Bakersfield-Arizona-

Joshua Tree 2007

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Where to buy CDs by artists mentioned in this report

February 1, 2007: It’s time for more traveling – bluegrass, sight seeing, visiting, and something new. My traveling companion for the first part of the trip is my mother, age 89. We will be attending an indoor bluegrass festival in Bakersfield tomorrow through Sunday. Then we’ll head for Arizona, staying overnight at an RV park just across the river from Needles.

Tuesday I will take her to Mesa, to the RV park where she and Dad spent winters for about 20 years. Although she has sold her mobile home there, she’s been invited to stay with Verna Seely, another lady who’s been spending winters there for a number of years. She is from South Dakota, and Dad and Mother became friends with her and her late husband a number of years ago.

Thursday I will head for another bluegrass festival in Bullhead City AZ, then to visit my cousin in Joshua Tree CA, and back home. Mother will stay in Mesa about a month, and I’ll pick her up some time in March.

We left home about 11 this morning, with cool and cloudy weather. It’s only about 105 miles to Bakersfield, so we arrived with lots of time left in the day to set up the trailer and have dinner. It’s partly sunny here, and quite nice when the wind stops, but it has been blowing fairly steady since we arrived, so it’s not really nice to sit outside. We are camped at the Kern County Fairgrounds, but the festival is at the local convention center, about a mile and a half away.

We will just loaf around and read today. The music doesn’t start till 11:30 each morning, so we will be able to sleep in, and have a leisurely breakfast tomorrow.

February 2: Our first day of the festival had some great music. The main reason I wanted to come to this event was the appearance of Chris Hillman and Herb Pedersen. These names, especially Hillman, should be familiar to anyone who has followed popular, country rock or bluegrass music in the last 45 years. Hillman was a member of the Byrds, co-founded the Flying Burrito Brothers, and was the front man for the Desert Rose Band, which had a number of country rock hits in the 1980s. Pedersen was in the DRB, as well as various other country and/or acoustic groups, and has served as a studio musician and back up singer with countless artists. In addition, they have played together since the 1960s, and recorded several duet albums in the last ten years or so.

They were backed up by bass player Bill Bryson, also a member of DRB and various bluegrass groups. They did a nice selection of country and bluegrass tunes, as well as songs from the various groups they’ve been associated with. They even included a song co-written by Hillman and Steven Stills when they were in the group Manassas. If you recognize that name, you’re really old, but at least you were not too stoned to pay attention. You may also remember the Souther-Hillman-Furay Band, referred to as two and a half superstars (Ritchie Furay was the lead singer for Poco. JD Souther was the half).

All the other groups were excellent, with the exception of one that was only OK. Groups I had seen previously included Special Consensus, Laurie Lewis, the Bluegrass Brothers, and J.D. Crowe. It’s been an especially good period for Laurie Lewis watching the last few months. She was at one of the first festivals I attended, and I had wanted to see her again, but there was a long dry spell. Then she appeared at the Huck Finn festival last June, in Fresno last fall, and now here in Bakersfield.

A new group as far as in-person performance was John Reischman and the Jaybirds, a group based mainly in Canada. They were highly professional and did a good variety of music. I have a CD by them that I bought after reading a review in Bluegrass Unlimited magazine, but hadn’t seen them and didn’t know much about them.

Mother did fine, although it was a fairly long day for her. We had a great prime rib dinner at the hotel restaurant. The festival is in the Bakersfield Convention Center, which includes a hotel, auditorium, and arena where the Condors hockey team and other sports teams play.

The music starts at 11:30 each day, which allows for a leisurely morning. There is a 90 minute break for dinner; then music goes till about 11 p.m. We skipped the final  group last night, since we were ready to get “home” and relax; they will be performing again today.

February 3: Today was mostly outstanding, with one serious exception, which I’ll get out of the way first – I heard the first group I’ve ever actively disliked. They were The Isaacs, and their musical style is southern gospel, which I thought was similar to bluegrass gospel, but which turns out to be different enough that I wanted to leave during the third song. I respect their musicianship, and the vocals and harmony were fine, but the songs and the style turned me off.

