Date: June 17, 2000

Singing In The Rain!

Meanwhile, it's been one rainy, festival season in the Eastern half of the United States! During our set at the Knoxville Blues Festival on June 17th, the skies opened up in full force causing hundreds of festival goers to flee in all directions for cover. But a hard-core group of folks stood in the pouring rain and cheered us on, despite the fact that the meager stage covering could do nothing to protect Alan and I from the onslaught of slanting rain. I felt totally moved by these crazy, wonderful fans, so instead of backing up for cover, I moved to the front edge of the stage and kept playing! It became so easy to bond with the crowd; we were riding a storm together! With lightening in the distance, I didn't want to get back on the microphone, but then the sound crew handed me a remote microphone, so I was singing in the rain! We were all having quite a blast until all of my electronics got so soaked, that they all shut down. All systems down! Oh well, the lightning was getting too close anyway.

Meanwhile, back at the hotel, the bellhops were scratching their heads as I loaded all of these strange objects onto the bell-cart: pedal-board with electronic effects, reverb tank, amplifier - everything needed to be opened up and dried out with my hair dryer! But sure enough, for our festival in Birmingham Alabama the next day, all systems were go!