12 April – Dogwood Festival (Atlanta, GA)
It was a great day, really. I haven’t played the Dogwood Festival since I was in Radiant City, which would be… 1997, I think? That seems right. The weather was great, we loaded the van and made the long, long drive to Piedmont Park. Well, really it’s only about 20 minutes away, but we hit traffic at the exit ramp and it took another 30 minutes or more to cover the last 2 miles. Somehow I managed to squeeze the behemoth into the parking area and we loaded the gear into the golf carts for the trek to the stage. We were in a tent which I hadn’t expected. I think it was actually a little warmer in the tent than it was outside but it wasn’t a big deal.
It turned out Sugarland, the band that played after us, had canceled, so they were extending everyone’s sets. We went on a little later and added some songs we hadn’t really been prepared to play to the set. Still, they all came off well, I thought. Plus, the crowd stayed after the announcement that Sugarland wasn’t appearing, and continued to stay after we started playing. There were also a lot of people I recognized there, local musicians I know plus friends, fans, and even the family members who had tried to make it to the Cleveland show. Rob Gal magically appeared in the front row near the end of the set and I pulled him up to play on “Hitchcock Blonde,” which I thought went well. After the set I went over to the merch tent and talked with some people, which I am really trying to do every time. My very own part-time stalker gave me a mix CD, which I mention so that any other potential stalkers will know how far they’re lagging behind. Then it was back on the golf carts to the van.
It was nice to do a van trip that didn’t last a week.