoor jams, having a great old time. Guessing by the bags under the eyes this was Saturday at some point. 

Saturday, let's see... what else happened Saturday... I meant to go to all these workshops, but honestly I just got caught up in the casual jamming! One workshop I did make it to was an intermediate jam workshop, which one of the bands was running. I was very conscious of the time as our band was going to have a little rehearsal before our big debut at the walk-up concert. So, I just had time to sit in and learn a few things, then they had us do a song and a few people took leads. I put my had up to say I'd be willing to give it a crack (hadn't heard the song before) so they eventually passed on to me. Some stroke of good fortune resulted in me pretty much nailing the break and then I basically had to get up, say thanks a bunch and make a hasty exit, which must have looked pretty funny. Who the heck is this hotshot mando player no-one's ever seen before who just comes along to part of a workshop does an awesome break and then leaves?! It wasn't that awesome, but it was pretty good for my standards and Pete Denehy and his band seemed fairly impressed :)

So anyway. Rehearsal followed, with the Wayward Angels. We worked on our three songs and got increasingly nervous. WAIT! STOP THE PRESS! Have I mentioned the band in previous posts?? I don't think I have... whoops, I'm slack. We're the good looking bunch of girls in the picture below who formed out of the Hills Bluegrass Jam earlier this year.

Wayward Angels just before the Walk-up Concert

We were standing around outside the tent where the walk-up concert was and this old fellow named Tom asked us if we needed a bass player. We said we'd be grateful if he'd join us and it turned out he was one of these Redlands guys who'd been doing bluegrass for eons, so he was mighty helpful! Gave us some great tips about how to sing with the mic and picked up the songs quickly even in our slightly wayward keys.

Wayward Angels take the stage (plus our fabulous ring-in on bass)

And before we knew it, we were on. Only got to do 2 of the 3 songs, but that was all good, it was a lot of fun. Here's a video of "Worried Man Blues".

More jamming followed a long Saturday night concert (Mustered Courage were very impressive as were the Company), but this was much earlier night than the previous one. Oh, and the mando player from Mustered Courage has a Collings... I'm slightly jealous.

Sunday was considerably more subdued. I'm not sure what went on in the morning as I had to get up early and drive back to Brisbane for my church gig, but by the time I got back everyone had settled down to a nice little jam under the tree, which I happily joined. The evening encore concert followed where all the bands did a short set each and then it was all done and dusted.

It was a really good weekend. Will definitely be back next year. Hopefully with a little Collings of my own, if I'm lucky :)