While the folks back home were dealing with torrential downpours, my family and I were having a great time enjoying the Torrey Cowboy Music & Poetry Festival and the incredible scenery of Capital Reef National Park. What could be better than four days of music, hiking and Utah's red rock country?

We started off Memorial Day weekend at the Torrey Cowboy Music & Poetry Festival where I had the honor of backing Brenn Hill for a few songs at the end of his set Friday evening. It continued to get better as I reacquainted myself with old friends and made new some ones on Saturday. Blue Sage was joined by our good friend Ken Sager on mandolin for our set on Saturday night and the folks of Torrey were more than appreciative.



The day after the festival ended, we headed a little North East of Torrey to do some exploring around Goblin Valley. We started off by hiking a slot canyon (Crack Canyon), which turned out to be the perfect match for our abilities; if it were any tougher we might not have been able to make it back out again!




After Crack Canyon, we headed south to Goblin Valley. I guess it's officially called "The Valley Of The Goblins", but everyone who grew up in Utah calls it "Goblin Valley". We found ourselves in some of the most fascinating geography found anywhere on Earth.

All in all it was a perfect weekend with great music, great folks, great festival, and great hiking in the spectacular country found in Southern Utah's backcountry...

Tags: Brenn, Cowboy, Gigs, Family

What a night! Good crowd, good food, and (hopefully) good music. Brenn’s fans came out in mass for this show at Bella’s Mexican Grill and set the stage for an intimate evening where we received as much as we gave. It was great seeing so many familiar faces in the audience.

I was actually pretty nervous about this show as Brenn was having some vocal issues and his doctor recommended lowering the pitch of his songs. To accomplish this, Brenn dropped the tuning of his guitar down a whole step. That left me scrambling to relearn the songs. The bluegrass banjo and guitar songs were easy; just a move of the capo. The mandolin required learning the songs in new keys and I had to take some of the clawhammer tunes into completely new tunings! Considering all the changes, we managed to get the job done. Of course it helps to have great material to work with and Brenn’s songs are among the best I’ve ever heard.

I’m looking forward to our next show...

Mike

Tags: Brenn, Gigs