How not to Blame Sally

Sometimes good things happen accidentally. Attending the Kate Wolf festival was one of these things. Just spur of the moment, we head to some small town, Laytonville, north of Ukiah on a Friday afternoon, packed camping gear and grabbed some dusty spot in the field next to some other folk who travelled in an RV and plunked ourselves somewhat too close for comfort next to another tent. Among many.

I always wanted to do this festival. After all, folk music was my first passion learning how to play guitar and imitating Joan and Bob on stage at the age of 14 and continuing afterwards on and off. Kate Wolf was not that known where I came from at the time, but one learns quickly later.

Those of you who know me are probably chuckling as porter potties and fake camping is not my kind of thing. This was necessary for attending the festival. For a long time, I will probably associate the smell of cinnamon with freshly emptied toilets on that field of scurcing heat. But, such is life. As they say, the one who loves the rose bears the thorns. One of the vendors quipped "This is one the most mellow crowds that I have seen. I love it here!". That was true. I met many interesting people who are just friendly and willing to share tidbits about their lives just waiting to get food or coffee on line or just holding their hand on the Mr. Music Community choir project. Ok, ok. It is not that sappy. Further, there were conveniences like a portable ATM Machine (eww. techology!) if you feel like you were stranded without money or hot water showers.


There were two gigs I wanted to see in the festival. Greg Brown whom I admired for a while and my new discovery, the Greencards. Unfortunately, Ani DiFranco was scheduled in a godawful time (late Sunday) which made returning to SF somewhat a very dreadful and next-week-killer endeauvor.

One of the cool things about the set up was that there were several activities going on parallelly. The main stage had the major line up, but the smaller stage with bails of hay provided the more intimate, small club experience that made the whole experience completely worthy. Further, the same acts that would appear on Saturday played also on Saturday. In this manner, one could schedule to see the gigs on Saturday and could potentially return back home on a reasonable time on Sunday.

I saw both Greg Brown and the Greencards on that smaller stage. It made my attendence to the festival really memorable. Although Greg did not play one of my favorite tunes, "'Cept and me babe", i really enjoyed seeing him up close and personal.

Greencards did something exceptional. Since they were scheduled to play at the same time with Los Lobos, their gig was delayed by the festival organizers for sometime as Los Lobos took the stage late. It was way after 12:00am on Sunday they started playing and no one was sorry that they waited that long as they started to play. As the name applies, the band members are all foreigners in US and make a killer Bluegrass sound which also reminded me some of Solas. They have the energy to keep you moving and smiling. Do not miss them if you have a chance to attend one of their shows.

Having said all this, the highlight of the festival for me was probably "Blame Sally". Just like children, I like to discover new things. When they took the main stage on Saturday, I was thinking to myself as they are playing the first tunes "those women are really exceptional". My appreciation grew as they moved on from one crafted song to another, singing in English and Spanish with harmonies to match and very nice poetry in their lyrics that should not be missed. (As a matter of fact, I used one of the lines in my art class writing exercises and got quite a response last week). Each of them can play several instruments, have very artful arrangements and it is hard to classify them. Is it rock, folk, pop or something in between? If you like Indigo Girls would you like them? One thing I know is that their recent album "Severland" is fantastic and my favorite of all their albums with its creative, catchy tunes. Do run, but not walk to get it. And, they ARE from San Francisco.

Discovering Blame Sally brought interesting coincidences and discovering other cool people to our lives. On our way back, we accidentally met a folk music singer in the bay area, Amy Meyers at a winery while we were talking about the group. She has her new nice album out, Lucky which I got recently. The first song, "I hate to cry", in that album speaks to me. Just the way it feels at the end of each summer. Check it out. She frequently performs in the bay area which I am looking forward to attending.

We followed Blame Sally to Big Sur this weekend for a more intimate setting in the Henry Miller library. I have not been there before. As it is written in the description of the library, it is hard to classify that too. It is not definitely a place where you buy your touristy gizmos pf Big Sur or the best-seller-du-jour. It provides however memorabilia of Henry Miller, his writings/books, other interesting books and a nice intimate setting to listen to an outdoors concert on a summer California night. A perfect way to end a wonderful day in Big Sur.

Blame Sally gave us the glimpse of what may be coming down in the new album. Can not wait. What was cool about the whole thing is to be able to meet them during the break. Yes, my dear friends. Now i have become a Blame Sally groupie. Hope you can join me/us in the next trip. Further, i think Jeri was playing a Santa Cruz guitar which looked and sounded just like mine. Unfortunately, I forgot to ask. And unfortunately, I can not play the guitar like her, either.

One rumor is that the name of the group is about the imaginary friend that one of the group members used as an excuse for being late to rehearsals. I do not know. However, if they are blaming the results to this Sally person, I sure want to be friends with her! It sure works.