Me and my Shadowfax
I think those girls are high!
I could see myself and Shadowfax in one of these someday!
Our 1pm set at the VIP stage went well. We had a good mix on stage, which always makes it easier for us to play with more energy and have fun. The crowd seemed to dig us. Two of our friends from Springfest and Magnolia Fest in Live Oak, FL were here this weekend. It's been nice to see their familiar faces in the audience and spend some time with them and their kids. I remembered a singing technique I learned from my former voice teacher, Marilyn Poppino, in Tucson, AZ; when singing in my upper register, I consciously drop my larynx on the inhalation between phrases. This allows my voice to get a quick rest and not tire out so quickly. I don't know why I keep forgetting to do this! It seemed to help, and I felt like I was better able to work around my voice issues. I was grateful for the Luden licorice honey throat drops Jen had sent, too.
I was wondering how Brett would handle the matter of being asked to "tone down" his lyrics after our set yesterday. When I heard him begin to introduce our song Blood & Justice with "So yesterday I was called to a meeting with a production manager here at FloydFest," I smiled to myself. We didn't play the song that had received the bulk of the complaints, but we addressed the issue head on and proceeded to play our brand of bluegrass. The way I see it, if somebody is offended by what they hear, they can go to another stage (there are five at FloydFest); there's no need for them to impose their opinions about us on others. We personally received more compliments regarding our performance than the few complaints the production manager reported hearing. There's always a few people trying to ruin it for everybody else. Censorship sucks.
We had a couple hours to chill, and then we headed to the Speakeasy stage for our 4:30pm set, our final performance of the festival. The set went great. I continued to heed Marilyn's advice, and my voice held up alright. The crowd called for an encore, and we delivered the goods. The three of us were pleased with how both of today's sets had gone.
We enjoyed one last free meal and listened to some of the other musicians. Then we settled up at the merch tent. We sold a decent amount of our wares, but the festival and the state of Virginia took roughly a third of the total profit. I get it; everyone has to make money. We found out that the results of the Rising Artist competition will be posted on the festival website sometime in the next week or so. Win or lose, I had a good time. We left FloydFest behind us and headed towards Brett's grandparents' place in South Boston, VA.
Last set at FloydFest
Last supper
Carolina Chocolate Drops playing to a packed tent
Two hours later we arrived at Papaw and Grammy's house on their large open piece of land. Grammy had a pot roast waiting for us. Somehow I managed to resist. I certainly won't be roughing it here; rather than sharing a tent with the boys, I'll have a bedroom to myself for the next few days. Grammy has invited some friends and neighbors over for a house concert we'll play on Wednesday. I believe we may help Papaw with some work that needs to be done on the property. We watched the end of an Hercule Poirot show with Brett's grandparents, and then they retired for the evening. Brett hooked his Xbox up to the TV, and the gaming began. According to my TrailLink app, there is a segment of the developing Tobacco Heritage Trail within biking distance from where we are. I hope to check it out while we're here. I suspect I'll hit the sack fairly early tonight and hopefully catch up on some needed sleep.
Grammy's pot roast is hard to resist!
Bonne nuit!
- Jon
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