There were two groups I’d heard of and was looking forward to seeing and hearing. Michael Cleveland and Flame Keeper was the best of the two, and in fact one of the best of the festival. Cleveland is a very hot fiddler, and the group features Audie Blaylock, a well known singer and guitarist who has been in Rhonda Vincent’s band (as has Cleveland). The Kenny and Amanda Smith Band was OK, but not really outstanding. Kenny is a former member of the Lonesome River Band, and has been on his own with Mrs. Smith for a couple of years.

A surprise, not entirely positive, was the major personnel changes in Lost Highway, which I describe as being Version 2.2. V2 was a reorganized version of a group that disbanded around 1990, but started up just as I started going to festivals. They achieved some nationwide success, and a change in fiddle and bass players a year or so ago (V2.1) did not diminish the band (the new players were ones I’d seen in three or four other groups). V2.2 has only Ken Orick from the original V2 band, and only one other performer from V2.1; and they are without a fiddle player. Still, the new kids were very good and the band’s sound was fine, despite the lack of my favorite member, Eric Uglam, who now performs with his two stepsons (you’ve read about them at the Parkfield festival).

For dinner we decided to go to a nearby Mexican restaurant that was recommended by one of the festival hosts. The parking lot was jammed, and we expected a long wait, but we were seated within five minutes, and had an excellent dinner, served promptly. So when in Bakersfield, I recommend The Mexicali at 631 18^th Street, east of Q Street.

February 4: As always, the end has seemed to come quickly, and the festival is over. We are back at the trailer, napping, reading, and getting ready to leave for Arizona in the morning. We will stay at an RV park just across the river from Needles. I will leave the trailer there for the drive to Mesa, and will spend two nights at a motel near where mother will be. Thursday morning I’ll head back to pick up the trailer and move to Bullhead City for another festival.

I always try to choose my favorite band of the festival, and I have to award dual honors this time. As expected, Chris Hillman and Herb Pedersen were worth the entire ticket cost. The other top group, one I’d seen before and enjoyed, was the Grascals, a group that has been together only three years, although they’ve all been playing music for 20 years or so. Many of them have been in top country and bluegrass groups, including the Osborn Brothers and Dolly Parton’s band, and as the Grascals, they opened on a tour with her when they first formed. They have had good success both commercially and critically, and their second CD, which I bought at the festival and played while driving, does a good job of capturing their energy and enthusiasm. While I enjoyed them last summer at Huck Finn, this second contact really brought home to me how good they are.

The weather has been fine, but since we were inside most of the time, it didn’t matter much. Today at 3:40 it’s about 65 degrees and I’m sitting outside to write this and read and have a drink. Nights have been cold, but we run the electric heater till bedtime. Mother has an electric blanket, and has been warm enough despite the lack of heat during the night. I’ve always been warm enough in my sleeping bag, even in colder weather than this.

The trailer has a propane heater, but it does not work, and I can’t see a reason to fix it. If I’m away from electricity, I don’t want to run the heater and use up propane and the battery; and if I have power, I can use the electric heater. And I don’t usually have a traveling companion who turns the heat up to 80 at home.

February 5: We got started about 9 a.m., and had a good trip today, from Bakersfield to Needles, then across the river into Arizona and about five or six miles up AZ 95 to the Moon River RV Park. The weather got warmer with each mile, and was about 75 here, with a slight breeze. We sat outside until it started to get dark, and it was cooling off at that time. We had a fantastic sunset, with brilliant red clouds, and Venus getting bright at about 25 degrees up.

We are getting ready to fix dinner, and will leave for Mesa in the morning, leaving the trailer here. Today’s trip was about 270 miles, and tomorrow is 240, so we should get there fairly early, since I can go faster without the trailer.

February 6: We had another uneventful trip today, getting started about 9 a.m. We came down AZ 95, which goes through Lake Havisu City, then into Parker. I will not take that route again, since traffic thru Havisu is slow, and it goes on for miles. A few miles south of Parker we took AZ 72 southeast through Vicksburg, then straight south to I-10. This took us into downtown Phoenix, where we took the loop freeway 202 out to Mesa, arriving around 2 p.m., with the temperature at 82 degrees.

