Larry Joe Taylor Festival 2008
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My photo set of the Larry Joe Taylor 2008 Festival can be found on Flickr here.
I’m generally not all that big on the “music festival.” I’ve been to big ones such as Austin City Limits and Willie Nelson’s 4th of July Picnic, and the heat, the crowd, the multi-stage with concurrent performances going on, etc. just added up to a “been there, done that, don’t need to do it again” experience. But the Larry Joe Taylor Music Festival at Melody Mountain Ranch in Stephenville, TX that I attended this year was different. It was in the spring instead of the summer and therefore (other than the thunderstorms with tornadoes, baseball-sized hail and 12 inches of rain in two hours that almost wiped us all off the map on the first night) the weather was great and the Texas summer heat was avoided, the venue was well designed and appropriately sized for the crowd, the format - acoustic music by the singer-songwriters I’m interested in on an Acoustic Stage during the day, moving to the larger, more mainstream popular bands on the main stage in the evening - worked very well and avoided the forced choices you have to make at festivals where multiple acts are going on at the same time, and the performances were consistently outstanding.
Highlights of the festival for me were Walt Wilkins, Michael Hearne and his band South by Southwest, his uncle Bill Hearne, Owen Temple, Susan Gibson, Terri Hendrix with Lloyd Maines, Davin James (this guy channels a funky combination of Elvis Presley, Hank Williams, and Stevie Ray Vaughn into a combination that simply has to be experienced live to appreciate), the Band of Heathens (who took the main stage Saturday evening with the command and presence of the Rolling Stones) and last but not least, Rusty Wier, who made what was sadly, due to serious illness, probably one of his last live performances.
