Blurb #2: Festivals, competitions, and getting more mando for your buck!

I'm back!
Back to my house, back to my wifi, back to microwaves, and back on the blog!

I spent this past weekend camping up at the OFOAM (Ogden Friends Of Acoustic Musicians) festival and state instrument competition, which was up in Ogden (as you probably figured). :)
Some friends and I decided to drive up last week to compete and see the amazing Adam Steffey and the legendary Sam Bush!

Sam Bush is well known for his rockin' mandolin and he did not disappoint on Friday, playing well into the night and cold!
I got in a good rest that night though cause Saturday morning brought with it the mandolin competition! (And for those of you who have done one but not the other, performing for an audience and play for judges presents two very different psychological challenges! The latter of which is quite a bit more stressful for me!) ;)

But I had been working towards this for months and so I was ready!...I hoped. ;)
(Fyi, I played my own arrangements of Salt Creek and New Chance Blues. Two great tunes!)

So, how did I do...?!

...yeah, other than the grubby camping garb...

I got the blue ribbon! :)
I was pretty excited to win first! I also got some great prizes like the Loar mandolin and the automatic contest entry to nationals and 5-day festival pass at Winfield!
I was also happy to be with my Mother when I got the award.
My Mom has always been such a great support to me at competitions, performances, and beyond! And so it was such a treat when she surprised me and drove up that morning to see me get my award!
Love you Mom! :)


By the way, if you are looking into buying a not-so-expensive mandolin that has good sound and build, I have to say the Loar LM 220-vs, at under $400, is great! (Most mandos only start sounding good at the $1,000 point, and then can even climb up to $10,000!)
I have to tell you I wasn't sure about it at first, but once I got jamming on it I was pleasantly surprised!
I play a Collings MT myself, which is just beautiful and hard to top, but I will enjoy playing this Loar at jams and festivals cause of its good bluegrass tone coloring, projection (which is important for acoustic jams), and playability.


The music at this festival was great, and it had some new and interesting bands that caught my ear, like: Elephant Revival (you have got to watch their percussionist play! YouTube them!), Run Boy Run (beautiful arrangements and vocals), and the Ugly Valley Boys (just plain bluesy fun).

It was a fun festival with prizes, friends, and jamming, but one of my favorite parts about it was meeting Adam Steffey and the beautiful music his band, The Boxcars, played!
Adam pulls tone out of the mandolin like Rumpelstiltskin spins gold! (...that was weird...Redo!)
Adam pulls tone out of the mandolin like no one else! He also has so much finesse and taste in his playing!
Plus, if you have noticed, he is one of the few non-tenor bluegrass male vocalists. ;)

Such a great and genuinely nice guy! (And 6'4" by the looks of it, which continues to say a lot for tall mandolin pickers.) ;)

So, now I'm back home relaxing (and thankfully showered!) and making plans to go to Winfield this September.

Until next time!
-E :)