HHH Day 1 band review

Boo and I camped the 9th annual Horning's Hideout Hootenanny over Memorial Day weekend.  We had a blast (see So Starts Camping Season 2014).  Here's our review of the 6 bands who played on Saturday.

Left Coast Country
As their name implies, these guys have some country flair, but it felt more folk/bluegrass than country.  The 4 main guys (dobro, bass, mandolin and violin) were well connected musically, standing in a tight circle just wailing away.  On the outside, both musically and physically, stood their departing guitarist.  He had a rockabilly thing happening that ran counter to the rest of their work.  The bass-man was described as the "knife and fork", probably because he was the time-keeper, the one who counted everyone in, and sang a bunch.  He even took a solo.  The mandolin player (Boo and I named "Red" for his big red beard) sang high, and brought the emotion or passion for everyone.  We greatly enjoyed the dobro player's vocal tone (butter) and hope that in the vacuum of the departing guitarist, he'll sing more songs.  As they finished their set, Boo and I agreed that Left Coast Country will probably be better without the guitarist, but they were a very strong start to the day.

HCH @Hootenanny

Hot Club of Hawthorne
HCH is a kind of old timey big-band jazz sound.  They had many instruments and they played them very well, but they didn't have the passion for the material.  While the guitarist / centerman (Jeffree White) played well, I think his being seated constricted his vocal range because he fell flat on some of the higher notes.  Overall, they were enjoyable, but not a group I would seek out.  If they're playing somewhere I was already going, though, I'd still go.

Wood Knot

Wood Knot @Hootenanny

Wood Knot had passion where HCH had skills.  These guys came out with their pants on fire and ran around on stage for 2 hours.  Having played on a festival stage before, I know the adrenaline surge that hits when you start playing.  If you aren't careful, you can burn yourself out.  Wood Knot played up against (and sometimes over) that line throughout their set.  Their songs were interesting, well chosen and lively, though the execution was kind of sloppy.  We both noticed the guitarist on stage right (grey hat in left edge of the picture) probably shouldn't play solos, or maybe at all, but who are we to judge?  Also, some songs just petered out or just stopped as if they were trying to figure out how to end the song as they were going, lost interest before the end and then started something else.  No, they were not segues.  With some practice, Wood Knot could be a really fun band to see.

Yur Daddy

Yur Daddy @Hootenanny

I admit that I braced myself for these guys.  Their name is un-impressive, drawing a pronounced eye-roll.  They were all wearing bandannas on their heads, as were the fans they brought.  Running against that headwind, they converted me.  They were great.  The keyboardist played the best electric piano of the weekend by far, and he was a guest artist for the day.  Wow.  They self-identify as reggae, but its more like a blending of ska and dance.  Definitely fun.  My only criticism would be in their set construction.  They jumped styles and tempos from song to song so much, it was hard to get a good flow going.  Just by rearranging their material, they could create an energy that slowly builds and falls, pulling the crowd in.  I'll definitely see Yur Daddy again.  They stayed all weekend, and partied in the bowl, even sharing a bottle of whisky with us.

Blue Lotus
As much as I was not looking forward to Yur Daddy, I was anticipating Blue Lotus.  Voted "best new band" by the Wow Hall in Eugene, these guys were headlining the first night of the festival.  The lead singer had a vocal tone and manner like Chrissie Hynde (The Pretenders).  They stayed all weekend too, and generated a great vibe both on and off stage. Blue Lotus was a jam band, but they were almost too clean.  If we could take the songs and passion from Wood Knot and apply Blue Lotus' skill and polish, you'd have the next great band out of the North West.  After 45 minutes, I was checking my watch, which was not at all what I expected.  I don't think I'll go see them again, but if they're playing another festival, I'll give them another shot.  Frankly, I was hoping for something a little more raw and unscripted from a jam band.  Maybe I went in with my expectations too high.