First I checked in at my motel and unloaded a few things, then we went to Verna’s a few blocks way, at Park Place RV Resort. We went out to dinner at Waldo’s, an excellent barbecue place nearby, then came back, visited a while and watched the news. I left about 7:30 and am trying to get Email and do other stuff on the Internet at 26Kb, half of what I would get with dial-up at home, and who knows how much slower than the DSL I now use at home. But fear not! I have ordered a new laptop with wireless Internet, which should arrive about the time I get home, and I should no longer have to put up with the incredibly slow Internet access and the equally slow operation of this five-year-old dinosaur. Sad to be obsolete at age 5, huh?

February 7: After complimentary breakfast at the hotel, I spent most of the day with mother and Verna at the RV park. They had a coffee and cookie social hour in mid-afternoon; and we had lunch and dinner at Verna’s mobile home. I left about 6:30, with mother and Verna getting ready to go to bingo. I was able to watch the last half of the hockey game between the Phoenix Coyotes and the Detroit Redwings, which Detroit won 4-2. Last night I saw the last three minutes of a 3-0 shutout by Phoenix against the Columbus Bluejackets.

I will get an early start tomorrow, pick up the trailer, and move up to Bullhead City for the Colorado Bluegrass Festival.

February 8: I’m now in Bullhead City AZ, across the river from Laughlin NV. The festival will start tomorrow morning at 9. The weather was great, t-shirt temperatures until the sun went down. It’s nearly dark and I’m in for the night at 6:35. I got started at 6:15 this morning, but had some slow stretches through the Phoenix metro area. The worst was west of town, around Avondale and Goodyear, where traffic slowed to a crawl for no obvious reason. There were some shorter slowdowns at freeway interchanges in the central part of town. I got back to the Moon River RV park about 12:30, had some lunch, hitched up, and drove the 22 miles here to Bullhead. In the past I’ve always been on the upper level, quite a ways from the river, but this time I have waterfront property, about 50 feet from the water.

February 9: It was a great first day of music, with a couple of old favorites, and some new bands that proved to exceed expectations (I always try not to expect too much, then I’m often pleasantly surprised). The best group today, never seen or heard before, was the Colorado River Boys, a group from the Blythe CA area that has been together for over 20 years, with only one lineup change. They had no banjo and no fiddle, and their music was not really bluegrass, more like cowboy groups such as the Sons of the Pioneers. The mandolin player had a unique style, mostly a lot of single string picking, which fit perfectly with their songs. The two main singers were outstanding; one is Hispanic and did some songs in Spanish.

Also enjoyable and entertaining was the Bost Family Tradition. Family bands can be a mixed blessing, and this one is not without its drawbacks, but overall they were fun to watch and hear. The two girls (age 11 and 13) who do most of the singing lack some polish, but they have powerful voices, and a little work on enunciation will bring them up to professional level within in a few years. The rest of the family members were good on their instruments, and the father demonstrated a very pleasant singing voice, although he did not sing much.

A group I’ve seen and enjoyed, and was wishing I could see again was Cliff Wagner and the Old Number 7. He’s from Mississippi via New York and now lives in San Pedro CA, and does very traditional, Jimmy Martin style material. Due to a cancellation by Mountain Heart, Wagner will appear again tomorrow and Sunday.

The weather, for the first time at this location, was exactly as you would order it – light clouds most of the day to keep it from being too hot, temperatures around 75, and just a light breeze. It was cold and windy and cold and rainy the other two times I was here.

I talked to mother and she is ready to leave Mesa already, so there are some changes in our plans, not entirely finalized yet. I will either be going there Monday, or going to my cousin’s and home as planned, then going back to Arizona around February 20.

February 10: The bigger name groups played today, and all were excellent. Entirely new to me were the Krüger Brothers, from Switzerland, who now live in the Carolina area. They do what I consider to be “newgrass” or “progressive” bluegrass. I usually describe this type of music as “more fun to play than to listen to,” but this group was the exception, and they did a lot of stuff I liked. Because of a cancellation they played a second set, during which they did “stuff we usually don’t do,” and I liked this even better.

My favorite of the day was Karl Shifflet and Big Country Show, whom I’ve seen at least three times before. He is a Texan, and some of his music is only a steel guitar away from being honky tonk, but there’s nothing wrong with that. He does a lot of traditional Flatt and Scruggs material.

