The El Dorado County Election Office was to have commence the official canvass of the vote for the June 8 primary election on Thursday, June 10, and the random draw of precinct manual tally post election procedure today, Friday. All persons are welcome to view the process.
By Mike Roberts
Mother Lode News
The 2010 edition of Coloma Blues Live! raised the bar for the countys premier outdoor blues festival, with the strongest lineup yet. The 2,500 sun-baked and generally well-behaved revelers loved the music from bottom to top.
The early season festival has been climate challenged in years past, and the tardy spring of 2010 had organizers worried about another cool, or even wet one. But the days only climate concern turned out to be keeping the 2,500 or so attendees hydrated.
Saturday became a scorcher before opener Shane Dwight had flexed a pec, the sky a vision of uninterrupted, bright pure blue, the perfect ceiling for a perfect day to soak up some great blues beside the American River.
The early arriving crowd must have heard that last years opener, Laurie Morvan, stole the show. This year, versatile Bay Area beefcake blues rocker Shane Dwight took the stage first and immediately made the day even brighter. His power trio brought a loud, lean sound that was a perfect accompaniment to Dwights gun slinging guitar chops.
The result was a delightful mix of jumpy roadhouse originals and recognizable blues standards. The tattooed, tank-topped Dwight was spontaneous and genuinely funny between songs. The already sweltering crowd on the Henningsen Lotus meadow loved him.
Morvan and her expanded band followed, charming the audience with her Cafe Boogaloo set of raucous blues rock. The clear-eyed math teacher wrapped her lean frame around that Fender Stratocaster and pranced the stage like an estrogenized Mick Jagger, adding her own collection of rock and roll grimaces, hair-flying head shakes and unabashed open- mouthed gawps.
In Good Girls Bad Girls, Morvan crooned I try to be a good girl and do every thing my momma taught, but I think all the good girls are just bad girls that aint been caught.
Morvans mother, Rita King, was on hand, and assured a steady stream of well wishers that her daughter was never a bad girl, simply a free spirit.
Betsy Montgomery, a 39-year-old mother of two from Folsom, asked Morvans parents to sign one of their daughters CDs. Shes just so inspiring … I see her up there and I feel like I could do something like that.
You can! exclaimed Morvans father, Bud King. Its never too late. She was a secretary, an electrical engineer, and a teacher before she decided to do this.
Veteran blues rocker Coco Montoya followed Morvans explosive set with his own, more subtle pyrotechnics. Montoya has become the familiar, gracious uncle of the West Coast blues scene, averaging over 200 tour dates each year. Montoya took the stage in Lotus and quickly demonstrated why John Mayall chose him to follow Eric Clapton in the Bluesbreakers.
Charlie Musselwhites bad posture, the result of a life spent bending over a harmonica microphone, and his humble grin, say it all about the veteran Chicago Blue blower who was born in Mississippi and grew up in Memphis.
In a thoroughly entertaining set of harmonica fueled jump blues that featured Musselwhites Mississippi-bred vocals, he took us back to his Chicago roots, playing Strange Land from the groundbreaking 1967 album that ignited the 1960s blues revival, and made him a counterculture hero.
The refrain nobody knows me … Im just a stranger in a strange land might have been true when he was wandering the South Side of Chicago in the mid-1960s, but Musselwhite has since become a familiar voice to blues fans around the world as one of the last active performers to play with legendary Chicago bluesmen Muddy Waters, Little Walter, Howlin Wolf and Big Joe Williams.
An appreciative audience heard Musselwhite croon Im just a bad boy in your town tonight, but wasnt too concerned about any mischief the grandfatherly figure might create.
Headliner Robert Cray became a true blues superstar in the late 1980s with his steamy blend of soul and blues. He crossed over into the mainstream, selling millions of albums and pumping new life into an art form that saw its audience dwindling.
Crays recent efforts have retained his precise, song-serving guitar stylings, his tight, firm-faced band delivering his hybrid soul-blues with surgical precision.
His new material continues Crays exploration of amour-gone-sideways, each song a subtle, purpose-built creation engineered to tug at the heartstrings.
The uber-shy Cray was clearly uncomfortable on stage, staring directly into the bright late afternoon sun. But the Lotus audience who came to see him hung on every note. He rewarded them with his late 1980s hits, including Right Next Door, with its sultry, self-absorbed refrain, Because of me, and the type of catchy turn-of-phrase that made him a superstar, Im such a strong persuade r… She was just another notch on my guitar.
The 2010 Coloma Blues lineup was filled with stellar musicianship from bottom to top. It included enough Stratocaster calisthenics to keep the rockers from nodding off, without relying on set after set of larger-than-life guitar gymnastics.
