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thoughts after cornerstone

Hi there.

Sitting here after returning from Cornerstone today.  OtR wasn't there,
of course.  But the inestimable Mr. Mallonee was.  And lotsa other
people.  I was working in the Guido's 
coffee tent, so if any of you bought coffee or whatever else there, I
mebbe served you.  Or one of my close friends served you.  Or my pastor,
Guy, who runs the joint.  Worked in an OtR shirt on Sunday, so I'm sure
whatever drinks I made that day were better.  It's the shirt, man.  

Thoughts:

First, a disappointment.  Wow, did I not enjoy Waterdeep's show.  I'd
never heard anything from them before I arrived, only positive comments
here and there.  When I got to the show, their rhythm guitar player was
singing, and she has a *great* voice.  Liked it **tons** when she sang. 
It's a really good band when she sings.  But they have her shoved off to
stage right, and they have their lead guitar player front-and-center. 
He's okay, but not really great.  Not really interesting.  Unfortunately,
he seemed to sing nearly the whole time.  That might not have been so
bad, but then he would give these ten minute homilies as song intros. 
Even that might have been bearable, but they did this really mediocre
shout-out song about Jericho in which we got a drum solo, a bass solo,
and a couple of guitar solos.  It just didn't work.  Anyway, my
assessment: get him out of center stage, get her onto center stage, stop
doing so many arena solos, lose the youth group performance aesthetic. 
There's something great there in Waterdeep, but the mix was just way off,
I thought.  

More positive notes from here on out . . . 

Stickman Jones gave a really great show.  They aren't as seasoned and
tight as OtR at their best, but they are certainly hovering at the gates
of the same musical playground occupied by our kids in OtR.  An' that's
good.

Saw a mini show Sunday afternoon by the Vigilantes of Love that was very
nice.  Then saw the big show at midnight.  Bill gave us about 100 minutes
of music before the heat got too much for him.  Translation: the man was
on stage working his way into heat stroke for an hour and a half before
he finally gave out and cut the show short, with many humble apologies. 
I respect this man a lot.  I'm very grateful that he faced down heat and
illness to bring us a great show.  My friend was talking about all this
afterwards and she made me wonder at how merciless we were to make him
work when it was obvious how much he was struggling.  Why do we make
these demands on our stars?  Bill Mallonee isn't superhuman, ya know?  I
know a crowd can't really join together and say, "Bill, come on,
man--take a break, get some water, there'll be other shows"; but that's
what I would have done for a friend, or someone over whom I had power. 
But we, as a crowd, were holding Bill, and we didn't do or couldn't do
anything.  What do these thoughts mean?  I'm listening to Audible Sigh
right now.  Very nice.  

Danielson Family.  Oh my gosh.  More falsetto zaniness than you can shake
a stick at.  Whatever that means.

Urban Hillbilly Quartet.  Very cool.  Nice show.  All that.  The singer
isn't at all outstanding, but the show was a lot of fun.  Good fiddlin'. 
Yup.  Great fiddlin'.  Not as great as Havalina Rail Co., though, who
kicked butt in the same washboard-and-fiddle vein.

Ballydowse.  Celtic punk with didjeridu goin' on.  Who could ask fro
anything more, really?  It works.  

Suddenly, I'm tired.  Gotta go.

I scored a copy of Grace Shaker by LSU/Mike Knott.  Should I play that
next?  I think I will . . .

Cheers,

Fred
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