Aww, Delbert, Say It Ain’t So

I’ve been to enough outdoor festivals that I should know these things by heart.

Items to take to an outdoor festival:

• chair
• camera
• binoculars
• blanket or jacket
• bottled water
• sunscreen
• mosquito repellent
• antihistamine!
• taser gun for zapping unruly crowds!

I know them, but I still forget.

I had told y’all about the horrible crowds at the Denton Arts and Jazz Festival. On Friday night, throngs of idiots who arrived late scrambled to stand in front of the stage, blocking the view for the people who had been there all day waiting to see. I had groused that I was going to take an umbrella to jab offensive people, but Jamie had suggested tasering folks and stacking them like cordwood.

I’m happy to report that the Saturday night crowd was much more civilized. Or, maybe the police just had it figured out better, and stopped people from going down to the front. At any rate, the taser gun I dragged along was unnecessary (but impressive). However, I forgot antihistamine and a jacket! When we went down to the festival grounds, it was hot (so we were in our free t-shirts provided by Jupiter House Coffee). By nightfall, the temperature dropped dramatically. The freshly mowed lawn put a lot of pollen in the air (as if there isn’t enough of that in the air in Texas already).

By the time my hero, Delbert McClinton, came on stage, my teeth were chattering and I couldn’t breathe through my nose!



[photo by Matthew Barnes]

The worst news, is that if I had not already been a Delbert McClinton fan, THIS concert would NOT have made me one. Bless his heart, Delbert has been performing since the early 1960s. When he ripped into a song, he could rock the house. His voice has been abused mightily over the years.

I was mortified for him. I had been bragging on and on to the woman next to me about how good Delbert was, since she had never heard him. As the concert began, I wanted to swallow my tongue. He sounded weak, and ragged. He couldn’t carry a melody! Aww, say it ain’t so! No, it’s true.

Maybe it was an aberration. Perhaps he has allergies, too. It could have been that he was exhausted. It might have been that the sound system had a glich. Or, was it just my ears?

I don’t think so. If that is how he sounds all the time, somebody needs to tell him that it’s time to retire. I think his voice is dead and gone (R.I.P.).

The woman next to me was less than impressed. She left after three songs. We waited until he took a break. I should have gone sooner, because I don’t want to remember Delbert that way.

At least I got to hear him in road houses and honky tonks thirty years ago. That Delbert is still my hero.

Related posts:

1. Denton Is Jazzin’ It Up!
2. Denton Jazz Fest Blues
3. Celtic Thunder — Men In Kilts!
4. VaVoom-Chicky-Chicky
5. Guest Post At Life Is RANTastic for Blogathon 2007

Tagged as: Artsy Fartsy Stuff, Delbert McClinton, Denton, Denton Arts and Jazz Festival, Music, Talkin' 'bout Texas