Richard Burleigh, who books many of the same artists each August at the Sonora Blues Festival, was on hand, and talked about the difficulty of assembling a modern blues lineup that sells tickets and stays true to music.
Transplanting an art form that was born in smoky nightclubs onto an outdoor stage at noon can be challenging, he agreed. We have to punch it up with the blues rock acts, he said. But theres always room for the masters, like Charlie Musselwhite and these versatile young guys like Shane Dwight, who are such great performers that they just leave you feeling good.
Despite repeated warnings from the stage, about 10 attendees suffered heat exhaustion. One was hospitalized. By midafternoon, a breeze was coming up off the river, cooling the meadow, and a spray of thin clouds softened the early season sun.
Event coordinator Mary Carrera credited the over 200 volunteers for making the day a success. She called Coloma Blues Live 2010 the best show yet; the best music, the best weather and the best crowd.
mroberts@mtdemocrat.net
By Pat Lakey
Managing editor
Davey needs someone to play with.
The venerable veteran of the John M. Studebaker Wheelbarrow Races at the annual El Dorado County Fair is looking for men and women to join him in the brand-new senior division of the races, for those 55 and older.
And since Davey Doc Wiser is 68, he points out that he is spotting several years on the young whipper-snappers of 55.
(Writers note Wait a minute. Im 56. Heck, I could probably take Davey! Im short, but Im scrappy. I walk four miles a day … but wait, I weigh 110 pounds [yeah, yeah, ladies, add 5 pounds; I know you will] and pushing a wheelbarrow with 40 pounds in it? Nope, looks like Davey still needs someone to play with.)
Why would anyone in a right mind want to push a dirty wheelbarrow full of ore, splashing through a water hole, grunting up the trail in front of a grandstand full of people?
It keeps me young, Davey said, his blue eyes twinkling above his trademark red handlebar mustache (a bit gray, but we wont tell). And I want to stay young. Im really just a little guy in a big guys body.
That big guy has a big heart, as anyone who has seen him around town can attest. Davey and his pals offer free stagecoach rides every third Saturday of the month, weather permitting, and the sight of a childs face atop the stage is priceless.
I had a lady come up to me when I was driving the stage not too long ago and she said she became involved in the Wheelbarrow Races because of me, Davey recalled. That was very humbling it made me feel good.
Davey wants to share that glow with others, and despite the obvious pitfalls of struggling in public and perhaps falling on your face, he makes it seem like a good idea.
Davey demonstrated his style for the Mountain Democrat, tumbling his blue wheelbarrow with his signature Doc painted in black on one side, red on the other, up a dirt track at the El Dorado County Fairgrounds where the annual competition always draws an enthusiastic crowd.
At one point the red-haired rascal placed a Democrat photographer in the contraption and pushed her up a small hill, both laughing like … well, like the kids inside them.
Its hard to keep the little guy alive inside for some people, but its important, Davey reiterated. What someone will get out of an experience like this, participating in the Wheelbarrow Races, is unique. The friendships that are established with everyone doing something thats fun well, these are the kind of people you just dont meet every day.
Davey doesnt just talk the talk. Hes been a race participant for 20 years now, and judging from his energy and drive while being interviewed, he may just put in 20 more.
People right now, in these tough times, they have so much going on. They need to see a fun thing in their community, and this is it, Davey said.
Placervilles favorite Doc added that because the over-55 category is co-ed, perhaps some of the more shy men are worried they would be beaten by a woman.
Ive been beaten by women all my life, so thats no problem, he said, grinning. This is fun, with good sportsmanship. The little kids are watching you and youd be amazed at the influence that has on them.
The Wheelbarrow Races are held during the county fair, which this year is June 17-20. The races are on the final day of the fair, a Sunday. There are seven categories of participants, with cash prizes of up to $1,000 going to winners. Three categories require an entry fee, but the other four involving high school teams, teens, youngsters and seniors do not.
Thats right you can take on Davey in front of a crowd of friends and strangers, all for free.
To sign up for the John M. Studebaker Wheelbarrow Races, which are sponsored by the Placerville Kiwanis Club, visit the fairgrounds office on Placerville Drive or go to the following local businesses: Minuteman Press on Ray Lawyer Drive, Farmers Insurance on Placerville Drive and the Mountain Democrat on Broadway.
So far, Davey said its just him and one other guy who have signed up in the senior division. Give the kid someone to play with.
E-mail Pat Lakey at plakey@mtdemocrat.net or call 530-344-5066.
The quick brown fox jumped
over the lazy
dog!
Author: Author Name
Pub Date: 06/09/2010
Source: Source
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