The other group that I was looking forward to most was Ronnie Reno and the Reno Tradition. His father, Don Reno, along with Red Smiley, was one of the early pioneers of bluegrass, starting their recording career in 1951. Ronnie played with them as soon as he was tall enough to reach the microphone (standing on a chair), and has carried on his father’s legacy in a number of ways. He’s one of the leaders of Blue Highways TV, which has various traditional music shows on the RFD cable network. His show, Reno’s Old Time Music Festival, features interviews with and performances by, the top names in bluegrass, and also presents clips from Reno & Smiley’s TV show of the 1960s.

There was a special surprise when Alicia Nugent, an up and coming young bluegrass singer, appeared on stage with Reno and sang a couple of songs. She is going to appear "officially" at the festival next year.

The day concluded with a joint appearance by Reno’s band and Lost & Found, another group I’ve seen several times. They reminisced about Don Reno’s career and performed an entire set of songs he and Smiley either wrote or made famous. It was one of the best shows I’ve ever seen at a festival, so whatever happens from now on is gravy.

Also appearing today was Lost Highway and Cliff Wagner, who replaced the missing in action Mountain Heart, who for reasons unexplained could not make it.

February 11: In keeping with my policy of reporting the good, the bad, and the ugly, I have to discuss the unpleasant night I had last night. About 4 p.m. I had an Indian taco for dinner; about 9:30 my body decided it did not like that, and began getting rid of it through all available means. I suspect I had a mild case of food poisoning. I was up off and on most of the night going to the bathroom and throwing up, which of course left me dehydrated. I consumed nothing but water, but soon I started throwing that up too. This morning I considered going home, but it had been a while since I had any problems, so I decided to stick it out. I ate very lightly through the day, and laid down to rest whenever I came back to the trailer. Tonight I still don’t feel 100%, but so far no rejection of my peanut butter sandwich supper.

Beyond all that, it was a good day, with the same groups from yesterday appearing again. It’s common for each group to do two to four sets during a festival. The Krüger Brothers did some long, boring stuff, “songs” that seemed to meander and go on and on without any resolution, but everything else was good.

In a Bullhead tradition, members of three or four groups performed together in a grand finale. This included Alicia Nugent and her father (Jimmy I think), who is an old time bluegrass musician.

We had a few drops of rain early this morning before I got up, then a few during the closing number, but not enough to get anyone wet.

Tomorrow I will head for Joshua Tree CA to visit my cousin Patti and explore the national park. I expect to be heading home Wednesday or Thursday.

Mother’s problems have been resolved – she will stay with her two cousins who live in the western part of the Phoenix metro area, in Surprise and Glendale. I will go down to get her some time after February 20.

 
February 13: I left the festival area yesterday (Monday) about 8:30, and immediately gained an hour when I crossed the Colorado River into Nevada. I continued west to US 95, then down to I-40, west for about 20 miles, then followed old Route 66 through Essex and Amboy. Amboy Road took me into Twenty-nine Palms, and I jogged south a mile to State highway 62, then about 20 miles to Joshua Tree. I found Patti’s house with no trouble, although like many people, her assurance that there was “plenty of room for a trailer” proved to be overly optimistic. After a lot of maneuvering and digging a number of holes in the dirt road with my tires, I got the trailer backed into her yard so there was room to get her car out, but it’s the last time I will fall for that song and dance. It’s always better to put the trailer in an RV park, and drive the truck to visit people. It’s partly my fault; when people ask how big the trailer is, I say “25 feet,” and fail to mention that it’s attached to a 20 foot long truck.

Her house, a short term rental, is unique – it is two small houses that were joined by an enclosed breezeway that has a big area of sand and rocks, and lots of skylights and windows. It’s located in the hills a few miles from the national park, and is surrounded by beautiful desert country that is easy to walk in.

After lunch we headed into the park and did a one mile loop trail that goes by Barker Dam, a small concrete dam that was built in the 1800s to preserve water for cattle ranching. This activity pretty much died out in the area early in the 20^th century when rainfall diminished. However, this area still supports some surprisingly tall pine trees, as well as the usual high desert vegetation – juniper, yucca, several varieties of cactus, and of course, lots of Joshua trees. I’ve also seen rabbits, tiny ground squirrels, and lots of Gamble’s Quail.

