10KLF Festival Review - Day 4 - 07/21/07

Awakened in the morning by my tent slapping me in the face as the winds picked up to about 30 mph and the constant snoring of the guy in the campsite next to me, it was time for caffeine jolt and go over the lineup to plan my day.

I started off at the Barn Stage with Kaki King, a great acoustic guitar player that I last saw about 3 years ago opening for Keb’ Mo’. She had a bit of travel difficulty as her flight to Fargo was cancelled but her luggage and most of her gear went to parts unknown. So needless to say she was not happy, but did show up with one guitar after driving up from Minneapolis and played a shortened set to the much delighted patrons.

Little Feat was well into their show by the time I sauntered over to the Field Stage, but showed up in time for Sam Clayton chiming in on “Spanish Moon”.  Paul Barrere’s self-proclaimed favorite song, “Sailin’ Shoes” and the theme song to whatever part of the world he is traveling, “Don’t Bogart That Joint”, helped to prime the crowd for the evening activities.

Gov’t Mule warmed up the Main Stage with “Hammer & Nails” as the people were coming out of the woodwork and moving closer to the front. They were steadily streaming in by the time they played “Million Miles From Yesterday” and “Thorazine Shuffle” was calling out for whoever was left on the outskirts of the festival grounds. The sight of Derek Trucks backstage brought out a roar from the faithful and grew louder as he sat in on “32/20 Blues” as a primer for his set later in the night.

Walking around checking out the other “festies” this weekend, there was certainly a huge following of “Deadheads”, most of whom looked like veterans of many Grateful Dead concerts. I have never seen Bob Weir in either role with the Grateful Dead or Ratdog, so his appearance along with String Cheese Incident was the primary reason I took the journey from Texas to Minnesota.

With the sun setting, they start off with slow jam, then start kicking it up a notch with each song. The crowd just exploded by the time he got “Tennessee Jed” and continued to show their approval until they ended the 1st set with a Warren Haynes appearance for “Big Railroad Blues”.

“Mexicali Blues” started off the 2nd set and continued with several musical themes before Keller Williams came out for “Come Together” and he stayed with the band until the final song of the set, aptly name “One More Saturday Night”. I thought it was a great show, but in talking to others afterwards who have seen this version of Bob Weir thought it was average. So I will do some comparison when I see him at the Gathering of The Vibes Festival in a few weeks.

Derek Trucks was the last on my agenda and I got into a position in front of the stage so I could see the hands of the "Boy Wonder". And fast hands he does have…. I have not seen him before but I have seen his lovely wife, Susan Tedeschi, on several occasions and missed their appearance together at the House of Blues when I was at the Wakarusa Festival last month. He is seriously talented and see why he is a highly rated guitarist. No wonder Eric Clapton had him on tour playing alongside Doyle Bramhall II. I hung out for about 6 songs before walking over to catch part of Ivan Neville’s Dumpstaphunk set.

Well, all good things must come to an end and then reality just slaps you in the face. So it is back to the "Cubicle from Hell" on Monday, but for 4 days in the woods in Minnesota, it was "Musical Heaven".