MerleFest, April 30 - May 2, 2005

 

Saturday, April 30

 

I met SisterJan and the two young monkeys Will and Ryan (Engineer Matt was off on a run) at their Mountain Island Lake abode and we then breakfasted at the nearby ShuffleTown Diner...

 

       

 

 

Heading up to Jeff's country house, at Taylorsville, NC...

 

       

 

 

 

Saturday evening with Carina and Jeff... parked outside Jeff's country house at Taylorsville, just a short drive to Wilkesboro where we would attend MerleFest the following day...

   

 

Sunday, May 1

 

Morning at Camp Jeff...

   

Entering MerleFest...

 

A Japanese bluegrass singer was holding forth in the first tent that I came upon. I think her name was Nari. At any rate, she seemed to be an interesting gal... she said that she had been in Charlotte several days prior, touring the music circuit. I never did find out more about her...

   

I almost bought a Utilikilt. It turned out that this fellow's shop was in Seattle...   www.utilikilts.com

 

Around the festival...

 

       

 

       

 

       

 

       

 

   

 

Fine music was in good supply at every turn... even the legendary Chieftains held forth...

 

       

 

Wandering around...

       

 

   

 

I ran into the mysterious John P...

 

The Little Rascals...

 

As always, some of the most interesting picking takes place in the tents scattered around the grounds...

 

       

 

   

 

Allison Kraus graced the big stage...

 

     

 

Heading back to Camp Jeff...

 

 

Monday, May 2

 

Morning at Camp Jeff. Carina stopped in for coffee and biscuits...

 

       

 

 

Back down Highway 16 to Charlotte...

 

       

 

       

 

 

At Mountain Island Lake, I stopped in at Sister Jan's... Ryan in position...

   

On through downtown Charlotte...