Driving into Damascus last weekend in the long shadows of the evening sun, it occurred to me the Old Mill – of all the local stages I’ve played is the one I’ve performed on the most. Since the early days with Reagan Boggs, the stories have all been memorable traveling to this little mountain outpost to perform at a room that’s hard to read.
Last time we played, it was a real bummer on the band too, but Clear’s show Saturday was a night of retribution. As the Moon and Venus were turning heads in the Western sky, crowds of hippies and Appy Trail fanatics encamped around Damascus for the annual Trail Days Festival and in hindsight, this show might have been the best Clear show thus far. Before the end of the night our bohemian femme fatale fan club and a little “girl-on-girl action” made this a night to remember and we can’t wait to do it again this weekend.
Driving into town, the country store signs bid a “Welcome to Trail Days” around every corner and as I turned into the city limits near Food City, it was obvious something was different because there were cars parked everywhere. A moonwalk was inflated beside the signature caboose at the city gates and all sorts of kids were jumping up and down to a chorus of laughter. There were plenty of people dressed in mountaineer/outfitter apparel too drifting in and out of small businesses that line the streets. There were tents all across the park too with vendors as far as you could see and that was exciting to see. Nothing like a crowd before the show.
At first the mood at the Old Mill was calm. Some guy was practicing his fly casting on the river and plenty of campers were positioned here and there on the river banks. I parked myself on the patio and absorbed the last bit of afternoon light and amused myself with the scenery; some guy with twin golden retrievers, a party on the patio, hairy mountain kids wearing their shirts like kilts with knee socks and hiking boots.
There wasn’t much time to linger. Jared and Greg were busy setting up the PA and I hadn’t been there long before Willie/Angie and Lance/Heather were bringing in drums and a bass rig. Willie had to drive back to Bristol for something he forgot, but we had plenty of time to get ready and setup the Apple laptop to get a feed off he board for a recording.
Willie got back close to 9.00 and although we were a bit concerned about the crowd early (we were griping about the Old Mill), it happened like the guys working the table for the cover said…”it’ll happen quick” and it did.
The first set was a lot of fun. We improvised an E minor jam for several moments and settled into our brand new Dead songs (Eyes of The World) which seemed to go over really well. All of the original songs had some extra bite too and by the end of the first set there was a thick audience building up in front of the stage as Julie, Heather, Angie and their friends were dancing and making us feel welcome again and deliver up the best we could do.
After a short break, we started what may have been one of the best sets we have ever performed with this band. We played an hour set with no breaks and naturally flowed from one song to the other with most every song attracting the dancers in Damascus. Jared was part preacher, part politician and pied piper whirling his cadence of humor and lyric in between songs and had everyone up for the rest of the night. There were plenty of ladies dancing alone in front of the band and the guys told me later there were a couple of attractive girls kissing each other. I missed it, but Willie swears he saw it.
Nevertheless, Jared was calling out songs in batteries of three and it must have been the energy , because it felt really good to attract (and keep) a crowd. That’s good too because even the original songs, particularly ‘Forgive Me’ continues to gain momentum and morph into a memorable original song.
Our new stage setup with Greg and Lance stage right and me and Willie at left with Jared continues to work really well for us. Greg did a great job with all of his songs and Lance never sounded better on the microphone. This had been a tough week for him and we’re all trying our best to help him make a new transition. All I know is that I’ve got an invitation to dinner at their new house and hope they hold me to that and the wine…
There were several things different about this past weekend from our last appearance at the Old Mill. First, there were plenty people ready to have a good time and in particular our friends made it even more enjoyable. After playing music for over thirty years, this kind of love is one of the reasons why I continue to play and especially enjoy keeping a steady pace of new friends. I had several hugs from complete strangers and that’s not something normal for me at a gig, but I like it all the same.
Last call in Damascus is midnight and Andrew Taylor was there when the lights were on. Andrew has had more drama that most anyone I know. As a brilliant Gen X, he’s not even thirty and he’s got a heaven-and-hell expedition that few can rival. He helped us pack some of our gear and we wrapped up the morning trying to blend in with the smokers at Perkins who ranged from goth groups to truck drivers and blurry eyed part-timers.
Although we were criticizing the unpredicitability of the Old Mill, we sure hope it continues the legacy of live local music. It’s gotta be hard running this bed and breakfast, restaurant, bar and music hall in such a small town, but this place is still a gem.
We’re real pleased with our performance last weekend and the summer gets better this next weekend at Halo. The band has several gigs planned throughout the season and with a bit of hard work and affection from our little fan base, maybe we can return in the fall.