Wednesday, September 15, 2010

John Prine at sea

Can you believe this??? A bunch of my favorite bands, floating on the ocean at the same time, with well drinks, songwriting workshops and the chance to play blackjack with Steve Earle. If one of you wants to buy me a ticket to this thing, I'll work it into my busy schedule.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dan, I believe John Prine and a number of other musicians including Steve Earle, Buddy Miller, Patti Griffin, Indigo Girls, etc. are going to be at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass in Frisco Oct 1-3.

All kinds of great music and performers there. One of the reasons to attend it is to see T Bone Burnett. This guy is awesome and always bring along a number of special "friends."

cactuseaters said...

hi 52 Hikes. I'll have to post the full roster. For the first time in three years I won't be able to make it because it's no longer within striking distance. (I don't live very far from the city,but I used to live just five minutes from Golden Gate Park, which made it unbelievably easy to put on my running shoes, jog over there and see all the shows. In that period I saw Robert Plant, Elvis Costello, Emmylou Harris, Nick Lowe, John Prine (twice), Robert Earl Keen and dozens more. You'll have to send Cactuseaters a report on this year's shows!

Anonymous said...

Dan, I'll probably go on Friday only and skip the weekend shows. It's getting too crowded for me. I'll file in a report.

I've been a loyal fan for years and have seen a lot of changes. Popularity comes at a price. In the past, one could hang out with musicians because after their sets, they'd mingle with the crowds and watch other musicians. Now access to musicians is relatively restricted.

This is the 10th anniversary and the lineup is incredible. Along with the usual suspects, it includes James McMurtry, Lucero, Randy Newman, Holly Golightly, Fountains Of Wayne, Conor Oberst, Joan Baez, Kinky Friedman... This goes beyond goodness and greatness to awesomeness.

cactuseaters said...

Good point. I always hate to carp, even slightly, about a generous freebie, but the last Hardly Strictly crowded me out a bit. Suddenly it seemed to get very "big.'' I don't mind the crowds so much -- but sometimes the price of 'free' is a lack of engagement, at least among certain audience members. This might sound like heresy, but I wonder if they would consider charging some small fee to get in, just so there is some audience 'investment,' however slight. Might cut down on the talkers.

Anonymous said...

Dan, we skipped HSBG this year and went down to Big Sur instead. Sorry, I don't have a report for you. A few years ago they had about 100K visitors and this year they had 600K. Yikes! It's so over.

cactuseaters said...

Six hundred thousand!!!! Unbelievable. Defeats the purpose, doesn't it? At that point, anyone could be playing on stage and it wouldn't make much difference.Can't imagine how they squeezed all those folks into the park. The Port-o-Can lines must have been pretty intense.