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Thursday, March 22, 2007
This makes eleven years that Springfest has now been held. This would be my fourth Springfest. While there weren't that many new bands to me this year, it still held a lot of promise to be yet another great weekend of music and friendship. My parents attended this year again, Nick Annis joined us by using Ron and Julie's camping spot in the look, and we had the ol' music circle return this year at the camp site. By Thursday afternoon, I was ready for some music to get started!
Seth Walker
Band - My year at Springfest started off with a blues act, and that
was a trend I'd see throughout the rest of the weekend. There were more
bluesy acts at Springfest than any of the other years I've attended to date.
I only got to hear a few songs of Seth Walker and company this set. But
the initial musical resemblance to B.B. King is striking, and it's not in
a bad way either. I knew I'd see a full set later in the weekend, so I headed
off for the songwriter's contest.
I always try to attend the songwriter's contest if at all possible. I
think it's a great thing that Springfest holds each year. In addition, we
would have never gotten to meet Michael Troy, Nick Annis or Roy Schneider
in the process.
Nick Annis - Nick got to go first
this year. He came in second place last year, and his performance and friendship
with Michael Troy led to us booking them for Music Under the Moss last fall.
Nick played three great tunes. The first and third tunes have yet to be
officially released, but I had heard the first at our house concert. The
second song was a "occapello" tune about Home Depot, and it's the one that
got him in the contest again this year. Nick presented himself well, even
though he later told me he wasn't happy with it.
The next four artists took their turn, and I thought that Nick had it in
the bag so far. Many are convinced it's nearly impossible to win if you
play in the first slot. There are too many other artists that have their
shot, and the judges have too much time to forget your tunes. While each
artist had their high points, none were nearly as solid as Nick Annis was
for all three songs. Nick though had encouraged a few artists to submit
a song to the contest. Two of them got into the contest with him.
John Williams Davis
- John was the artist that Nick mentioned would probably win the contest.
After John's first song about Texas, it was pretty clear that unless John's
remaining songs were crap, he was going to win the contest. His other songs
were solid too, so it wasn't a surprise that John won the contest. Nick
came in second place, which was where he placed in 2006 as well. Lizzie
from VTW came in third place.
Nick brought by John Williams Davis one night, and he played for a bit
with us. He also brought by last year's songwriters contest winner Jud Caswell
from Maine. It was great to both of them by the camp site even if
it was just for a short while.
Jud Caswell - Jud played his set
while the judges got together and counted their votes. I saw Jud play last
year, and his stage presence is still what amazes me the most. He seems
simply at home on stage, and since he's got some great songwriter skills...it
was a no-brainer that he has won some pretty prestigious songwriting contests.
Susan has really taken to his CD's in particular, so I know they'll be getting
some playtime around our house in the future.
Due to length of the songwriting contest, which always seems to go longer
than scheduled, I didn't get to see part of Ollabelle's set like I had planned.
I opted to spend the rest of the evening visiting with others back at the
campsite to visit and play some music ourselves.