Picnic music: Good Wood Band

Another Tuesday, another Picnic in the Park concert. This time I was going to be close to getting there on time. I really was! But my bicycle had another idea. Over 2 miles from home a spoke in my rear wheel broke and the wheel instantly went out of true. So much so that the tire rubbed against the frame as I rode.

I rode back home and replaced the spoke and trued the wheel back to being "ok". My wheel isn't perfect as the bicycle is 11 years old and has tens of thousands of miles on it. Probably over 30,000 miles. It is showing its age.

So I never arrived on time at 7 pm. I didn't get there until 7:40 pm.

The band was suppose to be Loose Caboose but Good Wood were playing instead. I heard second hand that some sort of accident prevented Loose Caboose from performing. Looking at the web sites I see that Christian Johnson is a member of both bands. For those who know a little musical history of Montana bands, he was also a member of the Mission Mountain Wood Band back in the 1980s or so.

Good Wood is a four person jam band that plays "New Grass": acoustic songs of bluegrass, country rock, blues and classic rock.

One person played an acoustic guitar, another played a guitarrón (as a bass), another played flute or harmonica, and Christian played mainly a mandolin or a fiddle and a couple times a guitar.

The band was very good and tight. Their weakness was in vocals as their strength lay in playing and not singing. They played traditional fiddle songs, songs by The Band, an interesting and excellent version of Jethro's Tull's "Locomotive Breath", and also "House of the Rising Sun". The audience really applauded "Locomotive Breath". In fact the audience applauded more and more enthusiastically at this concert than for any of the other Picnic in the Park concerts I have attended this year. And so did I. This was the first concert where the audience tried to get the band to do an encore.

While I never saw Christian Johnson up close, from a distance he looked very much like my friend Francis. His build, his long white beard and ponytail. And like Francis he played a fiddle and mandolin.

Christian liked to wander out in the audience and among the dancers while playing. He did this often.

As I got to the concert late, initially I stood in the back against a building. I was next to a man sitting in a chair he had brought. He also had a dog he led on a leash. The leash was long enough to allow the dog to come and lick my leg. He would pull the dog away immediately. I didn't care. I was used to the cattle licking me. I told him he should have bought a raffle ticket as one of the prizes was 6 lbs of dog food.

I noticed the "talker" from the Cocinado concert was here again. I made sure not to stand near him again.

During intermission I saw that a spot on a bench was open. I locked my bicycle to a light post and sat down and enjoyed the rest of the concert. It was nice to sit as my feet are still sore from all the recent hiking. I still "limp/walk", and do not like wearing shoes right now. But as usual I can ride my bicycle with absolutely no problems even with the sore feet. It feels better to ride than walk.

Again the dancers were mainly kids. A few grownups occasionally danced. The "jitterbug" style must be popular as one guy sure twirled a woman around and around. She really enjoyed this style of dancing as she seemed ready for another dance when he sat down after the one dance. He looked to be middle aged and a little overweight so he probably was tuckered out after the dance.

The temperature was reasonable in the 70s. Still the ice cream and 'tropical ice' vendor was doing good business and the Island Noodle guy wasn't.

Here is a link to the Good Wood Band's web page where you can get samples of their music and more info. I will definitely make an effort to see them again.

Here is a view of the Swan Range during my bicycle ride home. The farmer is irrigating to get a second crop. That is the only reason his field is green now. The photo was taken around 9:40 pm and is looking in an east/NE direction. Notice how light it is outside.

This photo makes the mountains look small. Trust me, they aren't.