the Hillwilliams
After Blue Lotus, the main stage was shut down for the night and a 10' by 20' canopy hosted the Hillwilliams and about 30 people.  Boo and I were among the 30 who fit under the canopy, but there were another 30 or more crowded around the bonfire outside.  More wandered the Shakedown Street scene running along outside.  These guys were a ton of fun.  The lead mandolin player knew how to work the crowd and keep everyone engaged.  By the 4th song, everyone knew guitarist "Daniel" by name, and would hoop and holler when he stepped up to solo.  He brought a sweet vocal tone too, making a nice contrast to the more gruff-voiced mandolin-man.  We enjoyed some nice banjo and sweet violin throughout.  Midway, we were treated to some guest guitar work by the lead man from HCH (Jeffree White).  We'll definitely check these guys out again soon.  They were just too much fun, making the canopy crowd a very intimate scene.

That was it for day one.

So Starts Camping Season 2014

Hapy Memorial Day.  I just got back from a weekend of camping, music and relaxing.  Today's post covers that.

Starting Again

middle row seat = camp couch

It seems like every Spring-Summer, I troll back through this blog to see if I posted a list of stuff to bring camping.  Every year, I'm disappointed that I didn't create such a list.  I have one now... on paper, that I'll try to remember to post.  We knew that where we were going, once we were in, we couldn't leave, but our tickets and camping spot were paid for.  Also, we had almost no money and the only things we could buy while we were there would require cash.  So, with the added pressure, Boo and I set off to plan for a weekend with Hapy.  She's quite experienced with car-camping, so between us, we remembered just about everything.  In the end, we didn't want for anything, and we didn't spend a cent.  We did find that we were the only bay-window bus there, and we spotted 3 Vanagons, including one tin-top.  Hopefully, one of my fellow bus driver/readers will feel inspired to join us next year.

To and Fro

Horning's Hideout

The drive was incredibly easy.  I checked the fuel log and concluded that we didn't need fuel for our round trip.  So, we fired up Hapy and nosed West to Horning's Hideout (North Plains, OR).  He purred the whole way.  Between the spring dampeners, removing the window screens and all the equipment we were carrying, he made almost no noise.  The only racket came from the belly pan when we got near 60mph on the freeway.  The ride home was equally uneventful, enjoying the views out the window, and the music from an iPhone.  The driver's seat belt is becoming problematic.  I may have to break out the wallet and buy a new retractable set, replacing the recycled-from-a-Mercedes set I installed a few years ago.

Horning's Hideout
I hadn't been to Horning's Hideout in probably ten years.  The last time was for the McMenamin's company picnic where a band I was playing with had a spot on one of the smaller stages.  That stage wasn't even there anymore, and you couldn't really tell where it used to be.  I was able to find about where it was based on my memory of the view.  Horning's has had trouble keeping music because of neighbor complaints and unruly patrons.  We were especially grateful that they allowed this multi-band multi-day event take place.  The Hideout hosts a stocked fishing pond and multiple 18 hole disc golf courses.  Our focus was the main stage where 10 bands played over two days.  I'll review the bands in another post.  For now, I'll just focus on the event.

Hootenanny

view from main stage

The Horning's Hideout Hootenanny was the brain-child of Scott McKay over ten years ago.  It started as a birthday party for him, and it's gotten bigger every year.  As Boo and I were saying our "thank you" and "good-bye", he described this year's event as the fulfillment of that dream.  It has been so successful, he's not sure how to move forward.  To grow anymore will require infrastructure, and more staff, probably more rules, and greater restrictions.  Facing that future, he posed that if he didn't do it, 100 people would probably show up anyway.  With the highest turnout ever, I think it also resulted in Scott's least sleep ever and shortest amount of free time to see bands ever as well.  For such a giving guy, it's truly a shame that he wasn't really able to enjoy the beautiful scene he created.  There were craft vendors, multiple food options (including coffee/espresso and smoothies), and even a pot-luck supper on Saturday.  He had the 10 staged bands, but there were pick-up jams happening in the upper camp zone all the time.  There was a 2-day disc golf tournament with prizes down to 10th place in multiple divisions.

