Last night was the first Musickfest show. Musickfest is a benefit for Wendy Musick, a local Athens rocker who had to have emergency surgery recently. Since Wendy, like so many of us, is without health insurance, she has accrued massive medical bills and this is the local community's way of trying to help out.
So yeah, it was a great cause and a great night of music. The highlight for the b.h. and me was a fabulous solo set by Will Johnson. We only get to see him a few times a year, and we have a house rule about not working when he plays. Fortunately, everything worked out fine and there were plenty of people to staff the bar so we didn't have to.
In addition to Will, we got to see performances by Clay Leverett, Dave Barbe, and Dave Marr, who brought along most of the Star Room Boys for a really beautiful set. I got to see my friend M, who I rarely see anymore, and who is considering a move to either NYC or Chicago sometime next year (go for it!) as well as P (but not Stinky P, who has been officially run out of town- more on that later). There was an auction, and a guy who is sort of a friend of ours dropped at least a couple grand on multiple items. What was so nice was that I suspect that he didn't even necessarily want a lot of the stuff he was bidding on, but he drove the prices up to give more money to Wendy. Very few people know him, as he is not an easy person to know. I don't claim to know him very well, but I do know that he is financially well off, and that he has a true appreciation for music (and Musick). What a guy.
In other news, i am making some progress on Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, despite my inability to stay awake for more than ten minutes when I get into bed every night. Very much looking forward to seeing Okkervil River in two weeks. They have a new song streaming on their label's website and it is just awesome. My plan is to sit as close to them as possible without their noticing and hope that I can somehow become more clever/poetic by osmosis. Seriously, they are ridiculous. Awesome. And if you really have some time to kill, go to their website and check out the videos. Wow.
Sorry, did I get off on a tangent there? Okay, gotta go eat before work.
1 comment:
Thanks for recommending Okkervil River to me, excellent.
And in Britain, we may grumble about the National Health Service, but it's a wonderful system, especially in an emergency. Horribly expensive in taxation, but free at the point of use.
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