Moab Folk Festival Was Awesome With Scott & Peg ~ Cold & Rain Didn't Dampen Our Vibe Sunday 02Nov24-03Nov24

Kala & I were in Moab for our 2nd Folk Festival with our buddies, Scott & Peg. It was another great music outing, our last of the festival season, and the last for the artists too. We drove straight from COS to Moab with the full team in the Crusher Too (I did remove the fridge for more spaciousness for gear). We had good pizza and salad at Antica Forma the 1st night in Moab and rested well. We were in time for an indigenous American to chant the invocation

We arrived to queue before gates at 10am and secured the front row seating on Saturday before Humbird kicked off the show at 11am. I've been following the Minneapolis trio for a while and was able to meet and chat with Siri Undin, the bandleader, for a while after her performance, and get "her" signature on their recent chunk of vinyl. She and Humbird take "folk" as far as it can go toward rock as she presented in all electric, including synth... still all awesome writing and her full voice presentation.

Second up on a nice and warming day, but still colder and more cloudy than previous, was New Orleans-based (initially Arkansas) Handmade Moments. Anna Moss played anything they had and had a great voice. Lot's of protest songs and descriptions of a meager lifestyle... they were very fun and good.

We got some beers from Bohemian, brewed in Utah... meh, and then sat back for some country from Nick Shoulders and the OK Crawdad band. NE Arkansas Nick was very alt country with voice breaks and yodels among his irreverent lyrics. His bassist and backup vocalist had parents and nieces and nephews right in front of us for their set.They were very good too, rat tail and all. The crowd was diggin' it and Nick even commented he'd never played to such a seated and attentive crowd. The dance section was happy and sang along with the tunes.

We roamed the grounds between acts and I found a cool tie dye. Soon were we back on row 1 for Sam Bush and his latest band. Sam's a longtime mandolin aficionado of world bluegrass acclaim. The band and he played lights out bluegrass, which was awesome, but Kala & I were pleased the guitarist was there to harmonize and support Sam's voice ~ he was also a killer guitarist. Too, I swore it was my Big Bro Brown on drums ~ oddly it was Chris Brown!

We escaped gates and parking snags quickly and made our way to Thai Bella for a great Thai food dinner. All slept well but knew we'd encounter cold and precip over night. That held true and the rain continued into and through the day. We prepared but it was wet and cold. We again to our spot in row 1 center but covered ourselves in rain gear, garbage bags, and the like.

First up on Sunday was Charly Lowry, a Lumbee tribe member from eastern NC. She related plenty of stories from the tribe, and of earth, and of Christianity. She played guitar and drum and had a nice voice.

We actually skipped the 2nd act as rain fell more heavily and temps cooled. We warmed up at the The Spoke in downtown Moab for lunch and a brew. Pixie & The Partygrass Boys is the 2nd act I wanted to assure we saw this WE as I've been listening to this quirky, high energy band for some time. They were dressed in funky outfits and appeared to be having a blast. Hailing from the Wasatch they love to ski & party and are the "best local band" in SLC. I bought the CD and got their autographs too. So good. I even recorded the keen ski montage "Ski & Party" and "No Friends On A Powder Day."

Closing the day and festival was the Travelin' McCourys. They didn't need legendary data Del for this event. Massive talent throughout with Rob and Ronnie dealing hot licks on banjo & mandolin. They were so skilled and the band was very tight... again the guitar was awe inspiring frankly.

GR8 music festival with GR8 friends.

