I Wish I Smoked Pot

I recently went to a music festival called the Suwannee Spring Reunion. It was held in a big place called The Spirit of Suwannee Music Park (and campground) in the woods along the river immortalized by Stephen Foster* in north Florida. It was one of those events with multiple stages and acts spread out over three days.

The type of music played was “country”…but not mainstream Country. There were Bluegrass artists like the up-and-coming Billy Strings, non-mainstream Country artists like Marty Stuart, and a band called Donna The Buffalo that plays “Americana” music.

Americana is a hybrid genre. It’s weird. Wikipedia says that it’s, “…an amalgram of American music formed by the confluence of shared and varied traditions that make up the musical ethos of the United States, specifically those sounds that are merged from folk, country, blues, rhythm and blues, rock and roll, gospel and other external influences.”

So…a little of everything. Needless to say, radio stations don’t play a lot of Americana music.

Fronted by Jeb Puryear and Tara Nevins, Donna The Buffalo has been around since 1990. I only discovered them in 2000. They write and play wonderful songs. I’ve wanted to see them in concert ever since.

As it turned out, the three bands I really wanted to see (the aforementioned three) were all playing on Saturday. So I hopped in the Jetta and took off eastbound on I-10. I'd booked a motel room near to the venue.

Like all of these events, there were vendors galore. You know the type: Gypsies that live on the road, going from festival to festival. Lots of jewelry…polished stones made into necklaces and things. Some good stuff, some crap. What is up with hippies and tie-dyed clothing? Is that still a thing? Evidently so. And oh man, the overpriced food! Luckily, the park has a pretty good diner-type restaurant right on the premises with food that was better and cheaper than the vendor trucks.

The first band I wanted to see (Billy Strings) went on at 3:30. Marty Stuart and his Fabulous Superlatives went on at 8:00 pm, and Donna The Buffalo went on at 10:30. There were really no places to sit and chill, and so I spent a lot of time walking and standing around. Kinda hard on this old man’s feet. But it was well worth it - the music was awesome!

I love live music to begin with, and each band just blew me away. I don’t know why this type of music affects me so deeply. I was never exposed to Country music as a kid growing up in New York City. But no matter how Bluegrass found me, this music speaks directly to my soul, much more powerfully than rock and roll ever did.

One big takeaway from the festival was that I wished I smoked pot. Being in aviation all my life, I’ve stayed away from drugs. Okay, I admit that I briefly got high in my teenage years. But honestly, nowadays I detest even the smell of marijuana. And of course at the music festival you could not escape the wafting aroma of weed permeating the air.

And that’s when it hit me: I might have enjoyed the music a whole lot more if I’d been stoned. You might disagree, especially if you’ve never been high. But I can remember being…what, fifteen?...and laying on my bed, headphones on, listening to Santana’s “Black Magic Woman” (the long version) while stoned out of my mind. It. Was. Incredible. Nowadays, every time I hear that song it takes me right back to that time in 1970.

Damn, if I hadn’t decided on a career in aviation, who knows how big a pot-head I’d be right now! I stopped smoking right after that time when I was fifteen but had I not, it might have made a huge difference in how I enjoyed a concert nearly fifty years later.

*The Steven Foster song we familiarly know as "Swanee River" was written in 1851 and was originally called "Old Folks At Home."  Since 1935 it has been - and still is - the state song of Florida.