September 21 , 2005

by Shad Harris

Rick Wilson, and his beautiful wife Linda, hosted the 12th Annual Rumsey Blues Festival that was for me, the completion of a circle. I’ve played the Blues in the town of Rumsey, California on several occasions over the last dozen years the start of which was a backyard birthday party and the beginning of what has turned into a wonderful friendship.

In 1993 I was playing the drums for the Tommy Castro Band and we had just released our first recording “No Foolin’”. Rick, then known as the “Mayor of Rumsey”, a.k.a. Chef Rickey, got permission from “Queen Linda” to hire us to play at his “Backyard Birthday Party and Rib Feast”. That event was so much fun that we agreed to meet the same time the next year. Somewhere between the next birthday bash and a River Trip closing night party, Rick and Linda decided to annualize and christen the birthday party into The Rumsey Blues Festival. The rest is Rumsey legend.

Featuring artists like Shane Dwight, John Lee Hooker Jr., The Beer Dawgs, Johnny Nitro and the Doorslammers, Daniel Castro, and of course Tommy as well as many others Rick and Linda managed to turn the original “Backyard Birthday Party and Rib Feast” into a legitimate event that’s been coveted by all of the local and regional players. As well as hosting the festival the Wilson’s, owners and operators of Cache Canyon Whitewater River Trips offer a class 3 river rafting adventure that’s hugely popular. Once or twice a year they have a band come up and play at the closing night of one of their two-day trips. That’s also a coveted gig.

The completed circle was me reuniting with Tommy and the guys and Rick, in Rumsey playing the Blues and scarfing down some fabulous Rumsey Ribs. It was a night I’ll long remember. I arrived before any of the other musicians and unloaded my gear and talked with Linda and Rick. My crew started showing up and shortly after everyone was there Tommy’s bus pulled in.

After initial greetings Tommy and I sat in his bus and caught up on family doings and such. Most of the stuff we talked about would be boring to anyone else but there was a great story that he told me about how he acquired his bus. Basically, it was a situation like the story in the movie, “Pay it Forward.” Some guy helped this other guy with the condition that he helps someone else. That guy ends up helping Tommy with the acquisition of his tour bus. The way Tommy told it was more detailed and dramatic and I’m really oversimplifying it but the part of the story that was most intriguing to me was that the guy who helped Tommy was connected to him serendipitously by the “Exception to the Rule” album. That was the second recording we’d done together and Tommy and I co-wrote the title track.

It was a great story and if you see Tommy you can ask him about it. After we caught up on things we sound checked our respective bands and got ready for the night’s show. Because I don’t officially have a band I don’t get the opportunity to mold a real solid and consistent presentation of my show. I compensate for this by making sure I surround myself with the best players. This time I had long-time companion and dear friend Artis “AJ” Joyce on Bass, and ace bandleader and friend Gary Hamilton on Guitar. Chris Cobb, a "monster" in his own right, was on the other Guitar, and steady and tasteful Dave Peters held down the Drum seat.

Now, I ain’t braggin’, okay, I am bragging but regardless, this was a very powerful and fluid unit. I felt so comfortable and everything went so well. I felt like I could have done anything and it would have come out right.

My set started and right from the start I was sitting in the driver’s seat of a ’59 Cadillac Coup de Ville, with the big V-8. My band was really cooking and I so much appreciate how good they made me sound and look. One indicator of how smooth things are going for me is I look at my watch and my time is nearly up, and I feel like I just started.

Tommy came up and did some numbers with us at the end of my set and for those two or three tunes I was back in the saddle keying on his familiar vocal cues and guitar licks. It was a great set and the perfect way to complete a circle. I stuck around for Tommy’s set and snapped a few pictures and listened to the band. They sounded great and as strong as ever and Tommy “worked his show” masterfully. It was trademark Castro and made me proud to be an alumnus.

Rick Wilson said before the show that this was going to be the last Rumsey Blues Fest, and if it turns out to be true then I’m thankful for being privileged to have participated in the very first one as well as the last. But I seem to remember him saying that number ten was going to be the last one. Personally, I hope it goes on for another generation and gets bigger in the process. I can see it becoming one of the major Blues festivals on the West Coast, but that’s just me. One can only hope.

Next up is a benefit for the victims of Hurricane Katrina in Merced, I don’t have all of the details yet but it’s scheduled for October 1st. I was called and asked would I like to do a couple of numbers. “Anything I can do to help,” says I. Stay tuned.

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