The Texas Steel Guitar Association held its 40th annual jamboree last week. This was my first year to attend. Festival information was hard to find. I couldn’t even find what time events began and ended each day. The night before the four-day event, I decided to take a chance and bought my ticket. When I arrived, I needed to buy a $5 program just to find out what time the music began and ended each day. It turned out to be an outstanding event with dozens of steel guitar players doing 30-minute sets on the main stage. On Saturday, they began at 8AM and didn’t finish until after midnight!
The house band was outstanding and put in a tremendous number of hours, as did the hosts, volunteers, sound man, etc. I’ll especially put in a good word for teenage fiddlers Ridge Roberts and Grace Partridge. Speaking of young artists, Jack Phillips played steel guitar for his own set, plus a set sponsored by the Heart of Texas, and even played fiddle a little.
Many high quality singers showed up, none of whom were advertised going in. Gene Watson was the highest profile of all, but there were many quality country singers. There was a western swing dance Saturday night and a church service Sunday morning.
The majority of the steel players focused on country and western swing, but a few ventured out a bit. Rose Sinclair plays jazz on a non-pedal console steel. Eddie Ortego played dobro. A trio of steel players from Nashville (Russ Pahl, Eddy Dunlap, and Bruce Bouton) brought some modern flair. Russ Pahl especially did some different things. He brought his own backing tracks, rather than using the house band, since he did a bunch of songs that most wouldn’t know. He even covered Daft Punk.
In short, this festival turned out to be a gold mine of quality music for four days straight. I strongly recommend this event and look forward to attending again next year.
Yesterday was my first time to attend Willie Nelson’s Luck Reunion. My feet are still hurting from standing all day, but the music was worth it. The Luck Reunion is a hard ticket, but I was able to buy a ticket last year. They rescheduled a day later due to weather and I couldn’t attend, but they gave the option of transferring the ticket to this year’s event, so that’s what I did.
There are many small stages at Luck, but good luck getting into them. 2,000 fans doesn’t sound that overwhelming, until you consider that the chapel stage has a capacity of 49. The saloon stage has a capacity of 150, but that includes the balcony, reserved for VIP.
Drinks were free and restrooms were plentiful. I had a very enjoyable green chile cheeseburger for lunch. Crowds were generally very well behaved. Many of the artists brought out special guests to collaborate. The Texas Gentlemen at the barn stage brought out special guests for nearly every song.
I spent most of my time at the main stage. It was super crowded, too, but at least I could find a place, however far back. Big names included Old Crow Medicine Show and Tyler Childers and of course, the main event, Willie Nelson, who opened his show with Kermit the Frog.
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