9:30 p.m.: Patti and I had a nice scenic hike on part of the Skull Rock loop trail today, although the weather was not very cooperative. It was fairly windy and cold, and we had a few drops of rain, then about a minute of hail. The precipitation was never enough to get us wet, so hiking in a hail storm in the desert became an adventure. The area we were in has a lot of fantastic rock formations, as well as some higher elevation vegetation – lots of piñon and juniper.

We also drove up to the highest road-accessible point in the park, a little above 5,000 feet, where you can see the Coachella Valley to the south, with Mt. San Jacinto and Palm Springs in the distance. When I was here two years ago it was so hazy I could not see the valley floor, but it was much clearer today, and we could even see the Salton Sea about 50 miles to the south.

Last night we watched a movie after we got back. Tonight we went out for dinner, then started to watch another movie. It proved to be dumb so we started another one, but it would not play right, so I got a Seinfeld DVD from the trailer and we watched two episodes.

I’ll be leaving for home in the morning, and although the trip has been great, I am definitely ready to get back.

February 18: As always, it has taken me a few days to finish this up, what with unloading the trailer, sorting through the mail, and other “catching up.” I had a long, slow, sometimes frustrating trip home, but I arrived safely around 4:30 p.m. If you’re keeping track, I left Joshua Tree and traveled through Yucca Valley on State highway 62, then took State 247 NW to the Mojave desert. I got on State 18 through Apple Valley and into Victorville, then took a local road across to Adelanto, where I got on US 395 north, joined State 58 at Kramer Junction, west to Bakersfield, and north on State 99 to Fresno.

I made a couple of wrong turns where I had to backtrack a few miles, and went to a horrible gas station north of Bakersfield. The pump wouldn’t take my credit card; and the pump handle had no lock so I had to hold it while 22 gallons went into the tank.

But most of my problems were minor, and I had a great time at the festivals and visiting Joshua Tree National Park again with my cousin. She is buying a house there, so will be there indefinitely, giving me someone to hike with next time I go back.

After my return to Fresno on February 14, I spent six days at home.

On February 21 I returned to Arizona by car, leaving home about 6:30 a.m., and arriving at mother’s cousin’s house in Surprise on the western edge of the Phoenix metro area about 6:30 p.m.

We enjoyed a nice dinner and visit, and started for home the next morning about 10 a.m. We were thinking of spending the night in Barstow, but it was still kind of early when we got there, so we went on to Mojave, about 40 miles further. When we left the Phoenix area it was sunny, and we used the air conditioner part of the way. However, it was getting cool and starting to rain by the time we got settled into our motel at Mojave.

When we woke up the next morning, it was snowing, with a thin layer on the cars and roofs, although it was melting off the pavement. We had breakfast at the motel, and left there just after 8 a.m., anticipating a fairly quick and easy journey home. However, Highway 58 through Tehachapi to Bakersfield, was closed, and expected to remain so for at least two hours.

Since I felt it would be better to be moving than sitting in the car, burning gasoline to keep warm, we went south towards Lancaster, and took Highway 138 across to I-5 near Gorman. There was snow on the hills there, but the road was clear, so we headed north through Bakersfield to Fresno.

We stopped at my house just long enough to pick up some clean clothes, then went to eat, and started up Highway 41 for Mariposa. It turned out that there was more snow in our way, with chain controls in effect about 20 miles up the road, so I took an alternate route that goes through the town of Raymond and up to Mariposa. It is actually a shorter route, but takes longer than my usual way up highways 41 and 49, since it is a narrow, winding road.

Before we got to the Raymond road, we were on a little used county road that leaves highway 41 at the 22 Mile House. It was very scenic, going through the low foothills past creeks and ponds, and we saw a couple of gray herons. We also came to a stretch that was unpaved and muddy, and had a warning sign that the road was impassible in wet weather. Since there had not yet been much rain in the area, we forged ahead and made it through OK, but I decided if I ever went that way again, I would double back a mile or two and take Highway 145 across to the roads that lead up to Mariposa.

We finally arrived at mother’s house about 4:30 p.m., a trip that should not have taken more than five hours driving time. But we agreed that we at least got to see a lot of new territory.

Where to buy CDs by artists mentioned in this report

Photos (click enlarge; pictures open in a new window)

Chris Hillman, Bill Bryson, Herb Pedersen

Karl Shiflett & The Big Country Show

Related Links

Recommended CDs, DVDs, Books

Herb Pedersen