Beaufort Music Festival

The morning of the Beaufort Music Festival (May 10) Jason and I were pretty darn tired, having stayed up late night into the early morning hanging out with Snake Oil Medicine Show and crew after our fun show at the Neighborhood Theater in Charlotte.

 

Of course, when we pulled into Beaufort in the early afternoon, our energy lifted. Ocean air, sunshine, and happy faces greeted us. We got out of the van and Jason’s dad (Tim Krekel) was there setting up for his set. We walked around a bit, and were touched by all of the people who came up and thanked us for returning to Beaufort. Tim started playing, and Jason was able to sit in with his dad on fiddle for the first part of the set. Tim also had Dancing Bobby Watson playing saxophone with him for much of his show. Dancing Bobby Watson has known Jason all of his life – he’s like Jason’s second dad. Bobby has an amazing youthful spirit and positive attitude about life. He holds an annual “Dance or Die” party in Louisville – this year is the 14^th annual, I think. Anyway, we were glad he was at the festival, too. Tim sounded great as usual. He is so super talented.

 

Soon we were set up and ready to play. We kicked off right after Tim finished. Man did we have a blast playing outside by the water, with smiling people dancing in the sunshine!!!! Things got wild when the wind picked up. I mean really picked up. The pop-up tent that was covering the sound board by the stage lifted up and crashed down on the stage right next to Jason’s fiddle while we were playing. Close call. I have never played music while being practically blown away by wind before. It was oddly exhilarating. We managed to keep rockin’ and not to get blown off to Oz. There’s nothing like performing music outside, that’s for sure.

 

After us Unknown Tongues played – they are a terrific cajun/zydeco/kitchen sink band from around Beaufort. Very danceable. They called Jason up to sit in with them on fiddle, and he ended up playing with them most of their set. Everyone sounded great and the crowd was really moving.

 

After Unknown Tongues finished, Southern Culture on the Skids launched into their program of hillbilly rock and antics. They really put on a top notch performance. I remember seeing SCOTS at some dive bar in Greensboro years ago. It is so wonderful that they have developed such a strong fan base. We really hope we’ll get to do more shows with them in the future – we definitely have many of the same musical influences!

 

The festival wrapped up and Jason, Tim, Bobby and I were invited to an after-party with the Unknown Tongues gang. We were psyched to get to play old-time and cajun tunes with them into the wee hours. And we made some great new friends. Dancing Bobby Watson helped keep the dance party going in the middle of the living room. Yee haw!