Repairing The Rodfather Bombadeer To V2 ~ Lighter, Slower, And Greener 26Oct24

I biffed on a downed tree in the flood plain of the Gunny and snapped the Bombadeer base section. Grrr... that required me to redo a handle and reel seat and fixed fighting butt. I tried to heat the epoxy and pull off parts but stuff started to burn before the epoxy softened enough. Anyway, I replicated the handle and fixed butt design but went to a decent "spare" aluminum seat with died green maple insert which matches the variegated wraps a bit better. The new butt section is actually mated from a "non-Native" MHX blank set which matched fine to the Native MHX other sections. Measuring the new rod shows it's a skosh slower at 64° AA (v 68°), even lighter at 3.3oz (v 3.5oz), still ultralight in the hand with a consistent 5.5oz swingweight, and a little more powerful with an ERN of 4.8. I am very pleased with the low cost repair and will field trial the Bombadeer v2 soon. MHX has been great with the warranty replacements, which will allow me to build an all new ultralight 8.5' 4pc 5wt in cloud grey; woohoo.

Here's an update on the Rodfather quiver ~ I've sold all but one of my manufactured rods from Winston, Sage, and GLoomis as I prefer my custom builds... I am keeping the keen Sage Z-Axis for now; it's one of the best all purpose 5 wts I've thrown. The repaired RFBA2 completely outperforms on power/weight and swingweight ~ it is just a smidge underpowered compared to advertised "5 wt." NP... it'll be an interesting compare to the pending "5wt" cloud grey MHX Native build.

Update 28Oct24 ~ RFBA2 Field Trial On The PT ~ Two Pigs Lost & Tons of Fry

There was an cool looking, and obvious, front entering southern CO that I saw while driving to Pueblo.

I caught tons of both brown & rainbow fry out of NC section of the PT, in green turbid 280cfs waters today. It was warm and I observed some fall #22 baetis and plenty of gray-brown midges so I rigged appropriately but didn't find the bigs. That is, until I relocated upstream to the Valco Ponds area. Upstream featured cooler waters and fish had spread out more here than downstream at the NC. I used mostly the same bugs (oil can perdigon weight, RS2, midge) but tried my blue-green chinele caddis too... it worked as did the RS2 and the purple Bronx midge. I wielded the new RFBA2; it threw great to 80ft but mending was more difficult on ~300cfs Arkansas than a 9 footer with heavier line. The selfies feature not only the new rod but the new vest, my 3rd Simms vest; the 1st two failed in the same way across the upper back/shoulders... hmmm; I kept them alive for a couple of outings with zip ties and iron on patches but this section needs reinforcement. I've written Simms product management as I have with certain wader failures but no significant redesigns as yet. WTF. New Guide Vests have floppy fly box pockets... not as good as formed ones, and the zipper catches in the interior stitched flashing material. WTF. I lost two bigs hookups who ripped my rigs ~ exciting but WTF; that's on me.

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Matt's BDay Celebration ~ With Pumpkins!

Matt & Eline came to visit to celebrate's Matt's 30th, since were were back east for his real date. We had a good time watching F1 (despite the rough start for Maclaren), solving the world's issues, grabbing beers & fries at Red Leg, and carving our pumpkins. Left to right they go: Matt - F1, Dave - The Deep, Kala - Lazy Evil, Eline - Owl, and Letha - MadiGras Pump. Happy birthday kid.

Lawrence Concert @ The Fillmore ~ Easily The Season's Best 19Oct24

Lawrence easily gave one of the best concerts I've seen this year, and it ranks among the best of all time as well... and I go pretty often. I got back to Colorado just in time and was glad I did not blow off the concert despite the timing. I parked right next to the theater at ~6pm with doors at 7pm. The band was great, Clyde & Gracie on leads were excellent, and the Fillmore sound was as good a theater sound in DEN as I've heard. It's a bigger venue and was full with ~3700 folks but I was in line early and got to "my spot" in front of the sound guys without issue.

Lindsay Lomis was the opening act. She had a good voice with lots of trills & runs like a jazz artist, but she was more pop oriented. Good but not quite my taste... she might blow up.

The big panels behind the band were often on and blasting in my face... it was a bit of a challenge in those instances to see the band but the sound was always great. Lawrence played most stuff from the current album, family business, and plenty of older tunes too. I captured "Casualty" from the show.

I highly recommend both the band and the venue.