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Thunder on the Water in Grenada by Robert "Nighthawk"Tooms
Posted on 6/14/2010 by Robert "Nighthawk" Tooms
(Memphis, Tennessee) This week we travel south to Grenada, Mississippi, home of some of my forebears, where the Thunder on the Water celebration is held for five days. events include the blues concert, a rodeo, a five mile run, country music concert, fireworks, great food, a golf tournament, a carnival, tractor pull, wrestling matches, arts and crafts, kid's fishing rodeo, bike rally, car show, a beauty review and a softball tournament. Pictured above, Reba Russell and Lucious Spiller.
Welcome to Mississippi, y'all!
Giant American flag at the festival grounds
Getting the huge stage ready for the big show
These folks were cooking some great food and feeding lots of hungry musicians and volunteers
Turnip greens cooked with apple juice, mmmm! Chicken, ribs, potato salad and I don't know what all else because I got too full. Thanks for the delicious food! Wayne ate twice, naturally.
Narvell prepares for their afternoon show.
The view from the window in my suite. The Hampton Inn was a sponsor of Thunder on the Water and it is a really quiet, well-maintained and clean facility full of nice folks. We have stayed in rooms all over the world. This place is pristine. There was not even a stray leaf or branch anywhere on the parking lot. A gent was hosing it all down as we drove in and the folks working there could not have been more helpful or friendly.The Hampton Grenada was a great place to get some rest, unlike some places in other towns where I have stayed which featured fistfights and teams of police outside my door at 2 AM(no, I didn't start the fight). My sincere thanks to all the kind folks who work here.
The Hampton Inn...my comfortable Grenada abodeAs we drove to the festival grounds we noticed lots of cars parked on the side of the road, stopping to watch a big fireworks display that could be seen for miles. We rolled into the festival just in time for Wayne to eat again.
After we drove back to the festival, we were treated to some good tunes from Blue Mother Tupelo, a cool band centered around the husband and wife team of Ricky and Micol Davis.
Micol and Ricky Davis
I wandered back over to the artists' tent to make sure the rest of the band had arrived only to watch my band mates plow through lots of tasty food before the show and then wandered back to hear the rest of Blue Mother Tupelo's set. Fortunately, Wayne was eating again.
Doug McMinn gets some tasty fuel to keep the drums going all night
Our friend, Lucious SpillerWhile hanging out at the tent we met Lucious Spiller, a fine musician and singer hailing from Little Rock, Arkansas. Lucious had brought some of his artwork with him, a painting of the intersections of Highways 49 and 61 in Clarksdale, Mississippi, which he painted on glass and framed.
Here's Lucious on YouTube.
The artwork of Lucious Spiller
My buddy, Barry Bays who plays bass with Blue Mother Tupelo. Good job, Barry!
The lovely and talented Micol Davis leaves the stage after a fine performance.
Josh Roberts
Doug McMinn
Josh RobertsDespite riding in his car with a broken air conditioner and an oncoming sinus infection(should have traveled with me, bro!), Josh Roberts put on a fine performance but was unable to successfully compete against Wayne Russell on the trencherman's challenge...actually, no one was able to do so. Wayne Russell has the metabolism of a crematorium furnace and literally immolates his food as soon as he ingests it, leaving only a few bones on his plate and ashes behind him. He is a marvel of modern humankind. Speaking of which, June 12 was his birthday. Happy birthday, Wayne-o! I hope you ate two or three chocolate cakes and a couple of pieces of pie.
Josh changes the color of his guitar...it's magic!Next week we are off to Parsons, Kansas and then on to Joplin, Missouri, to meet up with our old friends at the Kitchen Pass.
Josh and Doug get ready for the load in at last year's big sold out performance in Joplin. We are looking forward to seeing our friends and showing off the new CD.
Josh and Doug get ready for the load in at last year's big sold out performance in Joplin. We are looking forward to seeing our friends and showing off the new CD.Here's a link to the Reba Russell Band facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/pages/The-Reba-Russell-Band/117996098230564
Here's a link to my site: http://www.RobertNighthawkTooms.com/
RCT
© Robert "Nighthawk" Tooms, 2010
