Autumn Equinox 2000

Jack Denning of the All Mighty Senators

report filed - 9/28/00 10:48 am EDT - Got back a few days ago from the Autumn Equinox Festival in Capon Bridge, West Virginia. Had a delightful time. Hung out with some old friends, made some new ones, and thoroughly enjoyed an outstanding weekend of music and natural scenery.

Wasn't exactly smooth sailing on the drive from Brooklyn to Capon Bridge though. Spent way too much time lost on the highways of New Jersey, but ultimately arrived at the festival in time to catch one of my all time favorites, the David Nelson Band.

Sartorially resplendent in his purple T-shirt and powder blue bandana, Nelson and crew were rock solid under the warm afternoon sun. It's always a pleasure to cross paths with the DNB, particularly in a beautiful, outdoor setting like Capon Bridge.


Friday night brought rains. Fortunately the weather didn't get heavy until after fine performances from John Scofield and the evening's headliner, Bela Fleck and the Flecktones. Personally got lucky after Jojo the Psychedelic Rock and Roll Clown left the festival early, opening up a cot in the cabin rented by the Home Grown Music Network for the weekend. Needless to say, the pitter patter of rain on the roof sounds a whole lot better from inside a cabin than even the finest tent...

The sun was in and out of the clouds on Saturday, but the rains kept their distance throughout the day. Big Wu put on a particularly fun set, getting the crowd loosey-goosey with their barefoot boogie brand of high country rock and roll.



Wu's got a couple of new albums, Folktales, a fine studio effort chock full of new, original material, and Live at the Festival Theater, a strong live outing recorded in front of their hometown fans in St. Paul, Minnesota. Anyone interested in these records can contact Phoenix Media or the HGMN for more information.

Also in top form on Saturday afternoon was our superhero friends, the All Mighty Senators.

Always a blast, the Senators exploded with a nonstop barrage of booty fresh funk that had the Equinox faithful hypnotically entrained in their 'flex/release' groove aerobics. Can you feel the power?

Joules Graves was another standout. Performing solo with an acoustic guitar, or on some songs changing to a hand drum, Graves captivated the crowd with her irresistible voice and powerful stage presence.

Keep an eye out for this hard working and very creative artist. Joules Graves rocks!

First thing on the agenda after returning from the festival was banging out a column for the Las Vegas Weekly which was due Monday afternoon. Decided to have a little fun with it and focused on one of my all time favorite things: the Bearly Edible grilled cheese sandwich. Figured it was an assignment I could really, er, sink my teeth into...

Also posted: Outlaw Country - Music trends come and go, but the ‘Red Headed Stranger’s prolific career proves that artistic integrity is always in fashion. Not too often, but every once in a while, we get an email from someone who enjoyed one of our articles. Received one in response to the Willie Nelson column that we like better than the column itself. Because we thought it was kinda cool, the letter is posted right after the column as an added bonus for your reading pleasure.

There's more. Recently did a little piece on Bill Laymon of the David Nelson Band for the Las Vegas Songwriter Association's newsletter that we thought might be of interest. Oh yeah, we've also added some cool new links, including the website of photographer Gil Warren from Morning Glory Visuals.

So there you have it. Another update in the books. We are currently working on a few interesting projects and hopefully will have a fresh batch of exciting new stuff in the next week or two, when our adventure in music journalism continues...