I 'woke up this morning from a dream that I had spent a week in a Blues Utopia in a small former military installation near a quaint little town named Port Townsend on the Olympic Peninsula of Washington state. As I cleared my head from the many hours of sleep replacement I thought to myself no way that could ever happen, then I realized it WASN'T a dream it REALLY happened.
Thanks for all the advice:
Slack, you're right it does help to turn in before 3 or 4 a.m. I actually did it one night.
Uncle Bud, the recording device was probably the most important item I brought. Uncle Bud's bad advice- bring a credit card (just kidding) I think I doubled my Country Blues CD collection thanks to Quimper Sound. As far as guitar transport I gate checked my guitar on the way there (although I was a bit concerned when the gate attendant set it on the runway under the plane) but on the trip home I found that Alaska Air will let you pre-board with a guitar and my Auditorium fit in the overhead nicely.
Peter,
GREAT JOB every time I saw you you were busy to say the least, thanks for
ALL your hard work and patience on promoting the whole gig.
I found the coffee and it sure helped for those late night sessions.
FrontPage, my freshman year guidance counselor, pointed me in the right direction all week. Encouraged me to go out and jam. Still workin' on the thumb.
Frankie and Jed, John Miller's classes were great, Tuesday morning I had NO idea what to do so I went to John Mille's class and felt really comfortable with the instruction and ended up staying all week.
As for other posters, Miblues (the American Kiwi) and I hung out together most of the week , Swampman sure started the party off right when he directed the first shuttle stop at the WA. State liquor store. For awhile we didn't think there would be another shuttle stop but when we did it was
flirtin' with disaster and the possibility of a blast of rock salt in the behind but we finally made it to PT just in time for dinner. Tom and I hit the clubs Sat. night. Got to meet waxwing and metalgitar. Now I have faces that go with the handles.
I would like to thank John Miller, his classes were a great start and his material alone will keep me very busy for quite a while. His choices of Pre-Blues and Hillbilly Blues material inspired me as to what can be done on a guitar. I caught his set at the Upstage (as did a large group of Weenies), good stuff.
Instruction- Rick Blaufeld did a great job with his MJH classes. If you didn't check out Mabiba's Congo classes stop by at least one in the future just to hear her voice- no amplification needed, performing with her on Sat. sure was fun. Del and Lightning's Uke class was very interesting. As was sittin' around with Honeyboy especially when Dennis Binder shows up, actually I spent an awful lot of time with Dennis all week considering the fact that I'm not a keyboard player but that man had stories and taught me some interesting music theory. Another person I hung out with a lot was Michael Baytop who also had some great stories about the train trip out and takin' care of Drink when he arrived at his house from South Carolina. Eric Freeman sounds like he might be moving to the N.W. after this gig, that guy always had a guitar in his hands. Rich Del Grosso came over and jammed for a few minutes with us when he heard our late night slide class on the back porch of 225. And of course you never knew when you would walk around a corner and Louisiana Red would be playin'.? You couldn't ask for a better group of professional musicians as instructors.
And what's up with Sitka, Alaska? I've decided that if I ever want to become an accomplished musician I'm moving to Sitka all those guys were amazing.
My only disappointment the whole week was waiting almost the entire participant show for Weenie Campbell's set only to find that he must have found a better gig.?
I sure learned a lot about the Blues and music in general in that short week thanks again for the encouragement. I gotta go I'm packing for next year.
Rev, Not Rev
Gary
