Long time listener, first time caller..
Yeah a don't miss is the Lincoln County Cowboy Symposium. Though I
have very mixed feelings about it since Ray Reed has passed on, it's
still a great festival. Hank Thompson will perform Thursday night
ONLY. His band will be headed by Pee Wee Whitewing and will feature an
outfit composed of former Brazos Valley Boys. Tom Bresh will handle
poppa Merle Travis' lead lines and Curtis Potter will keep things
moving( A GREAT singer in his own right). The band will be there for
the entire weekend but Hank will only appear Thursday night. Also this
year will feature a 75th anniversary reunion of the Texas Playboys.
The REAL BUMMER for me, since I live only 5 miles from Ruidoso Downs
Racetrack, the site of the shin-dig, is this year will be the first
since it's inception with out my mentor Craig Chambers! No Saturday
9am cup of Black coffee and Craig's smooth as Buckskin Tenor easing
the pain of a late Friday night, singing about the West, the Horses,
Cowboys, Outlaws and Women that make this the best place in the world
to live. Then to really upset my apple cart, NO TimeWarp~ TopHands
this year either!!! Tom's band has been here since the second year,
1991, (Craig, after playing the first year here solo recommended to
Ray that he bring that Aggregation of Animals out for the party,and he
was the one that hipped me to this deal in the first place). This year
they got bumped! The Symposium was Ray Reed's dream and he always had
a simple line up, The TWTH and the Texas Playboys. That was it. Since
he passed I've noticed a switch to Texas Shuffle and Country Music.
Some of us know the difference! The advertising states "Western Swing
is still the King at the Lincoln County Cowboy Symposium" but that
ain't the REAL truth. I've written to the Hubbard Museum to log my
complaint but I don't think it will do much good. Just wait'll next
year I guess. I'll still 2-step and Waltz with my baby and make sure
we have a time but it won't be the same without being able to look up
and watch Bobby Boatright step to the mic and saw a killer solo, or
hear Rich O'Brien snap off a lick, and no tasty Morrell solo's to keep
my feet moving. I guess I'll just have to make do and wait'll next year!!