John Bardy at Luckenbach, Texas

March 27, 2008
We spent the day at Walt’s ranch. Will finished designing a tee shirt for Kathy of all the pickers/ singers/ songwriters and characters including a great storyteller that we have met in Luckenbach. Kathy wore it for our last night this season in Luckenbach. The shirt was a great hit! We even got people willing to pay money to get one, but it is a one of a kind for Kathy.

Luckenbach is like fishing. You never know what you’re gonna happen. You cast your line out there; sometimes you get a bite, sometimes you get the big one, and sometimes you just enjoy being there.

Sitting outside under the great oaks were John Bardy, tonight’s host, Dale Mayfield, Danny Terry, Levi Darr, Richard Viper, another picker and a tub bass player. Music drifted expressing dramatic turns of emotion. Levi’s fingers were on fire! He would take a deep breath and become totally absorbed into the music leaving everything behind and going into a zone carrying us along with his energy. John, wearing his Panama hat and his watermelon shirt, surprised us as he sang out in his haunting voice reaching ranges we didn’t know he had. Will loved how he tunes his guitar down a step and a half low. We sat spellbound, hanging on every note. The words to his songs transcend beyond the here and whisper of life’s trials and sticking to our subconscious. The hens and roosters crowed and flapped up into the gnarled branches growing above our heads. Thanks to Walt Perryman advice, we kept our mouths closed when we looked up! This was our first time to hear Richard. He sent out a heightened sensitivity to our musical perception sometimes zoning out with Levi and sometimes leading the way with his song.

The motorcycle firemen and winter Texans listened with one ear so they would know when to clap and kept a constant buzz that we pushed to the background. But they finally won out as they drank more and grew louder. We bought one of John’s CD’s and said our goodbyes. Back at Walt’s ranch we crawled into bed.