BS: Mudcatters at Winfield, KS?

Subject: Mudcatters at Winfield, KS?
From: Sourdough
Date: 04 Sep 99 - 03:55 AM

Any Mudcatters heading for the National Flatpicking Contest and Festival at Winfield, Kansas? I'm going to be driving out there leaving in about a week and figure this would be an opportunity to meet some live Mudcatters, at least I hope so.

Sourdough

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcatters at Winfield, KS?
From:
Date: 04 Sep 99 - 04:24 AM

hi sourdough i live 1 hr s of winfield but i may only b there 1 day- i usualy hang around the instrument booths - i will lwave a message - there j0_77

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcatters at Winfield, KS?
From: Bill D
Date: 04 Sep 99 - 03:50 PM

*whine, snivel*...I attended the first 10-12 Winfield festivals, and two others...but since I moved east, I haven't been in years now...been some BIG changes, I gather...

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcatters at Winfield, KS?
From: Art Thieme
Date: 04 Sep 99 - 09:03 PM

If you're 30 minutes S. of Winfield, you must be in Arkansas City. I had the worst Mexican meal in my life there once. Just proves my uncle's old adage: "NEVER BUY FRESH FISH FROM A CAR WITH OKLAHOMA PLATES!!!" ;-)

I was lucky enough to be on the bill there just about a dozen years. Met wonderful people there. Heard great muic there. Hated judging those contests there. Also, fell deeply in love there once.

Have a fine time.

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcatters at Winfield, KS?
From: Sourdough
Date: 05 Sep 99 - 01:53 AM

Art,

When I saw your name there, I thought you might be saying that you were planning on being there. However, Jo_77 is going to be there, at least for a day. It may well be that I will get to meet a Mudcat after all.

Bill D says that the Festival has changed a great deal. This will be the first festival I've gone to since Indian Neck (Conn.) several decades ago. Fiddler Beers was there, as were Judy Collins, and Gary Davis but it wasn't a concert, it was jsut people sitting down and playing together so Gary Davis and Fiddler Beers might well have traded songs. Robert Shelton came, too. He had the room nect to mine in the old seaside hotel we rented for the Festival. I think I don't suppose Winfield will be like that but I wouldn't expect it to be.

Tonight I started packing. I'm making the trip on my motorcycle so packing is an exercise is preparation and difficult choices. Hmmm, those seem to be useful in other pursuits, too. It's about an 1,800 mile trip out there and then a little longer on the way back because I'll be heading for Red Oak, Iowa. I don't suppose there are any Mudcatters there. Are there?

I'll keep checking this thread to see if anyone else is going.

Sourdough

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcatters at Winfield, KS?
From: katlaughing
Date: 05 Sep 99 - 01:59 AM

SD: why doncha take a little side trip through Colorado or Wyoming?*g* I know, that'd only add a *little* to your mileage!

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcatters at Winfield, KS?
From: Art Thieme
Date: 05 Sep 99 - 02:11 PM

Be sure to spend time at night in the campgrounds!!! There are great musical things happening there all night long. Stage 3---the most intimate one---was always my favorite. My music wanted intimacy. Stage 1 is in a large track area in front of a large rodeo grandstand. MANY fine folks, but too big to feel really comfortable---to me at least. (But I preferred coffeehouses to bars too.)

Art

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcatters at Winfield, KS?
From: Sourdough
Date: 05 Sep 99 - 04:20 PM

Art:

I've made a note of your sugestions and I will take them with me to Kansas. I was glad to hear about the music in the parking lots and the encampment. The reason I am going is to play in the parking lots and the campground with pick up groups. I can enjoy concerts but for me music is best when it's handmade and home made. In traditional music, playing "well enough to get along" has always seemed preferable to me than being a listener in a concert hall. When I do listen, then I try to participate in another way, by learning something.

I know you are a performer and in that way you are a part of the chain that has made music live for generations but you may still agree that something essential changes when the music is performed rather than played in a social setting.

I am looking forward to Winfield -

Sourdough

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcatters at Winfield, KS?
From: Bill D
Date: 05 Sep 99 - 06:34 PM

Sourdough...I doubt it has changed that Winfield is the BEST for campground pickin'....wonderful music all day & all night!...there are many folk who go there and NEVER go inside the gate to the stages....years ago, about midnight, I saw/heard an amazing 'fiddle down'...sort of a 'yeah...but can you do THIS!' between Mark O'Conner and Jimmy Gyles...both of whon had won the guitar, fiddle AND mandolin contests there...they were drinking beer and sawing the strings...all inprovisation on basic themes...wow!!

Have a great time!

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcatters at Winfield, KS?
From: puzzled
Date: 06 Sep 99 - 08:22 AM

sourdough, I'll be there. My band, the Prairie goose Stompers, will be playing stage five Saturday night at 10:45. stage five is a stage out of the main fairground area on the edge of the campground.
The festival has changed over the years but is still great. I was at the first few and have been off and on ever since.( I have good friends who have been there every year) Last year the biggest change for me was the lack of people staying up all night playing. Used to be that there were camp sites all over the place with music going all night. There still are a few but more quiet in the middle of the night than in years past.
And maybe it is just me but I also noticed more young folk there last year than in years past. A really good sign, I think.
The music in the campgrounds is what many of us go for. 10,000 people camping and a whole lot of them playing. There are every level of player and every level of player is made to feel welcome. There are some snobs but the over all feel is one of "come on and join the fun"
There are now four stages in the main fairground area. Each with concerts going from early in the morning to at least midnight. Stage four has the contests (flatpick guitar, finger pick, mandolin, banjo, hammer dulcimer and more) I do enjoy watching the contest even if Art did not enjoy judging them. The chops of the contestants amaze and bewilder me.
If you don't mind crowds, If you like to play music with folks you've never played with before and may never see again, If you don't mind choosing which excellent performer(s)to go listen to now nonstop for four days, and if you would like to meet an amazing number of really good people ---- See you at Winfield