Adventures, Random Thoughts, and A Little Zen

Adventures, Random Thoughts, and A Little Zen
Boneyard Beach, Bull Island, Cape Romain National Wildlife Refuge, South Carolina

Monday, May 30, 2011

A "wild and crazy guy!"

Steve Martin...comedian, actor, husband, personal friend of mine, banjo player?... Part of this adventure to Grace and Callie's graduation was to see Steve Martin in Huntsville, AL, which is exactly where we were and he was last night.  The Werner von Braun fine art center played host to him and the Steep Canyon Rangers.  It was awesome!  Why you ask...  because of him, back in the late 70's, from watching him on Saturday Night Live and listening to his comedy albums, I was inspired to learn to play the banjo myself.  So, the end of high school and into my early college days, I became self taught to the point I could play a few songs and get away with sounding like a 5 string picker.  But enough about me.  He and the Rangers played for 2 straight hours.  Songs all written by him.  Technically he is outstanding and yet he writes his own original bluegrass music.


Huntsville has another special place in our educational history, because in the early 90's, Miki and I went to Space Camp.  It's not only for kids but adults too.  We learned what it was like to be kids astronauts for a week.  We stayed at a very small RV park right next to it, also owned and run by the Space Camp people (can't remember the real name of the place...what an impression).


The picture above is us...duh... but at the concert before it started, with the stage in the background.  There was to be no photography of any kind once the concert began, so being the sneaky person I am, I clicked this before the concert started, cause I am that daring!
So once the concert began, and the audience's cell phone cameras started lighting the place up, what was one more.  Nothing like a good telephoto cell phone picture, but by golly everyone else was doing it, so I did too.  Afterwards we all went and jumped off the same bridge together (pics to follow).
This last photo was taken after a really nice gospel song by the Rangers, followed by some observations from Steve that those that go to church have some really great music.  Not to be outdone, Steve wrote a tune entitled "Atheists don't have no songs."  


After two hours of some great and I do mean GREAT bluegrass,  it was followed up by two encore performances.  The first was the Orange Blossom Special, with the Rangers incredible fiddle player.  The second was  "King Tut."  A nice surprise to end the day for those of you that remember the early Steve Martin.


TO DA BEACH
Mt. Pleasant, SC.  One of the focal points of this adventure.  Our Twin nieces on the brink of their high school graduation.  To be continued...I'm beat!

1 comment:

  1. WALLIE!!! This is awesome! Oliver is so jealous that you got to see Steve Martin, but now he wants to hear your sweet banjo skills- be warned! Your pics look great too- way to be sly and still get some good shots! How was the rest of Huntsville? I hope you guys are enjoying your trip- tell Miki and the doggies we said hello! Keep up the awesome bloggin!! :-)

    ReplyDelete