Page 77 - Blues Festival Guide Magazine 2014

Lest we forget Photo courtesy Kelly Richey rocks out at her
Acalanes Blueprint favorite hole-in-the-wall
Photo by Roger D. Feldhans
airport, I was stopped “I think one of the
at a security checkpoint, most unusual stops I
told to park several remember was on the
miles away and take way to a festival in
a designated cab. Texas, or Louisiana; I
The cab, cab driver, can’t quite remember.
my guitar and I were It was long ago. As a
meticulously searched road musician, you are
at three different security always trying to hook
tents that had been up as many dates as
set up along the route you can to get from
before reaching the point A to B. Someone
airport. The normally had given me a card,
bustling LAX was eerily quiet and empty except for armed so I called this guy who had a small club in Beeville, Texas,
military in camo, strategically placed throughout. The handful of population 50. The gentleman said he would love to have us
people on this flight didn’t speak, didn’t even make eye contact. route through. I think it was called the 9th Hole, or something
Everyone was on edge. It was the first day that commercial relating to golf.
planes were allowed back in the sky. The pilot choked up a little We got there and I asked who the manager was. I was
while thanking us for flying during this difficult time, trying his directed to a guy in a cowboy hat who was sitting at a picnic table
best to sound normal. But we all knew that nothing would ever be outside. I greeted him and as he got up to shake my hand, he fell
the same after September 11th, 2001.” – Becky Barksdale: to the floor, dead drunk. Composing himself he said, ‘Welcome to
Whereas, events like 9-11 challenge the human spirit, it does Beeville. Anything you boys need, we will take care of it.’
inspire a frame of mind that allows us to appreciate the important So the first problem was the P.A. of course, which they didn’t
little things in life like new friends and hospitality: have. We rigged something up with our amps. Then, since they

Blues Festival Guide 2014 75