GreenFest - What it’s all about
I’ve been struggling with what to write about this years GreenFest for the last week and still can’t get my ideas lined out. I have so many thoughts and emotions flowing through my head and I’ve been trying to separate them from the awesome night of music that happened. I have plenty I want to say about this years GreenFest, but I feel there is so much that needs to be said about what the core of what it really means to me and to other people. My good friend Brad over at Galleywinter wrote an article today that just simply nails it. I don’t repost much but I feel there are readers that need to read this and what Galleywinter, GreenFest and all my friends really mean to me. I’ll write down my thoughts on what went down last Saturday soon, but in the meantime you can check out the pic of me and JP walking, in step, to the stage to accept a great gift from some of our best friends. I think GreenFest last Saturday was the culmination of our 7 years of walking through life as brothers in music and in life.
____________________________________________________
Before I really start to ramble, here the excerpt of brads article. It’s long but good read and some insight to why I do what I do. Enjoy…
…And just when I thought I had it all figured out and I’d never party like it was 1999 again, along came a couple stories over Greenfest weekend that reminded me what make us special. We have a tendency to focus too much on the negative and this warts and all approach has been hampering enjoyment of the music for a while now. Not just with Galleywinter. But, Texas and Texas Music in particular.
I must thank Scott Matthews for the reminder…and I hope after you read this you’ll thank him too.
The day of Greenfest last year, Scott was attending a funeral in Midland. A somber occasion to say the least. Many isolated and desolate miles away from Greenfest and Austin. Late that afternoon, deciding he had grieved as much as he could in the oil fields of west Texas, he told his girlfriend….”There’s a little something going on down in Austin that I’d love to check out.” Her reply, “I’m going to pack.” When I asked him why he’d make such an insane concert run at the last minute, his poignant reply was “In Texas and with Galleywinter in particular, it’s never just a concert…it is a spiritual experience.”
You see, Scott had fond memories of Greenfest. It was the 2005 version when he was going through a rough spot in his life. He showed up that crisp February night at River Road Icehouse just expecting a good time to keep his mind off things for a while and maybe do a bit of networking for the small band he was in at the time. What he found held much deeper meaning.
He found a dysfunctional sect (Galleywinter) of a larger dysfunctional family (Texas Music scene) throwing one hell of a family reunion.
He, along with the hundreds in attendance, witnessed as Stoney LaRue, along with Jeremy Watkins delivered one of the best acoustic sermons I’ve ever seen. If there ever was a truly magical musical evening…it was happening on this night. A night that had a late-night jam session last till nearly sunrise and was capped off by Stoney playing Scott’s very own bass while we all took turns playing Stoney’s guitar.
Throughout the course of the evening, he saw the interactions of people meeting for the first time and old friends sharing a beer after many months apart. People making plans to make it to several shows or roadtrip out of state together to see a show. Artists giving away schwag to people just because they felt like sharing their tunes or tees. Song ideas being hatched on napkins. Phone numbers and business cards being exchanged.
Everything that was happening transcended a mere musical concert.
Over time, Scott ingratiated himself to Galleywinter and became a very active member of the community. He also began playing solo gigs himself and working on a record. The ’06 Greenfest is best known for ice and Mike McClure. It was a fun night, but the magic from ’05 was missing despite everyone’s best efforts. ’07 brought a Greenfest venue change to Austin, as well as, a life venue change for Scott Matthews.
Sitting in his hometown of Midland, those many miles away from the folks he considered his newfound, extended family, he made the fateful decision to make that run.
Scott understood something that many of us often forget in this scene.
We are blessed and lucky to have all of this available to us. Things that happen here don’t happen in other places. Just ask someone from Wyoming.
And, it is as important in the good times as the bad. One of my favorite song lyrics is by Jerry Jeff, and I use it often. It goes, “just lettin’ it roll, lettin’ the high times carry the low…just livin’ my life, easy come, easy go.”
Music is music…but Texas music as a community is a family….and it is a support system for all climates.
While, it is everything that happened that night in 2005 at River Road between old friends and new friends, musicians, fans and everyone else in between.
It is also so much more.
It is the great American dream drawing a guy like Drew Kennedy down from Virginia. Or, Jason Eady from Mississippi. Completely transplanting and transforming their lives because the only place that matches the passion and enthusiasm they have for music is here.
It is two songwriters unselfishly sharing a stage and swapping song ideas backstage and saying “Hey man, we should write together sometime.”…and meaning it. Just like Bleu Edmondson and Owen Temple did at Greenfest this year.
It is Randy Rogers giving a struggling up and comer his headliner money for the evening because he knows the newcomer needs it more.
It is Pat Green taking JP “Hogleg” Long to the Grammy’s in New York with him in 2002.
It is Kent Finlay climbing onstage while weak from chemo and belting out “Hill Country”.
It is the crowd passing the hat at Larry Joe Taylor’s festival in the early 90’s when word spread that he would nearly go bankrupt due to gate crashers at the festival.
It is Mike McClure’s daughter or Rusty Wier undergoing a terrible medical ordeal and everyone rallying around them with prayer chains and benefits.
It is Cory Morrow and Josh Grider playing gospel songs at the Celebration of Life Benefit in Luling and some really good folks then buying an autographed guitar in an auction, and putting it back up for bid so more money could be raised.
What Scott understood in that backyard in Midland after a traumatic day was…
It is people like Meg, Lori, Kathy and Patty taking a leap of faith and moving to Texas because they met some friends who share musical tastes, loyalty and a zest for life.
It is people like Blam-O, Maureen, Vegas chicks and Bama flying in from out of state to just to catch a show and soak up some slices of Texas for a weekend.
It is meeting your future wife at the big bar in the middle of Billy Bob’s with a group of your friends, while one of your friends is about to play the biggest show of his life.
It is a thread on Galleywinter or RadioFreeTexas or LSM or TxRDM.com that turns someone on to a new band.
And to bring our story full circle…
It is Scott Matthews playing on the Greenfest stage just three years after GF got him through the darkest days of his life.
It is coming to Greenfest and staying at Greenfest because you realize it’s bigger than yourself. It is not just another concert to get drunk at. It is a family reunion.
Somewhere along the way, we’ve all gotten lost a time or two. To those that are still lost, be it: a once proud musician artistically confused or a former member of this community who got caught up with life or present members of this community who get caught up in trivial things…I hope you find your way home to your family soon.
Read the full article over at Galleywinter.
Comments
No comments yet.
Leave a comment