I hope Scottie chooses to host this again next year.  Boo and I suggested a few ways to make it work, and he already had a few ideas of his own.  I think we will start with volunteering to help out however we can.  If we can get each attendee to do just one hour of effort for the greater good over the course of the weekend, we can keep the load at a manageable level.  Maybe then, Scott can see some of the bands he booked and not have that 100-mile stare from no sleep and managing chaos all weekend.

Camping
This has already gotten long, but I wanted to touch on how the bus handled camping after a Winter of improvements.  The new deep-cycle battery and supporting electrical systems worked almost perfectly.  The dome light, kitchen lights, and the 12V outlet by the slider door were flawless.  We strung up a set of 12V lights around the awning/canopy for night-time lighting, creating a nice mellow vibe.  The awning hadn't been used in years, and I'd lost the old rain-gutter mounts.  Instead, I used 2 vice-grips to hold the bus-side edge to the top of the pop-top scissor supports.  It ended up higher, and better, than before.  At a stop at Goodwill last weekend, I got a 4' square indoor-outdoor rubber-backed rug for outside the bus door.  I also bought a bolt of 2-tone blue fabric at the same Goodwill stop.  Between bands, Boo cut the material into thirds, creating 3 rectangular strips that perfectly covered the jalousie windows, the front windows and the windscreen.  It was so dark, we slept until 10 on Sunday morning; unheard of in the bus.  Last, we nabbed a full-size bed memory-foam from home, and used that on top of the stock cushions on the rock-n-roll bed.  Sleep was amazing.

That's it for today.  As I mentioned above, I reviewed the bands separately; see these links for day One and Two.  It was a fantastic weekend. Hapy drove flawlessly, the company was spectacular and the energy of the whole event was deliciously mellow.  More next time-

Whatcha Hiding?

I realized that I hadn't posted about the screens I have been working on, or at least I can't find a post where I did.  So, I'll get remedial and cover that today.

Screens
In the later year campers, there is a closet blocking most of the left-rear window (on the driver's side, but all the way to the rear).  The driver couldn't see out this window anyway, so it doesn't create a blind spot.  I thought it would be neat to create a few screens to put over the window since the only thing a passing motorist would see otherwise is the backside of a closet.  When I built the ski rack (see Rack 'em, Snow Bum), I realized that I needed a screen if for no other reason to hide the equipment.

snow-themed screen lying on my garage floor

In the interests of spending no money, I went digging through my supplies.  I found the ceiling panel from the donor bus from which I got the Riviera Top.  It didn't fit my bus, and I didn't need it anyway, so I didn't bother with it.  Some careful measuring later, and I had 3 equal-sized screens that each completely blocked the rear window.  I set them on top of one another, and drilled mounting holes through so they would all mount the same.  Last, I held one against the inside of the window and marked drill holes in the steel.  A few minutes with the drill later and I had 3 interchangeable screens.

work in progress. top screen is the "Furthur" one
bottom screen was 1st draft layout

I base coated 2 of the screens with the same bright white that I painted the front bumper (see Front Bumper  part 4), thinking I'd use them as a landing zone for themes of stickers.  I hadn't really thought about what all of the themes would be, but I figured I'd have at least the one about snow.  For that one, I drew mountains based on pictures of various resorts around the Pacific NorthWest (the top picture).  Whatever stickers I had, or acquired, for snow would go on that screen.  I used the other white one first, just to block out the sun last Fall when I went to Eugene to see Furthur (see A Tale of Two Trips).  I just taped a picture and some inspiring words on there as a placeholder.  This Saturday, I completed my vision for a screen dedicated to music and music festivals: completely covered with images of ticket stubs plus the VW-your-face that was on the original screen when we went to Furthur.  I don't yet have a plan for that last screen.  Maybe, I'll use that as a spot for stickers, pictures, etc dedicated to camping, for those trips we take that aren't music-venue focused.

installed screen viewed from the outside.

That's it for today.  I've been driving the bus to work lately.  With the mufflers on the pop-top springs (see Spring Sprang Sprung), its conversationally quiet at idle.  With the window rebuilt (see Jalousie Window rebuild), its quiet enough to have an "outdoor volume" conversation while driving.  Its pretty fantastic.