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Despite what this ticket stub displays – almost demands – in bold, angled all-caps text, for once I waited until Saturday to arrive at my favourite annual nearly-secret long-weekend hippie campfest, Blues Skies. I don’t recall what kept me from arriving on the Friday night, but I’m guessing that it was a combination of laziness and…I don’t know, something else. But probably mostly laziness.
Which is really saying something, as excited as I normally am to stake my ground amongst good friends gathered from near and far and crack that first frosty campside can of beer as soon as my tent is pitched but such is the bane of extended existence, as I’m sure most of you young ‘uns will discover. All that said, on Saturday, August 3rd, 2019 I did make it a point to get onsite early enough to catch at least (or in this case: precisely) one workshop before the daily square dance ushered in the dinner hour which in turn would culminate in the beginning of an evening of mainstage entertainment, which I generally take in from my campsite.
It was pure coincidence that the sole workshop that I took in took place just a few metres from that campsite of mine in The Finger. It was a presentation of songs by (and stories about) Ron Hynes – Newfoundland’s most surly musical demigod – hosted by Ken Tizzard, who played bass next to Ron on his final tour*. The stories were great and quite hilarious – centring mostly on how much of a curmudgeon Ron was to tour with – and of course the music was amazing. Hynes was called The Man of a Thousand Songs and so far I’m only familiar with a few of them, so even in a set of his greatest hits I found plenty of first-time musical surprises. Kind of like when I first started listening to Bob Dylan.
The rest of the day was dedicated with re-accustoming myself to seldom-seen friends, eating food straight from the grill with neither plates nor cutlery, and almost wholly ignoring the music on the nearby mainstage while I tried to empty every cooler and chip bag I came across.
Which were many.
*Ron Hynes (1950-2015) is dead now, and if you didn’t know that then I suspect you also don’t know much about Ron or his music. If this is the case you should probably check him out. He’s Newfoundland’s greatest musical secret and he shouldn’t be. They loves him ‘round here I tells ya. There’s even a statue of him in Town fer cryin’ out loud, and it was there when Ron was still alive. Which is pretty cool if you ask me.
Todd Man Out 