Rombs Country/Bluegrass Jamboree
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By:
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bluegrassgal
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Mood:
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elated
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Date:
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07/03/2007 10:10:07
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Music:
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bluegrass
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We arrived home yesterday from the Rombs Bluegrass/Country Festival in Fairview, Alberta.We had a fantastic time playing up there despite the deluge of rain (I've never seen so much rain in all my life, let me tell you!!!). We took off from Vanderhoof on Thursday at noon and we planned to get to Fairview that evening but we had to travel through some of the worst rain storms we'd ever driven in and that slowed us down a lot. We pulled off the road about 5 times because the rain and hail was coming down so hard you couldn't see never mind try to keep the wipers working. We landed in Dawson Creek around supper time and checked into a motel just in time for another huge system to come ploughing through bringing 5-forked lightning, VERY LOUD thunder and more rain and hail.. so much so that the motel restaurant we were eating in flooded (about 3 inches of water on the floor) and the first floor of the motel had the same problem. The parking lot was full to the bottom of the doors on small cars and you could white water raft out of the exits to the parking lot. In fact, there was someone canoeing across the street in the Extra Foods parking lot. Just nuts.
Fairview got the same storm system because when we got there on Friday morning there was water everywhere, the site was pretty boggy and we couldn't figure out why they would have the concert area in the dirt and sand and the campers on the grass....we found out later the concert area had been nice and grassy the day before but there was so much water they had to bring in truck loads of sand to build it up so people wouldn't float out of the site. Friday was nice and sunny with some clouds and around 9:00pm that night the skies opened up and poured rain until 6:00 the next evening!!!!!!!!!!!!! The Rombs family was running around like chickens without heads pumping water with pump trucks, bringing in more sand, leveling out places and trying to keep us all from drowning but eventually they put up their hands and we all had a great time in the mud and water. They pulled in a boat and put it up beside the shelter in the concert area, placed a duck decoy out there and that area provided hours of entertainment for any kids on the site who had mothers that didn't care if they got dirty and wet.
Oh yes.. well, it was a bluegrass festival so I suppose I should tell you about the music. It was awesome. We met and listened to Edmonton bands: The Bix Mix Boys, Riverdale and Woodbend all of whom play some awesome bluegrass and were very nice people to meet and jam with. Matt Hotte, the mando/fiddle player for the Bix Mix Boys was out of sight. He's only 18 and he's going to make a huge name for himself in bluegrass music. This young man can play mando/fiddle/guitar and banjo plus he sings lead and harmony vocals so he's got the whole package. He is going off on tour now with Lost Highway out of California...so for you bluegrass fans keep your ears open for this young man. Lost Highway was also a great band to see. They played a lot of traditional bluegrass and they are fun to see and fun to visit with as well. Band leader, Ken Orrick, is recovering from a stroke he had about 3 months ago and is still dealing with some speech difficulties at times but he did an awesome job and I hope he continues to recover as well as he has done so far. He invited Dylan to play with his band for the gospel set on Sunday morning which Dylan really enjoyed and he seemed to have a lot of fun with the band as they did a lot of laughing up there. Ken was tickled that he was no longer the shortest person in the band and asked Dylan if he was old enough to drive their tour bus..however, he added that even if he was old enough he couldn't see over the steering wheel yet!! Dylan went out jamming with the Bix Mix Boys and never came home until 4:00 am!! He said the sun was coming up when he came to bed and he thought that was really neat.
Other bands we saw were Tony Michaels and the Foggy Minded Mountain boys, Peace Country, Cammy and Sarah Romanuck (fiddle playing sisters that were amazing) as well as the Barn Yard Boys. Friday night we all took part in a old time Radio Show (sort of like early Grand Ol' Opry) and that was a lot of fun too.
I met up with my best friend from high school, a lady that I worked with when I lived in Peace River over 20 years ago as well as the woman who introduced Bob and I on a blind date!!
Lindsay stayed home out on our friend's farm where she loves to work with the cattle, ride horses, pick rocks and whatever else they get her to help out with but she ended up with some sort of a flu bug yesterday as we found her curled up in bed with a fever when we arrived home. She's still asleep this morning but I hope she's feeling better today.
We are booked to play the Rombs Festival next summer on the long weekend of July and we were approached by a gentleman who helps pick musical acts for the Blueberry Festival in Stony Plain, Alberta and he would like to see us play there next summer (we planned to go to the festival anyway) so he said he would be putting our name forth when they select bands...that would be very exciting for us so we'll keep you posted.
Cheers,Heather
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