Posts Tagged ‘thomas point beach’

Odds and Ends

Wednesday, September 10th, 2008

Casey HenryI discovered a great band over Labor Day weekend: Straight Drive. Their banjo player is Terry McGill, who is awesome. As soon as I realized how awesome he was, I bought both of their CDs. Or, rather, tried to buy them, because he wouldn’t let me pay for them. You can hear some of Terry’s playing on his MySpace page or order the CDs at the band’s website. Straight Drive

Terry and I have a mutual friend in Greg Garing. I discovered this when I heard “Far Over The Sea” on Straight Drive’s CD. I also sing that Greg Garing original, and I actually recorded it with him a few years back. It was never released as far as I know, but I found it tonight on Greg’s bluegrass MySpace page. (That’s me on the banjo.) I hope to record it myself someday.

Terry also plays on the Old Time Blue Grass Singers’s CD Threads, which is well worth ordering!

A couple videos from my time at Thomas Point Beach turned up on YouTube, courtesy of Nick Novia. This one has the song “Train on the Island” sung by April Hobart, who is a great singer. You can hear the new Casey Henry model in action. (The music starts about a minute in…)  This one has us singing a silly kids song to please Dick Bowden’s adorable four-and-a-half year old granddaughter Gwen—”Animal Dance” I think. And, finally, this one has Andy Cartoun picking “Mastertone March” on my banjo. I’m on guitar.

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Thomas Point Beach 2008

Thursday, September 4th, 2008

Casey Henry

There are few better things in life than to find yourself at a bluegrass festival, camping with a group of friends, with perfect weather and no responsibilities other than to jam all day and go watch the stage show if you feel like it. I found myself in just such a situation over the weekend up at Thomas Point Beach in Maine. In retrospect, it seemed to pass in the blink of an eye, but if I stop and think about it, the experience was chock full of activities.

Since I can slap up pictures for y’all to look at, I’ll talk about the stage shows. Thursday night’s headliner was Rhonda Vincent, but the jamming was so good at our camp I didn’t even get to the stage. So, no picture of her. Friday night was Marty Stuart and his Fabulous Superlatives. I love Marty Stuart (his album The Pilgrim is one of my all-time favorites Marty Stuart - The Pilgrim). He played an acoustic show with Kenny Vaughn on guitar, Harry Stinson on drum (on a strap over his shoulder so he, too, could move around), and Paul Martin on upright bass.

Marty Stuart

Saturday’s big show was Ricky Skaggs, who always does a good, slick show. I was amused, though, that his CDs were being sold off a plain old picnic table.

Ricky Skaggs CDs

My favorite act of the day, though, was the Tennessee Mafia Jug Band. You may have read a couple weeks back about the new CMT show Outsider’s Inn. We’ll these are the guys that are on it.

Tennessee Mafia Jug Band

L-R: Pete Elegant, Mike Armistead, (hidden Dave Gandon), Leroy Troy, Lester Armistead.

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Happy Labor Day!

Monday, September 1st, 2008

Casey HenryHappy Labor Day everyone! I hope you are all enjoying your day off. When I was little it always marked the last day of freedom before buckling down for a new school year. Now, blissfully unaffected by the school calendar, it signals the winding down of the festival season, winding up for the IBMA convention at the end of the month, and, this year, will mark the end of an era. The Thomas Point Beach bluegrass festival, which has been on Labor Day weekend for the last 30 years (except for that one year that they took off…) has given its last hurrah. The last song has been sung, the last string has been plucked. Even as you read this, worn out campers are packing up their gear and hitting the road, heading home for the last time, already filled with nostalgia.

This was only my fourth trip to Thomas Point Beach, but I love it like I’ve been going there all my life. My parents’ band, Red and Murphy and Co., played there in the early 1980s, and every year that I go I always meet people who remember seeing them play. I played there myself three years ago with Tennessee Heartstrings. That was the year of Katrina and gas prices were four times as high driving back from the festival as they were driving to it (but still not as high as they have been this year).

The other years I’ve just gone and camped to have fun and play music with my friends. One year I flew, one year I drove (22 hours each way). This year I flew and my friend Kelly picked me up and we took her pop-up camper, which was the lap of luxury compared to my little tent. I’ll relate all our adventures at a later date, since I’m making my own way home from the festival even now. Enjoy your last holiday of summer. Visit with some friends, pick some tunes, don’t drink and drive, and all that good stuff.

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