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[joshblakebran]

I just got back from the Colby, Kansas bluegrass festival. It was awesome. Dailey and Vincent were there for 2 different 1.5 hour performances. They were great as usual. A relatively new group name DRIVEN were there and they were good. I also got to see Darrin and Brooke Aldrige. They put on outstanding performances. We also got to see Ozark Alliance multiple times. We spent a lot of time talking with the family. They are very neat people and very talented. They told me that to this point they have won more amateur awards at SDC than any other group. All this bluegrass has made me homesick for the ol' SDC Bluegrass and Barbeque Festival.

[sanddunerider]

sounds like a great time! I have already vowed to see more of vincent next year!

[Ozark Outlaw]

Thanks for the mini trip review Josh!

I agree that Bluegrass sooths the soul. I am always interested in new talent in Bluegrass. It is a genre of music that I hope never fades away.

[okiebluegrass]

sob  Other than Hee Haw I haven't got to see any since I was at SDC at the beginning of June.

[joshblakebran]

I'm hoping to make the SDC Bluegrass Festival this year...Colby was great but SDC's Bluegrass is still better...It was neat to learn that the "Darlings" off of Andy Griffith (The Dillards in real life) are from Salem, Missouri...I guess Ozark Alliance is from the same town and are friends with the Dillards...They sang "Dooley" which the Dillards wrote and sang on the Andy Griffith show.

[Zephon]

I saw Rodney Dillard out messing around in his yard just yesterday. His house is just up the street from mine and I pass it everyday on the way to work.

[Junior]

Zephon: One of the things I always found interesting about Branson and the "stars" that live there is how normal of a life they can live off stage. I remember people lining up to see the TV stars of Hee Haw at the Hee Haw Theater (where Mickey Gilley's is now) when I worked there. Then, later after the show, passing through the dressing room and seeing the Grammy Award winning banjo player Buck Trent changing into his street clothes! He actually lived in an RV parked next to the dumpster at the theater when he was in town back then (before he moved there.) Jim Stafford lives in a rather ordinary suburb next to Lake Taneycomo, and drives himself to work each day. I know 'cause I was passing through his neighborhood and he drove out of his driveway and we "tailed" him to the theater. (We were going that way, I promise, my wife and I are not stalkers!) My brother recounted to me going to Wal-Mart in Branson and seeing Dolly Parton shopping there. He runs his own catering/restaurant business, and had catered, met, and hung out with the Oak Ridge Boys, Micky Rooney, Kenny Rogers, Conway Twitty, and many others. Rodney Dillard is an icon to those of us who know his background with TAGS and with Bluegrass and the emerging Country Rock scene of the late '60's and early to mid '70's. Here he is all these years later, just puttering around in his yard like anyone else. Branson is a truely unique place. I'm glad I had a chance to live and work there.