Harrietville 2002

I decided to make life easy for myself and took off both the Friday and the Monday from work so that they could be travel days.

I made sure I was early for the Friday night concert and found a big comfortable chair near the back and set in for the night. I'm glad I did as the room filled quickly. Lots and lots of acts including sets from Lonnie Hoppers, Bob Lovett and David O'Dell who were the invited musicians from the U.S.A. I'm glad they weren't super fast players. After the concert I joined a jam with Gary Brown and Quenton Fraser and played until 1:30 am when I figured it was time to head for bed.

Saturday I managed to get a lesson from Garry Brown. Garry showed me how to play a Bluegrass tune and showed me his experiments into altered tuning. Sure is a lot of scope there. I showed Garry some of things that I'd done since last year and we had a great lesson. Had dinner with Garry and his friends at the old convention site. Things sure have changed there, the property had been subdivided and is only half the size if that. I made an early night off it as the main concert was standing room only and it was very warm inside. I guess having the convention a month later has a down side.

Sunday I tried to find a bass player to help me with the afternoon concert but wasn't able to track one down. Would have made my set a lot easier if I had a bass player. I went on at 3:00 and performed two songs: 'The Suit' and 'Crossroads'. I used less than my 10 minute allocation catching Lindsay off guard. Usually acts go over.
Attended the Evening concert and was treated to rapid-fire banjo playing in a few of the sets. I know it must be hard to do, but I just can't keep up with the torrent of notes. Checked around the jams after the show and chatted with a few people before heading off to bed.

All in all I had a great time. The weather was wonderful as was the convention and patrons. Looking forward to next years convention. Wouldn't it be great if the organisers found a 'Dobro' player to bring over?