Lynn and I are 'recovering' from an intense weekend at the State Fair: on Friday we played in the Duet Contest and on Saturday I competed in the Guitar Flatpicking Contest (with Lynn as my accompanist). Friday turned out to be hard emotionally as we sang well, but didn't make the top five (we had placed third the last two years and so had some 'expectations'). Although we had a few people tell use 'we were robbed' (OK, one of them was our son's fiancee's father), I talked afterward with one of the people who helped tally up the scores (a volunteer not a judge): he said that we sounded really good but said the competition was 'fierce'. The up side is that we got lots of good compliments from fellow musicians including a member of Monroe Crossing (the 'premier' Bluegrass based in Minnesota).
We are really happy that Kathy Liners and Lincoln Potter (from Ivory Bridge) won - like us they have competed in the Duet Contest since its inception: they have been consistently in the top five but never took the top prize. On the 'promo' side, I passed out two or three Bob-&-Lynn cards ;-)
Saturday was more relaxing: the guitar field was as competitive as its ever been, even though Bill Liners, last year's champion, was taking the year off. The field was full, with a total of 17 competitors (last year there were 12 or so). It was fun seeing a lot of 'the usual suspects', but great to see a number of new faces (all of whom seemed to play really well).
There was one 'surprise' new competitor for us - 15 year old Austin Wahl is a 'shirttail' relative of Lynn: she shares an uncle with Austin's father Ned and we met them about a year ago after that uncle died (at age 90 or so). Ned and Austin have been in the Minnesota bluegrass scene and since we've met them have come to hear us at Dulono's. Austin is a great player especially since his focus is classical guitar (playing since age of 5). (Austin was 2nd in the youth category). Note: Austin's classical guitar teacher was in the audience and said the I had the best 'tone' of any of the players - I do strive for good tone, but playing a 1969 D28 helps. 1969 was the last year that D-28's were made with Brazilian Rosewood - makes a big difference in sound( and current $$ value).
Chris Silver was back after a couple years off and won the overall competition. Chris is a great musician and 'nailed' a piece that he had some problems with a couple of years ago. Clint Britzer, who is 15 years old, repeated as second overall. With a band mate from The Sawtooth Bluegrass band, he also placed second in the duet contest this year.
I drew the 'fourth' pick, so played my first two tunes early: Bonaparte Crossing the Rhine went really well, but I started the 2nd tune, Ragtime Annie, a bit fast and although it wasn't quite a train wreck, the wheels went off the track more than a few times. Thus I was happy to place 2nd in the senior division, and really glad that Shirley Mauch Spanhanks took first. Over the past few years we've gotten to know Shirley and her husband Jerry from these contests (they both competed in the flatpicking contest this year and have participated in the duet contests as well). They are the founding members of the Blue Wolf Bluegrass Band.
Knowing that I wouldn't be in the final round, I was able to relax and enjoy the show; Lynn and I spent the rest of the afternoon with front-row seats! After the top five from the first round played the final round of tunes and the awards were handed out, Lynn and I put our guitars in the van and grabbed some 'supper' (OK, we each had a pork-chop-on-a-stick and a waffle cone). Adam Granger, the lead guitar judge, has a house close to the fair grounds and had invited all the duet and guitar competitors over for an after contest party. On our way back to the van we picked up some kettle corn as our contribution and made our way to Adam's.
There I jammed for a while with a rotating cast of musicians - David Tousley, and Katryn Conlin the Contest co-organizers, Lincoln Potter (co-winner of duet, 1st year competing in flat-pick), Shirley(new senior champ!) and 15 year-old Austin among others. (Austin more than held his own!)
Lynn kept her guitar in the case but got into some interesting conversations: including a fairly long one with Judy Larson, who with her husband Bill Hinckley have been part of the acoustic music scene in the twin cites since the 60s. Bill was also there (he was another flatpicking judge). I know him mainly as an old-timey kind of musician, but during the jam he played some old jazz standards.
It was a great way to unwind and finish off the day.
Finally, the results are posted here:
http://www.minnesotabluegrass.org/calendar/contest/2008.html.
(As of Labor Day, the duet results are up, but Guitar results are still pending).
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