I went to Winfield, KS to the Walnut Valley Bluegrass festival last week on vacation. I drove down from Topeka on Thursday and stayed through Saturday. Have I ever mentioned that I do not like to camp? Some people think that camping is fun. I was not in that camp. I had the brilliant idea that camping would be better if I slept in the back of my SUV instead of sleeping on the ground in a tent. Let me assure you that quality sleep and camping do not go together. I know that some people will disagree with me. The campers that disagree with me are sleeping in nice comfy RV's. I bet I could sleep good in a climate controlled RV with a comfy bed but I do not consider that camping. Some of those RV's are nicer than my home. The only difference between a nice RV and a home is that the RV is smaller and it has wheels.
I played my song Linwood Café on Thursday at 4:30 pm on Stage 11. Stage eleven is the Songwriter Stage in the campground area of the festival. It is really a white 14'X14' shade tent for shade with microphones, speakers, lighting, etc. On Thursday night I got to play two songs on the stage. I played Big Hit and Picker's Paradise. Picker's Paradise is a song I wrote a few years back about Winfield. Big Hit is a song about being a songwriter and there were many songwriter's in the audience. I was trying to play to my crowd.
Friday morning I had my first radio interview. All of the winners in the songwriting contest were granted an interview on KC Café Radio.com. The website is www,kccaferadio.com . Yes, it is internet radio and not AM or FM radio. Maybe next year I can get on AM or FM radio. (Another dream.) They also made a video of the interview and of me playing my song Linwood Café. I will share it on this website when they send me a copy.
Friday night was Songwriter New Song night. Any songwriter could sign up to play there song but it had to be written in the last thirty days. I had one song that fit this category. My song is called More Jesus. I would call this song a praise song. Praise songs are different than a standard gospel song or a hymn. A praise song is a simple song where you only sing the chorus but you have many different versions of the chorus. The crowd didn't sing along to my tune like they sang along to Big Hit. It was still fun to get to play my latest song. (without a cheat sheet). Some songwriters had copies of their lyrics on music stands. The only reason I didn't was because I had played More Jesus last Sunday at church for the Night of Worship program.
I had a good time at the festival and made some new friends. I got to play some songs on stage. I wrote a song with my friend James Sperman called, "Almost Cinderella". I also came home and took a three hour nap in my own bed. I slept like a rock. Well, maybe I didn't sleep like a rock because rocks don't snore. It was a good time.