Old Settler's Music Festival...

We loaded up the camper and headed to Tilmon, Tx for the Old Settler's Music Festival. It's one of those things that's been on our radar but we were always working and then Covid hit and this past weekend we finally made it. I must say that this is one of the best run festivals we have been to.  

Here's a view from our camp site of what they called the "glamping area" where you could rent a tent. There were three campgrounds and you could have your pick. This is camp Armadillo where we chose a spot for the Rpod and was advertised as the quieter camp where you could park your car in the campsite. The other camps, Banjo and Collins were the places you wanted to be if you like late night parties, jam sessions, very close neighbors and in close proximity to the main music stages. 

There were no water or sewer hook ups but we bought an electrical permit and as there were no marked campsites you were basically on an honor system to set up your camp in a way that left room for the next guy to come along and this worked amazingly well. 

We arrived with our 30 gallon camper tank full and I was glad as a water filling was available for $50 bucks and on the way home I dumped the black tank at Nails Creek State park for free using my state park pass for admittance which was nice as Old Settlers charged $80 for a pump out. 

This was one of the cleanest festivals I have been to. There are many I have seen where at the end when the people are gone you are left with a field full of trash. I might have seen one beer can on the ground which I think someone picked up and disposed of. I never saw an overflowing trash can. Porta Potties were always clean with plenty of toilet paper and hand wash stations with soap, water and paper towels. 

Since we were camping we did some cooking and did not really intend on hitting the food trucks too hard because of the expense and the experience we had with slow service at HonkTx where we missed a few bands waiting on food. This was not the case here as service was fast and friendly by a bunch of hippies who cooked it pretty much right in front of you and handed it over with most booths having plenty of hot sauce choices for adding something extra. On the last day our camping neighbor, who had a platinum pass that included food tickets gifted us $75 worth of tickets and what we could not eat we stowed in the fridge for the trip home. Today I'll have a pilled pork po boy for lunch. 

How about some music photos?  I'll blog more about the shows later.          

Nigel Wearne, from Australia. 

There were various workshops you could attend and the scheduling was such that while many festivals run stages concurrently so you have to make decisions on what you want to see this is arranged so that you make it to every show. This was bluegrass jamming 101 with Sol Chase and band. 

I saw a write up on Sunny War recently in vintage guitar magazine so I was excited to see her. 

Lots of good people watching and I never had a bad seat for this or the music either. If someone arrived with a chair and there was a space in front of you they asked if it would block you for them to sit there. If you got up to do something else you could just leave your chair to save your place and no one bothered it.  Everyone was very polite  and you could imagine if the world was like this all the time. Also we rode our bicycles from camp to the stages each day and left them leaning against a tree unlocked for close to 12 hours with no trouble. 

The Brothers Comatose. 

Looks crowded but it did not feel that way. 

The Baryshnikov of the Big Thicket, Shiny Ribs.  

The Wood Brothers. We saw them a few years ago in New Orleans and I must say they have really stepped up the songwriting. 

There was a youth music contest with some great playing by youngsters. 

Shovels and Rope. We've wanted to see them for a long time. 

Molly Tuttle. 

Music festival attendance is going to cost you some money these days and this one is a good value for many reasons. It's safe, the people are nice, it's in Texas and runs very well. We are already thinking, yeah, next year...