Arhoolie’s 50th

Ry Cooder walked onstage and sat down.  His son Joaqhim on drums and a another kid on fender bass.  He plugged in his early Gibson Mandolin to a Fender deluxe tweed (detweeded)  and a 40’s Gibson amp.  The Gibson fussed a bit and Ry slapped the top to stop a buzz.  The dust rose up and we laughed.  And so his set began.  Ry moved from the mando to his fabled brown stratocaster, a gibson hollowbody and a Rickenbacker lap.  Ry played a blues infused  set of 5-6 songs.  He sang with passion and expression.  His strings bit into the crowd.  We got what we came for.  And then we got more.   Santiago Jimenez, Jr. w/ La Familia Peña-Govea, Los Cenzontles, Any Old Time String Band, (BeauSoleil got stuck in a south Lousiana ice storm) but Michael Doucet made it, Laurie Lewis & Tom Rozum w/ Peter Rowan.  And of course they were all the to celebrate the contributions of Chris Strachwitz the founder of Arhoolie and the foundation (http://www.arhoolie.org/about.html).  This was a night to remember and ended with a group
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