The Great Ganesha

Continues from Day 1.

We were greeted at our entrance into the park with a common sight.

Then we walked by the banjo twanging and rhythmic fiddling of Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder. The only appropriate response to these guys is this one.

But we didn’t stick around there for too long. We were headed to see Hot Tuna – one of the biggest acts of the festival. They’ve been around for ever.

Their co-founder and bassist Jack Casady (according to his Wikipedia entry) is “considered one of the foremost bass guitarists of the rock music era.” He, along with acoustic guitarist, Jorma Kaukonen, spun off from Jefferson Airplane to form their group. Here they are, along with Barry Mitterhoff.

They had the entire audience entranced. Even the animals.

Then it was time to move on to see the best-known non-bluegrass name of the festival – Elvis Costello. He was playing with T-Bone Burnett (a pretty big name himself) under the monicker of ‘The Coward Brothers’.

On the way, we walked by the snack stands. I saw five different countries’ cuisines there!

The foodstuffs, incidentally, were in the Marx Meadow. Which I thought was quite ironic.

The place was packed to see the two legends. But we, the locals, knew all the secret spots. We sneaked into a restricted area in front of the stage.

Until we were kicked out of there by Security, that is! But no worries, we still managed to get up close and personal with the two.

And, as if by magic, the two became three. They were joined by Emmylou Harris who is a country legend in her own right. That hair is unmistakably recognizable.

They were followed by Richard Thompson – one of the top 20 guitarists of all time, according to Rolling Stone in a 2003 list.

Well, all good things must come to an end. And soon it was time to go. On the way out, we ran into one of the numerous ultra-left-wing-types that seem so common to this blue state.

A pleasant sight to end the weekend with (note: sarcasm)…

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