I think this is day four - I'm losing track of time. Last night we were hit by a huge but thankfully brief storm, full of lightning and cooling rain. We had a minute's blackout of the whole festival site, which was very exciting. And it looks to be the festival pattern: today it's hotter than hot, with a storm due later on.
Half an hour ago I was sitting in a deep shady patch on a hill beside King Curly's concert, sipping a UDL and catching up with an old friend from the days of my first uni degree.
Right now I'm sitting on a smaller slope, still in deep shade, beside the Blues tent, listening to my constant festival fave, Kristina Olsen. KO is my idea of a Real Woman. She's gutsy, funny, brave, honest and very open to life. Martin Pearson calls her 'the only American I've ever liked' and it's probably because she doesn't wear her nationality like a badge or entitlement. She spends ten months of every year performing, and gets fully involved in whatever she participates in: at this festival she is performing, speaking, debating, and teaching both dance and musical workshops. And still manages to look great every time I see her.
Her music is sensitive yet earthy, and she accompanies it with lots of joy and humour. She just told a good joke:
What did the blues musician have on her tombstone?
I didn't wake up this morning.
Heh, oldie but goodie.
She was, as usual, on the panel of Martin Pearson's FYI show this morning, along with Sandy McCutcheon, George Negus and Kerry O'Brien: trifecta! What a morning. Times like that you can only really appreciate by being there. One good bit was George being given the chance to ban one Australian from our shores: who would you pick, George? He didn't take long to decide upon Phillip Ruddock, which led to a great discussion of PR's soullessness.
Another fab find today was Dev'lish Mary, hailing from Melbourne. I was attracted to them by the posters in the loos (best place to advertise yourself at Woodford), and I'd noticed Liz Frencham amongst the group. Anything containing Liz cannot fail, and this group is certainly no exception. I was delighted to find a wonderful quartet of women, all as talented as each other, playing kick-ass country, bluegrass and gospel. They hail from Melbourne, so if you do too, take up any chance to see them.
The grey clouds are encroaching, but I think people are more prepared today. Yesterday's storm was quite sudden for most; luckily we have a habit of looking at the sky a lot, and the lightning had been putting on a good show for a while. S&E are very experienced stallholders, so they'd battened down the hatches in good time. If nothing else, at least the storms freshen everything up.
Heh, another classic Kristina lead-in to a song:
I don't know bout you, but I've had my share of men say 'I don't love you, but you're welcome to hang around and have sex with me until I meet someone that I do love'.
The song is all about getting rid of that sort of person and being brave enough to be alone & give yourself the chance to meet someone decent.
Hallelulah, sister.
-- Post From My iPhone
2 comments:
Martin Pearson sounds like a complete goose.
In fact, Amanda, Martin is an incomplete goose - however, he is a wonderful, funny, erudite human being. He does however look like a troll, but the kind of troll you could take home to meet your mother.
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