Day 3, Saturday.

Gillian Welch played again, on Saturday. So we rushed over to the "Creekside" stage to get good seats, early. Creekside is a small stage out on the far corner of the rest of the festival. It's a little pavillion next to a small hill, where people sit. So, the Merlefest veterans among us knew we'd better stake our claim ASAP. We did, and got 6 of maybe 100 actual seats. Yay. It meant we had to watch a "vocal workshop" on that stage first, but that was OK. I went to get a snack - a giant roast turkey leg.

The place filled up pretty quickly:

The bassist from Feufollet was there, looking like any other kid, waiting for the show:

People were up in the bushes, trying to get a view:

The annoucer said it was the most people the Creekside stage had ever seen. I believe it. The place was mobbed. But, nonetheless, Gillian and David came out and did a phenomenal set.

...

I can't adequately describe how good these two are. This little one hour set (most Merlefest sets are an hour or less) was probably the best show I've ever seen. And they weren't jumping around, there was no stage set, no flashing lights. The two of them are so good at what they do that they don't need any of that: her words and songs, his leads, their energy, and both their vocals are enough. There's nothing false about them, you don't get the idea that they're trying to sell the song - they just get up there and play, and the songs and their delivery do all the work. David Rawlings kills that old guitar of his. He's one of those techincally great but non-flashy players that leave me slack-jawed - some of his fills and runs literally make me do double-takes - but he never dominates the song; he's always complimentary.

Like I said, I can't describe it... I can only say: if you've heard them and like it even a little, don't hesitate to go see them if you get the chance.

Whew...

Then we went back for Mrs Cleek to catch a nap. I took a little walk, and found a little patch of trillum on a nearby hill:

Then, off to see Nickel Creek:

Nickel Creek is a perfect demonstration of the fact that techincal ability does not necessarily imply songwriting ability. I hated two-thirds of their set; it was this ridiculous bluegrass-classical fusion stuff, heavily technical, with lots of starts and stops and tricky breaks and hyper-fast faux-classical solos. A classic example of talented musicians trying to entertain themselves by making the music tricky. We went through that in the 80's with fast guitar players, kids. They played just a few songs that felt like actual songs, including a Britney Spears cover ("Toxic"), which was amusing, and an oddly-chosen "Short People" (Randy Newman). The covers were kitschy, and didn't make me like Nickel Creek any more - they felt desperate. The whole set was too flashy and technical. Blech. Maybe it was because we just saw Gillian prove that you don't need flash, or gimmicks, or kitcsh to entertain people, but I seriously didn't like Nickel Creek's set. That's too bad, because I thought their first album was pretty good. Still, they had a huge crowd. I hope the rest of the audience liked them better than I did.

I got up close to the stage for some pictures, but thought this on-stage photographer was more interesting than the band:

On our way back to the bus, we found out that the Waybacks were playing with Bob Weir (of the Grateful Dead) and Gillian&David. We got to hear the crowd shrieking in approval while we stood at the bus stop. We had a couple of Deadheads in our party, and they were sorely disappointed to have missed Weir and the Waybacks, twice. Alas.

But, that night, we had another bluegrass jam:

The guy in the front with his back to the camera is playing an actual washtub bass. I believe he was a member of The Phisbins. I know the Phisbins' guitar player stopped by a few times, and played some excellent stuff for us. Turns out, they are the people in the Giant Army Tent next to us last year. We were on the other side of them, this year. Nice people - love to party.

Anyway, our party raged on through the night. Lots of bluegrass standards, much beer and even some homemade cherry brandy.

There's a surprising (for me, anyway) overlap between bluegrass fans and Deadheads - made clear by the fact that Bob Weir was at Merlefest. Made ever more clear in that all the pickers who stopped by knew a ton of Dead songs, and everyone else there could at least sing along with most of them. I know the guys in the Dead were really into bluegrass back in the day, but I never knew the bluegrass community liked them back. Now I know.

And that was it for Merlefest 06. Mrs Cleek had to get home early Sunday, to catch a plane, so we left early and skipped all of the Sunday bands.